Sulaco (fictional spacecraft) movie's final battle before the survivors enter cryogenic sleep. In "Alien 3", a fire aboard the "Sulaco" leads to the survivors' cryogenic sleep tubes being launched from the ship, with its further fate unknown. Syd Mead, a principal conceptual designer on "Aliens", first designed the Sulaco as a massive sphere, a "heavily armed cargo ship, outfitted to transport material". James Cameron was not satisfied, as having a spherical model move past the lens would have required variable focus; he produced a quick sketch of the style of ship he imagined and noted that he was imagining something like "a forest
Aliens (film) Kile M. Ortigo of Emory University, agree with this interpretation and point to the "Sulaco" with its "sterilized, white interior" as representing this element in the second film of the franchise. While some claim that the shape of the "Sulaco" was based on a submarine, the design has most often been described as a "gun in space" resembling the rifles used in the movie. Author Roz Kaveney called the opening shot of the ship traveling through space "fetishistic" and "shark-like", "an image of brutal strength and ingenious efficiency"—while the militarized interior of the "Sulaco" (designed by Ron Cobb) is contrasted