The best sequels expand upon everything audiences loved about the original — the action, the stakes, the world — while finding enough new ideas to justify returning to it at all. Making a worthwhile sequel can be a tricky balancing act, which is why there are as many bad sequels as there are good ones (if not more). 40 years later, though, one sequel remains the clearest example of how to pull that off.

On the most basic level, the thing we want when we get a sequel is more — we want more of whatever it was we got the first time — and in James Cameron’s 1986 follow-up to Alien, we got more “more” than we ever could have imagined. We got more action, more death, more destruction, more explosions, more spaceships, and of course, more aliens. We even got more Sigourney Weaver, as she really only became the lead halfway through Alien, whereas she’s the focal point of Aliens from the beginning.

Cameron also gave us all that “more” without falling into the traps that befall other sequels. That’s what makes Aliens not just one of the greatest sequels ever, but the best sci-fi action thriller ever made — and a perfect movie to watch when it arrives on Netflix on Sept. 1.

After Ellen Ripley defeated the stowaway xenomorph aboard her spaceship in Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien , Ripley put herself back in stasis for her trip back to Earth. That was in 2122, but she didn't awaken until 2179, which is when Aliens begins.

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