The Story Behind The "Knife Trick" with Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen in ALIENS

I’m sure you all remember the hilarious “knife trick” scene in director James Cameron’s 1986 film Aliens, that was such a fun scene!

The scene involved the characters of Bishop (played by Lance Henriksen) and Hudson (played by Bill Paxton). The knife trick is also often referred to as the "Bishop's Knife Trick" or "Five Finger Fillet."

In the scene, the crew members of the Sulaco are relaxing and joking around in their mess hall when Bishop is called out to show off a trick. He places his hand palm-down on a table, splaying out his fingers. Hudson’s hand is then put under his and Bishop proceeds to use a combat knife to quickly stab in the spaces between his fingers, moving in a sequential pattern back and forth. The trick is a display of Bishop's superior android reflexes and precision.

However, Bishop accidentally nicks his own finger, leaking a small amount of white android blood, but not injuring Hudson.

The scene was originally supposed to be done by Bishop alone. It was Henrickson who suggested to Cameron to have Hudson's hand involved as well, and Cameron agreed. Paxton jumped in to be a part of the scene. There is a rumor that Paxton didn’t know he was going to be involved in the scene, but he did know what was coming.

Henriksen says that he and Paxton were only given two takes to shoot the scene and one take when Henriksen knicked Paxton. While their first take of the knife trick went near-flawlessly, Cameron asked for another round, and that's when it was game over for Paxton. Henriksen said:

"I gave Bill a blood blister; he moved his pinkie into the line of fire, and I pinched it. I didn't even cut a hole in [his finger], and he was acting like I stabbed him with an ice pick! It was pretty funny actually. ... I felt bad about it ... but not really."

As for how the scene was shot, Cameron explained that the first time they shot it, they tried to shoot it with the in-camera trick of undercranking the camera to make Bishop’s speed look superhuman, but it ended up looking too fast.

Cameron then claims that what we see in the final cut is Henricksen’s actual speed, which is super freakin’ impressive! In another interview, Henriksen backs up Cameron’s claim, saying: “What you see in the film is pretty much all me. They sped up one of the long shots we used towards the end of the scene but that was it. It was good fun."

After Henriksen read the script, he went out and bought a bunch of knives to practice the trick with, and he became pretty good at it. When it came time to travel to London to shoot the film, Henriksen didn’t know what type of knife Cameron would want him to use. So he brought them all in his baggage. Unfortunately, Customs pulled him aside and held him because of the knives he brought over. He was detained and questioned until they got ahold of Fox and explained the situation.

The knife used in the scene was a Gerber Mark II combat knife. Production of the knife ran from 1967 to 2000. There was a limited 1500-unit run in 2002. It then went back into production in 2008.

When I was growing up I used to practice doing this trick all the time! I started with the eraser end of a pencil, but eventually started doing it with a real knife. I’ve still got a couple of scars on my fingers from doing that!

You can watch the clip below along with a Comic-Con panel of Cameron, Paxton, and Henriksen talking about the scene.