The M314 Motion Tracker is a handheld high-power ultrasound Doppler scanner used by the Colonial Marines. The Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual first listed it as a rescue and police surveillance tool, then as field kit for Marine fireteams. It filters moving bodies from a still background and plots them as range and bearing on a forward sweep, including contacts behind walls and partitions. The set is an active sensor, so it helps a squad find movement and also marks the operator for anyone listening. Below is a working M314 Motion Tracker simulator that emulates incoming enemies. It does not detect real motion.
M314 Motion Tracker Simulator
Tap or click the disc to drop a fake contact. On a phone, tap Enable aiming and turn in place. On a computer, drag left or right to rotate. This does not detect real motion, people, or Xenomorphs.
Place a blip, then turn. The gyro only aims the M314 screen.
What The M314 Is
The M314, also called a Motion Scanner, was the Corps handheld surveillance set. Doppler shift only marked movement in front of the cone. A contact showed as stacked rings of likely position, with range and bearing, not a picture of the target, and it did not say whether that contact was a pump, a colonist, or a Xenomorph. Marine M10 helmets carried an Identification Friend or Foe transponder meant to keep other Marines off that sweep, though the link could fail.
In Aliens the film unit stayed a two-handed box with a small screen and a side grip. Hudson and Ripley both held that handheld on the colony decks at Hadley's Hope. Later Marine armor put a similar fan in the helmet display so a rifleman could keep both hands on the gun, but that was a later fit, not the M314 Hudson carried. The rest of that Sulaco kit sits with the other Colonial Marine equipment.
Specifications
In open country the M314 can watch animal-sized contacts out to about 1000 meters. Walls and partitions can cut that under 20 meters, and the film swarm readout sat near 19 meters when the walls filled. The set fires thousands of ultrasound bursts each second, so a listener can home on the operator. A range-gate filter ignores small motion such as insects or plants in the wind, which also lets a very slow walker slip the cone, a trick guerrillas used in the Arcturan War. Ultrasound jammers and jumping-jack decoys can fake contacts. The disc only sees the way it is pointed.
Usage In Colonial Marine Tactics
Colonial Marine fireteams gave the tracker to the point man. His buddy covered the area the cone did not see, and the smartgun team moved and swept to cover the lead pair. At Hadley's Hope, Hudson and Hicks carried the units through the colony corridors, with Vasquez covering them. Movement behind walls appeared on the disc before anyone could see the source, and the squad held fire until they had a target. After the hive ambush they kept the trackers in the operations offices next to the UA 571-C sentry guns. In open country the same kit was posted on the perimeter with riflemen and lamps, not used on its own.
Motion Tracker In Alien Games
Aliens vs. Predator Classic moved the motion tracker onto the Marine HUD in the lower left corner, and Aliens vs. Predator 2 kept it there. Contacts showed as bright dots with range in meters, and the pulse rifle stayed up. Aliens: Colonial Marines put the box back in the hand. The tracker was not a HUD icon, and a Marine had to pull it up to read contacts. Alien: Isolation kept that same handheld raise, closer to Hudson's film unit, and Fireteam Elite used the sweep again as fireteam kit.
Other Motion Trackers
On the USCSS Nostromo in Alien, science officer Ash built a short-range tracker after the Chestburster left Kane and set it to hunt a moving body by small changes in air density. The box had little reach and only started its signal when the user was already close. Brett, Parker, and Ripley walked the decks with those units, and Lambert later watched contacts while Dallas entered the vents. Both boxes went down with the ship.
On Sevastopol Station in 2137, Amanda Ripley carried an Arious motion tracker, a one-hand American box sold to find vermin and later modified for larger contacts. A moving body ahead showed as a circle on the green screen, while lights on the sides and back marked motion outside the cone. A number showed how close the nearest movement was. The set only marked movement, so a still Alien or Working Joe stayed off the sweep, and the beep could give her away. In vents the screen flickered. The same civilian handheld is set to return in Alien: Isolation 2, still a one-hand raise with a green sweep, not the two-hand Marine M314.
Behind The Scenes
Terry Reed built the handhelds for Aliens around the emptied casing of a Kango 426 hammer drill, then fixed 1980s photographic parts onto the shell. The side pad is a cut Casio SL-85 calculator keypad. The window that reads as the scanner face is a Hama B101 slide viewer. Other pieces came from a Jobo darkroom lamp, an Olympus T28 calculation panel, Hama shutter remotes, and bits of a Vivitar flash.
Wide shots used a blinking lamp inside that viewer. Close shots of the blue sweep needed a small television tube bolted on the side, because no pocket screen would fit the box in 1986. Playback ran from a video tape machine off stage, and the camera had to look straight into the tube or the extra depth showed. The M314 name came later in the Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual, after Reed made a matching copy in 1990 for Lawrence Nathan in North London so the book could photograph a tracker that sat with the film unit.
Merchandise
Sideshow sold the life-size M314 as a Hollywood Collectibles Group replica, item 905454, about 9 inches high and 11 inches wide. HCG built the prototypes from a real Kango 426 casing and a Hama slide viewer, then ran an injection-molded polymer and metal production piece limited to 1000 worldwide. A button starts a recorded sweep: contacts close in and the pings tighten. The box includes a tabletop stand. An HCG exclusive of 250 added an olive webbing sling and a numbered metal plaque.
At 7-inch scale, NECA packed a handheld tracker with Private William Hudson in Aliens Series 1 in 2013, beside the pulse rifle and the shoulder lamp. The screen is a printed sticker of multiple contacts, and the strap lets the figure hold the unit or hang it. The same accessory returned in the Hudson vs Xenomorph Warrior two-pack, and a tracker also sat in the Hicks vs Warrior set.
Conclusion
The M314 was the Colonial Marine handheld ultrasound scanner used at Hadley's Hope in Aliens. Hudson used it to find movement through walls before the squad could see the Xenomorphs. The film prop was built from a Kango 426 hammer drill, and the Technical Manual later listed that same unit as standard Marine kit.
FAQ
Quick answers about the M314 from Aliens, the phone gyro, and this tracker toy.
Does this detect real movement?
No. It cannot see people, Xenomorphs, or anything in the room. Contacts are fake blips you drop on the disc.
What does the phone gyro do?
It only turns the display. When you enable aiming and rotate in place, the sweep stays locked to the room so a placed contact holds its bearing.
Why will my iPhone not turn?
Apple blocks motion until you allow it. Tap Enable aiming, accept the prompt, then turn. On a computer, drag left or right on the disc instead.
What is the M314?
The M314 Motion Tracker is the Colonial Marine ultrasound Doppler scanner from Aliens and the Technical Manual. Hudson and Hicks carried the film unit at Hadley's Hope.
External Sources
- Harry Harris Aliens Collection: Motion Tracker
- Sideshow: Hollywood Collectibles Group M314 Motion Tracker
Tag Categories: Colonial Marine Lore | Alien Lore
