In yet another MTV piece about Gears of War 2, Cliff Bleszinski revealed some of the film sequels he used as inspirations to the title. He cited Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, The Dark Knight, and Aliens because of their ability to transcend the first movie with a decidedly “darker” tone.

From the interview:

['The Empire Strikes Back'] is the obvious one that everyone goes to, because it's darker. 'Dark Knight' as well — doing what the first one did but also having a darker twist on it and going places the first one wouldn't have had the ba--s to go and also doing everything on a larger scale. I think 'Aliens' is also a great one. Seeing dozens or hundreds of Locust pouring out of a hole, whereas in the first 'Alien,' it was just an alien, basically. ... I wouldn't say 'Predator 2' or 'Robocop 2' or any of those. Although we do have our share of '80s Stallone and Schwarzenegger winks and homages and whatnot.