Ellen Ripley

Lt. Ellen Louise Ripley, usually referred to by her surname, is a fictional character and the original protagonist of the Alien film series, played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. Considered one of the greatest characters in science fiction film history, the character earned Weaver worldwide recognition, and remains her most famous role to date. Although she was originally conceived as male for the first Alien film, director Ridley Scott decided early in production to make her a woman.

Alien (1979) and its sequel Aliens (1986) were heralded for challenging gender roles, particularly in the science fiction, action, and horror genres. Weaver's performances are also highly praised: for Aliens, she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, which is now seen as a landmark since the Academy, to that point, had given little recognition to the genres of science-fiction and horror. For her role in the franchise, Weaver has also been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, a BAFTA Award for Best Leading Newcomer, and four Saturn Awards for Best Actress, winning one for Aliens. Weaver confirmed on February 25 that she would reprise her role as Ripley in the film. On January 21, 2017, in response to a fan question on Twitter asking what the chances were of his Alien project actually happening, Blomkamp responded "slim." In April, Scott said he did not think the film would ever be made. He elaborated that there was never a complete script, just a 10-page pitch, that Fox decided they did not want to pursue any further. Commentators have noted this goes against Weaver's and James Cameron's statements about reading Blomkamp's script for the film, although it is possible Weaver and Cameron were referring to the pitch document. On May 1, 2017, Ridley Scott confirmed that the fifth film is not happening. An alternate ending for The Predator displaying a Weyland-Yutani Corp pod containing Ripley (played by Breanna Watkins) wearing a Weyland-Yutani breathing apparatus shaped like an Alien Facehugger was yet one among several references intended to further connect the Predator films to the Alien films.

Video games

In Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)

Ripley has two cameos in the "Stasis Interrupted" DLC for the game. In this prequel campaign, Ripley is seen being impregnated by a facehugger and also appeared recreating the same final scene of Alien 3. The game also revealed that Hicks actually survived the events of Alien 3 as he was retrieved by another Colonial Marines team, with the body in the stasis chamber that crashed being another marine who was knocked into Hicks' pod during a firefight, dying when the EEV crashed. Ripley, Newt and Bishop's pods were ejected while Hicks had to go with the other Marines.

In Alien: Isolation (2014)

thumb|right|Ripley in Alien: Isolation

In 2014, Weaver reprised her role as Ripley for the first time in 17 years for a voice cameo in the video game Alien: Isolation, centered on Ripley's daughter Amanda, and more extensively in its two DLCs set during the events of Alien.

Animated

In Alien: Isolation – The Digital Series (2019)

In the web animated series Alien: Isolation – The Digital Series, Ripley was voiced by Andrea Deck in voiceovers for Ripley's final moments to her daughter.

Biography of Ripley 8

In Alien Resurrection (1997)

Two hundred years after Ripley's death, a clone of Ripley is successfully produced aboard the spaceship Auriga. Her DNA proved difficult to separate from that of the alien that was inside her during the events of Alien 3, so the first six clones were useless monstrosities. The seventh clone turned out human enough to warrant an attempt at retrieving the alien inside her, but this also ended in failure. The eighth clone proves successful, and becomes the central character of a new story. However, the separation was still not perfect. Number 8 has enhanced strength and reflexes, acidic blood, and an empathic link with the Aliens, and the aliens have slightly more human traits, including a browner skin coloration and changes to their reproductive cycle. Number Eight learns to talk and interact with humans, but soon Aliens escape their confinement and kill most of the crew. She escapes from her cell and later meets and joins a group of mercenaries; developing a close relationship with their youngest member, Annalee Call. The now fully-grown Alien Queen, having developed a womb because of Ripley's DNA, gives birth to a human-Alien hybrid, who kills the Queen and imprints on Number Eight as its mother. After escaping the Auriga in the Betty, Ripley kills the newborn Alien by using her own acidic blood to burn a hole through a viewing pane, causing the creature to be sucked violently through the small hole and into the vacuum of space, saving Call. In a scene included in the extended edition of the film (referenced in the events of Alien: Sea of Sorrows), the Betty lands on Earth and Ripley and Call discover that Paris is desolate.

In Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator (2000)

The comic book Aliens versus Predator versus The Terminator continues the storyline of Ripley 8 after Resurrection, seeing Ripley 8 allying with the Predators to defeat both a new wave of Aliens and a group of Terminators created by a long-dormant Skynet program to reinvent itself if it was destroyed, culminating in Ripley 8 apparently sacrificing herself to destroy the original super-soldier/Terminator.

In Alien: Sea of Sorrows (2014)

At the beginning of Alien: Sea of Sorrows, set 200 years after the events of Alien Resurrection, it is revealed that the crashing of the Auriga at the end of Alien Resurrection caused the destruction in Paris seen at the end of that film. Additionally, the protagonist of the novel, Decker, is stated to be a descendant of Ellen Ripley, but there are several hints throughout the novel revealing that Decker's grandmother was actually Ripley 8 (mainly his empathic abilities, the fact Amanda Ripley-McClaren is stated to have had no children in Aliens, and when Decker is shown a picture of Ripley, he says that she is not the person he sees in his head).

Spin-off media

Ripley's life and career have been extensively expanded on in various spin-off comics and novels, many of which were written before her death on Fiorina 161, providing instead a chronology continuing on from the end of Aliens. In the Dark Horse novel series, Ripley appears at the end of Book 3, The Female War; but subsequent books, in order to bring the book continuity in line with the film continuity, reveal that she is actually an android created in Ripley's likeness and given false memories. All novels were rebooted in 2012, meaning the only canonical books featuring Ripley are Out of the Shadows (by Tim Lebbon), Sea of Sorrows (by James A. Moore) and River of Pain. In Out of the Shadows, Ripley is woken from stasis 37 years after the events of Alien, fights Xenomorphs alongside several miners, and is put in stasis again the end of the book with her memory of these events erased to spare her from the worst of the psychological trauma she has experienced. Ripley is mentioned repeatedly in Sea of Sorrows, which stars the grandson of Ripley 8, and appears in River of Pain, which takes place before and during the events of Aliens. An Audio-Animatronic Ripley was featured in the Alien scene of The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World from 1989 to 2017.

Reception

"Best-characters" lists

Ellen Ripley is often featured in lists of the best characters in film history: in 2008, American Film Institute ranked her as the eighth best hero in American film history in their list of the 100 greatest heroes and villains, the second highest ranked female character after Clarice Starling. In 2009, Entertainment Weekly ranked Ripley fifth on their list of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture, calling her "one of the first female movie characters who isn't defined by the men around her, or by her relationship to them." The same year, she was ranked #9 on Empire magazine's compilation of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters in 2008 and #5 in 2015, being the highest ranked female in both.

She was ranked eight on Premiere magazine's list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time, with her Defining Moment being "Ripley's nervy refusal to open the ship's hatch so that Kane (John Hurt) can be admitted - with a thing attached to his face." She was the third highest ranked female of the list, after Annie Hall and Scarlett O'Hara. She was ranked 57 on Fandomania list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters. In 2009, MTV selected her as the second Greatest Movie Badass Of All Time, the only women with Sarah Connor, ranked sixth. In 2011, UGO Networks ranked her the 75th Hottest Sci-Fi Girl of All Time. and website Total Sci-Fi ranked her first on their top of the 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi, stating "one of the most iconic characters in cinema history" and "one of the most critically analysed characters in the history of cinema." In 2011, Total Film ranked her the best female character of any film.

Awards and impact for Sigourney Weaver

For her performance in Alien, Weaver was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Although her performance had already been acclaimed in the first film, Aliens gave worldwide recognition to Weaver: she was the third horror actress in history (after Ellen Burstyn for The Exorcist and Sissy Spacek for Carrie) to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

In February 2021, Fortnite Battle Royale introduced Ripley as a cosmetic outfit.
In August 2023, Dead by Daylight introduced Ripley, alongside the Xenomorph, as playable characters in the DLC Chapter 29: Alien.

References

External links

The Guardian The first action heroine
Bitch Flicks, Ellen Ripley, a Feminist Film Icon, Battles Horrifying Aliens … and Patriarchy
Sf Gate, Weaver stands alone as female action hero
Usa today, In search of a serious protagonist
Comic Vine, Ellen Ripley
Alien vs. Predator Central