Sigourney Weaver
Ellen Ripley
Search results
May 22, 1992 · Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) crash-lands on Fiorina 161, a maximum-security prison where she faces a new alien threat. IMDb provides cast and crew information, user and critic reviews, trivia, goofs, quotes, and more for this sci-fi horror film directed by David Fincher.
- (320K)
- Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
- David Fincher
- 1992-05-22
People also ask
Did Weaver play Ripley in Alien 3 & Alien Resurrection?
Why did Ripley get a rank in Alien 3?
How did Ripley kill the alien?
What happens after Ripley discovers she carries an alien?
- Overview
- Biography
- Personality and Traits
- Equipment
- Behind the Scenes
- Trivia
- Appearances
Lieutenant First Class Ellen Louise Ripley was a civilian adviser to the United States Colonial Marine Corps and a hugely influential figure in humanity's encounters with the species Xenomorph XX121. She was the mother of Amanda Ripley-McClaren and the forebear of Alan Decker.
Beginning her career as a warrant officer with Weyland-Yutani Corporation's commercial freight operations, Ripley was assigned to USCSS Nostromo in 2122 when it encountered a single Xenomorph unintentionally collected from the moon Acheron (LV-426). The event led to the death of the rest of Nostromo's crew and the destruction of the ship, and Ripley's encounter with the Xenomorph would fundamentally alter the course of her life.
Early life
Ellen Ripley was born on January 7, 2092 at the Olympia colony on Luna. On January 7, 2094, an outbreak of XMB Virus on Earth's moon led to the colony being quarantined for sixteen years. Ripley spent her childhood in a lunar quarantine facility and ultimately tested negative for XMB, [MEDSCAN CERT#90156E]. After gaining a Masters in engineering from New York Aeronautics University, Ripley served with the US Merchant Navy aboard Zelazny, where she acted as co-pilot. She eventually met and married her husband Alex, and during a layover between trips they conceived their first child. Despite the fact that it violated Weyland-Yutani regulations, Ripley allowed the pregnancy to come to term, eventually resulting in the birth of her daughter Amanda. She was not disciplined for this transgression. Amanda was delivered at home, in the presence of her husband, a doctor and a nurse. Although Alex begged Ripley to take drugs to dull the pain of birth, she refused out of fear that her history of taking cryodrugs for extended space travel may lead to unforeseen complications. Alex would later leave Ripley when Amanda was three years old, and had no further contact with either mother or daughter. Ripley later remarried to Paul Carter, although the relationship was just as disorderly as her last one. Amanda did not get along with Carter and ran away from home multiple times. By the 2120s, Ripley was living in a small town on the coast of El Salvador and serving as a warrant officer and third-in-command aboard the commercial freighter USCSS Nostromo. Prior to the vessel's fateful final voyage in 2122, Ripley attempted to renegotiate her contract with Weyland-Yutani so that she could take a leave of absence and spend more time with Amanda. Eventually Ripley and the company reached a compromise whereby she would agree to serve aboard Nostromo for its forthcoming voyage to Thedus and take her leave subsequently.
Return to Earth
Ripley drifted for another twenty years until, on May 16, 2179, Narcissus was found by Jernigan and his deep space salvage team. When Ripley awoke, she found herself in a medical facility aboard Gateway Station. Hooper's memory wipe was successful in that she had no recollection of events aboard Marion, and with no official record of her ever having been roused from stasis in the interim, Ripley's fifty-seven years spent adrift meant she was considered the record holder for the longest ever hypersleep. However, despite a lack of memories of Marion, Ripley was still plagued by the events aboard Nostromo and the crew she lost on the vessel. She was also informed by Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke that her daughter had died of old age while she was drifting in space for decades. Ripley's account of Nostromo's destruction was met with skepticism by the board of inquiry assembled to investigate the incident. She was diagnosed with PTSD and comorbid generalized anxiety disorder, and was stripped of her rank and flight status. Following the whitewash, Ripley questioned Paul Van Leuwen, the chairman of the Interstellar Commerce Commission, asking why her claims were not at least going to be investigated. She was informed that a terraforming colony, Hadley's Hope, had been established on LV-426 twenty years previously, and in that time no dangerous alien lifeforms had been discovered.
Hadley's Hope Xenomorph encounter
"I am not going back, and I am- I would not be any good to you if I did." ―Ripley, to Burke and Gorman (from Aliens) With her professional career now ruined, Ripley relocated to Earth and secured employment as a dockyard Power Loader operator. Sometime later, she was approached by Burke and Lieutenant Scott Gorman of the United States Colonial Marine Corps, who delivered the news that contact with Hadley's Hope had been lost. While she initially refused to take part in the proposed investigation, Ripley's recurring nightmares eventually convinced her to join the mission and confront her fears. She was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant First Class, and she accompanied Burke and Gorman's Marines back to LV-426 aboard USS Sulaco on the promise that they would destroy, not capture, whatever extraterrestrials they encountered. When she briefed the Marines on the creature that had killed the crew of Nostromo, they met her story with the same level of skepticism as the investigative committee on Gateway. Ripley's experiences with Ash made her instantly mistrustful of Sulaco's Executive Officer Lance Bishop, whom she discovered was a synthetic.
"That's the grenade launcher... I don't think you wanna mess with that."
"You started this. Show me everything. I can handle myself."
"Yeah, I noticed..."
―Hicks and Ripley (from Aliens)
Given the horrifying events Ellen Ripley was exposed to during the latter part of her life, her personality understandably changed over time, but she nonetheless remained a strong-willed, level-headed, honorable and determined individual. Early in her life she had a strict sense of duty and professionalism, and operated very much by-the-book and in accordance with the rules, a trait that sometimes brought her into conflict with the more laid-back Parker and Brett aboard the Nostromo. Despite this, she still showed an easygoing and relaxed demeanor in front of her peers, an attitude that would soon be all but extinguished in her later life. When command of the Nostromo survivors fell to Ripley, she maintained her calm despite the terror they faced, although the revelation of Ash's betrayal somewhat dented this collected exterior and revealed a more impulsive, frantic person underneath. Ash's actions would also leave her with a deep-seated hatred and mistrust of synthetics.
The events on board the Nostromo significantly traumatized Ripley and, coupled with the rejection of her story upon her eventual return to Earth, affected her greatly, in many respects permanently altering her personality. She became far colder and more apathetic towards her life, resigned to the fact she had been ruined both professionally and personally by what had happened. At the same time, she was plagued by vivid nightmares involving the Xenomorph, nightmares that ultimately spurred her decision to return to LV-426 and confront the creatures again. When the mission went disastrously wrong, Ripley's prior experience with the Alien helped her to maintain a level of cool that even some of the hardened Colonial Marines fighting for survival alongside her could not match, most notably the panicky Private Hudson. Her level of calm and ability to make competent decisions, even under such extreme stress, endeared her greatly to the Marines around her, particularly Corporal Hicks, who openly included Ripley in tactical discussions, trusting her judgment despite the fact she was only a civilian.
Although Ripley, of her own accord, was not a soldier, she would arm herself with whatever came to hand if it would help her survive. Aboard the Nostromo, she armed herself with one of Parker's custom-built Flame Throwers, although when cornered by the Alien aboard the Narcissus she resorted to a more rudimentary ASSO-400 Harpoon Grappling Gun to finally kill the creature. After spending some time with the Colonial Marines on LV-426 and being faced with the precariousness of their situation, Ripley had Hicks instruct her on the use of various USCM equipment, including the M41A Pulse Rifle and M240 Incinerator Unit, both of which she would later combine together (in a strictly non-regulation manner) when attempting to rescue Newt.
As a result of her short-lived career working in a dockyard on Earth, Ripley became adept with the Caterpillar P-5000 Powered Work Loader, a skill she later used in her battle with the First Acheron Queen aboard the Sulaco.
Comic book appearances
Following Aliens, the character of Ellen Ripley went on to appear in a series of Aliens comic book published by Dark Horse Comics from 1989-1990 that reunited her with Hicks and Newt. In these comics, Ripley, Hicks and Newt travel to the Xenomorph home world in order to combat an infestation that has taken over the entire Earth, hoping to save the planet and the human race from the monstrous Xenomorph Queen Mother. However, following the release of Alien3 in 1992, in which Ripley, Hicks and Newt perished, the presence of these characters in the comics clashed with their fates as shown in the movie franchise. As a result, the comic book characters were altered, with Ripley becoming a synthetic duplicate of the real Ripley. This change first appeared in the novel Aliens: The Female War, an adaptation of the comic series Aliens: Female War, published a year after Alien3. Similarly, Hicks became David Wilks, while Newt became Billie. Subsequent reprints of the comics were also edited to use these altered identities. However, somewhat confusingly, the comics made no attempt to alter Ripley's nature and she remained the same human character she had been in the original releases (likely because changing her to a synthetic would require a significant expansion/modification of the comic way beyond simply altering names). As such, even the edited versions of the comic book offer no explanation as to how Ellen Ripley could still be alive post-Alien3; only the novel includes the extra material regarding the discovery that she is an android duplicate, and her subsequent struggles with this revelation. More recently, Dark Horse has begun reissuing the original, unedited versions of the early Aliens comics, thereby reinstating the character of Ripley in these stories and restoring the comic series as alternative sequels to Aliens.
Reception
The character of Ripley, and Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of her, have become a landmark in cinema. Ripley is often considered one of the greatest female protagonists of all time, and one of the most iconic characters ever to appear in film. The part has also been heralded as challenging gender roles in motion pictures, particularly in the science fiction, action and horror genres. Ripley has appeared in numerous best character lists over the years; in 2003, the American Film Institute ranked her as the eighth best hero in American film history in their list of the 100 greatest heroes and villains, while the following year Entertainment Weekly ranked Ripley 5th 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 9th on Empire magazine's compilation of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters, being the highest ranked female to appear on the list. Likewise, Weaver has received critical praise for her portrayal of the character, and the role remains by far her most famous to date. For her performance in Alien, Weaver was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Leading Newcomer and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Although her performance in the film was acclaimed, it was Aliens that brought Weaver worldwide recognition, becoming the second horror actress in history (after Ellen Burstyn for The Exorcist) to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, and won the Saturn Award for Best Actress, the first major award in her career. Although Alien3 and Alien Resurrection were less successful critically than the first two films in the franchise, Weaver's performance as Ripley was again praised. She received her third and fourth Saturn Award for Best Actress nominations, and a nomination for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Sci-Fi for Alien Resurrection.
Rank
There seems to be some confusion over the rank that Ripley holds throughout the series. In Alien, her rank is never specified, although she is clearly subordinate to both Captain Dallas and First Officer Kane. At the start of the extended Special Edition of Aliens, her rank is stated to be that of Warrant Officer (although she is subsequently stripped of this rank following the inquiry into the destruction of the Nostromo). However, by Alien3 she is said to be Lieutenant Ellen Ripley. If this were the case, she should have had superiority over Corporal Hicks during the events of Aliens, when clearly she did not. What's more, Alien Resurrection states Ripley was a Lieutenant 1st Class at the time of her death. While the issue is never addressed in the films, it seems likely that Ripley was given the rank of Lieutenant 1st Class upon her reinstatement in Aliens, once she had agreed to return to LV-426, and that the rank of Lieutenant ascribed to her in Alien3 was merely an abbreviation of her full title. Furthermore, as her rank was an ICC commercial rank, Hicks — who held a military rank — was still superior despite only being a Corporal; essentially Ripley's situation could be compared to the "Captain" of a commercial cruise liner being stranded with enlisted Navy SEALs. The fact that Hicks accepts Ripley's suggestion to "nuke the site from orbit" merely shows that he respects her opinion as the best course of action.
•Ripley actress Sigourney Weaver became worried she would lose the role when early in filming it was believed she was allergic to Jones the cat. However, it eventually transpired that it was a combination of cat hair and the glycerin used to make the actress appear sweaty during scenes that she was allergic to; one without the other had no effect on her.
•In early drafts of the film's script, Ripley was known as Martin Roby and was the ship's executive officer (a role given to Kane in the finished film). While the majority of the characters in the original Alien script were written so that they could be either male or female, Roby was always intended to be a man. It was 20th Century Fox president Alan Ladd, Jr. who suggested making the hero female, to help the film stand out from its contemporaries. Ripley was so named by Walter Hill after Ripley's Believe It or Not!. Her first name, Ellen, is Hill's mother's maiden name.
•Other actresses considered for Ripley include Meryl Streep, Katharine Ross and Geneviève Bujold.
•Ripley was originally supposed to be naked for the final act in Alien aboard the Narcissus, but 20th Century Fox branded the idea pornographic and so she remained clothed (albeit in her underwear).
•A figure based on Ripley was released by Kenner Products as part of the company's Aliens toy line. The Lt. Ripley toy was shipped with the Aliens: Space Marines mini-comic Aliens: Fireball.
•Ripley is briefly mentioned by Karl Bishop Weyland in an audio log in the 2010 video game Aliens vs. Predator.
•Alien/novel/photonovel/•Aliens/•Alien3/novel/•Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual (mentioned only)
•Alien Resurrection/comic (mentioned only)
•Alien: Resurrection (novel) (appears in flashback)
•Aliens: Colonial Marines (mentioned only)
••Alien: Out of the Shadows/•Alien: Sea of Sorrows (mentioned only)
•••Alien: Isolation/series (voice only)
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.
Alien 3 (stylized as ALIEN 3) is a 1992 American science fiction horror film directed by David Fincher and written by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson, from a story by Vincent Ward. It stars Sigourney Weaver, reprising her role as Ellen Ripley. It is the third installment of the Alien franchise and led to a sequel, Alien ...
IMDb provides a comprehensive list of quotes, photos and trivia for Sigourney Weaver's role as Ellen Ripley, the last survivor of the Nostromo, in the sci-fi horror film Alien³. See how Ripley interacts with the prisoners, the alien and the company representatives in this maximum security prison.
Alien 3. Actor. Sigourney Weaver. Ellen Ripley (October 8th, 2092 – August 27th, 2179; revived in 2379) was a Warrant Officer who served aboard the USCSS Nostromo and one of the most experienced individuals known to have survived encounters with different types of Xenomorphs .
Ellen Ripley crash-lands on a prison planet with a stowaway alien and faces a new threat from the Company. Read the summaries, synopsis and cast of the third installment of the Alien franchise.
