| Ellen Ripley | |
| LV426/Fury 161 | |
| 0.8/1.0g Atmosphere | |
| warrant officer | |
| Weyland Yutani | |
| n/a | |
| flight officer | |
| 7 | |
| female | |
| 183cms | |
| 75kgs | |
Name
Ellen Ripley is introduced in the film Alien as a warrant officer aboard the Nostromo, a spaceship from planet Thedus returning to Earth. Placed in stasis, the crew are awakened after receiving a transmission of unknown origin from a nearby planetoid. Following their landing, an unknown creature infiltrates the ship, and kills every member of the crew. Ripley is the only member to escape from the Nostromo prior to its explosion, which she deliberately commenced to kill the monster. However, she discovers that the Alien is also aboard the shuttle but expels it into space before putting herself in stasis for the return trip to Earth.
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The film Aliens is set fifty-seven years later and depicts Ripley, awakening from her stasis.
Her testimony regarding the Alien is met with extreme skepticism, and she loses her space flight
license as a result of her "questionable judgment". However, after contact was lost with the colony on LV-426,
the planet where her crew first encountered the Alien eggs, Ripley is requested to go along with the Colonial Marines
aboard the Sulaco to LV-426. They find the planet infested by many Aliens, who kill almost all the marines.
Ripley finally escapes the planet with Corporal Dwayne Hicks, android Bishop, and Newt the last surviving
colonist. Back on the Sulaco, they are soon attacked by a surviving Alien Queen, which is finally expelled
into space by Ripley. Ripley enters into hypersleep alongside the three other survivors for a new return to Earth.
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In Alien 3, the Sulaco launches an escape pod containing the four survivors, which then crashes on
Fiorina 'Fury' 161, a foundry facility and penal colony, Ripley alone survives the crash. Unbeknownst to her,
an Alien egg had been aboard the EEV. Once it has hatched in the prison, the creature begins to kill inmates and guards,
but strangely refuses to kill her. After rallying the inmates and preparing the defense against the creature,
Ripley discovers the embryo of an Alien Queen growing inside her, thus realizing why she had not been attacked.
After having killed the Alien by thermal shock, Ripley kills herself by diving into a gigantic furnace just as
the Alien Queen begins to erupt from her chest, preventing the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from using it as a
biological weapon.
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Despite her death two hundred years earlier, Ripley is "resurrected" by cloning in Alien Resurrection (film),
aboard the spaceship Auriga. The unborn Alien Queen is surgically removed from her body to breed Aliens. Ripley,
who survives the operation, has been affected by the Alien's DNA, she has enhanced strength and reflexes, acidic
blood, and an empathic link with the Aliens. She relearns to talk and interact with humans for some time but soon
Aliens escape their confinement and kill most of the crew. She escapes from her cell as well, and later meets
and joins a group of mercenaries, developing a close relationship with their youngest member Annalee Call.
After being cloned, Ripley's human DNA is mixed with Alien Queen, which gives birth to an Alien with human
traits, who recognizes Ripley as it's 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 deleted scene, the Betty
lands on Earth and Ripley and Call discover that Paris, France is desolate.
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Characteristics
Reference stats table.
Appearance
Appearances in the following;
Alien (film)
Aliens (film)
Alien 3 (film)
Alien (1984)
LV-426 (game)
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Aliens (Activision)
Aliens (Software Studios)
Aliens (SquareSoft)
Aliens: The Board Game
Aliens: The Board Game (Flash)
Aliens: Arcade
Alien 3 (SNES)
Alien 3 (MD)
Alien 3: The Gun
Alien Trilogy
Sci-Fi Pinball
Alien: Isolation
Features
Interactions
Continuity
Various
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley appears in the films Alien,
Aliens and
Alien 3, and as Ripley 8 in the film
Alien Resurrection.
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien won a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role and a nominations for a Saturn Award for Best Actress.
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens, reprising her role from Alien received a Saturn Award for best actress for her performance and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, her first Academy Award nomination.
In Alien 3 Sigourney Weaver was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress.
In Alien Resurrection Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder were nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.
Concept
From an early draft script of Alien the crew started off as all male members with the inclusion of an eighth crew member, a Hungarian translation of 'eighth passenger' meaning 'Alien' stuck and was carried through into some film versions. The final draft script saw a female cast in the role from the request of Fox, who saw the role of a strong female character as pivotable in the role and so cast Sigourney Weaver even though she arrived late for the auditions.
On-set
Watches worn by both Ripley and Dallas aboard the Nostromo, were built from two authentic vintage Casio F-100 Chronographs. The F-100 was Casio's first plastic-cased watch, and boasted many advanced features, including a stopwatch accurate to 1/100 sec, twin display modes, front panel controls and a light.
Production
The sets of the Nostromo's three decks were each created almost entirely in one piece, with each deck occupying a separate stage and the various rooms connected via corridors. To move around the sets the actors had to navigate through the hallways of the ship, adding to the film's sense of claustrophobia and realism. Some the crew found it hard for the duration of the filming.
Shots of Ripley appearing in the Narcissus had been produced using a monitor with a prerecorded girl being played on it from separate filming on set, this clip was played back in a loop and filmed from the underside of the Nostromo in wide shot.
Concept
Cameron opted to hire actors who had, or could imitate, American accents. After over 3,000 individuals in the United Kingdom were unsuccessfully auditioned, American actors were chosen instead, including three who had previously worked with Cameron on The Terminator: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Michael Biehn. Actors who played Marines were asked to read Robert A. Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers and undergo military training, which included running, lifting weights, learning salutes, marches, deployments, and maneuvers, for two weeks. Cameron wanted the Marines to train together so that they would form bonds that would show on-screen. Sigourney Weaver, William Hope, and Paul Reiser were absent from training because of other obligations, but Cameron felt that this suited their characters as "outsiders" in the film.
In a deleted scene in the Gateway Station, Ripley's daughter was played by Elizabeth Inglis, Sigourney Weaver's real-life mother, this is at the time she finds out about her flight from Carter Burke, a company representative.
Production
Sets of the Narcissus were rebuilt from the designs of the film Alien in the opening sequences, a scanning drone was sent aboard from the salvage ship to find Ripley and her cat Jones. Later at the Gateway Station produced from matte paintings and backgrounds of the outside with model spacecraft orbiting around, she appears in front of a board of inquiring and her testimony is met with skepticism, later she is offered a reinstatement of flight privileges if she returns to LV426.
In filming with the crew the full size APC was used at the entrance as the squad first enter the installation and as Ripley takes the APC collecting the surviving crew. Here filming the Alien and the crew entering and as they run down the Aliens were produced using silicon models which could be positioned in set ways. During filming the roof of the APC was removed as built-up fumes were effecting the actors.
Ripley's Seiko Pulsemeter watch a Seiko 7A28-7000 chronometer part of a limited edition created in 1983 with famed Italian automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, was originally in brushed stainless with black trim was painted black. Hicks first gave it to Ripley who then gave it to Newt and continued wearing it until loosing it in the Atmosphere Processor after being abducted by Aliens, it lay on the floor until collected by Ripley who later finds Newt cocooned. As Ripley runs carrying Newt into the Queen's Liar and along gantries, a lightweight dummy model of Newt was constructed for Sigourney Weaver to carry around during the scenes, in the Atmosphere Processor the full sized Queen ran on rails with control wheels operating the arms, head and legs connected and controlled by cables as it appeared after Ripley destroyed her liar, then was filmed with the 1' model as it ran along gantries after Ripley.
Alien 3 (film)
Ripley was also a co-producer on set as part of the contract which also included bonuses for
re-shaving her hair, due to the cost and because of the delay producers found Greg Cannom (uncredited) to
create a bald cap with very short hair and apply it in the as yet unfilmed sequence of the alien's
death. A further clause saw that only David Giler or Walter Hill could write her final sequence she
was also given a share of the box office receipts.
Concept
Michelle Moen matte department supervisor and Paul Lasaine matte painter painted all the matte backgrounds for the surface, sky and surface features. This included the EEV's atmosphere entry from space and as it entered the atmosphere and crashed into the water the crew used an ultraviolet light to give the clouds a glow against a matte painting of the sky, this was an animated shot with the water splash a digital shot.
On-set
In the film Ripley wore grey trousers and a dark green t-shirt, in some scenes she wore a blue jumper and green bomber jacket, these were similiar items of clothing as Clemens and Andrews and had been distressed for production like the other actor's and featured the Weyland-Yutani insignia on the back and tags.
Video Image produced video medical scan graphics and displays for Ripley in the EEV. David Jones model shop supervisor created a dummy used in EEV of Ripley that Clemens carries to the Infirmary and other puppets including the chest burster animatronic use in final sequence. ReelEye Company produced Ripley's special effects contact lenses,
Production
Corridor fires were produced on a one third scale model and on the full scale set a flashing light on rails which was pulled along as the flames shot overhead while Ripley and others ducked for cover. Most foundry and prison filming were on part built full size sets in the studio with the outside on matte paintings, miniatures and part full size sets including the EEV filming.
Filming with the Alien involved the use of the 1' and 3' models, but the scene with Ripley and the Alien in the infirmary involved an actor in a suit then CGI as the Alien neared her sparing her life and again the actor in the costume. A scene that the director David Fincher considered pivotal at a cost of half a million dollars extra to the already over budget film that saw a number of directors and screen rewrites. Fincher filming the scene by grabbing a camera and Ripley and shooting it himself. Other scenes involving Ripley were filmed with the use of Alien models with an animatronic chest burster being used in the final sequence.
Post Production
A number of inmates costumes were reused in other productions like Demolition Man and later were made available for sale.
Aliens: Colonial Marines
In the game Aliens: Colonial Marines with the release of the DLC Stasis Interrupted, a linking story that links the films Aliens and Alien 3 and continues after the film Alien 3 explains a few questions including how a face hugger and egg gets aboard the USS Sulaco and then aboard the EEV. Also explained is how Hicks is not actually ejected but a researcher Turk is ejected instead and shows that Ripley has a face hugger in her stasis, which most probably is brought aboard from the Legato a research spacecraft that intercepts the Sulaco en-route to LV426.
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With the DLC maps Crew Expendable and Last Survivor for the game Alien: Isolation the characters from the film Alien reappear and some are playable in-game. These are from two scenes from the film; Crew Expendable includes finding the alien and flushing it towards the air lock and Last Survivor includes playing as Ripley and evac from the Nostromo after setting the self-destruct.
Ripley's part is from both Crew Expendable, after the death of Kane, Brett, Ash, Ripley, Dallas and Parker set about cornering the alien and Last Survivor after having set the self-destruct on the Nostromo she must escape.
In the film Parker had constructed four flame throwers and Ash a motion tracker as they split into groups and search for the alien, these are used in game. Playable like in the film she is equipped with a flame thrower and splits into a group that goes in search for the alien flushing it towards the airlock for Crew Expendable and near the films end she must escape the Nostromo with Jonesy having set the self-destruct in Last Survivor.
Concept
Character detail art and modeling were provided by Jack Perry and Nic Frath, with Calum Watt adding to the character and clothing for each character. Other characters were designed by lead character artist Ranulf Busby and brought to life by lead animator Chris Southall.
Production
She appears in the DLC videos Alien: Isolation Cast Reunite and Alien: Isolation The Cast of. In Alien: Isolation The Cast of trailer she along with all the original cast (except Ash) of the film Alien are seen voicing for their character behind-the-scenes.
In game
Ripley is one of the three selectable crew from the DLC Crew Expendable and would continue the level as if played by Parker or Dallas. In Last Survivor different from the film, were as only Ripley survives the Nostromo with no Jonesy appearing in game. In Survivor levels Ellen Ripley is one of the selectable characters along with Amanda Ripley.
Timeline
The film Alien is set about 30 years after the film Prometheus, a Weyland-Yutani spacecraft the Nostromo with Dallas, Ellen Ripley, Kane, Lambert, Brett, Parker and Ash emerge from stasis around a planet from which is eminating a distress signal.
The film Aliens is set after the events of the film Alien, Ellen Ripley having killed the Alien goes into stasis aboard the Narcissus only to be found drifting in space 57 years later.
The events of the film Alien 3 are set after Aliens, Ellen Ripley having survived the detonation of the Atmosphere Processor with Bishop, Hicks and Newt escape to the USS Sulaco, only for a fire to start, causing their stasis units to be ejected into an EEV and soon after landing on Fiorina 'Fury' 161 a prison planet.
The film Alien Resurrection is set after the film Alien 3, some 200 years after Ellen Ripley dies at the Class C Work Correctional Unit on Fiorina 'Fury' 161.
In the games LV-426 (game), Aliens (Activision), Aliens: The Board Game (Flash) and Aliens: The Board Game a player takes the role of characters from the film Aliens, set at the same time as events of the film in similiar scenarios around LV426.
The game Alien (1984) was published in 1984 and based on the film Alien.
The game Alien: Isolation is set as a continuing story after the film Alien and before the film Aliens.
See also
Alien
Aliens
Alien 3
Alien Resurrection
References
Citations
Alien (film)
Aliens (film)
Alien 3 (film)
Accolades
The Beast Within-The making of Alien
Star Beast-Developing the story
Truckers In Space-Casting
Alien: Isolation Cast Reunite
Alien: Isolation The Cast of