The horror sci-fi classic Alien gave us Ellen Ripley, feminist icon. But her hard-fought victory over the nightmare xenomorphs nearly didn't make it to the screen. Believe it or not, Ripley almost didn't survive her final encounter.
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00:00The horror sci-fi classic Alien gave us Ellen Ripley, feminist icon, but her
00:04hard-fought victory over the nightmare xenomorphs nearly didn't make it to the
00:08screen. Believe it or not, Ripley almost didn't survive her final encounter.
00:13The theatrical ending of Alien remains seared into fans' minds. It's a classic
00:16slasher sequence. Ripley and Jonesy, the orange cat, have made it to the Nostromo's
00:20escape shuttle. The cat is secured in the cryo bed and Ripley strips down to her
00:24underwear. Her bare skin isn't shot for sex appeal, it's a sign that she feels
00:27safe enough to make herself vulnerable. But there's a third passenger on the
00:33shuttle, a xenomorph sleek enough to blend in with the walls of the cramped
00:36ship. It announces its presence with a wiggle of its arm, more than enough to
00:39put Ripley, and us, back into panic mode. The finale provides a stress test for
00:43everyone as Ripley armors back up and waits until she can blow the monster out
00:47of the airlock with help from a small harpoon. Only then can she enjoy her
00:50well-earned but bittersweet ending. On the promotional circuit for Alien
00:54Covenant in 2017, Ridley Scott revealed his original plan for a nightmarish and
00:58frankly cruel last-minute twist ending. The changes start once Ripley makes it
01:02to the shuttle. After she's prepped the cat and started readying herself for the
01:05long sleep, the xenomorph launches its attack and Ripley counters with the
01:08airlock gambit we know. This time however, the harpoon doesn't work and the
01:12critter launches itself forward into the ship. The xenomorph then kills Ripley.
01:16According to Scott, I thought that the alien should come in and Ripley harpoons
01:19it and it makes no difference. So it slams through her mask and rips her head
01:23off. Yes, I read you, the answer is negative. Then in a horrific display of
01:28evolution, it sits down at the comms console, opens a channel and perfectly
01:32mimics Dallas's voice. The film ends with another distress signal that's
01:35actually a deadly trap. Only this time, the rescuers won't find a Bay of Eggs,
01:39much less the sleeping Ripley of the canon ending. All they'd get is a keenly
01:43intelligent monster. Let's be honest, this ending stinks and it may have spelled
01:47the end of the 40-year-old blockbuster Alien franchise before it even got going.
01:50While losing some of the alien saga wouldn't be terrible, we're looking
01:54straight at you Alien Covenant. And don't get too cozy either, Alien Resurrection.
01:58James Cameron's Aliens is at least as iconic as the original, but audiences
02:01connect with the humans of the Nostromo and that means Ripley. Without her, all
02:05bets are off. In 2017, Scott explained to Entertainment Weekly how he pitched that
02:09alternate ending to Fox over the phone. As he describes it, the tension from the
02:13studio was audible, with a long, uncomfortable silence punctuating Scott's
02:17description of Ripley's grisly end. The story ends with an exec arriving on
02:20set 14 hours later, threatening to fire Scott immediately if the film ended with
02:24Ripley's death. Studio interference often negatively impacts a
02:30creator's vision. Every once in a while, however, someone makes the right call and
02:34tragedy is averted. This was one of those rare times, suggesting that Ridley Scott,
02:38like George Lucas, sometimes does his best work with someone around, unafraid
02:41to tell him when an idea of his stinks. The Fox executives reacted quickly and
02:47decisively, and thanks to them, the Xenomorphs continued to thrive. Based on
02:51the commentary track from the original Alien Quadrilogy box set, the cast's
02:54response to Scott's pitch for an alternate ending was chill. They let it
02:57drift on by without much fanfare. John Hurt breaks the silence by discussing
03:01the film's legacy and his bloody role as the first victim in unwilling Xenomorph
03:05dad, Kane.
03:06Wait a minute. If we let it in, the ship could be infected. You know the quarantine
03:10procedures. 24 hours for decontamination. Sigourney Weaver has never commented on
03:14the alternate ending, although her commentary along with Scott about the
03:17sexual undertones of the Xenomorph and her gleefully weird clone Ripley in
03:21Alien Resurrection suggests she's a professional who would have taken the
03:24bizarre finale in stride. There's zero evidence to suggest that director John
03:28McTiernan and his screenwriters, the sibling team of John and Jim Thomas, knew
03:32about the alternate ending to Alien in 1987 when they made Predator, but it's a
03:36neat coincidence that the Yautja Predator uses the same trick Scott once
03:39conceived for a Xenomorph. Predator makes very little use of human mimicry, with
03:42the Hunter first practicing Mac's voice after Mac uses his knife to spear a
03:46scorpion on the shoulder of op leader Dylan. The Yautja also imitates Billy's
03:49laugh, though it speaks English in its own rattling voice when face-to-face
03:52with Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch at the film's climax. Future movies use this
03:56trick to great effect, including turning Danny Trejo into bait in Predators, but
04:00it's never against the Xenomorph in the less-than-stellar matchup movies. In
04:03retrospect, that's a missed opportunity, and it's still a wild twist of fate that
04:08these franchises cross wires in this way. While the ability to mimic human speech
04:11makes zero sense for a Xeno, it worked perfectly for these clever, less
04:15mindlessly primal intergalactic hunters. Worse than the potential loss of an
04:20iconic franchise, this unused ending deprives fans of one of the most iconic
04:23heroes in movie history, and the Ripley represented someone Gen X kids and their
04:27descendants could admire, especially in the girl power-charged 1990s. Ripley has
04:31served as a benchmark for female heroes and protagonists ever since, appearing on
04:35multiple best-of compilations, including a 2008 Empire list where Ripley placed
04:39ninth as the highest-ranked female lead.
04:41This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.
04:48Alien also launched Sigourney Weaver into orbit, making her one of our favorite
04:52must-see actors. Ripley netted the then-fledgling film star BAFTA and Saturn
04:56Award nominations. Without Ripley's strength, Weaver's later performances, like the
05:00flighty and funny Diana from Ghostbusters or the Ahura surrogate Gwendo
05:03Marco from Galaxy Quest, would likely never have happened. We'd have been all
05:07the poorer without Weaver, much less Ripley's legacy. Through Ripley, all things are
05:10possible. Down with the xenomorphs!