A Round of Applause for Ripley
Lessons for humans and aliens alike.
I wasn’t born when Alien (1979) released. Ridley Scott’s masterpiece cut across barriers of genre and storytelling to become one of the most-watched and loved movies of all time, within horror and outside it. An atmospheric film with its languorous pace (not much happens until it actually does), featuring only seven human characters, one cat, and one alien, sharing space in an unchanging landscape. I have lost count of the number of times I ended up watching the original movie and its many sequels over the years.
I read Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay and was struck by how the story was conceived, especially the character of warrant officer Ellen Ripley — one of the strongest female characters in literature and movies alike. It was director Ridley Scott’s decision to switch the stereotype of a male action hero, by having a woman play the same role from the original screenplay, challenging gender norms in the genres of science fiction, action, and horror.
Seemingly reticent in her introductory scenes, Ripley comes into her own as the story progresses. She isn’t overtly declared as the protagonist. She is not captain of the Nostromo, isn’t shouting out orders from the beginning, and her apprehensions about letting in an exposed crew member without quarantine aren’t paid attention to.
Alien is not a movie that shouts from the roof about having a woman play a hero but gives her character that arc to speak for itself. Ripley wants to follow procedures, is observant and intuitive, and takes a stand for what she believes in. When Captain Dallas and Executive Officer Kane are indisposed, she fights for her position as third in command to be listened to. Facing dismissal over her gender and lower-ranking designation leaves her unperturbed as she takes over the ship and tries to keep the remaining crew safe — humans and cat included.
Ripley’s scenes with the alien added further dimensions to her character’s graph — she’s terrified but will do whatever it takes to protect what matters. Aliens (1986) touches similar ground (literally on Earth, and back in space to confront the xenomorphs), as she battles dismissal of her claims about alien eggs, her license revoked for destroying the ship — a sacrifice she made to ensure the alien didn’t make it down to Earth — and standing by what she did to be right. When she’s taken aboard to guide the marines in an investigation of a terraforming colony, she again assumes command to handle a situation she has encountered before — speaking her mind to a bunch of male soldiers, playing guardian to an abandoned child, gaining the trust of the crew, and of course, doing a little alien-killing on the side.
Her scenes with Newt are some of the most endearing ones in the film, which bring to light her gentle and humorous side — a reminder of the daughter she lost when in stasis, and her efforts to gain the girl’s trust and keep the little one safe come what may. Channeling the protective instincts of a mother to her child, an officer to her crew, an earthling to her planet — Ripley’s arc is so wide; it’s such a wonderfully created and represented character.
Sigourney Weaver achieved iconic status along with the character she played so well — her first leading role in a motion picture, alongside seasoned actors like Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, and Ian Holm, for which she won a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer. Ripley’s encounters with the aliens became the narrative core of several sequels, her performances receiving consistent praise over two decades. Her Oscar nomination for Aliens was the first time the honor was bestowed to a movie in the science fiction genre and marked Weaver’s first-ever Academy Award nomination. She was the third actress in history to be nominated in a lead role for horror (after Ellen Burstyn for The Exorcist, and Sissy Spacek for Carrie).
In a male-dominated industry, female actors are often sidetracked by male stars, irrespective of the individual strength of their roles. Actresses like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore are powerhouses whenever they’re on screen, but in the action genre quality roles and strong character arcs for women are few and far between.
Sarah Connor and Furiosa are two other timeless women of strength in the history of cinema. Linda Hamilton and Charlize Theron played these characters so well, bringing them legendary status in the annals of film history. But they were still characters in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Mad Max: Fury Road respectively —movie titles themselves reflecting who dominates the movie. Ditto for Rita Vrataski in Edge of Tomorrow — Emily Blunt’s stand-out performance as the celebrated hero of the battle of Verdun was overshadowed in a Tom Cruise movie by the megastar himself. Whereas Ripley owns the Alien franchise, towering over both aliens and humans.
Ripley is considered to be one of the most significant female protagonists in cinematic history, and it’s heartening to know that a male director decided to challenge gender stereotypes by giving a role written for a man to a woman, without changing the character from what was originally written. When someone is in a position of power, how they use that power is more important than their own designation. Ridley Scott breaking that mold enabled more than just a character stepping over a barrier. Ripley isn’t defined by the men around her or her relationship with them. Weaver played it as it was created, and this is what makes it so influential even four decades later. She took up the challenge, and not only achieved it but went several notches higher.
In 2008, the American Film Institute ranked Ripley as the eighth-best hero in American film history, and the second-highest ranked female character after Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs). In 2015, she was the highest-ranked female in Empire magazine’s compilation of the hundred greatest movie characters (and number five overall).
Sigourney Weaver produced Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997) and reprised her role of Ripley, reiterating the fact that empowered women can empower others. With her star status, she could take up any role she wanted, even making her own movies without having to wait for offers to come her way. Female actors turning producers is a wonderful example of empowerment. When women get strong roles that earn them critical and commercial success, they don’t need to keep depending on and waiting for future projects but make them happen instead.
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company not only supports women-centric movies but also promotes and adapts books by female authors with female protagonists, bringing into the limelight both writers and actors — women empowerment at its best! Salma Hayek’s company Ventanarosa produces film and television projects. Her first feature as a producer was Mexico’s official selection for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 1999, and she earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in Frida (2002), which she produced herself.
Ripley is an iconic character across films, video games, comics, and novels, and is a feminist film icon for battling not only aliens but patriarchy itself. And Sigourney weaver stands tall (quite literally, as she’s over six feet tall) for disrupting gender norms, being influential in creating projects, standing up for equality and representation of women, and battling stereotypes in the film industry just as Ripley battled more than just the aliens.
