Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in ALIEN (1979)

Heroes have been at the center of fiction since the beginning of storytelling. The hero’s journey as defined by mythologist Joseph Campbell, is universal and lends itself to tales in every culture. Naturally, cinema has not been immune from those heroic tales always with a male conquering the beast. While we have been treated to varied types of female heroes in movies, with few exceptions these have been heroes of the heart, of the mind, of the family. Few female heroes in movies, however, have gone up against the forces of evil that become legend in the tradition of the epic poem Beowulf, the quintessential man versus monster tale. That changed in 1979 when a female crew member on a space cargo ship saved the world from annihilation.

The Classic Movie Blog Association (CMBA) is presenting its spring 2024 blogathon, Screen Debuts & Last Hurrahs, from May 20 – 24, a fascinating topic that opens the door to many memorable possibilities. After some thought I decided on Jack Lemmon’s feature film debut, a commentary I will publish in a few days. However, after revisiting Ridley Scott’s Alien I could not get Ellen Ripley out of my mind. The groundbreaking role, the premiere feature film performance of the popular and talented Sigourney Weaver, deserves my attention.

Sigourney Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver in New York City to pioneering television executive Sylvester ‘Pat’ Weaver and British actor, Elizabeth Inglis. At age 13, Susan took the name Sigourney from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Already nearly six feet tall by that age, Sue felt a more substantial name suited her better, never expecting Sigourney to stick.

Sigourney attended private schools, graduated from Stanford University with an English degree, and had her sights on an acting career since high school. Weaver enrolled at the Yale School of Drama and graduated in 1974 despite a negative experience there with instructors telling her she had no talent for acting. Lucky for us Weaver pursued acting anyway and appeared in stage productions the next few years. She never thought her career would go beyond that. A couple of non-speaking parts followed, but it was Sigourney’s work on stage that led someone to recommend her to Ridley Scott who was searching for someone to play Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley in his upcoming horror movie set in space.

Ellen Ripley’s story begins sometime in the distant future on the commercial spaceship Nostromo. Ripley is one of seven crew members on their way back to Earth when a distress call is received from a nearby planet. The crew is awoken from stasis by the ship’s computer as protocol demands inspection of the signal. Half the crew go to the surface to investigate and find an alien spaceship inhabited by a huge dead alien and hundreds of viable alien eggs. When one of the crew reaches out to touch one of the eggs, the creature within it hurls itself onto his helmet and attaches itself to his face.

Against Ripley’s warnings that quarantine regulations must be followed, the ship’s Science Officer Ash allows the party back onto the ship with Executive Officer Kane now unconscious with a creature attached to his face. An attempt is made to remove the alien from Kane’s face, but the attempt fails when it is discovered that the creature’s blood is made of some sort of acid that can eat through the ship’s hull. It is best to leave it alone, which results in a positive sign when Kane is eventually freed of the creature, wakes up with an appetite and the crew plans to return to stasis for the rest of the trip home. But it takes only that evening’s dinner to bring to light the gravity of their predicament. As the crew is gathered at the dinner table, Kane begins to convulse violently clearly in serious distress. As his stunned crewmates watch, a disgusting-looking fetus-like creature erupts from his chest killing him. The creature escapes into the ship to begin a deadly cat and mouse game. Along with the crew we learn that the alien species gestates inside a human host where it gains the strength to set itself free to grow at an impressive rate, it is a “perfect organism. Its structural perfection matched only by its hostility…unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”

The crew of the Nostromo tries every conceivable idea to trap and kill the alien, but all is for naught partly thanks to Ash who deflects those goals at every turn. As it turns out Ash is an android following orders to bring back the life form with all other priorities rescinded, including the life of the crew.

It takes no time to realize that the Nostromo crew has no chance against the alien who butchers them one by one by one until Ripley is the only survivor. Alien is a slow burn in the classic tradition. One of the aspects of the movie this fan likes best is its pacing. It takes its time. I have noted this in previous entries, how much I admire the patience needed to enjoy classic films, and Alien is in that exact vein. Your heart beats quickly for it as the tension builds over time – step by step – as the enormity of the crew’s predicament becomes clearer and clearer. Ridley Scott’s choices with music follow that same tradition, using it sparingly so that the action, the time elapsing, each discovery is felt deeply. Film music is wonderful and is made more so when it is used correctly, including not at all.

Adding to the anxiety of Alien is the fact that we are never quite sure what the alien looks like. When it is attached to Kane’s face it looks like it has skin and organs like a strange animal would have. Later, when the creature is in its infancy erupting from Kane’s chest, it shows it has metal-like teeth. As the action progresses, we realize we do not know what it is or where it is as it has the talent to fit itself within the ship’s guts. The entire thing is quite unnerving as we try to figure out where and when as the crew does. Alien uses every way possible to keep the tension as high as possible throughout, which keeps us off balance. The entire thing, this movie, is smart. The screenplay by Dan O’Bannon with story by O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett about ordinary people in this extraordinary world is believable and exciting, a story that stays true to the movie’s tagline, in space no one can hear you scream, and we never forget it as the horror unfolds. Alien also feels fresh. It could have been made yesterday.

Finally, what makes Alien a standout is its cast, a terrific group of actors. Aside from Weaver there is Tom Skerritt is Dallas, the Captain of the Nostromo, John Hurt is Kane, the unfortunate host to the alien, Veronica Cartwright is Lambert, the ship’s navigator, Yaphet Kotto is chief engineer Parker, Harry Dean Stanton plays Brett, the engineering technician who for my money has the scariest death scene (post Kane) in a beautifully shot sequence that does not reveal details of the alien, but its impressive growth rate in a deliberate manner that chills. The prelude to Brett’s death is a drawn-out, tortuous, heart thumping sequence sans music that is not easy to recover from. Exhaling is always necessary after watching that sequence.

The final crew member, Ash, is played by Ian Holm. Ash is the droid admirer of the creature for whom the lives of the crew mean nothing. Ash fulfills the commands of the Company for whom the crew works. We can have an entirely separate discussion about the Company who oversees the entire endeavor, but that will be left for another day. Talk about being unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

The idea for the story as pertains to the characters in Alien was “truckers in space” as mentioned in a featurette, which I interpret as regular people doing an unglamorous job. Indeed, that comes across beautifully at the onset of Alien, which serves the action and tension that follow perfectly. After the crew is awakened to kick off the story, we see a weary bunch moving about and complaining. They have been together for quite some time and there’s a sense of boredom, of them going about tasks automatically as we all do when we are at a job for a long time. Despite the ensemble, we get to know all the characters and their specific talents quite well, which is why we care when they are no longer.

All those reasons and much more make Alien a neo-classic, the type of film one could enjoy repeatedly as we do those from Hollywood’s golden age. Like so many landmark movies before it Alien set a standard many have tried to emulate. But they could not repeat changing the course of action movies forever. A huge part of why Alien did so is Ellen Ripley.

Before taking a closer look at Ellen Ripley, I should mention she is not the first ever female action hero as some sources claim. Several women preceded her in the wide realm of action. Two primary examples come to mind, women who broke the mold in their respective field of action. The first is Pearl White dubbed the Peerless Fearless Girl, Heroine of a Thousand Stunts, and Queen of the Serials. Pearl White, who managed to repeatedly escape cliffhangers with gusto seven decades before Indiana Jones, became popular with serials like Perils of Pauline and The Exploits of Elaine. At the height of her fame White was the number one movie star, beating even Mary Pickford in fan magazine polls. What she was famous for were dangerous tasks normally associated with male stars – fistfights, gunfights, dangling from cliffs and the like. White became a movie hero in an action-packed world created for these movies she referred to as, “the always in danger type of serials.” This was pure action and Pearl White excelled at it.

The next female ‘action star’ who paved her own unique path is Pam Grier in the 1970s playing such avenging badass women as Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Pam Grier redefined the role of women in crime action films, a role we had never seen before. These women investigated crime, sought justice often singlehandedly, handled guns like the best of them, and used her feminine wiles when needed. All but the last were behaviors associated with male characters to that point as were the stories depicted in these movies – drug filled, sex-filled, raw, dark crime-infested worlds Grier owned with her portrayals of these women and in the process made those types of stories not only possible for women, but entertaining. Grier has stated that she was “part of a female cinematic revolution” and no one can dispute that.

So…Pearl White owned pure action. Pam Grier owned crime action and…Sigourney Weaver owns the horror action. By way of Ellen Ripley Weaver becomes a force of mythological strength like the stories of old except in female form.

‘A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow men.‘ – Joseph Campbell

At the onset of Alien nothing points to Ellen Ripley as anything other than just one of the crew in their common world. She is third in command of the Nostromo, a keenly observant level-headed woman who likes to follow rules. Had the Nostromo group heeded her warning about the quarantine all would not end as it does. Ripley is also the only crew member to suspect Ash asking him questions at every turn. As such she becomes the biggest threat to the goal of the mission as set forth by the Company, to bring the alien back for observation.

As the story progresses Ripley becomes the competent leader. Like all mythological heroes, her strengths become apparent as threats increase, as she faces down the fabulous force necessary for the hero’s journey. The ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances. The breaking of the stereotype is the women part perhaps because the part was written for a man, but there is no second best here. This is as great and smart a character as there has been.

In the end, Ripley is not only the sole survivor, but she manages to win a decisive victory in a battle that shows her not only possessing formidable powers, but also reveals her as extraordinarily human. With every other crew member dead by the alien, Ripley sets the clock for the destruction of the ship. After another nail-biting sequence, Ripley saves Mr. Jones, the orange tabby cat who played such a key role in the adventure. Together they prepare to launch the shuttle. The ship explodes. The nightmare and the remains of the crew, if there are any, are done. Ripley prepares for stasis when the alien reveals itself in the wall of the shuttle. Another heart pounding few moments ensue as Ripley inches her way into a spacesuit without taking her eyes off the creature. Again, there is no music playing in the sequence with only each of Ripley’s shattered breaths left between her and the rest of her life – and our nerves. There is something quite innocent in Ripley during this last battle that tugs as me just as my heart also pounds in my chest. As the alien lunges for the attack, Ripley opens the hatch, and the creature is eventually tossed out into space. A decisive victory, the mysterious adventure is over, and we can breathe again as Ripley bestows boons on her fellow humans.

During one of the many interviews I listened to where Ripley’s uniqueness as a film character is discussed, the interviewer mentioned how, in many ways, Hollywood is still trying to catch up to what the Alien films did with this character. There have been many screen adventures featuring heroic women characters since Alien, but none can have the impact of the first and best. Although sequels were not the thing in 1979, Ellen Ripley proved a unique, layered, complex female character that would serve them well in a series.

In real life it happened six years later, in the movies it is 57 years since Ripley sent the alien into space. James Cameron, who had yet to make his feature directorial debut, conceived of a sequel to Scott’s 1979 movie and wrote the screenplay set 57 years after the Nostromo. In 1986 Cameron directed what many believe to be one of the best sequels in history.

Aliens develops Ellen Ripley’s character immensely. This time Ripley is the main character, and we get to know her quite well seeing several aspects of her personality from warrior to mother to leader to symbol of how women get things done. Having endured the horrors aboard the Nostromo, Ripley wakes up after over five decades in stasis a lost soul who no one believes. From there she evolves into a ferocious combatant. The character’s growth is illustrated beautifully if one compares the ultimate battles in both Alien films. The first is cerebral, competent, and internal. The second is grand and fierce pitting two female powers against each other. That cannot go unnoticed.

Aliens is broader, bigger, and badder than its predecessor, but it is not better. This fan gives the edge to the smaller, classically oriented original. But if your focus is the character of Ellen Ripley then the sequel must prevail because it takes the hero to another level of supernatural proportions. And it is a superb movie.

Sigourney Weaver is flawless in Aliens and for her efforts she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, which is another barrier broken by this character the likes of which are rarely recognized by the Academy. Despite a career of portraying women in hugely successful movies in various genre, Sigourney Weaver will always be invariably linked to the woman who catapulted her to superstardom in a hell of a feature debut in 1979, as legendary hero, Ellen Ripley.

Other Alien sequels: David Fincher’s Alien 3 and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection (1997)

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