The History Of The Alien Franchise’s Great Female Leads, From Ripley To Rain
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Ruling over the box office roost in its first weekend of release, the 2024 movie Alien: Romulus has reignited 20th Century Studios’ long running sci-fi franchise. A huge part of that tradition has come from the fact that the 1979 original started something that would carry on throughout the rest of the Alien movies timeline, as well as the various spin offs and tie-in media that came after.
Throughout the entirety of this IP, there has been a strong current of female leads that have built this saga into what it currently is. Whether serving the forces of good, or in some cases working for The Company itself, the entire Alien series has been anchored by this collection of women who have saved humanity countless times in the depths of space.
How Alien’s History Of Female Leads Almost Didn’t Happen
The history of Alien starts with the script from writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, which was actually written without genders set in stone for the characters. According to a 1976 draft house on The Daily Script, the project then known as “Starbeast” carried this insightful stage direction:
The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.
Of course, history played out in its own fun way, as the suggestion to make Ellen Ripley Alien’s witty survivor was apparently made on the studio level. In a 2020 L.A. Times interview with Ridley Scott (via CBR) then president of 20th Century Fox Alan Ladd Jr. was the person who pitched Ripley to be a female character. And the rest, as they say, was long lasting history.
Ellen Ripley (Alien - Alien: Resurrection)
Ellen Ripley: warrant officer and last survivor of the Nostromo, her adventures would become legendary. Surviving three encounters with the Xenomorphs, and being resurrected for one last ride in Alien: Resurrection, her clear thinking is the stuff of legend. Not to mention, thanks to a really impressive shot in her final film in the series, Sigourney Weaver actually sank a basket from quite a distance, without looking, and on the first take.
Private First Class Jenette Vasquez (Aliens)
Throughout her adventures, Ripley didn’t have all of the fun being a strong female lead. Aliens made sure to introduce another fan favorite in the character of Private First Class Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein). A Colonial Marine who just needs to know where a target is to take it out, her tragic backstory has been fleshed out through a recent continuation novel, Aliens: Vasquez by author V. Castro.
Annalee Call (Alien: Resurrection)
Alien: Romulus introduced the world to another new Synthetic through the character of Andy (David Jonsson), who ranks as one of the least threatening androids in this universe. Right up there with him would be Annalee Call (Winona Ryder), the artificial person who helped clone, Ripley 8, and her surviving crewmates from The Betty escape the fury of a rather unique Xenomorph queen.
Elizabeth Shaw (Prometheus)
An archeologist who helped unlock the key to discovering the Engineers’ home world, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is kind of the Indiana Jones of Alien. Though getting a little too wrapped up in her work leads to some horrific consequences, like unwittingly giving birth to a new life form and fighting for her life against the creators of Mankind.
It’s a shame she was eventually revealed to be killed by David (Michael Fassbender). While Elizabeth helps put David back together in the Alien: Covenant promo short “The Crossing,” her good intentions lead to her untimely death, thanks to the android’s betrayal and usage of his human companion as a Xenomorph experiment kit.
Meredith Vickers (Prometheus)
Not all strong women in the Alien universe are playing for the side of good. Marking one of the rare female antagonists, Prometheus’ Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) is a Weyland Industries’ company woman from head to toe. Taking after her own father and company founder Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), Meredith’s ambition leads to her downfall; thanks to getting crushed by a downed Engineer spaceship that rolls over her fleeing body.
Amanda Ripley (Alien: Isolation)
In the film canon of the Alien movies, the extended version of Aliens tells us that Ellen Ripley’s daughter is dead. But apparently the video game and book canon have seen her live a richer life, and somehow cheat death. Fighting her own battle against Xenomorphs in the game Alien: Isolation, Weyland-Yutani engineer Amanda survives the disaster of the Sevastopol Space Station through her crafty resolve, and is apparently frozen in cryo-stasis, past the date of her supposed death.
Daniels (Alien: Covenant)
The space colonists of Alien: Covenant’s titular spaceship found themselves fall prey to the machinations of David (Michael Fassbender), leaving the would-be final girl Daniels (Katherine Waterson) to seemingly escape with good guy android Walter (also Fassbender). But, as Alien: Covenant’s twisted ending showed us, Daniels has more than likely been turned into a Xenomorph breeding lab, thanks to David’s old switcheroo with Walter.
Rain Carradine (Alien: Romulus)
So far, the Alien franchise’s run of strong female leads ends with Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), the functional lead of Fede álvarez’s current entry in the canon. Without spoiling any details from the Alien: Romulus ending, let’s just say that Rain’s struggle against the Xenomorphs is a welcomed entry in the halls of women who save the day in space.
It’s truly crazy to think that if it wasn’t for a simple decision made in 1979, the world of the Alien movies could have turned out vastly different. Without Ellen Ripley’s heroic journey into terror, the path may not have been paved for other female pop culture icons who helped break down barriers in action and sci-fi cinema.
It’s truly crazy to think that if it wasn’t for a simple decision made in 1979, the world of the Alien movies could have turned out vastly different. Without Ellen Ripley’s heroic journey into terror, the path may not have been paved for other female pop culture icons that helped break down barriers in action and sci-fi cinema.
However, I’d like to leave you with a quote from Sigourney Weaver herself, courtesy of an Alien Anthology YouTube video honoring a 2019 high school production of the original film. When reflecting on Ripley’s status as a female character, Weaver highlighted exactly why this decision worked:
When they decided to make the survivor a woman, they didn't write it like a 'girl's part.' They just wrote a character, so that in a sense she's like an everyman character. And I think that's one reason why she's held up. That was a sort of forward thinking idea.
Ellen Ripley will always be a role model for good character writing and strong female leads getting their due in blockbuster entertainment. So long as her example inspires creative forces in the right ways, that legacy will carry on for some time to come. That decision can be honored by the fans by not only going to see Alien: Romulus in theaters, but also by revisiting the best moments of Warrant Officer Ripley herself via the use of a Hulu subscription.
