Remembering the iconic women of the Alien franchise

Ellen Ripley

A list of noteworthy sci-fi characters isn’t the same without Ellen Ripley. She’s survived multiple Xenomorph attacks. She’s been cloned. Then, her clone had a Xenomorph Queen extracted from her. There’s a lot to remember in regards to Ripley because she’s set the tone for every Xeno-infested film after her debut in 1979.

Her Power Loader fight scene alone makes her an inspiring character. Even if that’s because we not-so-secretly want to fight a killer intergalactic insect from inside a P-5000 Power Work Loader. We’ll settle for an exo-suit though. When Ripley wasn’t saving cats (Jonesy) and children (Newt), she was also combating the corrupt Weyland Corp.

Let’s face it: Weyland — both the company and the men behind it — are the real villains in the Alien franchise. Xenomorphs are just the misguided creatures who want to survive, but Weyland wants to weaponize them (even more so than they already are). We all know the corporation is willing to sacrifice men to tame the Xenos. However, both Ripley and Ripley 8 (her surviving clone) recognized that Weyland Corp. is a hostile work environment and she rebelled against it on numerous occasions.

She sacrificed herself to prevent another Chestburster from being born. She fought against Weyland, Xenos, and synthetic humans to stop any further outbreaks. Like the Xenomorph-riddled franchise, we hope that Ripley 8’s journey isn’t over with yet. Regardless, our list would be disingenuous if we didn’t take a moment to recognize some of the other powerful women leads throughout the years.