Flamethrower

A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire. Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and natural gas, which is considered safer.

Aliens
In the 1979 film Alien, the character of Ellen Ripley defended herself by using a flamethrower. This was also useful in executing mercy killings upon those who had been infected by alien xenomorph young and subsequently cocooned. In a cut scene from the movie, Ripley uses a flamethrower to end the life of her captain, Dallas, who begged her to kill him.

Ripley also used a flamethrower for largely the same purposes in the 1986 sequel, Aliens. In this film, the flamethrower also became useful as a light source to help her navigate dark corridors.

In Alien Resurrection, set some two-hundred years after the events of the previous films, a clone of Ripley, dubbed Ripley 8, used a flamethrower to destroy a laboratory of her failed clone predecessors.