Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley was the central protagonist featured in the first three films of the Alien franchise. A clone of Ripley, known as Ripley 8, was featured in the fourth film, Alien Resurrection. In all four films the character is played by American actress Sigourney Weaver.

Terror on the Nostromo
In the year 2122, Ripley served as a Warrant Officer aboard the commercial towing vehicle USCSS Nostromo. The ship was on a return route from the Solomons when the mainframe computer intercepted a distress beacon, thus forcing it to awkaken the crew early from hypersleep. They found themselves somewhere in the Zeta II Reticuli System on the Outer Rim of the galaxy. The ship's captain, Dallas, interpreted the computer's instructions and informed the crew that they were contractually obligated to respond to the beacon. They tracked its origin point to a planetoid, which later came to be known as Acheron. They took a dropship to the surface and three of the crew members, Dallas, Lambert and Kane went out to explore the ruins of a derelict ship. Ripley and the ship's science officer Ash, remained on board the dropship to monitor their progress.

While exploring the cargo hold of the ship, Commander Kane was attacked by a crab-like organism, which attached itself to his face, rendering him comatose. Dallas and Lambert brought Kane back to the dropship and ordered Ripley to let them in. Ripley knew that doing so would violate quarantine procedures and by letting Kane on board with the organism, she could put the entire crew at risk. Despite Dallas' demands, Ripley refused to let them back on board. Ash countermanded Ripley and opened the airlock, bringing the three of them back inside. Dallas admonished Ripley for disobeying an order and Lambert slapped her across the face. Despite this however, Ripley stood by her decision and was severely irritated with Ash for countermanding her instructions.

Notes & Trivia

 * In Alien, Ripley was only addressed by her last name. It wasn't until Aliens that her full name was revealed.


 * Ripley's on-screen dossier from Aliens gives her date of birth as 6/10/03, but this date is not substantiated in later films.


 * Ripley's social security number is 273-483-28-2943 (derived from her on-screen dossier).


 * An action figure of Ripley was made as part of its Aliens line.


 * While filming Alien, Weaver and female co-star Veronica Cartwright were made to wear white surgical tape across their nipples during scenes where they wore sheer clothing.


 * Sigourney Weaver, a known anti-gun lobbyist, had great moral difficulty playing the role of Ripley in Aliens, knowing that the character would be using a firearm for many scenes in the film.