Sigourney Weaver Was Shocked By This Deleted Scene From ‘Aliens’

The big picture

• Ellen Ripley’s emotional journey in
  Aliens
  is strengthened by her bond with Newt and the tragedy of her lost daughter, Amanda.
• The deleted scene involving Ripley’s promise to her daughter adds an extra layer of emotional weight to the film and Ripley’s character arc.
• The relationship between Ripley and her daughter is further explored in subsequent Alien projects, finalizing and deepening their bond.

It’s no secret that Aliens it was a movie Sigourney Weaver wasn’t very keen on doing it originally (via The Ringer). After reading 1960-1969, James Cameron, 1969-1970, 1969-Weaver’s powerful script for the sequel, which this time gave Ellen Ripley a stronger emotional anchor, was confident its creative integrity went far beyond being an attempt to make money after the success of Ridley Scottspace horror masterpiece, AlienWith something to fight for besides their own survival, Aliens flipped the script with Ripley’s connection to the character of Newt (Carrie Henn). But there was actually another scene that would have further explored this concept and reinforced Ripley’s personal tragedy as she fights for another young girl she cares for. Believe it or not, there was once a flashback of Ripley and her daughter, Amanda, that was included in Aliensonly to be excluded from production... Here’s what happened.

‘Aliens’ cut a flashback scene showing Ripley with her daughter Amanda

Anyone who has seen Aliens knows that, beyond wanting to see the Xenomorphs completely annihilated after witnessing what only one could do, Ripley is desperate to protect young Newt. From the moment she meets the young and frightened Rebecca “Newt” Jorden on LV-426, Ripley feels an immediate maternal instinct toward the child. Ripley cares for Newt as if he were her own daughter and is willing to risk her own life to avoid being devoured by the ruthless aliens around every corner. That’s why the phrase “Get away from her, bitch!” is so powerful, and why so many of us were devastated when Alien 3 revealed Newt and Hicks (Michael Biehn) died following their escape to the Sulaco. But the special edition of Aliens takes all of this a step further by introducing us to Ripley’s daughter, Amandathat she had left behind many years before, when she had boarded the Nostromo.

Unfortunately, according to the manufacturer Gale Anne Hurdthere wasn’t enough time to fit this moment into the finished theatrical film, despite it being so pivotal to Ripley’s story arc. “Unfortunately, the scene we had to cut due to the length of the ride [is] when he promises his daughter that he will come back for her birthday and he doesn’t,” Hurd told The Ringer in 2022. “That was really the moment and the scene that created the drive for Ripley’s character to not betray another child, her essentially surrogate daughter, Newt.” Now, the way Hurd describes this moment almost makes us think that there might have been a flashback before the events of Alien where Ripley would physically tell her daughter that she would be back for her birthday. It would have been a nice addition that could have pushed the limits of our heroine even further and allowed us to see her in a completely new context. But, as far as we know, there is no such scene. Most likely, the Aliens The producer is specifically referring to the deleted scene where Burke (Paul Reiser) tells Ripley about Amanda’s death.

While we can argue all day whether the theatrical or special edition is the better cut Aliensthe fact remains that the latter’s decision to add this scene again gives Ripley this emotional weight — having effectively abandoned her daughter in an attempt to survive Alienand now losing his entire life as a result —to help us better understand why she feels so strongly about Newt. It offers a completely different perspective that is based Aliens in what some would consider an attempt to preserve the nuclear family, with Ripley, Newt and Hicks at the center (an idea that some critics have also highlighted in James Cameron’s film Terminator 2: Judgment Day). It also reframes the 1979 film around this concept, that the only reason Ripley was on the Nostromo in the first place was to provide for her daughter. This retroactively raises the stakes for Alien as well as its sequel, and makes the 57 years that have passed in between all the more tragic.

Ellen Ripley is a tragic character, and this scene would have made her even more tragic.

There are few characters in modern science fiction who have suffered more viscerally and consistently than Ellen Ripley.. Not only was she the sole survivor of an assault by an unknown alien being, which tore apart her entire crew before her eyes, but she also lost the entire life of her daughter. If we add the events of Aliens AND Alien 3 finally, she lost another crew via Colonel Marines, followed by Newt and Hicks, and then got impregnated by the Xenomorph before losing her life. Talk about bad days, at least from her point of view. But The worst thing of all is undoubtedly that he broke the promise he made to his daughter.and lost the chance to see her grow up as a result. As a parent, that’s a hard pill to swallow, and it’s that guilt that drives Ripley to Aliensor at least the Special Edition version of the film.

Cutting this moment from the theatrical cut of Aliens does the film no favors. While the 137-minute version of the film is tight and contains every element that makes it arguably the best in the franchise, His failure to bring out Ripley’s hidden emotional side during these times of high stress is something that is hard to overlook.. While some have argued that the film’s decision to cut this moment was justified since Ripley doesn’t need a reason to be heroic, this reveal doesn’t take anything away from that. If anything, it underscores Ripley’s heroic ability by giving her a reason to stick around. The Marine colonel could certainly handle bombing the planet, but Ripley’s desire to save Newt is what drives her actions throughout the rest of the film. Ripley only truly becomes heroic in this one shot. Why She cares for Newt, and while she certainly doesn’t need to have a daughter of her own to sympathize with the young girl (their shared alien encounters would do just that), effectively cements their bond in a way the film otherwise couldn’t..

According to director James Cameron, cutting this scene created some tension between him and Sigourney Weaver.[Weaver] She later stated in writing that she based the entire character in the film on this scene, and was shocked when it was removed.,” Cameron explained in the special edition DVD commentary. While Weaver reportedly disliked the scene during filming, she apparently changed her mind by the time it came to shooting the rest of the film, basing Ripley’s entire time at Hadley’s Hope on the knowledge that her daughter was dead. “As an actress,” Cameron continued, “it allowed her to work on the connection, because I always say all my films are love stories, and this is about parental love and protection, and a sense of duty, and the ultimate sacrifice that a person would make given that sense of duty.” The love between Ripley and Newt is clear regardless of the version of Aliens you prefer, but it is made even more powerful by the tragedy that precedes it.

While Alien 3 AND Alien Resurrection attempt to launch the success of AliensNeither film was particularly faithful to the character of Ripley, and both struggled to find their footing along the way. It’s no surprise Neil Blomkampthe unproduced sequel would have ignored them completely. But there was a subsequent Alien project that further explored this Aliens deleted scene and helped give audiences an additional conclusion regarding Ripley’s daughterIn 2014, the video game Alien: Isolation has been released, centered on Amanda Ripley (Andrea Deck) mission to find out what happened on the Nostromo and gain some perspective on her mother’s decision to abandon her. The game even allowed you to play as Ellen Ripley, retelling some of the events surrounding the original Alien film. The 2014 video game was later adapted into a digital web series in honor of Alien40th birthday in 2019, and has effectively become a prequel to Aliens. Insulation It also gave rise to a literary adaptation that better explained the Ripley family and their circumstances.

While the novelization of Aliens note that Amanda Ripley-McClaren died of cancer, later revealed to be nothing more than a cover story propagated by her husband, Chad McClaren. In the 2022 novel, Alien: Colonial War, We learn that Amanda was actually put into a frozen state of cryosleep to keep her safe while her husband searched for a cure for his illness.. I had Alien 3 it didn’t happen, it’s possible that the Ripley women met again in a Interstellar-similar ending, but alas. Amanda has also appeared in several Alien comics, showing her taking up her mother’s torch in the seemingly never-ending battle against the Xenomorphs. Though mother and daughter never met again, they have come to terms with each other’s demise and used that tragedy to fight for a better world. There’s nothing that screams Alien more than that.

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