Ellen Ripley
Ellen Ripley is a female film character that features in the Alien universe.
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Biography
Ellen Louise Ripley was a female human who was born on January 7, 2092 at Olympia, Luna, that was part of the United Americas.
At some point, she came to be an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation where she was noted to had entered into a brief relationship that led to her having a daughter named Amanda Ripley. She later came to serve as a warrant officer on-board the Nostromo under the command of Captain Arthur Dallas.
Ripley and with the rest of the crew awoke from their Hypersleep Chambers thinking they were done with their cargo haul duty, but found out they were awoken to investigate an unknown signal coming from the moon LV-426. The atmosphere of the moon damaged the ship, and so the crew had to stay on the moon until repairs were complete. An away team consisting of Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, and Navigator Lambert left the ship to investigate the signal. They found a derelict ship broadcasting the signal. Ripley stayed on the shuttle to oversee the repairs. Ash served as the observer for the ground team's status. The three entered the derelict spacecraft, but their radio signal was cut off and the others had no idea what happened to them inside. During this interval, Ripley told Ash that Mother had partially decoded the alien transmission, and it appeared to be a warning of some kind. Later, Dallas and Lambert hurried the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo. Ripley refused to allow them to enter the ship, citing quarantine protocol. Despite this, Ash opened the entrance and let the three of them as well as the facehugger onto the ship. Ripley was later attacked by Lambert for leaving them outside. The crew tried to remove the facehugger, but it was too firmly attached to Kane. Ash advised that they could seriously injure or kill Kane if they cut it off, and they also feared that its acid blood could compromise the ship's hull, so Kane was left in the infirmary with the creature still attached. Eventually the facehugger fell off and crawled away. Ripley, Dallas and Ash searched for it in the infirmary and Ripley stumbled upon it, but by now it was dead. Ash kept its corpse for investigation, despite Ripley's doubts. Kane awoke soon after the facehugger detached itself and he appeared unharmed. The crew had a final dinner before re-entering hypersleep, however, Kane started to convulse violently, and a creature emerged from his chest and scurried off into the depths of the ship.
Despite her death, her genetic records remained and 200 years later she came to be cloned by scientists of the United Systems Military. This was because her records contained the genetic material of the Alien Queen embryo with the cloning resurrecting the creature in the process. Numerous clones were produced but most of these were failures until Ripley 8 was created who was he only success. From her, the Alien Queen embryo was extracted through surgery and the United Systems Military looked to study and breed the creatures on-board their mobile research ship the USM Auriga. It was discovered that as a result of the cloning that Alien DNA came to be blended with the Ripley clone and similarly her human genetics were inadvertently combined with the Alien Queen making both of them hybrids. While Ripley 8 had initially represented no more than a means to acquire the Xenomorph Queen, Dr. Wren ultimately decided to preserve her for study, despite the complaints of the project's overseer, General Peréz. Ripley 8 was subjected to numerous tests that probed both her physical and mental state, and it quickly became apparent that she was not in fact human, and that residual Xenomorph DNA in her system meant she was in fact a hybrid. Contrary to the expectations of the USM scientific team, she possessed memories and intellect inherited from Ellen Ripley, although she did not fully comprehend this knowledge. These memories were inherited in a similar fashion to the Xenomorph's ability to transfer memories down through the generations genetically. All through her development, Ripley 8 was kept ignorant of her origins and purpose, yet she was almost immediately able to sense that the Queen had been extracted from her and was breeding aboard the Auriga, another side-effect of the Xenomorph DNA in her body.
When the Cloned Xenomorphs escaped from their containment cells aboard the Auriga, Ripley 8 joined up with the survivors from the Betty in an attempt to escape the ship. Along the way, Ripley 8 discovered the failed clones that had come before her, including Ripley 7, who was still alive and begged to be euthanized. Ripley 8 complied, incinerating the entire laboratory in a rage using a Draco Double Burner. As the survivors neared the Betty, Ripley 8 was captured by the Xenomorphs and taken to the Queen by the Lead Alien, where she witnessed the birth of the Newborn, a result of the imperfect cloning processes that had given her her own abnormal traits. The Newborn killed the Cloned Queen and apparently viewed Ripley 8 as its true mother, although Ripley 8 fled from the creature at the first opportunity and made it to the Betty. The Newborn followed and also made it aboard the ship as it departed, forcing Ripley 8 to finally confront it in the vessel's cargo hold. Using the creature's apparent reverence for her, she lured the Newborn into a false sense of security before burning a hole in a viewing port in the ship's hull with her blood, sucking the hybrid piecemeal out into space.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
By her own account, Ripley was not a soldier but circumstances saw her arming herself with makeshift weapons that she used to survive.
Due to the unintentional crossing of genetic material during the cloning process, Ripley 8 possessed several unusual traits more often associated with the Xenomorph species. Ripley 8 has demonstrated superior senses, such as touch and smell; she was able to feel that the USM Auriga was in motion despite the fact that the ship was running on stealth, and she was able to smell the embryonic Xenomorph gestating within Larry Purvis. Ripley 8 demonstrated superior levels of strength when compared to other humans, able to best men larger than her in unarmed combat, rend open hardened steel plate with her bare hands and even tear off a live Facehugger after it attached to her face.
Perhaps the most obvious similarity between Ripley 8 and the Xenomorph was the former's acidic blood. While the blood in Ripley 8 was far less potent than that of Xenomorphs, it was still capable of corroding metal, glass, plastics and other materials over time. It was also red, the same color as normal human blood.
Notes
- Ellen Ripley was created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett where she was portrayed by actor Sigourney Weaver and featured in the setting of the Alien universe.
In other media
Video games
- In Aliens vs. Predator, Ellen Ripley was briefly mentioned in dialogue by Karl Bishop Weyland in the setting of the 2010 video game.
- In Alien: Isolation, Ellen Ripley briefly appeared in the setting of the 2014 video game where she was voiced once again by actress Sigourney Weaver.
Novels
Appearances
- Alien: (1979)
- Aliens:
- Alien 3:
- Alien: Resurrection:
External Links
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