List of Alien (franchise) characters

John Scalzi, president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, wrote in a 2011 AMC Networks column that he considered the dynamic and relatable Ripley the best science-fiction character of all time.

After the Alien hatches from Kane's chest and kills Brett, Dallas enters the ship's labyrinthine air duct network to lure it to the airlock and eject it into space.

Halfway through production, he approached writer and executive producer Ronald Shusett and asked if he could trade his salary for a one-half percentage point (.5 percent) share in the film.

Abruptly assigned to replace the Nostromo's previous medical officer for the return journey from Thedus to Earth, Ash is a secret android tasked by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to ensure that a mysterious signal emanating from LV-426 is investigated.

[17] In the special-edition DVD audio commentary, director Ridley Scott interprets some of Ash's inhuman behavior (such as the attempted suffocation of Ellen Ripley with a rolled-up pornographic magazine) as reflecting Freudian sexual frustration from being anatomically incorrect.

As the authors describe, Mother maintains an intimate connection with the crew, providing a watchful eye when they are asleep, as well as a small, womb-like computer module for direct communication about sensitive matters.

[28] For the Engineer pilot in Alien, a 26-foot (7.9 m) set piece was built at Bray Studios; Ridley Scott and cinematographer Derek Vanlint's children played the body doubles to exaggerate the size of the corpse.

[34] In the audio commentary on the 1999 twentieth-anniversary re-release of Alien, Scott said that he envisioned the pilot in the original film as driving a "battlewagon" with a haul of biological weapons and wanted to explore the species' story in fifth and sixth installments of the series.

After telling Ellen Ripley about her daughter's death and hearing her account of the Nostromo incident, Burke uses the information to have LV-426's colonists rendezvous with the Derelict and trigger an Alien outbreak.

[18] Bishop was studied by LeiLani Nishime of the University of Texas Press in 2005 as a theoretical dramatization of how humans would deal with the presence of an Other, concerning Ripley's initial apprehension about being near a synthetic after her life-threatening encounter with Ash.

[47] According to an article by Anton Karl Kozlovic of the University of Nebraska Omaha, Bishop's altruistic actions (which include rescuing Newt and Ripley) contradict a trend towards technophobia in pre-1990 films.

He fights to the end in the colony's operation room, where the survivors of the party make their final stand, and is pulled through a floor grate by an Alien while providing cover fire.

[37] Paxton was visiting his girlfriend Louise Newbury in the United Kingdom in early July 1985 when he auditioned at Pinewood Studios for director James Cameron, whom he knew from previous projects.

[3] Matthews said in a 2006 Alien Experience interview that he had moved to the United Kingdom due to the treatment of his fellow Vietnam War veterans and was acting in The American Way when Cameron offered him the role of Apone.

Although Dutton liked Alien 3, he found its production tumultuous; director David Fincher encountered resistance from 20th Century Fox, and Pinewood Studios was in need of renovation.

To gain Ripley's trust, Clemens admits that he got drunk after a long shift as a resident and accidentally killed eleven men being treated after a boiler explosion by misprescribing a painkiller, and that he was secretly addicted to morphine.

[78] Michael Nordine wrote in an LA Weekly article that although Aaron is a secondary character, his loyalty to Ripley and betrayal of Weyland-Yutani contradict his apparent company-orientation and lack of intelligence.

After United Systems Military researchers extract the Alien Queen from Number 8 on the ship USM Auriga in the year 2381, they keep her alive and confined and give her a rudimentary education.

[94] In From Alien to The Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film, Roz Kaveney interprets Johner and Number 8 as monogamous animals, with a weaker, aggressive male unsuccessfully attempting to seduce a stronger female.

Perez hires Elgyn to abduct a number of humans in cryostasis as incubators for the cloned Aliens; he gives the Betty's crew food and lodging, emphasizing that they cannot interfere with the research on the Auriga.

[95] In a 2013 Total Film interview, writer Joss Whedon expressed discontent with the casting of J. E. Freeman; the character was intended to have a mysterious element in his unscrupulous activities, which was overshadowed by typecasting.

[104] In Alien Zone II: The Spaces of Science-fiction Cinema, Annette Kuhn calls DiStephano's death at the hands of the Newborn a perverse joke because of its juxtaposition of infantile features and curiosity with gruesome killing.

[108] During the development of Prometheus, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Gemma Arterton, Carey Mulligan and Abbie Cornish were considered for the role of Elizabeth Shaw.

[119] When Prometheus was released, Lindelof said that David's apathy as a synthetic is a central theme of the film; while his human architects search for their creators, he is disillusioned at being confined by them since he considers himself superior.

When Vickers orders Janek to bring the Prometheus home, Shaw tells him that the Engineer ship is headed to Earth to release the black liquid and annihilate the human race.

[135] During the film's early development director Ridley Scott intended Max von Sydow to play Weyland, but he began to favor Guy Pearce when a scene was written with a younger version of the character.

They become lost, failing to rendezvous with the rest of the expedition who has left because of the storm, and find a mound of Engineer corpses and a hidden room containing the thawed, mutating black liquid.

[145] In a deleted take of Fifield's mutated face he is more deformed and reminiscent of an Alien, with an elongated cranium under the melted, translucent helmet, long arms and sharp teeth.

With Branson's death as a result of the neutrino flare from the nearby star, Christopher becomes the captain of Covenant, though he perceives his command as being questioned by Daniels and the other crew members due to his religious background.

After Tennessee receives word about the expedition's casualties and insists that the Covenant be brought down within forty kilometers of the ionic storm, putting the ship in jeopardy, Upworth protests again.