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Alien, a science-fiction action horror franchise, tells the story of humanity's ongoing encounters with Aliens (xenomorphs): a hostile, endoparasitoid, extraterrestrial species. Set between the 21st and 24th centuries over several generations, the film series revolves around a character ensemble's struggle for survival against the Aliens and against the greedy, unscrupulous megacorporation Weyland-Yutani. The original series consists of four films, Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997), and revolves around Ellen Ripley's fight against the xenomorphs (aliens). Ripley is the sole survivor of a xenomorph rampage on the space freighter Nostromo, which leads her to a series of conflicts with the species and Weyland-Yutani. Ripley's struggle is the plot of the original series. The prequel series, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), depicts humanity's genesis at the hands of an ancient extraterrestrial race known as the Engineers and the indirect creators of the xenomorphs. A deadly mutagen developed by the Engineers is discovered, which is weaponized by the android David 8, to recreate and perfect the previously long-extinct xenomorph strain. The evolution of the xenomorphs is the main plot of the prequel series. Overview Introduced in Alien (1979) Arthur Dallas Arthur Koblenz Dallas (Tom Skerritt) is the captain of the Nostromo and the only human crew member with access to Mother, the onboard computer. When he receives a distress signal from the Derelict, an Engineer ship, Dallas steers the Nostromo off course to investigate the beacon. 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. He is attacked by the Alien and disappears – presumed dead – leaving only his flamethrower. When Skerritt first read the screenplay for Alien, he declined the project, unimpressed with its writing quality and budget. After the screenplay was edited and the budget enlarged, Skerritt was approached again and signed on. 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. The role had also been offered to Harrison Ford. In a deleted scene, Ellen Ripley detours while escaping from the Nostromo and finds Dallas alive in the Alien nest; she kills Dallas and destroys the nest with a flamethrower in an act of mercy (the only question left was, was Dallas being turned into an egg, too, like Brett, or was he immobilised so-as to serve as a host, like Kane?). According to Skerritt, the scene was cut because its quality was below par and it disrupted the pace of Ripley's escape; it was included in the 2003 director's cut. Ellen Ripley Ellen Louise Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the primary protagonist of the main Alien series. The mother of Amanda Ripley and a warrant officer on the Nostromo, she and the cat Jones are the sole survivors of the expedition. After putting herself and the cat in cryosleep, she is rescued fifty-seven years later and relieved of duty by Weyland-Yutani for the destruction of the Nostromo and her outlandish claims about the Alien. After communication is lost with LV-426, Ripley is sent with a unit of colonial marines on the Sulaco to investigate; the entire expedition, except Ripley, Corporal Hicks, the orphan Newt and the android Bishop, is lost. In cryosleep on the Sulaco, Ripley is impregnated with a queen by a facehugger Alien morph; this triggers a fire, which causes the ship to crash on the prison planet Fiorina 161, killing all aboard, save for Ripley. As the sole human survivor of the crash, Ripley helps the prisoners incarcerated on the planet to defeat an Alien created from an animal impregnated by a second facehugger. Weyland-Yutani arrives to claim the queen incubating in Ripley, prompting her to sacrifice herself by diving into the furnace. Like the rest of the original ensemble, Ripley was written as a male character in the first draft of the screenplay. Writer Dan O'Bannon noted that the genders of the characters were interchangeable, providing more casting options. When Ridley Scott was brought on to direct Alien, he requested that the character be female, in juxtaposition with the Alien and to make her survival surprising. Broadway actress Sigourney Weaver was considered for the role of Lambert when Scott encouraged her to play Ripley. With the 1986 release of Aliens, Ripley became one of the most critically praised and influential female characters in film. 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. In 2008, the American Film Institute recognized Ripley in "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains" as the second-greatest female protagonist (behind Clarice Starling) and the eighth-greatest protagonist overall. Joan Lambert Joan Marie Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) is the navigator of the Nostromo and the only other woman on the ship besides Ripley. Disinclined to take risks beyond her console, she resents being chosen as part of the team to explore the Derelict. After Kane's infestation by the facehugger, she berates Ripley for refusing to allow her and the rest of the team aboard. When the Alien begins to kill her crew, Lambert insists that they evacuate the Nostromo. While preparing to leave on a shuttle, Lambert and Parker are confronted by the Alien which kills them. During Ripley's ICC tribunal, fifty-seven years after the first incident, a screen details the deceased members of the Nostromo crew. In the original draft of Alien, Lambert provided comic relief; this attracted Sigourney Weaver, before the screenplay was edited to make her stern and humorless. Veronica Cartwright then expressed an interest in playing Ripley, auditioning for the role and meeting with director Ridley Scott. She was informed that she had "the part", which she and her agent interpreted as the Ripley role; instead, it was Lambert. Cartwright was initially resistant, since she disliked Lambert's serious demeanor, but accepted after talking with the film's producers about Lambert's being a point-of-view character for the audience. She won the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. Samuel Brett Samuel Elias Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) is an engineering technician on the Nostromo and a good friend of his engineering chief, Parker. He persistently angles for the increased-pay and bonus awards he feels are due him. While the crew searches for the Alien, Brett tries to retrieve the cat Jones; he encounters the mature Alien, which kills him and drags him into an air duct. When Harry Dean Stanton auditioned for Brett, he told Ridley Scott he was not a fan of science-fiction or horror films; Scott replied that.... Discover the Logan Henn popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Logan Henn books.