Ridley Scott has today revealed that the ending of his sci-fi classic Alien had an alternate conclusion- featuring a much more gruesome end for series protagonist Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver.
During an interview to promote the release of Alien: Covenant on 19th May this year, Scott revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Ripley’s original outcome in the first film was not the triumphant defeat of the Xenomorphs before bedding down into hypersleep with her feline companion Jones. Instead, Weaver’s heroine would have met a much more gruesome and violent end.
Scott admitted, ‘I thought that the alien should come in, and Ripley harpoons it and it makes no difference, so it slams through her mask and rips her head off.’ He continued to add that the alien would then press the various buttons on the control panel, and ‘It would mimic Captain Dallas [Skerritt] saying, “I’m signing off.”‘
Thankfully, the executives at 20th Century Fox saw sense when Scott pitched his idea, with the director comically noting, ‘The first executive from Fox arrived on set within 14 hours, threatening to fire me on the spot.’ Thankfully, they didn’t go with this ending, Weaver continued to reprise her role as Ellen Ripley three more times and the Alien franchise became legendary in the film canon of sci-fi horror.
Alien: Covenant is released on 19th May 2017 in cinemas worldwide. Check out the latest trailer below:
