10 Craziest Ways Horror Movie Characters Have Returned From The Dead

5. Alien Resurrection - Cloned

The Lazarus Effect
20th Century Fox

How do you bring back your long-dead franchise hero for a sequel set 200 years after her demise? Why, you take the cloning route. And that is exactly how the Alien franchise got around Ellen Ripley's death in Alien 3.

By the time the Alien series was revisited five years down the line in 1997's Alien Resurrection, FOX executives had quite the conundrum on their hands after killing off Sigourney Weaver's Ripley during the close of David Fincher's 1992 threequel.

The 2379-set Alien Resurrection explained how Ripley had actually been cloned by scientists on the USM Auriga. This 'Ripley 8' was also spliced with the DNA of the Alien Queen in order to essentially become impregnated with a Xenomorph.

All of this sounds a tad nuts, right? So nuts that it came as no surprise that Alien Resurrection resulted in the franchise eventually being spun towards the Alien vs. Predator concept that produced two extremely questionable, head-scratching films.

Since then, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant have both garnered a hugely mixed response from fans and critics alike, and some trace the broader franchise's problems back to Alien Resurrection's desperate decision to serve up a Ripley clone.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.