10 Horror Movies That Scrapped INSANE Kills
9. The Xenomorph Rips Ripley's Head Off - Alien
When Ridley Scott was assembling his seminal sci-fi masterpiece Alien, the filmmaker had a daring idea for how to end the picture - one that ultimately didn't go over well with the bigwigs at Fox.
Scott planned to conclude the movie with protagonist Ellen Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) death at the hands of the Xenomorph, and by the sounds of it it would've been the most brutal death in the entire film.
During a 2017 interview with EW, Scott outlined his original idea for Ripley's fateful final clash with the Xenomorph:
"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."
Scott added that he would then cut to the Xenomorph pressing buttons on the escape shuttle's dashboard, before it mimics the voice of the deceased Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) and speaks the message, "I'm signing off."
Given the jolting ultra-violence of the ending and potential goofiness of the alien imitating Dallas' voice, it's not remotely surprising that Fox execs weren't thrilled about it. Scott added:
"I'm pitching this to the studio from Shepperton and I could feel the tension over the phone... The first executive arrived within 14 hours, from Fox, threatening to fire me on the spot, so we didn't do that."
Given that Ripley went on to become perhaps the most iconic heroine in all of sci-fi cinema, it was most definitely the right call. Ripley earned her survival, and killing her off at the end would've felt like a cheap shock for no sake but its own.