10 Iconic Horror Movie Characters Done Dirty

6. Newt & Dwayne Hicks

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Chop-Top Bill Moseley
20th Century Fox

Taking the chilling sci-fi horror of its predecessor, and dumping in a healthy dose of action, James Cameron's Aliens is viewed as one of the all-time great sequels. So much so, some would actually class Aliens as being even better than Ridley Scott's Alien.

As part of Cameron's movie, two great characters introduced were traumatised young orphan Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden and badass Colonial Marine, Corporal Dwayne Hicks. With Aliens revealing that Ellen Ripley had been in stasis for so long that her daughter Amanda was now dead, the addition of Newt in particular worked so well in how it spotlighted Ripley as a mother; Ellen becoming the protector of the girl.

By the time Aliens comes to a close, Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and the battered remnants of android Bishop set a course for Earth, with hypersleep the order of the day as the end credits roll. Not only did the much-maligned Alien 3 go back on that promise to take the franchise to Earth, it ridiculously, lazily killed both Newt and Hicks off-screen as part of an opening sequence where our survivors crash-landed on the Fury 161 foundry.

Despite's Neill Blomkamp intention to bring Hicks back for his scrapped Alien 5, and the adult Newt being shown as a Predator Killer in a deleted scene from 2018's The Predator, the lasting legacy of both characters is forever tarnished by that awful Alien 3 opening sequence.

 
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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.