10 Leading Film Characters That Didn’t Really Go Anywhere
2. Call - Alien: Resurrection (1997)
In Sigourney Weaver’s last (to date) Alien film, Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) is an android with very human instincts who tries to kill Ripley 8 (Weaver). Ripley 8 easily overpowers the android and later escapes, becoming the sole hope for Call and the remaining survivors aboard the USM Auriga when the Xenomorphs inevitably escape and wreak havoc.
The film unsuccessfully attempts to link Call to Newt (Carrie Henn) from Aliens (1986) as well as to Bishop (Lance Henriksen) from that film and Alien³ (1992). However, Winona Ryder sadly does not excel in either role; her performance is too emotional to rival those of either Henriksen or of Sir Ian Holm’s Ash in Alien (1979), and she does not come close to recalling Henn’s charismatic (and much-missed) Newt.
Call only really sides with Ripley 8 because all of the other survivors do. Ripley then does all of the hard work convincing her - both through intimidation and kindness - that she is more than just some genetic experiment: she has the right to call herself Ellen Ripley. The effect is that Sigourney Weaver steals all of the poignant moments between the characters, making Ryder little more than a bystander.
Whilst Ripley 8 and Call survive their ordeal aboard the doomed USM Auriga, the film’s happy ending is far less successful or memorable than that featured in James Cameron’s earlier Alien sequel.