10 More Movies That Cleverly START With Huge Twists
7. Aliens
Ridley Scott's original Alien ends with the Nostromo's sole human survivor, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), entering stasis in an escape pod with the ship's cat, Jones, for the trip back to Earth.
If this led many to assume that James Cameron's sequel Aliens would likely pick up on Earth, that's not quite what happens. Aliens instead opens with Ripley being rescued in space by a salvage crew, at which point both she and the audience are informed that she's been stuck in hypersleep considerably longer than expected.
As it turns out, Ripley spent 57 years drifting through the core systems before the crew stumbled upon her, and because that's not enough of a shock to her, she's then informed that her "young" daughter Amanda died two years prior, aged 66.
It's a brutal, immediately compelling start to the movie, and though the news of her daughter's death was bafflingly cut from Aliens' theatrical release, it's so joltingly vital in informing her character arc throughout - namely her maternal bond with young survivor Newt (Carrie Henn).