11 Heroic Acts In Movies That Changed Absolutely Nothing

1. Ripley - Alien 3

Alien 3
20th Century Fox

There's something about throwing yourself into a fiery lake of doom that makes for an iconic image: Arnie's T-800 knew it, Gollum knew it, and the female bad-!*$% to end all female bad-asses - Ellen Ripley - also knew it.

By the end of Alien 3, Ripley was a shadow of her former self, haunted by the needless deaths of her little space family when her fellow survivors are mercilessly killed off off-screen, and probably unable to ever have a pleasant nights sleep having developed serious, irreversible PTSD, so when she learns she's carrying a xenomorph embryo and has a chance to be killed, as long as she helps Dillon and his crew to kill the other adult creature, she was probably more than happy.

Ultimately, Ripley ends up having to kill herself and the embryo to make sure that the alien can't grow up and be used as a biological weapon, and everyone lives happily ever after. Until the sequel, when Ripley is roused from her peace, along with the alien, and has to contend with idiots who want to use the xenomorph for study, because they have no idea about anything.

Which other heroic acts in movies ended up meaning nothing?

Did you enjoy this article? Share your appreciation in the comments thread below, and why not check out our run-down of the 10 Movie Heroes Who Actually Didn't Affect The Plot in their own movies.

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