11 Powerful Movie Deaths Devalued By The Sequels
2. Ellen Ripley - Alien Resurrection (1997)
Of all the entries on this list, this example of a devalued movie death is not so much egregious as it is just... sad.
Say what you want about the film itself (I like it, personally), but the death of the series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, in 1992's Alien 3 is easily its most poignant and memorable moment. On the verge of birthing an Alien Queen, Ripley makes the ultimate sacrifice, jumping willingly into a red hot furnace and ending her own life.
That doesn't stop the Weyland-Yutani corporation, however, and, in order to obtain this queen's foetus, they make several clones of Ripley. Seven hideously unsuccessful attempts later, Ripley 8 is born, identical outwardly to the real Ellen Ripley but possessing alien qualities too, such as corrosive blood.
On one hand, the cloning of Ripley really shows the brutality and sociopathy of Weyland-Yutani, and the lengths to which they are prepared to go to get what they want. But on the other hand, in seeing the mashed-up, homuncular failed clones begging for death, one has to wonder why Ripley 8 isn't doing the same.
If Fox wanted another Alien film so badly, couldn't they have just created a different protagonist instead of contriving a truly grotesque way of bringing the old one back? As history shows, apparently not.