9 Incredibly Important Movie Characters Who Were Killed Off Screen

4. Newt, Hicks, & Bishop - Alien 3

Damn, what is it about the third movie in a franchise that brings out the necessity for offscreen death? And another James Cameron franchise, nonetheless!

On a cinematic level, the sudden, very undramatic deaths of Ripley's surrogate family - Marine leader Hicks, traumatized young girl Newt, and android Bishop - were probably necessary to move the story forward. After all, David Fincher's brutally dismal world as portrayed in Alien 3 wouldn't have allowed for a happy, ragtag family story.

Still, the impact of their loss was pretty much nullified by the fact that we don't even see their faces for a single frame. It's heartbreaking to see the news of their deaths delivered to Ripley, but it would've been ten times more powerful had they made it past the opening credits and we'd been allowed to witness their deaths firsthand.

It seems, we have more behind-the-scenes shenanigans to thank for this, since the production of Alien 3 was pretty much a clusterf--k from start to finish, with multiple scripts being mashed together at the last second. Ultimately, these three characters, who were all vital to the story in Aliens, were chopped out of the film to make it easier on everyone involved.