20 Horror Movie Endings We Almost Got

17. The Xenomorph Kills Ripley - Alien

Alien Ripley
20th Century Fox

The Alien franchise would've been incredibly different if Ridley Scott's original ending actually went ahead. 

Though in the final movie protagonist Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) defeats the xenomorph and lives to fight another day, Scott's initial plan was basically the total opposite of that.

The first draft of the script had Ripley be killed by the xenomorph, before it imitated Dallas' (Tom Skerritt) voice to send out a distress call in the hope of luring in more victims.

Yeah, it goes without saying that this would've been absolutely terrible.

Not only would it have deprived the world of Aliens, which cemented Ripley as one of cinema's all-time great heroines, but the voice-mimic distress-call nonsense sounds wildly goofy and totally out of the step with the rest of the story.

Thankfully, this ending was tossed out during the drafting process and we ended up with the vastly superior finale where Ripley blasts the xenomorph into space and enters stasis with the Nostromo's pet cat Jones.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.