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   Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 02:20:29 JST Lauren Weinstein

   Director Ridley Scott has said that his original planned ending for 1979's "Alien" was not for Ripley to succeed in killing the alien and going into suspension, but for the alien to actually rip her head off. This reportedly infuriated studio execs to such an extent that they threatened to remove him from the project if he proceeded in that direction. So Ripley (and her cat) got to survive to fight the xenomorphs another day. Probably a wise decision for the sake of sequels at least.

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     Martha Howell (mhowell@mas.to)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 03:11:22 JST Martha Howell

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     @lauren
     I saw that movie at a preview in Chicago. The theater was full, and no one had any idea what was coming. It remains the most engaged audience of any screening I have ever attended. During the "startle" scenes, you couldn't even hear anything over the screaming.

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     Mr. Completely (mrcompletely@heads.social)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 03:11:25 JST Mr. Completely

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     @lauren there's nothing wrong with a horror movie where everyone dies, but I'm glad it went the other way specifically because Ripley has become such an iconic hero. She is in the pantheon of all time great SF characters and especially one of the toughest, coolest action-hero women in screen history, something we still could use more of.

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     Mr. Completely (mrcompletely@heads.social)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 03:11:28 JST Mr. Completely

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     @lauren certainly true. When I think about it, the iconic impact of that character is almost all in the first two films. The first more than the second, but the second one has the amazing loader vs mama alien fight. So I think the way the series trails off has been harmless in terms of Ripley at least

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     Lauren Weinstein (lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org)'s status on Sunday, 31-Dec-2023 03:11:30 JST Lauren Weinstein

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     • Mr. Completely

     @mrcompletely She got a bit weird toward the latter part of the franchise, but under the circumstances that's understandable.