Lt. Ellen Ripley

Ripley

Lt. Ellen Ripley is the main character of the Alien saga. But, the alien-human DNA exhange changed Ripley in the fourth movie, so Ellen Ripley's story is only told in the first, three movies.
We don't get to know who Ripley was before the events on the starship 'Nostromo', but some is told in 'Aliens - the special edition'. Ellen Ripley was married to whatwhathisnameagainillfinditoutjustwait and they had a 12 year old daughter, idontremeberhernameeither. She had a military rank of lieutenant and was employed by 'the company' - Weyland Yutami.
First we meet Ellen Ripley in 'Alien' where she is third in command on the starship 'Nostromo'. 'Nostromo' is carrying tons of mineral ore form a off-Earth colony in a different star stystem to Earth. The crew of the 'Nostromo' is in cryostasis when they are awakened by the main computer, 'Mother' who tells them that a unknown message has been picked up. The crew goes down on the planet the signal came from. Three of the crew walks to a space ship - Cpt. Dallas, second-in-command Kane and navigator Lambert. Kane gets a parasite in the face - a facehugger. Ripley, who is back on their ship and now in command, is "by-the-book"-minded and refuses the three explorers on board again, quoting the quarantene regulations. She is furious when Ash decides to ignore her command and wrongly lets the three on board. When she later confronts him, she ain´t getting anywhere - Ash, and to some degree, the other crewmembers, woun´t recognice her as a leader.
Later the alien embyro develops into a burster, kills Kane, runns off and gets real big and ugly. The alien starts to kill everyone, except Ripley, who, with a combination of skill and luck survives. When she escapes in a lifepod, the alien is with her. She awakens it and opens the door to suck the monster out. When it hangs on in the doorway, she shoots it. The Alien dies.

Ripley is human, though. In 'Aliens' she breaks down when she gets to know that her daughter is dead, she is plagued by terrifying nightmares and she is furious because 'the company' woun't let her fly again because she blew up the 'Nostromo'.

When she is appoached by Burke and Gorman, who want to take her with them to Archeron, she refuses at first. She doesn´t want to help the company who ruined her life. No Way! But she changes her mind when she realizes that she will have nightmares the rest of her life if she doesn´t face her fears and decides to go with the marines. Ripley is now worn down by bad sleep, a shitty job and the fact that she has lost everyone she cared for.
But down on the planet, she is revitalized. She finds a young girl, Newt, that reminds her of her daughter. Newt is alone (as Ripley), scared (as Ripley) and a survivor (as Ripley). So Ripley finally gets someone to care for once more. She also develops feelings for one of the marines and manages to befriend the artificial person, Bishop. Toghether they survives the horrors of Archeron and the future looks bright for all of them.

Just because of this, it is hard for Ripley to wake up in the third movie and find Newt, Hicks and Bishop dead. The shock and grieve turns into rage when Ripley finds out that not only is there an adult alien running around on this new place too, but that she also has an alien queen embyro in her chest. She is filled with despair, hopelessness and sorrow for herself and the others she has lost. When she finds out that she carries an alien embyro in her, she just wants to die. But even if she has all this despair, the fear is mostly gone. Ripley has become a warrior who ain´t afraid of aliens, death nor human beings. Together with the inmates of the prison, Ripley manages to destroy the adult alien. When representants from the 'Company' comes to Fury to catch the alien and remove the alien embyro from Ripley's chest, she commits suicide because she suspected that they wanted it for their weapons department and Ripley woun´t let that happen.