Summary
- Hudson – Aliens: Hudson’s sudden and brutal death showcases the willingness of James Cameron to kill off beloved characters, adding to the stakes and emotional impact of the film.
- The Engineer – Prometheus: The death of the Engineer at the hands of the Deacon alien highlights the introduction of new lore and the creation of a deadly prototype for the Xenomorph.
- The Newborn – Alien: Resurrection: The Newborn’s shocking death, sucked into space through a small hole, demonstrates the unpredictable and merciless nature of the Alien franchise.
The Alien franchise is known for some of the most shocking deaths in modern cinema, with each film contributing to a body count often more brutal and violent than the last. While Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi opus Alien chooses to be relatively economic with its death scenes, often choosing ambiance and suspense over graphic destruction, it plants the seeds of savagery for every installment afterward, with subtle differences between the Alien theatrical release and director’s cut. James Cameron’s Aliens increases the action and therefore the kill count, but the most shocking deaths are the result of fans’ strong connections to characters that would be ciphers in a less intentional blockbuster.
David Fincher’s moody Alien 3 and French director Jean-Piercce Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection leaned into body horror and existential dread for their deaths, while Scott’s return to the helm of the franchise with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant proved that even the creator can still have fun with the toys in their cosmic sandbox even decades later thanks to the introduction of new lore and dynamic characters. Each shocking death in the six Alien movies was the direct result of high stakes, meaningful character development, innovative violence, and a sense that, like the Xenomorph lurking around every corner, mortality was ephemeral and unknowable.
10 Hudson – Aliens
Dragged Down Through The Floor By Xenomorphs
Hudson is a fan-favorite character in Aliens who, because he’s highly paranoid and constantly on alert, seems like the sort of person who might make it out of the hive established on LV-426 alive. Unfortunately, after fans get to know and love the frantic space marine for his goofy sense of humor and charisma, he’s killed suddenly and brutally as he’s pulled down through the grates of the floor where Ripley, Hicks, and Newt have been barricading themselves. In his final moments, Hudson proves his bravery and his selflessness, and James Cameron proves that he’s willing to kill his darlings.
9 The Engineer – Prometheus
Attacked By A Trilobite In The Medical Bay
Ridley Scott changed the Alien franchise forever in Prometheus when he introduced the Engineers, the giant space-faring architects who seeded backwater planets with the microbes necessary to start sentient life. One of these Engineers gets attacked by a creature called a Trilobite, which resembles a cosmic Kraken, and is eventually impregnated with the organism that will lead to its demise. What kills the Engineer is the birth of the Deacon alien, which, while unintentionally adorable looking, is a lethal killing machine that acts as a prototype for the iconic Xenomorph that has become the face of the Alien films.
8 The Newborn – Alien: Resurrection
Sucked Out Through A Small Hole Into Space
Alien: Resurrection, the fourth film in the franchise, featured many shocking deaths involving human characters of varying moral fortitude, but one of the most surprising involved one of the most bizarre antagonists of the films. After heavily experimenting with Ripley’s cloned DNA and combining it with Xenomorph DNA scientists were able to create a life form unlike any other – a hybrid alien known as “The Newborn.” Not only is it incredibly protective of Ripley and views her as its mother, she appears to reciprocate its feelings, right up until the moment she watches as it’s sucked into space through an opening the size of a quarter, bones, flesh, and all.
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7 Ben Ledward – Alien: Covenant
Chest Burster Through The Back In The Medical Bay
In the sequel to Prometheus, Ben Ledward is part of the expeditionary team exploring Planet 4 in Alien: Covenant. Ledward accidentally steps on a strange fungal specimen, releasing dangerous spores into the atmosphere and becoming infected. The sentient particles enter his body through his ear canal, eventually implanting an organism inside him similar to the victims of the first film. While the method of impregnation isn’t particularly strange to fans familiar with the gestation cycles in the Alien films, when the organism bursts out of Ledward it doesn’t emerge from the front like a typical chest burster but bursts through his back, ripping apart his spinal column in the process.
6 Elizabeth Shaw – Alien: Covenant
The Victim Of David’s Experiments On Planet 4
Elizabeth Shaw was the Final Girl in Prometheus when she escaped with David from LV-426. When they landed on Planet 4, she presumably helped him repair himself, and he continued to experiment with Xenomorph raw material, and their camaraderie eventually broke down. David preyed on his human companion in perverse ways, and while her mutilated body is only shown sparingly, it’s clear that David did a number of things to violate her physically on his way to creating the “perfect organism,” and when she could no longer fit into his grand design and of no further use to him, she was carelessly eliminated, revealing the callousness of David’s character.
5 Ash – Alien
Decapitated By The Nostromo Crew
An introverted science officer aboard the Nostromo, Ash never fits in with the rest of the crew, and when he eventually prioritizes the Xenomorph organism over their lives, it’s clear that he has very little in the way of humanity. Fans could hardly have predicted he was actually not human at all but an android who, when threatened, had no problem trying to murder Ripley. Ash is eventually ripped apart and left for dead in a puddle of his own white lubricant, but before he’s shut down for good, he gives Ripley some valuable information to help her survive, and dies a cautionary tale for future androids in the franchise.
4 Bishop – Aliens
Stabbed Through The Chest By The Queen
After her experience with Ash in Alien, Ripley is incredibly suspicious of Bishop in Aliens, the android assigned to the space marine task force landing on LV-426 investigating missing colonists. He repeatedly risks his life to save the humans in his charge, impressing Ripley with his bravery, and the pair are part of one of the most significant character arcs in the film. No sooner has he gained her trust and respect than he’s impaled through the back and ripped apart by the hive Queen, and while his isn’t exactly a “death” in that scene, Bishop is never fully repaired, and eventually has to be destroyed in Alien 3.
3 Ripley – Alien 3
Lept Into A Fiery Pit At The Prison Colony
In Alien 3, Ripley finds herself on a planet known for its maximum security penal colony, but she finds the dangerous inmates preferable company to the Xenomorphs she’s been battling for two films. Unfortunately, the most lethal killers in the galaxy infest the main prison facility after emerging from the chests of both Corporal Hicks and Newt. When she finds a Queen growing in her own chest, courtesy of an egg placed aboard her escape pod, she decides to sacrifice herself in a stunning display of heroism and badassery rather than let Weyland-Yutani take it, though the gravity of losing the franchise’s heroine cannot be understated.
2 Hicks & Newt – Alien 3
Killed Off Screen By A Chest Burster
In an unusual turn of events, and unlikely chosen family survives Aliens – Corporal Hicks, Ripley, and the orphan Newt, and after successfully being tucked in for cryosleep, they believe they’ll be in stasis until they’re rescued. The Xenomorph nightmare is far from over, however, and when the pod is found with its life preservation systems having malfunctioned, Hicks and Newt are unceremoniously killed off-screen. Characters who fans not only grew to love but believed would continue in Ripley’s next installment weren’t given the decency that their narratives deserved, with real-life reasons pointing to script revisions, producer meddling, and budget cuts for the two actors.
1 Kane – Alien
Chest Burster At Dinner With The Nostromo Crew
The most shocking death in the Alien franchise also happens to be one of the most disturbing and unexpected in cinematic history. After Kane is part of the landing party on LV-426 in the first Alien film he succumbs to one of the face-huggers’ attacks, and even though the organism eventually falls off his face of its own accord, he’s unknowingly impregnated with a chest-burster. When the crew share a celebratory dinner filled with laughter and relief, Kane starts coughing violently, and the vile creature lurking beneath his ribs breaks free in ferocious symbolism highlighting the folly of humankind to tame the unknown.
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