Ripley’s story in Aliens leaves one crucial scene in her story unrevealed. Following Ridley Scott's 1979 hit Alien, James Cameron stepped into the director’s chair for its 1986 sequel, Aliens. In Aliens, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and a platoon of space marines venture to the human colony LV-426 after communication with the planet’s colonists is severed. As Ripley fears, xenomorphs have completely overrun the colony, with only a young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn) having survived.
Aliens is frequently heralded as one of the best sequels ever made, and the movie itself also makes a very organic tone shift from Aliens Was Nearly Much Darker (& Would’ve Ruined Ripley)
Ripley Was in Space For 57 Years (But This Is Revealed In A Dream)
When Ripley’s escape pod from Alien is discovered in the opening minutes of Aliens, Ripley is eager to return home to her daughter, Rebecca, and move on with her life. Unfortunately, Ripley learns that she was floating through space for an astonishing 57 years before being found. Ripley also later learns that her daughter ed away two years before she was discovered, but while this confirms the film's timeline of events, it still is not explained how this was revealed to Ripley.
The scene where the antagonist of Aliens, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) tells Ripley that she drifted aimlessly for 57 years also shows a chestburster just about to tear through Ripley’s torso before Ripley awakens from the nightmare. Because the two events take place in the same scene, it makes it clear that this is not how Ripley actually learned that she had been comatose in the void of space for 57 years. While it serves the purpose of establishing Ripley’s PTSD from her previous xenomorph encounter in Alien, it also leaves a very crucial scene on the cutting room floor.
Aliens Never Shows How Ripley Really Learned The Truth
Ripley's awakening to learn that over half a century has ed since escaping the Nostromo is a shocking reveal, especially when she learns that her daughter died while she was away. While this in itself is truly heartbreaking news for Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in Aliens, the time gap since Alien is equally shocking for her and a lot to deal with on its own. Ultimately, Aliens has a sizable gap in its story, with the real moment of the news being broken to Ripley surrounding her 57-year stasis happening off-screen.
Considering how much Burke acts as a confidante of Ripley early on in Aliens (before showing his true colors later in the movie), it is possible that the news was revealed to her more or less the same as it was in her nightmare, minus the chestburster part of it. It would certainly be plausible for Ripley to relive this reveal in her chestburster nightmare. That said, for as much of a classic as Aliens is (to the point of the Alien franchise struggling to beat it), how Ripley actually learned that she had been in a 57-year cryogenic sleep will forever remain a mystery.
