The Alien

You Know It As:

The unstoppable extraterrestrial killing machine from Ridley Scott's Alien franchise and one of the most iconic movie monsters of the modern age. Also, a space rapist.


But You Almost Knew It As:

The unstoppable extraterrestrial killing machine from Ridley Scott's Alien and one of the most iconic movie monsters of the modern age ... that can freaking talk.


This rumor has persisted on the Internet for some time now and goes back to an alleged Ridley Scott quote where the director discusses his early idea for the first movie's ending. In the version you know, the story ends with the alien creature dead and Ripley putting herself in stasis (and in tiny panties). The original plan, however, was for the alien to bite off Ripley's head, sit in her chair, and record a final entry in the ship's log, imitating Ripley's voice. Then, we assume, lie back as scary music plays and the camera slowly pans to the alien's growing smile right before the end credits roll.


Some of you may think that would be just an awesome ending, and some of you probably feel like that would be the most unintentionally hilarious climax outside of Darth Vader's "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" at the end of Revenge of the Sith. All we can say is that it's kind of hard to imagine what the subsequent films would have looked like with talking xenomorphs. (If you're not sure what we mean, picture the first huge action scene in Alien, only instead of the aliens creeping silently out of the walls, imagine them talking shit the whole time. With, let's say, thick Wisconsin accents.)

The producers purportedly rejected the ending, not so much because of the talking alien but because they wanted Ripley to survive and take out the alien for the happy ending (and leaving the door open for sequels).

It's too bad Ridley Scott has dropped plans for an Alien prequel/reboot (it will be an original sci-fi film instead). Maybe he was intending to go back to his original vision.