List of Alien characters

This article lists characters and actors in the Alien series of science fiction films. The series spans six films, including the main series films Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997) as well as the prequel films Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). The only recurring actress in all four main series films is Sigourney Weaver, who portrays the series' central character Ellen Ripley.

The film series was subsequently crossed-over with the Predator films with the releases of Alien vs. Predator (2004) and its sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). The only characters to have appeared in more than only one movie are Ripley and Bishop, portrayed in Aliens and Alien 3 by Lance Henriksen, who also played a character named Charles Bishop Weyland (in homage to the original Bishop) in Alien vs Predator. Additionally, Michael Fassbender, who portrayed David in Prometheus, reprise the role in its upcoming sequel, Covenant.

Summary

List indicator(s)

• This table shows the recurring characters and the actors who have portrayed them throughout the franchise.
• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the season, or that the character's presence in the season has not yet been announced.
• A ^C indicates a cameo appearance.
• A ^P indicates an appearance in onscreen photographs only.
• A ^D indicates an appearance in deleted scenes only.
• A ^V indicates a voice only role.
• A ^M indicates a motion-capture only role.

Character (in order of billing)	Films						Video games
	Alien (1979)	Aliens (1986)	Alien ^3 (1992)	Alien: Resurrection (1997)	Prometheus (2012)	Alien: Covenant (2017)	Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)	Alien: Isolation (2014)
Arthur Dallas	Tom Skerritt	Tom Skerritt^P						Tom Skerritt
Ellen Louise Ripley Ripley Clone 8	Sigourney Weaver						Sigourney Weaver^C	Sigourney Weaver
Joan Lambert	Veronica Cartwright	Veronica Cartwright^P						Veronica Cartwright
Samuel Brett	Harry Dean Stanton	Harry Dean Stanton^P						Harry Dean Stanton
Gilbert Kane	John Hurt	John Hurt^P						Mentioned
Ash	Ian Holm	Ian Holm^P						Ian Holm Dave B. Mitchell^V
Dennis Parker	Yaphet Kotto	Yaphet Kotto^P						Yaphet Kotto
Aliens	Bolaji Badejo	Carl Toop	Tom Woodruff, Jr.			To be announced	Appeared
Jones	Various animal performers						Appeared^C
Engineers	Appeared				Ian Whyte John Lebar Daniel James			Appeared
Corporal Dwayne Hicks		Michael Biehn	Michael Biehn^P				Michael Biehn
Carter J. Burke		Paul Reiser					Mentioned
Bishop Michael Bishop/"Bishop II"		Lance Henriksen					Lance Henriksen
Rebecca "Newt" Jorden		Carrie Henn	Danielle Edmond				Appeared
Private William Hudson		Bill Paxton					Andrew Bowen
Lieutenant Scott Gorman		William Hope
Private Vasquez		Jenette Goldstein
Sergeant Apone		Al Matthews					Al Matthews
Amanda "Amy" Ripley		Elizabeth Inglis^C ^P ^D						Andrea Deck^V Kezia Burrows^ML
Dillon			Charles S. Dutton
Jonathan Clemens			Charles Dance
Harold Andrews			Brian Glover
Aaron			Ralph Brown
Golic			Paul McGann
Morse			Danny Webb
Annalee Call				Winona Ryder
Frank Elgyn				Michael Wincott
General Martin Perez				Dan Hedaya
Dr. Mason Wren				J. E. Freeman
Dr. Jonathan Gediman				Brad Dourif
Vincent Distephano				Raymond Cruz
Sabra Hillard				Kim Flowers
Christie				Gary Dourdan
Johner				Ron Perlman
John Vriess				Dominique Pinon
Larry Purvis				Leland Orser
Elizabeth Shaw					Noomi Rapace
David 8					Michael Fassbender
Meredith Vickers					Charlize Theron
Janek					Idris Elba
Peter Weyland					Guy Pearce
Charlie Holloway					Logan Marshall-Green
Daniels						Katherine Waterston

Introduced in Alien (1979)

Arthur Dallas

Arthur Koblenz Dallas^[1] (portrayed by Tom Skerritt) is the captain of the Nostromo and the only human crew member with access to MOTHER, the on-board computer. Upon receiving the distress signal from the Engineer ship, the Derelict, Dallas follows the protocol of detouring the Nostromo away from its course, in order to investigate the beacon. After the Alien has hatched from Gilbert Kane's chest and murdered Samuel Brett, Dallas opts to enter the ship's air ducts, to lure it to the airlock and eject it into space. He is subsequently attacked by the Alien and disappears, leaving only behind his flamethrower.

When Tom Skerritt first read the screenplay for Alien, he declined to be involved, as he was unimpressed with the writing quality and the low budget. After the screenplay was edited and the budget enhanced, Skerritt was approached again, which prompted him to sign on. Halfway through production, he approached the writer and executive producer Ronald Shusett, asking if he could trade his salary for half a percentage point of royalties.^[2] One prominent scene cut from the film features Ellen Ripley detouring from her escape from the Nostromo, to discover Dallas alive in the Alien nest, which she destroys, as an act of mercy. Skerritt remarked that the scene was cut, largely because it was not up to par in quality and because it disrupted the pace of Ripley's escape. The scene was included in the 2003 director's cut.^[3]

Ellen Ripley

Ellen Louise Ripley^[1] (Sigourney Weaver) is the primary protagonist of the main series of the Alien franchise. The mother of Amanda Ripley serving as warrant officer aboard the Nostromo, she and the cat Jonesy are the sole survivors of the expedition. After putting herself and the cat in cryosleep, she is rescued fifty-seven years later and subsequently relieved of duty by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation for the destruction of the Nostromo and her outlandish claims about the Alien. After communication is lost with LV-426, Ripley is sent alongside a unit of Colonial Marines aboard the ship Sulaco to investigate, leading to the loss of the entire expedition, save for Ripley, Corporal Hicks, the orphan Newt and the android Bishop. While in cryosleep aboard the Sulaco, Ripley is impregnated with a Queen by a facehugger, which also triggers a fire, causing the ship to crash on Fiorina 161. As the lone survivor of the Sulaco, Ripley helps the prisoners incarcerated on the planet to fight and defeat the Alien. Weyland-Yutani arrives to claim the Queen incubated in Ripley, prompting her to sacrifice herself by diving into the furnace.

When Ridley Scott was brought on to direct the original Alien film, the character of Ripley was a male hero. Scott requested that the character be changed to a woman to create juxtaposition with the Alien and make her survival surprising. Sigourney Weaver, a Broadway actress, was in consideration for the role of Lambert when Scott pushed for her to take up the leading role of Ripley.^[4] With the 1986 release of Aliens, Ripley widely came to be recognized as one of the most critically praised and influential female characters in film. John Scalzi, president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, called in an AMC Networks column in 2011 that he viewed Ripley as being the best science fiction character of all time, for being dynamic and relatable.^[5] In 2008, the American Film Institute's recognized Ripley in "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains" as the second-greatest female protagonist, behind Clarice Starling, and eighth-greatest protagonist overall.^[6]

Joan Lambert

Joan Marie Lambert^[1] (Veronica Cartwright) is the navigator of the Nostromo and the only other woman on the ship besides Ripley. Disinclined to taking risks beyond the confines of her console, she resents being chosen as one of the team to explore the Derelict. Following Kane's infestation by the facehugger, she berates Ripley for her refusing to allow her and the rest of the team aboard. When the Alien begins to kill her crew mates, Lambert insists that they evacuate the Nostromo. While preparing to depart the Nostromo aboard a shuttle, Lambert and Parker are confronted by the Alien, which kills the two of them. During Ripley's ICC tribunal fifty-seven years after the first incident, a screen details the deceased members of the Nostromo crew, including Lambert, who is revealed to have been a male-to-female transsexual.^[1]

In the original draft of Alien, Lambert was a comic relief character, which attracted Sigourney Weaver to originally play the character, before the screenplay was edited to make her stern and humorless.^[4] After this point, Veronica Cartwright expressed interest in portraying Ripley; she auditioned for the part and met with director Ridley Scott. She was told she had "the part", which she and her agent interpreted as the Ripley role, but were corrected about it being for Lambert. Cartwright was initially resistant to taking up the part, as she did not like Lambert's serious demeanor, but after talking with the film's producers about Lambert representing a point-of-view character for the audience, she accepted.^[7] For Cartwright's performance of the character Lambert, she won the Saturn Award in 1980 for Best Supporting Actress^[8]

Samuel Brett

Samuel Elias Brett^[1] (Harry Dean Stanton) is an engineering technician on board the Nostromo and a good friend of his engineering chief, Parker. He persistently angles for the increased pay and bonus awards he feels are due. While the crew searches for the Alien, Brett attempts to retrieve the cat Jones, which inadvertently prompts him to encounter the fully matured Alien, which kills him and drags him into an air duct.

When Harry Dean Stanton first auditioned for the role of Brett, he forewarned director Ridley Scott that he was not a fan of science fiction or horror films, to which Scott responded by saying that he was not either, but he expected Alien to work well. According to Stanton, he was pleased with the film and claims it is one for which he is best recognized, alongside Pretty in Pink.^[9] Several scenes featuring Brett were deleted from the original cut, including Ripley and Parker witnessing his death, as well as his cocooned corpse being featured in the Aien's lair. Both these scenes were incorporated into the 2003 release of the director's cut. Writer Dan O'Bannon stated that this scene was meant to infer that Brett's body was becoming an Alien incubator.^[3]

Gilbert Kane

Gilbert Ward "Thomas" Kane^[1] (John Hurt) is the Executive Officer aboard the Nostromo. During the investigation of the Engineer ship, the Derelict, he incautiously moves to get a closer look at one of the eggs encountered, prompting a facehugger to attach itself to his face and, unbeknownst to him and to the crew, impregnates him with an Alien embryo. He remains unconscious while the creature is attached until it after it dies and falls off. During the dinner after, as Kane is enjoying dinner with his crew mates, he convulses and an infant Alien unexpectedly bursts through his chest, killing him.

Director Ridley Scott originally cast Jon Finch for the role of Kane, after John Hurt declined, due to a scheduling conflict. Partway through filming, Finch suffered a diabetic attack from not taking his insulin to counter his significant Coca-Cola intake on set. As a result, Scott once more reached out to John Hurt, who accepted and replaced Finch for the remainder of the shoot. The character Kane is most associated with the "chestbursting" scene. Prior to the single take of the scene, the actors were given minimal forewarning about the scene's details, with the screenplay only specifying that the "creature emerges". John Hurt was connected to a prosthetic body with the bursting Alien prop tucked away with meat and fake blood. When the scene was shot, the cast reacted dramatically, with Veronica Cartwright in particular being hit with fake blood in her mouth and falling backwards.^[10]

Ash

Ash (Ian Holm) is science officer aboard the Nostromo whose duties include administering medical treatment, conducting biological research and investigating any alien life forms the crew may encounter. Abruptly assigned to replace the Nostromo's previous medical officer for the return journey from Thedus to Earth, Ash is secretly an android tasked by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to ensure that the mysterious signal emanating from LV-426 is investigated. When Kane is infested by an Alien facehugger, Ash breaks quarantine protocol by allowing him to be brought on board. Ash assaults Ripley after the ship's computer, MOTHER, reveals that Ash's special orders to ensure the return of the Alien to Weyland-Yutani's laboratories, even at the expense of the crew. He is disabled by Parker, revealing his true identity as an android. Ash's mangled bodies is briefly powered back up by the crew, so that he can confirm his directive and assure them that they cannot defeat the Alien. His body is incinerated by Parker shortly after.

Ash was not present in the original screenplay written by the franchise's creators Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, but was conceptualized by David Giler and Walter Hill, after Brandywine Productions acquired it. Giler and Hill believed Alien required a secondary story element, though O'Bannon stated in the film's audio commentary that he viewed it as an unnecessary addition.^[11] Shusett, however, would go on to praise Giler and Hill's addition of the Ash story line in the 2003 documentary The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien, with him calling it "one of the best things in the movie".^[12] In the special edition DVD's audio commentary, director Ridley Scott interprets some of Ash's inhuman behavioral patterns, such as the character attempting to suffocate Ellen Ripley with a rolled up pornographic magazine, to Freudian sexual frustrations he experiences from not being anatomically correct.^[11] Critic Roz Kaveney analyzes the character of Ash in From Alien to The Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film, stating that she regards him as a menacing robot who exists before his creators would impose programming alluded to Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.^[13]

Dennis Parker

Dennis Monroe Parker^[1] (Yaphet Kotto) is the chief engineer aboard the Nostromo, with Brett as his assistant. Throughout his time aboard the vessel, he relentlessly demands bonuses for investigating the Derelict's distress beacon. Following Dallas' fateful confrontation with the Alien, Parker investigates, only finding the flamethrower left behind. When Ash attacks Ripley, he and Lambert save Ripley and incapacitate the android by decapitating it. After Ripley extracts the meaning of Ash's directive to allow the crew to die, in order to preserve the Alien, Parker uses the flamethrower to incinerate the remains. He and Lambert are killed by the Alien when it surprises them during their attempt to flee aboard the shuttle.

Yaphet Kotto was offered the role of Parker simultaneous with lucrative offers from two other productions. Though his agent advised against accepting the role in Alien, due to the remuneration not being stipulated, Kotto opted to accept the role.^[14] In order to enhance the on-screen tension between Parker and Ripley, director Ridley Scott privately instructed Kotto to antagonize Sigourney Weaver on-set.^[15]

Aliens

The extraterrestrial species commonly referred to as "Aliens", (technically known as "Xenomorphs"), are the primary, titular antagonists of the Alien franchise. Introduced in the first installment, Aliens are bred through the laying of eggs by a Queen, which produces a facehugger, which latches onto and impregnates its prey with an embryo, which in turn produces an Alien that takes on vague characteristics of its host and ejects itself from the rib cage, killing its host in the process. Described as "pure" by the android Ash, the Alien's entire motivation is to pursue the continued survival of its species, which commonly entails the elimination of creatures that may pose a threat, such as humans. While rudimentary in intelligence, the Aliens are extremely resilient, with few apparent methods to kill them.

As writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett brainstormed for the original film, they concluded that the most original way to approach the Alien would be to have it impregnate a male orally, as a metaphor for rape.^[16] O'Bannon suggested to director Ridley Scott that his collaborator from the failed Dune adaptation, Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger, be recruited for designing the Alien. Scott chose the sketch Necronom IV from Giger's Necronomicon as the basis for the Alien, due to the drawing's sexual ambiguity and phallic overtones.^[17] The "Deacon", a creature predating the Alien in the canonical timeline that shares several biological traits appears in the final scene of Prometheus, after it explodes from a deceased Engineer's chest, which was impregnated by a Trilobite, which in turn was conceived by Elizabeth Shaw having sexual intercourse with an infected Charlie Holloway. Designer Neal Scanlan explained in the book Prometheus: Art of the Film that the breed borrows physical traits from the various stages of the life cycle, such as the femininity from Shaw.^[18] A number of performers have played Aliens throughout the series, including Bolaji Bodejo in Alien,^[19] Carl Toop in Aliens,^[20] and Tom Woodruff, Jr. in Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, as well as the Alien vs. Predator franchise.^[21]

Jones

Jones, nicknamed "Jonesy", is an American Shorthair that is the ship's cat aboard the Nostromo, that is intended for rodent extermination. After the birth and escape of the Alien, Jones is detected by the crew, which they recognize for running the risk of interference, as the motion detectors could misappropriate the readings of Jones' movements for the Alien's. Jones is located by Brett in the cargo room, where the Alien kills him as Jones silently watches. When the remaining crew members prepare the escape the ship, Ripley collects Jones in a pet carrier, but has to temporarily abandon him, as the Alien approaches her position. The Alien inspects Jones but leaves him alone, as the cat poses no threat. Ripley retrieves Jones and flees with him aboard a shuttle. Jones sleeps with Ripley in cryosleep for fifty-seven years, until they are rescued. Jones remains Ripley's pet for the duration of her new employment, until she departs on the Sulaco, leaving him behind.

In Alien, a total of four cats were utilized, with each one being for specific catlike behaviors, such as scampering and hissing.^[22] According to director Ridley Scott's audio commentary from the Alien DVD, in order to capture Jones' fearful reaction to the Alien, a screen was placed between the performing cat and a German Shepard. When the screen between the animal actors was removed, the cat immediately hissed.^[11] In 1980, literary theorist James H. Kavanaugh published in a commonly-sourced MIT Press journal, "Son of a Bitch": Feminism, Humanism, and Science in "Alien", that within a Marxist framework, Jones is one of the four integral characters of the story, alongside Ripley, the Alien and Ash. According to Kavanaugh, while the Alien represents the "anti-human" element, with Ash being its narrative dependent, Ripley represents the human element, with Jones representing the dependent childlike element to complement her maternal instincts.^[23]

Engineers

The Engineers, also known as "Space Jockeys", are an ancient race of large humanoids that created humanity from their own DNA during Earth's Primordial Era. In Alien, a fossilized corpse of an Engineer is discovered in the pilot's seat of the Derelict, with its suit and helmet interpreted as bones. This body is the first victim of the Aliens identified on screen. The Engineers play a central role in the first prequel installment, Prometheus, with their biology and intentions for infecting the human race with an alien contagion and mutagen revealed. In the film, a last surviving Engineer on LV-223 is awakened and immediately looks to resume his mission of delivering the substance to Earth, only to be stopped by the survivors of the human expedition.

For the appearance of the Engineer pilot in Alien, a twenty-six foot-tall set piece was constructed at Bray Studios, with director Ridley Scott and cinematographer Derek Vanlint's children playing the body doubles, in order to exaggerate the size of the corpse.^[24] In the audio commentary included in the twentieth anniversary re-release of Alien in 1999, director Ridley Scott stated that he always envisioned the pilot in the original film as having been driving a "battlewagon", with a haul of biological weapons and that he wanted to explore the mythos of the species further in potential fifth and sixth installments in the series.^[25] In an interview with Fandango in 2012, Scott described the Engineers as being "tall and elegant", with them representing "dark angels", but not necessarily God, in the context of the franchise.^[26]

Introduced in Aliens (1986)

Corporal Dwayne Hicks

Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn is Sergeant Apone's second-in-command who assumes command after Apone and the majority of the Colonial Marines are captured by the Aliens and commanding officer Lieutenant Gorman is incapacitated. Hicks looks for options for holding out with the survivors of the Hadley's Hope colony until aid may arrive. Hicks and Ripley bond while he teaches her how to operate a pulse rifle. As the survivors escape, he is wounded by a spray of acid blood from an Alien that hits his chest and face. He is among the four remaining survivors in Aliens. Hicks is apparently killed during the crash of the Sulaco in Alien 3, with a body having been found impaled in his cryochamber by a broken support brace. In the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines, he is kidnapped by mercenaries working for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. His body is replaced by an unnamed victim used to cover-up the kidnapping. Hicks is rescued by Colonial Marines.

James Remar was initially cast for the role of Corporal Hicks, though he vacate the role for the official explanation of "artistic differences" with director James Cameron.^[27] In a Sidebar podcast, however, Remar clarified that the actual reason for his departure from the project was that Cameron terminated his contract when he was arrested for drug possession.^[27] Producer Gale Anne Hurd contacted Michael Biehn, who immediately accepted the role and flew overseas for filming.^[27] In one of the earliest drafts of the screenplay for Alien 3, Hicks was intended to assume the role of central protagonist, while Ripley would have a minor role.^[28] As the final draft of the screenplay killed off the character of Hicks, Biehn was never approached about the possibility of appearing in the film. Upon becoming aware that his character would have such a minor role and that his likeness would be used, Biehn and his agent contacted 20th Century Fox and threatened the studio with a lawsuit, unless they compensated him to a degree comparable to Aliens, which they obliged to.^[29]

Carter J. Burke

Carter J. Burke (Paul Reiser) is the Special Projects Director of Weyland-Yutani Corporation's Special Services Division and the main antagonist of Aliens. After informing Ellen Ripley about her daughter's death and hearing her account of the Nostromo incident, Burke secretly uses the information to have LV-426's colonists rendezvous with the Derelict and cause a massive Alien outbreak. Burke persuades Ripley to join the Colonial marine expedition- to specifically destroy and not extract specimens- as an adviser, in exchange for her regaining her flight license. He accompanies the squad aboard Sulaco, to safeguard the company's investment in the terraforming colony. Burke's ulterior motivations are uncovered by Ripley, though he reasons that the Aliens are an important species they cannot exterminate and that the facility is a significant investment. Burke attempts to have Ripley and Newt impregnated by imprisoned facehuggers, but the Colonial Marines intervene. While most of the survivors insist that Burke is executed, Ripley protests, when the Aliens cut the power and utilize an architectural design flaw to break into the room. Burke escapes the room and leaves the rest of the group to die, when he is confronted by an Alien in the locked medlab and his screams are subsequently heard by the others outside.

According to Paul Reiser, director James Cameron cast him in a villainous role, as featuring a comedian with previously friendly roles would break typecasting. By Reiser's own account, however, Cameron failed to introduce Burke as a surprising villain, due to his suspicious demeanor and dialogue during the first scenes featuring him.^[30] In the 2004 literary analysis of the Alien franchise, Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley, authors Jason Smith and Ximena Gallardo-C. describe Burke as a "monster" who is the biproduct of organizational culture, with him being perfectly willing to have Ripley and Newt impregnated for capital gain, due to him perceiving them for having "'natural' wombs".^[31] In a deleted scene taking place during Ripley's incursion into the Alien hive, Ripley discovers a cocooned Burke, who reveals that he has been impregnated, to which Ripley replies by handing him a grenade. The scene was first revealed in the 2010 Blu-ray edition of the Alien Anthology.^[32][33]

Bishop

Bishop (Lance Henriksen) is the android executive officer assigned to the Sulaco and is primarily responsible for planetary maneuvering. When Bishop introduces himself to Ripley, he clarifies that his programming calls for complete loyalty, unlike Ash, though Ripley is initially distrustful. After most of the Colonial Marines are wiped out by the Aliens on LV-426, Bishop acts as a medic and technician. He painstakingly ensures that the company's dropship receives Ripley, Newt and Hicks. Upon boarding the Sulaco, Bishop is impaled and ripped in half by the stowaway Alien Queen. When Ripley defeats the Queen by opening the airlock, Bishop saves Newt. He is subsequently placed in cryosleep with Ripley, Newt and Hicks. When the Sulaco crashes into Fury 161 in Alien 3, Bishop is damaged beyond repair and thrown into the prison's landfill. He is partially repaired by Ripley for speech and memory functions, so he can disclose the events leading to the crash. He requests that Ripley shut him down permanently, which she complies with.

Lance Henriksen was one of the several actors, alongside Michael Biehn Bill Paxton cast in Aliens who previously collaborated with director James Cameron on The Terminator.^[34] In Roz Kaveney's analysis of Ash in From Alien to The Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film, she draws parallels to Bishop, as having been the quintessential representation of the development of the Three Laws of Robotics. Ash's programming allows and encourages the harm of humans, whereas Bishop puts the lives of humans above all else, as a result of the First Law of Robotics.^[13] In 2005, Bishop's portrayal was studied by LeiLani Nishime of the University of Texas Press, for the theoretical dramatization of how humans would deal with the presence of an "Other", with regards to Ripley's initial apprehension towards being in close proximity with a synthetic, after her life-threatening experience with Ash.^[35] According to a journal by Anton Karl Kozlovic of the University of Nebraska Omaha, Bishop's altruistic actions that include rescuing Newt and Ripley juxtapose the preexisting trend of technophobia in films predating the 1990s.^[36]

Rebecca "Newt" Jorden

Rebecca Jorden (Carrie Henn), nicknamed "Newt", is the only surviving colonist of LV-426. She resides within in the air ducts of the Hadley's Hope compound, when she is discovered by the Colonial Marines' party. Despite being in a state of shock, Newt bonds with the party, particularly with Ripley, who she identifies as a mother figure. During the survivors' escape from LV-426, Newt is abducted by the Aliens, but Ripley hastily enters their hive and rescues her from the clutches of the Alien Queen. Soon after, the Alien Queen confronts the survivors aboard the Sulaco, with Newt as her primary target, but Ripley intervenes and defeats her. Newt is subsequently put in cryosleep. During the crash of the Sulaco in Alien 3, Newt drowns from water flooding her chamber while she sleeps. Out of fear of an Alien infestation, an autopsy is performed on Newt's body, but no trace of anything beyond drowning is uncovered.

According to the casting director for Aliens, Newt was the most challenging role to cast, as five hundred schoolchildren auditioned, with frequent issues pertaining to their habits of smiling while reading their lines.^[37] Carrie Henn was discovered by a casting agent while she was living with her father who was stationed at RAF Lakenheath, near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, United Kingdom. The casting agent notified the producers and Henn won the role after auditioning at Pinewood Studios.^[38] For her portrayal of Newt, Henn received a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor,^[39] though she chose not to further pursue an acting career and went on to become a schoolteacher in Atwater, California.^[40] The decision to kill off Newt in Alien 3 was met with widespread outcry. In particular, the director of Aliens, James Cameron, described the decision as a "Temple of Doom slap in the face".^[41]

Private William Hudson

Private William Hudson (Bill Paxton) is the Colonial Marines squad's jokester and comtech expert. Though initially arrogant and overconfident, he soon cracks under the large amounts of stress during the failed incursion into the Alien hive. He despairs and panics about the situation, until Ripley and Newt reassure him, giving him to willpower to regain his composure. Hudson fights bravely to the end in the colony's operation room, where the survivors of the party make their final stand. He is pulled through a floor grate by an Alien while he is providing cover fire.

Bill Paxton was visiting his then-girlfriend Louise Newbury in the United Kingdom around July 4, 1985, when he went to Pinewood Studios to audition for director James Cameron, who he was already a friend of from previous projects. Though Paxton was excited for the role, he found the character to be one of the most difficult to portray, as Hudson is a perpetually high-energy individual.^[42] The character Hudson is best known for his delivery of the line, "Game over man". According to Paxton, he ad libbed the line by preparing to say it shortly before shooting began that day, without asking Cameron for permission.^[43] For his portrayal of Hudson, Paxton won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 14th Saturn Awards.^[39]

Lieutenant Scott Gorman

Lieutenant Scott Gorman (William Hope) is the commanding officer of the mission to LV-426. As as inexperienced leader, the Colonial Marines do not take kindly to Gorman. Though he provides adequate command when the Colonial Marines initially secure the emptied colony, he quickly loses control of the situation when the Aliens ambush his troops. Ripley assumes control of the situation by driving the command vehicle, resulting in Gorman being knocked unconscious. Upon regaining consciousness, he defers command to Hicks for the defense of the colony. During the Aliens' assault on the operations room, Gorman attempts to rescue Vasquez from the oncoming Aliens, but his pistol runs out of ammunition. Realizing that they are trapped, Gorman and Vasquez embrace as they detonate a grenade, taking a number of Aliens with them.

Simultaneous with being offered the role of Gorman, William Hope was offered a prominent role in Stanley Kubrick's war film, Full Metal Jacket. He turned down the role in Full Metal Jacket, in favor of Aliens, but still interacted with members of the other production's cast and crew, as both films were shot in close proximity of the Battersea Power Station in Nine Elms, Battersea in London, United Kingdom.^[44] While the rest of the cast who portrayed Colonial Marines- with the exception of latecomer Michael Biehn- underwent several weeks of training with United States Marines, Hope was absent. Director James Cameron stressed that he wanted Hope to be separated, so he would naturally be perceived as an outsider, to complement Gorman's inexperience on-screen.^[45]

Private Vasquez

Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) is a smartgunner on the Sulaco, partnered with Drake. Vasquez is one of the few survivors of the assault on the hive who helps seal off the complex from the Aliens. She is injured when acidic blood from an Alien shot at point blank range lands on her leg, immobilizing her. When Gorman returns to aid Vasquez, she and Gorman are surrounded, so she shares a fond parting quip and cooperates with him to detonate a grenade.

Jenette Goldstein was unemployed and bodybuilding in the United Kingdom, when producer Gale Anne Hurd called her and was impressed with her bodybuilder's physique. After securing the role, Goldstein trained for the role with real-life Marine Al Matthews.^[46] The casting proved to be controversial as Goldstein, a Jewish-American actress, was to play a Latina and as such, was put in makeup to distinctly darken her complexion, in addition to other cosmetic applications.^[47] Goldstein's interpretation of the character is that she is "universal" with her ambiguity, in terms of sexuality and masculinity.^[46] Scholar Judith Halberstam discusses Vasquez in her book titled Female Masculinity, claiming that the character is an ideal example of female masculinity in film, due to her frequent displays of bravado and violent death.^[48] For her portrayal of Vasquez, Goldstein won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 14th Saturn Awards^[39]

Sergeant Apone

Gunnery Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews) is the squad leader of the Colonial Marines sent to investigate LV-426. During the first incursion into the atmospheric processor, he enforces Gorman's orders not to use pulse rifle and smartgun ammunition. Shortly after finding a still-alive cocooned colonist whose chest bursts to reveal an Alien, Apone grabs a flamethrower from Frost to incinerate it. In the subsequent Alien attack, he is captured alive. Hudson later points out that the readouts on the APC show he was not killed in the attack; thus, he was presumably impregnated by an Alien and either died when the atmosphere processor exploded or from an Alien gestating in his body.

Introduced in Alien 3 (1993)

Dillon

Dillon (Charles S. Dutton) is the religious preacher of Fury 161 and acts as cleric to the prisoners. He not only leads them in prayer but stirs them to action in rousing speeches. He has a history as a murderer and rapist of women, but like the remaining prisoners, he has somehow managed to find God while incarcerated. He tries to keep the peace amongst the inmate population, attempting to appease Boggs and Rains' misgivings over Golic, and violently beating the men who plot to corner and rape Ripley.

Dillon is one of few prisoners who Ripley speaks to shortly after her arrival, and he asks her if she has any faith, and that his men have faith enough to accept and tolerate anyone. He delivers an eloquent eulogy during the funeral for Newt and Hicks, which touches Ripley. He later reprimands Boggs and Rains for their highly negative opinion of Golic, which they display openly. When prisoners try to rape Ripley, Dillon intervenes and beats them severely with a crowbar. After the Alien kills Andrews, Dillon leads everyone in a prayer, declaring that the apocalypse has come. After the attempt to trap the Alien in the toxic waste dump, he leads the survivors in a sermon that acts as an ode to the prisoners who died to ensure their victory.

After Golic escapes and frees the Alien from confinement, Dillon displays passionate anger towards Aaron and Morse, who are despairing. He tells Morse to get all the remaining prisoners together so they can formulate a new plan. Dillon and Aaron are then informed by Ripley about the Alien embryo within her. Dillon is disgusted with her after she asks him to kill her and the alien inside her, and refuses to grant her request. He promises to take care of her in a "quick, easy and painless" fashion once the Alien that is slaughtering the inmates is destroyed. Ripley explains to him that the Alien, if allowed to escape, will destroy all humanity. Dillon responds apathetically, stating that the prisoners have (or had) their own separate world on Fury 161. Shortly afterwards, Dillon gathers the prisoners together to bait the Alien into the leadworks foundry and kill it with molten lead. The strategy to draw the Alien into the mould quickly falls apart, and he is forced to improvise as the Alien attacks sporadically in the maze-like hallways and corridors. After the piston is activated, he entices the beast to attack him, in order to keep it in the lead mould. When Ripley reminds him of their pact and begs him to kill her, he only replies "God will take care of you now." He is eventually killed fighting the Alien in the lead mold, hoping to stall it long enough for Ripley to pour the lead, which she does, moments after he is torn to pieces.

Jonathan Clemens

Jonathan Clemens (Charles Dance) was the medical doctor of Fury 161. When Ripley crashes into the oil sea, he nurses her back to health and begins showing her around. He even starts a personal relationship with her, much to the annoyance of Andrews. Clemens performs the autopsy on Newt as Ripley requested. He asks what they are looking for in the body of a girl who had obviously drowned, and Ripley tells him that they are investigating a possible case of cholera. Clemens firmly responds by stating that there has not been a case of cholera reported for 200 years. He knows that Ripley is hiding something from him, and to show that he would not lie to her, he explains why he has a bar code on the back of his head. When Clemens was on a residency, he got drunk after a long shift. The same night, there was a boiler explosion, causing forty injuries. Clemens was called back and, by prescribing the wrong pain killer dosage, was responsible for the deaths of 11 men. He was sentenced to Fiorina 161 and served his time, but chose to stay behind with the other inmates after they refused to leave. When Clemens ends his story, Ripley again lies about what has been going on around the prison. As Clemens injects her with a serum, the Alien lowers itself down behind him and lashes out through the curtains. After a very brief struggle, the Alien releases its inner jaw into Clemens' skull. Ripley and the mentally unstable Golic, strapped down in a bed, are the only witnesses.

Harold Andrews

Harold Andrews (Brian Glover) is the warden of Fury 161. He often begins his addresses to the prisoners with the line "this is Rumor Control, here are the facts...". Andrews often mocked the prisoners behind their backs, calling them "Dillon's God Squad". He becomes increasingly annoyed with Ripley as she leaves the infirmary, and also takes this frustration out on Clemens, who he has never trusted. When Murphy is killed in the ventilation fan, Andrews further places blame on Ripley, suggesting that Murphy was concentrating more on her than he was on his work. When Golic returns from the scene of Boggs' and Rains' death covered in blood, Andrews believes that the "simple bastard" has murdered them. He does not believe Ripley's story concerning the Alien and her past involvement with the creature. He also tells Ripley that there are no weapons of any kind available to fend off her creature. Andrews quarantines Ripley to the infirmary having heard her story once he knows that Weyland-Yutani find her to be a high priority. Andrews attempts to organize a search party for Boggs and Rains in the mess hall when Ripley bursts in screaming after Clemens' death in the infirmary. Andrews becomes increasingly frustrated with her and orders Aaron to escort her back to the infirmary as not to cause a panic. The Alien then reaches down from an overhead air duct and pulls Andrews into the ceiling. A shower of blood rains down from the air duct, and the prisoners run amok in a panic.

Aarons

Aaron (Ralph Brown) is Superintendent Andrews' assistant and serves as a prison guard. He is not a religious man because he believes that so long as he has a job he does not need faith, although he seems to have a lot of faith in Weyland-Yutani. At his arrival, several prisoners catch a glance at his personal file, discovering his IQ is only 85, which they began using as a nickname for him. Aaron will often respond by telling whoever said it to not do so again, but this is always ignored. Aaron has a very strong trust in Weyland-Yutani, his employer. He usually acts as Andrews' parrot, echoing his opinions without stating any of his own. After Andrews died, Aaron attempts to take charge but the prisoners promptly refuse to allow him to do so. Ripley later tries to convince him several times that they do not care about him or any other employee, and in fact care more about capturing the two Aliens. He and Morse often got into heated arguments, especially after Morse let Golic out, who in turn allowed the alien to escape from the toxic waste dump they had contained it in. When Ripley tells him to send the rescue ship away, he sternly refuses, explaining that he wants to leave and see his wife and children again. Aaron eventually assists Ripley with the bio-scan she performs on herself aboard the crashed EEV and is one of the few people to know she is subject to Alien gestation.

After the scan is performed, Weyland-Yutani immediately sends a message to the prison stating that the rescue ship will arrive in a matter of hours to pick her up. At this point Aaron slowly arrives to a conclusion (that Weyland-Yutani does not care about him or the prisoners and only cares about the alien) that he exemplifies near the end of the film. When the prisoners decide to lure the alien into the lead, Aaron calls them crazy and locks himself into his office. It is apparent that while in his office he continued to think about the recent events and loses most, if not all, of his faith in Weyland-Yutani. When Michael Bishop lands with his team and tries to convince Ripley to leave with him, Aaron strikes Bishop with a large metal rod, nearly ripping his ear off. One of the soldiers accompanying Bishop immediately pushes Aaron out into the open and shoots him several times in the back. Aaron falls from a great height, landing on his back. He takes one last breath before dying with a look of disbelief on his face.

Golic

Golic (Paul McGann) was found guilty of 32 accounts of murder and dismemberment and 13 accounts of arson. It is implied that Golic went mad after he recalls that, as a young man, "girls liked me... for a while." He is something of an outcast in the prison, although he considers Morse a friend. Others dislike him, believing him to be a crazy and unpredictable. He goes out on trips to forage supplies from abandoned areas of the prison with Boggs and Rains, who find him intolerable. The only survivor of the alien's ambush in the tunnel, where Boggs and Rains were "slaughtered like pigs!" Golic is found in the cafeteria eating cereal, his face covered in blood, acting as if nothing happened. Assuming he turned on his fellow inmates, he is promptly strapped down to a bed in the infirmary, under close supervision by Clemens and Ripley. After his isolation, Andrews talks of Golic's unspeakable crimes, brutal even when compared to the crimes of the other men. In the medical ward, Golic speaks to Ripley about how he used to be a normal person. He utters an almost-mute "magnificent" after seeing the alien butcher Clemens.

In the theatrical version, after the alien kills Clemens and deems Ripley unfit to kill (as she was carrying a queen embryo at the time), Golic is no longer seen in the film and it is unknown whether he meets his demise at the hands of the Alien or not.

In the extended cut of the film, Golic persuades Morse to unstrap him in the infirmiry after hearing that the Alien has been trapped. He then knocks Morse out with a fire extinguisher and goes to the waste tank containing the creature. Prisoner Arthur has been left guarding the door, and Golic asks to see the beast, but is refused entry. Golic then brandishes a razor and cuts his throat, opens the door and is killed himself by the creature. Golic seems to think the alien is a holy creature, and frequently talks to it via what seems to be telepathy. It is unknown if the Alien was actually communicating with him or if he was imagining this because of his lunacy.

Morse

Morse (Danny Webb) is loud, argumentative, cynical, and Golic's only friend. He can be physically distinguished by his short stature and many gold teeth. At first, he blames Ripley for bringing the Alien to the planet. After Andrews's death he and Aaron often clash in heated arguments. Golic, who has been restrained in the infirmiry since the death of Boggs and Rains, convinces Morse to let him loose. Golic then subdues Morse out and goes in search of the creature. Approaching the waste tank, he cuts Arthur's throat and opens the door, only to be killed himself. After Dillon's death, Morse helps Ripley get to the top of furnace so that she may throw herself into it, killing herself and the queen. While helping her, he is shot in the leg by a Weyland-Yutani soldier. He is the only resident of Fury 161 to survive. At the end of the film he is seen being led away by Weyland-Yutani personnel, and smiles as he realizes his success. He is vocal about his initial skepticism of trying to survive the encounter with the Alien, stating that although it killed many of his friends he wants to wait for Weyland-Yutani firepower to show up- in the end, however, he agrees to Ripley's course of action. According to the novelization of Alien Resurrection, it is likely he wrote about his experiences, invoking the android Call to take action.

Michael Bishop Weyland/Michael Bishop II

Michael Bishop Weyland/Michael Bishop II The "designer" of the android Bishop, Michael (Lance Henriksen) is a scientist in the employ of the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Ripley meets him in the furnace and first assumes that he is a droid sent by the company, the same model as Bishop, but he reveals who he really is. He also tells her that he and his medical team will extract the alien queen inside her and destroy it. Ripley believes that he is a liar and backs away towards the furnace. He lets his cover slip and pleads that it is a magnificent specimen and that he must have it. She willingly sacrifices herself by free falling into the giant lead smelter, much to his despair.

Weyland had moved to the company's bio-weapons division and as such became involved in the study of the Xenomorph species. Following the Xenomorph outbreak at Hadley's Hope on LV-426, he was dispatched to the moon to investigate what had happened at the colony, his ultimate goal being the successful acquisition of a Xenomorph specimen, apparently at any cost.[1] Weyland-Yutani PMCs under Weyland's command were notably responsible for the failed attempt at capturing Dwayne Hicks aboard the USS Sulaco.

After the events on Fiorina 161, Weyland returned to LV-426 with Hicks and Stone. He oversaw the interrogation of the two captives aboard the Resolute — although Stone was later executed — as well as the construction of the Origin Facility, which was being hastily assembled around the rediscovered Derelict Ship. There, under Weyland's overall command, Weyland-Yutani scientists began breeding and studying the Xenomorphs using the Eggs aboard the Derelict. Weyland's team would also capture the second Acheron Queen from her Hive in the caves beneath the moon's surface.[4] However, following the arrival of the USS Sephora and subsequent events on the planet, culminating in the destruction of the Origin Facility by Colonial Marines from the Sephora, Weyland fled the moon, leaving behind a synthetic double to buy himself time. His whereabouts subsequently are not known.

Introduced in Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Ripley Clone #8

Ripley Clone #8 (Sigourney Weaver) was a human-alien hybrid clone, generated from the DNA of the original Ellen Ripley and the embryotic alien queen recovered from Ellen Ripley's blood and tissue samples from Fiorina 'Fury' 161 that had been kept on ice. The integrity of the DNA, however, had been compromised, having caused the separate DNA samples to intercross with each other: According to the novelization, it was revealed that, when a host is infested/impregnated, they are not only infested with the parasitic alien embryo, they are also infected virally in a form of Adaptive Evolution, forcing the host organism to change in-order to accommodate the embryo's growth, (so that any host organism would be able to provide whatever the developing embryo needed).

"Number 8"—as she was simply referred to by the likes of the commanding officer, General Perez, who considered her to be no-more than a "meat by-product," being more interested in the Alien Queen—was the eighth clone and most successful attempt to separate Ripley's and the Alien Queen's DNA; her seven predecessors were shown as physically twisted amalgamations of the two species, with only Clone #7 being capable of speech and clearly in intense pain just by existing. 'Ripley', due to this 'genetic-crossing' shares similar traits to the aliens, such as an empathic link with the rest of the hive, acidic blood, enhanced strength and reflexes, and 'Genetic Memories', as speculated by Dr. Wren and Dr. Gediman.

Annalee Call

Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) is the newest member of the Betty crew, and has a secret mission to destroy Ripley before the Scientists can remove the queen embryo from her. Unbeknownst to everyone, Call is actually a second generation android: a robot designed and built by other robots.

John Vriess

John Vriess (Dominique Pinon) is the chief engineer of the Betty. He is handicapped and uses a wheelchair- precisely what happened to him is unclear, but it is shown that he does not even register Alien blood on his leg-; he is able to hide a shotgun in various pieces upon his chair to avoid its detection. He is one of the few characters to survive the endeavor.

Johner

Johner (Ron Perlman) is a somewhat physically imposing, scarred member of the Betty crew. He is a dark-humored joker and has a short temper. He constantly argues with Vriess, who he teases for being handicapped. Frequently seen with a rather toxic liquor of his own concoction, the container of which conceals a pistol. He is one of only four characters to survive and land on Earth.

Christie

Christie (Gary Dourdan) is a muscular, dreadlocked mercenary amongst the Betty crew. Christie is first mate and second in command of the Betty, and carries two disposable guns attached to his wrists. He is forced to carry Vriess on his back in a back-harness when they flee underwater. He suffers severe injury when an alien spits acid in his face, and sacrifices himself by detaching himself from Vriess.

Frank Elgyn

Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott) is the raspy-voiced captain of the Betty. Elgyn provides General Perez with kidnapped humans still in cryostasis for a large sum of cash. He was also romantically involved with Hillard. He is killed when an alien baits him with a collection of weapons in a stray corridor, where he is pulled through the floor grating and killed.

Sabra Hillard

Sabra Hillard (Kim Flowers) is the assistant pilot of the Betty and is the romantic partner of Elgyn. She is eventually taken by the aliens when they swim below the cooling station.

General Martin Perez

General Martin Perez (Dan Hedaya) is the commanding military General of the medical research lab where Ripley is being cloned for the alien queen's resurrection. After destroying an escape pod carrying a stowaway alien, he is bitten in the back of the head by yet another creature, exposing his brains, which he proceeds to examine before dying.

Doctor Mason Wren

Doctor Mason Wren (J. E. Freeman) is one of the five scientists who worked on resurrecting the alien queen. He exposed Call as a "terrorist" who was searching for information on the aliens and ordered soldiers to kill her and the other mercenaries. This failed and they captured him. He acted as a guide until he betrayed them, shooting Call non-fatally and heading to the Betty, hoping to get there before the others and escape, stranding them with the aliens. He is killed when Purvis attacks him in a violent fit of rage, forcing Wren's head to his chest moments before the chestburster emerges, killing them both.

Doctor Jonathan Gediman

Doctor Jonathan Gediman (Brad Dourif) is one of five scientists who perform the operation on the Ripley clone to retrieve the queen embryo. He becomes the first victim of the aliens when he enters the aliens' cage to investigate their disappearance. He is then grabbed by an alien and taken below decks to the Queen's chamber. He is then cocooned by the Aliens. When Ripley is taken to the alien queen, Gediman is overjoyed to witness the queen painfully give birth to the mutant newborn. The newborn shares a bonding moment with its mother before killing her, much to Gediman's horror. It then advances toward Gediman and bites into the top of his skull, spilling his brains. In the book, shortly after his death by the newborn, a chestburster bursts from his body. During his dealings with and on the subject of Ripley, he referred to her as a she, while Wren called her an it.

Vincent DiStephano

Vincent DiStephano (Raymond Cruz) is a soldier of the United Systems Military. He was one of the soldiers sent to capture the crew of the Betty, but is captured himself and is left in the custody of the mercenaries when the other soldiers abandon ship. He then agrees to help everyone escape the Auriga. He also briefly explains the history of Autons when it is discovered that Call is one of them. He and the group eventually board the Betty and strap themselves in, preparing to return to Earth. The ship's cargo hatch is open, however, and Call goes to fix it but she is confronted by the stowaway newborn. DiStephano soon comes to check on her, sensing danger. He then sees the newborn, which crushes his head with its bare hands.

Larry Purvis

Larry Purvis (Leland Orser) was rescued by the team unexpectedly. He was one of the many test subjects who were kidnapped for experimentation and impregnated. Call offers to take him along so they can be freeze him in cryostasis, where they can later remove the embryo. He dies when the group is ambushed by Dr. Wren. While Wren is arguing with the crew, Purvis is convulsing as blood pours out of his mouth. Purvis eventually gets to his feet and staggers over to the scientist, surviving numerous gunshots before relentlessly pounding the villain into some steel steps. Purvis then manages to kill Wren by positioning himself so that his chestburster forces its way through his chest and Wren's skull.

Introduced in Prometheus (2012)

Elizabeth Shaw

Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is an archaeologist and the central protagonist of Prometheus. She is portrayed as an ardent believer in God who is rueful about being sterile.

After discovering a series of identical cave paintings depicting a star chart alongside her lover, Charlie Holloway, the couple convinces Weyland Corp. owner Peter Weyland to finance an expedition to a moon candidate, LV-223, at the chart's projected coordinates. After arriving at the moon and awakening in 2093 aboard the ship, the USCSS Prometheus, Shaw and Holloway introduce their theory about the star charts having been created by Engineers, a hypothesized technologically advanced species that created humanity. Upon embarking into an artificial structure near where the Prometheus has settled, Shaw discovers a large volume of Engineer corpses, as well as a preserved head, proving her and Holloway's theory. After having sex with an infected Holloway, Shaw is impregnated with an extraterrestrial organism, which she has surgically removed. Shaw stumbles upon Peter Weyland, who had previously faked his death, in order to stay alive long enough to meet an Engineer currently in cryo-sleep, so his youth could be restored. After conversing with Janek about the nature of the Engineers, Shaw concludes with him that they intended to destroy humanity, so she joins Weyland's expedition and witnesses the Engineer's awakening. When Shaw demands to know why the Engineers intended to destroy humanity, she is subdued, after which the Engineer decapitates David, kills the expedition and prepares his ship for departure for Earth. Shaw convinces Janek to sacrifice himself and the crew of the Prometheus by flying the ship into the Engineer's ship, causing it to crash and crush Vickers. Shaw returns to the Prometheus' life support unit, where the Engineer attacks her, only to be impregnated and subdued by Shaw's extraterrestrial offspring. David contacts Shaw and convinces her to come back for his head and body, so he may pilot another Engineer ship. Shaw asks him to take them to the Engineer's home world. With a final report detailing the events to Earth, Shaw and David depart from the moon.

David 8

David 8 (Michael Fassbender) is an synthetic who is Peter Weyland's right-hand man who secretly follows his master's directives aboard the USCSS Prometheus. The eighth in a line of David models, representative of what Weyland's unfulfilled wish for a son, David is constantly at odds with Weyland's disowned daughter, Meredith Vickers.

While the crew of the Prometheus rests, following Shaw and Holloway's discovery of the star charts in 2089, David spends his time leading up to the 2093 arrival at LV-223 studying the assumed dialects of the Engineers, as well as human culture and the dreams of the crew. Following the awakening of the crew and the arrival at the moon, David accompanies the expedition to an artificial structure, where he acquires a vial of a black extraterrestrial liquid. On Weyland's orders, David contaminates a drink he hands to Holloway, so that he may impregnate Shaw with an extraterrestrial life form. David further explores the Engineer ship and cuts his feed to Vickers, to study a hologram in the bridge of the ship, to not only learn how to pilot the craft, but that there is a last Engineer surviving in cryo-sleep. As Shaw enters Weyland's quarters, David prepares Weyland for the expedition to the Engineer ship, in order to awaken the last Engineer. David leads the expedition and awakens the Engineer. He translates Weyland's request for immortality, prompting the Engineer to silently decapitate him and murder the rest of the expedition, save for Shaw. David's severed head witnesses the Engineer launch the ship and prepare to leave the atmosphere, which is thwarted by Janek crashing the Prometheus into the ship. David warns Shaw about the Engineer coming to kill her. He contacts her after she escapes the life support unit and tells her that despite their differences, he would like to help her escape the moon, as he can pilot another of the Engineers' ships. After Shaw recovers his head and body, he promises to take her to the Engineers' home world, though he does not understand the relevance of the mission. Together with Shaw, he leaves LV-223 behind.

In Alien: Covenant, taking ten years following the events of Prometheus, David is discovered by the colony ship Covenant as the sole inhabitant of a hellish world originally thought to be paradise.

Meredith Vickers

Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) is an upper-level employee of the Weyland Corporation and the secret, estranged daughter of the company's founder and owner, Peter Weyland.

Vickers joins the Prometheus expedition, serving as a corporate overseer. After the ship settles down in 2093, she explains her lack of faith in the merit of the mission to Shaw and Holloway. While monitoring monitoring sensors deployed by Sean Fifield called Spectagraphs, Vickers is seduced by Janek and the pair have sex in her quarters. She collaborates with David, who provides her with feed of his mission to explore the secrets of the Engineer ship, but is cut from access, as he takes direction from Peter Weyland. When Holloway becomes infected, Vickers refuses him entry to the ship and at his beckoning, kills him with a flamethrower. After her father awakens and he prepares to meet the Engineer, Vickers warns him that "a king has his reign, and then he dies", drawing an allegory to him. After witnessing her father's death over a live feed, Vickers orders the Prometheus to return to Earth. However, Shaw convinces Janek to ram the Prometheus into the embarking Engineer ship. Realizing that she cannot avert the situation, Vickers has herself and her life support unit jettisoned to LV-223's surface. Shortly after landing, Vickers is caught in the path of the rolling Engineer ship, resulting in her being crushed to death.

Janek

Janek (Idris Elba) is the captain of the USCSS Prometheus. Following Holloway's suggestions, Janek sets the Prometheus down near an artificial structure, which contains an Engineer ship. Throughout the duration of the expedition, Janek remains aboard the Prometheus, observing the schematics Fifield's Spectagraphs develop. Janek successfully seduces Meredith Vickers and the two have sex, while Sean Fifield and Rafe Milburn radio for direction. Alongside Vickers, Janek realizes the artificial structure is indeed an Engineer ship. While Shaw prepares to join Peter Weyland on the expedition to awaken the Engineer, Janek cautions that he is confident that the Engineers had ill intentions with the biological weapons and that he would do whatever is necessary to protect Earth's interests. When Vickers orders Janek to bring the Prometheus home, Shaw tells him that the Engineer ship is headed to Earth to release the black liquid and wipe out the human race. As such, Janek decides to pilot the Prometheus into the Engineer ship, much to Vickers' chagrin, and asks that everyone leave. The assistant pilots, Chance and Ravel, refuse and assist Janek in running the ship kamikaze into the Engineer ship, crippling it and saving the human race.

Peter Weyland

Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) is the elderly founder and owner of Weyland Corporation. The estranged father of Meredith Vickers and the creator of David, Weyland faces an impending death from old age, so he desires the opportunity to meet the Engineers, so his youth may be restored.

Having been convinced of the authenticity of Shaw and Holloway's findings and hypothesis, Weyland finances the expensive voyage of the USCSS Prometheus to LV-223. While he projects himself as the already-deceased benefactor of the mission, Weyland is actually aboard the ship, where he directs David to uncover the Engineers' secrets and to infect Holloway with the black liquid. Shaw stumbles into Weyland's private quarters, where he prepares to meet the last Engineer in cryo-sleep. He dismisses the caution of both her and Vickers, who acknowledges him as her father. At the Engineer ship, he has David talk to the Engineer, which receives interference from Shaw, who he orders to be subdued, if not shot. When the Engineer hears of Weyland's purpose, he reacts by decapitating David and using his head to fatally bludgeon Weyland. With his dying breath, Weyland laments to David that the voyage was in vain.

Charlie Holloway

Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) is an archaeologist who discovers the star charts throughout caves around the world in 2089 with his lover, Elizabeth Shaw. Despite their relationship, Holloway starkly contrasts Shaw, as he is portrayed as a daredevil, skeptic and atheist.

After awakening from cryo-sleep in 2093, Holloway introduces the purpose of the mission to LV-223 alongside Shaw. While the USCSS Prometheus flies over the moon's terrain, Holloway spots an artificial arrangement of structures and directs the ship to be set down near one. Holloway embarks with the first expedition crew to the structure and upon entering, discovers that the air is clearer than anywhere on Earth, prompting him to remove his helmet. After Shaw retrieves a preserved Engineer head, the expedition is informed of an incoming storm, prompting Holloway and the rest of the crew to return immediately to the Prometheus. Disillusioned by the Engineers being apparently extinct, Holloway takes on a sour demeanor and questions Shaw for still being a Christian, to her disgust. David brings Holloway a drink and the two discuss the merits of creating beings. Unknown to Holloway, David taints a drink with a minute organism he picked from a cylinder he had secretly brought from he structure and offers it to Holloway, thereby infecting him. Holloway has sex with Shaw shortly after, impregnating her with an alien embryo. After seeing a small extraterrestrial parasite in his eye, Holloway returns for another expedition to the Engineer ship, but falls terribly ill. As the expedition returns, Holloway takes a turn for the worst and the infection becomes overt. Vickers intercepts Holloway with a flamethrower before he can enter the ship. Holloway tells Vickers to kill him, which she does.

Fifield

Fifield (Sean Harris) is a geologist who serves aboard the USCSS Prometheus. He is portrayed as mentally unstable from experience, disassociative and extra cautionary. After waking up in 2093, he rejects the friendly advances from Millburn and casts doubt on the authenticity of Shaw and Holloway's mission hypothesis. He accompanies the expedition to an artificial structure, where he deploys his Spectagraphs, which begin to develop a layout for what appears to be a ship. When the expedition encounters a decapitated Engineer corpse, Fifield bows out of the research and leaves the group, with Millburn following. The pair become lost and fail to rendezvous with the rest of the expedition that departs on account of the storm. The two find a mound of Engineer corpses, followed shortly by the hidden room containing the now-thawed and mutating black liquid. They encounter Hammerpedes, extraterrestrial eel-like creatures, which attack Millburn and break his arm. Fifield decapitates one, causing its corrosive blood to melt his helmet. The now-deformed Fifield travels back to the Prometheus, where he attacks the crew and murders several members before being killed.

Millburn

Millburn (Rafe Spall) is a biologist who is a part of the Prometheus expedition. Despite being an accredited biologist, Millburn is shown to be naive and overly friendly on more than one occasion, which eventually has fatal consequences. After awakening in 2093, Millburn attempts to kindle a friendship with Fifield, who rebukes him. He joins the initial expedition to the Engineers' artificial structure concealing the ship, where he joins up with Fifield, after encountering an Engineer corpse, which spooks his comrade. The duo becomes distant from the rest of the expedition, resulting in them being stranded in the ship. Millburn and Fifield enter the room containing the thawed black liquid, where they find Hammerpedes. Millburn compliments one and attempts to pet it, resulting in it attacking him, breaking his arm and the creature forcing its way down his throat. When the crew of the Prometheus returns the next day, they find Millburn's lone corpse, with a Hammerpede residing in his throat.

Introduced in Alien: Covenant (2017)

Daniels

Daniels (Katherine Waterston) is a leading role in Alien: Covenant.

See also

• List of Alien vs. Predator characters

References

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• Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films (by David A. McIntee, Telos, 272 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-903889-94-4)