Sigourney Weaver, who broke out on screen as the timeless heroine Ripley in Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise, never realized how influential the movies would be during production. It may be hard for contemporary audiences to imagine, but when Alien first released in 1979, audiences never expected Ripley to be the protagonist and sole survivor of the Xenomorph incursion. Weaver was a relatively unknown name in an ensemble cast that included Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, and John Hurt.
