Myth And Archetypes In Alien By Ellen Ripley

1868 Words4 Pages

Cinema has been producing the same hero narrative for centuries. Hero films follow a ten-step sequence to properly set up and execute their story. These movies range from stories of transformations, searches, or a journey back home. Archetypes help to add variety and depth to these stories. Ridley Scott directed Alien, in which Ellen Ripley embarks on a journey where she must survive an alien who is out on a murderous rampage. Alien adds originality to its storyline by choosing a female lead instead of a male, but it still incorporates the same heroic attributes that make a story successful. In this “going home journey” film, Scott is able to incorporate the hero myth and archetypes towards the official hero Ellen Ripley. In the opening scenes of Alien, we are taken on a five-minute tour of the Nostromo spacecraft. This sequence introduces and invites the audience into the astronaut’s ordinary world. We see the nooks and crannies of …show more content…

Ripley is now the last person standing on the Nostromo, and it is up to her to kill the alien, so she can return back to Earth. After Ripley believes she successfully blew up the Nostromo and is on her way back to Earth, she discovers the alien is on the shuttle with her, leading us to step nine in the hero’s journey: the chase scene. The ninth step, “is the point where the devil chases the hero has the last obstacle to overcome before really being safe and free” (Seger, 338). With quick thinking, Ripley jumps into a space suit, straps herself into a seat and opens the shuttle’s airlock, forcing the alien out into space. However, the alien is shown to be clinging on to the ship. When it tries to re-enter through the engine, Ripley switches on the engine, killing the alien instantly. With the alien destroyed and earth safe, Ripley finishes the hero’s journey by going into hypersleep, hoping her shuttle will return back to

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