ABSTRACT
When I left the cinema after seeing Alien (1979) for the first time, I do not claim that my life was changed in any significant way. Nevertheless, despite the occasional twinges of fear and discomfort that I felt at certain sections of the film, I sensed that I had encountered something in that film that I had not come across before. More importantly, I had found something that I had constantly found to be missing up to that point. It was the start of my love affair with Ripley, and though I would not declare my interest as being in anyway unreserved, Ripley became the object of my admiration because she was the first female protagonist that I had ever encountered, who in my opinion, was wholly intelligible, attractive and heroic.
