Why did Ripley burn the eggs after she rescued Newt?
After she pulled Newt out of the cacoon in Aliens, Ripley had a stand off with the queen Xenomorph. As two Xenomorphs close in, Ripley flares her flamethrower and the queen seems to order the other Xenomorphs to back off so Ripley can leave. As Ripley's backing out of the room she burns all the eggs, shoots the Xenomorphs, and gets pursued by the angry queen.
They already knew the reactor would blow and destroy the hive, so why didn't Ripley just leave? It seems like she could have saved herself a lot of trouble
Best Answer
If memory serves:
- Ripley Flares flamethrower
- Queen orders Xenomorphs back
- Egg opens
It was when the egg opened that Ripley nodded her head as if to say "oh hell no!", and then the shooting began. It seems to me that the queen had no intention of letting Ripley and Newt go, but had every intention to cocoon both. That plan back fired (pardon the pun).
This clip around 2:38 shows the moment in question:
Pictures about "Why did Ripley burn the eggs after she rescued Newt?"
Why does Ripley burn the eggs?
Away from the chamber, Ripley would pose no further threat to the eggs, and the minions could easily capture her then. Ripley's only solution would be to blast away the eggs, creating pandemonium that would occupy the queen and minions long enough to give Ripley time to reach the ship.Why did Ripley change her mind about self destruct?
Well the main reason she went to go disable it was that the alien was blocking her only way of escape, the shuttle (Narcassis). When she went back to disable the auto destruct this was when the alien stowed away on the shuttle.How did Ripley give birth to an alien?
Ripley is taken to the Alien nest, where she finds Gediman, still alive and partially cocooned. The Alien Queen, having developed a uterus as a result of her genetic contamination with Ripley 8, gives birth to a Xenomorph with overtly human traits.How did the Queen impregnate Ripley?
The creature can actually be seen very briefly in the longer Assembly Cut of Alien 3, when prisoners Murphy and Frank discuss what killed the ox, and Murphy finds the creature. Some viewers speculate that this "super facehugger" carried both a Queen and a normal Alien embryo, so it impregnated the ox/dog and Ripley.How was Ripley Infected With the Xenomorph Queen Embryo? - Explained
More answers regarding why did Ripley burn the eggs after she rescued Newt?
Answer 2
I can see a couple of reasons, just off the top of my head:
It's not like the aliens were just going to sit back and let her leave. The only reason they hesitated was because Ripley was threatening the eggs, but once she was in the elevator, the queen would obviously have ordered the others to pursue her. Then she'd be stuck in a box which they could probably disable, and they'd have cover as they broke in. By destroying everything, Ripley stops that from happening and (hopefully) creates a distraction to cover her escape. (It's unclear whether or not Ripley knew the queen could give chase on her own, but even so, one alien is better than many.)
Worst case scenario, if she and Newt are caught in their escape, destroying the eggs at least means they can't be implanted themselves - only killed. (This one is somewhat ironic, considering the third movie, but working on information Ripley knew at the time, it holds up.)
To say the least, Ripley has some issues with these aliens. Destroying the eggs probably felt really good just on principle.
Answer 3
The Queen was trying to trick Ripley by attacking her with a face hugger. If you watch the sequence again, you'll notice that, after the Queen orders the drones to back off, there is a shot of an egg starting to open. The Queen is attempting to lull Ripley into a false sense of security, then sic a face hugger on her. That's why Ripley gives her the "Are you kidding me?" look before she torches the eggs.
Answer 4
It's personal.
She has nightmares about these things. She missed all of her now deceased daughter's birthdays, and her new daughter's whole family is dead because of these, along with every other colonist on LV426 and the entire crew of the Nostromo, save one. Every human she set down with on the planet, expect for Hicks, is dead or would be better off that way. Everyone of her friends, family, and coworkers: They're dead. Okay?
The reasons she agreed to come on the journey were promised lies. To destroy them. Not to study. Not to bring back. But to wipe them out. She's only there to do two things, and she's all out of bubble gum. Also, her Uber driver has already been waiting on her for like half an hour. Might as well make the most of it.
TL;DR: They're to blame for her becoming a 96yo extremely pissed off cat lady.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Eren Li, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA, DS stories