Amanda Ripley (character)

Amanda Ripley
Aliens character
Likeness of Kezia Burrows as Amanda Ripley
First appearance	Aliens (1986)
First game	Alien: Isolation (2014)
Created by	James Cameron
Voiced by	Andrea Deck (Isolation)
Motion capture	Kezia Burrows (Isolation)
Portrayed by	Elizabeth Inglis (Aliens)

Amanda "Amy" Ripley is a fictional character in the Alien franchise. The daughter of the protagonist of the film series, Ellen Ripley, Amanda is first introduced in the extended version of Aliens. Amanda Ripley is the protagonist of the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation, which is set 42 years prior to Aliens.

A deleted scene from the film Aliens, which was later included on DVD releases, reveals that Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) has a daughter, Amanda. She was ten years old during the events of Alien, but grew up, married (taking on the surname McClaren) and died during her mother's 57-year stasis between the events of the first two films. A picture of Amanda as an elderly adult is shown to Ripley. The picture is actually Weaver's real-life mother, Elizabeth Inglis. The scene was cut from the film due to 20th Century Fox's concerns about length. Weaver was furious at the removal, considering it to be crucial to Ellen Ripley's character development in the film, taking on a protective mother role to the young character Rebecca "Newt" Jorden. In James Cameron's 1983 Alien II treatment for what would become Aliens, Amanda (then unnamed) was alive, but old and crippled. When her mother contacted her from the Gateway Station, Amanda blames her for her absence.

For the video game Alien: Isolation, most early development was done with a female test dummy, with it being "almost just an assumption" that the lead would be a female character. The game chose to focus on Amanda. The developers wanted Amanda to echo some of her mother's traits, while being her own distinct character. Examples given of how she mirrored Ellen Ripley included her determination, while also initially being colder than Ellen.Isolation utilised performance-capture acting in an attempt to bring believability to its characters.

Amanda was conceived during a layover between haulage trips. Though this contravened Weyland-Yutani policy, her mother was not disciplined and the pregnancy was allowed to come to term. Amanda was delivered in a home birth. She was ten years old when Ellen Ripley disappeared aboard the Nostromo. According to the canonical novel Alien: Out of the Shadows, Amanda's father walked out on her and Ellen when Amanda was three years old. Ripley had promised Amanda that she would be home for her 11th birthday.