Do you want to know why Ellen Ripley is such a well written female heroine? It's not because they were making a film and said āWe need a strong female leadā or because some focus group asked for a sci-fi horror flick featuring a strong independent woman. It wasn't even a clever take on āThe last girl standingā trope from every slasher film from the era. No, it was simply that Dan O'Bannon, The person who wrote the script, Never even considered Ellen Ripley's sex. He originally wrote it for a maā¦