When Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror flick Alien premiered in 1979, it introduced audiences to the terrifying and hulking Xenomorph and the doomed but memorable seven-member crew of the Nostromo. Despite their best efforts to blast the Xenomorph out of the airlock, each of the crew dies, one by one, with Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley (and her cat Jones) as the sole survivors. Aliens, James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, sees Ripley rescued after 57 years in stasis. Once returned to Earth, she reveals the fate of the crew to her employers, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
While Ripley speaks, dossiers of the crew appear on the screen behind her, showing never-before-seen facts about each member of the Nostromo. One eagle-eyed Twitter user noted that the file of navigator Joan Lambert (played by Veronica Cartwright) reveals she was a male at birth and reassigned female. It’s a small but meaningful reveal that places Lambert as one of the earliest transgender characters to appear in a blockbuster film.
Mack's Musings 