Top 5 final girls in horror films (casually killed off in the sequel)

via 20th Century Fox

4. Newt (Aliens)

Okay, I might be stretching it a little with this one. Technically, the little girl in Aliens, Newt, isn’t the “final girl” in the film. After all, Ellen Ripley survives along with her. But here’s the thing — Ripley is in a league all of her own. She’s a badass, Xenomorph-killing machine. It just doesn’t feel right to put her in with a group of scared babysitters and camp counselors. With this in mind, Newt is the final girl of Aliens, besides Ripley.

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter much anyway, as Alien 3 wastes no time in killing off poor little Newt. The tough little girl survives until the end of Aliens with Ripley, Hicks, and Bishop, but the next film’s opening would reveal that an alien has stowed away on board. A fire breaks out, ejecting the four survivors out of the ship in an escape pod, which crash lands nearby.

When Ripley awakens from her slumber soon after, she is informed that she is the sole survivor of the crash. Newt and Hicks were apparently killed (as was the robotic Bishop, who gets revived later). Ripley ensures that Newt wasn’t carrying an embryo by insisting on an autopsy, for whatever consolation that’s worth.