Newt (fictional character)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rebecca 'Newt' Jordan is a fictional character who was portrayed by child actress Carrie Henn in 1986 movie Aliens, the second in the Alien film series.
[edit] Character history
Newt is a 7-8 year old citizen of the terraforming colony on LV-426, and the second of two children in her immediate family. It is revealed she is was in the second grade when the attack happened through a photo award that Ripley finds in the child's shelter.
During a survey, Newt's parents discover the alien derelict ship that was discovered by the crew of Nostromo in Alien. Her parents decide to investigate the ship, and as a result Newt's father becomes the first colonist to be impregnated by an alien facehugger/chestburster.
Newt survives resulting invasion by the aliens by taken refuge in the colony's air duct system, using tunnels that are too small for the aliens to enter. She is later rescued by Ripley and the Colonial Marines who investigate the colony after weeks of it being cut off from contact with Earth.
During their time together Newt and Ripley quickly bond, for Newt is an orphan who has just lost her parents and Ripley is a mother who has just lost her child. It is because of this bond that Ripley ventures into the alien hive to save Newt when she is captured by the aliens.
Although Newt is saved by Ripley at high risk during the climax of Aliens, she dies during the opening events of Alien³ as the result of an apparent failure of the suspended animation system.
In the R2 Special Edition cut of Alien: Resurrection Newt is briefly referenced in the chapel in a discussion between Ripley 8 and Call as well as in the scene where Ripley 8 is shown a drawing of a young, blond girl, which seems to trigger an emotional memory in her.
More of Newt's story and how the Alien invasion of LV-426 began is explored in the 2-part comic Aliens: Newt's Tale.
An older Newt was a main character in Dark Horse's early Aliens comics, and was revealed to have spent ten years in psychiatric care due to the trauma from the film. Reprints of the comics made after Alien 3 have Newt's name edited out and replaced with "Billie".
[edit] Character motivation
Newt was introduced in the movie Aliens to provide a sympathetic counterpoint to the lead character of Ellen Ripley. Newt, newly orphaned from the unseen events earlier in the film, quickly bonds with and adopts Ripley as a parental figure, creating an emotional bond that movie viewers could sympathise with. Ripley in turn loses her previously distant attitude that people who have been kidnapped by the xenomorphs are not worth saving, and in deciding to enter the xenomorph nest to rescue Newt, develops further as a strong and dedicated character. In deleted scenes which have been restored to the Director's Cut of Aliens, it is revealed that while Ripley was in suspended animation after the events of Alien, she outlived her own daughter by two years. It is the loss of her own daughter that results in the intensity with which Ripley decides to protect Newt at all costs.
