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There is a well-known image from James Cameron's science-fiction movie Aliens (1986) showing Ripley and Newt escaping from the queen and her xenomorphic fellows (see below). One of the two heroines (I assume it is Newt) holds a tubular item in her left hand. Does anybody know what item that is?

Ripley and Newt escaping from the aliens

Author's Edit:

The answer given below states that the tubular item is the neck of Newt's doll Casey - and the answer is right. My initial assumption, that this image shows the final escape from the alien queen was wrong. The picture is from an earlier scene where Ripley and Newt try to flee from a facehugger by crawling under a bed. Hence, the image shows them lying on the floor.

The misleading issue is the fact that the picture does not have the correct orientation: it was rotated by 90 degrees. However, this photo has been floating around with that false orientation for years (and probably decades). I found it recently in a TV magazine. To prove that the image orientation was incorrect a priori (thus absolving me of guilt), I am providing a larger version with the magazine's image caption written onto the picture. The text is German and could be literally translated as: "Newt (Carrie Henn, r.) has escaped from the aliens, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) quickly brings her to safety". (This sentence would be basically correct for both scenes.) Here is the extended image:

Ripley and Newt escaping from the facehuggers

Now that the question is answered, I am wondering why the image has been around all these years with that deceptive orientation.

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  • Barrel of Ripley's gun?
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 9:11
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    Interesting thought, but the thing looks rather organic to me. Furthermore, if I recall it correctly, I think that Ripley put her gun behind her back before they started to run. Also, the gun (in fact, I think it was a flamethrower with a grenade launcher attached to it) was so heavy that Ripley always needed both hands to hold it. Thirdly, it would have been quite dangerous pointing the gun forward with Newt running ahead and thus accidentally shooting her. Fourth point: the barrel was probably too hot to wrap your fingers around it without burning them.
    – Damar
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 9:23
  • As far as why the image is rotated - somebody probably just thought it was a set photo taken with the camera held sideways, and made the natural mistake of assuming that the subjects were upright. Although it'd mean that Newt is unusually tall for her age...
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 18:57
  • "I am wondering why the image has been around all these years with that deceptive orientation" — WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE?!?!?
    – Paul D. Waite
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 10:30

1 Answer 1

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I think this is "Casey", the head of a doll which was either the remains of hers or one that she found while she was surviving on her own. The "tube" is the bottom of the neck. If I can find a screen shot from the bit where Newt introduces Casey to Ripley earlier in the film, it may confirm this.

Newt holding Casey just before she's captured enter image description here

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    It's definitely Casey: avp.fandom.com/wiki/Casey . The OP was mistaken in thinking the still photo was when Ripley rescues Newt from the Xeno Queen. It's from earlier in the film before Newt gets abducted, when the two facehuggers the colonists had been studying got loose in the medbay. Newt still had Casey with her at the time and never stopped holding tight to the doll until she gets abducted by the xenos and loses it.
    – SpaceWolf1701
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 11:15
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    I think the orientation of this picture is deceptive. Isn't it actually rotated 90 degrees, and they are actually lying on their left sides? The wall on the left of them is actually the bottom of the bed newt was the sleeping under in medbay.
    – Baronet_Canid
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 11:54
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    @Baronet_Canid Correct. The picture should be turned 90 degrees and they're under the bed in the medbay. You can see the facehugger pinned to the wall in the background, too You can also see the zipper of Ripley's leather jacket (which she was wearing in Medical but not in the Queen's nest) and the upper half of her flightsuit in place (she ties it around her waist during the rescue with just her undershirt showing), and Newt never got Casey back after the abduction. This is just after the first facehugger comes at them in Medical at about 01:47:00-ish in the special edition, per my DVD.
    – SpaceWolf1701
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 12:10
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    comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/original/5/55780/… Here's the correct orientation of the photo. You can see it's the floor under the bed a lot clearer here. And a on-set photo of filming the scene: i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b11722f122a57b066df06e0326bec61e0e07c834/… Casey's plainly visible in Carrie Henn's (Newt's) hand) in the latter.
    – SpaceWolf1701
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 12:16
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    I added an image of Newt holding Casey immediately prior to her capture. Please feel free to discard it, it doesn't show the disembodied nature of the dolls head.
    – Binary Worrier
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 17:28

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