By Sigourney Weaver is one of Hollywood’s most recognisable stars. She has been nominated for an Academy Award three times in addition to TV and stage accolades during a career that began on the big screen with a small part in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977.
This was followed by the film that would forever make her one of American cinema’s greatest female actors – Alien in 1979. Its sequel Aliens, her appearances in Ghostbusters and its sequel, supporting role in Working Girl, and Oscar-nominated turn in Gorillas in the Mist, made Weaver one of the 1980s highest profile actresses.
She has continued to appear in critically acclaimed films ever since with standouts including 1993 comedy Dave, lauded 1997 drama The Ice Storm, and comedy satire Galaxy Quest. She’s also enjoyed huge commercial success with the box office smash hit Avatar in 2009.
The best movies Sigourney Weaver will forever be recognised for
Sigourney Weaver in Dave (1993).
The movies Sigourney Weaver will forever be known for include, most notably, her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien franchise. Beginning with Ridley Scott’s austere 1979 masterpiece, Weaver has held her own in a world of machismo, testosterone and killer organisms with acid for blood.
The New Yorker paved the way for a different type of female role in the Alien franchise, one that didn’t play on femininity or objectify her sexually. She was the hero in the mould of a character once the reserve of a male-only club; strong, brave, intelligent, self-reliant.
Its the type of character she’s built her career around, receiving Oscar nominations for Gorillas in the Mist (in which she portrayed the courageous naturalist Dian Fossey) and Working Girl (when she played super-bitch Manhattan associate Katharine Parker).
Honourable Mention
Dave
Dir. Reitman (1993)
Kevin Kline is a well meaning, morally wholesome small business owner who looks very much like America’s President. When the Commander-in-Chief has a stroke, he is recruited by the White House to maintain a façade that all is well at the top of government.
The film might have one of the most improbable premises but Dave is an ocean of sugar that is bound to smuggle its way into the hearts of even those without a sweet tooth. Weaver plays the president’s estranged wife who is hoodwinked into thinking the imposter is actually her husband.
10. Imaginary Heroes
Dir. Harris (2004)
Weaver shines as the mother of a seemingly content high schooler who tragically commits suicide. The film focuses on how the various members of the family deal with the death but it is Weaver, her steely maternal façade beginning to crack, who helps Imaginary Heroes rise above its tonal inadequacies and lack of invention.
9. Galaxy Quest
Dir. Parisot (1999)
A smart parody of science-fiction television and celebrity, Dean Parisot’s amusing sci-fi-comedy sees a group of has-been television personalities transported into space to save an alien race from powerful aggressors.
This quirky treat has a great premise: aliens, with no concept of fiction, have mistaken television broadcasts for historical documentaries and therefore believe the cast of Galaxy Quest, a Star Trek-like series, have the ability to lead them to peace. A stellar cast including Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell and Alan Rickman ensure this nineties gem remains a favourite of many.
8. Ghostbusters
Dir. Reitman (1984)
A much-loved comedy from the 1980s and one of the biggest commercial hits for Weaver, here she plays Dana Barrett, a New Yorker who comes to the attentions of the Ghostbusters after things start going bump in the night.
The best thing about Weaver in Ivan Reitman’s comedy is her interplay with Bill Murray; him inappropriately flirting, her knocking back his come-ons with cool disinterest.
7. The Girl In The Park
Dir. Auburn (2007)
Weaver gives a quietly restrained but intimately powerful performance in David Auburn’s directorial debut The Girl in the Park. She plays Julia Sandburg, a successful middle-class mother living in New York.
She has all the trappings of the perfect American Dream – two kids, husband, a singing career and an album release. But it’s all taken away from her when, on a trip to the local park, her three-year-old daughter Maggie disappears.
The film then fast-forwards to many years later. Here we see an assured Weaver as a mother weathered by psychological torment, her intermittent moments of outward anxiety an indication of her frailty as well as her courage.
6. Working Girl
Dir. Nicholls (1989)
Working Girl shifts the male-dominated power balance in Manhattan to Melanie Griffith’s eager-eyed Tess McGill. Ahead of her in the queue is Weaver’s Katharine Parker, a stab-you-in-the-back associate who exhibits everything cutthroat about the industry that stands in Tess’s aspirational way. Weaver is wonderfully devilish as the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
5. A Map Of The World
Dir. Elliott (1999)
Weaver plays Alice Goodwin, a school nurse, whose life is turned upside down when the child of a friend dies on her property. Undoubtedly one of the actress’s best performances, here she portrays a complex combination of stubbornness, unfulfillment, anger and defiance as events conspire against her.
4. Death And The Maiden
Dir. Roman Polanski (1995)
This icy chamber piece based on Ariel Dorfman’s play sees Sigourney Weaver deliver one of her most compelling and nuanced performances. She plays Paulina Escobar, a political rebel haunted by memories of being tortured and raped by rogue government agents.
When her husband (Stuart Wilson) comes home one night during a storm with a charming stranger (Ben Kingsley), she believes the unexpected guest was the ringleader during her captivity and is determined, in any way possible, to get a confession. Weaver is brilliant as a woman who has risen from breaking point to earn her revenge; the powerless to the powerful.
3. Gorillas In The Mist
Dir. Apted (1988)
Weaver plays naturalist Dian Fossey, a staunch conservationist who spent years in Rwanda standing up to poachers and opposing tourism in wildlife habitats.
Roger Ebert said it is “impossible to imagine a more appropriate choice for the role” of Fossey, a performance which earned Weaver an Academy Award nomination at the 61st Oscars.
2. The Ice Storm
Dir. Lee (1997)
Sigourney Weaver is neighbourhood seductress Janey Carver in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, a film set over Thanksgiving weekend 1973 when the dysfunctional realities of two families – the Hoods and the Carvers – play out amidst drugs, alcohol, adultery and sexual exploration.
Weaver earned the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Ice Storm, and plenty of critical praise. It’s an impeccably crafted film – one that’s uniquely perceptive about the American family dynamic, relationships and the human condition – that ranks as her best outside of the first two Alien movies.
1. Alien Franchise
Dir. Scott (1979), Cameron (1986), Fincher (1993), Jeunet (1998)
Alien (1979)
Weaver’s Ripley satisfying evolves across the Alien franchise but it’s in Cameron’s 1986 film Aliens where her character truly becomes the kick-ass movie heroine.
Sent to help a team of heavily armed marines investigate a distant planet after contact is lost with its terraforming community, Ripley’s perceived safe passage is quickly revealed to be anything but.
Aliens (1986)
Finding not one terrifying alien creature but hundreds, the marines are quickly overrun. It isn’t long before the surviving soldiers turn to Ripley to plan and lead their escape.
Ripley’s brave tenacity is perfectly framed by the crumbling machismo all around her, which is made all the more captivating by Weaver’s Oscar-nominated performance.
Alien 3 (1993)
Ellen Ripley in an initial three-film arc (Alien, Aliens and Alien 3) finds herself up against a terrifying and unpredictable threat that first sees her trying to save the crew of the space freighter “Nostromo” before, after her exploit with the marines, fending off an alien as well as a group of nefarious criminals imprisoned on Fury-161. Weaver’s powerhouse performances are a pioneering example of female heroism in roles typically the reserve of male leads.
Why the movies Sigourney Weaver stars in continue to captivate
What makes the movies Sigourney Weaver stars in so powerful is her unwavering ability to bring intelligence, strength, and emotional complexity to every role, whether she’s battling aliens or navigating the intricacies of family tragedy. From her game-changing performance as Ripley in the Alien franchise to her BAFTA-winning turn in The Ice Storm, Weaver consistently defies the stereotypes traditionally assigned to women in film.
Her portrayal of Ripley, in particular, revolutionised the action genre by placing a woman at its centre — not as a damsel in distress but as a resilient, capable leader whose bravery eclipsed that of her male counterparts. In Gorillas in the Mist, she channels the same determination in a very different context, embodying Dian Fossey’s fierce commitment to conservation with moving realism.
Even in comedic or more understated roles, the movies Sigourney Weaver chooses often hinge on her ability to balance authority with vulnerability. In Working Girl, she plays a manipulative executive with icy charm, while in The Girl in the Park, she quietly captures the deep psychological scars of a grieving mother. Films like Dave and Galaxy Quest show off her comic timing and charisma, adding levity without diminishing the emotional stakes.
Across all these performances, she brings a commanding presence that grounds even the most outlandish plots in something authentic and human. Whether in sci-fi epics, domestic dramas, or satirical comedies, Weaver’s work continues to resonate because she treats every character with depth and seriousness — making her one of cinema’s most enduring and compelling figures.
If you enjoyed our look at the best movies of Sigourney Weaver’s career, you might also like:
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With the superheroes of Marvel and DC battling it out for box office supremacy, the movie hero has never been so obviously a part of 21st century popular culture. But many of Hollywood’s most iconic achievements – and Tinseltown’s biggest commercial successes – are founded upon heroic figures who emerge from unlikely places.
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