Alice Cullen: Who She Is, Who Plays Her and What Her Visions Do

Alice Cullen is one of the adopted Cullen siblings, a vampire in the family led by Carlisle Cullen and Esme Cullen, and the one member whose gift is seeing what is coming. She is played by Ashley Greene in every film, billed fifth in Twilight (2008), directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and sixth in both The Twilight Saga: New Moon and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.

In the first film she is one of the pale, unusually close group of siblings that Bella Swan notices at her new school in Forks, Washington. From New Moon onward, Alice becomes far more than background, because her visions turn into a plot device that the story keeps returning to.

She is credited as Alice Cullen in all five films, with no alternate name in the credits. Her family sits alongside Jasper (credited as Jasper in 2008 and Jasper Hale afterward), Rosalie, Emmett and the rest of the household described on the Cullen family page. If you are tracking her across the saga, twilight movies in order shows where each appearance falls, and the twilight characters index covers the rest of the ensemble.

Alice's closest ties are to the Cullens, to Bella, and to Jasper, and the films use each one to show a different side of her gift. With Edward, she is a sibling whose visions he has to take seriously, which is exactly why her false vision of Bella's death in New Moon sends him to Italy. With Bella, she goes from watchful family member to the person who physically brings her across the ocean to stop a disaster.

Was Alice in love with Bella? The films frame her as a loyal friend and future family member, and nothing in the plots presents the bond as romantic. Her actions are those of a sister protecting a sister.

Jasper (played by Jackson Rathbone) is the family member whose moment of lost control sets New Moon in motion, and in Eclipse he explains to the group, and to Bella, how newborns fight, drawing on his own past. Carlisle and Esme Cullen remain the parental anchors of the household, and Alice stands with them at the final confrontation. Her last vision in Part 2 connects her to Renesmee and Jacob Black, whom she sees together in a happy future.

In my opinion, Alice's best moments are the ones where her gift costs her something, because they turn a handy superpower into character. The first is the cliff jump in New Moon: she sees the jump and wrongly tells Edward that Bella is dead, and that single wrong conclusion sets the Italian chapter running. It is a smart piece of plotting, since the audience is shown that even a seer can be fooled.

The second is the trip to Volterra, where Alice brings Bella to Italy so she can reach Edward just before he exposes himself to the sun. It could be argued that it is the film's most urgent sequence, and Ashley Greene plays it with a practical, no fuss determination.

The third is the Part 2 vision shown to Aro. The film shows a devastating battle, and then reveals that it was Alice's argument, delivered as a picture. It is a fine lesson that a good case can be made without raising your voice. Compared with the larger set pieces of Eclipse, her quieter moments tend to land harder.