Alien: Romulus (2024)

[paeng]

But the Weyland-Yutani Corporation knew about the xenomorphs long before the first film, that's why Nostromo was diverted. And space is big. There are colonies with very patchy contact, there are sleeper ships on long voyages. I can accept that the general population is unaware but that para-military corporations could know. There had been contact before the first film - the 'space jockey' alien's ship had encountered them first. The question is why 'once met an alien' Ripley was sent on the mission as an advisor in the second film, if the marines were never going to take her advice. Some think the idea was to deliberately infect the marines, but there was no guarantee that they would return infected with the xenomorph. That seems too complicated to me. And if WY already had a xenomorph in Romulus Lab, then they don't need another one.

When add sequels and prequels into a series that was only ever meant to be a single film, you always have these problems with canon (unless it is time travel when you can say that an alternative reality was created.)

Thanks. I mentioned this several times in some threads. Here's what I think happened:

Given the prequels, at least W-Y knew about the creatures, etc., and because of that set up the special order and a bio-weapons division. Ripley and other employees didn't know about the first but knew about the second. I don't know if she and others ever connected that division to their contracts, which state that if a signal from intelligent life is detected, then they must investigate or they lose all earnings from the trip.

W-Y knew about but could not find the creatures or alien ships, so when they detected a signal from LV-426, they suspected that that could be an alien ship. Seeing that the Nostromo was traveling closest to rock, the company replaced the science officer with Ash (who like other synths know about the special order and would follow it; that is, acquire organisms, etc., for W-Y, even if it means making the ship crew expendable) when the ship was docked at Thedus.

When Mother detects the signal, it reroutes the Nostromo towards it, which is strange because only the Captain has authority to reroute the ship. The only one who can override him is W-Y, the ship owners, and even if Mother is pre-programmed, the Captain would have transmitted to the company for confirmation. In any event, it would not have mattered because if they didn't investigate then they would be in breach of contract and lose all earnings.

Meanwhile, W-Y knew at least about LV-426 (unless Mother, being so sophisticated as to operate a while ship while the crew was asleep, could so something as transmit messages continuously to W-Y, especially about the landing coordinates), so even with the disappearance of the Nostromo, could have sent other ships along the same route to investigate the distress signal during the next 50+ years, even during the last 20-30 when it built a colony on the same rock. And yet the second movie implies it did not do any of that.

According to Cameron, in an article published after the second movie came out, the reason why they could not detect the signal was because the beacon was later damaged by volcanic activity; he also wanted to express how that also damaged the derelict ship through unused long shots of the vessel.

Meanwhile, one video game shows that another ship found the Nostromo flight recorder, visited the site, and turned off the beacon so that others could not find the derelict craft. And now this new movie implies similar.

 

[Swank]

True.

I’ve often wondered why they kill. Perhaps it’s for sustenance but we never see a xenomorph actually eating a human. It can’t be for reproduction because humans are kept alive to host the offspring. Even the shark - one of our most misunderstood earth creatures - might look like something evil but kills for a very specific reason. The alien reason is unclear at best and, at worst, has simply been disregarded by lazy scriptwriters.

Another area that confuses me is their origin. It looks as if, in Prometheus, they accidentally evolve from some kind of microscopic life form that comes in contact with the Engineers’ fluid. Contrary to this, I’m left with the feeling that they were developed purely as a weapon (which would explain the Weyland Yutani interest).

And where does Covenant fit into all of this?

I suppose this confusion is the problem with extending, what was meant to be a single movie, into a multi-movie franchise.

I sometimes like to ignore all the other chefs that screw up the original recipe. The first film - to me - seems to give the story of a super nasty alien life form that evolved somewhere naturally. And the film reveals, step by step, just how ridiculously dangerous this thing is. Its eggs can sit in the cold for ages, it grows incredibly fast, it can adapt to almost any host, it has acid blood and it seems to be extremely good at hiding and living in technology - to the point that it flees the Nostromo for the shuttle when self destruct is activated. Yet it was born with that savvy.

It doesn't seem to be a killer as much as breeder. It leaves the cat alone, and seemed to understand that Ripley is needed to operate the shuttle.

A lot of that is to make it scarier - what is it doing, how is it doing it, why is it doing it? But the underlying point seems to be that it is perfect lifeform from the standpoint of survivability - it can make use of any host's biology and environment. It doesn't seemingly need much of anything but more hosts to carry on its species, or to settle down to wait like it seems to be doing in the end of the film.


It's easy to come up with hives and queens and why there would be frontal assaults, but that's not what logically follows from what we see in Alien. By the time Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he has however many other movies to deal with, so he changes his own back story to suit his new script desires. But I think we really missed out on a much more insidious and deliberate creature.

 

[ctg]

And where does Covenant fit into all of this?

David's Revenge? He created something else than the aliens as he altered the species samples to make his "babies," but he wasn't the one who wiped out the Engineers back in the day. He committed that on their home planet, but you can assume that he's craziness was caused by Elisabeth trying to put him back together and cocking it up.

It is far more interesting to speculate what would have been, if the Engineers had survived...

 

[Foxbat]

It is far more interesting to speculate what would have been, if the Engineers had survived.

I agree. Given the beginning of Prometheus, it would essentially be confronting Humanity’s creator (or, dare I say it…god).

Talking of David - given that he took the Engineer tech and used it against them, would he be The Modern Prometheus Mark 2.0?

 

[ctg]

Talking of David - given that he took the Engineer tech and used it against them, would he be The Modern Prometheus Mark 2?

Most certainly as he did fly too close to sun, and he was even more mentally unstable than the original boy.

 

[Toby Frost]

I sometimes like to ignore all the other chefs that screw up the original recipe. The first film - to me - seems to give the story of a super nasty alien life form that evolved somewhere naturally.

I agree. I always saw the Alien in Alien as something "from beyond", where the normal laws of physics don't apply: 75% actual alien life-form and 25% weird secular demon, a bit like Cthulhu or an MR James monster. As ever with these things, neatly answering all the questions that arise isn't as interesting as the questions themselves.

Of course, it might be that the Alien Alien is young and confused, and hasn't worked out how to use unfamiliar human tech yet. Maybe, if Ripley hadn't killed it, it would have figured out how to operate the Nostromo.

 

[Foxbat]

Maybe a movie from the alien perspective. Imagine Aliens as seen from the view the queen. Here come all these creatures with objects that spit fire to kill her offspring and destroy her clutch of eggs. How evil these creatures must be to do such a thing.

 

[Swank]

One thing that seems to confuse people is that there doesn't appear to be FTL communication in Alien. The Nostromo crew cannot ask for orders or be remotely monitored - the ships are much faster than any signal. So losing contact with the colony in Aliens may have been through relay drone ships rather than direct communications.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Movie looks good, although I wouldn't be a fan of face-huggers bring the primary foe, chasing pepple around the ship.

 

[Poe]

I love thé Alien universe but I am a bit worried about this film. I know it’s only the first teaser but there’s nothing to it. There’s no plot to grab onto or interesting bits that make you think “I wonder what’s happening here!” - at least, in my opinion.

 

[ctg]

One thing that seems to confuse people is that there doesn't appear to be FTL communication in Alien. The Nostromo crew cannot ask for orders or be remotely monitored - the ships are much faster than any signal. So losing contact with the colony in Aliens may have been through relay drone ships rather than direct communications.

Humanity doesn't have it, but the Predators definitely have it, and they are part of the Alien universe. It's just, if you take out Alien vs Predator movies, there is a lot of potential for the FTL. But for the horror's sake it's not allowed, because the long journeys are creepier.

I love thé Alien universe but I am a bit worried about this film. I know it’s only the first teaser but there’s nothing to it. There’s no plot to grab onto or interesting bits that make you think “I wonder what’s happening here!” - at least, in my opinion.

Oh, there are plenty of bits, if you are willing to explore. And to be honest, they've come a long way since Ripley days. A lot of people know what's in the store when the fellow with two mouths arrive at the big screen. To me, personally, it's seeing all the atrocities that the corporation has done and deepening the lore.

If they'll use Seegson's droids in the play, they can create so many unseen terror moments on the big screen moments with them. It creeps me out all time when the Xenos are friends with them, and sometimes use them to create traps.

 

[paeng]

I agree. I always saw the Alien in Alien as something "from beyond", where the normal laws of physics don't apply: 75% actual alien life-form and 25% weird secular demon, a bit like Cthulhu or an MR James monster. As ever with these things, neatly answering all the questions that arise isn't as interesting as the questions themselves.

Of course, it might be that the Alien Alien is young and confused, and hasn't worked out how to use unfamiliar human tech yet. Maybe, if Ripley hadn't killed it, it would have figured out how to operate the Nostromo.

One wonders if they were able to cut the power before attacking the survivors in the second movie, and it looked like they were operating as a mental hive, looking for weak points and exploiting them. Later, in the hive, the queen orders the warriors to withdraw by just looking at them.

In the third movie, some point out that it was vicious, as if toying with its human prey and enjoying the hunt.

Also, I think in the fourth movie one was able to escape by killing its companion and then using the acid blood to destroy the prison walls.

 

[paeng]

What's notable about the first two movies is that they used natural dialogue and behavior, the equivalent of blue-collar workers, and slow and steady rise in action, as seen in suspense used for horror in the first (the creature in the shadows most of the time) and, strangely enough, much of content consisting of drama, exposition, and even some humor in what is described as an action movie for the second (the main action starts over an hour later into the movie).

For now, this one reminds me of that Army of the Dead movie, but instead of zombies we have aliens.

 

[ctg]

 

[Dave]

from X (formerly Twitter)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1783886270588219436

 

[paeng]

 

[KGeo777]

My reaction to the trailer

Y A W N

 

[ctg]

I tried to buy tickets for this yesterday but it's not even been released yet.

 

[CupofJoe]

The film is aimed at a new generation of viewers that have probably never heard of let alone watched the original Alien films.
So I can see why you would want to pay "homage" to them in a new film. Take the "cool" bits and make then shiny and new, or in this case extra grim and grimy. I can spot scenes that look like reshoots of bits of Alien, Aliens and Alien3 and I wasn't looking that hard [and more probably stuff from the computer games that I haven't played].

 

[Toby Frost]

As someone who loves Alien and Aliens, to paraphrase The Simpsons: Stop! Stop! It's already dead.