The following contains spoilers for Alien Romulus, now playing in theaters.
Summary
Fede Álvarez’sAlien: Romulusis one of the best-reviewedAlienfilms since the 1979 original, and it makes some notable expansions to the lore of the previous installments. The classic Ridley ScottAlienmovie was lightning in a bottle, mixing sci-fi with horror elements to create an entirely unique, existentially daunting cinematic experience. The subsequentAlienmovies vary in quality, butAlien: Romulusmakes an effort to hold even the more divisive installments in high regard, exploring elements of the mythology that they contributed.
In an era oversaturated by franchise movies that struggle to match the appeal of their predecessors,Alien: Romulusoffers an excellent balance of old and new.Romulusmakes severalreferences to 1979’sAlien, but it also crucially develops clever new ideas around them.Rather than ignoring the more divisiveAlienprequels,PrometheusandCovenant, the new movie incorporates several elements from them, enriching its plot with their expanded lore. It’s a homage to everything that came before as if all the previousAlienfilms worked together for something new.
8Alien: Romulus Introduces A New Hybrid
Alien: Romulus' Final Boss Is A Terrifying Hybrid
One of the most fascinating parts ofAlienlore is the various species and how they’re interconnected.Alien: Romulusintroduces anew form of the Xenomorphin the film’s ending, incorporating elements from the originalAlienandPrometheus. The hybrid is birthed by Kay (Isabela Merced), who’s revealed to be pregnant early on in the film. But itsform is drastically altered by a substance found on the Renaissance ship, which came from scientists experimenting on the XenomorphfromAlien.
This new combination is one of the most horrifying creatures in the franchise so far, perhaps since the originalAlienXenomorph.
The substance is meant to be used to improve human life, so Kay takes it when she’s brutally injured by a Xenomorph. While it seems to save her for some time, the untested substance eventually transforms her unborn baby into an entirely new life form, and it’s terrifying. Thebeing has the paleness and some features of the Engineers, along with elongated human elements and aspects of the typical Xenomorph, including its hostility. This new combination is one of the most horrifying creatures in the franchise so far, perhaps since the originalAlienXenomorph.
7Ian Holm Appears As Rook
Ian Holm Played Ash In Alien (1979)
One of the more controversial decisions inAlien: Romuluswas bringing back the late great Sir Ian Holm with CGI. The actor, who passed away in 2020, previously played the hidden android character Ash in Ridley Scott’sAlien, and his appearance in the new film was kept a secret.Ian Holm appears inAlien: Romulusas a new android named Rook, as Ash was killed in the original movie.Rook is a rebuilt version of one of the Ash androidsand is modeled similarly to him in terms of voice appearance.
Due to Ian Holm’s passing, Rook is voiced by Daniel Betts.
Audiences know from Michael Fassbender’s David and Walter androids that it’s not uncommon for the species to reuse appearances. Rook and Ash aren’t too dissimilar, with theRomuluscharacter even reusing Ash’s famous final line, “I can’t lie to you about your chances.“Rook is also guided by a directive to support Weyland and bring the new substance back to human civilizationto be utilized. Rook is used in the film as a direct continuation of Ash, creating an antagonistic android to oppose Andy, who subverts the evil robot trope.
6The Fate Of The Nostromo Is Revealed
Alien: Romulus Shows The Nostromo Wreckage
Alienfans will remember the Nostromo as the vessel in the original 1979 film. It was a small mining ship that found a distress beacon, which led to the events of the original movie. At the end of that film, the survivors attempt to leave the Xenomorph on the ship and set it to self-destruct, with Ellen Ripley being the only one to make it off before it detonates. InRomulus,the destroyed remains of the original Nostromo ship are shown, though it’s not immediately clear for what reason it was recovered.
Alien: Romulustakes place roughly twenty years after the original movie. At some point between the two, the sinisterWeyland-Yutani company retrieved the Nostromo to be brought back for examination. What they were looking for, however, ties the originalAlienmovie to the plot ofPrometheusandAlien: Covenant. Weyland-Yutani hoped to find something to help them locate the Xenomorph. This led to them finding the actual alien from the original movie, just as Ripley left it.
Alien: Romulus Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Becomes One Of Franchise’s Best Since 1986
Alien: Romulus becomes the latest iteration in the sci-fi franchise, with Rotten Tomatoes audience score indicating it as one of its best since 1986.
5The Original Alien Was Found
Weyland-Yutani Scientists Found The Xenomorph From Alien
One of the most exciting reveals early on inAlien: Romulusis that the original Xenomorph from Ridley Scot’sAlienwas found and studied. Apparently,the Xenomorph was able to cocoon itself and survived the original Nostromo explosion, resulting in it being discovered at some point between the two filmsby the scientists on the Renaissance space station. This is one of the many successful callbacks in the new film to the original, as it’s a fun way of tying the franchise together with meaningful cohesion.
To add,Alien: Romulusexplains that Weyland-Yutari discovered the black goo fromPrometheuswhile experimenting on the Xenomorph,directly connecting the entireAlienfranchise. This was essentially David’s plan inAlien: Covenant, but the additional aspect of using the familiar Xenomorph, shown with the harpoon pierced through its chest, is awesome for fans of the franchise. In addition, Rain ends up defeating her alien antagonist in a similar fashion to how Ripley combated the original Xenomorph.
4Alien: Romulus Explains The Xenomorph Life Cycle
The Movie Shows How Xenomorphs Grow
TheAlienfranchise has introduced audiences to some nightmare-inducing, vile creatures, but there’s still not a whole lot known about them within the context of the films. In the originalAlien, the chestburster explodes out of Kane’s chest, and it’s not long at all before that chestburster transforms into a fully grown alien that’s able to outsize adult humans.Alien: Romulushas its own chestburster scene, and it actually explains what they do to stimulate such quick growthand become full-size Xenomorphs.
Navarro is the unlucky first death inAlien: Romulus, who’s killed by the chestburster. Shortly after,Bjorn and Kay find a cocoon on the wall, demonstrating how the chestbursters mature. The alien creatures often spend most of the films off-screen, so this was the first time the films have actually shown how they develop. Bjorn tries to zap the fleshy cocoon in order to kill the creature before it can grow, but it bleeds acid, resulting in one ofAlien: Romulus' most gory deaths.
3Prometheus' Black Goo Returns
Scientists Were Experimenting With The Black Goo Between Alien & Alien: Romulus
Prometheuswas a divisive movie, but it did wonders to expand the lore ofAlien’sworld. One major element it introduced wasthe mysterious black goo, which seems to have the ability to create, take, and transform life. David uses it to murder a massive civilization of Engineers inAlien: Covenant, but it’s also used to create new lifeforms on multiple occasions in the franchise. TheAlienfranchise could’ve left the black goo behind for good, butRomulusreintroduces it.
Weyland-Yutani Corp recovered the Xenomorph from the Nostromo wreckage and extracted the black goo from it. Thescientists aboard the Renaissance were using the goo to create their substance in hopes of evolving humanity, but a new Xenomorph was unleashed and destroyed their team, taking over the space station. Had the Corbelan crew not arrived, the fate of this substance and experiment would’ve been lost to humanity.
2Alien: Romulus Explains How The Facehuggers See
Andy Provides Long-Awaited Alien Exposition
The facehuggers are another creature that have commonly appeared throughout theAlienfranchise yet offer little explanation. They’re terrifying little beings that pounce on human targets, latching onto their faces and orally implanting chestbursters into them. This is what happens to Navarro inAlien: Romulus. A point of confusion throughout theAlienmovies, however, is how the facehuggers track their targets. Not much is known about their physiology, but it’s clear that they have no eyes.
In the facehugger scene early on inAlien: Romulus,Andy reveals that the creatures track their prey using heat and sound.The biology of the various alien creatures isn’t vital for enjoying the films, and their mystique actually has some of its own appeal, but this detail provides a simple, satisfying answer to one of the franchise’s oldest questions.
Where Ripley Is During Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus focuses on a new group of characters, leaving questions about where Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley is during the movie.
1Peter Weyland’s Mission Ultimately Failed
The Weyland-Yutani Corp Substance Doesn’t Work
The name Weyland was a phantom behind theAlienfranchise for years before the man was finally shown on screen in 2012’sPrometheus, played by Guy Pearce. He goes forth on the Prometheus mission in an effort to meet humankind’s creators, with his crew ultimately discovering the Engineers with the help of the android David. Audiences already know that Peter Weyland himself failed when he was killed by the Last Engineer, butAlien: Romulusshows the results of his efforts.
Had Weland found what he was looking for instead of being killed, he likely would have fallen to a similarly horrific fate in his attempt to become immortal.
Weyland hoped that the Engineers would be able to prevent him from dying, which is the same purpose as the substance developed by the Renaissance crew using the black goo. As shown by what happens to Kay at the end ofAlien: Romulus,the substance doesn’t result in her extended life but instead creates the monstrous hybrid. Had Weland found what he was looking for instead of being killed, he likely would have fallen to a similarly horrific fate in his attempt to become immortal.
Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.
