In the movie Aliens there is a scene where an Alien manages to sneak onto a transport carrier, and after the carrier takes off, it kills the crew and also the pilot driving the carrier. After that the carrier naturally crashes, and everything is destroyed, including the alien.
That seems pretty weird. There are two explanations possible:
- Either the alien is so dumb that it cannot predict the result of its own actions (IQ too low, I guess). But that kind of contradicts everything else in the movie, especially the way the aliens cut off wires before attacking marines.
- Either an alien does not have a self-preservation instinct and may sacrifice itself in order to achieve a bigger goal (in this case, preventing marines from leaving the planet).
Which variant is more likely to be true?