Questions tagged [alien-franchise]
For questions about Ridley Scott's Alien film series and related franchise, including prequels, spin-offs, video games and more. Use with the relevant work tag such as [alien-1979], [prometheus], [alien-covenant] etc.
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Was Dan Hedaya's General killed or "pithed" by the xeno?
I know in Alien (first movie) extensive cocooning scenes were cut, and these scenes show I believe at least Dallas and Brett cocooned, even though with the cuts one could easily conclude that the ...
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In Aliens, how was LV-426 able to be colonized by humans when Xenomorphs were present there?
The USS Nostromo encountered Xenomorphs on LV-426 in the year 2122. Furthermore, Xenomorphs remained on that moon during the founding of Hadley's Hope colony in 2157. By that time, surely the ...
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Relationship between turning off cooling system and self destruct -- why was the cooling system involved?
Ripley first turns off the cooling system and then turns it back on (when she decides she does not want the ship destroyed which I do not understand) and tells Mother this as she appeals to the ...
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Why is Parker hostile towards Ash?
Shortly after the captain is killed, Ripley asks Parker to refill a flamethrower and Parker explicitly rejects Ash helping him, saying, "Don't follow me!"
Of course, no one knows Ash is a ...
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Ripley wants to leave shuttle to tell team Mother thinks message is a warning -- why not just tell them?
Ripley says to Ash that it is not an SOS but rather a warning. Then she proposes to him that she go out there and he, disingenuously, sort of stammers, What's the point, by the time you get there they'...
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Was Lambert being transgender known before the release of Aliens?
The inquiry scene of Aliens, which has more details available in the DVD/Blu-Ray extras, shows that the character Lambert was transgender, and transitioned from male to female at birth.
Was this known ...
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Poison on Xenomorphs -- was it ever attempted?
In the scene where Ripley gets a lot of support for her idea of nuking the aliens from space, the first suggestion is to use nerve gas. (Which is not really embraced by anyone -- nuking is "the ...
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Why does Amanda Ripley insert a key card into an emergency telephone when saving the game?
In Alien: Isolation, the player saves the game by interacting with an emergency telephone booth. The game save interaction consists of Amanda Ripley, the player character, inserting a key card into a ...
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With the revelations about what David created, are alien queens effectively retconned out?
In Alien: Covenant we learn that David has been experimenting with, and modifying, the engineers bio technology, and in doing so created the face huggers which are vital to the alien lifecycle.
In ...
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Where can Alien Xenomorphs get fluorine for their acid from?
After reading this question, I commented an observation: the strongest acids we know of from Earth elements contain fluorine, such as fluoroantimonic acid (pH -23) and fluoroboric acid (pH -16) owing ...
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Why the need for a Science Officer on a cargo vessel?
Just been watching the excellent Alien movie and wondered: why would the Nostromo, an innocuous civilian cargo vessel, have a "science officer" on board?
If you need a Science Officer, how ...
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Why would the Nostromo have a self-destruct mechanism?
Just been watching the excellent Alien movie and wondered: why would the Nostromo, an innocuous civilian cargo vessel, have a multi-million-dollar built-in self-destruct mechanism?
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Why didn't Mother accept the deactivation of the Nostromo autodestruction procedure?
Ellen Ripley seems to complete the deactivation of the request either physically or via a voice command, and Mother rejected accomplishing the task. She didn't want to or wasn't able to?
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Does a child play Ash when he is attacked in Alien?
In a YouTube video on Adam Savage's Tested channel, where he meets with the art teacher from North Bergen High School and they are looking at their Ash prop for the Alien play they created, both Adam ...
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Was Ripley paid for her time in hyper-sleep?
In Alien, to escape the alien, Ripley sets the Nostromo to self destruct, meaning to leave via the escape in the shuttle. After killing the alien, Ripley and Jones enter cryo-sleep and are eventually ...
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Have professional dreamers been explored in the Alien franchise?
In the Alan Dean Foster novelisation of the film Alien, the book starts off with:
Seven dreamers.
You must understand that they were not professional dreamers.
Professional dreamers are highly paid, ...
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In Prometheus, is Vickers an android?
I was watching Prometheus again (I don't know why either) and Charlize Theron's performance sure has me thinking she is a robot. Could be she's just playing it as a cold, detached human, but her ...
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Why does Weyland Yutani want a xeno for weapon when they have, for example, androids?
I could see xenos being useful from a medical standpoint but in a time when technology includes not just FTL drives but also controllable androids, what could xenos do as a weapon that would be useful?...
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Is there a connection between "Raised by Wolves" and the Alien universe?
In the first season finale of Raised by Wolves (which is executive produced by Ridley Scott), Mother is almost killed by a mysterious figure in rags (presumably the same figure seen in the cave under ...
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Did David cause the Covenant to stop near to his location?
The whole plot of Covenant seems to hinge on a "singular, random" event, as described by android Walter: a random burst of neutrinos that could not be detected by the ship, that causes the ...
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Novel with a group of soldiers sent to the Xenomorph homeworld to collect specimens, discover that the Xenomorphs are prey there, and they're androids
I think I read this as a paperback somewhere in the early 2000s, pretty sure before 2010. It was a book set in the Aliens franchise. I'm not certain whether it was supposed to be in continuity with ...
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What is meant when the xenomorph is referred to as a "perfect organism?"
Why is the xenomorph referred to as a "perfect organism?" Is it because it is very good at reproducing and does not let sentiment/morals interfere with its decisions?
Always sounded a little ...
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What is this item in the movie Aliens?
There is a well-known image from James Cameron's science-fiction movie Aliens (1986) showing Ripley and Newt escaping from the queen and her xenomorphic fellows (see below). One of the two heroines (I ...
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Why weren't the marines in "Aliens" properly briefed on the cooling towers before they went in? [duplicate]
In the movie Aliens, it takes Ripley and Burke to point out that firing armor-piercing rounds inside a cooling tower is a no-go, since if one of the bullets damaged a tower, the result would be a ...
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The Hammerpede scene -- what was the purpose of going into Millburn's throat?
Of course, knowing what we do now of facehuggers and also the Engineer and the giant octopus, we might assume it intended to impregnate Millburn but as far as I know, it just kills him while his buddy ...
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What enemies did the company intend to use Xenomorphs on?
I find using xenomorphs as weapons problematic -- if the company was interested in xenomorphs for biomedical applications or materials science, I would have found that more plausible.
But given that ...
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What was the exact content of the warning signal transmitted from the derelict in Alien?
I've always assumed that the transmission did not give many details about the xenomorph's biology, other than it was a dangerous organism. In other words, the transmission could probably be summarized ...
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Alien (1979) - Why send humans to collect the Xenomorph?
(Spoilers ahead, though in fairness the movie is 42 years old)
Pretty late in the movie Alien (1979), it's revealed that Weyland Yutani Corporation knew of the existence of the Xenomorphs, and in fact ...
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Prometheus: Immortality of David?
I am trying to think how his makers know that or even could know that David (and other androids) are immortal. The fact that androids have sort of messy and complex insides suggests to me that they ...
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Was a scene in "Alien: Covenant" inspired by the death island painting of Böcklin?
In the movie Alien: Covenant there’s a shot of a dramatically illuminated rock on which tall, thin, poplar-like trees grow.
I took a picture of the scene. The movie was on TV tonight. When I saw the ...
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Why didn’t Ripley and the survivors nuke the derelict ship from orbit?
After taking care of the Alien Queen when she sneaks aboard the Sulaco why didn’t Ripley and the others stay in orbit and destroy the derelict ship before leaving?
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How is it that the alien grows to full size in like 5 minutes in Alien Covenant?
Don't get me wrong, I love Alien, but there seems to be extreme inconsistency in how fast it grows.
Out of curiosity, is a canonical answer ever offered for how the life cycle in Alien Covenant is a ...
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Are Androids sentient in the "Alien" franchise?
Of the known androids in the Alien franchise, Ash, Bishop, Call, David, Walter, do any of them show the basics of being or becoming sentient?
Sentient comes from the Latin sentient-, “feeling,” and it ...
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Why did Captain Dallas not reprimand Ash for failing to spot the chestbuster?
I always wondered why Captain Dallas never tore Ash a new one for failing to spot a parasite as big as the chestburster. Ash was also their medical officer after all. Maybe it was a plot device, but ...
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Ripley and Ash's company orders: further mysteries
Recalling this question about why Ripley didn't mention Ash (either at the company enquiry or to the Marines) it is also confusing that at the end of Alien, Ripley, after she blasts the alien into ...
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How did Weyland-Yutani already know about the warning beacon on LV-426 before the events of Alien?
It's obvious from Special Order 937 that Weyland-Yutani had somehow already detected the warning beacon emanating from the derelict on LV-426, and had at least partially deciphered it. Is it ever ...
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Who first called it the "space jockey"?
In the movie Alien (1979), there is an alien creature that appears to be growing out of a chair that sits in a large chamber. Over the years, it has become known as the "space jockey". Where ...
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How do Xenomorphs grow up without eating anything in a spaceship? [duplicate]
There is nothing for Xenomorphs to eat in spaceships, but they grow up very fast after they burst out of their hosts. Don't they need any food to live?
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Was David rogue or just as designed by Peter Weyland?
Was David's behavior consistent with his design and his loyalty to Peter Weyland (even after the latter's death) or due to some malfunction?
Is it implied that David's mind is based on Weyland's and ...
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Is Ripley (from Alien) a reference to 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not'?
To someone over a certain age, "Ripley" reminds us of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" which was a sort of cartoon strip about amazing "facts" (not too worried about ...
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Xenomorphs spreading by infection from adult xenomorphs?
In Covenant we see a particularly insidious way for xenomorphs to propagate. In any book, etc. is it suggested that adult xenomorphs might reproduce by shedding viral/nanoparticles similar to what we ...
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Is the Superman/Aliens crossover canon to Post-Crisis DC comics continuity?
In 1995, DC Comics collaborated with Dark Horse Comics to produce the first, three-part Superman/Aliens crossover, scripted and penciled by long-time Superman comics writer, Dan Jurgens.
Are the ...
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In the director's cut of Alien, Ripley in her final report lists also Ash as being dead — why?
Bottom Line: I am accepting the answer and I think the report is a very deliberate attempt by Ripley to signal she will cooperate and/or is ignorant. She of course was furious at what had been done ...
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Why does Ash do 'human' things when no-one's watching?
Why does Ash quickly start doing a warm up exercise before going into his observation blister?
It’s not as if he suspects anyone is watching him and as he is
There doesn't seem to be any reason why ...
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How can the xenomorph from the aliens franchise see, hear, and smell? [duplicate]
Has been on my mind for some time now, how can the xenomorph see, hear, and smell? When looking at this xenomorph you cannot see any indication of eyes, ears, or nostrils, yet it can still find its ...
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Has Ridley Scott ever been asked if the Alien franchise is canonically connected to Frank Herbert's Dune in a filmed interview? [closed]
Since Ridley Scott was intimately involved in the Dune Film before, during and after the making of Alien. Has Ridley Scott ever been asked if the Alien franchise is canonically connected to Frank ...
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What is the difference between the Xenomorph in "Alien: Covenant" and the ones in "Alien vs Predator"?
I've been binge watching the whole Alien franchise (following the right time line) and now I'm stuck right after Alien: Covenant because I didn't get one thing. At first I thought that the engineers ...
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Which cut is the "Director's Cut" of Aliens?
Upon the release of Aliens: Special Edition in 1991, James Cameron filmed an introduction, where he stated:
This is Jim Cameron. What you’re about to watch is the special edition of Aliens. I ...
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What happened to the derelict spaceship after the events of Aliens?
What happened to the derelict spaceship? Did it survive the explosion of the terraforming processors?
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Why are androids in the Alien franchise so fascinated with the alien?
Why they are so fascinated by the creature? Why do they speak of the xenomorph as being a superior life form?
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