"Alien" Question

[Anwar]

And the arcturan thing referred to colonists from a planet called Arcturus, not alien women.

When talking about the "poomtang" one marine does say to another "The one that you had was a male."

That was either 1) a joke or 2) That particular marine was an idiot. The Producers told Ridley that there aren't other aliens in that Universe aside from the Xenos.

That line must have been a holdover from before Cameron redid the script (originally Aliens was it's own separate movie with nothing to do with Aliens) and he missed it.

 

[SeerSGB]

Well that's assuming there is a home planet. From what Ridley Scott has said over the years, I get the impression he thought the crashed ship was a weapons delivery system (a "battle wagon" in his words) and the eggs were bio-weapons. In that case, they wouldn't have a natural habitat of their own. As for the Predators, while the films were both shite, I can easily imagine why they might revere a "perfect lifeform" especially in a hunter/warrior culture.

You'd think that if it were a transport system for engineered eggs, the manufacturers would have the nous not to have their transport pilot infected with one.

If they knew he was infected. Possible that the Jockey became infected shortly before or during the flight.

That is going to be covered in the new prequel/remake that is being released.

Already been covered in AvP and AvP:Requiem.

I meant that how the company knew about the Aliens being on LV-426 was going to be explained.

Recovered artifacts from Pred and Xeno events on Earth?

 

[Teelie]

And the arcturan thing referred to colonists from a planet called Arcturus, not alien women.

When talking about the "poomtang" one marine does say to another "The one that you had was a male."

That was either 1) a joke or 2) That particular marine was an idiot. The Producers told Ridley that there aren't other aliens in that Universe aside from the Xenos.

That line must have been a holdover from before Cameron redid the script (originally Aliens was it's own separate movie with nothing to do with Aliens) and he missed it.

Or the simple answer: The said "poontang" was a crossdresser/transvestite.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Here is another question: Why didnt Ridley die in Aliens? When she is going after Newt the computer states she has "15 minutes" until the core explodes and to reach minimum safe distance. Well I started my stop watch at that point and it is actually 22 minutes from the time of that announcement to when the nuclear explosion occurs. Ridley wouldnt have made it out in time.

 

[Rocketman]

Originally, I'm not sure that Mother and Ash were supposed to know about the Xenomorphs at all--just that there was something valuable out there. Ash and Mother, as they began to discover what the Alien was about, drew the rational conclusion that its value to the company was greater than that of the crew's--or their own--lives.

A human character, no matter how greedy, would place his own survival ahead of that of the Xenomorph.

 

[The Comedian]

~snip~
Also, with the Aliens vs. Predator stories (I'm more a fan of the original literature than the movies), I am somewhat curious as to just why the Predators venerate the xenomorphs so much, and also why they have to infect populations of other planets with xenomorphs in order to hunt them? Why not simply go to the xenomorph's home planet?

I'm not too deep into the AVP mythos-- never got into the comics, only saw AVP 1. But just from a logical stand point: Think off it like this: Why hit one location and wipe out your prey and no longer have it to hunt, when you can dump it on some pissant animals (re: any life that isn't Pred or Xeno) and have a nearly unlmited variety and quantity to hunt.

That's not how it worked, though. The Predators could have seeded Earth with xenomorphs long ago, and there would be nothing but xenos on the planet now....but they didn't. Obviously there were controls in place to keep the xenos from spreading across Earth. Obviously the Predators like to hunt humans, too.

 

[Reverend]

At a guess I'd say Mother automatically relayed the distress/warning beacon to the company while the crew were were still in hypersleep.

Ash was planted on board before the Nostromo set off back for Earth, indicating that the Company detected the transmission first and then arranged for the Nostromo crew to investigate it. That was Ash's purpose, to make sure they got the alien back to Earth.

I've never been very clear on that point. If they knew what it was that early, why send a commercial towing vehicle instead of a full science team? As for Ash, I just assumed the Company had started planting synthetics among commercial crews to ensure the company always has a pair of eyes and ears. Ash's presence could have been a reason why the Nostromo was diverted, but I can't see them placing him there solely for that reason.

Well that's assuming there is a home planet. From what Ridley Scott has said over the years, I get the impression he thought the crashed ship was a weapons delivery system (a "battle wagon" in his words) and the eggs were bio-weapons. In that case, they wouldn't have a natural habitat of their own. As for the Predators, while the films were both shite, I can easily imagine why they might revere a "perfect lifeform" especially in a hunter/warrior culture.

You'd think that if it were a transport system for engineered eggs, the manufacturers would have the nous not to have their transport pilot infected with one.

Well, I imagine that either the containment failed en route, causing the ship the crash (by way of pilot's chest exploding) or something else caused the crash (accident, malfunction or shot down, take your pick) which in turn turned the eggs loose. Either way I'm sure it wasn't intentional.

 

[nx1701g]

That's not how it worked, though. The Predators could have seeded Earth with xenomorphs long ago, and there would be nothing but xenos on the planet now....but they didn't. Obviously there were controls in place to keep the xenos from spreading across Earth. Obviously the Predators like to hunt humans, too.

We did see in AVP during the explanation that there were times when the Predators won the war and the aliens were destroyed, but there were also times when they failed and the Predators had to nuke the site. Plus the Queen was in stasis when they found the Temple.

I interpreted it that the Predators made the natives so afraid of the temples that they never went near them or didn't venture too far if they did decide to go in. When the hunt would be over the temple would go into a standby mode where everything would shut down and the Queen and her eggs would go into stasis like they were aboard the Derelict (or the eggs would be destroyed to prevent accidental infestation).

When it was time for the hunt to resume and the teens to become adults they'd return and they would reactivate the temples from orbit to resume the hunt. Then the war would continue, they'd hunt down every last xenomorph, then they'd shut the temples down. Repeat.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

I've never been very clear on that point. If they knew what it was that early, why send a commercial towing vehicle instead of a full science team? As for Ash, I just assumed the Company had started planting synthetics among commercial crews to ensure the company always has a pair of eyes and ears. Ash's presence could have been a reason why the Nostromo was diverted, but I can't see them placing him there solely for that reason.

I always justified that to myself as the company was the only one that knew of the xenomorphs and for them to send a science team to investigate may have been 1) Not in their capability without outside help, something they wished to avoid. While they obviously had the technology to send a ship out there, they didn't have the type of scientist and scientific equipment available to them to mount an actual research mission or 2) If the mission failed, which it did, it would be a lot easier to explain away the loss of a mining vessel and it's crew as opposed to a scientific research ship sent out on a specific mission. After all, the mining crew was expendable, the scientist might not be, or even be employees of theirs.

As far as Ash goes, I am somewhat in agreement on this. However, technically Ash was an android, isn't it entirely possible that mother could have added/reprogrammed Ash herself upon receiving orders from the company. He, and the rest of the crew, are in suspended animation for extended periods of time. I would think that this would be long enough for the company to receive knowledge of the signals from mother or some other source, decipher them, or at least realize what they mean, and then send mother new orders which include reprogramming Ash.

 

[nx1701g]

^ Another possibility was they saw the mining personnel as cannon fodder and intended for them all to be implanted. It also, in a way, made more sense because then the Company wouldn't have had to pay anyone.

 

[Reverend]

Of course flash forward a half a century and the company clearly had no idea anything was there at all, so it seams most likely that only a very small number of people (probably mid-level bureaucrats like Burke) were responsible for the "all other priorities are rescinded" message and when the Nostromo failed to show up, I imagine they erased all record of their involvment from the company's system to cover their arses.

The idea that it was a "top level" conspiracy falls apart when they establish a colony on the same rock without any apparent knowledge of the derelict. If it was an engineered situation then one of two things should have happened; either a direct follow-up mission (under the guise of a search & rescue) OR the colonists would have been sent straight there.

 

[Hermiod]

We know from Aliens that Weyland-Yutani, in the shape of Carter Burke, ordered the colonists to investigate the alien ship. Whether they knew the Aliens were there before they set up the colony is uncertain. Of course, Burke could have found out about them from Ripley's interviews and sent the orders then.

It also appears that he attempted to have Ripley and Newt infected by Facehuggers so he could then effectively smuggle two live Aliens through Earth quarantine.

 

[DestinyCaptain]

Of course flash forward a half a century and the company clearly had no idea anything was there at all, so it seams most likely that only a very small number of people (probably mid-level bureaucrats like Burke) were responsible for the "all other priorities are rescinded" message and when the Nostromo failed to show up, I imagine they erased all record of their involvment from the company's system to cover their arses.

The idea that it was a "top level" conspiracy falls apart when they establish a colony on the same rock without any apparent knowledge of the derelict. If it was an engineered situation then one of two things should have happened; either a direct follow-up mission (under the guise of a search & rescue) OR the colonists would have been sent straight there.

Well, we do not know if the company ever checked LV-426 before they established the colony. We do know that Cameron said that the Space Jockey's ship was to have been disturbed by a volcanic eruption and subsequent lava flow. This was why she was cracked open, actually the model fell when it was being hoisted on a forklift while being picked up from the private owner. The reasoning here was that due to the organic nature of it's design mixed with recently released rock formation made it appear that there was nothing there. Now, this does not address that warning signal. I guess it could have stopped after the ship was breached.

 

[Anwar]

Kind of contrived that the ship broadcasted for millions of years without stop, yet somehow it stopped in between the two movies...

 

[Reverend]

We know from Aliens that Weyland-Yutani, in the shape of Carter Burke, ordered the colonists to investigate the alien ship. Whether they knew the Aliens were there before they set up the colony is uncertain. Of course, Burke could have found out about them from Ripley's interviews and sent the orders then.

It says so in the film that Burke (off his own back) specifically sent them out to that specific grid reference because of Ripley's statement.

As for the beacon, I think Cameron said that at some point after the Nostromo left and before the Colony was established that there was a geological shift, or a lava flow that damaged the derelict (you can see it's damaged in the Special Edition) thus killing the transmitter. I think he also points out that when Newt's parents went in, they didn't go in through the same exterior tubes/holes as Dallas, Lambert & Kane, they went in through a large rent in the hull, bypassing the Jockey and directly entering the egg chamber.

 

[T'Girl]

I always wondered what alien race was transporting their eggs? The fossilzed creature they discover sitting in the chair dont look like a Predator.

In scenes shot, but cut from the first movie, Ripply finds eggs on the first movies spaceship. This was just before she blows the ship up. Any of the aliens can become a queen and lay eggs.

 

[Anwar]

It didn't make the eggs out of nothing, it was making the eggs out of Dallas and Brett themselves. That's why the facehuggers look like they're made out of bones: because they are.

Ever wonder what happened to the other Jockeys on the Derelict? Now you know.

 

[EJA]

As for Ash, I just assumed the Company had started planting synthetics among commercial crews to ensure the company always has a pair of eyes and ears. Ash's presence could have been a reason why the Nostromo was diverted, but I can't see them placing him there solely for that reason.[/QUOTE]

I think it's stated in the novelisation that Ash unexpectantly replaced the Nostromo's previous science officer just before they set off back for Earth.

 

[Anwar]

It's stated in the movie itself as well.

 

[Reverend]

That does ring a bell, still, it's circumstancial either way. Having him as a recent addition to the crew is certainly suspicious, but it doesn't preclude all other possibilities.

Assuming for a moment that Ash was put there as a company narc/bathroom break timer, you could theorise that the company have these guys rotating on various ships, doing only one trip before being moved on to avoid the chance that they may be found out. As Bishop said, those models were always a bit twitchy and the longer they're around humans, the more likely the crew is going to notice something off about him.