Line #18 Fridge/Alien


1	[[AC:Fridge Brilliance]]
2	* A lot of people wondered why the Predalien looked so radically different from the human-born aliens, whereas the dog alien from the third movie looked pretty much the same aside from some cosmetic differences. This makes sense when you consider that the DNA difference between a human and a dog would be much smaller than between a human and a life form from a completely different world.
3	** The dog was also considerably smaller a human or Predator host, with a narrower, shorter thoracic cavity in which to gestate, so the embryo inside the former may have had to cut short its development early, before it had acquired a complete set of species-specific traits.
4	* Why does the alien in the first film shake when it reaches for Brett? This is the first time it has done this in its life and reaching out for something can lead to shaking hands if it has not been done before.
5	* The events of ''[[Film/{{Prometheus}} Prometheus]]'' provide a plausible explanation for why Mother was able to decode some of the distress signal in ''Alien''.
6	* A lot of the [[ArtisticLicenseBiology things that don't make sense]] about the Xenomorph make a lot of sense if you consider the possibility that they were designed as [[LivingWeapon weapons]]- HollywoodAcid for blood: defense mechanism as well as the 'living battery' idea proposed in the comics. Ability to reproduce with almost any species: A perfect way of making more of them that demoralizes the enemy in the process, as well as incorporating the abilities of other species in the Xenomorph's 'design'. Taking on the characteristics of the animal they hatch from is even more sensible: that creature was already adapted to its environment, so the Xenomorph is adapted to it, as well, and adding its own advantages. And odds are the Xenomorph is taking as hosts the dominant lifeform in a given ecosystem (i.e., humans for most of the franchise), making it that much more capable.
7	* Might seem horrific, but a lot of Weyland-Yutani's actions are a lot more understandable if you look at it the right way. They want the aliens as bio-weapons. Seems like a fairly typical power-hunger thing that any bunch of {{General Ripper}}s would do, right? Until you think about who they might need to use them on. The galaxy has just been proven to contain other intelligent, spacefaring lifeforms, or at least it did, ones vastly superior to humanity. And they're probably still around. Even if they're not, other species probably are -- indeed, given the implied shared verse, the [[Franchise/{{Predator}} Yautja]] are certainly still around. Controlling the aliens provides Earth with a guaranteed-effective weapon against any aggressors. In essence, they're looking for a trump card to ensure the survival of the human race. In that context, they might still be crazy, but they're more KnightTemplar types than the omnicidal maniacs that they look like otherwise.
8	** Even moreso, if you consider what ''Prometheus'' reveals about the Xenomorph's derivation ''from Engineer science'' gone wrong. Studying them doesn't just provide a weapon proven to have taken out Engineer vessels at least twice in the past, but also potential insight into the threat posed by the Engineers themselves.
9	* ''Videogame/AliensColonialMarines'' may seem like it's {{Retcon}}ing things when it explains that a Chestburster gestates inside a parasitic "mock-womb" that will kill the host even if the xenomorph embryo is removed, but this actually explains something: in every continuity, we almost never see facehugged victims ever be surgically cured; surely, sheer practicality would dictate that even for a {{Megacorp}} it's more profitable to surgically extract a grown Chestburster from a victim than allow it to deliver itself in the usual lethal manner, but nobody ever does so. Even the rare benevolent "xeno-farmers" use surgical clone-lumps (non-sentient masses of clone-grown human tissue and organs) and let the Chestburster grow and remove itself from them.
10	** At the same time, Ripley 8 having her Chestburster surgically removed makes sense; Film/AlienResurrection is set several centuries into the future of the timeline of the rest of the Alien franchise.
11	** Although surely not canon - the medtechs in Mega City One have little problem removing the chestbursters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dredd_vs._Aliens
12	** Aliens: Defiance provides a much simpler and far more reasonable explanation for Weyland-Yutani's claim that an infected person cannot be saved. WY is simply and unambiguously ''lying''. In that comic, a human doctor successfully manages to extract an Alien queen from her own chest cavity with no ill effects- only to be captured and murdered later by WY in an attempt to find left-over xenomorph cells inside her body cavity that they can use to clone an embryo. Telling everyone who is in a position to make demands that nothing can be done to save their friends makes it SO much easier to eliminate witnesses...
13	** It also makes sense from a basic physical and biological standpoint: The gestating alien would need to absorb a lot of nutrition very quickly to grow as quickly as it does. And it must somehow remove existing tissue to make space for its own growth since we never see any of the impregnated people showing any unusual protrusions. That it essentially eats up the host from the inside would neatly explain both.
14	* Robots are difficult to build and expensive AF in the Alien Franchise... If ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' is canon, robots were already a thing some 30 years before the first ''Alien'' film. But David seems to be a novelty and works as some sort of personal assistant for millionaire Peter Weyland. Then, in ''Alien'', Ash doesn't come across as a more advanced robot than David. Moreover, how come humans are still necessary to man the ''Nostromo'' ship instead of just putting there a couple of robots to run the whole operation? If Ash can pass for a science officer, why not some other robot(s) as a navigator or ship engineer? Then in ''Aliens'', again only Bishop is a robot. I can sort of understand that robots may not be trusted to function as colonial marines, but why isn't there any mention of robots as colonists? Instead of sending dozens of humans to colonize, why not send a handful of robots as an avantgarde? Centuries later, in ''Resurrection'', Call is again the only robot in the film, not only that, but the models seem to be getting worse and worse, since by now they question orders. But the real people don't even seem to keep any Ash, David or Bishop models (Bishop being so far the only seemingly trust-worthy model in the entire franchise universe). This implies that the field of robotics is more difficult than thought, and also that robots are super-expensive despite decades of progress between the films, so much so, that they still haven't really replaced humans in menial/dangerous jobs.
15	* As noted on the page for the first film, the ''Nostromo'''s systems start venting excess heat into the crew spaces when they shut off the cooling system as part of the self-destruct, noting that it's poor design for venting heat. Except it's ''not''- since self-destructing the ''Nostromo'' requires putting the reactor into a thermally-induced death spiral, venting the heat back into the ship is going to speed the process up by heating up the air around it.
16	* Ash states that the organism has a habit of "turning it's cells to polarized silicon." That means a bond between silicon and stable atoms, likely carbon. The real world equivalent to this is called silicon carbide, and is used in brake pads and bullet proof vests. This would help to explain why Ash suggests to use flamethrowers: he knows they'll be useless, ensuring the organism's safe capture.
17	** And, for another example of Fridgey Ash's equipment choices: the scanner he provides for the search is designed to detect air disturbances, rather than body heat, vibrations, odors, or other subtle hints of life. Of course it does, because any ''other'' type of sensor he might've come up with would probably also discern that ''Ash himself'' registers differently from the human crew members, thus exposing him as an android ringer. But his shape displaces air exactly as a human's would.
18	** Also, Ash doesn't get violent and "twitchy" until after Ripley slams him against the wall of the computer room...and he hits the back of his head against the wall. Considering how Aliens made a note of how shoddy his model was, it's entirely possible Ripley might have accidentally damaged something in his head. Coupled with her figuring out he's TheMole, he might have decided enough was enough...
19	* The self-destruct failing to abort in the first film after Ripley tries turning the coolant back on may seem like shoddy ship design and a bit of AIIsACrapshoot on Mother's part, but a close examination of the instructions on the lid of the console shows an important piece of information that Ripley completely fails to notice: that the abort sequence will only work if the safety interlocks (the two levers that Ripley has to pull to open the lid) are reengaged ''prior'' to inputting the abort code, not after, meaning the cut-off system was never going to work even if Ripley still had plenty of time left, simply because she performed the abort sequence in the wrong order.
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21	[[AC:Fridge Horror]]
22	* There’s something about the oddly-human mouth of the Xenomorph that’s very troubling. That “something” probably being its usual expression before it strikes: it looks ''angry.'' Let that sink in a little. Not only does this monster want to kill you/use you for breeding stock, '''[[OhCrap it absolutely fucking hates you.]]'''
23	* '''Crew Expendable'''. The order is so simple, banal and comes across as a bit of an afterthought. You, your hopes, dreams, aspirations and life boiled down to a quantifiable asset to be disposed of to increase the company's sales figures.
24	[[AC:Fridge Logic]]
25	* How could the Xenomorphs make effective biological weapons? Their only method of killing relies on getting close to their enemies, which makes them easy to kill at a distance. Since they cluster in hives, it should also be relatively easy to bomb them from the safety of the air. Even if you were to disperse a bunch of facehuggers in a densely populated area, it would become impractical once the enemy knows what they're up against and would learn to kill anyone who's been infected after the first use. You could use something that's not a Xenomorph and that something else would likely be able to do it better.
26	** The trick is to think of them as biological mines, designed to harass and cause havoc in military communication and logistics areas. Yes, in open ground without support they can be killed. But a few or many dropped into rear echelon zones, causing panic and fear and denying the areas to an enemy until they divert frontline resources to combat it. (A bug-hunt).
27	** This is a little fuzzy because we're never told where xenomorph queens come from, but with a reliable way to grow new queens xenomorphs can breed extremely quickly. Additionally, they tend to act as ambush predators and seem to build their hives in hidden or reinforced locations, so gunning them down from range or bombing them is very hard to do. You have to send troops in to hunt them down (which lets the bugs hunt them in turn) or else hit them with absolutely spectacular levels of overkill to be sure you got them. And if the enemy has to nuke their own cities to get rid of them, that counts as an effective weapon.
28	** Another issue is regarding what kind of situations the aliens would be used for. If the Engineers simply want to wipe out a population without any kind of occupation, then they're pretty effective. But, they would be useless for any other kind of military action, like colonization, since the planet would be uninhabitable after infection. So if they were used for biowarfare, it was probably only done for extreme situations.
29	* If you have quarantine procedures, and a medbay, why would those procedures not include "isolate in (specific part of) medbay, send in the android science officer to examine/operate, sterilize android after"?
30	** None of the crew knew Ash was an android until he attacked Ripley.
31	* Film fans have been giving whoever came up with the famous tag-line too much credit. Instead of being read as "In space, no-one can '''hear''' you scream", which of course is because there is no medium in space to transmit soundwaves through, the person was probably thinking "Space, space, space... it's empty, it's vast, assistance isn't close at hand... What about 'In space, '''no-one''' can hear you scream'?. Yes, that's a brilliant idea."
32	* Why did Weyland-Yutani go to all this trouble to set up the Nostromo and trick the crew? Since bringing back an alien lifeform was illegal, why not just send a covert operation? They are a rich mega-corporation so bribing officials and doing things off the record seems like it would have been easier.
33	** There's a lot of hints that the government would be very ticked with this endeavor. You can't just launch a ship for covert ops, because the ship ''would'' be noticed, and "Why are you sending a ship to the middle of nowhere?" is not a question they want to answer. However, "This crew of hick space truckers accidentally picked up some sort of creature investigating a distress call." would be fair more believable.
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Context Fridge / Alien