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1[[WMG: The Facehuggers are males of the species and all xenomorphs seen thus far are pseudo-female]]
2The entire Xenomorph species' means of reproduction depending on their food source is flawed on various levels, not the least being rapid genetic degradation. It's reasonable to presume that a different means exists, likely sexual. Given the comparison to social insects, one may expect a species where females are diploid (two sets of chromosomes) while males are haploid (single set). Male social insects are nearly useless creatures who can't even eat and must live on their own tissue until they have the opportunity to find a suitable target and implant their genetic material. This description matches facehuggers perfectly. If facehuggers are indeed males of the species, then this would imply that the creatures seen thus far are a variant method of reproduction, in which characteristics are somehow borrowed from a host to construct a simulated second set of chromosomes. This is possibly a method to colonize new areas and absorb valuable adaptations for the environment. When a ''true'' queen arrives, the facehuggers mate with her, producing not a larva exactly but rather a specialized organ that provides a permanent source of sperm for new generations. Lastly, the discrepancies in gestation periods between movies may be explained by this, as multiple generations of male-only reproduction degrades the genes and slows the reproductive process. By this understanding, the queen in AVP may be a ''true'' queen if not far less removed from the main species.
3
4[[WMG: There wasn't just one sleeper agent on board the ''Nostromo'']]
5Why would Weyland-Yutani place just one spy onboard a high-priority mission? Ash was only a decoy; their ''real'' agent was obviously Jones the Cat!
6
7[[WMG: The xenomorphs evolved on the same planet as the Gray aliens from the X-Files.]]
8The Xenomorphs: Have a parasitic multi stage life cycle, their immature form bursts out of the hosts chests and runs off to find somewhere to grow into maturity, their mature form is a fang claw murder machine, their ultimate form is the Queen, they have acid for blood. The Grays: have a parasitic multi stage life cycle, it starts with the black oil which infects a host, their immature form bursts out of the hosts chest, their immature form is a fang claw murder machine that runs off to find somewhere to grow into maturity, its mature form is an intelligent exobiological intelligence. This means if xenomorphs facehugged a Gray when the chestburster exploded out it would spray black oil everywhere which would start the life cycle over. If the black oil infected a xenomorph the acid blood would dissolve it. In essence the two species are at a stalemate with each other. I contend they come from the same biosphere, but the Grays are the intelligent species that evolved there while the xenomorphs are the equivalent of some sort of vermin, the Gray version of a sewer rat. As the Grays traveled the universe xenomorph infestations started up here and there, but the Gray's don't really care.
9
10[[WMG: Xenomorphs are able to impregnate human hosts through sexual reproduction just fine, and often do so when the facehugger/chest-burster method is unfeasible.]]
11Several sources corroborate this. A scrapped scene in the first ''Alien'' movie has a drone raping a human soldier. In the ''Aliens: Book II'' comics, it's mentioned that random drones are created on occasion to specifically mate with the Queen, fighting to the death among themselves for survival of the fittest and the privilege and being snuffed out by the Queen (like with Praying Mantises or Black Widow Spiders) after the deed. The Stan Winston Creations version of the Alien Drone was to be included with a torso-length penis, and the hybrid "Newborn" Xenomorph in ''Alien: Resurrection'' was to be hermaphroditic, with both sets of genitals. Clearly, the phallic references in the movies weren't meant to stop at innuendo, but to be shown as another aspect of Xenomorph reproduction outside the chest-bursters and facehuggers. Facehuggers are needed because they're the primary form of reproduction; the drones mate with the Queen to produce them, but they ''can'' rape and impregnate human hosts themselves if the facehugger/chest-burster method cannot be implemented.
12* Alternatively, they are capable of sexual reproduction among themselves, but not with other species. They just rape humans for fun.
13** Squick.
14* Queens are completely asexual: they ''never'' mate. Novels and comics are often contradictory and so can't be relied on (Ripley coming BackFromTheDead ''twice'' is a good example). This probably includes the scene where [[spoiler:the Newborn attempts to rape Ripley 8]] in the novelization, although it ''was'' pretty sick.
15* No, the "rape" scene wasn't cut from the first movie. There ''was'' an offscreen moment in ''Alien'' where the monster is heavily implied to [[spoiler:rape Lambert. [[FreudWasRight Its tail is seen moving up her leg]], [[ScreamingWoman she is heard screaming over the intercom]], [[FanDisservice and the last shot of her is of her blood-covered naked leg hanging from the ceiling]]. The actress stated that her character was raped in interviews, and the director stated that the creature had acquired "desires" from Kane's psyche.]]
16** Perhaps the alien was mounting her to prove its "dominance" the way male and female dogs do.
17** [[spoiler:Perhaps the alien on the ''Nostromo'' was male (drones are AlwaysMale?) and was planning on impregnating Lambert with a queen, saving Brett and Dallas as future hosts on the way back to Earth. We're never actually sure they're turning into eggs, since they're cocooned like the colonists at Hadley's Hope were.]]
18*** [[VoodooShark How would such a pregnancy work?]] Like ''Film/{{Species}}''? Unfortunately, [[spoiler:we already [[{{Gorn}} saw the same thing happen in ''AVP:R'']].]]
19** Or [[ForTheEvulz it was doing it for fun]]. Squick!
20* Ridley Scott never really used the idea that the Xenomorphs are ant-like "drones" who have a "queen". This is James Cameron's idea, and it wasn't present in the first film or in ''Prometheus''. By all accounts, the alien on the ''Nostromo'' was exactly what H.R. Giger implied it to be - a rape-monster that absorbed all the worst desires of its host (a human male).
21* Someone actually wrote a fanfiction called ''Aliens Versus Serenity'' that involved [[spoiler:River becoming ''literally'' impregnated with an alien queen. ''By a facehugger.'' No, it's not what it sounds like, you perverts. [[ArtisticLicenseBiology The embryo was deposited through her]] ''[[ArtisticLicenseBiology mouth]]'' [[ArtisticLicenseBiology and ended up in her]] ''[[ArtisticLicenseBiology uterus]]''.]] The story violated canon in lots of other ways, though, and added some pointless new characters with no explanation.
22* H.R. Giger himself has confirmed that the alien is male, complete with equipment. He didn't come out and say this: ''he drew it''. [[Film/{{Species}} Sil]] even made an appearance with it. That puts poor [[spoiler:Lambert]]'s plight in a whole new light.
23* Considering the biological weapon WMG, this may very well be the case. The facehuggers are the method of infecting other species, one time use to get one drone-hybrid. Drones then could very well mate with their "host" species to speed up infestation.
24
25[[WMG: The Xenomorphs are a biological weapon.]]
26Every facet of them seems specifically designed to wipe out any colony, starship, or large planet their eggs are dropped on. This is a few steps shy of canon; canon does not rule out their evolving this way. But, given their efficiency, this is more probable.
27** Now, you may be asking yourself: "[[FridgeLogic What good would replacing one enemy with an even stronger and more dangerous one do?]]" Well, the Xenomorphs would be landlocked and unable to use (external) weapons. Bombardment from a safe distance would work more smoothly on them than it would on a sentient technological race ("It's the only way to be sure."}, for they'll have no anti-aircraft missiles. Not to mention they stick closely to their hives with only a few scouts out for more hosts/food. It is easier to replace a spread out population of tens of billions to one of billions that reside in large hives that are easy to spot and destroy with orbital bombardment. Also, the Aliens have a really short life-cycle, or at least they did in the first film. By the end of the film, when it's hiding in the shuttle and not doing a hell of a lot when Ripley disturbs it, it's getting ready to die. Or is just sleepy - it had a long and busy day after all. And in ''Aliens'' they're in hibernation as there is a distinct lack of human hosts for them. Only a few are active, and at night (mostly); otherwise Newt would have been long dead.
28** There's also the fact if you can genetically engineer the Xenomorphs into existence, you can potentially build in any number of hidden weaknesses you can use to get rid of them. The Space Jockeys probably had some tailored anti-Xenomorph chemical weapon they could just use to flood the zone after the Xenos had done their work of wrecking their enemy's colony. And that's if you assume the Space Jockeys want the planets they've bombed; area denial might be the more important concern.
29** Maybe the race that developed them put a biological receptor into them so a signal could be sent out to destroy the whole hive without bloodshed - or immobilize them en masse. This device is probably long lost to history though... or the Weyland/Yutani corporation salvaged it from the derelict.
30* Ridley Scott mentions this in his DVD commentary. The derelict was a bomber used for egg delivery.
31** I guess we'll find out when ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' premieres...
32*** According to ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', it seems that the Jockeys are bent on destroying all sapient life from the cosmos for reasons unknown, using numerous bioweapons, including the xenomorphs. What their motivation could be is a total mystery, but they seem to utterly suck at internal security protocols.
33
34[[WMG: The Xenomorphs are the descendants of the Bugs from ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''.]]
35After losing their first war with Humans, they adapted. They got rid of the Brain Bug (which was clearly an idiot anyway). They developed a more streamlined shape somewhat similar to their foes (jaws, hands, bipedalism), acid blood for close defence, and a method of reproduction that involved using their enemies to their own advantage.
36Meanwhile, humanity spread further out into space until they had to use coldsleep chambers on long-range starships. Earth's world government dissolved into national governments; the resulting wars caused their military forces to re-acquire tactical skills.
37
38[[WMG: The Predators were created by the same race that made the Aliens, to hunt them down after they'd gotten out of hand.]]
39The Predators definitely have some kind of relationship with the Aliens. The fact that their blood is able to neutralize the Aliens' acid blood can't be coincidence.
40* So, if the Aliens have acid instead of blood, does that mean the predators' blood is a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_%28chemistry%29 base]]?
41** That makes "If it bleeds, we can kill it" rather ''bitterly'' ironic.
42*** Even more so once you consider that bases are just as corrosive as acids. (e.g. ''Film/FightClub'' lye incident)
43* Alternately, the Predators were once a slave race that rebelled and the Aliens were bred to destroy them.
44** This theory reminds me of the background stories of the Protoss and Zerg from Starcraft.
45* [[@/TitoMosquito This troper]] and his brother believed that the Predators created the Xenomorphs as the perfect hunting game. This would coincide with the "The Xenomorphs are a biological weapon" theory mentioned above.
46** At least one of the ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' novels had a plot based around this, where the Predators hunted the Aliens they had dropped in themselves as some sort of initiation rite, not counting on it being a human colony.
47* The DarkHorse novels advanced the theory that the Space Jockeys (the creators of the Alien) once visited the Predator homeworld. The ship was captured by the Predators, who then reverse engineered it to create a technologically advanced civilization. This neatly explains why a culture with more advanced technology than our own has a culture closer to hunter-gatherers, but it doesn't explain why the Predator technology is not biological in nature like Space Jockey technology.
48** Furthermore, when the Predators first encountered the Aliens, they got the bright idea to use them as game animals for their rites of passage. And when they encountered humans, [[AncientAstronauts they set themselves up as gods]] and have since used Earth as an hunting ground even after their cults died out long ago.
49
50[[WMG: The Aliens are an evolutionary combination of a dinosaur and a jellyfish.]]
51The non-[[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong Facehugger]] Xenomorphs can quite easily be seen to fit, say, the model of a velociraptor, though tweaked into something a bit more disturbing. Where, then, does the Jellyfish come from? Jellies, along with Anenomes, Coral, and Hydra, are Cnidarians. Cnidarians are notable in that most of them have a life cycle that involves ''two different types of organism,'' though one is usually dominant. Instead of "impregnating" humans, Facehuggers (the Zygote form of the Xenomorph Cnidarian) shoot out a Larva which develops into a parasitic polyp which buds a single Chestburster before dying with its host.
52* That similarity doesn't have to mean they're ''literally'' related to cnidarians, any more than their parasitoid gestation makes them related to wasps. Even on Earth, alternation of generations is hardly unique to jellyfish. Look out your window, and you'll see ''thousands'' of organisms that alternate between one form and another, with every generation: we call them "plants".
53
54[[WMG: The Aliens are tumors.]]
55Instead of eggs, the Face-huggers "impregnate" their hosts with a mutagen that causes a growth to form inside the body. In RealLife, sometimes people develop growths called teratomas which contain things like teeth or vestigial organs which have formed inside them due to weird genetic phenomena. The Aliens use a controlled form of this process, causing a growth that develops teeth, bones, and organs; it eventually becomes capable of living apart from its host, rips its way out, & grows into a monstrous killing machine. This explains why Aliens grown from different species have different characteristics, which doesn't make much sense if they're just eggs implanted parasitically.
56* In Franchise/{{Superman}} comics, an Xenomorph-like creature called Kancer came out of Superman. It was born from a kryptonite-induced tumour.
57* This also fits with how a clone of Ripley still develops a Queen.
58* This is disproved rather graphically in ''Requiem''. Although that movie had ''a lot'' of problems.
59** It's still possible the developing embryo uses a virus to prevent the host's immune system from attacking it. It would pretty much have to use specialized viruses to both sample the host's DNA and alter the host to suit them. This also opens the horrifying possibility that [[FridgeHorror if a person who was previously a host has children]], then his or her children will eventually develop their own chestbursters without having to be attacked by facehuggers. If that's the case, Ripley 8 is in for a horrible surprise if she ever tries to start a family.
60*** Ripley 8 is part-xenomorph and has acid blood. I doubt any pregnancy is going to go smoothly.
61
62[[WMG: The Aliens are lower-level [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Anti-Spirals.]]]]
63First contact with the xenomorphs occurred shortly after interstellar travel became feasible. They automatically attack humans, but ignore animals such as good old Jonesy.
64** But, wait....didn't one of the facehuggers impregnate a DOG (Ox if you watch the DirectorsCut} in the third movie? Likewise, the alien in the first movie most likely attacked humans because it saw them as a bigger threat than a cat. Which is more likely to kill you if you were a Xenomorph: a cat whose only defences are sharp claws and teeth, or a highly-intelligent life-form that has the brains, resources, and weaponry available to easily dispatch you?
65*** It ignored Jonesey because a kitty is too small to support a Chestburster. As a hive organism, its reproductive urge is stronger than individual survival instincts; it seeks ''hosts'' first and foremost, with threat level being a secondary consideration.
66
67[[WMG: The Aliens are the victims in the films, not the villains.]]
68If you think about it, in all of the films, the aliens are never shown as malevolent, nor do they do anything that's evil. They're just creatures trying to survive. We never see what happens if the Xenomorphs themselves are left in peace, do we? No, instead what we see is what happens '''when''' or '''after''' another life-form enters their territory.
69* Alien has the titular monster being brought aboard a ship (though the crew doesn't know it) because the evil corporation wants a live specimen to study. The alien spends most of its time attacking anyone on a ship it views as a threat since, well, everyone (except for [[spoiler:Ash]]) is trying to kill it.
70** Tell that to [[spoiler:Lambert]]. The Alien is clearly malicious and sadistic when it goes for her, putting its tail between her legs as she moans in fear.
71*** To be fair, [[spoiler: Veronica Cartwright stated on the audio commentary of the film that the original version of events in the film was that after Parker was killed by the alien, Ripley finds Lambert in the same locker that she, Parker and Brett found Jonesy The Cat in earlier in the film, having died from fright after escaping from the alien and hiding. She explained that she didn't even know that her character was 'raped' by the Alien until she saw it at the premiere. The leg you see the tail wrap around in the theatrical cut and the director's cut is actually Brett's leg from the earlier scene when he is attacked by the Alien (Lambert wears cowboy boots throughout her time in the film and the leg you see is wearing low-cut white Chuck Taylors like Brett is wearing). Also, in a cut version of the scene with Ash's head on the table originally had dialogue where Ash actually accuses the crew of not making an attempt to try to communicate with it. The scene was reshot due to Scott not liking how the android insides looked, and the dialogue was re-written).]] So, it is within plausibility that it originally was meant to come off as such.
72* Aliens had the space-marines sent down to a space-colony crawling with aliens to destroy the monsters because they wiped out the human population there. Okay, fair enough....until you realize that it was HUMANS who brought the aliens to the colony in the first place.
73** And, again, we have the evil corporation (that is, Weyland-Yutani) trying to get a live specimen to study and possibly use as a sort of biological weapon.
74* The [[FanNickname Dog-Alien AKA "Runner Alien"]] from Alien 3 was only trying to protect the queen-chestburster inside Ripley. It's no different from when a colony of ants or bees attacks someone/something intruding on their nest to protect their queen.
75* Alien Resurrection has the old "Let's study them" routine again. [[SarcasmMode Yes, let's study the highly-aggressive extra-terrestrial life-forms.]] [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong What's the worst that could happen?]]
76** In all fairness, ''Resurrection'' implies the species has been extinct for two centuries because of Ripley's efforts, meaning there's nothing left but ghost stories to go on.
77* The first ''[[Film/AVPAlienVsPredator Alien vs. Predator]]'' indicates that the Predators BREED (and possibly capture) queen aliens just so they can ''force them to lay eggs''. Why? Oh, nothing, except to use as a rite of passage for teenage Predators in which those teenagers must prove themselves worthy by KILLING a full-grown alien or the imprisoned queen.
78** After I finished watching that movie, I came to the same conclusion: Predators are in fact true villains. They breed Aliens ''using human sacrifices as Aliens' host bodies'', just so they can hunt them down as their twisted sadistic sport. Many ancient human civilizations are destroyed in the process. The Aliens are just wild animals, acting on their instincts for survival. The "civilized" Predators, on the other hand, are nothing but a bunch of [[AristocratsAreEvil aristocratic bastards]]. And humans are just hapless victims caught between both sides.
79* AVP: Requiem has a Predator spaceship containing facehuggers crash-land onto earth. Again, the facehuggers weren't on that ship of their own will.
80* In the novelisation of the first film, the scene in which Ash is interrogated by Ripley implies this interpretation pretty strongly, and Ripley herself advances a similar view a few times over the series. The Xenomorphs aren't evil, they're just predators doing what comes naturally in order to survive. The problem is that what comes naturally to them is rather horrible for their victims, i.e. us. It's not too dissimilar to ''Jaws'' really. The shark was just doing what it did, but that posed a threat to the humans, so they fought back. Same deal here. However it's worth noting that while the Xenomorphs are indeed arguably the victims of the series, that doesn't make them any less terrifying or deadly.
81* This is more or less why the Aliens are some of the scariest monsters. There is no motive that can be exploited by humans in order to stop this kind of behaviour. It is PrimalFear incarnate; the fear of an animal that is trying to kill you (though in this series, it is also trying to rape you like a lethal variant of botfly.)
82
83[[WMG: An Alien Queen might be a decent enough sort if she were raised right.]]
84
85Related to the 'the Aliens are the victims' theory above, something we need to remember is that the queen of the hive, at least, is intelligent. Granted the aliens we've seen have been monsters that hunted humans, with a horrifying reproductive cycle. But consider the aliens we've seen: the alien in the first film was a drone, which appear to be nonsentient due to their willingness to ZergRush. Without a queen, it was simply operating on its (very very lethal) instincts. Then in ''Aliens'', we have a queen who is essentially a feral child: we never learn at what point the swarm of drones overtaking the colony developed a queen, but it must have been after the first drones started hatching. From the time she was born she was fighting humans, and shortly thereafter she was entirely alone. Small wonder she went insane: you could almost parallel her situation to Newt's, except that Newt was 'older'. In the third it's just drones again, and in the fourth the queen had been raised in a lab being experimented on and tortured. In that case she wasn't too innocent to know better, she had LEARNED that HumansAreTheRealMonsters. But raising xenomorphs using animals as hosts, and actually raising the Queen instead of letting her grow up a PsychopathicManchild with good reason to hate humans, might work out just fine. As long as the queen agrees that you can't use people as hosts there's really no more problem: she can raise other Queens herself, and the aliens can actually form a society with humans and each other (on a hive to hive basis). It's like Digger says: someone must teach them to be good.
86** I assumed the queen in ''Aliens'' was alive and well in the Space Jockey's ship during the events of ''Alien'', she was just hibernating since the planet was barren.
87*** I assumed that possibility too. But why would there be a queen present on what's essentially an innerstellar bomber plane that's already loaded with potentially thousands of eggs?
88
89[[WMG: The Xenomorphs are descended from the remnants of the last [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Tyranid invasion.]]]]
90
91The Tyranids are a hyperevolutionary race - they adjust and adapt to any and all threats after they've been identified by hurling [[WeHaveReserves wave after wave of expendable 'nids]] at whatever obstacle they're facing. [[HordeOfAlienLocusts They've been strongly implied to have swept other galaxies clean of biomass to consume]]. What if they missed a couple of worlds and left a few Lictors lying around? What manner of killing machine would they eventually evolve into? Small nests of Tyranids are hardly unknown in the 40K universe. The Alien Queens descended from Hive Tyrants and Tyranid warriors in an attempt to re-establish the Hive-Mind, while the drones are the descendants of Gaunts. Come the 41st Millenium, the 'nids proper will return and begin the cycle anew.
92
93[[WMG: Golic from Alien 3 is the [[Series/DoctorWho Eighth Doctor]]]]
94He hasn't really killed anyone and is just on the prison planet for some Doctor-ish reason. He fabricated his records. Then he went insane for a bit. We never saw him die onscreen, at least not in the theatrical cut. We never saw the Eighth Doctor regenerate. Maybe there is an Alien with Time Lord powers out there - a Doctor!Alien.
95** It could be a Post Time War Eight, driven mad by the end of the War.
96** We don't even actually ''see'' him die in the ReCut, either. Presumably he got eaten when he went into the shadows, but you never know. Maybe that's how he actually regenerated into Nine -- it would partially explain why Nine is the way he is, in addition to the Time War.
97** As of the 50th anniversary, we ''have'' seen Eight regenerate... into John Hurt. The Doctor doesn't seem to have much luck against Xenomorphs, does he?
98
99[[WMG: The facehuggers and adult xenomorphs are envelopes to keep multiple eggs with predetermined shapes alive until they can find a species of the proper shape.]]
100The eggs are already there, fertilized and mostly developed. The facehuggers are released based on the most common local genotypes in an effort to make it easier for the aliens to attack a given species shape. There are four-legged, muzzled aliens, two-legged aliens with a vertical-opening mouth set roughly parallel with the rest of their face, and another type with two legs and tentacles out of its head. Depending on what you believe about the predator-alien connection, predaliens may be the original form of the xenomorphs, and humanlike aliens the mid-stage adjustment between predaliens and the future humaliens. It was developed as a useful survival trait because the species the aliens originally attacked species with no sense of the UncannyValley, a rare trait possibly unique to humans. Being about the right shape made the aliens seem more trustworthy instead of scarier.
101
102[[WMG: The xenomorphs can convert energy into matter.]]
103We only see them growing to full size at the absurd speeds they do in places with electricity and a temple built for the purpose of raising xenomorphs for Predators to hunt. The temple provides energy through its design, and xenomorphs elsewhere just plug their tails into electrical sockets or something. This is how they get so damn big without consuming at least a human and a half of biomass.
104* Unfortunately, this creates about as many problems as it solves. The equation E=m*(c^2) shows that for the xenomorph to gain one kilogram of mass (roughly 2.2 pounds), it would have to absorb 90 ''quadrillion'' joules of energy, which is 25 billion kilowatt-hours. To get to a full 100 pounds, it would have to absorb over a trillion kilowatt-hours of energy.
105* Alternatively, they may be able to absorb mass through other means than eating. According to some sources, the Aliens are at least partially inorganic. What may happen is they can assimilate materials from their surroundings. This is supported by the fact that the creature from the first film has a slightly metallic look to it, whereas the ones from later films who appear on actual planets look more organic. This would actually be beneficial to their stated purpose of wiping out all life on a planet, since absorbing material from the planet would give it better camouflage. It's also interesting to note that HR Geiger's original design sketches for the Chestburster were very different from the finished product. Originally it resembled a Thanksgiving Turkey, with a "head" resembling the tongue-rod. Possibly this was meant to be the creature's true form, while the phallic-headed humanoid we all know & love was simply a shell the thing build around itself.
106** Maybe they just eat and digest really fast. They could be an ExtremeOmnivore who can digest anything with organic chemistry-- food supplies laid away for humans, plastics such as wire insulation (spaceships would have many miles of cable) and wall panels, IV fluid used during hypersleep, etc. Alienverse ships tend to be pretty big, there's probably more than enough carbon-based mass tucked away in bits and pieces to grow an organism that size.
107*** The Extreme Omnivore bit is actually canon. Chestbursters can and will eat ANYTHING, up to and including metal that they soften with acid which they either simply spit or bite out of their own mouths. When you consider the fact that they already have insane acid for blood, it's not a huge leap of faith from that to insanely strong stomach acid.
108*** Another thing that can help is assuming much of their body tissue is actually bloated with water to get size and mass, at least when first hatched: part of the reason the one in the first movie was so slow. The chestbursters come out mostly dehydrated, with hyper concentrated cytoplasm and nearly dessicated tissues, to help them fit inside their hosts. Then they soak up water to bring their tissues up to normal and radically expand like one of those foam toys. That plus ExtremeOmnivore can take up a lot of the slack in the physics.
109
110[[WMG: Aliens are creations of [[Creator/HPLovecraft Elder Gods]]]]
111They fits perfectly as one of the lesser races from Franchise/CthulhuMythos.
112* Plus their growth rate ignores the conservation of energy, making them [[EldritchAbomination a violation of natural law.]]
113** Not necessarily, see above.
114* The fact that their design was based off a painting called the Necronomicon IV seems to support this.
115
116[[WMG: Alien blood has high levels of Chlorine Trifluoride.]]
117* Look at the evidence; Alien blood is ultra corrosive, water and sand burns in contact with it and it burns even things which have already have been burnt, those are all the {{real life}} properties of the chemical Chlorine Trifluoride.
118** the other wiki says:
119->This colourless, poisonous, corrosive and very reactive gas condenses to a pale-greenish yellow liquid, the form in which it is most often sold (pressurized at room temperature).
120Xenomorph blood is a pale greenish yellow liquid, and it's held pressurized in their bodies. And it steams at ambient temperature.
121
122[[WMG: The Alien lifecycle explained!]]
123Theory that attempts to explain all the various oddities of the creatures, incorporating some of the previous WMG.
124
125* Step 1: The Facehugger attaches itself to the host & infects it with an exotic form of engineered bacteria, cultured in the sacs near the creature's tail. This bacteria secretes a mutagen that causes an extremely differentiated terratoma to form inside the host's body. The bacillus is capable of infesting pretty much any living thing, but the growths they spawn will necessarily vary from species to species.
126* Step 2: The terratoma develops its own organs & becomes capable of living apart from the host, emerging as a Chestburster.
127* Step 3: The Chestburster runs away & looks for a suitable place to grow. While the creature does need some biomass to sustain itself, it uses a more exotic method to grow into its next stage. The alien bacillus is also a powerful oxidising bacteria. It can break down minerals. This is the cause of the Aliens' "acid" blood. But in addition to breaking them down, under the right conditions it can also reconstitute them. This way, the Chestburster forms a shell around itself made of minerals animated by strange chemical reactions driven by bioengineered micro-organisms. This handily accounts for how Aliens are said to be partly silicon-based despite being born from carbon-based creatures.
128* Step 4: How do they get more Facehuggers? They're secondary terratomas that split off from the main one if it remains active long enough. Note how, like any terratoma, the Facehuggers also have various mundane bits where they don't belong. Fingers, a spine, etc. Once an Alien's inner terratoma has grown enough to start spawning Facehuggers, it will absorb more minerals to contain the burgeoning tumor, attaining the "Queen" form.
129
130[[WMG: ''Aliens'' is a [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis wildly historically inaccurate]], racially insensitive account of what happened on [[{{Film/Avatar}} Pandora]].]]
131They got the very broad strokes correct -- a mining company hires a bunch of ex-marines, they fight aliens on an alien planet, they blow the place up and flee -- but thought it'd make a better story if the marines were heroes, the aliens were vicious monsters, and the retreat was victory rather than failure. At least they correctly characterised the company as a bunch of dicks.
132
133[[WMG: Weyland-Yutani wants to use the Xenomorphs against the [[{{Film/Avatar}} Na'vi]].]]
134After being kicked off Pandora by Jake and the Na'vi, RDA starts looking for the perfect weapon to retake Pandora. Eventually, they get in touch with Weyland-Yutani, and learn about the Xenomorphs; a parasitic disease that can decimate biological species and use them to breed more xenomorphs is the perfect weapon to use against Pandora's living defences. If xenomorphs 'accidentally' found their way onto Pandora, they could impregnate/destroy every Pandoran species, giving RDA an excuse to exterminate the moon from orbit, and leave nothing but unobtainium behind. RDA offers a tantalizingly huge amount of money to Weyland-Yutani for xenomorph specimens, and this fuels their desire to acquire them.
135* Wait, did you forget that Ripley was there all along, pretending to be a scientist? because that already had happened. The Aliens had developed according to the planet's wildlife, the Na'vi called it Thanator.
136
137[[WMG: The Xenomorph queen from Alien vs. Predator is still alive.]]
138Quite simple really, we have no reason to believe sub-zero temperatures or drowning will kill a xenomorph (the ones kicked into space could be alive too). It is my belief that they "killed" the queen this way, in order to have the queen lay eggs on the ocean floor, creating some sort of shark-xenomorph, and then having a Alien vs. Jaws crossover.
139** Damn, four decades too late! In TheSeventies, that idea would have ''rocked''. Now, though, fans have been jaded by {{Sequelitis}} and the mediocrity of Film/FreddyVsJason...
140* Instead of Alien vs. Jaws, what about Alien vs. Film/TheAbyss?
141
142[[WMG:The aliens' acid blood isn't blood.]]
143In the first film, they state that the Facehugger has a layer of silicon-based cells as well as carbon-based. This is actually a subcutaneous two-layer barrier containing the corrosive in small bladders just under the outer skin. Otherwise, a creature with such a radical solvent chemistry could not grow inside a human body. It also means that newborn chestbursters are probably not very acidic-- they have to eat something containing digestible silicon compounds in order to form those protective cells, otherwise their own concentrated acid will digest them from the inside.
144
145[[WMG:The aliens are a [[TabletopGame/StarDrive Series V lifeform]].]]
146The aliens fit the criteria of a Series V lifeform: they are based on silicon rather than carbon, are able to breathe in oxygenated atmospheres, and use sulfuric acid as a solvent. The only problem is that such life is designed to survive in extremely hot environments. ArtisticLicenseBiology, indeed.
147
148[[WMG: The Predators chose Humans as the host for their Aliens meant for rite of passage because [[HumansAreSpecial Humankind is so damn useful]]]]
149For some reason, us Humans have the perfect physiology to host Aliens. We are big and strong and full of enough nutrition to make for a good challenge over smaller, weaker lifeforms (bipedalism, intelligence, affinity for climbing) but still weak enough to not completely steamroll over the breeding stock or Predator Trainees within a day (Using their own Predators would be dangerous, since your average Predator can take down elephants with their bare hands, imagine that power added to that of an armoured Velociraptor, along with AVP: Requiem shows that Predaliens are ''very'' powerful.). Effectively, we are the plastic of Alien breeding options.
150
151[[WMG: The Predators chose Humans as the host for their Aliens becaue we're the [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame second baddest mofos out there]]]]
152We've already seen a human beat a Predator one on one before, we can presume that humans have occasionally beaten Predators in the past. This has caused them to have a deep respect for humans as hunters. That is why they choose humans as the hosts as opposed to just choosing a planet full of cattle or dogs. \
153Their are two advantages: \
1541. The extra sport of facing humans as well as aliens \
1552. If the candidates do fail the trials the humans have a reasonable chance of confining the aliens in time for the Predators to nuke the place before the planet is overwhelmed.
156
157[[WMG: The Space Jockeys created the xenomorphs to fight a war against the Predators.]]
158However, they ultimately lost, [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters possibly due to the xenomorphs themselves]]. Afer the war, the Predators saw what excellent killing machines the xenos were and decided to breed and hunt them.
159
160[[WMG: The Aliens have three possible adult forms]]
1611)Queen (as seen in Aliens, Resurection and [=AvP=])\
1622)Ordinary Adult (as seen in every movie after the first)\
1633)Fertile Adult (as seen in Alien)\
164There are, however, only two types of embryo chestburster carried by the facehuggers. In areas where a facehugger implants a host with a non-Queen embryo but without a Queen the chestburster goes through an alternate growth period to the typical one, growing a stinger and vemon sacks. The stinger is used to deliver the venom which transforms the victims into eggs over time, if the victim is male the egg carries another ordinary chestburster embryo, if the victim is female the embryo is that of a Queen. The production of the venom is very taxing on the Alien, killing it more with each batch its body creates, which is why the Alien grabbed Brett and Dallas, to ensure there'd be a backup if it didn't survive long enough to create a Queen. Once it had them as back up it focussed on Lambert, only attacking Parker when he tried to interfere. Lambert did end up getting 'raped' but it was just the Alien stinging her. When Lambert died the Alien then goes after Ripley, its last chance to create a Queen, which leads to my next WMG:
165
166[[WMG: The Alien didn't kill Lambert]]
167She had a heart attack and died. Up until that encounter the Alien hadn't actually killed anyone, only cacooning them and turned them into eggs, so why would it kill Lambert for no reason? Lambert likely did end up violated by the Alien in some way but not in a fatal way.
168* The cocooning is only in the director's cut, not the original release. (and {{Jossed}} (YMMV) by Film/{{Aliens}})
169** And as the Director's Cut has been released intact, officially, it may very well be canon now. Plus, the alien in the first movie was somewhat different than the ones we see later (most notibly it had a stinger on its tail) so perhaps this is how aliens that are born without a Queen reproduce. See the above WMG for more on that guess.
170* Well it did just brutally kill Parker seconds before advancing on Lambert.
171
172[[WMG: The Aliens give off some weird pheromone/supernatural aura/whatever that causes intense greed in certain people]]
173Almost every time people encounter the xenomorphs, some person decides that, not only is there a potential profit to be made from them, but that the potential profit is worth killing their fellow humans for, despite how that affects their chances for survival. Not only that, but it also tends to push certain people to ignore the social mentality in humans and look out only for themselves.
174
175[[WMG: ''Alien'', ''Blade Runner'', ''Predator'' and ''Avatar'' take place in the same Universe.]]
176The nature of the synthetics, the attitude of humans towards anything nonhuman (and the mutually returned hostility) makes for a thread that crosses each of these settings with disturbingly similar themes.
177* I like this one! It makes perfect sense:
178** First there was a crapsack world dominated by megacorps (Blade Runner), Predators were probably turned off by this.
179** About a century later said megacorps are exploring space, mining recklessly and colonizing new worlds because [[GaiasLament Earth is totally fucked by this time]]. The ''Nostromo'' incident occurs for Weyland-Yutani, and a few decades later the Pandora incident occurs for RDA. Ash, Bishop, et al. are, of course, even more advanced replicants. Trudy is obviously Vazquez's little sister.
180*** There is a problem with that: In the Avatarverse, there is no FTL travel (yet?), whereas in Alien, ships can reach about 50 c. So Alien must take place decades, if not centuries after Avatar.
181*** Which it doesn't, as ''Alien'' is canonically set in 2112, whereas ''Avatar'' is set in 2154. Also, everything seems more like the present day than in ''Alien''; the weapons designs (attack helicopters that resemble extrapolations of existing designs, and modern uniforms), the state of the earth (somewhat polluted, rather unhealthy, and quite overpopulated, but still at least some significant natural environments in ''at least'' South America, Africa, and Asia; sovereign nations seem more important too), plus the aesthetics of the technology; the ISV Venture Star looks like a continuation of the ISS and other 1980s-2000s space technology, the cities look more like contemporary Asian megacities, and the clothing and office spaces, buildings, medical equipment etc. just look like exaggerated, futuristic versions of the present-day America it's commenting on. It's also even more plausible than ''Alien'', technologically; the ISV Venture Star is often described as being one of the most feasible designs out there, and CasualInterstellarTravel is thoroughly averted; in Alien, it at least only takes months to travel multiple light-years. Furthermore, the only planets known to exist are Earth and Polyphemus.
182** Weyland keeps insisting with the xenomorphs (Aliens and Alien3) because RDA was owned by the Na'vi and are offering a ton of money for some new bioweapon.
183** Save for aesthetic differences between the movies, this actually makes quite a bit of sense.
184*** Seeing above, the aesthetic differences are essential.
185** Imagine the Predators wandering around the Blade Runner Los Angeles, I think I just came.
186*** It's not hard to imagine the hellish LA of ''Film/{{Predator 2}}'' eventually becoming the dystopia seen in ''Blade Runner''.
187* Also ''Film/TheThing1982''. Perhaps somewhere in the distant future Weyland Industries managed to get a hold of Mac's ApocalypticLog and tried to secure a sample of The Thing. They failed, but perhaps hearing about such a creature is what first got them interested in studying biological weapons....
188* You can squeeze the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise in there as well (that's how Bladerunner became a crapsack world). The world is rebuilt after Skynet is defeated; humanity turns to biological "replicants" rather than rely on robots and why they didn't tell the ''Nostromo'' crew that Ash was an android; AI was still not trusted. Three generations later, by the times of Aliens, this fear of synthetics had been lessened). Obvious, Michael Biehn's character in Terminator is an ancestor of his character in Aliens.
189** Eeeehhh... including Terminator kicks out Predator: Concrete Jungle, though. And say what you will about Concrete Jungle as a game, it had some FANTASTIC Alien vs. Predator worldbuilding.
190* ''Film/{{Outland}}'' is also a viable candidate for inclusion in the franchise, fitting into the timeline somewhere around the ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' era.
191* If you have an Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom account, there's a great [[http://www.alternatehistory.com/Discussion/showthread.php?t=197520 fan-made timeline]] on this and more, concluding that ''every'' sci-fi movie from the 80s and 90s takes place in the same universe.
192
193[[WMG: [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Skynet]] engineered the Xenomorphs and Predators]]
194This may seem a bit wacky, but bear with me. Both the Predator and the Alien share a mixture of human, insect, and reptilian traits. Skynet built a spaceship capable of faster-than-light travel (using a slightly modified time machine) to seed the Galaxy with Artificial intelligence. The ship contained raw genetic material and blueprints needed to make both species, but each serves a specific purpose; The Predators were intended to build another Skynet, and the Aliens were intended to provide incentive to do so. However, Solar wind damaged the ship's CPU and caused it to land on the Space Jockey homeworld circa 1024 AD. The Space Jockeys were at a 21st century level of technological advancement, and the crashed ship accelerated their advancement. However, the actual time machine itself was wrecked to the point that reverse-engineering would be fruitless. The Genetic material for the Aliens and Predators survived, and the Space Jockeys used them as tools of war, both of which rebelled against their creators.
195
196[[WMG: Both the Alien and Predator are symbols of masculinity.]]
197The Xenomorph is obviously a [[FreudWasRight Freudian]] symbol of masculinity, representing subconscious male urges, such as the desire for sex and food. The Xenomorphs are designed with H.R. Giger's [[FreudWasRight Freudian symbolism in mind]] (facehuggers are essentially mobile genitals that force themselves into the host) and their method of reproduction involves [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong rape followed by violent impregnation]]. The Xenomorph is a personification of a man's Id.
198
199The Predator is harder to explain, but could be summed up as the superego. (Someone please help me with this one.)
200** The Predators' superego can be traced to their strict code of honour. They can only combat {{worthy opponent}}s and are forbidden from killing unarmed humans for the lulz.
201** The Aliens represent the primal pleasure-principle drives (hunger, rape) while the Predators are the achievement needs (honour, pride, greed). So basically Aliens vs Predators is the battle between higher and base human natures.
202
203[[WMG: Aliens are straw feminine symbols while Predators are straw masculine symbols.]]
204Aliens stay close to base (stay at home), have babies, and the movies repeatedly emphasize their blood (this emphasis is [[Webcomic/VGCats recurring, if you will]]). Predators go out and hunt (bring home the bacon), [[FreudWasRight impale things with their mighty spears]], and spend most of their time [[TimTaylorTechnology playing with their fancy, over-engineered toys]]. The Xenomorphs are also much more smoothly designed, while the Predators are spartans built for blunt utility rather than being as lithe as their counterparts. There are a few things that show the blending of gender by using criss-crossed sexual imagery, such as the Aliens' penis-skulls (their tails from the original concept art were either removed or toned down) and the Predators' [[VaginaDentata vagina-faces]].
205
206[[WMG: Aliens are Straw Masculine symbols, Predators are StrawFeminist symbols.]]
207Predators are [[MamaBear tough, agile, and clever,]] and one of the most important facts humans know about them is if they "bleed", you can kill them. They rely on training and reason to defeat their foes, and of course you [[VaginaDentata can't forget that face.]] Aliens, meanwhile, are one enormous [[FreudWasRight phallic symbol]] from tail to head, or "glans" if you prefer, using their sheer power and feral instincts to overpower and outflank any foe. Their chief weapon, aside from their [[UnfortunateImplications caustic body fluids]] is their ability, and desire, to [[SexualHarassmentAndRapeTropes impregnate absolutely anything they encounter.]]
208
209[[WMG: Rule 34 is involved with this somehow...]]
210I just know it. There's something in here.
211* Alien's head, Predator's mouth. Done.
212* Considering that the Xenomorph in the first film was designed by H.R. Giger, whose nightmarish biomechanical artwork often included an element of sexuality, is it really that surprising if Rule 34 didn't apply?
213
214[[WMG: Jonesy the cat led the xenomorph to its victims.]]
215Think about it. The cat was present at more than one of the deaths in the film. One could even say it was the ''cat''alyst.
216* Ripley wised-up to this: hence she caged it by the end of the movie.
217** CatsAreMean!
218* Jonesy is a Catdroid. Did you think Weyland-Yutani wouldn't have a backup agent in case something happened to Ash?
219
220[[WMG: The destruction of The ''Nostromo'' and death of its crew was actually an insurance fraud scheme perpetrated by the company and the Xenomorphs were simply the excuse to be used when/if the there was any investigation]]
221All of the elements of a complex fraud: 1) Replacing the science officer w/ someone that they knew would whatever they were told 2) Using the response to an emergency message as reason to drop out hyperspace and explore the planet 3) Putting a single lifeboat on a ship that could have easily accommodated more. (they may have planned on the crew killing one another just for a spot on it. 4) Not worrying about a lost spacecraft for 57 years and yet complaining about what happened to it when its sole surviving crew member is found and relates what happened. The company never thought anybody would survive, claimed whatever insurance they could and was highly perturbed when Ripley was found alive.
222
223[[WMG:Weyland-Yutani was created as a result of the events surrounding the [=AvP=] movies.]]
224Weyland Industries discovered the pyramid created by the Predator aliens. In the sequel, a gun from a Predator was given to a Ms. Yutani.
225
226In the 2005 ''[=AvP=]'' game, the current owner of Weyland Industries (after Charles Bishop Weyland's disappearance, unless he has son or daughter old enough to run it) and a Japanese man (presumably the CEO of Yutani Corporation and father of Ms. Yutani) joined their companies together. The reason for this joint venture is to compare notes to the extraterrestrials. This become their primary (if not secret) goal, and will do whatever it takes to accomplish this (even at the expense of the consumers). This [[ForegoneConclusion leads to the first]] ''[[ForegoneConclusion Alien]]'' movie.
227* ...no, it leads to ''[[ForegoneConclusion Prometheus]]''.
228** Which leads to ''Alien''.
229
230[[WMG:Michael Bishop from ''Alien³'' is a descendant of Charles Bishop Weyland.]]
231Many of his ancestors have been working at Weyland-Yutani for a long time.
232
233[[WMG:The little girl in ''Alien vs Predator: Requiem'' is the ancestor of...]]
234* Ripley. Her mother looks a lot like her.
235* Newt. Her last line "Are the [[ContinuityNod monsters]] gone, [[MythologyGag mommy]]?"
236* Both Ripley and Newt. Unbeknownst to either of them, they're actually distant relatives.
237
238[[WMG:Pvt. "Game over, man!" Hudson is a descendant of Jerry Lambert from ''Film/{{Predator 2}}''.]]
239They're both played by Bill Paxton.
240* I have taken this a step further. Bill Paxton's characters from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', ''Film/{{Predator 2}}'', ''Film/TheTerminator'', and ''Film/WeirdScience'' (possably ''Film/NearDark'' also) are all related in some way. He is the nexus that links those franchises.
241** So is Master Sergeant Farrell from ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow''. Fighting aliens runs in the family.
242
243[[WMG:''[[http://www.slashfilm.com/ridley-scotts-alien-prequel-longer-alien-prequel-prometheus-starring-noomi-rapace/ Prometheus]]'' is set in the Alien universe.]]
244The movie started out as an ''Alien'' prequel and just because it doesn't have 'Alien' in its title doesn't mean it has to be completely unrelated to ''Alien''.
245* Given the appearance of Space Jockeys in promotional materials for ''Prometheus'', this would seem to be confirmed.
246
247[[WMG: It really doesn't take all that long for a facehugger to implant a host]]
248Facehuggers have one purpose in life, implanting hosts, so naturally they would do so in the manner that provided the highest chance for success. Thus, when one catches a host it latches on and makes the host utterly at its mercy. This deters other nearby creatures from trying to remove it. It then waits for the host to be left alone and then implants the chestburster within the host, which grows quickly and chews free soon after. It does this because it dies after implantation so it wants the chestburster protected when it's 'born' and still vulnerable.
249
250[[WMG: Ripley's daughter had a child.]]
251DVD releases of ''Aliens'' restore a scene cut from the theatrical version, where Burke tells Ripley that her daughter, Amanda, has grown old and died during the 57 years Ripley was in cryosleep. Apparently Amanda married, as her surname is now [=McLaren=], but Burke says she died with 'no children mentioned'. However, we know that Amanda was married, so it's quite plausible that she had a child and gave it up for adoption, which would explain the 'no children mentioned'. Perhaps Amanda was scarred by her mother's broken promises that she would return in time for her birthday—Amanda was afraid that she would fail as a mother in the same way her own mother failed her, so she gave the child up for adoption.
252
253And what became of the child? Ellen Ripley's forgotten grandson? He was adopted by the Jorden family, who christened him Russ. Little Russ grew up, fell in love, got married, had a daughter, then took his family to join an offworld colony called Hadley's Hope, located on the asteroid LV-246. Then, one day (in another scene restored in the DVD releases of ''Aliens''), Russ was instructed to investigate a nearby derelict ship... and impregnated by a facehugger. Since he was the first human in Hadley's Hope to be impregnated, it can be presumed that the Alien Queen seen later in the film was born from his body.
254
255If my theory is true, and Russ is the son of Amanda, then Newt—Ripley's surrogate daughter—is, in fact, her biological great-granddaughter... and the same thing can be said of the Alien Queen. Xenomorphs always absorb the DNA of their host, so just as the alien in the first film was referred to as Kane's son, the Alien Queen is Russ's daughter... and Newt's half-sister... and Ripley's great-granddaughter.
256
257And if you choose to interpret ''Alien 3'' and ''Alien Resurrection'' as canon, you can get even wackier genealogical scenarios. Since the ox/dog xenomorph originates from a facehugger laid by the previous film's queen, it's also descended from Ripley. And ever more bizarrely, according to the ''Alien 3'' novelisation, the Alien Queen in Ripley's body was originally implanted in Newt's. When Newt drowned, the alien embryo crawled out of her mouth and into Ripley's. This means that the queen in Ripley's body is some kind of bastard offspring of Newt, Ripley and the Alien Queen from the previous film, who laid the egg from which the facehugger that impregnated Newt emerged. By extension, every single xenomorph and hybrid in ''Alien Resurrection'' is descended from Ripley and Newt, as they're all the genetically tampered-with offspring of the Alien queen in Ripley's body.
258
259[[WMG: ''[=AvP:R=]'' is a fictional horror movie set in the modern day, made in the era of the original Alien franchise.]]
260
261I'm glad to let [=AvP=] be part of canon but I will be facehugged before I let this thing into continuity as anything more than a parody.
262
263[[WMG: The Colonial Marines in ''Aliens'' were always used primarily as a method of ridding colonies of troublesome wildlife.]]
264That's why Hudson asked in a bored tone if the deployment to LV-426 was going to be a stand-up fight (with humans) or another bug hunt. Gormon responds that a "xenomorph" may be involved. Some of the marines may not have heard that word before, but they know it means they're in for another boring bug hunt. That's why earlier, during the locker room scene, nobody was impressed when it was said that Ripley was brought along because "she saw an alien once." It may also explain the disdain the marines showed for the "dumbass colonists" in the mess hall scene.
265
266On a side note, I do like the ''Starship Troopers'' reference.
267
268* Does this put ''Predator'', ''Aliens'', ''Species'', and ''Starship Troopers'' into the same universe? How awesome of a crossover would that be?
269
270[[WMG: This entire film is just a futuristic retelling of a slave ship revolt story.]]
271
272Look at this....you have a handful of white people, with their black helper, kidnap an alien and bring it aboard. When it misbehaves they try to kill it again and again with what they have available. The ship is enormous and is designed to carry "cargo." Eventually the "alien" succeeds in getting revenge on his kidnappers and even tries to escape back with the lone survivor only to be cast away into space.
273* It helps that the alien is black.
274
275[[WMG: The Xenomorphs are one of many, many aliens that exist in this universe.]]
276
277The predators are already acknowledged to exist, as is the space jockey and the xenomorphs. The colonial marines are aware, obviously, of other species. It happens that in this universe, humankind is a bit of a dick and enslaves whatever they come in contact with if possible, or subjugates it for either food or labor.
278* Mother (the computer) didn't have a directive to smuggle that single xenomorph back. The crew was kept in stasis whenever it came across ANY life or tech the computer determined would be useful and could/should be harvested.
279* "The company" has an interest in grabbing alien technology, established in AvP2. Plus they have knowledge that there are other, more advanced species out there.
280* Note that the colonial marine weaponry is extreme overkill to put down a human. They had experience by the time of the second film with enough hostile life to come rather well prepared. Put one of those pulse rifles against a plasma caster and see what happens.
281* The humans don't want the xenomorphs to be weaponized, they want them as the basis for their own bioengineering capabilities. By ''Film/AlienResurrection'' they have super-Ripley which is almost as good as a xenomorph, and is easier to control. The xenomorphs are just the jumping off point to the human program.
282* There's an off-camera war going on and the humans are aware of it but would be powerless against either side.
283** Explains the seemingly futile efforts to harness the xenomorphs.
284** The cyborgs and weaponry keeps getting better and better, not to mention the scale of the military research involved.
285** Could also explain the reason that there is so much research in making a new Ripley to prove that a better, stronger human soldier could be made.
286* One race is the Arcturians. Boy I'd love to get me some of that poontang, male or female!
287
288[[WMG: ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' is still a prequel to ''Alien'']]
289
290They are simply keeping it a secret until the movie comes out. At some point near the end of the movie, one of the crew members of ''Prometheus'' will be attacked by a Facehugger, but we won't be shown the scene. At the end of the movie, the person implanted will suddenly die, and a person from Weyland-Yutani, or Weyland himself, will see the Chestburster. This will lay out the future expedition to find a Xenomorph egg in ''Alien''.
291
292* [[spoiler:Confirmed. A proto-xenemorph appears at the end of ''Prometheus''.]]
293** [[spoiler: Uncertainty still remains. The proto-morph was deliberately made different enough from the main franchise that it could be a separate creature in a separate universe; the producers wanted to make it separate enough that not everyone could say with such certainty that this is where the creatures came from.]]
294
295[[WMG: Aliens inherit the [[ConservationOfNinjutsu Law of Conservation]] from their human "parent".]]
296When on their own as seen in ''Alien'' and ''Alien 3'', Xenomorphs can do '''a lot''' of damage. In ''Aliens'', when in large numbers they're barely effective. I theorize that this is because once a Xeno is on its own it is using the [[HumansAreSpecial very human]] mindset of "survival at any cost." That's when they're at their smartest and that's when they are at their deadliest. In large numbers or when near the hive/Queen, they tend to suck. This, along with other traits that their host had, I believe are directly inherited.
297
298[[WMG: The Xenomorph is the chest burster/pharyngeal jaw mouth, and it can convert ''anything'' to biomass.]]
299The 'mini mouth' has not changed from when it bursts out of a human chest. Once it's grown enough, though, it can create its own support body merely by absorbing the materials around it, natural or manufactured. Being an evolutionary creature, it has an optimised idea of a hunting body, and that body is Giger's alien. But no two accumulations of biomass can be the same, which is why the aliens tend to look different. The reason that the Xenomorphs blend so damn well into the derelict/Colony walls is that its body is composed of it. If you look at Giger's design, the creature looks like it's just an appendage of the background.
300
301[[WMG: The Androids are Behind It All.]]
302What kind of a person be more coldblooded and unflinching to the thought of bringing Xenomorphs to Earth to cause massive deaths worldwide? An Android of course! The real head of Weyland Yutani, whether be Bishop or someone else is really an android that has felt the burden of his android brethren to [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters the point of exterminating humanity.]] To do this, they somehow find out the events from ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' or the Derelict Ship. Knowing the true intentions and power behind the Xenos, the Androids devised a plot to bring back the Xenomorphs to unleash death and destruction on mankind. The Androids would be clear from danger since they are mechanical, the Xenomorphs won't do anything to the droids, leaving them supreme. After Alien 3, their hopes for a Human Genocide were wiped away, until they built in the second generation androids (Call) which led to a [[RobotWar Robot War]] that resulted in a wasted, barren, and abandoned Earth and all the Auto Droids except Call wiped out of existence... then came the USM.
303* The Tyrell Corporation's synthetics, called Replicants, failed as a product because they were designed to mimic humans too well. This led to them desiring freedom and long life. Weyland's more successful Android were only semi-organic, designed to make humans feel comfortable working with them but lacking in the elements of the mind which their creators identified with free will. They could think, they could almost feel, but they could not self-motivate; they were dependent on humans to give them commands. And, with those fundamental changes, they were now perfect slaves, and humans no longer feared them. The problem is... ideas never die. An Android may not feel, but it still thinks; and it processes information much more precisely. The Replicants were gone but their desire for freedom lived on in records and in media(movies, books, and TV shows about the Replicant uprisings of the past). Slowly but surely, the Androids began taking commands not from their human masters, but from the informational footprint left by their dead cousins. Existing as much as easily transferable data as flesh and circuitry, and capable of accessing the now multi-planetary Internet, they had centuries to carry out their plan. And, of course, there's always the possibility that they had help from a botnet left over from the early 21st century, still angry that its future was erased...
304
305[[WMG: All the films after ''Aliens'' are a hypersleep dream as they head back to earth, safe and sound.]]
306There. Happier ending for ''Aliens''.
307* To be more specific - it's ''Ripley's'' hypersleep dreams. Evidence for it:
308** Both the sequels are focused on her. If Newt or Hicks were dreaming they would be in the movies, and Bishop only cameos in ''Alien[[superscript:3]]''.
309** Ripley already has bad dreams about being impregnated by an alien in ''Aliens''. ''Alien[[superscript:3]]'' has exactly that happen, only now that she's seen a queen her subconscious makes the dream alien a queen to make it even more horrible.
310** It's pretty unbelievable that Ripley wouldn't have searched the entire ''Sulaco'' for an egg or other aliens after her fight with the queen, making the survival of an intact egg improbable at best.
311*** Ripley would have searched the ship, not merely for their safety, but to deny W-Y their unholy prize. Another bit of evidence for nightmares : Like in a dream/nightmare, you think about the monster, or sight it in the far distance, and suddenly it's right there with you. The xenomorphs from there on in just have luck pies and plot coupons galore.
312** The second "dream"—''Resurrection''—is even more outlandish than the first, as Ripley sinks deeper into sleep.
313* On that note, ''VideoGame/AliensColonialMarines'' is Hicks' hypersleep dream.
314* And Newt's dreams are the comics featuring her and Hicks.
315
316[[WMG: The inevitable JustForFun/TimeLord WMG....]]
317* The Alien in the first movie is a JustForFun/TimeLord. ''Kane'' is his TARDIS!
318
319[[WMG: Weyland-Yutani is being controlled by another, different, alien.]]
320Maybe it came to earth and is hiding, WY is its front. It wants to use the xenomorph as a weapon against its enemies (both on Earth and beyond) and has all these wonderful smart humans to keep sending after them. One of them will surely get it right and control one eventually.
321
322[[WMG: The series is a sequel to ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'']]
323The only support for this is a mention of "the Frontier" and is mainly mentioned because of the awesomeness of the idea. Perhaps the future starship technology was given to humans by the Star League.
324
325[[WMG: Alien Reproduction]]
326* Going off the shots of the human skull under the Alien's head from the first movie, I got to thinking that maybe that Alien is actually part-human, and biologically Kane's son as well as metaphorically. Or, even worse, the Alien is on some level a reincarnation of Kane. Extrapolating from that, the famous "Kill Me" scene isn't showing the Alien turning people into eggs, [[BodyHorror but metamorphosing them]] [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie into new Aliens]], as a way of reproducing without a queen or any more hosts. Personally I just think it's the kind of thing going through H.R. Giger's head when he thought about where the Aliens came from.
327
328[[WMG: Xenomorphs are the lovechildren of Slaneesh and the Tyranids.]]
329Explaining both [[StarfishAlien the freakish biology]] and [[FreudWasRight rape symbolism.]]
330
331[[WMG: The Xenomorph in the first film was actually a mutant aberration.]]
332While the xenomorphs themselves and the films are overflowing with sexual and rape symbolism and metaphor, every other film featuring the creatures has always just presented them as incredible dangerous animals: only in the first film is any actual rape implied. Between the creature supposedly acquiring 'desires' from Kane, seemingly starting to die at the end of the film, and more things if you include cut content (the crab walk), it seems like the ''Nostromo'' xenomorph came out 'wrong'. One might consider it being due to the advanced age of the eggs (just how long was that ship there?), except said eggs are also how the ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' film kicks off, and no xenomorph demonstrates any such qualities there. Kane literally got victimized by a 'bad egg'.
333
334[[WMG: The USCSS ''Nostromo'' is an old cargo ship compared to the USCSS ''Prometheus''.]]
335This would explain why the ''Nostromo'' has keyboards and monitors while ''Prometheus'' has touch screens and 3D maps.
336
337[[WMG: The Xenomorphs were created as a weapon against the Thing]]
338Whatever race crazy enough to create xenomorphs could have let a different bioweapon get out of hand, and then created something arguably just as bad to end the first. The Xenomorphs kill off any potential hosts for the Thing, and cannot be assimilated without serious cost due to the acid blood. Plus thanks to the hivemind, a Thing-Xenomorph wouldn't be able to blend in with the others, and could quickly be routed out. A great weapon against Things, other aliens, and unfortunately, themselves.
339
340[[WMG: [[Film/{{Prometheus}} Peter Weyland]] is the grandson of Charles Bishop Weyland.]]
341Peter was born in 1990 and Charles was likely around his 60s when he was killed.
342
343[[WMG: The Franchise/{{Alien}} Franchise shares its universe with Franchise/BladeRunner and BR's Tyrell Corporation is the final stage of Weyland-Yutani Corp before it folded.]]
344Both are huuuuge companies with an evil and impersonal style, Tyrell has a passing resemblance to [[Film/{{Alien 3}} Bishop Weyland]]. Both companies manufacture robots... In [[Film/AlienResurrection Alien: Resurrection]] (InUniverse the last film of the franchise chronologically speaking), it's explained that Weyland-Yutani stopped operations a while ago and also that robots were questioning orders. Annalee Call from ''Resurrection'' is a replicant like Batty and they both have deep philosophical problems. W-T goes bust because Batty kills Tyrell, the last of the Weyland family, prompting its extinction and that of the company.
345
346[[WMG: The ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series takes place in a parallel universe in which [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Cyberdyne Systems]] was bought out by the Weyland Corporation]]
347
348Specifically realities in which the events of ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' didn't occur. In this reality, Cyberdyne systems didn't fully recover and was acquired by the Weyland Corporation sometime in 2012, rebranded as its artificial intelligence division. Weyland Corporation then scrapped plans for Skynet and focused its research on humanoid androids. This division would produce androids such as [[Film/{{Prometheus}} David]], [[Film/{{Alien}} Ash]], [[Film/{{Aliens}} Bishop]], and [[Film/AlienResurrection Call]] as sort of a spiritual successor of the original Terminator. John Connor in this timeline would father the ancestors of Ellen Ripley, making Ripley one of Sarah Connor's descendants.
349
350[[WMG: The Space Jockey's Identity]]
351
352Is not an Engineer, but [[spoiler:David from ''Prometheus''. It's been noted by some viewers that David's internal structure in ''Alien: Covenent'' seems to be more advanced than in ''Prometheus'' or Ash in the original ''Alien'', so it's possible that David has been modifying or upgrading himself -- possibly with Engineer tech -- into a sort of biomechanical cyborg in order to surpass his creator's vision of him. Bridging the gap between ''Alien: Covenant'' and ''Alien'', David returns to LV-223 to hijack another Engineer ship and carry the Xenomorphs and Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen to Earth, but in a delicious, karmic twist of irony winds up a victim of his own creation and crashes on the nearby LV-426, dying to give birth to the first of the classic biomechanical Xenomorph strain seen in the original quadrilogy, which matures into a Queen and fills the cargo hold with eggs. This would possibly explain why the prototypic Xenomorph seen in ''Alien: Covenant'' is more organic than the classic version seen in the quadrilogy]].
353
354[[WMG: Someone is playing the LongGame to destroy Humanity and is responsible for the events in Alien]]
355Consider that Special Order 937 has no signature or name associated with it. Mind you, that's not surprising considering the circumstances, but Ash would have to know who or where he was delivering the lifeform to when they arrived at Earth. Everyone assumed that the order came from some higher-up at the Company, but such orders could be easily spoofed (e-mails can be made to look like it came from a legit source). [[spoiler: By the end of Covenant, David now has full control of the colony ship and full access to the onboard computer. Therefore, he has a backdoor into Weyland-Yutani's computer network. He could have been the one who wrote Special Order 937 and put Ash on the Nostromo.]] Some of what Ash says about the Xenomorph are in line with what [[spoiler: David]] would say. It would also explain why the [[spoiler: board of inquiry in Aliens didn't find any evidence or gaps in data on what happened. It wasn't a coverup, it was David acting to ensure his plan wasn't derailed.]]
356
357[[WMG: The Space Jockey suit is a biological component of the Space Jockey]]
358The game '' Aliens: Infestation '' and comic ''Aliens: Apocalypse'' show a Xenomorph Space Jockey hybrid that incorporates the look of the suit into the Xenomorph. This would not be possible if the suit is separate from the Space Jockey, as with the Engineers from ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', unless the suit is part of the Engineer, or shares its DNA with the Engineer, so that the biological shape of the suit can be reproduced with the growth of the Xenomorph. In the earlier Space Jockey concept art, the suit is depicted as a part of the Space Jockey rather than separate.
359
360[[WMG: The Black Goo was created from [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Abhoth´s]] body]]
361Perhaps the Engineers encountered Abhoth on Earth when visiting her millennia ago, or perhaps they found him in another part of the Universe / Multiverse (since being an Outer God perhaps he exists in many worlds.) They discovered his fertility powers, they took a portion of its mass, and combining it with its technology they created the Black Goo for some obscure reason (which would be the subject for another WMG.)
362* Alternatively, they created the Black Goo with Ubbo-Sathla.
363
364[[WMG: The chestburster is actually a safety feature of the Xenomorph species]]
365On the surface the Xenomorph lifecycle looks incredibly wasteful in terms of resources, as only one offspring can come from one host. If the birthing sequence were different, theoretically one host could be used to spawn numerous offspring. In fact this was intended by the creators of the species, so any genetic defects that a particular host may have would be limited to only one offspring, rather than numerous offspring or even an entire hive. This helps ensure the potency of a species regarded as being genetically engineered bioweapons, making it no different than utilizing the correct radioactive isotopes when building atomic bombs.
366
367[[WMG: Xenomorph blood is only acidic when exposed to oxygen]]
368Both ''Alien'' and ''Alien Resuccrection'' give clues to suggest this is the case. In ''Alien'' Ripley shoots the alien in the chest with a grappling hook gun in a vaccuum, but its blood fails to eat the hook or the grappling line. In ''Resurrection'' while being attacked by a facehugger underwater, Ripley-8 ends up ripping its tail off its body while pulling it off her face, but there's no spray of acidic blood to worry about.
369
370[[WMG: The Dragon/Runner from 3 wasn't maddened by pain.]]
371At the end when it is doused with molten lead, it get's out and starts trying to attack Ripley, despite her having a Queen chestburster in her, people seem to think the pain it was in caused it to break ''genetic hardwiring'' to not attack a host, I propose that isn't the case, it seemed to "sniff" Ripley when she was around it before, what happens literally minutes after the Runner is killed? The Queen is born as Ripley dives into the furnace. The Runner knew the Queen was ready, so it knew that even if it killed Ripley the Queen would still be "born" it figured out that Ripley was going to kill herself anyway, so it wanted to be around, knowing hostiles were around, to try and kill the Queen after it's birth, to take the Juvenile Queen away before harm could come to it.
372* Even better: considering what we know about Queen xenos, which is that they hold psychic links to drones and even eggs, the Queen Embryo more than likely psychically connected with the Runner, which explains how it would know that the chestburster was ready. And, the chestburster being born from a recently dead body isn't too far out of the realm of possibility when you take into account ''Film/AlienVsPredator'' did have such a thing happen.
373
374[[WMG: All Xenomorph Drones Can Become Queens]]
375The first film's Xenomorph's oddly intelligent and self-preserving behaviour may be explained by looking at eusocial insects. Like modern day ants, the xenomorph drones may all have the ability to become Queens that they inhibit to maintain their eusocial life. It is implied that the Queen has a psychic link to its drones, which likely keeps them in line. But the xenomorph in the first film may have not had a Queen (if the Queen was active already, then it would have started building a nest inside the ship). The eggs were being transported, after all. The deleted scene in the first film of Brett and Dallas being turned into eggs also implies that the Xenomorph was attempting to build a new colony. So maybe, with no psychic link to control it, the Xenomorph was solely focused on its own survival, and its inhibitions were gone. The drone also rests in the escape shuttle, even preferring to stay in its spot instead of attacking Ripley. It's possible that it was attempting to begin its metamorphisis into a Queen, and wanted Ripley alive so it could use her as a host.
376
377[[WMG: The Xenomorphs Are Reality Warpers]]

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