History Characters / AlienMain

* ICannotSelfTerminate: Seems to believe this for a while and asks Dillon to help out.

** The ''Fire and Stone'' comics and the novelization of ''Film/AlienCovenant'' -- drawing from ''Alien: Engineers'', the original script for what became ''Prometheus'' -- establish that the Xenomorphs were bioweapons created by the Engineers to commit planetary genocide; and that David was attempting to replicate them by hybridizing different strains of Neomorphs.

* AliensAreBastards: The Engineers and humanity seemed to be on good terms with one another until something made the former change their minds about humans in 93 CE. Word Of God states that when Engineers seed a planet with life, they periodically visit it to check on their creations. If their creations prove to be a disappointment, they eradicate entire species using Chemical A0-3959X. 91 – 15 and start all over again.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Every individual member of the race seems to have a deep-seated hatred of and act hostile towards humans or other species.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Early drafts of ''Prometheus'' and interviews with Ridley Scott imply that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} was an Engineer envoy who got sent to Earth with the intent of to elevating mankind above their war-like ways. His crucifixion by the Romans may go a long way to explain why the Engineers have such a massive hate boner for us.
* BioArmor: Their bio-organic elephantine outfits act as glorified power armour/HAZMAT suits that protect their wearers from hazardous environments thanks to trunklike air-hoses and projectiles via [[DeflectorShields energy shields]].
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Have ink-black lifeless eyes with pupils shaped like oblong crosses and are a race of genocidal bastards to boot.
* CruelElephant: The Engineer's biosuits have a distinct resemblance to elephants, and as a whole, they're hellbent on annihilating humanity at large. ''Alien: The Roleplaying Game'' suggests that they might have modelled these biomechanical suits after similar creatures that they encountered at some stage.

* MesopotamianMonstrosity: Long before descending into misanthropy, the Engineers influenced the development of and were worshipped by many human cultures in antiquity. Mesopotamia was one such civilisation, and it is implied that cuneiform derives from the Engineers' writing system.

* SuperStrength: Not to a great degree, but they can leap around pretty well and often pin down humans. Though some feats, such as bashing a metal door with their reinforced heads numerous times to dent it, exist and are often pointed out for comparisons, moments like Dillon in the third film stealing a human victim despite one trying to pull it back, can be found as well. In expanded media, however, some versions of warriors (note, the idea of them being bred for combat by Predators for more interesting hunts has been discussed by creators in the ''AVP'' movies) truly are strong enough to pull people apart with their bare hands. Not to mention the Newborn in ''Resurrection'', which has terrifying strength even for it size.
* SuperToughness: The Xenomorphs manage to be both this and MadeOfExplodium at the same time. Their shells are very durable and can shrug off a fair amount of damage, including the vaporizing heat (though not pain) of open flames up to, in one case at least, molten lead at over 600 degrees. Their exoskeleton is also roughly as effective as class III body armor against ballistic threats. Unless you're using at least a rifle, expect you won't even make a proper ''dent'' in its armor-like exoskeleton, as demonstrated by the Warrior who all but ''ignored'' the 9mm rounds from Gorman's pistol that struck its ''on the cranium'' at somewhat close range. This is carried over to ''Isolation'' where the Aliens are effectively invincible because the only weapons available on the station are either police-issue (pistols rounds, buckshot) or improvised (bolt guns, pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, flamethrowers, batons...). Some fans have said that this would wear them down, so the one in ''Isolation'' may be a grade higher in defenses; however, once their crunchy shell is breached, they're apparently ''very'' gooey, flinging gore around like it's going out of style, though this may be the result of being struck by the explosive-tipped "light" armor-piercing rounds of weapons like the pulse rifle. And, as mentioned above, their blood is ''corrosive'', so being in splatter range isn't a good thing. Some sources speculate their internals are under high pressure, meaning they're ''designed'' to burst apart when killed in an effort at TakingYouWithMe.
* SuspiciouslyStealthyPredator: The xenomorphs. They nest in warm, humid places which help mask their infrared profile, their bodies blend in well with darkness and pipes, and they can remain completely motionless. It is almost as though they are perfectly adapted to concealing themselves in an obviously artificial environment.

* WouldHurtAChild: They will kill any living thing that moves.

** Once the Chestburster grows, they get huge -- the shortest credited actor to play the Alien was 6' 2" (1.88 m).

* EvilIsNotAToy: It's scary how many idiots keep believing they can tame the Aliens and use them as weapons to make profit. Needless to say, it almost always ends with disastrous results, and they usually are the first to pay for it. Especially egregious as [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters they have escaped from their creators' control and killed or harvested them just like everyone else]].

* EyelessFace: Their iconic, elongated skull lacks eyes. Though in some cases, they have empty, disturbingly human-like eye and nose sockets concealed under their transparent cowl.

* FantasticDrug: Aliens produce Royal Jelly which has the same role for this species as it has for real-life bees. However, it is also an extremely valuable substance in human society, used as a powerful and mind-enhancing drug for wealthy individuals. Since the only source of Royal Jelly is often deep inside an alien hive, collecting it can be very dangerous. The ''Hive'' mini-series details such an operation.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Giving "birth" to a Chestburster. This is highlighted by the iconic plea, "Kill... me!" spoken by impregnated Xenomorph victims.

* IAmNotShazam: The term "xenomorph" means "alien form",[[note]]OK, "strange shape" if we're being technical[[/note]] ie, an alien lifeform, and was intended to refer to alien life in general, rather than the Alien in particular. It was used in ''Aliens'' by Lieuteant Gorman before he knew or had even seen an alien himself, and had no idea what they were. Nonetheless it has become so attached to the Aliens that you'd have an easier job convincing people Frankenstein wasn't the monster's given name, and Fox eventually gave them the canon designation of "Xenomorph XX121" in the ''Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report'' handbook.

* MonsterThreatExpiration[=/=]VillainDecay: Ever since ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', the franchise's main title villains've been horrifically suffering from both of these tropes at once because that second installment revealed to audiences around the world that Xenomorphs really ain't ImmuneToBullets after all and also that they can therefore be safely killed off from a safe distance with powerful enough manmade weapons at the ready en-masse, even including their massive Ovomorph-laying Queens, Empresses, and Queen Mothers; however, in 2014, one infamous exception to that rule reared its ugly head in the form of ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'', and for further details on its portrayal of the franchise's titular antagonists, see the Drone caste specific folder below.

* NonMaliciousMonster: They are like animals, they kill and face-rape because it's how they survive and reproduce. Most especially in ''Aliens'', where they are hunting for food and hosts, and trying to protect their nest and eggs, often showing aggressive snarling faces. This is averted to hell and back by the Drone in the first movie, which likes to curiously toy with the fears of its prey, like a rapist in the dark. Thankfully, however, it's played straight in the other movies.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Every single time that the protagonists are confronted with only one Xenomorph specimen, more specifically a Drone in the original film and a Runner in the third film, the beast proves to be slippery in hiding, seemingly unkillable, and whittles the cast down one-by-one, but when confronted with an entire hive of them, like in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' and ''Film/{{AlienResurrection}}'', on the other hand, they are usually able to kill off quite large numbers of them, forcing the Xenomorphs to instead rely on [[ZergRush rushing their opponents en-masse]], but [[JustifiedTrope then again, there is some in-universe justification for this]] since both the original movie and the third movie involve fighting the lone Xenomorph specimen within a horribly enclosed space where in which he can easily hide or ambush people and with either weak available weaponry or absolutely no available weaponry whatsoever that would otherwise grant the protagonists a tremendous edge against the lone specimens, and on top of that, they are on a spaceship during the first movie, meaning that any bleeding from the Xenomorph could potentially doom everybody by damaging it, but in the two other movies, though, the protagonists are using rather powerful guns, are more adapted for fighting the titular antagonists, and are also even typically more numerous themselves at the beginning of the conflict at hand at the very least. Additionally, the ''Weyland-Yutani Files'' databook proposes that the Drone specimen encountered on the ''Nostromo'' really was in fact outright more intelligent than those encountered on LV-426 due to him having to act without any direction at all from a Queen, Empress, or even Queen Mother for that matter.

* {{Hermaphrodite}}: The Xenomorphs, at least according to H. R. Giger, are all hermaphrodites [[note]]presumably the simultaneous kind, rather than the [[GenderBender sequential]] one.[[/note]]. Whether he meant it literally or just symbolically is unclear.

* MetamorphosisMonster: In some versions of the continuity, namely the Dark Horse comics, video-games, and official tabletop RPG, the ridged-headed Warriors seen in both ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' and ''Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem'' are the mature "Stage 5" form of the "Stage 4" smooth-headed Drones seen in ''Film/{{Alien}}'', ''Film/{{AlienResurrection}}'', and even ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'', and in the expanded universe, some Warriors are able to metamorphose further into the Praetorians who resemble and also are in fact miniature Queens.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here too see the Engineer unmasked]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/engineerunmasked.png[[/labelnote]]]]

** Finally, and most disturbingly, Xenomorphs possess a number of uniquely human traits, albeit heavily distorted Their shell brings to mind a human skeleton, their teeth are surprisingly blunt and human-like and inside their head domes is an expressionless human skull with empty eye sockets and a nose.

* TheDreaded: They're feared (and with good reason) by those who has to face them while getting to know what they're dealing with, and Ripley suffers from {{Catapult Nightmare}}s as a result of the encounter on the ''Nostromo'' and the shuttle.

** ''TabletopGame/AliensTheRoleplayingGame'' states that Xenomorphs can eat metal, which both explains how they grow without organic food sources and how they maintain their bio mechanical appearances.

* BioweaponBeast: People keep trying to turn the Xenomorphs into these, [[EvilIsNotAToy and it never ends well]]. [[spoiler:Turns out the Engineers and/or David made them with this trope in mind, [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters and just like everyone else it backfired]].]]

->'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/SigourneyWeaver

-->''"Get away from her, you bitch!"''

->'''Portrayed By:''' Bolaji Badejo (''Film/{{Alien}}''), Eddie Powell, Javier Botet, Percy Edwards (''Alien'', vocal effects), Goran D. Kleut, Carl Toop & Tom Woodruff Jr. (''Film/Alien3'' to ''Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem'')

->'''Portrayed By:''' Bolaji Badejo, Percy Edwards, Tom Woodruff Jr.

** This is especially the case with the Queen who is a whopping 15 feet (4,6 m) tall.

* CreepyLongFingers: Depending on the specific design of whatever movie they're in, their fingers can be terrifyingly long, emphasizing their lack of humanity.

** In the now non-canonical Dark Horse’s ''Aliens'' comic series, a living Engineer dubbed the ''“Collector”'' is depicted as possessing an elephant-like trunk, short curved tusks and thick, wrinkled skin. [[spoiler:Said Collector also has the insidious agenda of subjecting Earth to terraforming, rendering it uninhabitable for humans.]]