"Alien: Romulus" is chock full of callbacks to the series' 45-year history, so much that a few things may have slipped by even diehard fans. These are some of the film's deepest cuts.
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00:00Alien Romulus is chock-full of callbacks to the series' 45-year history, so much that
00:05a few things may have slipped by even diehard fans. These are some of the film's deepest
00:10cuts.
00:12After directing the original Alien way back in 1979, Ridley Scott returned to the franchise
00:17for 2012's Prometheus and 2017's Alien Covenant. Given how divisive those entries were, it's
00:23understandable that producers were looking for a fresh take. So while Scott is a producer
00:27on Alien Romulus, Fede Alvarez has taken the director's chair. Alvarez is no stranger
00:32to the horror genre, as he previously helmed 2013's Evil Dead reboot and Don't Breathe.
00:38When examining the filmmaker's resume, a pattern appears to emerge that shows many of his works
00:42following the same basic plot.
00:44When stripping Romulus, Evil Dead, and Don't Breathe to the barest of bones, they all follow
00:48a small cast of characters who become trapped in an isolated location. These characters
00:53must fight off a malevolent force, with many dying in the process, but at least one person
00:58gets away. All three movies also contain either explicit or metaphorical references to sexual
01:03assault.
01:04Intentional or not, Alvarez has explored similar ideas across his filmography. He also has
01:09writing credits for these three movies, so it would seem these are themes he's concerned
01:13with exploring. Since his interests line up with those of the Alien franchise, his previous
01:18films are almost undoubtedly what landed him the Romulus gig in the first place.
01:22The whole idea behind this film was to really take it back to basics and make it a pure
01:28horror movie again."
01:30Much of Alien Romulus takes place on the Renaissance space station, which contains two modules
01:34named Romulus and Remus. The corporation at the center of the franchise, Weyland-Yutani,
01:39is heavily influenced by Roman history and mythology, which is precisely where these
01:43names come from. Romulus and Remus were brothers. In the myth, Romulus killed Remus, then founded
01:49The concept of sibling rivalry and distrust is at the heart of Alien Romulus. Andy may
01:54be a synthetic, but Rain refers to him as her brother. His primary directive at first
01:59is to do what's best for Rain, no matter what, but his programming receives an upgrade while
02:03on the space station, greatly enhancing his intelligence and giving him a new directive
02:08to do what's best for Weyland-Yutani. This leads him into direct conflict with Rain,
02:13but fortunately they're able to avoid the same outcome as the Roman myth, with Rain
02:16rebooting Andy back to his more compassionate programming.
02:20The references to Roman mythology don't end there, though. The most well-known image of
02:24Romulus and Remus sees them sucking at the teat of their adoptive wolf mother. At the
02:28end of Alien Romulus, K gives birth to a human-xenomorph hybrid, which can later be seen receiving
02:33similar nourishment from its mother, killing her in the process.
02:38Alien Romulus pays tribute to the entire Alien movie saga, from a digitally resurrected Ian
02:43Holm portraying science officer Rook, to the discovery that the scientists on the Renaissance
02:47were experimenting with the black ooze that was a major plot point in Prometheus. However,
02:52Faddei Alvarez doesn't just honor the film side of things. There's an Easter egg for
02:55the 2014 video game, Alien Isolation 2, if you know where to look.
03:00Alvarez told the Inside Total Film podcast that he's a big fan of the game, saying he
03:04played it a lot as he was waiting for Don't Breathe to come out, thinking at the time,
03:08If I could do anything, I would love to do Alien and kind of scare the audience again
03:13with that creature and those environments.
03:16His wish came true, eventually, and he honored the game by incorporating the emergency phones
03:20that are used as save points. As tends to be the case with video games, a save point
03:24generally means you're about to enter an area with a high probability that your character
03:28might die. The same concept applies to Romulus, Alvarez said.
03:32The movie is set up in a way that every time something bad is about to happen, you will
03:35see a phone. The fact that it's an Alien movie means something bad is always around
03:40the corner, but it's a neat reference for gamers to keep their eyes peeled and to brace
03:43themselves for something gnarly occurring.
03:47On board the Renaissance, Rain and her friends discover and reactivate the top half of Science
03:51Officer Rook's quasi-functioning body, who provides much of the exposition while he tries
03:56to complete his mission of getting the Black Ooze back to Weyland-Yutani. Alien fans will
04:00recognize the visage as that of Ian Holm, who portrayed the android Ash in the first
04:05Alien movie. Holm died in 2020, so it's natural for fans to wonder how he's back playing a
04:10different synthetic in Alien Romulus.
04:12"...human."
04:13"...unknown."
04:14In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Alvarez confirmed that although actor Daniel
04:19Betz delivered the lines, CGI enhancement and generative AI was used to make the character
04:24look and sound more like Holm.
04:28There's one thing that tends to happen at the end of Alien movies, and in a broader
04:31sense horror movies in general. Romulus does it, too. For some reason, these films' giant
04:36monsters are incredibly stealthy and can stow away on a ship without anyone realizing at
04:40first. In Alien, Ripley gets onto a shuttle as the Nostromo self-destructs, but a Xenomorph
04:46is also on board that, so she has to jettison it through an airlock. In Aliens, a small
04:51group escapes on a dropship before the main station explodes. They're joined by the Queen,
04:55who's hiding in the landing gear.
04:57Alien Romulus has its own fake-out ending, with Rain, Kay, and Andy escaping the space
05:02station just as it's about to hit the ring surrounding the planet. They think they're
05:05in the clear, but a new antagonist manages to stow away in a far more subtle manner than
05:10the larger aliens.
05:11Kay has injected herself with the black goo, likely believing it would save herself and
05:15her baby, but all it does is mutate the embryo to where she gives birth to a pod containing
05:20a human-Xenomorph hybrid. An Alien movie once again ends with the audience believing that
05:25the characters are safe, but there's one more fight ahead of them.
05:30From Terminator to Halloween, it's pretty common for certain franchises to simply ignore
05:34previous entries that maybe weren't received all that well. As an entirely separate installment
05:39from anything that's come before, one might assume Alien Romulus would focus more on honoring
05:43Alien and aliens as opposed to something like Prometheus, which had a more mixed reception
05:48from critics and audiences. Instead, Romulus includes a nod to something called the Prometheus
05:53file in the movie.
05:54Rain and her cohorts learn that Weyland-Yutani wishes to harvest the black goo, first introduced
05:59in Prometheus, for its own nefarious corporate plans. The goal is to manipulate the ooze
06:04so that it helps employees recover from diseases faster and continue working for the company
06:08longer. This black ooze was established in the opening scene of Prometheus, where an
06:13engineer consumes it. His body breaks apart as he falls over a waterfall, seemingly bringing
06:17life to Earth.
06:19So far, the compound seems to either kill whatever it comes into contact with or create
06:23horrible monsters. Kay, who injects herself with it, winds up giving birth to the latter.
06:27Perhaps that is Rick's plan all along — smuggle a monster on board a fleeing ship so that
06:32Weyland-Yutani could proceed to experiment on it.
06:36One could reasonably argue that Aliens is a sci-fi sequel that's even better than the
06:40original, taking the central concept of Alien and giving it the glossy veneer of an action
06:44flick with a Vietnam War allegory. It amps up the tension and dread and brings in a host
06:49of xenomorphs instead of just one. The basic structure of Alien Romulus is similar to Alien,
06:54as far as being primarily stuck in one location, but the film still manages to reference the
06:58James Cameron-directed sequel in more ways than one.
07:02The humans can't do much against xenomorphs in hand-to-hand combat, so Rain gets outfitted
07:06with an F-44A Pulse rifle. Tyler even shows her how to use the lock-on feature and arm
07:12support for maximum efficiency. There's even a reference to this rifle being the same type
07:16used by colonial Marines, calling to mind the team Ripley joins in Aliens. Granted,
07:21it's not the exact same rifle — the weapon of choice in Aliens is technically an M41A
07:26Pulse rifle — so it makes sense that the two would be different, to a degree.
07:30Also, Alien Romulus takes place in the year 2142, while Aliens occurs in 2179. Think about
07:36how far technology has come over the course of 30 years in the real world. Firearms would
07:41definitely be upgraded throughout that time, but it's clear Rain's Pulse rifle is meant
07:45to call the Marines to mind.
07:48Other than its amazing action, Aliens is also known for having quite a few quotable lines.
07:53It's game over, man! It's game over!
07:55But the most iconic one-liner might just belong to Ripley, who gets into a P-5000-powered workloader
08:01to save Newt from the Queen.
08:04Get away from her, you b----!
08:06The events of Aliens haven't even occurred by the time Alien Romulus takes place, but
08:10apparently that's a pretty common line in this universe, as Andy saves Rain from an
08:14encroaching xenomorph and says the exact same thing.
08:17Callback lines are to be expected in any sequel to a major franchise. Deadpool and Wolverine
08:21leaned into this heavily, with Blade saying his infamous line from the first Blade movie.
08:26Some b---- are always trying to ice skate up here.
08:29It's generally good for making the audience cheer, but one does have to wonder how the
08:33line makes sense within the film's context. It seems as though the line may have been
08:37a step too far for some, as one Redditor commented in an Alien Romulus thread,
08:41The fan service lines were cute and all, but actually detract a bit, because it makes
08:45the movie come off as derivative and a fan movie. It was a bit on the nose.
08:50Throughout the Alien Romulus press tour, Fede Alvarez has been outspoken about wanting to
08:54use as many practical effects as possible. The filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter,
08:58"...what's important to me is what I think is important for the audience, and I think
09:02the masses out there in the audience that love these movies particularly, they really
09:06prefer to see the practical effects."
09:08To make that happen, the team collaborated with Tippett Studio for a specific moment.
09:12Phil Tippett is a master of practical effects, and his studio has worked on the biggest franchises
09:17around, from Star Wars to Jurassic Park. For Alien Romulus, the team was enlisted to create
09:21an effect involving a lab rat that dies but then regenerates. That sequence was achieved
09:26through stop-motion animation, which has been a specialty of the studio.
09:30A rodent was far from the studio's only practical effect, as the team also designed xenomorph
09:34puppets the actors could perform with. Kayleigh Spaney spoke with the News Movement about
09:39how exciting that was.
09:40"...actually acting off of it was quite terrifying. Such an amazing honor, you know, getting to
09:44act against that instead of a green screen or a tennis ball."
09:49Alien Romulus has numerous references to previous Alien movies, even channeling a bit of Alien
09:53Resurrection with the introduction of the human xenomorph offspring in the finale.
09:57Kay gives birth to a creature that rapidly matures into a bipedal entity that has aspects
10:02of a xenomorph but is somewhat human in appearance. In fact, looking at its pasty white skin and
10:07dark eyes, it almost looks like an Engineer from Prometheus. The exact biological mechanics
10:12of what happens in the ending of Romulus are up in the air, but when Kay injects herself
10:16with the black compound, it likely fuses with the DNA within her embryo. This expedites
10:21the reproduction cycle, so she gives birth right then and there, and we're left with
10:25a creature that probably has both xenomorph and human DNA.
10:28But why does it look like an Engineer instead of having Kay's characteristics? Prometheus
10:32likely holds the answers, as the film's beginning shows an Engineer sacrifice itself to create
10:37life on Earth. Through subsequent evolution, one can surmise that all humans hold at least
10:42part of the genetic structure of Engineers. Therefore, the black substance may reawaken
10:46that part of humanity's DNA within Kay's womb, resulting in a monstrosity that's sure to
10:52haunt people's nightmares.