1) You’ve got the egg. You’ve got the Facehugger, a scorpion-like creature with the color of human skin, and finger-like legs. You’ve got the Alien Warrior, a tall, powerful creature with a snapping extra pair of jaws where his tongue should be, four strange-looking tentacles on the back, a nasty jagged-edged tail, steel teeth, and a dare I say, penis-shaped head. Then, last but not least, the Queen Alien. She’s bigger than any of her offspring. I think she tallies around 20 feet tall. She’s bad. You don’t want to mess with her children or else you’re going to encure a wrath to end all wraths. She’s got translucent teeth. She has an armored, jagged-edged, crown-shaped head. This big, bad girl makes any of the warriors or drones look like pussy cats.
2) Their blood is a kind of acid that can burn through anything. Case in point, in the original film, a scientist by the name of Ash opens up one of the Facehugger aliens while it is connected to a comrade. The blood falls on the floor, and begins to sink and melt down to three or so decks before it stops. Another example is when Private Drake in Aliens gets sprayed in the face when his girlfriend, Pvt. Vasquez blows one of the warriors away. His face is quickly melting off before he goes down and the film cuts away. There really hasn’t been any good examples of the queen bleeding acid blood. She is almost unstoppable.
3) As a collective, the aliens work for and with their queen. They create entire walls with some kind of secreted resin. They will cocoon hosts for transplantation of more aliens. The egg is placed in front of the host, and the Facehugger is just waiting to get out. This reproducing process is almost parasitic and kind of like oral rape. The Facehugger will latch itself to the host’s head, send an ovapositer (sp?) down the host’s throat, and implant the seed. This gives good cause to be afraid of these beasts, and even better reason to exterminate them. Individually, the Alien Warrior will try to adapt to its surroundings, hunt and eat anything on two legs, and perhaps even try to cocoon hosts in preparation for reproduction. There is very little known about the way these creatures think and behave, thanks to the creative and innovative genius of Hollywood, but it is clear that they are not friendly. These alien beasts are also called, “xenomorphs.”
4) In theory, the aliens are just giant bugs with very little brains. In theory, the aliens are intelligent creatures that use any and all means to reproduce. All life forms will reproduce. In theory, the alien will take on the physical form of its host, whether it is a human, a dog or another alien. The question is how will the alien function in a different form? Will it have more intelligence or less intelligence given the overall I.Q. of its host? How will the creature function differently as an individual and in a collective? These questions should not be answered all at once. What Hollywood should have done with the sequels to Alien and Aliens was answer one of those questions above in each new film. Unfortunately, they chose a lesser road. We never got a good answer to any of those questions and we’ve been down a road to mediocrity in a franchise that started out as A-quality filmmaking.
5) The greatest and nastiest threat to these beasts – aside from Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, of course – are the Predators. These giant hunters have been using this species for recreation since the dawn of man. I know, it’s crazy, but that’s what Paul W.S. Anderson suggested in the previous film, AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Then of course, you’ve got the Company or should I say, Weyland Yutani. They want to capture and control these creatures to be used as weapons. They go so far as to compromise many lives, including a crew of miners/couriers and scientists, an elite squadron of Space Marines and a little girl, and some not-so-innocent prisoners. This evil corporation has known about these beasts since 2004 when Mr. Charles Bishop Weyland himself (played by Lance Henriksen), and a group of scientists and researshers discovered a hidden pyramid many feet under the polar ice. According to what the films have suggested, the company practically forgot about this invaluable species for many, many years later.
Final note
Sigourney Weaver suggested they make a movie in which humanity actually communicates with these hideous monsters. But these are not creatures that will easily be made to sign any kind of peace treaty. They have a want that for all intensive purpose should be feared. Instead of using the aliens for weapons, they should be obliterated. Nuke ’em. As Weaver’s Ellen Ripley once said, “It’s the only way to be sure.”
For more details on the Alien and Alien Queen check out the following
Alien (film; 1979)
Aliens (film; 1986)
Alien 3 (film; 1992)
Alien: Resurrection (film; 1997)
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (film; 2004)
Aliens versus Predator (comic)
Aliens: Earth Hive (novel)
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum (novel)
Aliens: The Female War (novel)
Aliens: Genocide (novel)
Aliens: Labyrinth (novel)
Aliens: Rogue (novel)
Aliens: Music of the Spears (novel)
Aliens: DNA War (novel)
Aliens vs. Predator (novel)
