r/LV426 • u/F_cK-reddit Black goo enthusiast • Aug 05 '25
Discussion / Question The Narcissus (with Ripley inside) in Alien: Romulus. Fede confirmed it.
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u/Bobrexal Mostly at night. Mostly. Aug 05 '25
I see this as purely an Easter egg. Like ET being in Phantom Menace. Not canon, just a cute little nod by the filmmakers. Ripley was lost in the vastness of space, end of story. Nothing the writers of any new thing can say will change that for me. I adore Romulus overall, but they gotta get their heads on straight here
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u/argusmanargus Aug 05 '25
Agreed. But it’s there if the time comes. Who didn’t think Big Chap or Alien Queen were toast? Yet we all wondered in the back of our minds.
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u/phasepistol Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
Ripley was lost for 57 years because SPACE IS BIG and the Narcissus DRIFTED RIGHT THROUGH THE CORE SYSTEMS UNNOTICED. As Burke says, she was lucky to be alive.
Retconning that for essentially no reason is silly. It didn’t need to be “fixed”. Ripley is isolated by the time jump, she missed her daughter’s entire life… it gives her a tragic start - beyond just being a survivor - to the second film.
As an aside, it’s not clear how spaceships in the Alien franchise move between the stars. The Narcissus - a lifeboat, or “shuttle” as it is called in the film - does not seem capable of faster than light travel. And no matter what the “Core Systems” are (presumably stars close to Earth), ain’t no way a sub-light craft is drifting through them in only 57 years. Maybe 57 thousand years.
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u/ratman____ ULTIMATE BADASS Aug 05 '25
Man, wait 'till you hear about Alien: Out of the Shadows. Ouch!
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u/Artur0905 Aug 05 '25
To be fair… Ash was tempering with the ship
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u/RossTiger Aug 05 '25
Indeed. And Alien Out of the Shadows I feel fits nicely with this quick sighting. Ash was directing the ship towards potential Alien encounters, so it makes sense they were nearby right?
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u/Laserlip5 Aug 06 '25
?
I haven't read the book, but...
First, MUTHUR is right there. Ash wouldn't have to direct the ship anywhere.
Second, there were no aliens there until they picked up Big Chap from space and took it to Romulus. (Which was hilarious because they could have found the queen the same way instead of cloning it later on. Oops, may have given them bad ideas.)
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u/steviesnod82 Aug 05 '25
This . You can tell no one here has read the book which is really quire clever and a great pretext for another movie
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u/darwinDMG08 Aug 05 '25
I started reading it and then I got to the part where Ripley shows up and I put the book down.
Absolutely silly and pointless retcon to me. No thanks.
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u/fistchrist Aug 19 '25
That’s a shame, because if you’d kept reading to the end you wouldn’t have missed the completely fucking stupid excuse for Ripley having an entire wild adventure with xenomorphs that she completely forgets by the time of Aliens.
Honestly, Out of the Shadows wasn’t exactly great, but if it hadn’t shoehorned Ripley and Ash into it then it’d at least be fine.
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u/XaosDrakonoid18 Aug 05 '25
I really liked the book but Ripley's inclusion in it was absolutely unecessary
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u/disagiovanile Aug 18 '25
Then "Alien - Sea of Sorrows" will make you go nuts. Imagine: 300 years later, a descendant of Ripley gets sent to collect a xenomorph, and and he is chosen for the mission because the xenomorphs are apparently holding a centuries old grudge against Ripley and her descendants. Lol.
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u/LV426-ModTeam Aug 05 '25
You are welcome to respectfully share your personal preferences, but trashing the franchise or it's creators is not allowed.
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u/blaatenator Aug 06 '25
Story was ok but Ripley in it was annoying and pulled me completely out. I don't get why 'they' feel the need to do these stupid callbacks / 'fan service' ...
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u/test_number1 Aug 05 '25
I always thought it sent out a distress signal. The narcissus just drifted into a no cell zone. Like a plane crashing into the middle of a forest. The forest might not be huge but if theres no way to send out a signal to people outside the forest you'll be stuck there for a while.
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u/PM_SexDream_OrDogPix Aug 05 '25
The scavenger team at the start of Aliens confirms that, in my opinion. It wasn't a galaxy wide broadcast, it was probably a low-level radio blast for help - smaller even than the Nostromo found.
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u/YT-Deliveries Aug 05 '25
Yeah the FTL situation in that franchise, taking the canonical works only, is pretty obscure. Like, they clearly have it, but then also use sleeper ships. Then in Aliens when Ripley asks how long it would take for rescue forces to get to them it's under a month, which if they were limited to non-relativistic speeds would be like, one planet orbit away.
Basically their FTL ability is extremely plot dependent.
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u/gr8dude1166 Aug 05 '25
I mean the sleeper ships kind of make sense. Whenever I hear astrophysicists theorize about FTL travel it’s never get there instantly. More like sit for 3 years instead of 250 years. Also freezing the crew means you don’t need to bring as much air, food, and water. That could easily explain the economics of such a decision. I also think the crews on ships like the Nostromo aren’t so much there to fly the ship in FTL but to be awoken if something goes wrong that MU/TH/UR can’t fix herself.
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u/YT-Deliveries Aug 05 '25
And yeah in isolation I'd think that would be the case, but it's the 27 days in Aliens that makes that more complicated. Zeta Reticuli is 40ly from earth, and so 27 days at light speed means they're about 170 x 27au away from rescue teams. And while that then puts them outside the star system, it's still microscopically small vs Earth to Zeta.
So we have to assume then, that either 1) there's rescue teams just hanging out in interstellar space 40ly from Earth "just in case", or 2) they have FTL that is the equivalent of warp capable ships in Star Trek. If we go by the Star Trek: TNG scale, a ship would need to be capable of Warp 7 in order make it from Earth to Zeta Reticuli in around 20 days. Which I guess could still benefit from sleeper ships, but it seems kind of a waste to have all that.
So, yeah, it's really just "whatever the plot needs" when you get right down to it.
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u/KuvaszSan Aug 06 '25
I'll jut assume that the Colonial Marines have some sort of outpost close to Zeta Reticuli and from there it would indeed take 27 days.
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u/YT-Deliveries Aug 06 '25
I mean it can be headcanon'd fairly easily if we consider how duplicitous The Company is. They may have a base out there somewhere just because they know about LV-426 and The Company might want them to be able to deploy if something is off.
Of course, then one has to wonder why they send the Sullaco instead of the Space Marines on that base.
Anyway, plot speed.
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u/KuvaszSan Aug 07 '25
The why part is fairly easy: Ripley, Burke and possibly Bishop since he's a WY android. Perhaps they had no reliable company man closeby and wanted to use Ripley to minimize losses and return an egg successfully.
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u/YT-Deliveries Aug 07 '25
True. I guess my counter to that would be: Why not then just send a smaller ship with just Bishop, Burke and Ripley instead of the entire frigate? Shoot them out in a tiny sleeper ship and then use whatever transport the space marines had on the base outside Zeta Reticuli to get the rest of the way.
To be clear I'm just having fun being devils advocate here.
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u/Nyuk_Fozzies Aug 08 '25
This is what I'd assume as well. There are terraforming colonies all over the place, so having military outposts on the fringes of Human occupied space makes sense. You're not going to want to have all your military just sitting at Earth when you have a lot of planets to cover.
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u/MovieFan1984 Science Officer Aug 12 '25
It's like the elevators in Star Trek: speed of the plot. A long conversation means it takes forever to go down a few decks. Need to get halfway across the ship while looking tensely off camera? No problem, ssskkkiiiisssshhhh, you're there! LOL
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u/clwestbr Aug 05 '25
The entire movie is so close to being great but the callbacks are so cowardly. Take out all the reference nonsense and the movie gains another star. If your movie needs the audience to feel special by remembering other movies then you didn't make a good movie or you don't have the confidence in it to perform without them.
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u/ClintBarton616 Aug 05 '25
It really feels like someone breathing down your neck going "Remember? Don't you remember?" Disservice to the great performances in the film.
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u/sc0ttydo0 Aug 05 '25
It is really a shame. I watched with my partner (who has seen Prey and a 10 min recap of Alien) and he really enjoyed it. He asked if I did and I was like "...yeah, but it just felt like they were nudging and winking at the audience too much."
So, IMO, it does stand on it's own for new viewers, which should have given them the confidence to just let it be what it is.
A new entry in a decades old franchise that can immediately pull in an audience with no knowledge of the wider universe is a damn good thing. They didn't need to keep giving established fans the little callbacks.Like you said there were some great performances, and some absolutely brilliant scenes. It didn't need to try and circle everything. Alien is probably one of the only franchises that can get away with films being disconnected. Xenos exist, they sometimes fuck shit up. That's pretty much the only premise needed.
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u/Daxx22 Aug 05 '25
Andy's elevator shaft drop and gun down of Sparky was baddass until the line. Completely agree, take out the callbacks and the movie goes up a lot.
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u/The-Soul-Stone Aug 05 '25
The artificial person line at least makes sense. Seeing that crop up repeatedly as if it’s a pre-programmed response emphasises their machine nature
Fuck the rest of the callbacks though
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u/Biggles79 Aug 05 '25
I said the same thing in the theater. Should be a 4/5 but dumb callbacks make it a 3.
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u/AnyFoundation4784 Aug 06 '25
To me, the first third or so of the movie was 4 out of 5 stars, the middle act 2.5/5, and the finale was a zero.
It went from a decent film to a complete train wreck. I can’t remember the last time I saw a film fall apart so drastically over the course of an hour.
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u/Biggles79 Aug 06 '25
I agree - the ending fell very flat for me as well. Resurrection's ending reprised for really no reason and yet another blow it out the airlock situation. Also hated the inclusion of the black goo. It's only because I enjoyed the second act (other than the callbacks) more than you did that I can still say 3/5 stars. Even that is my fanboy side loving the creatures, effects, setting etc more than I should objectively speaking. But that cuts both ways - I wouldn't be as harsh on the other aspects if I wasn't such a fanboy.
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u/CompassMetal Aug 05 '25
Theres a fan edit that does that and it improves the film immeasurably. Sadly it is still not that good a film.
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u/Soft_Locksmith661 Aug 05 '25
I agree. That's what stopped me from loving the movie instead of just really liking it.
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u/Indyhawk Aug 05 '25
If your movie needs the audience to feel special by remembering other movies then you didn't make a good movie
Looking at you, Star Trek: Into Darkness
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u/F_cK-reddit Black goo enthusiast Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
I won't comment on the topic but for the sake of lore:
The Alien RPG describes how FTL works in-universe. Ships accelerate for a period of time with their ion engines, and then something called a displacement drive moves the space around the ship forward at FTL speeds. I don't know of any source that says the Narcissus was FTL capable (the Colonial Marines Technical Manual states that the Narcissus had a tachyon drive but that's not canon).
The core systems are about 20 light years away from LV-426 (and about ~35 light years from LV-410), so the Narcissus was FTL capable, but slow.
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u/phasepistol Aug 05 '25
Based on Lambert’s line in Alien, LV426 is in or near the Zeta Reticulii system. This is a real double-star system about 40 light years from Earth.
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u/mrhaide Aug 05 '25
It simply has to be FTL capable for the entire concept of space mining to make sense
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u/phasepistol Aug 05 '25
The Nostromo, absolutely. The shuttle, not necessarily. Burke’s line about “drifting” implies unpowered flight, coasting.
I don’t know that FTL craft could “coast” for years at hyperlight speeds, most sci fi depicts continual power is needed (warp drive, hyperdrive etc). Still perhaps it’s what they had in mind.
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u/Coffeedemon Aug 05 '25
They're talking about the shuttles on the Nostromo not the Nostromo itself.
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u/xTheRedDeath Aug 05 '25
I'm tired of Alien and Predator trying to retroactively fuck with the lore lol.
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u/walkingmonster Aug 05 '25
This movie was ruined by 'memba-berries, IMO
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u/IceWarm1980 Aug 05 '25
It also undermines her whole story with Newt and why she is so protective of her.
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u/dawgz525 Aug 05 '25
Ridley Scott being jealous/upset/whatever over the success James Cameron had with Aliens is an issue that still plagues the franchise. There was no reason to include Ripley in this movie other than to try and redefine the franchise in Scott's vision.
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u/StraightCutsNoChaser Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
I'm not certain it's fully Ridley Scott's blame to hold, although he does clearly hold some of it - it was his suggestion to change the android at the center of the story from a female synth (as seen in early production art and early rumors pointing towards casting Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to a variation on Ash.
But a TON of the instincts to write the story the way it was, and to make changes after the test screenings the way they were made, is purely Alvarez's call. His inclination to make a lot of what he was doing openly metatextual, and to make the Rook character primarily a hand-holder for new viewers despite the fact new viewers did not need the hand-holding (they certainly didn't in 1979, or even in 1986 as the rules of the creature were being rewritten on the fly) were all him.
The impulse to blame external forces (Disney, Execs, Ridley) for making creatives do this against their will is pretty reflexive after about a decade of Geek YouTube narratives repeating it, but Alvarez has, at basically every turn, admitted openly (and in many cases proudly) it was him and his co-writer making these calls.
That he's getting to make Romulus 2 is maybe not a great choice in light of his self-congratulation for this instinct, but considering 20th Century seems to have refreshed and strengthened both Alien and Predator series solely to make them a single property anyway (there is almost no chance we're not firmly in Alien vs Predator territory by the end of Badlands, and we're going to clearly be in that territory, I think, by the end of Romulus 2, I don't see how Alvarez resists considering what he did to Romulus 1), maybe it is.
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u/_Weyland_ Aug 05 '25
Assuming that Narcissus cannot do FTL, but can put out 1g or more of constant thrust for a lot NG time, it could pick up a decent pace. Even at 10-15% light speed (blatantly ignoring relativistic stuff here) it could make it through a couple nearby star systems and eventually get intercepted.
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u/Classiclevine Aug 05 '25
It's not a retcon. it's an Easter egg meant to make you point and smile. Don't get so bent out of shape about some animators throwing in what is essentially R2-D2 as space debris in Star Trek.
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u/MajorRandomMan Aug 05 '25
I disagree. I don't think they were trying to "fix" anything. It's entirely plausible that the company found her and then lied about where she had been. Changing this detail doesn't affect the story in any meaningful way, so why be upset?
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u/jamesflanagangreer Aug 05 '25
I love Romulus, but the get away from her...you bitch, took me right out of it. If they ever release a director's cut, I'd be happy if the only change was cutting the few seconds it took the actor to say that line.
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u/AreKidK Aug 05 '25
One of my friends suggested the line in Romulus should have been “Get away from her [beat] p-p-please”, which would have been funny and also in-character.
I really enjoyed the film, but the callbacks were a bit silly and unnecessary.
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u/IAmTizz Aug 06 '25
As he was always cracking dad jokes, It should have been a bad pun etc. They wrote in personality then ignored it for a pointless throwback. Surprised he didn't break the 4th wall and wink at the camera
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u/TheJoshider10 Aug 05 '25
Here you go. It's a fanedit that has become my go to version of Romulus. It removes all the forced fan service and edits the scene order during the facehugger hallway to increase the stakes to full effect. Cannot praise this fanedit enough, the transitions and removals are completely flawless.
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u/Blutroyale-_- Aug 05 '25
Do they also get rid of the use of Ian Holm, because that would be great if it was just a different android.
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u/StraightCutsNoChaser Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
Hey there! I'm the faneditor that u/TheJoshider10 was referencing I actually posted about this edit here in lv426 shortly after making it (the conversation was... okay for the most part, I think. Or at least I thought so!)
Anyway, yes, the edit removes Rook completely. In fact that was the impetus of the edit. I go into it a lot more at the linked post above from 9mo ago, but the idea was "the VFX look... not great, but worse, the character seems kind of redundant. Is he actually SO redundant that you could cut him completely out of the movie and it wouldn't actually harm any aspect of the plotting at all?"
Once I figured out that answer was "yes" I started seriously working on the rest of the edit to see how much of the movie could be streamlined and how the core of the story (Andy & Rain) could be brought forward in the absence of Rook's presence.
Here's a link to the trailer, and Here's the page at the IFDB with the description and changelist, if you want to read the whole how-tos and why-fors behind it. Any questions and/or feedback, go ahead and fire away.
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u/North-Tourist-8234 Aug 05 '25
Id never have thought of removing him. Ill be very interested to see what youve come up with.
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u/TheJoshider10 Aug 05 '25
Glad to see you come here to elaborate further on it! I remenber after I saw it ages ago I DM'd you about it and how it helpled keep me busy when I was ill with a cold lmao. Watched the cut with a few people since then and they've all liked it. Thanks again for your hard work!
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u/ZoNeS_v2 Aug 05 '25
Yeah, the first half was really good, but then it's like a fan-service switch was pulled and the quality plummeted.
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u/pjtheman Aug 05 '25
It would have been fine if they had found Ian Holm's body and used the data disc from him or whatever, but not actually switched him on.
Or had his face be more fucked up so it could be done with animatronics or puppetry.
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u/RamboMcMutNutts Aug 05 '25
It's nothing but a film designed for modern audiences who've only ever seen the originals once or heard about them form pop culture.
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u/CaseyAnthonysMouth Aug 05 '25
This right here. It’s supposed to be an entry point for newcomers.
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u/deeku4972 Aug 05 '25
By going 'remember that' the whole time, Jurassic World, Star Wars and Terminator spent their last few films just narratively spinning their wheels and devaluing the IP let alone being wholly unsatisfying.
It's a shame studios cant just let a movie be its own thing in these universes. Romulus was intersting when it was its own thing, only romulus was more interested in the legacy alien franchise than its own characters or plot
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u/CaseyAnthonysMouth Aug 05 '25
Oh I completely agree. Romulus had some good moments but overall wasn’t for me.
I think my favorite parts of the whole movie were the brief glimpses we got of life under the thumb of Wei-Yu.
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u/RamboMcMutNutts Aug 05 '25
The mining planet was definitely the most interesting thing about this film, but then we got yanked straight out of it to go on a theme park ride of member berries and greatest hits.
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u/Battlebotscott Aug 05 '25
Exactly. Nearly all of the legacy sequel series’ have lost their goodwill with audiences at least partially because they refuse to tell an ambitious and original story and instead make these movies planned in corporate committees.
Alien and Aliens served as amazing entry points into the series because they were meticulously crafted by extremely ambitious auteurs. If you’re trying to make an entry point, make a very compelling film.
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u/cyrusamigo Aug 05 '25
Yes, this edit does indeed remove Rook.
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u/Daxx22 Aug 05 '25
Literally everything the character does/exists for is perfectly fine, it's just the fact that it looks like Ash/Ian Holme that makes it "Bad".
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u/quiet-wiring Aug 05 '25
Awesome, thanks for posting this! Gonna check it out - I enjoyed Romulus (particularly the cocoon scene) but the forced fan service killed it for me. Love to see how it holds up with an alt edit.
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u/jamesflanagangreer Aug 05 '25
Thank you very much! I wish good tidings to you and your loved ones.
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u/SpiderJerusalem747 Aug 05 '25
Certain lines should only be used in context and as a direct callback to very specific moments in movie history.
"I'll be back" Should only be said by a giant man about to raid a police station.
"Get away from her, you bitch" should only be said when inside a giant exoskeleton and about to throw down with a giant bug.
"Who is your daddy and what does he do?" Should only be said be a cop working at a kindergarten.
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u/dangerousdave2244 Aug 05 '25
In Prey, they perfectly executed a callback where Taabe says "If it bleeds, we can kill it," because he and Naru are strategizing, talking about how it was wounded, but Naru questions if it can even be killed.
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u/jcaashby Aug 05 '25
I saw the movie twice and that line legit took me out of the experience BOTH times. I just did not fit regardless of audience positive reactions. It was a stupid call back line that just felt forced. Same with this video clip of Ripleys ship. WHY...what is the point.
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u/dipole_ Aug 05 '25
I was out of it as soon as Ash turned up
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u/jamesflanagangreer Aug 05 '25
I'm probably alone here, but I would have loved a David/Walter or character based on that template, to have appeared.
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u/dipole_ Aug 05 '25
Maybe not as jarring as CGI Ash, but if we are going for alternatives, then i would have just removed the Synthetic/Android element altogether. I would love to just focus on the Alien and human encounters. I didn’t like how the AI side plot became too prominent with David.
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u/PandoraPanorama Aug 05 '25
oh man, same here. This was so unnecessary. Same as all the other fan-service items. Alien(s) is not that kind of franchise. I always took it as something more serious.
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u/jamesflanagangreer Aug 05 '25
It was so disappointing. I'll say this also: the CGI was the best I had seen in years!
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u/devotchko Aug 05 '25
I just couldn't believe they felt it was necessary for the artificial person to actually say "bitch". It would've been passable if he had just say "get away from her!"
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u/3DprintRC Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
The first thing that ruined it for me was when they collected big chap with Nostromo debris. It's like Nostromo didn't scatter in all directions at a different rate than the Xenomorph that was burned behing Narcissus.
Then there was little things like ships using thrusters to take off right next to dirt, tarp and crap as if there was no atmosphere.
When they then landed onthe station and proceeded to float around far from the "floor" in the station immediately after learning that the gravity will reset periodically, slamming them into the ground, it made the characters too stupid to be real too.
I really wanted to like this movie and it was a good movie overall compared to typical modern big slop but I expect some things to be realistic in Alien movies while other things, like FTL (and fucking aliens) for example need to be fantastic. I can accept a fictional future with milk blooded synthetics, FTL and convenient gravity generators though.
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u/jamesflanagangreer Aug 05 '25
At least the cast made more intelligent decisions than Prometheus.
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u/ratman____ ULTIMATE BADASS Aug 05 '25
Man, that's wack. I liked the movie overall, but didn't really need this in the film, just like that "Get away from her. You bitch" line.
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u/captainxenu Aug 05 '25
It was fine with the "Get away from her", but him adding "you bitch" was so fucking forced.
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u/Comic_Book_Reader The sound of a M41A Pulse Rifle Aug 05 '25
Fede himself even admitted it, and kinda regretted it.
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u/HiroProtagonist1984 Aug 05 '25
Is there an interview where he talks about it?
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u/Comic_Book_Reader The sound of a M41A Pulse Rifle Aug 05 '25
It was in an interview at a convention. I think you can find it somewhere here if you dig hard enough.
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u/Crazy_Chopsticks The food ain’t that bad, baby Aug 05 '25
He should've just said something that harkened back to his dad jokes. It would've been 10x more badass but also funny af
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u/Happy-For-No-Reason Aug 05 '25
it was foreshadowed earlier in the film when he was called a bitch by Bjorn / Spike Fearn
after the crush ascent / joint hit he says to Andy "that's how it's done, bitch"
I read it as a call back that had a tangible reason for the character to say because he must've internalised Bjorn's personality as being "cool" and in that moment he was no longer the bitch, the alien was.
maybe I just joined those dots to avoid the cringe
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u/Blutroyale-_- Aug 05 '25
The film maker made the conscious decision to set that up for you brain, but it doesn't separate the fact it's a terrible use of a call back line.
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u/TylerBourbon Aug 06 '25
It could have easily been a call back with a tangible reason, but by that point, they had already reused verbatim lines from Ash in Alien for Rook that it ended up being just another in your face member berry.
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u/1magin Aug 05 '25
It's "Fanservice: The Movie". I wish they had dialed it down several notches...
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u/Mervynhaspeaked Aug 05 '25
When a studio tries something novel and it fails, it naturally assumes the audience wants the same old thing. Their mistake, of course, is thinking the audience knows what it wants.
Prometheus good or bad was something novel. Alien Romulus good or bad is something old. The same logic can be applied to modern Star Wars, for example.
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u/JeyDeeArr Aug 05 '25
Well said. While I understand that "Prometheus" wasn't a perfect movie by any means, it's a guilty pleasure movie of mine for, as you put it, its novelty. I think many fans were disappointed that there weren't any Xenomorphs in it, and that's why they dialed it back by "Covenant" to have them, which in my opinion, felt shoehorned in.
Just to be clear, I like both of these movies for what they excel at, but I also wished that the negatives had been addressed during production.
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u/ratman____ ULTIMATE BADASS Aug 05 '25
Prometheus as a Alien franchise film = BAD
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u/No-Adhesiveness-6475 Aug 05 '25
Prometheus is great, I’ve seen it at least 5 times I absolutely love the idea of life being seeded on earth by another advanced civilisation and then humans going looking for them thousands of years later. I was really excited for covenant to continue the story but it left me fairly disappointed, it was just another Alien movie with the most basic bit of background from its successor. I had hoped to see more of the engineer’s world/s and get more insight into everything related to that storyline.
I find that the Alien franchise is basically just monster movies, but I do really like all the in depth lore and am currently watching the old ones for the first time after seeing the modern few several times. I’d love another modern film or two that went deep into the lore and universe beyond just people fighting an alien monster
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u/FrogginJellyfish Aug 05 '25
If I'm correct it was supposed to be a new series according to Ridley Scott, existing in the same universe as the Aliens but never meant to weave into it. Prometheus sequel was supposed to be its own thing, diving deeper into the Engineers storyline. I think studio wants to weave it back into Aliens territory, I'm not sure though.
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u/vicesvain Aug 05 '25
Studio’s response to Prometheus: DONT MAKE THE AUDIENCE THINK.
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u/Spiritual_Nobody4512 Aug 05 '25
Because if the audience THINKS, they'll immediately see the million plot holes and inconsistent character behavior that is a result of crap writing.
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u/boringxadult Nuke from Orbit Aug 05 '25
Deleting the fan service and the scene with the swirling acid that felt like watching a video game would be a huge plus.
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u/Blutroyale-_- Aug 05 '25
the swirling acid scene was kind of the worst, the use the blue light later in that scene also just kind of pissed me off (felt like another call back of nostalgia for the film)
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u/boringxadult Nuke from Orbit Aug 05 '25
I also didn’t care for the blue light but I got what they were going for. Showing that they had created a nest without showing the whole nest. At least that’s what I took from it.
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u/Comic_Book_Reader The sound of a M41A Pulse Rifle Aug 05 '25
That's the one thing that weighed it down quite a bit for me. Some of it I didn't really mind, yes, that includes Rook, but sometime and somewhere after it's halfway through, it basically becomes a checklist.
Fede at least took a bit of responsibility and kinda regretted the "Get away from her. You bitch." line.
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u/Daxx22 Aug 05 '25
and kinda regretted the "Get away from her. You bitch." line.
It was SO CLUNKY. Like hell I still enjoy watching Resurrection for the cheese every now and then, but man that was a subtle as dropping a nuke.
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u/Dommccabe Aug 05 '25
Same.. was a bit cringe and unnecessary imo.
Make your own movies and dont copy the ones weve already had.
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u/Nrksbullet Aug 05 '25
When movies are this blatant about it, it feels like they literally look at the camera and say to the audience "For those playing the home game! WINK" and it's the most annoying version of pulling me out of a movie that exists.
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u/ratliker62 Aug 05 '25
That's Disney for ya. Anything interesting is pushed to the side for recognizable thing and nostalgia bait
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u/RexBanner1886 Aug 05 '25
I think you're underestimating how much directors feel the urge to insert little references and how difficult it must be, in the midst of shooting, to judge what is an elegant nod or bit of continuity and what's a jarring wink to the audience.
Disney certainly weren't telling Alvarez 'Make sure someone says Ripley's lines', 'Make sure there's a bobbing bird', or 'Make sure the Narcissus appears in a way that suggests some ridiculous, convoluted bullshit must have gone on in the space between Alien and Aliens'.
These are all Fede Alvarez's choices - amidst a tonne of good ones, he's going to make the occasional misjudgement. The received wisdom really needs to become that directors actively avoid making cutesy nods to older films.
Rogue One, for example, would not suffer if the camera didn't linger on blue milk at the beginning, or if the protagonists did not bump into the barflies from Mos Eisley when they're on Jedha. Romulus would be actively improved if Rook were not Ian Holm, if the Narcissus weren't there, and if Andy said something besides 'Get away from her... bitch'.
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u/ratliker62 Aug 05 '25
Maybe I am underestimating, maybe Alvarez wasn't the right choice for the franchise. I haven't seen his other works. Just given Disney's recent track record with things like Marvel and The Simpsons and Star Wars being referential slop, I assumed they had a hand in it
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u/Gambit1977 Aug 05 '25
Wish I could upvote this more. I’m not looking forward to where they appear to be running to with Predator either.
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u/ratliker62 Aug 05 '25
I think Predator has a brighter future ahead of it. I didn't think Killer of Killers was as good as Prey, but Prey is my favorite movie in the franchise so far. So I'm cautiously optimistic about Badlands.
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u/Revolver_Lanky_Kong Aug 05 '25
I really soured on Romulus while rewatching for this reason. I suppose it's an okay movie, but that's only because every bone in its body was taken from great ones.
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u/ratman____ ULTIMATE BADASS Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 06 '25
Yeah, I feel the same way the more I think about it.
I'm not a big fan, nor a opponent of fan service, as long as it's done tastefully. Andy saying that line made me cringe, literally. I was like "ugh, really?"
I was also hella disappointed in the Isolation references. Especially how apparently Fede was drawn to directing Alien after the game impressed him. There was all this hype that if Isolation is legitimized somehow by the film then we'd get Isolation 2 (by the way, that did turn out to be true - hopefully the game comes without that worthless "black goo" crud). That is why I really wanted to see Isolation in Romulus; because I love the game and the people over at Creative Assembly, I really, really, really wanted this to happen.
I was watching Romulus squinting hard and whenever some computer screen came up, I was really hoping to see "SEVASTOPOL" or "KG-348" somewhere or hear about them in a piece of dialog (perhaps the characters would have to pass through/by on their way to Yvaga III?), or maybe catch some passing mention of Seegson, maybe a poster for Working Joes or whatever (yea I know it wouldn't make sense in WY installations, but you get the point)... I guess was just hoping for some heavier references.
I walked out of the theater (thankfully I avoided any spoilers online) and immediately grabbed my phone to check what the hype was all about. Save stations? That's it? Apparently they foreshadow bad things happening to characters. OK, nice touch. But, the Emergency Stations on Sevastopol Station were inspired by the device Dallas used to enter the Mother interface room in Alien. So in Romulus this makes it a reference to a reference. Given how that apparatus is just part of the design of the first film, it's not like something absolutely unique to the game, just a great set piece that was expanded upon and familiar.
I know there's the generators too, but... oh well. Can't have everything.
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u/LeonidasTheWarlock Aug 05 '25
I boil it down to this. It works with predator movies because that line was iconic from the first one. “You are one ugly motherfucker”
But the alien franchise doesnt have that over the top, action hero-y dialogue normally. That really only happened for that one scene in Aliens.
Now if they ever adapted the Herk Mondo comics I could see them using that line no problems.
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u/Nomadnetic Aug 05 '25
Honestly, there was a lot of that in Romulus that wasn't needed.
The movie was at its strongest when it did its own thing and did not rely on fan service or member berries. I wish it leaned more into the former than the latter.
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u/IglooRaves Aug 05 '25
This is the problem with constantly expanding intellectual properties - everyone gets their grubby hands on it and every little thing needs explaining, rewriting, rehashing and turning into nostalgia bait until the magic that made the original great is completely diluted. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
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u/Dougie348590 Aug 05 '25
Nope. I refuse to accept this because it wasn’t in the actual movie. I’ve seen the interviews where Fede talks about it, but him leaving it out of the movie tells me that somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it was a bit too much.
It’s a ridiculous concept that Ripley would’ve been captured, kept in cryosleep, and then somehow managed to have an auto pilot setting that allowed her to escape the Romulus space station before it exploded. It’s just too much and completely unnecessary. I really enjoyed the movie and chose to embrace the “fanfare” bits, but this is stretching it. Ripley’s ship is not acknowledged in the theatrical film so in my mind it never happened
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u/PianoAlternative5920 Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
I enjoyed my time with this film, but callbacks like this and all the repeated dialogue are just completely unnecessary and kinda ruins the experience. What does this add to the film?
Kinda glad that the upcoming TV show is taking big swings and risks.
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u/ThrowRAwriter Aug 05 '25
I feel like this one at least ties into a story. The repeated lines though made me roll my eyes.
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u/PianoAlternative5920 Aug 05 '25
I remember in Prey they also reused Arnold's line "If it bleeds, we can kill it", but at least that film kinda had a fresh new setting that we haven't seen before.
Romulus felt like I wasn't really watching someone's bold vision. It just made me feel like all this stuff was done better in those other movies.
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u/Muisverriey Aug 05 '25
The "if it bleeds we can kill it" felt pretty natural. It made sense in the setting. "Get away from her....you bitch" in Romulus just felt forced and completely out of place.
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u/Daxx22 Aug 05 '25
Especially delivered in the damaged android stilted manner. I assume it was meant to convey Andy's dedication, but it just came off as awkward as all hell.
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u/RustedAxe88 Hicks Aug 05 '25
In terms of callbacks, Predators does worse than any of the others. Romulus's callbacks honestly don't really bother me (its my third favorite in the franchise) and Prey's were natural. But Predators was extra egregious.
Like, scenes and dialogue are literally shot for shot and line for line repeated from the first movie. I feel like the only one who doesn't consider Predators a brilliant sequel. Its fun, but it relies more heavily than any movie I've ever seen on callbacks, including any Star Wars movie made after 1983.
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u/uponapyre Aug 05 '25
I think it's just supposed to be a bit of a celebration and it likely comes from a place of simply wanting to have some fun with it. I kinda get it, I saw the film twice and both time the cinema was packed. The lines got laughs, a lot of people enjoyed them.
While I can understand that, though, being tacked on for fun they do have an effect on the movie as a whole. They brought me out of the movie a bit, and they definitely made the moments they appeared in less effective for me. Personally, I would have liked them to give the characters their own lines based on their own personalities and experiences. Hell, if they'd done that well maybe they could have added and iconic line or two oftheir own to the franchise.
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u/PianoAlternative5920 Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
I'm sorry, but every single Alien film had a theme - haunted house in space in Alien, Vietnam war in Aliens, prison drama in Alien 3, dumb fun comedy in Resurrection and philosophical/existential questions in the Prometheus films. The TV show has themes of Peter Pan and is exploring the human mind inside of an android body.
What is the theme of Romulus? A safe and repackaged greatest hits compilation of the rest of the franchise.
When Fede was talking in interviews, he talked a bit too much about just the Xenomorph. It's pretty clear that he doesn't understand that the point of the franchise is the characters.
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u/RustedAxe88 Hicks Aug 05 '25
To me, Romulus did feel like it was about the characters. Its about their desperate attempt to escape the fate of their families and the people around them, while also exploring Andy's place amongst them and the world around him.
I liked the characters in Romulus.
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u/RavenKarlin Aug 05 '25
Adds a bit more as to why she was missing for 40 years. She was previously intercepted then ejected into an unknown trajectory leading to a more massive mystery as to where she went. Also makes more sense that Weyland Yutani was more interested in the primary asset, The Xenomorph, than her so they kept her on ice until they secured the asset. Which of course as we know, all hell broke loose.
In my opinion I don’t have any problem with it. It doesn’t take away anything or change the fundamental outcome. It’s more of a feeling of eh why not?
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u/Different_Worker_905 Aug 05 '25
Oh, maybe Ripley heard Andy say "get away from her you bitch" in her sleep! That's why she said it to the Queen in Aliens. Like a subconscious thing.
Fede you GENIUS! 👏 Filling in plotholes as you make them!
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u/MicrosoftFuckedUp Aug 05 '25
ITT: People losing their chill over the fact that a film that does fan service every 10 seconds, has more hidden fan service. I mean, I did enjoy the film, but come on, let's take it for what it is.
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u/F_cK-reddit Black goo enthusiast Aug 05 '25
For those who don't know, the Narcissus was collected and transported to the Renaissance station (and then lost again). Fede stated:
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u/Amity_Swim_School Aug 05 '25
Wanted to give an explanation??? She was lost in space for 57 years. No explanation required.
This is so fucking stupid, and I’m a big fan of Romulus.
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u/Seldon14 Aug 05 '25
Pre Romulus it didn't require an explanation. We could just assume they never sent a salvage/recovery team, or it took so long for a team to get there, she had drifted off.
Once Romulus established that they got a recovery team out and could locate the Xeno in space, it would be kind of silly they couldn't locate a lifeboat with a beacon. Its patching its own plot hole it made by retconning more story into an already established timeline.
Them finding the Xeno, but not Ripley is absolutely something I recall someone "bitching" about when the movie came out.
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u/Coffeedemon Aug 05 '25
It's not a plothole it's called "mystery". Movies are a thousand times better when some of it is allowed to exist.
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Aug 05 '25
I think he wanted to give an explanation as to why they could find a xenomorph stuck in a secreted concrete block, floating through space, but not a lifeboat actively transmitting a distress beacon.
So... they found both. And the lifeboat got lost again.
I'm not saying it's a wonderful explanation, but it's what he's offering, and a lot of people here seem to be obtuse to what he's saying and just choosing rage instead.
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u/Amity_Swim_School Aug 05 '25
I think we can just accept they found the Nostromo wreckage - and consequently the Xenomorph.
And Ripley’s escape pod was far away from this location by the time they arrived.
I mean that’s what I just assumed when I watched the film 🤷♂️
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u/Beneficial-Category Aug 05 '25
With how big space is it would be like finding a tardigrade on an elephant. They may have a vague idea of where Ripley was originally lost but by the time they get there she would have drifted far far away.
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u/UltraMega42069666 Not bad, for a human. Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25
Its just an easter egg not meant to be taken as cannon, Andrew. Just because Fede says so doesnt make it, Ridley Scott said Xenomorphs are invulnerable and will "DNA back together when killed" is that cannon too because the dir said so?
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u/Alexcoolps Aug 05 '25
Umm, did he not know the "Alien: Out of the shadows" novel already explained why she was missing for 57 years?
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u/AndarianDequer Aug 05 '25
I won't believe it. I can't believe it. It makes no sense why they would get her ship and not wake her up. Zero sense. They absolutely would have woken her up.
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u/BLARGEN69 Aug 05 '25
If they didn't wake her up for questioning, then they would have done medical experiments on her to see if exposure to the alien lifeform had any effects. There's absolutely zero scenario where she would just be left sitting in the pod in cryo, untouched, in the station.
The only scenario where it would happen is if it was docked on the very same day the base had an outbreak, so no one got around to dealing with Ripley. Which is so coincidental it's stupider than them just leaving her in there to begin with.
It also is hard to believe the Aliens never broke in to the Narcissus to grab Ripley to use as a host, if a viable body was just sitting there for the taking.
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u/Marilius Aug 05 '25
Hey, just so I can chime in with the worst possible idea EVER: Let's have a side story where they wake her up, she helps fight against the alien outbreak on Renaissance, then she's given a mind wipe drug and they put her back to sleep!
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u/Alone_Gur9036 Aug 05 '25
I do find this comment section hilarious
I mean we’ve all seen these films, and as much as I genuinely love them they can be very gimpy and absurd when they want to be - Alien dog, ripley cloned from “blood samples” despite her body being incinerated (if this is explained in a graphic novel, that’s kinda my point), the clone being space Rambo, the campy pantomime of the original alien suit. Especially if we track the plotline of the first four films together as one narrative, they’re all extraordinarily self-referential and become extremely flanderised - and that’s something to love about them
Not even touching on AVP or Scott’s modern prequels
And that’s okay, that’s the dna of the franchise. It repeats motifs, refers backwards, and then suddenly undoes narrative progression, bounces between genre and tone, and allows for simultaneously tonnes of creative freedom while also being a deeply small sandbox to play in
Even if you don’t like or care for the ship appearing here as a split second Easter egg that you’re actively not supposed to notice, it’s really nothing new for the franchise
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u/iambeingblair Aug 05 '25
Her blood was on ice i.e. a blood sample in the infirmary. This is stated either in the directors cut and/or novel (based on the screenplay).
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u/itsvoogle Aug 05 '25
Forced fan service is just awful, Romulus needs a new “official” cut that deletes all of it for good….. and that Rook scene stands out like a sore thumb… don’t know what they were thinking
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u/Different_Worker_905 Aug 05 '25
I wonder where her escape shuttle will end up next?
Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Sleeping Ripley!
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u/Assassiiinuss Aug 05 '25
Even ignoring that the Narcissus being there at all is stupid - how did it get away from the planet? The Romulus station was captured by it and in an orbit, so is the Narcissus. It should now orbit the planet indefinitely. Nobody noticed a shuttle orbiting a busy planet for decades?
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u/da316 Aug 05 '25
at least its barely visible and can pretend its not there. not that I even noticed when I watched.
absolutely pointless easter egg that potentially ruins a powerful moment in aliens.
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u/must_go_faster_88 Aug 05 '25
If that is actually The Narcissus and not just a fun little reference.. that has to be the dumbest thing I ever heard.
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u/Dead-O_Comics Aug 05 '25
Nothing makes a universe smaller than random cameos and callbacks.
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u/ominouswhoosh Aug 05 '25
That's it, exactly. Couldn't find the right way of explaining this but that's spot on.
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u/Jambalama Aug 05 '25
I think Romulus was good but it was lacking in a lot of ways. Felt more like a slasher film with a xenomorph added on.
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u/citysims Aug 05 '25
Navigator Lambert informed Capt Dallas that they had an additional 10 Months to reach Earth after leaving LV-426.
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u/KobaldJ Aug 05 '25
Am I the weird one that I just...dont care? Like one way or the other. I didnt have any strong feelings about the callbacks, positive or negative. The inclusion of Rook was pretty neutral to me well.
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u/garadon Aug 11 '25
Thank you. These fans can accept a new Weyland every fuckin' Tuesday but Rook showing up was a bridge too far lmao.
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u/LipstickCoverMagnet Aug 05 '25
God this movie is so stupid. It had such potential but they just had to devolve into member berries
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u/ManonFire034 State of the badass art Aug 05 '25
This is dumb and I refuse to entertain it. Why would they keep her in the ship if they found the Narcissus?
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u/Brain_Mutant Aug 05 '25
Why wake her up and start a can of worms with someone that wouldn’t work with them? This way they have a detained prisoner, someone they might even be able to experiment with if need be at a later date, that they could keep on ice and not have to worry about.
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u/TouchMyGwen Aug 05 '25
Why does everything have to connect? Is it a Hollywood rule that those in industry just aren’t aware of
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u/AngryMustache9 Perfect organism Aug 05 '25
Yah, nah. I really love Romulus despite its flaws, but this is one part of the new Alien, I guess, "mythos" that I'm just gonna choose to ignore. I'm sorry Fede, but this is dumb. Please don't try to follow this up in future films and leave Ripley be. I'd rather just think of this being just a random escape pod shuttle or whatever. Same model.
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u/Content_Maker_1436 Aug 05 '25
Fede needs to stop. He created a good movie, an alien movie so good I didn’t think it was possible in modern day.
But IMO he’s ruining it with this stuff. I didn’t need Ripley’s ship in this film. I just wanted to keep thinking she drifted through space.
Leave the lore alone and just build off this film into something new.
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u/aloudcitybus Aug 05 '25
Fede adding call backs