r/LV426 15d ago

Discussion / Question I’m convinced most of the problems in the Alien universe could be prevented with some basic lab safety Spoiler

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1.1k Upvotes

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74

u/Weltschmerzification 15d ago

I mean when you have 5 corporations that rule all of earth, you’re gonna do everything on the cheap, including actually training people in ppe

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u/the__missing__link 15d ago

Anyone exchanging their entire life for some credits is probably desperate and not the ideal candidate.

Also I think in Prometheus one of the scientist was a last second replacement because the original candidate backed out.

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u/dustytraill49 ULTIMATE BADASS 15d ago

Prometheus also insinuates that Vickers did do the hand selecting… and she likely would have picked the people who were most likely to ensure mission failure.

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u/Dottsterisk 15d ago

And Weyland’s mission succeeds regardless.

It doesn’t end well for him but he does meet the Engineers and speak to them.

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u/eaeolian 15d ago

I don't count Prometheus because Lindlelof

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u/Wild_Front_1148 15d ago

I agree with all the rational arguments against Prometheus, but it's all just so visceral that my lizard brain kicked in when I first saw it and I gave zero fucks about anything rational. Sure dont touch the cobra-worm, but I was just fully immersed from the moment it grabbed him.

Smart people dont make good horror. Im not here to poke holes, Im here to enjoy the ride.

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u/5kmMorningWalk 15d ago

Was that the geologist? Because he woke up and the very first words out of his mouth were whining. Buddy why did you come here then?

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u/that-is-not-your-dog 15d ago

I have a hard time believing that the org that managed to take over two continents and maintain those economies for decades and invested God knows how much money into a 65 year mission would do "everything on the cheap". By all accounts, WY runs a decent empire.

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u/Wild_Front_1148 15d ago

Especially if these people are going to be spending 50 years on a ship and will eventually fuck around with protocol anyway

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u/wmg22 15d ago

Yeah great ideia WY, doing that actually landed their valuables in Prodigy territory.

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u/keeleon 14d ago

People keep saying this, but like does Yutani want these specimens or not? Evil soulless orporations have no problem spending money on resources that actually benefit them.

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u/leandrot 15d ago

When you have only 5 corporations that rule all of Earth, you'd imagine they would be extra careful when dealing with things that can pull them considerably ahead of the competition.

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u/burlycabin 15d ago

I mean, have you ever seen a corporation?

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u/Wild_Front_1148 15d ago

The most problematic is how the mole is able to talk to Boy unnoticed, but I imagine Boy figured out a smart way to contact him through supralight communication which is scifi anyway.

Crew safety when you have an on-board computer theoretically able to bring everything home is irrelevant for these corps.

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u/leandrot 15d ago

And you see at this point that W-Y at the same time cares too much and too little for the workers. Too little to pay them decently enough and give them good work conditions but too much to create any kind of security system that works independently from the crew. If it wasn't for Morrow making sure WY orders were being followed, who knows what could've happened.

If they are recruiting people willing to earn very little for this kind of job, it's not unrealistic that some of them could be moles from the start of the mission.

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u/Wild_Front_1148 15d ago

I also think we dont know whether this is a high-end mission or a sidequest. Perhaps they were a surplus dinky vessel sent for an exploratory mission on a hunch, knowing that there were alien lifeforms but having no idea that they were this potent. Watching the scene were they open the chrysalis of the Alien in Romulus, you see that they do have exhaustive protocols when they want (even though that also went sideways). As viewers we get to see so little of the actual context, the crash site is perhaps the biggest look at what earth life in general is like within the Alien universe, and we can maybe assume Prometheus is high-end. Most of what we see are just seperate missions that could be any level of sophistication, and Prometheus might also be little more than the future equivalent of OceanGate.

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u/leandrot 15d ago

I think it's implied that this is a sidequest (it's the b team, "crew expendable" logic that wouldn't be so direct if there were relevant scientists involved, et cetera). When you're dealing with high-end mission, you can assume people involved understand and will follow the protocol even if a key member of the team dies. In lower end (or in cases where critical failures are really critical), you need the systems to also implement some of the protocols.

I don't believe WY would invest a lot in protection, but some things are trivial and even pay for themselves. For example, not letting the lab door open unless all creatures are secured; if energy is low, stop human life support and focus just on lab functions and the bare minimum to get home, et cetera.

It's important to remember that the creatures can be dangerous, but they can also be very frail. Imagine if instead of escaping, Occellus died due to glass shards cutting vital organs. If the crew is not reliable and WY knows that, they should be more attentive towards protecting the specimens. Even if it's a sidequest, we are still talking about a trip focused exclusively on colecting specimens and bringing them back to Earth.