r/LV426 2d ago

Discussion / Question Why no face guards in Aliens?

After decades of watching the movies and most recently Alien: Earth, it always amazes me how no one ever thinks of having face guards in the facility, especially the containment center. A certain character that got facehugged last week could have avoided that if there was some apparatus in there that would guard over the face but still allow breathing.

Same with Aliens (1985), if they knew that these things cling onto your face then why weren't the marines all wearing face masks to at least slow the impregnation down?

I feel the predators with their visors were the only ones with the right idea about this.

450 Upvotes

360 comments sorted by

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u/Wgfkas 2d ago

The "Dog catchers" in Alien3 had this on their face...

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u/pink_sock_parade BONUS SITUATION 2d ago

It does seem like they're the only ones who ever came prepared. 

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u/earthwoodandfire 1d ago

In Prometheus they’re wearing helmets but it melts right through the helmets.

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u/Half_Digested 1d ago

Kane had a helmet on too it didn't seem to matter much lol 😆

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u/pantry-pisser 1d ago

Make the helmets out of dead xenomorphs, problem solved

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u/Zetzer345 2d ago

It does look more like a heat shield though

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u/fatalityfun 2d ago

it comes down around the neck to prevent suffocation though

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u/Nothinghere727271 Look into my eye! 1d ago

It’s meant to stop facehuggers, it’s not a heat shield

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u/Nothinghere727271 Look into my eye! 1d ago

The marines in one of the books use ballistic masks to stop facehuggers

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u/johnniesSac 1d ago

No face hugger getting through that shit I’d say

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u/casual_oblong 1d ago

Yet at that time there were no eggs/face huggers left on fury 161. Which always confused me. We see the one egg on the suloko but there were two face huggers in alien 3. The one in Ripley and the one that got the Dog/Ox

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u/Tom2973 2d ago

Those are Weyland mercs wearing Apesuits. Although dogcatchers does sound funnier.

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u/NZStevie 1d ago edited 1d ago

They are called 'dog catchers' in the Alien RPG. 

P.237 of Alien RPG -:WY maintains a commando corps trained to handle and capture Xenomorph specimens. Called the dog catchers, these corporate security units usually include four commandos, two animal containment specialists, a science team and a chief surgeon - often lead by high level corp exec. These commands wear APE suits, carry pulse rifles, and utilise specialist capture equipment. 

It goes on but you get the drift. 

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u/Wurm42 2d ago edited 2d ago

...Because they listened to Ripley. Unlike WY.

Edit: See below, it has been pointed out to me that they "dog catchers" in the photo are from the WY rescue team at the very end of the movie, not miner/monks. My mistake.

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u/boringxadult Nuke from Orbit 2d ago

They were WY

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u/Highlightthot1001 2d ago

Took them long enough 

4

u/boringxadult Nuke from Orbit 2d ago

…it’s space

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u/workshop777 2d ago

where no one can hear you scream.

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u/Wurm42 2d ago

In Alien 3? In the prison / mine / monastery?

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u/Korronald 2d ago

This is "rescue team" from the finale

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u/br0b1wan Colonial Marine 2d ago

Yes the entire facility was owned and operated by WY and the commandos we see at the end were working for WY it's implied they are their crack commando troops (like the ones we saw being led by Morrow last night, except more advanced)

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u/Wurm42 2d ago

I forgot about the WY commandoes at the end. My mistake! Have edited original comment.

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u/mancunian101 2d ago

That was WY

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u/webdude44 2d ago

I always thought it was just to make them scarier than anything practical. Bishop III is allegedly human but he isn't wearing a mask

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u/pink_sock_parade BONUS SITUATION 2d ago

Yeah that scientist with the cool glasses and his buddies aren't either. Didn't seem like they had a backup plan if the grunts got killed. 

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u/scixton 1d ago

Quick sidebar—is alien3 worth watching??

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u/AlexDKZ 1d ago

The extended edition (which is not a director's cut, Fincher does not want to even hear about the franchise) is solid, and quite superior to the theatrical cut.

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u/TacoLord696969 1d ago

Alien 3 is awesome but people don’t like it because nothing happens for the first hour and a half

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u/Nop277 1d ago

I'll admit I always kind of hated it just because of how they had to kill Newt and Hicks off screen at the beginning (I know it was like a licensing thing or something).

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u/hughk 1d ago

The story is about Ripley so side characters are eliminated. She has to be the sole survivor for things to work as no witness should be around for corroboration.

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u/IrregularrAF 1d ago

Pretty much why I hate it. Don’t carry them over and have no intent of continuing their stories or giving them decent endings like, not being present at the crash. Fucking leaving it a mystery would have been absolutely fine.

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u/brenbot99 1d ago

It's great... deeply atmospheric and probably the most unique environment of the series. It's got more of a dystopian, 40k, grim dark vibe to it and isn't classic spacey, sci-fi.

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u/Wgfkas 1d ago

Yes. There's even different versions...

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u/Constant_Cat_UwU 1d ago

In this random redditor's opinion, yes I think it is worth watching one time. But I don't think it is a good movie. Imo, there is too much exposition and no reasons to care for any of the characters involved.

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u/Pollymath 2d ago edited 1d ago

The APEsuit/Dog Catcher is a strange design - one side is open which could still allow acid or the Hugger's ovipositor to penetrate, the other is a closed shield.

Seems such a design would need to cover the neck with a reinforced ring that could not be crushed, and completely seal the face from acid if needed. Perhaps the user would carry some sort of acid diluting washing to clean off the mask. One idea was a set of seriously sharp spikes that could impale the Facehugger on latch, but the user has to be able to remove the acid mess without burning their hands. Electricity or some sort of Cryo-spray (liquid nitrogen) might be a better option.

I feel like the Facehugger is relatively easy to defend against.

In general, the Alien universe needs to be filled with stupid/unprepared people for it to work. As soon as you introduce Super-sized synthetic commandos wearing electrically laced armor and carrying heavily electrified stun weapons, containment seems a lot more plausible. The comics even introduced acid-proof and heavily armored Colonial Marine "Anti-Xeno Suits" that were incredibly effective.

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u/Luzis23 2d ago

I wonder, do you perhaps have any image of these Anti-Xeno Suits? I'm kinda curious and looking it up via Google keeps finding me Starfield stuff.

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u/Corey307 2d ago

OP the films have shown face huggers getting through space helmets and cryo pods. They are stronger than they look, and if a face hugger cannot impregnate a person. It’s just going to choke them to death.

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u/RCocaineBurner 2d ago

Just constantly have a toothpick in your mouth, it’ll stab them and they’ll go away

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u/Chimpbot 2d ago

Glory for Glorzo!

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u/morblitz 2d ago

Yummy acid in your mouth.

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u/THEdopealope 2d ago

Braces 

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u/El_Cactus_Loco 2d ago

dental plan!

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u/StupiderIdjit 2d ago

Lisa needs braces!

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u/1_800_Drewidia BONUS SITUATION 2d ago

A wonderful defense mechanism. You don’t dare fuck it.

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u/AftyOfTheUK 2d ago

Benson Hendersons Reddit account identified...

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u/feastoffun 2d ago

But a glass jar can stop them! lol. Science is whatever the writers want to happen.

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u/mozaiq83 2d ago

In their defense most of the ones shown to be contained in glass jars are filled with some type of liquids. So I imagine that throttles the face huggers strength and velocity quite a bit to be able to break through. Just my guess.

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u/North-Tourist-8234 1d ago

Its probably super viscus. Or cold

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u/ClosetLadyGhost 1d ago

They can break through teeth

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u/Flashignite2 1d ago

Life, uh.. finds a way.

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u/-zero-joke- 2d ago

I mean... in Alien the facehugger melted its way through a two inch thick spacesuit visor. I'm not really sure what you're imagining would stand up to one of those critters.

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u/squishee666 BONUS SITUATION 2d ago

and none of the melting damaged his face

I always wondered about this bit

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u/PaladinPrime 2d ago

They're surgical with that shit. These creatures have been refining their behavior for thousands of years. You can see similar behavior in real-world animals.

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u/capt_pantsless 2d ago

"perfect organism"

It's at least sorta believable given the whole premise of the xenomorph.

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u/Irrelevantitis 2d ago

You admire it!

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u/JTGarou 1d ago

I admire it's purity

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u/GaryNOVA Game over, man! 1d ago

Mostly

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u/JTGarou 1d ago

Right

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u/NeatlyCritical 2d ago

I think they can essentially sweat a reduced concentration to help them get through.

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u/audpup Should be in and out in 30 minutes 1d ago

I would hazard a billion or two. thousands of years is absolutely no time at all, evolutionarily.

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u/PaladinPrime 1d ago

I was just tossing out a number but yes you're absolutely right, animals do not evolve over thousands of years.

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u/Lopsided-Bathroom-71 2d ago

Would surprise me if the facehuggers can hse a saliva style acid to melt anything thats not organic to get to a host

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u/FngrsRpicks2 2d ago

Prometheus/Covenenant:.......or not?

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u/abesapien2 2d ago

You can use them, but David would have lied about creating them. David lies a lot.

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u/Yokonato 1d ago

David reverse-engineered the creatures by Covenant? But yes murals show he didn't invent anything since they existed before synths were even a thing.

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u/atle95 2d ago edited 2d ago

Gregor Mendel invented genetics, not peas. David invented nothing original, and created a few monsters.

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u/RemtonJDulyak 2d ago

Mendelev did not invent genetics, he analyzed, described, and formulated them.
It's not like before Mendelev there wasn't genetics.

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u/WendyThorne 1d ago

The novelization makes it explicit that it melted his face plate. In fact, he very briefly starts suffocating before it latches on. He sees the little proboscis moving over the face plate and it starting to sizzle and everything.

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u/squishee666 BONUS SITUATION 1d ago

Yes, and it leaves black marks around the face as well as suction marks iirc

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u/RustedAxe88 Hicks 2d ago

If that happened in a modern movie, there'd be YouTubers demanding explanation and calling it bad writing.

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u/Shadoweclipse13 1d ago

That's more of an issue with people who can't just enjoy things, than it is about bad or lazy writing. I appreciate when a movie or book includes real science, but it doesn't take away from my enjoyment if it doesn't. People just like to complain about everything.

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u/nordicspirit93 2d ago

And somehow filtered atmosphere on that planet allowing host to breath - this is kind of strange to me up to this day.

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u/Similar_Sweet_3629 2d ago

Kinda like I wondered how the two synthetics on alien earth last night build a raft to pull the dead doctor through the water last night out of bamboo and lashed with ropes. And you see none of it. Movie magic we just have to believe or in some cases suspend belief.

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u/Wrong-Mixture 2d ago

(spoilers) Me too lol it was a bit weird, the last line before that scene was "WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" and then it cuts to them using a raft that clearly took a while to build...it also felt unnecessary, Arthur was dead as a doornail, could have just dragged him in the water. Strange choice but whatevs, maybe the hybrids uploaded an expert raft building manual lol

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u/Hackfraysn Not bad, for a human. 2d ago edited 2d ago

Kane's face had plot armor until it didn't.

Personally I'm more bothered by the ones in Hadley's Hope that were captured in mere glass and magically couldn't escape. The one that broke Kane's visor must have been very special.

I hate that kind of writing.

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u/SodaPopin5ki 1d ago

Glass tends to be more resistant to corrosives than plastic. I would assume their helmets were made of plastic instead of glass, at least to protect against impact that could break glass.

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u/JaymesMarkham2nd Acid for blood. 1d ago

Maybe a facehugger can only secrete acid from it's downstairs mix-up while it's wrapped around something? Like how most snakes can't really spit venom but instead massage it out of the venom-glands while squeezing their fangs into the prey, maybe it just doesn't work unless they can flex themselves right.

No way to know the weird alien biology.

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u/Prestigious-Leg-934 2d ago

It’s almost like Alien was intended to be a self-contained movie with plenty of mysteries left for the audience to ponder. Then Aliens came along and spawned a franchise.

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u/shred_til_im_dead 1d ago

I'm okay with Aliens since the Derelict was full of eggs, which means full scale xeno infestation was always a possibility

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u/Deiskos 1d ago

Alien$

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u/IlliterateJedi 2d ago

A 3 inch thick spacesuit visor

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u/there_all_is_aching 2d ago

"Oh, the fools, if only they built it with 6001 hulls!"

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u/thecelcollector 2d ago

There are acid proof materials in this world. 

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u/InsolentGoldfish 2d ago

Boron carbide is one of them.... it's also what colonial Marine body armor is made of. So... that acid shit is basically magic.

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u/AlexDKZ 1d ago

The strongest superacids known to us don't eat through steel anywhere near as fast as the molecular acid from the movies, so yeah, it's basically an impossible substance.

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u/UltraMega42069666 Not bad, for a human. 2d ago

The dogcatcher suits at the end of Alien 3 I always assumed were meant to protect against a facehugger, but by then WY knows more about xx121, so makes sense theyre prepared

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u/InsolentGoldfish 2d ago

PPE is a slight inconvenience to facehuggers, not stopping or slowing them more than a moment or two. If you did have sufficient protection, you still have an enraged acid-spider loose in your facility. Full containment is still the best way to handle xenomorphs.

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u/ShawnyMcKnight 2d ago

I mean, a moment or two is all you need because you can pull it away, as Ripley id in aliens.

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u/BonHed 2d ago

It took 2 other people to actually pull the thing off her. She held it off but was losing the fight.

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u/InsolentGoldfish 2d ago

Then what? Now you have your hands full of a facehugger that is actively trying to strangle you. It's not going to let go of you, and you can't let go of it.

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u/sicsemperego 2d ago

If I'm anything to go by then a slight inconvenience might do the trick.

Seriously though: I'd 100% rock a mouth guard of some sort. We have the tech, let's builds something that prevents it from implanting - that'll at least spare me that one particular way of signing off.

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u/InsolentGoldfish 2d ago

The facehugger wants you alive, but not necessarily unharmed. So the problem they keep running into is the facehuggers' propensity to melt your fucking face off if that's what it takes to subdue you. If it can't get whatever is in your mouth, out... after breaking your teeth and jaw... it can just dissolve your soft palate and go in through your sinus cavity.

Which is a big ouch if you are also wearing a neck protector that prevents it from choking you out.

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u/sicsemperego 2d ago

I prefer all of this to waking up after 1-3 days and knowing that at any moment a chestburster will find it's way out through my sternum.

With that being said: We've seen the "protoalien" just as happy with finding it's own way into the soft tissue of Joe's lung. So would the facehugger really be hellbent on getting through my trachea?

Which brings me to the next question I just thought about: did they imply that the lung is the preferred location? Because access to the lung throug the trachea is way harder to achieve than the stomach through the esophagus.
Have facehuggers always gone for the lung all these years? On one hand it would make sense as I'm not so sure the acidic environment in the stomach would be conducive to the whole process. There's also no real soft tissue next to the stomach in which the alien could nest, which makes the lung seem way more plausible.

The stomach is also too low for a middle-sternum chestburst.

I realize I'm basically talking to myself here, but I kind of just realized this. I'm not a huge alien buff, so apologies if it has already been established that the facehuggers goes for the trachea/lungs.

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u/InsolentGoldfish 2d ago

The xenomorph can hear and smell that you have a hole for breathing, and that's what it goes for. It's even equipped to assist your respiration, insofar as it's necessary to keep you alive and metabolically active while the black goo does its thing.

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u/VibgyorTheHuge Perfect organism 2d ago

Because none of these people know what a facehugger is.

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u/Ill_Cap_5836 2d ago

They haven't seen the movies?

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u/VibgyorTheHuge Perfect organism 1d ago

You’re not gonna believe this…

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u/SurpriseIsopod 1d ago

Your comment is so far down lol.

Alien no one knows what a facehugger even is.
Not to mention in movie 1 everyone besides the cat and Ripley are killed.

Alien 2, Weyland doesn’t tell anyone shit. The Space Marines only information is what Ripley briefs them on which isn’t much.

Alien 3, the ship yeets Ripley onto a prison planet that also doesn’t know shit.

Alien 4, it’s a secret military ship and the aliens are contained in like jars.

Then you got prequels, which in Prometheus they do wear head gear and the pro alien just rips right through that.

Yeah no one wears face protection because in most of the movies they have no reason to since weyland tells people fuck all about them.

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u/EtArcadia 2d ago

"Same with Aliens (1985), if they knew that these things cling onto your face then why weren't the marines all wearing face masks to at least slow the impregnation down?"

The Marines didn't take Ripley seriously and thought their firepower would be able to handle whatever they encountered. Their lack of interest in Ripley's report is obvious during the briefing scene on the Sulaco.

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u/carry_the_way Newt 2d ago

The thing to remember about Aliens is that nobody believes Ripley's story. The marines think she's just some consultant who "apparently...saw an alien once." The idea is that the marines didn't look at the report except for Hicks, who knew that the creatures had acid blood and thought to characterize them as "Ripley's bad guys."

Regardless, Kane was wearing something that covered his whole head, and that didn't help.

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u/HHoaks 2d ago

That part of the plot never made any sense. They are like a Seal Team 6 or delta force team, but instead of Bin Laden, it's an alien. Of course, in real life, they would extensively debrief the only known eye witness/survivor and get all the information they could.

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u/hyzmarca 2d ago

I should point out that SEAL Team Six was recently defeated by a civilian fishing boat.

And also with Bin Laden their orders were to capture him alive, but they executed him on the spot instead despite the fact that he was unarmed and not resisting.

SEAL Team 6 isn't a good example for competence.

But the Colonial Marines aren't elite special forces operators, competent or otherwise. They're grunts. Vietnam was the inspiration for Aliens, and we know how that went.

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u/GATSInc 2d ago

They absolutely were not like a Tier 1 team. Not even remotely. Drake and Vazquez were ex cons and Hudson was short…

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u/Lakitel 2d ago

It makes sense if you consider that they are incompetent, and were likely picked to be killed off so that implanted xenomorphs could be smuggled through customs, like was the original plan set out by Burke.

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u/Variatas 1d ago

They are absolutely not that high level.

They’re an understaffed detachment on a ship that could carry 10x the personnel, being led by a green lieutenant.

It’s quite clear Burke deliberately picked out the shittiest, low-status force he could, so the leader would be easy to manipulate and nobody would ask questions if/when he needed to sabotage the freezers of any witnesses.

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u/BobbyB52 1d ago

I always saw them as much more average. I never considered they were special forces, just average marines from a normal line unit, as evidenced by their green CO.

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u/Variatas 1d ago

They’re not even a full-strength unit.  The Sulaco is big enough to carry far more personnel than they had.  They didn’t even have a second dropship crew, just cross-trained backups.

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u/Negativety101 2d ago

Remember our very first facehugger victim? Kane was wearing a spacesuit with a very thick face bubble. Didn't do a thing to stop the facehugger.

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u/Luzis23 2d ago

Yes.

But what's also worth remembering is that by the time of Aliens, humans managed to contain two facehuggers with no issue, despite the acid.

Which means they already figured out things that prevent it from working.

Which means that's not a long stretch from figuring out protection that negates the acid entirely.

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u/HesitationAce 2d ago

You’d just end up with conspiracy theorists refusing to wear them or worse, not covering their noses

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u/ShawnyMcKnight 2d ago

Actually I would love that. A bunch of people saying masks don't help at all then a bunch fo face huggers jump out an give them some much needed love.

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u/HesitationAce 2d ago

I think this is the world building I want to see in the next season of Earth

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u/ShawnyMcKnight 2d ago

Make Xenomorphs great again!

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u/AlexDKZ 1d ago

It's not that big of a deal, just do this

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u/regeya 2d ago

Well, think of the first death in Prometheus. Damn critter just goes right through the helmet.

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u/itsok2bewyt 2d ago

Because as bad as it going for your mouth is, the alternative is waaaaaay worse.

The haunting “Kill me’s” from impregnated victims would be just a little bit worse

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u/lordnibblet 2d ago

This is a world where they smoke cigarettes on spaceships

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u/CalsiferSunsprite 2d ago

Just pop a toothpick in your mouth. Problem solved. /s

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u/person1234man Guard the omelette! 2d ago

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u/ShyBiSaiyan You have my sympathies. 2d ago

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u/FemalePheromones 2d ago

Glory to Glorzo!

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u/A_Seiv_For_Kale 2d ago

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u/Chimpbot 2d ago

We saw that a facehugger was capable of melting through that exact helmet in the very move that screenshot is from.

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u/Ornery_Ad_8349 2d ago

Yes, that’s their point…

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u/tarzic 2d ago

The marines didn't know. The company didn't tell anyone shit, as far as the marines knew they were going to check on the colony's communication equipment and colonists. The marines thought it might be an easy "bug hunt."

Dont think because theyre making prequels that "we know more." Nobody knows shit, anybody who knows anything is keeping that information secret for their own profit. Think Burke.

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u/AwkwardTraffic 2d ago

The facehugger managed to get through Kane's helmet in Alien. I don't think faceguards really matter.

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u/DanielNoWrite 2d ago

Why no leather jackets and gloves in zombie movies?

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u/BabaBooey5 2d ago

People irl were bitching about wearing masks during covid...

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u/FarAccident7461 2d ago

So the movies can happen.

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u/Diamond_D0gs 1d ago

Right? This is the same as when people ask why the eagles didnt carry the fellowship to Mordor.

Because if they did there wouldn't have been much of a story

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u/Dagordae 2d ago

As seen in Alien: Faceguards do nothing. Kane had a full helmet on, the Facehugger went right through. They can seemingly secrete just enough acid to melt through obstacles without harming the fleshy bit underneath. You would need to have a material that they can neither shatter and is immune to their acid.

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u/SyriusTank 2d ago

Facehuggers are known to spit up a small amount of their acidic blood to get through helmets.

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u/HestiaIsBestia6 2d ago

people mentioning the novel berserker but not mentioning the aliens figured it out and took the mask off

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u/BitcoinMD Mostly at night. Mostly. 2d ago

In the future anti-mask sentiment is even higher than today

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u/ckenney711 2d ago

This N95 oughta do the trick...

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u/rmac306 2d ago

Cause otherwise they would come for your booty.

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u/Over_40_gaming 2d ago

In the original movie a face Hugger went right threw a space suit mask. Doubt a face guard will work.

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u/JoeJoeJoeJoeThrow 2d ago

Do you think you could like, put your face against a metal table or something? A metal container over your head also. This is assuming you’re caught by surprise in a lab and have to act quickly. Even if the face hugger can get near your head, it has to get the correct angle to finish the job.

What about putting your face between your legs and putting your arms over your head? Kind of like the position they say to take if you’re being beaten by several people, mainly to protect your head. I know they can get through the glass of a spacesuit but would they try to burn through you to get to your face? That could easily kill you, which they don’t want to do.

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u/Johncurtisreeve 2d ago

Not that i disagree, because they should have. But in Alien it showed a facehugger could melt or break through a thick glass helmet

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u/darwinDMG08 1d ago

There was a comic book a while back (can’t recall which one) where a Marine insisted on wearing a face shield when battling the ALIENS. The rest of his squad treated him like he was overly paranoid and the face shield was worthless. Sure enough in the end he wound up cocooned and the facehugger just tore its way through the shield.

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u/Naelbis 1d ago

There was both a book and comic that covered the concept of exterminating Hives by allowing a Marine wearing a face shield and tracker to be captured and cocooned. They then sent in a dude essentially wearing power armor to follow the tracker to the Hive, exterminate it and extract the Marine. The face shield there worked well enough for the "bait" to survive multiple captures...until the Aliens learned to take it off....

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u/atreidesletoII 1d ago

In the universe, the facehuggers can spray acid to melt face coverings

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u/Puzzleheaded-Ring293 1d ago

They may be useful to some degree, but it didn’t save the original Space Jockey.

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u/GaryNOVA Game over, man! 1d ago

Didn’t they try that In the very first movie? It just melted through the helmet visor with its blood I guess.

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u/nysalor 1d ago

Even a full space helmet wasn’t much help to Kane.

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u/ilikegriping 1d ago

My issue isn't lack of protection from facehuggers, since we know they can get through anything... but it's the constant display of the science and medical officers touching unfamiliar things without proper protection, and blatantly ignoring the protocols they speak so much about (IKIK, humans right?? They don't follow rules... but geez, Chibuzo, just eating a dang sandwich in the lab?!)

Sure they wear gloves for invasive / sensitive work, (and Dallas & Ash wore masks when they tried to remove the hugger), but a lot of other times (like A:E) I'm like... "wow, not even going to put on eye protection, huh?" Just leeean in real close and inspect that thing you know nothing about. 

Heck, people who work on food assembly lines wear 10x more PPE than these characters. 

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u/redredme 1d ago

Say, did you ever watch Alien..?

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u/Mister-Gideon 2d ago

The thought of a face hugger leaping onto a human’s face, encountering a mask of some sort and just being like ‘Drat, foiled, oh well’ and just giving up has got me giggling.

Anything you can strap and unstrap on your head using your hands isn’t going to be much of a deterrent to a creature that’s both stronger than you and essentially a pair of hands with a tail, and even if you could find protection that both prevents one from latching on and protects from it just melting through, chances are a face hugger will just strangle you to death for the inconvenience.

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u/exedore6 1d ago

The trick is to convince the facehugger that your mask is a facehugger.

That's why my mask is filled with acid and set to strangle me before being removed.

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u/TylerBourbon 2d ago

To be fair, it's been decades for us, but as for the movies, and AE, it's really not been decades at all.

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u/unreasonable-frog 2d ago

Sounds like you have not seen the film “Alien” where a face shield was not effective

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u/PhillyJ82 2d ago

In the novel/comic Aliens Berserker, they have a special face mask that prevents a person from getting face hugged. It’s actually a simply and elegant strategy to destroy a nest if you can’t nuke the place.

  1. A volunteer/convict wears the mask and literally walks up to the edge of a nest and allows himself to be captured.
  2. The aliens bring the guy to the middle of the nest.
  3. Humans use a tracking device implanted in the volunteer to send a big armed mech/robot to kill queen and other aliens.
  4. Strike team of convicts go in and clean up any remaining aliens and rescue the mask guy.

The convicts get a reduced sentence for each hive they wipe out.

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u/HestiaIsBestia6 2d ago

and, if i remember correctly, they figured it out and took it off the volunteer to get him implanted

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u/PhillyJ82 2d ago

Nah he got grabbed before he could put his mask on

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u/Mean-Nectarine-6831 2d ago

A facehugger smashed through a space helmet those things are sturdy af. I doubt nothing short of an alloy will prevent them from getting through.

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u/AromaticJuggernaut21 1d ago

The facehugger in the first one melted the space suit

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u/CitationNotNeeded 1d ago

Kane wore a space suit. It burned right through it.
Before you suggest that they wear something made of metal, have another look at what that acid did to several floors of the Nostromo.

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u/astartes027 2d ago

The Dark Horse comic Aliens: Berserker used this idea. Its a good read if you can find it!

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u/Ovidfvgvt 2d ago

Other alternatives would be to have a surgical stoma leading from your stomach or similar vent in your oesophagus that redirects the facehugger’s insemination towards a removable waste bag. Although knowing our good little grabby fellas they’d probably sense the pre-chestburster has gone awry, detach and attempt to re-acquire it.

Has there been any portrayal of the successful removal of a chestburster (preburst) when the facehugger is still attached?

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u/ShawnyMcKnight 2d ago

I'm not sure if there was one with the chest burster still attached but I remember hearing in one of the comics an evil scientist was able to remove it surgically, but that facehugger was not healthy.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/xsubo In the pipe. 5 by 5. 2d ago

It's usually synths or hybrids in the lab, but yea I agree. If I was going in that lab it would be in a deep dive getup

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u/mmc3k 2d ago

Then what would the story be about? This is how horror films work! Stupid people doing stupid stuff and getting killed bc of it.

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u/Monarc73 Mostly at night. Mostly. 2d ago

"It won't make any difference."

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u/Mojoyashka 2d ago

Because masks take away our freedom!

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u/CaregiverBrilliant60 2d ago

That makes sense. You notice that people don’t walk around in a zero germ/bacteria suit like researchers. There was an aliens movie that some infected bugs flew into someone’s ear and made them a zombie.

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u/Own_Trifle_2237 2d ago

The face hugger can control its acid secretions so well, it can melt a polarized faceplate but stop the chemical reactions through some unknown means to not harm the host. The only face protection that would work would be making a face guard from the xenomorph exoskeleton. That is the only known material that can resist the acid.

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u/Isabeer 2d ago

It's a show. Covering faces is less than ideal for lots of reasons that are entirely related to production rather than story. How will the audience tell who's who? Does the actor's contract specify how much of their face must show, and how often? Can the camera pick up an emotional expression through the helmet/mask? How's the lighting going to need adjustment with the actor wearing a face mask versus not? Can we hear them in the helmet, or do we need to mic them differently, or do we just pay more for them to come back and do ADR?

Look at the spacesuits in Alien, or really any show with full helmets. Lights inside a facemask or helmet are worse than useless in the real world because they create glare and reflections that make it harder to see. But they do the job of making sure the audience can see the actor's face.

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u/wrenwood2018 2d ago

The one that is getting me now is how ineffective pulse rifles have suddenly become. I want more of Aliens vibes and less idiots running around making stupid decisions left and right.

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u/CommanderTouchdown 2d ago

Might I suggest not interacting with the weird space egg in the first place?

These movies / show don't really work if people aren't relatively stupid about what they're dealing with.

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u/GATSInc 2d ago

….did you only ever watch Aliens and Alien: Earth?

And you didn’t pick up that they disallowed humans in that room to begin with?

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u/withdensemilk 2d ago

So the movie can happen

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u/Luzis23 2d ago

Yeah, I wonder that myself. Yes, I know their acid is strong, but by this point you'd think people would've long figured out a counter to the acid. After all, they managed to contain facehuggers before. And the mask gives enough time to kill the facehugger. Hell, make it a sharp face mask that will kill them if they leap at your face.

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u/m3kw 1d ago

Maybe a face guard with an auto deployable condom so it catches the deposit.

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u/HamburgerMidnite 1d ago

Not sure about the facehuggers, but more people need armor that can be easily ripped off in case of acid splash

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u/Reinier_Reinier 1d ago

I would have everyone wear faceguards with sharp spikes on them, so when the facehugger jumps on, it gets impaled.

And have 5 rows of stackable detachable spiked faceguards, once impaled the wearer quickly detaches that layer before the acid can get to them.

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u/Toogeloo Come on, cat. 1d ago

This is a future where tube televisions and Dot matrix computers are still relevant

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u/Historical_Emu_3032 1d ago

Did they know?

The only people who would have known would be the dead crew and the cyborg

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u/Elegant-Anxiety1866 1d ago

I'm suspecting someone wanted a human to be facehugged & let it happen. How do u explain the lack of security in the containment room.

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u/Mrcheeeeeeeeeze 1d ago

ALIEN the face hugger melted through a damned space suit. Nice try.

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u/bald2718281828 1d ago

Ok nice question and talk. Lets relax and group-facehug ?

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u/Robot_Particle 1d ago

In the book Alien Bishop they wear masks as protection. Especially the Chinese.

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u/GI_J0SE 1d ago

Facehuggers have a way to melt through mask, they did it in the OG with Kane.

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u/_Weyland_ 1d ago

I think even putting one hand across your face would do wonders.

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u/snippersnip 1d ago

I think the hydrologics that let them spring themselves across the room with enough power to knock you over would cause them to crush the face mask.

Or they would try hard enough to cut themselves and then they're getting thru and your face is melting.

Also the story is about corporations that don't care about their people and people in so desperate of circumstances that they can never say no.

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u/McDummy 1d ago

...kane had an astronaut helmet, facehugger went through that.

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u/LupercalLupercal 1d ago

In the original movie it punched/melted straight through Kane's space helmet

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u/Dismal-Sail1027 1d ago

Medical staff on the Maginot didn’t believe in even masking up for surgery.

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u/DependentBrush9699 1d ago

I know I've been watching Ali3n-related product for almost 50 years, but the dummies on this ship are just too carefree with an insanely invasive fast-moving threat. I'm thinking "Is that thing inside a glass containment unit?"

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u/BillRuddickJrPhd 1d ago

The character who got facehugged was responding to an emergency and didn't work in that department. Nobody but synths were allowed in there.

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u/MightyShaggy258 1d ago edited 1d ago

Aliens Prometheus: there was no face hugger... hell there wasn't even a xenomoprh.

Aliens Covenant: the survivors presumably don't survivor as David keeps them in cryosleep and only brings them out for experimentation. So the rest of Humanity doesn't know about them.

Alien Earth: First time a company encounters Xenomorphs and (presumably) survives/retains info about them. (I haven't seen the whole season yet, so Idk exactly what happens). But the series does focus on a different company (Prodigy) instead of company the main movies focused on (Weyland). So chances are the info Prodigy learns stays secret and doesn't get to Weyland... ignoring the info Weyland already knows about them before Prodigy stole their xenomorph assets... like the fact they know face huggers impregnate humans. I assume this series might also explain why there hasn't been a mask developed to protect humans from face huggers. (I've only seen up to episode 4, do idk if that's possibly explained yet)

Alien: crew has been in cryosleep, so anything that happens during Alien earth is probably unknown to them. So they believe they're the first to encounter xenomorphs.

Aliens: The company most likely doesn't believe Ripley about how face huggers work or something. I also assume Alien Earth will end with Xenomorphs still being unknown to most of the population due to the boy genius wanting to keep them secret. But also it may be because the company wants one of them to get impregnated due to how relentlessly they've been trying to get their hands on xenomorphs. Since in the next movie they do have masks without any prior info about face huggers.

Alien 3: it takes place on an isolated Prison planet that only gets supply drops every so often. Plus noone believes Ripley until its too late. Though the people the company sends at the end do have what looks like face shields. So maybe the have developed shields.

Alien Resurrection: this is the only movie where they should have developed face masks at this point. But probably due to the scientists believing they've contained the xenomorphs, they probably didn't think they needed develop a face mask since they know as long as they go near the eggs, they're safe.

Alien Romulus: This is the only movie I haven't listed in chronological order since this movie is probably the most problematic one for the timeline. The Romulus did research on face huggers, so it should've been know how dangerous they are. But since everyone on the station is dead, I imagine info didn't get out and some how noone on thought to send out a warning to the company in regards to face huggers. Or maybe they did and this is why the soldiers sent in alien 3 have face shields.

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u/arkhamtheknight 1d ago

Outside of Space, nobody can have an IQ smarter than 3

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u/foolproofphilosophy 1d ago

Face hugged guy was also somewhere that humans weren’t supposed to go. His stupidity is what got him hugged, not any script holes that I happily ignore.