In recent years, classic horror franchises have been going through a major revival period, and finally, at the hands of creators who put their inventive spin on the narrative and dedicate effort to scripting and characterization, it genuinely feels like the storytelling purpose has finally overpowered the profit-oriented necessity of franchise continuation. Director Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus joins this revered list of franchise revitalizing horror movies along with recent fan favorites like Evil Dead Rise and Prey, simply by following the same formula—taking things back to basics and expanding the established mythos of the saga in a new direction.Â
Alien: Romulus is set between the events of the original Alien and its sequel, Aliens, and revolves around a band of scavengers who were unfortunate enough to peep into the dreadful machinations of the evil all-controlling conglomerate, the Weyland-Yutani corp, and encounter the nightmarish horrors of dark recesses of the cosmos. Created in the vein of the first two classics of the franchise, Alien: Romulus presents a familiar yet innovative story, enough well-crafted gore and horror to match the quality of the narrative, and memorable characters to make the whole package much more impactful. Most importantly, the movie excels in allowing both unacquainted viewers and seasoned fans of the franchise to treat themselves to terror without solely depending on established lore itself.Â
Spoilers Ahead
The First Xenomorph Initiates The Events of ‘Alien: Romulus’ as Well
A survey craft of the Weyland-Yutani corp finds the remnants of the destroyed tug craft, Nostromo, which was destroyed in the aftermath of Alien (1979), as the one surviving member, Ellen Ripley, had initiated the self-destruction protocol to contain the threat posed by the terrifying alien organism, the Xenomorph. The survey craft finds a sarcophagus like the cocoon of a Xenomorph, and brings it inside for further research. At this point, it should be mentioned that this is the same Xenomorph that butchered the crew of the Nostromo, whom Ripley was able to eject into the void of space. As the ultimate organism, Xenomorphs are indeed built different, as this one had survived in space by forming a cocoon around itself—and once again gets the chance to unleash it’s terror as the survey team brings it inside their craft. The secret mission of the Weyland-Yutani Corp in the first movie was to attempt to bring the unique alien species to earth after all, and the opening of Alien: Romulus reveals that even before the events of Aliens, the conglomerate had made another desperate attempt to complete the mission.Â
The Luckless Crew of Corbelan
It is a staple for Alien movies to have a band of unfortunate voyagers snooping around in places they shouldn’t be, before being slaughtered by hideous extraterrestrial monstrosities, and following the tradition, Alien: Romulus introduces us to the crew of mining hauler Corbelan IV, the majority of whom are going to become dead meat for Xenomorphs by the end. The major focus is on Rain, a miner stationed in Wey-Yu colony Jackson’s Star, along with her android/synth ‘brother,’ Andy. Rain lost her only parent, her father, a long time ago, who had found Andy in terrible condition, and after adopting him in their family, reprogrammed the synth to ensure Rain’s safety. Probably the absence of family later in her life prompted Rain to consider Andy more than just a soulless hunk of a machine—at least that’s how the rest of the world perceives him.Â
Despite putting in enough hours working for the corporation, Rain is not allowed to leave for Yvaga—an exoplanet that is still free from the greedy, dastardly clutches of the corporation. Which is why when Rain’s scavenging crew, which consists of her old flame, Tyler, his pregnant sister Kay, their cousin Bjorn, and his girlfriend, Navarro, proposes to use a set of cryopods from a ramshackle Wey-Yu research station in nearby orbit to make the journey to Yvaga on their own, she agrees to undertake the mission after initial hesitation. Andy is needed for the mission as, being a Synth, he will be able to navigate through the MU/TH/UR computing mainframe of the research station. Bjorn isn’t fond of Andy at all, as he had lost his parents due to the practical, uncompromising calculations of a synth who had sacrificed them as collateral for the greater good. Boarding their mining craft, Corbelan IV, the crew ventures to the Wey-Yu research station, Renaissance, to chase their dream of freedom—unaware of what peril awaits them.
Horrors of Remus
Renaissance research station is divided into two portions, Remus and Romulus, and the nefarious significance of the names gets highlighted later in the movie. As Andy, Tyler, and Bjorn enter the Remus section while following the signal of the active cryopods, the first obstacle to their mission props up as the pods turn out to be lacking enough fuel to complete their journey to Yvaga. At this point in time, Bjorn takes out his spite on Andy by revealing to him that Rain will not be able to take him to the planet anyway, as its existing culture is fiercely anti-Wey-Yu, which means no entry for Synths created by the corporation either. Rain, who is observing the scouting party’s movements from the bridge of the Corbelon, is heartbroken to have Andy learn about the truth in such a way, that too not from his ‘sister.’
As the trio move deeper into the station, they come across the nearly demolished remains of a synth and a larger cryosection, which can provide them with enough fuel to run the Corbelon’s cryopods long enough to complete a journey to Yvaga. However, while extracting the fuel, they accidentally put the section into security lockdown, and Andy’s connection with MU/TH/UR is no longer viable enough to bypass the security. This prompts Rain and Navarro to arrive at the Remus section as well, leaving Kay on the Corbelan, and Rain proposes using the module from the near-destroyed Synth in Andy’s programming to enable him to access the entire station. As proposed, the new module is installed in Andy, who starts getting reprogrammed, but things go from bad to worse when the prolonged lockdown results in the frozen Xenomorph spores, Facehuggers, getting thawed out of their stasis and attacking the crew.
While fleeing with the cryo-fuel, the crew gets chased by the Facehuggers, one of which attaches itself to Navarro’s face, and the crew fails to get it out. A reprogrammed Andy appears much colder and more practical compared to his original self, and aligns himself with the directive of the corporation, but even with his now much enhanced faculties, he has no idea how Navarro can be saved. As a result, the crew decides to reactivate the near-destroyed Synth by connecting it to the station’s mainframe, and the Synth is introduced as Science Officer Rook, totally resembling Synth Science Officer Ash from Alien, who sacrificed almost the entire crew of Nostromo to take the Xenomorph specimen back to earth. Rook reveals the truth about Xenomorphs, revealing the one specimen brought from the Nostromo killed all the crew of Renaissance, and advises the crew to leave Navarro for their own good, as she has already been turned into a Xenomorph host at this point. Ignoring Rook’s warnings, Bjorn uses cryopod fuel to remove the Facehugger and decides to take Navarro back to the Corbelon. However, Andy, adhering to his new directive, has started paying heed to Rook’s words, and for the safety of the crew, decides to stop Bjorn, which prompts Bjorn to flee with the cryopod fuel and Navarro and launch with the Corbelon, leaving Tyler, Rain, and Andy behind.Â
Truth of Romulus
Rook’s warnings inevitably prove to be well founded as Navarro horribly meets her end as the Xenomorph spore implanted inside her emerges in Chestburster form, tearing her apart in the process. In a hurry to escape, Bjorn crashes the Corbelon into the Romulus section of Renaissance, hurtling the research station towards the asteroid belt of Jackson’s Star with a limited timeframe to escape. Rook indoctrinates Andy with the Wey-Yu ideology of prioritizing the mission at hand—securing a unique compound, Z-01, from the Romulus section, without any consideration for the lives at stake.
As Kay and Bjorn escape from Corbelon and move towards the hangar of Romulus, they come across a pupate form of the Xenomorph that killed Navarro, and Bjorn makes an attempt to kill it by electrocuting it—to no avail—and instead meets a gruesome end by getting stabbed and having his flesh melted. As the Xenomorph emerges in its true form, in a frantic attempt to escape, Kay takes a nasty fall. Meanwhile, Tyler, Andy, and Rain make their way through a Facehugger-infested section to reach the other side of the hangar as well. Seeing Kay on the other side of the door, with a fully grown Xenomorph behind her, Andy refuses to open the door, taking into consideration the practicality of the situation, and Tyler and Rain helplessly watch Kay get taken by the monstrosity. Andy’s prime directive has changed from ensuring Rain’s security to serving the interests of Wey-Yu Corporation, which demands the completion of Rook’s original mission of securing the Z-01 compound.
Andy coerces Tyler and Rain to complete the corporation’s mission at hand, which he states is the only way to gain Rook’s bypass protocol to escape by boarding Corbelon in time before Renaissance gets destroyed by the asteroid belt. As they reach the Romulus research center, they learn that Z-01 is a Xenomorph secreted parasitoid modified by Rook, which was going to be used to push human evolution to the next step. Human beings are unfit for cosmic colonization as their physical and mental weaknesses make them too dependent on technology to survive. Rook’s unique compound, which is shown to have revived a dead rat, will provide humans with the enhancements needed to survive on hostile worlds and thrive as a species. The full extent of the morbid significance of the section’s name comes to light—just like how the sacrifice of Remus was necessary for his brother Romulus to usher Rome into a new age of glory, the Remus section of the Renaissance was sacrificed by Wey-Yu to synthesize what they considered the next step for human evolution in the Romulus section. Adhering to Rook’s command, Andy takes a Z-01 sample to send it to the colony, and the surviving group heads towards Corbelon to escape from the nightmarish research station at long last. This section of the passage is revealed to be full of Xenomorph nests, made upon the corpses of the dead crew of the Renaissance, and the group finds Kay, who is still alive, in one of the hives. Kay is rescued, and Andy’s analysis reveals she is still free from Xenomorph infestation.
However, while escaping from fully grown Xenomorphs, Tyler sacrifices his life to save Rain, while Andy gets momentarily incapacitated, prompting Rain to escape with Kay as a result. After reaching Corbelan, Kay decides to use Z-01 on her, which initially seems to heal her wounds, and Rain returns to Renaissance to rescue Andy. Rain removes Rook’s module from Andy’s mainframe, which allows her ‘brother’ to return to his original state, and promises to take him with her to Yvaga, if they manage to escape eventually that is. Rain earns her Xeno-killer badass spot by decimating a horde of Xenomorphs using a pulse rifle. As the duo return to Corbelon and launch the mining craft out of Renaissance just in time, the research station gets destroyed by the asteroid belt, killing any form of Xenomorph still lurking inside it in the process.
Did Rain Finally Kill The Xenomorph Offspring?
However, the director had carefully hidden the main reveal for the last part as the Z-01 compound mutated Kay’s unborn child in her womb, and she delivered a hideous Xenomorph hatchling within a sac full of corrosive liquid. Rain tries to discard the hatchling, but it ends up in the lower portion of the ship, rapidly growing into a human Xenomorph, which resembles an elongated, mutated engineer. Thus, the movie also connects the narrative with the lore of the Engineers, the ancient makers of both humans and Xenomorphs, as shown in the prequel duology. The Xenomorph Offspring feeds on its mother, Kay, who meets a horrible end, and goes on to incapacitate Andy. Wearing a pressure suit, Rain engages in a prolonged struggle with the Offspring and manages to eject it out of the ship.
In Alien: Romulus’ ending, Rain and Andy remain the only survivors of Corbelan. Putting Andy to Cryosleep, Rain finally sets Corbelan‘s trajectory towards Yvaga, finally heading towards her much-desired freedom. But is Yvaga indeed an escape from the corporation’s grip, or an even more of a nightmarish hellhole infested with creatures of deep space? We may know the answer if a much-deserved sequel to the movie is announced later on.
