"As we already know, the Xenomorphs have a very short lifespan"
I disagree. At this point in the first movie, we had no information on the lifespan of an adult alien. You might refer to the fact that the facehugger died after roughly 24 hours (no specific time is stated, but it seemed to last roughly around a day). But the facehugger died because it served its purpose - it incapacitated and impregnated the host, and it was not needed anymore.
So we cannot just expect the adult alien to be the same. However, in the mind of the creators, yes, this was the implication, it was dying.
However, discounting any other information that comes from outside the movie itself - so disregarding the creator's intent... we don't know. It might be slow because it's exhausted after killing six people (or five). It might be fully alert in a few hours after it had a nap. It might have wanted to hibernate for a long time, like bears. It might be dying. But that's just one possibility, as the point of the alien is that we don't know how it works - so we (humans) cannot predict its behavior. Here, we expect Ripley to stand no chance in a confined space against this agile creature. But in this moment... it is not agile. For some reason it's slow. So that gives Ripley a chance to formulate a plan.
And if we take the sequel into account, this 24 hour lifespan is directly contradicted by Cameron. The Aliens on the LV-426 settlement did not drop deat after 24 hours, they went into hibernation, and were waken up by the marines entering the hive. So in my headcanon, that was what the alien in the first movie wanted to do. And who knows how long they can stay in hibernation? The facehugger in the egg was very much ready to jump into Kane's face after... well, at the very least, thousands of years. We can safely assume that an adult can chill for few decades (maybe even centuries!).
So yes, the intent was to show it is dying, but it is never stated in the movie, thus not canon.
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moviechatterer (16311)
2 years ago
At this point in the first movie, we had no information on the lifespan of an adult
and indeed after half a dozen more movies we still have none .
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sati_84 (467)
2 years ago
LOL, yeah, we did not get to observe any dying from old age, that's for sure :-)
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jpssteveshanahan (482)
2 years ago
According to this one video I saw on YouTube. No one really does of old age! They just die of age related symptoms. This same principle can be applied to the Alien, probably.
Sorry if I sounded like a smart ass with that comment π
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sati_84 (467)
2 years ago
A valid point - the cause of death is always the halt of circulation or respiration (whichever comes first), and never "old age" in itself. However, I think from my original comment it was clear what I meant :-)
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jpssteveshanahan (482)
2 years ago
But the Alien grew from the size of a Chihuahua to a 9 feet juggernaut in a matter of hours (1 - 2 at the most). This implies a short but intense lifespan (like a mayfly). I'm sure the audience could have figured that out in their own back in 1979. I don't think anything needs to be explicitly stated in a movie to be taken into consideration (If something's heavily implied by the filmmaker's that should be enough). Just take the scene where the Alien "assaulted" Lambert. You could clearly tell that it was recycled footage of Brett's death as the Xenomorphs tail was passing though his legs to sting his back. BUT! The developers wanted us to think that it did indeed use it's tail on Lambert. Which is why we're still talking about it.
"It might be slow because it's exhausted after killing six people (or five). It might be fully alert in a few hours after it had a nap".
Of course! Even the Xenomorph needs to take a power nap π
I would say it killed three people. It didn't really kill Dallas! He was abducted and subsequently cocooned. Remember that he was still conscious when Ripley discovered him, unlike Brett. And it didn't kill Kane either. At least not directly. His death was simply collateral damage as a result of their birthing process π
I don't take the sequels into consideration to be honest. Each movie changes its lore. It's safe to say that Sir Ridley Scott had an entire different idea about the Alien life cycle. Compared to James Cameron's "hive mentality" which I never liked.
PS: Head cannon! That's a good one π
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sati_84 (467)
2 years ago
Well, but that's the beauty of analyzing and interpreting movies. You can look at the sudden growth as something indicating that it used up close to all its energy to achieve its final size, fair enough. But you can look at it as yet one more "surprise" or unexpected behavior from an organism we know nothing about. Previous surprises were: eggs remaining in stasis for at least hundreds, but likely thousands of years, acid for blood, gestating inside of a human, etc.
I think the rapid growth nicely fits into this pattern of the alien doing something unexpected from time to time, shocking the crew and of course us, the viewers. So it's logical for you, but there are other interpratations. And again, that's the beauty of it. This is a completely foreign organism, so our usual way of thinking about why organisms do what they do, does not apply here.
So if we take everything at face value, and really think about how much info we have on the alien, we can't say definitely why it was so slow in the shuttle. A nap? Preparing for nesting? Dying of old age? Toying with Ripley? These - and many other incomprehensibly alien motives - are all on the table!
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jpssteveshanahan (482)
a year ago
"Well, but that's the beauty of analyzing and interpreting movies".
Which is why we're still talking about films like The Shining and Eraserhead.
"You can look at the sudden growth as something indicating that it used up close to all its energy to achieve its final size".
Thank you for acknowledging my point.
"But you can look at it as yet one more "surprise" or unexpected behavior from an organism we know nothing about. This is a completely foreign organism, so our usual way of thinking about why organisms do what they do, does not apply here".
Hence the name of the title.
"These - and many other incomprehensibly alien motives - are all on the table!"
No pun intended π
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