MovieChat Forums > Alien: Romulus (2024) Discussion > What's with the ancient computer technol...

What's with the ancient computer technology in this movie?


They still have CRT monitors on the ship, lol...This was understandable in the first movie when LCDs were still in their infancy, but now you would expect to see more advanced technology in the future, somehow the characters don't even have smartphones, chat apps, social media, etc...

reply

Perhaps the future holds some good things like not using smartphones and social media

reply

Are you serious?

reply

Because:

1. It's a multiverse, Alien isn't set in the future of our world, but a parallel universe that doesn't invent LCD.

2. Alien is set in the future of our world, but after the nuclear war, most of the technological knowledge was lost, so they use CRT, no smartphones or apps.

reply

Do you believe Alien would have used CRTs if it hadn't come out in 1979 when they were the most advanced option available?

At this point it's been retconned as part of the setting, but it seems obvious that wasn't the original intent.

reply

I think of another explanation:

3. Alien is a cyberpunk, a greedy corporation that controls most of the resources, making people survive barely, one of the resources it controls is flat screens and holograms, so the poor have to rely on CRT, and its patent is in the public domain.

reply

Sure that could potentially fit, but it's still more retconning, which admittedly is unavoidable with a franchise that has spanned over 40 years.

The point about using CRTs in 1979 stands.

reply

Somehow they have androids that can move and talk just like humans, but they don't have smartphones, seems pretty dubious...

reply

I believe the aim of the production design was to link into the look and feel of Alien (1979) while also integrating some elements of Alien: Isolation (which was of a similar style) and even Aliens, so in that regard they did a great job. Not just with the screens but the aliens, controls, weapons, hardware, general look and feel. My hats off to them, it felt immersive if you think back to those earlier films.

reply

Possibly easier to source or fashin parts. Maybe more reliable over long distances.

reply

It's a continuation of the lived in world we saw in Alien and Aliens.

reply

This is what I was thinking.

reply