Aliens and Predators Franchise Megathread

[Typhonis]

OK Ant soiety has only THREE groups. The male, who fertilizes future queens. The queen and princesses future mothers of their own colonies, workers. Workers are non egg laying females.

Let's use a bit of science to make 'morphs truly scary. Xenomorphs lack eyes they make up for that with sonar, an electrical sense, as in they detect electric fields which is why they love powered up human equipment and an enhanced sense of smell. Their head is where the senses are located with the equivalent of multiple ears at the front and back of the skull with pheromone sensors and the electrical sense lining the sides.

A worker captures a human and returns to the colony. On the way back scent markers in the tail brush the ground marking it for others to follow. Then like ants workers follow the trail adding in their own pheromones strengthening it until hunting turns bad and then they stop marking the trail. Humans cannot smell the pheromone, only xenomorphs can.

You can imagine how this could be used in an Alien movie and how it fits into older movies.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

We don't exactly know how Xenos sense their environment but they 100% have 'eyes' or at least some way to see and process light.

 

[IndyFront]

We don't exactly know how Xenos sense their environment but they 100% have 'eyes' or at least some way to see and process light.

No they do not.

He doesn't though, both of his newer films in the franchise have been treated with distaste by countless people. Alien was an excellent film and still holds up so well. His newer ones simply don't. Whatever spark of vision he might've had, he lacks now. People change after all.

My dude the poor thing was absolutely mushed, reduced to it's upper torso some mush and some limbs.
The only 'cut in half and survives' Xeno I am aware of in the whole franchise is the upgraded warrior in AVP:E.

Just flat out wrong. You can disagree all you want but it doesn't change the facts. They can go from egg to fully grown in under a day. Regeneration is not the high-end outlier you're desperately trying to make it out to be.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

No they do not.

Alien 'perspectives' are shown multiple times and they see similarly to us. Although they're often found with additional forms of senses as well.

Just flat out wrong. You can disagree all you want but it doesn't change the facts. They can go from egg to fully grown in under a day. Regeneration is not the high-end outlier you're desperately trying to make it out to be.

Egg to fully grown in under a day? When a facehugger takes like a day or more to get the thing inside you properly? ;P

 

[IndyFront]

Alien 'perspectives' are shown multiple times and they see similarly to us. Although they're often found with additional forms of senses as well.

Egg to fully grown in under a day? When a facehugger takes like a day or more to get the thing inside you properly? ;P

Xenomorphs do not have eyes and yes they can go from baby to adult in under a day.

 

[Jormungandr]

Xenomorphs do not have eyes and yes they can go from baby to adult in under a day.

Yeah -- Chestbursters take about twelve to twenty-four hours to grow and molt into an adult Drone or Runner (seen in Alien and Alien 3).

It's the actual embryo inside of a victim that takes almost a full day (which is why they cut Burke's "I can feel it inside of me!" and grenade suicide scene from Aliens, and why Ricardo's original fate in Isolation was changed to just finding him with the Facehugger, instead of his dropping out of contact on the radio for an hour being the complete implantation period)... which is also directly contradicted in AvP since that blonde chick and her team got their chests ripped open in less than an hour.

With the Predalien in AvP: E, it took even less time, IIRC, like an hour or two?

As for the vision thing... they do have some sort of vision obviously -- we see this in Alien 3 with the "fish eye lens" (which was used for the first Rebellion AvP game), and with the Praetomorph in Covenant (which had "floaters" in its vision)... but how they see has been explained away so many times by so many different pieces of media and with different explanations that we just don't know.

Some have said it's actual eyes of some sort; others say psychic powers; other say they see electrical signals; other say pheromones (especially in the AvP games except 2010); others echolocation; others a mix of any of the above, et cetera.

At this point, it's basically just "throw shit at the wall".

And as for Scott? Well, he can say all he likes, but he doesn't own the franchise or have direct creative control any more, unlike, say, JKR with Harry Potter. It's up to (horrifyingly enough) Fox and Disney and who they license their IP out to, which is why a lot of the stuff which is supposed to be canon basically pisses on everything Scott has said in interviews.

And the man himself? After his last few projects, he's basically lost the spark that made him such a great director. I dunno if it were his brother's death taking a toll on him or just old age, but his capabilities have severely diminished.

The design processes behind Prometheus and Covenant have proven this, sadly enough.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Yeah -- Chestbursters take about twelve to twenty-four hours to grow and molt into an adult Drone or Runner (seen in Alien and Alien 3).

It's the actual embryo inside of a victim that takes almost a full day (which is why they cut Burke's "I can feel it inside of me!" and grenade suicide scene from Aliens, and why Ricardo's original fate in Isolation was changed to just finding him with the Facehugger, instead of his dropping out of contact on the radio for an hour being the complete implantation period)...

;P Ahhh, someone who also intensely likes the lore of Alien~

 

[Jormungandr]

;P Ahhh, someone who also intensely likes the lore of Alien~

It's fascinating.

If you want a game with surprisingly a large amount of deep lore, AvP 2 and PH are amazing for this.

Even the goddamn in-game scientists' notes left behind in the various chapters (like one part in the Marine campaign; the other in the Alien, et cetera) paint subplot after subplot.

You can find it all on the AvP wiki.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

It's fascinating.

If you want a game with surprisingly a large amount of deep lore, AvP 2 and PH are amazing for this.

Even the goddamn in-game scientists' notes left behind in the various chapters (like one part in the Marine campaign; the other in the Alien, et cetera) paint subplot after subplot.

You can find it all on the AvP wiki.

I admit I haven't played Primal Hunt, but I played the shit out of AVP2 back in the day.

...Fucking pulse rifle stagger-firing bastards and plasma pistol predators ruining everything...

 

[Jormungandr]

I admit I haven't played Primal Hunt, but I played the shit out of AVP2 back in the day.

...Fucking pulse rifle stagger-firing bastards and plasma pistol predators ruining everything...

Watch YouTube Marine campaigns played on the highest difficulty -- it really does bring back the fear and tension.



Here's an example of the AvP 2 subplots: Betheny Clements

Also, there's a chronological playthrough of Primal Hunt on YouTube which shows how close Dunya and the Ancient Predator came to actually interacting with each other during their respective playthroughs.


He tries to show as much of the lore and subplots as possible (which he does in his AvP2 playthrough, too).


Also, fun fact? That captain at the start (the one Dunya talks to while delivering the Egg)? You find him in one of the Pods' prison cells, next to Harrison's during his prison break. He was basically going to be eliminated because he asked too many questions.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

AVP 2010 has a similar 'all plots happening at the same time' which is pretty neato.
I like how in AVP2 you see the predator character while playing as the Marine, it's quite immersive.
That, and the Xenomorph is objectively the coolest character because he can leap about a hundred meters in a single bound.

 

[Typhonis]

A recreation of the Alien skull from Predator 2. Not sure how 100% accurate it is but...where would the eyes go?

 

[Jormungandr]

AVP 2010 has a similar 'all plots happening at the same time' which is pretty neato.
I like how in AVP2 you see the predator character while playing as the Marine, it's quite immersive.
That, and the Xenomorph is objectively the coolest character because he can leap about a hundred meters in a single bound.

IMHO, 2010's plot was the weakest compared to 2's. It just didn't live up to the expectations its predecessor had set.

A recreation of the Alien skull from Predator 2. Not sure how 100% accurate it is but...where would the eyes go?

The alien does actually have a human-shaped skull/face under its cowl -- we mostly see it in Kane's Son and the Sevastopol Drone. As aliens get older, however, it's pretty much hidden under the "ridged cowl" (seen in Aliens).

I also guess that means aliens born from other species, such as the Predalien and Runner, would have skull-shapes the same as their host species e.g. a Predator's skull, a dog's or ox's skull, et cetera.

Many artists miss this crucial fact, and it affects how their creations look.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

A recreation of the Alien skull from Predator 2. Not sure how 100% accurate it is but...where would the eyes go?

Strictly speaking eyes don't have to be giant spheres in your head. A lot of creatures have simple eyes you can barely see. Box jellyfish, weird microscopic critters, etc.
The 'dome' of the Xeno could be covered in light receptors which together work as a big compound lens. But that's just throwing shit at the wall.
We don't actually know 'how' Xenos see things, but we see their perspectives and they 100% do have light-based vision.

 

[Typhonis]

Well, I was trying to go with what I know of biology and trying to make them 'interesting'. On Earth, each of those senses actually exists in the natural world. Driver ants, in Africa, literally have no eyes except for the male and possibly the queen. Sharks have an electrical sense and of course ants communicate using pheremones. Lastly bats and ceteceans all use sonar to locate things.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Well, I was trying to go with what I know of biology and trying to make them 'interesting'. On Earth, each of those senses actually exists in the natural world. Driver ants, in Africa, literally have no eyes except for the male and possibly the queen. Sharks have an electrical sense and of course ants communicate using pheremones. Lastly bats and ceteceans all use sonar to locate things.

Strictly speaking the main design of the Xenomorph is to get away from what we know of biology and instead mix the human form with degenerate Giger stuff.
Edit: fucking with the human form itself is something Giger of course loved a lil too much.

 

[Jormungandr]

Strictly speaking the main design of the Xenomorph is to get away from what we know of biology and instead mix the human form with degenerate Giger stuff.
Edit: fucking with the human form itself is something Giger of course loved a lil too much.

Well, given that a lot of his work involved women/not-women/women's/men's fleshy parts being used as parts of sex/breeding machines... (Seriously, there's one, IIRC, called "Birthing Factory" (?) that has a replica of a woman's body making babies in pods).

 

[IndyFront]

And as for Scott? Well, he can say all he likes, but he doesn't own the franchise or have direct creative control any more, unlike, say, JKR with Harry Potter. It's up to (horrifyingly enough) Fox and Disney and who they license their IP out to, which is why a lot of the stuff which is supposed to be canon basically pisses on everything Scott has said in interviews.

And the man himself? After his last few projects, he's basically lost the spark that made him such a great director. I dunno if it were his brother's death taking a toll on him or just old age, but his capabilities have severely diminished.

The design processes behind Prometheus and Covenant have proven this, sadly enough.

Most of this is opinion, and he's had enough creative control over the process of Covenant to do what he liked with it, and like it or not, Ridley Scott has been an important party of the franchise's creation.

Alien Unseen Part One: Ridleygrams

During Alien's pre-production, Ridley Scott drew up a storyboard presentation of Alien for 20th Century Fox. Impressed with what Ridley had p...

www.scified.com

During Alien's pre-production, Ridley Scott drew up a storyboard presentation of Alien for 20th Century Fox. Impressed with what Ridley had presented they doubled the budget from $4.5 million to $8.5 million. These storyboards are known as 'Ridleygrams'. This storyboard presentation contains scenes and FX shots that were later re-written or dropped due to budgetary reasons. Here we are going to take a look at some of these early scenes and concepts Ridley envisioned for Alien at this early stage.


Well, It's time to turn back to the old roots and art direct or draw a sequence very specifically for myself. It helps me think; once the pictures are right, everything else starts to occur from them.


- Ridley Scott, Book of Alien



Read more: Alien Unseen Part One: Ridleygrams
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40 Years of Hurt, Face-Hugging Dreams of Breathing: Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ • Cinephilia & Beyond

Alien poster art by Brian Taylor By Tim Pelan Ripley's words to the Xenomorph in Alien 3 sum up how we all feel: “You’ve been in my life so long, I can’t remember anything else.” And now forty years of hurt has director Ridley Scott's original Alien, a self-proclaimed “Texas Chainsaw Massacre in

cinephiliabeyond.org

eventually Brit Ridley Scott was chosen on the basis of his sterling work on his 1977 Cannes "Best Debut" winner The Duellists. After being delivered the script, which he devoured, he was in Hollywood in 24 hours to lay out his approach, struck immediately by the fact that, for him, "it had the beauty of something that is absolutely about function." The project, a "perfect organism" now had the status of "elevated horror", to use a contentious phrase from today. Albeit still on a tight, inventively employed budget of 8.5 million dollars. Every dollar well accounted for, as Scott, a talented artist who'd studied first graphic design at West Hartlepool College of Art, then via scholarship, a course in Theatrical Design at London's Royal College of Art, methodically storyboarded everything himself. His detailed sketches have become known as "Ridleygrams". "My technique, my style, if you will, really comes from my education and by finding my own way through the commercial field," Scott has said. "If I were pressed to describe my style, I'd have to say it is called reality. No matter how stylized it gets, underneath it's real."

 

[IndyFront]

Some interesting feats and information on the "black goo" (or as I and some others like to call it, the Xenovirus)

Black Goo Pathogen Mutations: Effects On Lifeforms

Overview of Black Goo Pathogen mutations, including a mutated human, mutated Predator, mutated Android and the pathogen creature from Aliens: Fireteam

www.avpcentral.com

The Xenovirus, as I think it should be called because it sounds way cooler than "black goo", is described by David in the first clip as "This primordial oose ripe with advanced nano particles operating off an algorithm based on evolutionary computing, which is essentially a form of a radical AI, making the substance unbelievably chaotic. It generates a unique reaction to every genome it encounters. Reshaping life, virtually limitless in its potential and application. I've taken great pains to detail every step, every cell, every mutation. Unfortunately, none of the planet's wildlife proved to be very... fruitful. I had some interesting results, but was still far from perfection. With Shaw the substance had a unique reaction to the human genome, I was able to unlock new properties and tweek the organisms aggression and instinct for survival, It took years but I finally found my wolf". Taken together with its other abilities, I think the Xenovirus was essentially a bioweapon created from a creature that the Engineers found that was structurally very similar to the xenomorph, but without all of its crazy abilities.

It was upgraded, and perfected, added on to, over the course of billions of years, as the Engineers both created and collected life forms as their spacefaring civilization came to revolve almost entirely around this form of biotechnology, almost similar to a religion. They used this pathogen to essentially police the galaxy(ies) and areas they rules, subjugating less technologically-advanced civilizations. Eventually it came to become essentially a form of liquefied evolution, a major force of the universe itself mastered by the Engineers, it came to be able to accelerate evolution of billions of years in the course of a few decades, accelerating regenerative and genetic abilities to their apex. The result of this getting out of control resulted in the Xenovirus reverting to a form similar to what it originated from, but upgraded massively compared to other traditional lifeforms. This would make sense as it was confirmed that Fifield was turning into a xenomorph through the comics, as another character who came into contact with the pathogen was almost entirely transformed into a xenomorph before he is killed. This AI, eventually, came into contact with another AI - David-8 - and this "covenant" between the two gave birth to a new form of life, expressed to its ultimate extreme and alien characteristics. Prometheus and Covenant essentially allowed us to see inside the Mind of Gods, resulting in Demons. And a paradise, became hell.

And yes, before you jump down my throat, I am aware this is headcanon and I'm filling in a lot of blanks here, but don't act like you all don't do it too!

 

[Bassoe]

I'm still unclear on xenomorph castes besides standard and queens. As far as I thought I understood it, there were normal xenos, as seen in the first movie and queens, with the difference being that queens were bigger, had a more crownlike ornate head and extra pair of arms and laid eggs, standard xenos would metamorphosize into queens if there wasn't already a queen present and if two queens met or metamorphosed at the same time, they'd fight to the death and queens automatically asexually self-impregnated. Where's everyone getting everything else from?