What was the xeno doing in Alien at the end???

lmao awesome post.

Allinamberclad Agreed! The original concept was incredible! I was sooo much more afraid of/impressed by the first creature! So much more mysterious/creepy than in Aliens. They're really very different movies. A thriller/horror vs action/shoot-em-up. The Aliens in Aliens could be easily killed and were present in far greater numbers. They were clearly inferior to human soldiers. In Alien though, the table was turned and things were far different. That beast was masterful and unstopable!

I always thought it was curled up because it was using the ship to camouflage itself. But maybe it was enjoying a nice book and some cocoa?

@nuthugger: that's what I pretty much thought, until [i]Spartacus[/i] bursted my little kid bubble of sweet innocence.

Perhaps it was hanging in the only place it could find. Or he hitched a ride.

[quote]And as we all know now had Ridley Scott been allowed to continue down that path as he wanted to, it would have then done the most amazingly spontaneous and horrifying things of any creature in Film history.[/quote] [quote]Fox would not let him so the final act, although completely story boarded was never shot...and like I said you all know that story... right?[/quote] I only saw the story boards for the opening scene, that's all that seems to be on the DVD extras. Is there a link online for the finale, or could you enlighten us?

Dammitimadoctor: The original idea had the (pissed-off from being disturbed) Alien decapitating Ripley, sitting down at the console and broadcasting a message to Earth in her voice! I don't think I could have handled that!

slightly related...In the Alien illustrated story I seem to remember a scene near the end, outside the Narcisus where the Alien was folded like a box and Ripley stumbles upon it and runs and then it unfolds to look at Jones....was this ever intended to be a part of the film to anyone's knowledge or just artistic licence of the illustrated story?

In response to the people saying the aliens seemed weaker in Aliens than Alien, you have to think about it in perspective. In Alien, the crew of Nostomo had, (as far as we know) almost no military experience and where basically just regular people. So when the alien came along, none of them could really fight it off and were easily killed by it. In Aliens however, the marines where heavily armed, heavily trained warriors with high tech weaponry so taking down an Alien was much easier for them than it was for the Nostomo crew so in perspective, the Aliens seemed weaker than in the first movie. I'ts like a dog vs a cat, in perspective the dog is going to seem really strong compared to this little cat. Now compare a dog vs a bear, now the dog seems really week compared to this big giant bear. So don't blame Aliens for ruining the franchise, they just shifted perspective a bit.

Before I read about the 4 day life cycle, I always thought the alien as a very intelligent creature and knew that Ripley was going to destroy the ship and escape in the Narcissus. The alien went there to ambush her. It had some of Kane's DNA and, thus, his knowledge and intelligence of the ship and what Ripley was going to do.

@bigmike "had some of Kane's DNA and, thus, his knowledge" Really?

If you believe the xenos have a 4 day lifespan, then Aliens does not make sense. The marines arrive after contact had been lost with the colony for a fairly long time, and the marines even have to go into hypersleep to travel to the colony. only two colonists remain alive, yet there are hundreds of zenos ready for action. the xeno in Alien was there because it was intelligent enough to know the ship was on self destruct and that was an escape vehicle, and was taking a nap cuz of a very full day of work previously.

@beyondthebloodplain I'm pretty sure I read something that stated that because the alien was incubated in Kane that it took on some of his memories or knowledge. The alien takes on some traits of the host, such as being bipedal or a quadraped like in Alien 3. Or...it could have gone there to die peacefully like Ridley has said.

@bbbici Yeah, I guess it did need a good nap after a hard days work. LOL James Cameron pretty much blew the 4 day life cycle theory out the window because it was much longet than four days for the marines to get there. That is true.

I agree with bbbici - the four day life cycle doesn't compute considering the travel time of the Sulaco to LV-426.

I don't doubt the 4 day life cycle given it comes from RS mouth...however the math doesn't add up...in Aliens Ripley claims that the Alien killed her crew in 24 hours...but yet the original creature was nestled up to die on the Suloco after only a day to day and a half?? just sayin'...

@Xeneophobe: In the words of Dan O'B: "The Alien is Omnisexual" LOL