Prequel to 'Alien' confirmed

[Shroom Man 777]

I don't understand why either AVP films were set on Earth, anyway. Come on, the Colonial Fucking Marines were one of the things that made Aliens so fucking awesome. What the hell? Is the middle ground between the darkest heart of the Central American jungle, and the coldest depths of space, Antarctica or fucking suburbia? Sucks.

[Terralthra]

Jesus God Fuck NO! I'd sooner take another disposable sequel to the inevitable fuck-up that would come of trying to explore the mystery of the alien origins or the space jockey.

And why is "xenomorph" the preferred fanon name for the alien now?

Calling them "aliens" when Predators, the aliens from signs and ET are also aliens is a recipe for disaster.

Don't look now, but the Predators, the aliens from Signs, and E.T. are also all xenomorphs as well. That's what Havok and I have been trying to say for nearly a page of posts.

[Themightytom]

Jesus God Fuck NO! I'd sooner take another disposable sequel to the inevitable fuck-up that would come of trying to explore the mystery of the alien origins or the space jockey.

And why is "xenomorph" the preferred fanon name for the alien now?

Calling them "aliens" when Predators, the aliens from signs and ET are also aliens is a recipe for disaster.

Don't look now, but the Predators, the aliens from Signs, and E.T. are also all xenomorphs as well. That's what Havok and I have been trying to say for nearly a page of posts.

You mean the Predators Aquaphobes and ET's are all to be called Xenomorphs now? Thats almost ans confusing as calling them all aliens all the time....

Maybe the prequel will give them a descriptive name so we can get over this. Like "Banana heads"

[Rochey]

Don't look now, but the Predators, the aliens from Signs, and E.T. are also all xenomorphs as well. That's what Havok and I have been trying to say for nearly a page of posts.

Aye, I see what you're saying. Xenomorph is simply a fancy word for any alien. However, the Signs aliens and E.T. generaly aren't reffered to as xenomorphs at all, so it's a safe enough word to use for the Aliens aliens to prevent confusion.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I don't understand why either AVP films were set on Earth, anyway. Come on, the Colonial Fucking Marines were one of the things that made Aliens so fucking awesome. What the hell? Is the middle ground between the darkest heart of the Central American jungle, and the coldest depths of space, Antarctica or fucking suburbia? Sucks.

Setting a film on present day Earth is less expensive than setting a film in the future and in space.

Yeah, it's dumb. Fox totally missed the point that one of the reasons the AVP comics and games were so popular with fans was because they included Colonial Marines in the mash-up.

[Rye]

Don't look now, but the Predators, the aliens from Signs, and E.T. are also all xenomorphs as well. That's what Havok and I have been trying to say for nearly a page of posts.

Hnng. Nobody refers to them as xenomorphs. That word is associated with Giger's "Biomechanical" alien. That's why it's used to distinguish them from other aliens. This is not particularly difficult to understand.

[Terralthra]

Don't look now, but the Predators, the aliens from Signs, and E.T. are also all xenomorphs as well. That's what Havok and I have been trying to say for nearly a page of posts.

Hnng. Nobody refers to them as xenomorphs. That word is associated with Giger's "Biomechanical" alien. That's why it's used to distinguish them from other aliens. This is not particularly difficult to understand.

So, your answer to "why is 'xenomorph' the preferred fanon name for the aliens now?" is "because that's what everyone calls them"? Ever heard of circular reasoning?

[Oni Koneko Damien]

To play devil's advocate: Any carnivorous species that hunts and kills its own food is technically a predator.

Come to think about it, the 'Predators' don't even eat what they kill, so why the hell are they called predators at all?

As for the aliens/xenomorphs/whatever origin story. I would love to see them as an early, highly faulty genetic experiment run by another advanced alien race (space-jockeys? Related?) in some experiment to develop an advanced life-form/weapon, or possibly done for reasons humans simply can't comprehend. They're allowed to survive and spread from world to world (which doesn't happen due to the specific circumstances required for interplanetary travel: Spacefaring civilization lands on alien planet, aliens don't kill them, they don't kill aliens, alien manages to stow away on ship for trip to another world and survive the whole way)... simply because while terrifying to humans, aliens are nothing to their creators.

Imagine the colonial marines going from planet to planet, doing a decent job of clearing out bugs, and then suddenly running into a later stage of this experiment? What the hell do they make of it? What if they run across some of the technology used in the creation/maintenance of these things? What if they stumble across one of the creators?

Of course this won't be what happens with whatever shit ends up being shoveled out to us.

[NecronLord]

Xenomorph is their most recogniseable name.

Even though, in the context of the film, it's obvious that it is a bullshit term for all aliens: the marines don't react with 'a xena-whatsit' they go 'oh, another bug hunt, marvelous' - clearly it's a term that's been applied to other alien life form.

Personally, I preffer 'The Alien from Aliens' or 'The critter from Aliens' or whathaveyou. Simply because I somewhat dislike applying 'Xenomorph' to them when it's not their name.

They're allowed to survive and spread from world to world (which doesn't happen due to the specific circumstances required for interplanetary travel: Spacefaring civilization lands on alien planet, aliens don't kill them, they don't kill aliens, alien manages to stow away on ship for trip to another world and survive the whole way)... simply because while terrifying to humans, aliens are nothing to their creators.

Allowed? The Space Jockey set up an unambigous warning beacon to keep people away that operated for centuries. Certainly he wasn't 'allowing' them to spread.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Allowed? The Space Jockey set up an unambigous warning beacon to keep people away that operated for centuries. Certainly he wasn't 'allowing' them to spread.

Who says the Space Jockey was the one who created them? Perhaps he was just a member of one of the races that was collateral damage to their creator's experiments.

[Galvatron]

the marines don't react with 'a xena-whatsit' they go 'oh, another bug hunt, marvelous' - clearly it's a term that's been applied to other alien life form.

Actually, Frost did exactly that. Hicks had to translate Gorman's pedantic bullshit for the rest of the class.

[NecronLord]

HUDSON
Is this going to be a stand-up
fight, Sir, on another bug-hunt?

GORMAN
All we know is that there's
still no contact with the colony
and that a xenomorph may be
involved.

WIERZBOWSKI
A what?

HICKS
(to Wierzbowski;
low)
It's a bug-hunt.
(louder)
So what are these things?

In short, generic term for alien. There was no 'ZOMG, never encountered aliens before' unlike what a goodly number of fans and fanfics assume.

[Galvatron]

They'd encountered Arcturian poontang before.

Regardless, even the ECA rep at the inquest said that Ripley's alien hadn't been encountered even once on over 300 surveyed worlds.

[PREDATOR490]

Finding out more about the Predator's seems like a better premise for a sequel than having a lame prequel to an otherwise dead franchise of Aliens. The key component of Aliens is missing for a prequel A.K.A Ripley and that wannabe in AVP2 will not work. From my perspective, A1 - 4 was less about the actual Xenos as it was about the nightmare story Ripley is put through fighting the fuckers and the toll it takes on her. She goes from regular person in A1 to being a broken mess in A3 but even in death she still cant escape for the showdown in A4.

AVP is nothing more than fanservice which is fair enough but I would much rather they just endorse the 'alternate universe' shit instead of attempting to mesh it into the actual story of both verses. A1 - 3 were more horror / action with a subtle story link introduced via Ripley so without her in it there will be more AVP nonames or AVP2 lame rip offs which establishes no real connection. If they actually DO want to mesh them together then a prequel to aliens should be a sequel to Predator FIRST and a prequel to Aliens SECOND. Since Ripley is an important part of the Alien series I think the prequel would be better adopting either a wider perspective by following Ripley, Predators, Space Jockeys and Weyland that way they can leave the xenos out of it except in SUBTLE hints and details.

However, I suspect this will instead be handled like AVP1 - 2 and A:4 with the attempts at bullshit action in the cliche 'overrun' scenario. In which case, it isnt so much a prequel as it is a 90 minute fest of xenos getting plastered with gratious gore, a few familar names, places and images to mash it into the series and spend the aftermath coming up with bullshit explanations for why have the shit dosent make sense or fit.

Incidentally, I was under the impression Predator's were called Yatuja as their race name ?

[Oskuro]

Maybe the prequel will give them a descriptive name so we can get over this. Like "Banana heads"

Actually, going by Giger's original designs, they are, quite literally, dickheads.


Also, the original storyboard had the Space jockey just be a crashed ship on the planet. The Nostromo astronauts the went beyond the ship and found a Pyramid über-temple that contained the eggs. I personally like the idea of the things being the object of worship of some werid alien culture, at least it'd make a bit more sense than pretending they are effective bio-weapons.

Also:

Critics have also analyzed Alien's sexual overtones. Adrian Mackinder compares the facehugger's attack on Kane to a male rape and the chestburster scene to a form of violent birth, noting that the Alien's phallic head and method of killing the crew members add to the sexual imagery. McIntee claims that "Alien is a rape movie as much as Straw Dogs (1974) or I Spit on Your Grave (1978), or The Accused (1988). On one level it's about an intriguing alien threat. On one level it's about parasitism and disease. And on the level that was most important to the writers and director, it's about sex, and reproduction by non-consensual means. And it's about this happening to a man."[86] He notes how the film plays on men's fear and misunderstanding of pregnancy and childbirth, while also giving women a glimpse into these fears. Film analyst Lina Badley has written that the Alien's design, with strong Freudian sexual undertones, multiple phallic symbols, and overall feminine figure, provides an androgynous image conforming to archetypal mappings and imageries in horror films that often redraw gender lines.

[Stark]

Man, just take Aliens and replacing 'Vietnam' with 'Iraq' or 'Afghanistan' = new movie.

'There are terrorists on this desolate moon/colony'

'dakka dakka'

'hey what was that'

'where's Sarge'

'oh shi-'

[RazorOutlaw]

Lt. Gorman uses the word xenomorphs as a generic technical term for "a nonhumanoid alien," from which the Colonial Marines induce that it's going to be hunting through tunnels for bugs. Calling it a "xenomorph" instead of an "alien" is using a Latin word to feel smart, and nothing else. It's just as generic.

Fair enough, I was wrong about who used it and when. I recall the term being used before whether that was in the comics, novels, or even the Kenner toys but not just by insecure nerds. I don't think I'm imagining anything here but without anything on hand to double-check myself, I will concede.

[Stark]

Incidentally, I was under the impression Predator's were called Yatuja as their race name ?

Oh jesus. DOn't tell me you read those novels?

Let's have Predator 3 - Now They're Samurai made.

[RazorOutlaw]

I've read both the first AvP novel and AvP: Hunter Planet. I hated the second one, probably because of the dinosaurs and the terribly portrayed antagonist, but the first one was kind of digestible. I say kind of, because at the time I didn't think it was anything too special but it wasn't too bad. Looking back though that's the first time I read a slightly expanded idea on the Predator's hunter culture.

[Stark]

Is that the newer ones, or the older ones? I remember the old Dark Horse AvP stuff (which I believe was novelised). I'm not sure if they made novels out of the more recent movies.

[Themightytom]

Is that the newer ones, or the older ones? I remember the old Dark Horse AvP stuff (which I believe was novelised). I'm not sure if they made novels out of the more recent movies.

Apparently batman and superman exist in this continuom as well as they have gone up against predators and aliens respectively

[Stark]

Oh shit I think I've actually seen the Alien Batman crossover... oh jeez...

[charlemagne]

Oh shit I think I've actually seen the Alien Batman crossover... oh jeez...

Wasn't there some actually kinda cool fan-movie where Batman whacks the Joker and a predator and then gets ambushed by a XENOMORPH in a dark alley

[Oskuro]

Yes, Batman: Dead End

[Rye]

So, your answer to "why is 'xenomorph' the preferred fanon name for the aliens now?" is "because that's what everyone calls them"? Ever heard of circular reasoning?

Ever heard of language, shitbird? It runs on that principle. "Xeno" is a fine name for them, since it means alien, but it's distinguished from the casually used word and is easily understood to refer to the aliens from that particular franchise.