Movies News Talk
A fresh international teaser for Alien: Romulus guarantees the franchise's return to its roots by confirming the comeback of a classic element on the Xenomorph physiology.
Set to open theatres on August 16, Alien: Romulus intends to return to the franchise's roots with an emphasis on pragmatic production techniques and a horror focus evocative of the original 1979 film. Nestled between the events of Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, the narrative centers on a crew of space colonists searching an abandoned space station who come upon the lethal lifeforms.
Released online by 20th Century Japan, a new worldwide teaser for Alien: Romulus shows the return of the Xenomorphs' trademark acidic blood with film The clip shows the scavengers floating through a small tube in a zero-gravity environment while negotiating a spray of corrosive blood.
Although the Xenomorph physiology's intriguing element would still be very much present in the later films of the franchise, the in-universe justification for it is sometimes hotly contested. Represented as a thick, drab yellow liquid with extremely corrosive qualities, the acid blood of the Xenomorphs has been a major component of franchise mythos from the first Alien. First shown as the Nostromo crew tried to remove the Facehugger off John Hurt's Executive Officer Kane, the monsters' blood stopped their attempts for fear it could not only damage their crewmate but also trigger a catastrophic hull breach.
Originally put up in the 1995 book Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual, one idea is that the monsters' acidic blood acts as a bio-electric battery enabling them to generate energy without oxygen. This specific theory also suggests that the blood of the monsters gets more dangerous when it is "fully charged," therefore explaining the different degrees of corrosiveness observed in the Movies. But another plausible interpretation emerged from the Alien: Hive comics, which would suggest that their acidic blood first developed as a defense mechanism against the Predators.
Introduced in 2017's Alien: Covenant was an older bio-engineered variation of the venerable Alien Xenomorph (called the Neomorph). It did not, however, seem to have the characteristic acidic blood of the other species.
Though the in-universe cause for the acid blood is unknown, its narrative goal is plain and obviously applied for tremendous impact in Alien: Romulus. Originally suggested by concept artist Ron Cobb, the Xenomorphs' acidic blood was first presented especially to make the creatures even more lethal and unkillable than their aggressive natures and quick breeding cycles let. As the most recent Alien: Romulus teaser shows, even injured, or dead, a Xenomorph's acid blood still poses a serious threat to anyone close.
Alien: Romulus is the ninth film in the series, however its position on the chronology implies that not every other film has to be seen first. Romulus comes in as the seventh Alien movie. Fede Álvarez is directing the film, which will center on a fresh youthful set of protagonists confronting the terrible Xenomorphs. Romulus is a stand-alone movie based in a period not yet covered in the Alien series.