While Alien: Romulus connected parts of the franchise's original timeline to Ridley Scott's prequels, I was disappointed to see a spinoff not only forgotten as a whole, but particularly one of its best elements. Following the muted responses for both Prometheus and Covenantco-writer/director Fede Álvarez made a very smart move coming into the franchise, generally taking things back to basics. Gone was the complicated narrative about humanity's creators, the Engineers, and meeting the founder of Weyland Corp, and instead there was a more grounded focus on the characters facing the real threats of xenomorphs and facehuggers.
That doesn't mean that Alien: Romulus wasn't without its fair share of connections to his other films. The immediate planet it is set on, as well as the titular space station, are owned by Weyland-Yutani, while the black goo of Prometheus which possesses transformative abilities returns, revealing itself to be fluid harvested from facehuggers. But Romulo also had sneakier Easter eggs for the wider audience Foreigner franchise and While it seemed like an element would return from an oft-forgotten branch of the series, that never actually happened..
Alien: Isolation Truly amplified the fear of franchise ventilation portals
Players rarely knew if a Xenomorph was waiting to grab them
Alien: Isolation is one of the most underrated expansions to the sci-fi horror franchise. Set 15 years after the original film and 42 years before James Cameron's sequel, the video game put players in the shoes of Ellen Ripley's daughter, Amandaheading to the Seegson Corporation space station, the Sevastopolto learn the latest information that could lead her to finding her missing mother. Upon arrival, Amanda finds herself facing androids, xenomorphs, and malfunctioning facehuggers.
Developed by Creative Assembly, Alien: Isolation not only proved to be a wonderful love letter to fans of the franchise, but also the best video game in it. Utilizing everything from the iconic motion tracker that detects xenomorph movements to flamethrowers in defense, the 2014 title really felt like a fully immersive take on the Foreigner world, and one of the most interesting ways to do this were the ventilation portals located through the Sevastopol.
Initially presented to the player as a means of getting around obstacles in the station, Alien: Isolation turned them into something terrifying, as xenomorphs also began using them to travel. Players quickly found themselves cautiously walking through the vents, hoping that a xenomorph wasn't waiting inside, or had their fingers hovering over the trigger in case they encountered one while climbing and needed to pull out a flare or flamethrower for cover. themselves.
Alien: Romulus made a big deal about air vents (then didn't use them)
Between multiple sequences in them and long shots lingering in them, it was a missed opportunity for Xenomorph
Entering Alien: Romulusthe film stood out for not only delivering a variety of Easter eggs, but also delivering its own take on iconic moments from the past. This included bringing back the ventilation portals, with Andy, Tyler and Bjorn having to climb them to get to where the cryopods are being stored. But other than that and a brief glimpse of the horde of facehuggers the trio accidentally unleashed while passing through the space station's air vents, they are never brought back, which was a real disappointment.
More than just Isolationeven the original Foreigner I saw the ventilation openings play an important role in delivering some tense sequences. Most notable was Tom Skerritt's Dallas entering the air vents with a flamethrower and a motion tracker in hopes of launching him into an airlock. And although we got a glimpse of the xenomorph just before he killed Harry Dean Stanton's Brett, our first full-frontal look at the now-iconic alien came when he attacked Dallas in the vent, delivering quite a scare long before those were a major tool in the genre. of terror.
As such, it was quite disappointing that Alien: Romulus I didn't see the xenomorphs using the portal openings to hunt their prey. It's not like there weren't other opportunities for them to do this as the film progressed, especially since Rain and Andy found themselves relegated to a section of the station amidst Rook interrupting their efforts to escape. While Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues don't necessarily find lackluster means to get the characters to safety, as the zero-gravity floating sequence is quite thrilling, a return to the openings could have been quite thrilling.
Alien Future Films must find creative ways to utilize portal openings
Xenomorphs are not the only threat that comes from them
With Alien: Romulus Proving to be a critical and commercial success, the franchise's future looks brighter than ever, especially since 20th Century Studios has confirmed that there are plans for a sequel and a new Ridley Scott film. Given that there are several films on the horizon, the door is certainly open for properly utilizing the portal openings to create some more xenomorph scares. Romulo recreated the feeling of a fight for survival against alien creatures, but the ventilation openings could actually amplify that even more.
The other thing that the films after Alien: Romulus The thing to consider is that xenomorphs don't have to be the only major threat coming from the portal openings. Considering that Weyland-Yutani proves to be as threatening to a corporation as ever, it would be really interesting to see if a reactivated MU/TH/UR uses the sharp design of the portal shutters to kill a person trying to escape or, if during a visit to another desert station like Renaissancesomething similar happens. Whatever future filmmakers choose, there are many options for them to choose from in order to not reincorporate openings into films.