Summary
Alien: Romulusis one of the major horror hits of the year and provided the long-running sci-fi franchise with an injection of energy. While the film itself serves as both a sequel and a prequel,Alien: Romuluscontains one plot element that could justify its own prequel movie.
Directed by Fede Alvarez,Alien: Romulustakes place in between the events ofAlienandAliens. It introduces a new group of characters, who break into an abandoned spacecraft in hopes of stealing cryostasis chambers that will allow them to escape their dystopian planet. Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson lead the movie as adoptive siblings, one a human and one an android, whose relationship is tested when they are trapped with a horde of xenomorphs on the supposedly abandoned station.Alien: Romuluswas welcomed byAlienfansas something of a return to form for the franchise, as it returned to the original film’s roots and capitalized on the claustrophobic monster movie scenario.
1 hour 59 minutes
Genre
Horror, Sci-fi
Whileit’s not exactly the Nostromo,Alien: Romulusprovides the same confined nature in the Renaissance, an abandoned Weyland-Yutani research station drifting in the orbit of LV-410. The space station is divided into two distinct sections, Romulus and Remus, and serves as the main setting inAlien: Romulus. Rain and Andy join the expedition to rob the Renaissance, mostly because the group needs Andy’s android abilities to interface with the computer system aboard Renaissance. Once aboard the research station, the group notices several strange occurrences, one of which is the severed body of an android. After the group is attacked by facehuggers and one attached to Navarro, Rain reactivates the android to learn more about what happened on the space station.
Once reactivated, the android named Rook (whose model is similar to that of Ash inAlien), explains the Renaissance’s purpose. It’s revealed that the Renaissance was once a thriving research station. That is until a Weyland-Yutani probe returns from the wreckage of the Nostromo with a cocooned xenomorph. The crew of the Renaissance was able to create and store numerous facehuggers from the xenomorph’s DNA, as well as extract from it a mutagenic compound referred to as “Prometheus Fire”, which later plays a part in creatingAlien: Romulus’ horrifying hybrid monster. Rook explains that the crew believed the xenomorph to be dead, but it wasn’t, which had dire consequences for the Renaissance.
What Happened to the Crew of the Renaissance?
When Rain, Andy, and their crew arrive at the Renaissance it’s to find the place in shambles with everyone on board missing or dead. As Rook explains, this is due to the xenomorph’s revival. “It wreaked havoc on this station, until what was left of our security forces shot it dead, only to trigger its swan song,” Rook explained, before pointing the group towards the skewered body of the xenomorph. Given the plot of otherAlienfilms, there’s no question what happened to thecrew of the Renaissance, but laying out the specific events of the xenomorph’s rampage on the space station could provide fertile ground for anAlien: Romulusprequel.
Marvel Comics actually tried this with the one-shotAlien: Romulustie-in comicthat was released shortly after the movie’s release. The comic reveals exactly what happened to the crew of the Renaissance and how the xenomorph came to be loose upon the station. As it turns out, the xenomorph’s arrival at Renaissance station caused a divide among the crew, with Rook hoping to study the specimen (as per his prime directive from Weyland-Yutani), while the security officers wanted to destroy it. Two security officers, Hyla and Adrian attempted to sneak into the Remus side of the station to blast the alien out of the airlock, similarly towhat Ripley did all those years ago. However, Hyla’s actions led to the xenomorph’s cryogenic bed deactivating, and it came to life once more.
It wreaked havoc on this station until what was left of our security forces shot it dead, only to trigger its swan song.
As Rook recounted inAlien: Romulus, the xenomorph wreaked havoc on the crew. As two of the only surviving members, Rook and Hyla allied to get rid of the xenomorph, but Rook eventually betrayed Hyla in his pursuit of saving the compound, which condemned her and the rest of the humans onboard. While theAlien: Romuluscomic serves as an effective explanation of what happened to the Renaissance crew, the one-shot received some criticism for rushing the story into such a short timeframe. IfAlien: Romulusever was to get a prequel, the story of the Renaissance could be adapted into an equally thrilling story on-screen, and it could provideanswers to some unanswered questions.
What Is The Future of Alien: Romulus?
Until recently, it wasn’t clear whetherAlien: Romuluswould have a future on-screen. However, 20th Century Studios head Steve Asbell recently confirmed the studio is closing on a deal withAlien: Romulus’director Fede Alvarez to move forward on a sequel. It seems it won’t be a prequel, however, with Asbell saying Alvarez has an idea that will seemingly involve the return of Rain and Andy, following their journey after their escape from the Renaissance station. This doesn’t mean a prequel about the Renaissance is dead, however.Predatorwas recently announced to be getting a secret movie that is rumored to be an animated anthology. If theAlienfranchise ever wanted to follow the same direction and move into the animated space, the story of the Renaissance would be a perfect story to start with.
