Alien's Return: The Sci-Fi Titan Thrills Fans

High expectations were cast on Alien: Romulus, but it wasn't initially met with much optimism. Apart from being part of the long-dormant Alien franchise, the film didn’t have much else going for it. Sigourney Weaver, now in her seventies, was clearly unable to reprise her iconic role as Ripley. Ridley Scott's two preceding prequels, though ambitious in exploring humanity's origins, were criticized for straying too far from the original series and received mixed reviews, with only moderate box office success. This left Alien: Romulus in a position where it needed to reinvent itself. With a cast of mostly unknown actors and a director whose most notable work was the horror film Evil Dead, which, despite its fame, still belonged to a niche genre, the odds didn’t seem in its favor. Nevertheless, as the film proves, the Alien franchise has once again become a launching pad for emerging directors.

The reception for Alien: Romulus has been quite positive. With an 82% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, an 88% audience score, a 7.4 rating on IMDb, these are impressive numbers for a horror film, a genre notorious for producing subpar entries. While the film is billed as an Alien’s spin-off, director Fede Álvarez, a die-hard fan of the franchise, intricately ties the story and details back to the previous six Alien films, spanning 45 years. Fans of the series will be delighted by the many references and nods, though the film also brings its own distinct industrial wasteland aesthetic, different from previous entries. The opening scenes, for instance, are characterized by perpetual darkness, dust-laden air, and an oppressive, crowded atmosphere, with large industrial machinery navigating between workers.

Set in 2142, Alien: Romulus takes place between the events of Alien (2122) and Aliens (2179), continuing the narrative directly from the first film. The Xenomorph that Ripley ejected into space has transformed into a drifting meteor. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation sends a recovery ship to bring it back to a space station for further study. Meanwhile, the protagonist Rain is eager to leave the Jackson Colony. After completing her work term, Rain plans to leave with the android Andy, who is unlike the perfect synthetic assistants from previous series. Instead, he’s a defective, abandoned model that her father had salvaged. But Weyland-Yutani doubles her work hours, trapping her on the colony for another five years.

Desperate, Rain joins Tyler and others who discover an abandoned Weyland-Yutani spaceship hovering above the colony. They plan to steal stasis pods from the ship and escape to the habitable planet Iwaka, with Andy using his access rights to help them. However, when they reach the ship, they find it is actually an abandoned space station. With only 36 hours before the station collides with an asteroid belt, the group must carry out their plan, only to become prey for the Xenomorphs, leading to a terrifying, claustrophobic attempt to escape.

Structurally, Romulus is similar to Aliens, with the first half of the film dedicated to setting up the background and the team of protagonists. The Xenomorphs don’t appear until the middle of the story. This lengthy buildup can be risky; however, in Romulus, Álvarez’s script moves quickly, making the setup feel engaging rather than tedious. The film delivers on fear, tension, excitement, mystery, and even the franchise’s signature themes of reproductive horror. Alien: Romulus is undoubtedly a worthy successor to the Alien series. It combines classic elements from the original films—space claustrophobia, face-hugging Xenomorphs, reproductive horror, and ethereal Xenomorph designs—with a modern twist. The film wastes no time, diving straight into the action and continuing to build tension throughout, achieving the pinnacle of sci-fi horror.

However, Romulus differs from its predecessors in that its protagonists aren’t seasoned scientists or ambitious captains with humanity’s hopes or grand missions resting on their shoulders. They’re simply workers tired of corporate exploitation. Their infiltration of the company’s space station isn’t a bold adventure or a scientific exploration driven by curiosity, but a desperate attempt to steal stasis pods and escape to a habitable planet. This perspective makes their mistakes and missteps more understandable than the seemingly irrational behavior of scientists in previous films. Moreover, this focus on ordinary people provides a glimpse into how the grand, catastrophic events in the Alien universe affect everyday lives.

The space station is divided into two parts, Romulus and Remus. Romulus, the original title of the film, references the founder of Rome, while Remus is his twin brother. These references and recurring motifs in the film emphasize a well-known story from Western history: the tale of Romulus and Remus, who were the only male heirs spared from being killed by the usurping king and raised by a she-wolf. Romulus eventually killed Remus in a struggle for the throne and became Rome’s first king. The film includes symbols of the brothers suckling from the she-wolf, paralleling Prometheus, who brought fire to the Xenomorphs and the androids. In this context, Romulus represents those who seek to harness the Xenomorphs for human advancement. The scientists on the space station conduct experiments on face-huggers in an attempt to alter humanity, with the black liquid inside the face-huggers symbolizing the she-wolf’s milk. When Tyler first arrives at the space station, he sees a painting depicting a plague, with a baby suckling at its dead mother’s breast—a metaphor that connects the film to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

In the final scene of the film, the humanoid Xenomorph, which takes on a human-like form due to its parasitization of a human embryo, bears a striking resemblance to the Engineers from Prometheus. This design choice clearly offers a new interpretation of the connection between humans and Xenomorphs, suggesting a deeper and perhaps more intricate relationship between the two species. This parallel hints at a shared evolutionary or engineered link, expanding on the themes introduced in Prometheus and opening up new possibilities for understanding the intertwined destinies of these two beings.

For the new generation of Alien filmmakers following Ridley Scott, the challenge lies in defining their approach. Scott’s first two prequels constructed a grand and philosophical worldview that all Alien fans would have wanted to see completed. Thus, Romulus, set between the first two films, cannot abandon the grand narrative and must maintain the foundational elements of the timeline. But merely adhering to these two aspects isn’t enough, as the commercial failure of the previous films cast a shadow over the franchise. Consequently, this film needed to excel in both its themes and entertainment value.

The film has already grossed $277 million worldwide in its first week, and it’s clear that even greater box office successes may be on the horizon. The timing couldn't have been better. The original Alien films resonated partly because they reflected the era’s anxieties and war fears. The first film was inspired by Cold War tensions and the fear of a terror attack by ideological adversaries, leading to the creation of the Xenomorph as a terrifying symbol of sexual assault and ideological threat. Cameron’s sequel expanded on this, reflecting America’s nightmare in Vietnam and the long-standing conflict with the Soviet Union. In 2024, given the resurgence of similar global anxieties—the Russo-Ukrainian War, the fear of Russian territorial expansion in Europe, and America’s renewed Cold War with a rival superpower—Romulus arrived at just the right moment to capture the zeitgeist.

However, while Romulus successfully taps into contemporary fears and continues the legacy of its predecessors, it also faces the challenge of balancing homage with innovation. As much as the film excels in revisiting the themes that made the original films iconic, it must also forge its own identity to ensure the Alien franchise remains relevant in today’s cinematic landscape.