A group of friends trying to escape a mining colony encounter a derelict space station containing a terrifying threat in Alien: Romulus. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) is an orphaned young woman living on the mining colony Jackson’s Star, who is disappointed to discover that the Weyland Yutani corporation increased her service quota, preventing her departure from the colony for herself and her adoptive synthetic brother Andy (David Jonsson). Rain is called by her old friend Tyler (Archie Renaux) to join himself, his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and Bjorn’s girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu) on a plan to steal salvage cryonic stasis chambers from a derelict Weyland Yutani ship detected in orbit, allowing for them to make their escape to the remote planet Yvaga.
After launching the mining hauler Corbelan into orbit, the group discovered that the vessel was a research outpost space station divided into Romulus and Remus outposts. Boarding to find that the cryonic stasis chambers don’t have enough fuel, Tyler, Andy, and Bjorn scavenge fuel from a still-active cryonic chamber. However, it turns out that the sciences onboard the Romulus were experimenting on the Xenomorph recovered from the USCSS Nostromo wreck. It turns out that taking the fuel inadvertently releases dozens of the parasitic Facehuggers from status.
Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus is the seventh entry in the Alien film franchise co-written and directed by Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) and produced by original filmmaker Ridley Scott. The film is set chronologically between the events of 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens and stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War) as the protagonist Rain Carradine. With her parents having died in the mines, the only person Rain has in her life is her adoptive brother Adam, a malfunctioning synthetic human, who acts in a very autistic manner.
Rain is asked by her friend Tyler to help with a plan to escape the colony, but it turns out that it is Adam they require and his ability to communicate with Weyland Yutani computer systems. When onboard the Romulus, a lockdown is triggered after the Facehuggers are inadvertently released from stasis. This results in Rain placing a chip from the synthetic damaged science officer Rook, more on him later, and placing it into Adam to give him clearance to deactivate the lockdown. However, the chip reprograms Adam to be compliant with Wayland Yutani and to recover the results of their experimentations on the Xenomorph.
My Thoughts on Alien: Romulus
Arguably, Alien: Romulus is a film meant to bring the franchise back to its sci-fi horror roots, after the philosophical allegories Ridley Scott added in his two prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. As it turns out, elements from those films end up being referenced in Alien: Romulus, though the film is meant to be aimed toward people who believe the first two Alien films to be the best in the franchise.
Outside of 2012’s Prometheus, which I consider to be a standalone film, Alien: Romulus is arguably the best film in the franchise since James Cameron‘s Aliens. Under the direction of Fede Álvarez, the horror is amped up, including some of the most gory moments of the franchise. There’s also one moment of the film, involving the Xenomorph emerging from his cacoon, which owes a lot of thanks to H. R. Giger’s original highly sexualized concept artwork. However, the film also makes some choices, which are undoubtedly controversial, which I feel the need to get into.
After a very well-constructed climactic action set-piece involving zero gravity, the final sequence of Alien: Romulus features what also might be a point of contention for viewers of the film. While I don’t want to get into too much detail about what happens here, it probably won’t make those who disliked Prometheus very happy. However, as a whole, Alien: Romulus is quite an enjoyable entry to this franchise.
