Walt Whitman (and Mr Keating in Dead Poets Society (1989)) once said, “the powerful play must go on and you may contribute a verse”. And it seems, for better or for worse, every five or so years since the first film in 1979, another ‘verse’ is added to the ‘powerful play’ of the Alien franchise. So the only real question to ask is whether Alien: Romulus (2024) pulls the franchise out of the ashes of recent Alien films. Is it a worthy successor to the legacy of the 80’s and 90’s cult-classics, or does it plummet the franchise further down into its tragic, apathetic final moments?
It would be quite easy to sit here and list all the ways Alien: Romulus did (or didn’t) live up to the Alien legacy, how it stayed true to the aspects that made the originals so great and how it deviated from them. But I want to take a slightly different approach, exploring the film’s central theme of hope and why this makes it an interesting addition to the franchise. If we look at the original three films (Alien (1979) Aliens (1986) and Alien 3 (1992)) a core aspect to them is survival. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) doesn’t want to start a new life. All she wants (and not to do this iconic character any discredit) is simply to survive, kill the alien (or aliens) and get back home. That is what fundamentally drives her character in each film. In Alien: Romulus, however, the characters, notably the Ellen Ripley equivalent Rain (Cailee Spaeney), are driven by something a little different: the hope of escaping the poor hand that life had dealt them. In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, director and writer Fede Álvarez remarked how this film, inspired by his own experiences, reflected a “very third world reality” where “young people…are born in the place that they feel is the wrong place, where things feel like they’re collapsing around them and they want to get out.” This sheds new light on the Alien narrative, because it is no longer just a survival cat-and-mouse tale with a terrifying monster. Rather, the aliens now represent the treacherous path towards something more, something better; a brighter and more hopeful future.
There are several ways the film represents that theme. One of the clearest ways this hope and struggle is shown (as Álvarez points out in the interview) is through the sunlight. Near the opening of the film, Rain has a dream about sitting in a field watching the sun set, before being woken up to the grim reality of her world where there is only darkness. In this opening sequence she talks about going to a world where there is light and sun. And as the group leave their dark planet to embark on their treacherous mission, Rain sees the sun for a second before the spaceship (in which the aliens reside) blocks it, symbolising the fight she must go through before reaching her better life.
However, it isn’t just Rain who wants this better life. The other characters are equally driven by this hope and desperation to escape their dark, grim reality. One character who embodies this hope perfectly is Kay (Isabela Merced) who is pregnant and, much like Rain, often talks of seeing the sunlight. But this dream is not only for herself, but also for her unborn child. This is a beautiful touch to the theme of hope, because these characters are both attempting to escape the miserable fate of their parents and trying to safeguard a better future for generations to come. It embodies the life and future that these characters must fight desperately for.
Another way the theme of hope is explored is through Rain’s android ‘brother’ Andy (David Jonsson), whose directive changes throughout the film. At first it is to ‘do what’s best for Rain’, but this protectiveness towards her only really works in a world that wants to use and destroy her - it wouldn’t fit in the new life they hope for where there isn’t struggle and darkness. Later, when Andy’s harddrive is changed to one previously belonging to an android on the ship, his primary directive changes to ‘do what’s best for the company’. This directive change seems to correlate with the fact that the new and better life the group have envisioned for themselves feels further away than ever with everything that has happened on the ship. Andy’s actions at this point are drenched in sabotage and betrayal, keeping Rain and the others from their better life because their grand ambition to escape life as they know it does not align with the company’s self-serving values. Finally, near the end of the film, Andy’s directive changes to ‘do what is best for us’, as both Andy and Rain begin to genuinely anticipate a life in which they will no longer have to fight for or protect each other, and instead can, possibly, live in peace and happiness as a family.
Ultimately, what makes this film work is its subtle deviation from the originals. In centering the story around hope for a better life, it gives the horror and gore a more desperate edge, because the characters have to fight not just for their lives but for this new and better life they dream of.
In the spirit of the Alien franchise and its iconic false endings, I haven’t quite finished with the review. Whilst I wanted to centre my review around the film’s themes, I cannot end without talking briefly about the horror of the film. Alien (1979) was famous for its brilliant combination of sci-fi and horror. With the eerie isolation of space mixed with the slow-burn terror of having an apex predator picking the cast off one by one, Alien was really quite revolutionary in what it set out to achieve. And since then, its core terror (trapped in space, hunted down by a creature with acid for blood, monsters bursting out of people’s chests - all that good stuff) has been seen as the epitome of sci-fi horror. Alien: Romulus lives up to that sci-fi horror title. In renewing the use of animatronics and not only recreating those terrifying Xenomorphs but also adding in a new and disgustingly horrifying creature, this film is certainly nightmare fuel material in the absolute best way possible.
In conclusion, Alien: Romulus pays homage to its predecessors. It takes the best parts of the Alien films and combines that with an emotional twist that leaves you feeling more relieved and stunned when the end credits roll. It isn’t perfect, and it is incredibly difficult to live up to the huge cult classic legacy that the original films have… but Alien: Romulus is a worthy ‘verse’ added to the Alien franchise.
