Sometimes, sacred things should be left alone. However, in the case of the Alien franchise, fans are welcoming Alien: Romulus with open arms as it does the franchise justice. It’s challenging to pay homage to such a cult classic like Alien without cheapening the impact, but the 81% on Rotten Tomatoes proves the Alien: Romulus knew just what to do to keep the gooey, creepy, and crawly nostalgia alive. While Romulus injects new life into the franchise, there are still a handful of callbacks to the OG that fans will recognize throughout the years. So, let’s launch ourselves into the exploration of Alien: Romulus and see what lurks beneath the surface.
In Alien, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) merced the Xenomorph by blasting it with a grappling hook out of the Narcissus at the end of the movie. Viewers may have thought that would be the last of the original Xenomorph, but in Alien: Romulus, we discover that the Xenomorph survived the cold, frigid air in space. After Weyland-Yutani accidentally collided with the rock that contained the preserved Xenomorph, it was released and started causing problems for the crew yet again. The coolest part is that you can see the harpoon within its chest from when Ripley shot it.
There are plenty of quote callbacks in Romulus, and one of the most recognized is the line, “I prefer the term ‘artificial person’, myself”. In Aliens, Bishop (Lance Henrikson) utters this line after he meets Ripley on the Sulaco and they call him a synthetic. In Romulus, Andy (David Jonsson) repeats the same line to Tyler (Archie Renaux) and Bjorn (Spike Fearn) after Bjorn is quite disrespectful to him about his status as an artificial person.
First introduced in Prometheus, the black goo oozes out of containers found by humans and is widely misunderstood. No one knows what it is except for David (Michael Fassbender), who knows that it is a created substance that can create as well as destroy life. In Romulus, Rain (Cailee Spaeny) finds a research lab at the research station that shows Weyland-Yutani has been studying the black goo to use for good, but of course, it only wreaks havoc and releases the facehuggers and Xenomorphs.
One iconic scene from the Alien franchise is during Alien 3 when Ripley is cornered by a Xenomorph. You can see a sweaty Ripley and a dripping, snarling Xenomorph examining her up close and personal. In Romulus, Rain and Andy are escaping but Rain falls and is caught by the tail of a Xenomorph. Then is an almost identical scene, the Xenomorph examines Rain the same way that Ripley was examined.
Again, with the iconic quotes being recycled from the franchise. In Aliens, Ripley famously says this line as she is trying to save Newt (Carrie Hen) from the alien queen. In a callback to this, Andy exclaims “Get away from her, you bitch!” to the creature as he blasts it with the pulse rifle to save Rain’s life. To me, this is the most important callback they could’ve made to the original franchise. Even if you aren’t an avid fan, this line is so widely known by movie lovers everywhere and it pays respect to the early franchise.
