Warning: Major spoilers for Alien: Romulus below!
Alien: Romuluspresents some new revelations about the nature of Weyland-Yutani’s research, which makes me think they’re notquiteas evil as I thought. One of the major recurring themes I love about theAlienmovie franchiseis that it focuses on the exploitation of workers by greedy corporations. In the first movie, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her co-workers are contractually bound to investigate a mysterious signal by theiremployer Weyland-Yutani. Of course, “the company” already knew a dangerous life form resided on that planet, and wanted The Nostromo’s crew to bring it back for them.
The company essentially views human life as expendable in its quest to obtain samples from the Xenomorphs, ranging from the Colonial Marines inAliensto the prisoners of Fury 161. I’ve always been a little disappointed the series hasn’t pulled back the curtain further on the company’s inner workings, though Weyland founder Peter Weyland played a big supporting role inPrometheus. In pop culture,the company has become a byword for evil corporations, butAlien: Romulushas made me (slightly) rethink their goals.
Weyland-Yutani Has Been The Real Villain Of The Alien Franchise
Alien’s company has never been great with worker’s rights
Obviously, the titular Star Beast is the main threat of theAliensaga, with each sequel offering unique twists on the creature; I especially enjoyed the twisted design ofRomulus' “Offspring” monster. Yet,it’s Weyland-Yutani who have been behind most of the disasters in the franchise. They sent the Nostromo crew to LV-426 to pick up a Xenomorph sample and programmed the ship’s android Ash (Ian Holm) to not only ensure it was protected, but that the crew themselves were expendable.
It’s tough for me to think of even one example of Weyland-Yutani doing something positive in the previous movies, and they almost always make things worse.
The same is true for the colony outbreak decades later inAliens, with their benign evil personified by the sniveling Carter Burke (Paul Reiser). EvenRomulus- which in theAlienseries timelinetakes place between the first and second entries - touches on the company’s exploitation of its main characters, leading to their desperate heist on the Renaissance station. It’s tough for me to think of even one example of Weyland-Yutani doing something positive in the previous movies, and they almost always make thingsworse.
Alien: Romulus’ New Xenomorph Explained: Origin, Differences, & Future
Alien: Romulus introduces a new Xenomorph to the long-running franchise, and it’s one of the most frightening additions to the series in ages.
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One of the logic flaws I found with Weyland-Yutani’s approach to researching the Xenos is how much time and money they’ve wasted. In the first three outings alone, their attempts to obtain samples were all destroyed by Ripley, be it the destruction of the Nostromo or the nuking of LV-426. It’s been a lot of investment for very little payoff, but that has never deterred their quest. That’s because,as Ash summed up in the originalAlien, they consider the creature to be the “perfect organism.”
The late Ian Holm’s likeness and voice were reused for new android character Rook inAlien: Romulus.
To them, researching the creatures and uncovering their secrets are worth any collateral damage. One of the elements I liked aboutAlien: Romuluswas the exploration of what the company would actually do with the creatures. As Rook explains, mankind is not suited to space travel, with our bodies being too “fragile.” In the blood of the Xenomorphs, they discover the Engineers' Black Goo, which can rewrite DNA. In short,Weyland-Yutani believes they can “upgrade” humanity and give them a fighting chance in the deepest reaches of space.
How Alien: Romulus Changes My Perception Of Weyland-Yutani
I still think Alien’s company sucks as a workplace though
The reveal of Weyland-Yutani’s experiments inRomulusmade me think for the first time that they’re more than mustache-twirling villains. There is obviously money to be made in both “upgrading” the human body and the resulting profits to be made from having a workforce equipped to withstand the hazards of space. Even so,there does seem to be a driving principle that mankind itself should be the “perfect” organism, and Weyland-Yutani’s research is a way to unlock our fullest potential as a species.
They want to protect their employees from the dangers of working in distant colonies and have arrogantly decided they can’t wait for evolution to help them in this goal.
This was one reason Peter Weyland set out to find the Engineers too, though since he was dying of old age and wanted an extension on his life, his goals weren’t fully charitable.Alien: Romulusdoesn’t present many fresh ideas, but I liked the premise that Weyland-Yutanti isn’t all evil, all the time. They want to protect their employees from the dangers of working in distant colonies and have arrogantly decided they can’t wait for evolution to help them in this goal.
Of course, I still know Weyland-Yutani is corrupt at its core, but it was about timeAlienintroduced some new layers to the company. I hopeRomulus 2(or whatever the next outing is dubbed) dives into this angle more, because while the company will never be fully redeemed, adding some shades of gray to their methods is a great idea.
Cast
Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.
