Set between the original Alien and its more bombastic sequel, Aliens, Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus echoes the the greatest elements of those films, while also delivering his own spin on the 45-year-old franchise. There’s the elegant interplay of light and shadow from Alien, along with nods to Ridley Scott’s artful aesthetic. And there are finely crafted set pieces evoking the horror and sheer badassery of James Cameron’s Aliens. But Alvarez also expands the Alien universe by focusing on a group of twenty-somethings who were raised in a decrepit Weyland-Yutani colony, and whose main goal is to escape the bureaucratic clutches of their corporate overlords.
While it’s easy to dismiss Alien: Romulus as a mere rehash meant to appeal to younger audiences, it’s hard to deny the sheer level of craft on display. Alvarez’s eye for composition was clearly influenced by the series auteurs, from the opening shot of a field of stars that reveals a crashed ship rendered invisible by the blackness of space, to later sequences set alongside a planet’s ice-filled rings. And he can masterfully orchestrate tension for both action and horror, another skill borrowed from Scott and Cameron. Just like Alvarez’s hyper violent (and excellent!) Evil Dead remake, he’s able to put his own spin on an iconic horror franchise without being a slavishly devoted fanboy.
Our Ripley counterpart for Alien: Romulus is Rain (Cailee Spaeny), a young woman who recently lost both of her parents to a Weyland-Yutani mining operation. The only family she has left at a sun-less backwater colony is her brother Andy (David Jonsson), a malfunctioning android who’s directed to care for her.
After Rain’s request to leave her colony is denied and her mandatory work commitment is unjustifiably extended by several years, she joins a group of friends to covertly head off-world. The plan involves stealing cryostasis pods from a decommissioned space station — which, as you might expect, houses untold horrors. As Rain and her friends explore the station, they encounter facehuggers, get a quick lesson in Xenomorph biology and find themselves being hunted down one by one.
Spaeny is effortlessly believable as an empathetic-yet-tough heroine (a notable accomplishment as she’s practically a full foot shorter than the original Alien lead, Sigourney Weaver), and Jonsson makes for a compelling and sympathetic android. It’s somewhat troubling that the film heaps a ton of abuse on its only black character, though, and he doesn’t get much motivation outside of his programming. Still, Jonsson, who was incredible on the first few seasons of Industry, manages to bring a bit of soul into Andy.
Admittedly, we’ve seen much of this before, but I still think there’s value in introducing an entirely new generation to the Alien franchise. Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant were intriguing for longtime fans, but they were also bogged down by the director’s own fascination with androids and Weyland-Yutani backstory. They weren’t exactly the best entry-point into the series. And sure, Alien and Aliens are easy to find and remain fantastic films, but I’ve personally found it tough to get some younger audiences to engage with older films.
By focusing on a twenty-something crew instead of older, world-weary space truckers or colonists, Alien: Romulus also better captures the viewpoint of a new generation of viewers. But Millennials and Gen Z are well aware the Earth is dying, and they’ve seen how global corporations got us into this mess.
It’s not hard to see the parallels between Weyland-Yutani sending workers to their doom to unearth the secrets of the Xenomorphs – creatures that could potentially wipe out all of humanity – to the fossil fuel companies ignoring the climate crisis they helped create. The human cost doesn’t matter, not when there’s massive profit potential and shareholder value on the horizon.
