Adult Alien

The Adult Alien

After going through a series of stages (it's not known exactly how many), the chestburster reaches maturity. The adult Alien stands the frightening 2 Meters and 10cm and is now fully grown in all the aspects needed for it to protect itself and the hive in every manner needed.

The primary role of the adult Alien depends on the situation surrounding it at birth. As seen in ALIEN and ALIEN³, it will try to carry on the species in whatever way it deems necessary. In ALIEN this was done by taking two of the crewmembers and cocooning them so that they would turn into eggs that would then be used to give birth to a Queen-Facehugger which would in turn impregnate Ripley. (This was not shown in the original release, but revealed in the boxed set). Obviously killing of the plausible hosts is then a bad idea, and why it did that is as of yet unknown. The killing of Lambert and Parker was most likely an accident when they accidentally stumbled into it.

[Ripley] On the prison planet, Fiorina-161, the Alien once again showed, that its primary concern was that the species could continue to live. This was showed in the infirmary scene where the Alien didn't kill Ripley, and in one of the last scenes where Dillon is pretending to threaten Ripley, here it moves in to protect Ripley from what it thinks is trying to hurt her.

This must mean, that the Alien has some form of intelligence or simply just some sort of an evolved instinct to act on in order to judge in situations like that. It is also witnessed in ALIENS that the adult Aliens will do whatever is needed in order to protect their queen. Even throwing themselves in front of the vicious sentry guns without thought (if they are capable of such) of themselves.

Signs of intelligence with the adults (not speaking of the queen) can be seen in such scenes as...

In ALIEN where the Alien uses the airducts for movement because it knows that they are rarely used by humans, and that it has access to the entire ship from there. (This is suggested by the novelization of Alan Dean Foster)

In ALIEN when Ripley leaves in the Narcissus, the Alien is hiding among some pipes and machinery (it IS a biomechanoid...). How did the Alien know that this was where it could find Ripley next? Was is a pure coincidence? I doubt that.

In ALIEN the Alien builds its lair far from anywhere the crew normally goes.

In ALIEN and ALIEN³ the Alien killed it's victims when they were alone, knowing that facing many might be dangerous. (this is with a few exception though)

In ALIENS when the Aliens comes from the ceiling instead of from the "conventional" ways.

In ALIENS where the Queen uses the elevator to get to Ripley.

In ALIENS they hold their attack until the marines are deep inside the hive. This could also be explained by the marines shooting the chestburster (the child) and there by awakening the hive.

In ALIENS they adults also have a backup attack ready when they attack from the ceiling (the one that grabs Burke). Although not necessarily a sign of intelligence, could just be a sign of the very widely used we-try-from-all-sides tactic.

In ALIENS when the power is suddenly lost and Hudson goes:"They cut the power...". It is of course speculation whether or not it was actually the Aliens that DID cut the power, but if it was then that is definitely a strong sign of reasoning or maybe even intelligence.

In ALIENS when the Aliens back off from Ripley when she shoots off a flame. This could however be interpreted as communication instead, which of course is also a kind of intelligence.

In ALIEN³ where the prisoners, with Ripley in charge, try to capture the Alien. At the very moment the Alien sensed something was wrong it stopped to figure out what was going on.

In ALIEN³ when the Alien senses that Ripley has a queen inside her, it backs off and starts protecting her. This could be a strong instinct though.

In ALIEN³ when it grabs the warden because he's the "leader" of the prisoners, and without him they are easily demoralized and unorganized.

In ALIEN³ it used the ceiling for movement, this

In ALIEN RESURRECTION I have heard we will see a new and even more intelligent Alien than we have before. Which will most likely mean that I'll have to rewrite big portions of my site :(

Judging from their limited display of advanced intelligence, we must conclude that even though their long head could have housed a large brain, it most likely doesn't. However if it does, then it could be because the Aliens have a much more complex brain than we do. Because of the lack of obvious sensory (such as eyes and ears), it has been suggested that the Aliens use telepathy for communications, but this is however highly doubtful.

[Alien Head] The grotesquely formed head is probably also the most prominent feature you notice when you first see the Alien, even though I don't like the comparison, it's probably best compared to a banana is shape and proportion (more or less that is). When the Alien was first seen in ALIEN, the head was long and sleek. However, in ALIENS James Cameron for some strange reason decided to change the design a little (presumably because he wanted them to look a bit more like insects, which. This conclusion is drawn from the fact that the characters refer to the Aliens like ants and bees a couple of times in the movie) to make them look a bit more insect-like. The result was head that was a bit more "ribbed" (like the on on the right), not quite as long and with the back of the head shaped a bit like a "dome".

In ALIEN³ Fincher wanted to go back to the original idea of the Alien. Therefor he hired Giger again to redesign the Alien. The head was changed back to the original design, and the body was redesigned to something we hadn't seen before. It was going to be more agile and animal like, being able to run on the ceiling and walls.

Even though these things were most likely done without any thought to how the Alien had actually gotten the different appearances, the fans of the movies have of course come up with some reasonable explanations, and they are as follows:

In ALIEN, the Alien was still young (in terms of the Alien species anyway), so the head hadn't had the time to evolve into what we see in ALIENS.

In ALIENS, the Aliens had had time to evolve a bit more over the time that it took for the marines to get to LV-426. Therefor they were a bit different in appearance. A lot of earthbound animals, such as cows for example (yes... cows...) that develop horns, also have that ability.

In ALIEN³, the Alien is also a young one, like the one in ALIEN, this means that it has the sleek head that hasn't evolved yet. But the body and movement of the Alien was different than we had seen before. This is explained by the fact that the Alien was "born" from a dog instead of a human. This means that the Alien is capable of taken on certain values of it's host.

It is unknown whether or not the Alien might have even more stages it can go through and how long the lifespan of the Alien actually is. The books and comics however, suggest that the Aliens don't have any more stages to go through, and that the "ribbed" head alien from ALIENS is the final stage.

As stated before, the Alien species do not have any visible sensory organs, such as eyes, ears or nose. This has made a lot of people wonder how the Aliens actually know how the surroundings are. There have been a couple of theories, however none of them have been proven.

Infrared: The Aliens Adventure Game (the official RPG) suggests that the Aliens see by infrared, and they also communicate with each other by certain heat patterns they have on their forehead. This is not a widely supported theory however.

Sonar: Some think the Aliens use sonar like f.ex. bats do, and by sending out an active "sonar" ping, they can record the time it takes for the soundwaves to get back, and thereby create an "image" in their head they can use for navigation. The sound could easily be well over our own hearing range, thereby making it impossible for humans to hear it without some kind of hearing aid.

Hidden eyes: Looking closely at the Alien (at least the one from ALIEN) will reveal a transparent "skin" (or whatever) over the head region. Just above the mouth of the Alien, you might be able to spot a couple of holes. These are originally the eye-pits from the the human skull that the Alien head was modelled around. These could be so called hidden eyes, perhaps giving the Alien a vision not unlike ours.

Smell: The Alien could have some sort of smell like the snake has with its tongue.

Exceptional Hearing: The pits in the head of the Alien from ALIENS could be extremely sensitive "ears" being able to intercept any sound however low it might be. This could also explain the abnormal head as a complex brain system "developed" for splitting the sound apart so that the Alien can distinguish structures and moving objects and so on. But that wouldn't explain how the Aliens from ALIEN and ALIEN³ found their way around.

Perhaps it is a combination of the above. Perhaps we will know when ALIEN RESURRECTION hits the streets.

And while we're already talking about the head, we might as well talk about the extra mouth or whatever you choose to call it. In fact, it was designed by HR Giger to be the tongue of the Alien, this creature is in fact so dangerous that even its tongue is deadly. It has been discussed back and forth what the tongue is actually used for. As shown in ALIEN, it's great for piercing skulls with, so we can be pretty sure that it is used as a weapon. It most likely has the following functions:

Disable: As Brett experienced for a brief moment before his death, the Alien can pierce through the human skull as easy as a warm knife through butter. When inside the skull, the teeth close and pull out again, thereby causing irrepairable damage to the brain of the victim. This will incapacitate just about any person.

Impregnation: As seen in some of the comics (read in the novels), there are several (two I think it is) clans on the homeworld of the Aliens. To avoid the warriors of one hive to be impregnated and thereby used against the same hive, the "tongue" could easily prevent a facehugger from fastening on the head and inserting the tube.

Threat: As seen with the queen, the "tongue" can also be used to indicate that the Alien is hostile and that it will attack. This is seen with certain animals and extinct dinosaurs.

But the tongue isn't the only weapon the Alien is in possession of, in fact far from! Another on which is actually more like a passive defence, is the molecular acid the Alien uses for blood. I'm no chemical genius, so I'm not going to give you an in-depth view on how the acid works, the only thing I know about it is that it will burn right through metal.

The ingenious thing about the alien, is that within the hard capsule of the Alien exoskeleton, the acid pumps at a very high pressure. So if you somehow punch a hole through it, it will spray all over the place, and that isn't all that great if you're standing in its way! The acid follows the alien all the way from Facehugger the adult Alien including the Queen. In the movies, we see that the acid is capable of sustaining quite a lot of damage to material and personnel, it eats straight through Hicks armor in a couple of seconds and burns through Drake even more easy than that.

"You don't dare kill it..."
Parker, ALIEN

After the Alien dies, the acid oxidizes thereby rendering the Alien (and facehugger for that matter) harmless. The only thing that doesn't take damage from the acid (according to the books and comics, but not shown in the movies as far as I known of), is the hive structure. Which is actually pretty clever, or else the Aliens would have a hole in the floor every time one of them cut itself.

The Alien also has a long tail which is just about the same length as itself. The tail ends in a stinger that according to the ALIENS script, it is about 4 inches long and can be used to paralyze the Aliens victims. It is swung almost like a whip, as we also see in ALIENS when Ripley is fighting the Queen. But this is far from the only function of the tail. In fact it is a rather important piece of the Aliens maneuvering capabilities.

As we see in ALIEN³, the Alien is running very fast, and turning at an unhuman rate. This is due to the tail which it can shift from side to side and thereby change the pull factor of itself. This is also used by such animals as the Cheetah when chasing prey. It makes the Alien capable of maintaining almost the same speed and thereby gaining on the prey.

The tail ends in a spine that runs all the way up the back between the four weird looking "pipes" on the back of the Alien (more about that in a minute) and coming out in a spine-spike looking thing right below the head. This could indicate that the Aliens have a Central Nervous System of some kind, and that they might even be vulnerable to nervegas as suggested (but turned down again) in ALIENS. Whether or nor the Aliens actually feel pain, is hard to say although they do scream when shot. But the Facehugger in ALIEN didn't notch when cut by a welder of some kind and the Queen didn't seem all that distracted when ripley hit her over the head with a Powerloader (which is capable of fine-manipulating over 4 ton!).

And to get back to those "pipes" on the back of the Alien. These are perhaps as big a mystery as the sensory question is. No one really know what they are there for, but as with everything else, there are also a few suggestions to that:

Nose: The four "pipes" are actually a form of filter or respirator if you want, they act as nose for the Alien. If this is true, then we can assume that the Alien is capable of filtering the atmosphere a whole lot faster than we can. This would fit nicely into the fact that the Aliens don't seem to care all that much about the atmosphere (this was concluded in the Facehugger part, and is believed also to be true with the later stages). And perhaps the Alien is capable of storing air inside them, making it easier to keep under water for a long period of time for an example. And perhaps they can even filter such things as gases.

Secretion Pipes: It was suggested in the Aliens Adventure Game that they were the source of the secreted resin the hive has been built of. Sort of like the way the spider also makes its web strings.

Smelling Organ: Perhaps it is used both as a nose and also as the main sensory organ for creating 'surrounding images' to navigate by. Highly speculative however.

[Alien Back]

Threatening Factor: Perhaps they have no real use except for making the Alien seem larger and more frightening. This would fit well in with th fact that the Alien seen in ALIEN³ almost didn't have any "pipes" (as seen on picture, I've brightened it a bit to clarify it). What is agreed upon, however, is that due to this new Aliens tendency to walk on all 4, it would not be able to hold its head in a upright position while on all fours if the "pipes" were present. In this case their lack is an adaptive measure.

A thing to note, would be that the Queen doesn't seem to have any "pipes" either...

And from the back to the hands of the Alien. They are also quite remarkable. This is essentially not because they are anything special, but more because they change in every film. Yes that's right, every time we see the Alien, it has newly designed hands... remarkable huh? From ALIEN to ALIENS, it can be explained by the same theory as the 'ribbed head' theory, that it reached another stage in its lifecycle, and that includes those changes. From ALIEN and ALIENS to ALIEN³ we use the same explanation as always: DNA...

Although the pictures aren't all that clear (they are the best I can do right now), they clearly show (if you look carefully) that the Aliens have different hands, which is quite extraordinary, but then again, a lot of things about the Aliens are extraordinary. Should you be able to get a better picture than the ones I have here, then please mail them (or it) to me...

The entire body of the Alien is covered with a hard "layer" of armor, also referred to as exoskeleton. It has a very high breaking point, and it appears that it can withstand normal gun fire from the VP70 9mm pistol. This "layer" also acts as camouflage for the Alien since it is almost the same stuff the hive is usually made out of. This gives the Aliens the ability to be totally concealed in the walls of the hive until the exact moment they need to reveal themselves, as shown in ALIENS when the marines enter the hive.

Whether the Aliens are active while hanging there on the walls or if they are actually in hibernation or something is hard to tell, what wonders many could be why they didn't attack the marines before they flamed the chestburster. Perhaps, as described in the Intelligence discussion above, they waited until the marines were so deep in the hive that they had almost no possibility of escape. The Aliens hadn't met as heavily armed people before (even though most of them were stripped of ammo, there were still 2 smartguns, 1 shotgun, 1 flamer and a couple of VP70 pistols in use at the time) so they figured they had no chance of escaping, and that they could just capture them and use them for incubating more embryo's.

Underneath the heavily armored exoskeleton lies an incredibly natural strength. The following is quoted from the ALIENS script which is also available for download:

Gorman has plastered himself against a wall, as far
from the door as possible. A latch lever behind his
head turns. The small hatch against which he was
leaning is ripped away and SOMETHING snatches him out
the opening He disappears to the waist with a shriek,
legs kicking. The alien clings to the roof, pulling
him out. Its tail whips over, scorpion like, and
buries a four inch stinger in Gorman's shoulder.
Hicks grabs a joy stick at the FIRE-CONTROL CONSOLE
and turns it rapidly. On the roof the alien looks up
as servo-motors whir. A remote control turret cannon,
a 20mm chain-gun, swivels toward it in a curt arc.
VOOM. The creature is blasted off the vehicle's
armored back and tumbles away. Gorman, slumped
unconscious, is dragged back inside.

This is also what the book suggests, and if we use that as reference, then we can only conclude that the Alien is VERY strong since it is capable of tearing of a hatch in an APC, and remember that APC is short of ARMORED Personnel Carrier. This is also show with the Queen, although it is greater of proportion than the drones, we can only assume that they also have some of the incredible strength display shown when the Queen tears Bishop in two (in twains :).

A special ability witnessed in the cut-scenes of ALIEN, is the ability to somehow turn victims (or hosts) into and egg by somehow mutating them. It has been guessed that the most propable way this can be done, would be to insert some kind of mutagenic fluid into the body of the victim. Since the Alien Embryo is also capable of taking on some of the "abilities" of its host, this cannot be denied to be rather plausible. This is discussed in further detail in the Egg section.

That's all for now. Should you find something I've forgotten or something you'd like to add, then please feel free to E-mail me at karma@eclipse.dk, I'm always open to suggestions.

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