Romulus Has Some Of The Franchise’s Best Tricks For Characters Surviving Facehuggers & Xenomorphs

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus!

The Xenomorphs and Facehuggers are foes that Alien protagonists have had to face off against for decades now, but Alien: Romulus features some of the franchise’s best tricks to deal with them. When the original Alien was released, the Xenomorphs and the Facehuggers were considered to be some of the scariest monsters in cinematic history, with them being near-unbeatable. However, this scare factor has gotten a lot smaller due to the many movies that have existed in the Alien franchise. Alien: Romulus, luckily, figured out a way to make these classic monsters even more interesting.

After years of the Alien franchise focusing on prequel stories in movies like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Alien: Romulus has finally brought the franchise back to its roots. Alien: Romulus takes place between Alien and Aliens, with it focusing more on the horror and tone of Ridley Scott’s original than the lore of the prequels. Despite this, Alien: Romulus does attempt to be much bigger than the 1979 film, with it featuring tons of Xenomorphs instead of the one that Alien focused on. Because of this, Alien: Romulus had to come up with some clever ways to keep these creatures dangerous.

Alien: Romulus’ Body Temperature Trick To Survive Against Facehuggers Is Brilliant

It Does Something New With The Facehuggers

One of the best scenes in Alien: Romulus is when the cast of characters is faced with a hallway full of Facehuggers. It is explained that the Facehuggers are attracted to hosts based on body temperature, with them clinging onto humans due to their body temperatures being higher than their surroundings. The team raises the temperature of the room to match the normal body temperature of humans, meaning that they can walk through unharmed. However, if they get scared at all, their temperature will change and they will be attacked.

This setup leads to one of the most tense scenes in Alien: Romulus, and it is absolutely brilliant. The new addition of this body temperature rule allows the franchise to take the classic creatures and put them in a situation in which they must face off against them in a new way. The Facehuggers have been in every Alien movie so far, but a scene involving the characters slowly moving through a pack of them has never been done before. This is reminiscent of the slower horror of the original Alien, with this Alien: Romulus scene focusing on tension instead of jump scares.

Alien: Romulus’ Zero Gravity Trick To Fight Xenomorphs Is Clever

It Uses A Preexisting Rule & Remixes It

The Facehuggers aren’t the only Alien creatures who are faced off against in a unique way in Alien: Romulus, as the way that the characters interact with the Xenomorphs is also given a new twist. Near the end of Alien: Romulus, a pack of Xenomorphs attack the survivors. Since they have acid blood, Rain realizes that she can’t shoot them, or else the ship will have a hole in it. Rain realizes that, if the gravity is off, the acid blood won’t hit the ground, allowing her to kill the Xenomorphs without being sucked into the cold vacuum of space.

This is one of Alien: Romulus‘ best tricks, as it takes a preexisting rule and finds a unique way to utilize it. The fact that the Xenomorphs have acid blood has been around since the very first Alien movie, with many franchise fans wondering what happens when the blood burns through the ship. Alien: Romulus had previously shown off the gravity problems that plagued the Romulus laboratory, with the reveal of the Xenomorph trick being an incredibly clever reincorporation of this rule.

Alien: Romulus’ Tricks To Help Characters Survive Stands Out From Other Alien Movies

There Is Still A Lot Of Creative Potenital In The Franchise

Since Alien: Romulus was hearkening back to the original movies, there was a fear that the legacy sequel would be a bit repetitive. While Alien: Romulus does have a lot of Easter eggs and references, scenes like the aforementioned ones allow the movie to significantly stand out from the franchise.

The Alien franchise has never used the acid blood or the Facehuggers in this way, showing just how clever the new movie is. Alien: Romulus manages to take what has already been established and remix it, which is something that any good sequel should try to do. These scenes in Alien: Romulus shows that there is still a lot of creative potential in the franchise, meaning that future movies could expand on these rules even further.

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.

Director

Fede Alvarez

Release Date

August 16, 2024

Studio(s)

Scott Free Productions , 20th Century

Distributor(s)

20th Century

Writers

Fede Alvarez , Rodo Sayagues , Dan O’Bannon , Ronald Shusett

Cast

Cailee Spaeny , David Jonsson , Archie Renaux , Isabela Merced , Spike Fearn , Aileen Wu , Rosie Ede , Soma Simon , Bence Okeke , Viktor Orizu , Robert Bobroczkyi , Trevor Newlin , Annemarie Griggs , Daniel Betts

Character(s)

Rain , Andy , Tyler , Kay , Bjorn , Navarro , WY Officer , 10-Year-Old Punk #1 , 10-Year-Old Punk #2 , 10-Year-Old Punk #3 , Offspring , Xenomorph , MU/TH/UR (voice) , Rook (Facial and Vocal Performance)

Runtime

119 Minutes

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