Romulus’ Surprise Character Return Secretly Undermines The Original Movie’s Best Twist

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Alien: RomulusAlien: Romulus subverted audience expectations by bringing back a familiar face from the original film. However, as shocking as the movie’s character return was – 45 years after his previous franchise appearance – his role also undid one of Alien‘s most effective plot twists. Made before audiences became overfamiliar with acid blood, facehuggers, and carnivorous xenomorphs, the 1979 movie featured several shocking scenes. While the iconic chestburster has passed into filmmaking folklore, the movie’s actual best twist arguably had much greater narrative significance.

Alien‘s genius was the transplantation of haunted house tropes into outer space. A limited cast of characters encountered something utterly incomprehensible and terrifying, slowly succumbing to its power before one survivor emerged triumphant. It’s a formula that has been repeated in the horror genre time and again. However, within this setup, the movie heightened the tension by refusing to conform to narrative convention, consistently pulling the rug out from under the viewer. One of these twists concerned Ian Holm’s character, Ash – a genuinely unexpected moment that has unfortunately been undercut by Alien: Romulus.

Ian Holm’s Rook Role Undermines The Reveal That Ash Is A Robot In Alien

Other “Ian Holm Robots” Don’t Make Sense In The Alien Universe

Despite the actor’s passing in 2020, Alien: Romulus recreated Ian Holm’s likeness for the character of Rook. His appearance was one of many effective callbacks and Easter eggs related to the original Alien movie and immediately established a connection between two central robot characters in the story. In Alien, Holm played the Nostromo’s science officer, Ash. Despite appearing to be on the same side as the crew, it eventually became clear that Ash was actually a synthetic, tasked with bringing the alien creature back for Weyland-Yutani to study. This revelation essentially made him the movie’s secondary villain.

From a story perspective, Alien‘s Ash twist was extremely effective. Suddenly, both the characters and the audience were unable to trust anyone, only ratcheting up the tension and increasing the atmosphere of fear and suspicion. And yet, with its Rook reveal, Alien: Romulus has undone the power of this moment at a stroke. What made the Ash twist so effective is that none of Alien‘s characters had any idea he could be a robot – a situation exemplified by Parker’s stunned remarks, “Ash is a god-damned robot!“

However, the crew’s surprise is much harder to believe if it turns out that the Alien universe is actually full of synthetics who look exactly like Ash. Rook’s existence suggests that Ash is not a unique model commissioned for the Nostromo project. Instead, he is one of many identical robots associated with Weyland-Yutani spread throughout the universe. It’s impossible to believe that no one on the Nostromo’s crew would recognize Ash, given his doppelgangers’ newly-revealed prevalence. As a result, Alien: Romulus has inadvertently compromised one of the franchise’s most effective twists.

The Ash Robot Twist Is One Of The Franchise’s Most Shocking Moments

It Works On Multiple Levels

There are several reasons why Alien‘s Ash reveal is so successful. Beyond building the atmosphere and contributing to the movie’s unbearably tense climax, it helps establish one of the key themes in the franchise – corporate greed. It is Ash who outlines the company’s role and the extent of the Nostromo’s predicament for the first time, as well as explaining exactly what they’re up against. His pontificating about the “perfect organism” and his expression of “sympathies” to the surviving crew is also chilling, instantly establishing him as an iconic movie villain.

Beyond this, however, it’s also important to consider the context in which Ash’s true identity was revealed. At this point in the original movie, Alien‘s world was in its infancy. Viewers didn’t even know that lifelike robots were part of the story. This makes the unmasking of Ash’s true form bewildering and disconcerting. The slow trickle of white fluid down his forehead initially has no explanation – like all of Alien‘s most effective scares – making the twist doubly shocking. For Alien: Romulus to have compromised this moment is a real disappointment, since it challenges the authenticity of Alien‘s wider world-building.

Alien: Romulus Should Have Brought Back A Different Franchise Robot Character

They Would Have Made Perfect Sense

In choosing to bring back Holm, Alien: Romulus suggested that Alien‘s characters had no rational reason for being surprised when Ash turned out to be a robot. However, while this clearly undermines the original story, there was a way for the 2024 sequel to bring back a popular legacy robot character without compromising a core part of the narrative. Specifically, the movie could have reintroduced Lance Henriksen.

In Aliens, Henriksen challenged audience expectations by proving that not all “artificial persons” were inherently bad. As Bishop, he heroically saves Ripley and Newt from LV-426, expertly piloting the drop ship to rescue them from the alien Queen – a stark contrast with Ash. However, while this was Henriksen’s most memorable Alien role, his prolonged presence in the franchise actually makes him the perfect candidate for a comeback.

Henriksen returned to the series in Alien 3, both as Bishop and as another character variously identified as “Bishop II” or “Michael Bishop Weyland“. Furthermore, Henriksen also appeared in Alien vs. Predator as the original Charles Weyland, founder of the company. Given that he has featured in several installments in the saga already and there is a clear precedent for him playing multiple distinct characters, Henriksen’s presence could have produced the same effect as Holm’s without compromising the story. While Holm’s Alien: Romulus appearance was a surprise, it raises questions that Henriksen would have been able to circumvent.

Director

Fede Alvarez

Release Date

August 16, 2024

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