Summary
AlthoughAlien: Romulusseems determined to repeat anAlienfranchise mistake, the reboot shouldn’t fall victim to this error.TheAlienmoviesare full of unhappy endings.Alien 3features one of the bleakest finales in sci-fi horror history and its opening managed the unique achievement of making the triumphant ending ofAlienstragic in retrospect.Alien Vs Predator: Requiem’s ending is as hopeless and cynical as the rest of the movie’s action, whileAlien: Covenant’s twist is almost laughably cruel. As such,2024’sAlienrebootAlien: Romuluscould easily justify a thoroughly grim ending.
At least, that is how it might seem. However, none of these movies are particularly popular among fans of the franchise and critics, with all three of them consistently being singled out as weaker entries in the series.Alien: Romulus’s story, which is set betweenAlienandAliens, should keep this in mind. Judging by its promotional materials, director Fede Alvarez’s movie is set to reduce the scope and scale of Ridley Scott’s prequelsPrometheusandAlien: Covenantto offer a smaller, more claustrophobic, and intense horror story. This is promising, but it doesn’t meanAlien: Romulusmust end badly for its heroes.
What Alien: Romulus' Title Really Means In The New Movie
While Alien: Romulus’s title has been a mystery for some time, the Alien movie’s new trailer finally reveals how the title ties into its story.
Alien: Romulus Risks Repeating Alien: Covenant’s Annoying Ending
Prometheus’s 2017 Sequel Offered Viewers Little Closure
Despite how shocking the twist might be,Alien: Romulusshould avoid repeatingAlien: Covenant’s twist ending where every human character dies. This bleak punchline, where the surviving heroes are tricked by Michael Fassbender’s duplicitous droid David, aimed for darkness but ended up feeling frustrating and pointless instead. The final scene ofAlien: Covenantrevealed that David won and everyone died, but this made the entire endeavor feel somewhat aimless. The new movie’s limited cast makes a similarly grim ending seem likely, but the filmmakers should carefully consider this option and potentiallyreveal more hiddenAlien: Romuluscharacters instead.
Since David killedPrometheus’s heroine Elizabeth Shaw and used her body for his twisted experiments off-screen, it is reasonably obvious that he intends to do the same toAlien: Covenant’s last surviving human characters.
Alien: Covenanthas a relatively large cast, but they are swiftly killed off one at a time when David’s experimental Neomorphs attack them. David himself switched places with the identical heroic android Walter, helping the heroes escape in the end before revealing his true nature when it was too late for them to stop him. Since David killedPrometheus’s heroine Elizabeth Shaw and used her body for his twisted experiments off-screen, it is reasonably obvious that he intends to do the same toAlien: Covenant’s last surviving human characters. This makes their entire story feel like a waste of time.
Alien: Romulus’s Director Makes A Bleak Ending Likely
Director Fede Alvarez Rarely Utilizes Happy Endings
It is possible to pull off a hopeless horror movie ending effectively.2017’sAlien-inspired sci-fi horrorLifemanaged to make an ending where everyone dies feel fresh and clever thanks to a mean-spirited but ingenious final twist. Similarly, some ofAlvarez’s earlier movies feature endings where the heroes are thoroughly decimated by evil forces. The director’s 2013Evil Deadreboot left everyone but Jane Levy’s heroine Mia dead, while 2016’s home invasion horrorDon’t Breatheleft everyone but Jane Levy’s Rocky dead. As if to consciously buck this trend, 2022’sTexas Chainsaw Massacrereboot implied every character died.
Hopeless endings aren’t the surprise they once were.
Admittedly, Alvarez only produced 2022’sTexas Chainsaw Massacre. However, the fact that the reboot received much weaker reviews than bothEvil Dead2013 andDon’t Breatheproves that hopeless endings aren’t the surprise they once were.Alien: Romulusavoided one franchise mistakeby adding more than one Xenomorph to its story, judging by the trailers. Alvarez’s movie should also avoid repeating the grimmest problem that recurs throughout the series by letting a handful of characters survive the carnage. Paradoxically, this makes the movie more suspenseful since there is some hope of them getting out of their ordeal alive.
Alien: Romulus’s Small Cast Makes A Bleak Ending More Likely
Viewers Already Saw At Least One Gruesome Fate
That said,it will be tough forAlien: Romulusto convince viewers that its cast isn’t doomed. There are only six named characters inAlien: Romulusand one of them, David Jonsson’s Andy, is an android rather than a human. This means his potential death would hold less emotional weight, but the movie’s promotional materials seem determined to undermine the effectiveness of every other demise. Already,Alien: Romulus’s trailers spoiledNavarro’s chest-burster, and heavily implied Bjorn will suffer the same fate. That leaves only four named characters, not including the robot Andy, who could survive the story.
It is comparatively likely that Cailee Spaeny’s Rain will make it out ofAlien: Romulusalive since the reboot’s promotional materials have posited her as something of a replacement for Sigourney Weaver’s original franchise heroine Ripley. The rest of the cast is unlikely to be so lucky, but even Rain’s relative centrality doesn’t make her indispensable. Katherine Waterson’s Daniels from Alien: Covenantshared a lot in common withPrometheus’s heroine Elizabeth Shaw, but still ended up suffering a brutal fate. Similarly, Shaw herself seemed destined to be a Ripley-esque self-sufficient sci-fi heroine until her death was unceremoniously revealed inAlien: Covenant.
It almost seems disingenuously silly to argue that a violent, scary sci-fi horror movie shouldn’t kill off its characters.
Why Alien: Romulus Needs Some Survivors
The Alien Franchise Can’t Be Revived Without Recurring Characters
It almost seems disingenuously silly to argue that a violent, scary sci-fi horror movie shouldn’t kill off its characters. However,Alien: Romuluskilling off all its main characters isn’t a good ideadespite how impactful it may sound.Alien: Romuluscan expand the worldof the series, but this will only work if the reboot establishes characters the audience can get invested in. If no one is left alive by the time the credits roll, viewers have no reason to anticipate another installment from the franchise. This is perhaps best illustrated by the classic original movie from 1979.
Ripley might have been the only one to make it out ofAlien, but the rest of the franchise makes it clear that her survival was pretty pivotal. Similarly, the anger over Newt and Hicks’ pre-Alien 3death proves how important their survival inAlienswas too. The impact of the deaths in these two movies, which are still considered the franchise’s zenith, directly correlates to their survivors.AlienandAlienshave devastating deaths precisely because a few characters do survive, which makes the story more unpredictable. Thus,Alien: Romulusshouldn’t repeat a majorAlienfranchise mistake by simply killing them all off.
