Alien and sci fi fans have been spoilt lately with news that Sir Ridley Scott will begin principal photography in January on the eagerly awaited sequel to his controversial 2012 sci fi chiller Prometheus, as well as news that Chappie director Neill Blomkamp is currently in production on a sequel to James Cameron's 1986 Aliens, of which is speculated to be main character Ellen Ripley's swansong, while possibly retconning the events of the latter two instalments in the franchise. While some fans of Scott and Blomkamp are elated at the news of two new instalments in Hollywood's premier sci fi horror franchise, others are more anxious, especially considering the controversy that still circles 2012's Prometheus and the negative critical response to Blomkamp's latest movie Chappie.
While we here at Scified hope that both Scott and Blomkamp can deliver with sequels more worthy of following the franchises first two instalments, as Alien fans we felt it prudent to look into other ways in which our favorite franchise could be expanded upon in future movies...
AvP – in Space
While arguably the least popular and most unlikely of the possibilities, many critics of 2004's PG-13 crossover written and directed by Paul W. S.. Anderson and its shockingly bad sequel, argued that the movies should have followed the comic book and video game adaptations of the idea, with being set in the future and in space. While in the Dark Horse comic book original a farming colony became the battlefield between the two titular species, and the videos games usually centre around Weyland Yutani's attempts to acquire specimens of the Xenomorph, we have envisioned a few scenarios of our own...
- Farming Colony – Taking inspiration from the Dark Horse comic, a farming colony out in deep space becomes an interspecies battlefield. During a heavy storm an Engineer Juggernaut descends into the outskirts of the colony dropping off a few Xenomorph eggs, before leavings as quietly and unseen as it arrived. Shortly afterwards as the storm dissipates three small objects (Predator insertion pods) enter the planets atmosphere, crashing quietly. The following morning one of the colony's farmers is discovered hung upside down and skinless from a tree in the surrounding forests, elsewhere another farmer discovers their livestock dead, scarring on the animals face with bloody holes in the animals chest.
- Colony Ship – To establish colonies out in deep space huge space vessels are sent to prospective planets. From the front of the vessel an atmosphere processor leads an assortment of atmospherically sealed modules followed by the vessels life boat housing up to 300 hyper-sleep pods with the vessels propulsion module at the rear. Following such a vessel as it nears its destination a 'cloaked' Predator ship connects to the life boat, deploying Xenomorph eggs within. Days later after burying some of their colleagues the colonists while establishing their new colony, start being picked off by Xenomorph's and Predators alike.
- Survey Ship – To identify prospective planets for colonisation USMC Drop Ships are deployed into a planets atmosphere to map the planets terrain and atmospheric conditions. On such a mission a survey teams Drop Ship is forced down after three 'meteors' (Predator insertion pods) strike through the crafts wings. With the Drop Ships engine leaking radiation and a thick sandstorm approaching the crew are forced to seek shelter with the planetoids extensive cave and tunnel systems, deep within which is populated by a hive of Xenomorph's.
The Derelict Juggernaut
One common debate among Alien fans is whether or not the derelict Juggernaut on Acheron LV-426 was affected by the thermonuclear explosion that decimated the colony of Hadley's Hope. While the marooned craft is known to be resting within the Ilium Range, it is unknown how far this location is from the epicentre of the nuclear explosion; the colony's atmospheric processor. The destruction of Hadley's Hope would give Weyland-Yutani the perfect excuse to send an armed research vessel (The USS Patna from Alien 3) to the planetoid under the pretence of investigation, search and rescue of the colony, while in actuality the target would of course be the derelict Juggernaut, in the hope that the craft and its cargo of Xenomorph eggs have survived the destruction of the colony.
The Other Queen
While escaping the USM Auriga with the surviving crew of 'The Betty' Ripley Clone 8 witnessed the horror of her resurrection when happening upon a room labelled '1-7'. Within she witnessed the only living specimen to be Ripley Clone 7, whom bore the same scarring on her chest as Ripley Clone 8 - evidence that the Auriga scientists had removed the Xenomorph Queen specimen she would have been incubating; meaning the USM had two Queen Xenomorph's.
Taking into account the inadequacies of the crew aboard the Auriga, the ineffective containment measures used and the birth of the Xenomorph Newborn, it would be logical to presume that the Auriga used the 'contaminated' Xenomorph Queen from Ripley Clone 7 to cultivate specimens of the deadly species, watched by their unseen superiors, whom would have learned from the Auriga's mistakes and successfully cultivated specimens of the Xenomorph species under stricter, more secure conditions using the Xenomorph Queen extracted from Ripley Clone 8.
Return to LV-223
The moon visited in 2012's Prometheus was used by the Engineers to house and possibly cultivate their deadly biological weapon that when deployed cultivates a strain of the deadly Xenomorph. Multiple 'silos' on the moons surface, each containing thousands of urns containing the deadly biological weapon makes the moon a potential target for Weyland Yutani to return to acquire specimens of the deadly Xenomorph.
While it is possible that part of the sequel to Prometheus' narrative may revisit LV-223, a return to the moon many years or decades later in a spin off or sequel could be used to see the evolution of the deadly creature and possibly further explore the creatures relationship with the Engineers. Of course any return to LV-223 depends upon the events of the sequel to Prometheus, which should be released late 2016, early 2017.
Special Order 937
The infamous order, intended for the eyes of science officer Ash aboard the Nostromo called for a specimen of the Xenomorph to be transported back to Weyland Yutani for study. This high priority order was to be executed by Ash and/or the Nostromo's onboard A.I. MUTHUR, even at the expense of the ships crew. Yet when only officers Ripley, Lambert and Parker remained MUTHUR allowed warrant officer Ripley to initiate the Nostromo's self destruct system, despite at least one, possibly two specimens of the Xenomorph being onboard. Furthermore, after the Xenomorph blocked off Ripley's escape and murdered officers Lambert and Parker MUTHUR overrode Ripley's attempt to abort the self destruct sequence.
Could it be that before the detonation of the Nostromo's thermonuclear core it was ejected from the vessel with the shock-wave from the resulting explosion propelling the Nostromo out of the Zeta II Reticuli system on a trajectory opposite of that to be taken by the Nostromo's surviving shuttle, the Narcissus. Could it be that the remains of officer Brett continued to mutate into a Xenomorph egg, hatching a Royal Facehugger (see Alien 3 Assembly Cut), which then used Captain Dallas to birth a Queen Xenomorph. Could it be that after decades of drifting through space, the Nostromo is discovered to be intact, with its lower decks infested with hundreds, if not thousands of eggs.
