"There's a perfectly good explanation."

i think it was Special Order 937 after seeing ALIEN well over 100+ times, i would say that from the jump off, Ash knew that they were all just basically lambs to the slaughter in regards to the entire Nostromo crew being sent to "investigate" the signal given that Ash wasn't human, the alien would most likely just leave him be Ash was aware the entire time, there are subtle clues throughout the film that suggest he knew about the special order, but being a cool, calm android, he was able to maintain that facade until his programming was switched, and he become murderous

posted this lastabeek, but i agree. he was about to spill the beans...

posted this last week, but i agree. he was about to spill the beans...

Ahhh yes....the scene with Ripley and Ash. I know it well !!!

My apologies Gen...i have been on and off here a lot and do not see all the threads. Of course, it hits me when I am watching the scene and in my head....I would have been, "Hey Ash, before you freak out on me and try killing me with a rolled up magazine....could you explain that too me real quick?"

Yeah...when Ash was glancing and watching Kane at dinner was the biggest clue....and letting everything play out and I wonder if the company was monitoring him the whole time... Kind of giving of what may have been live feed to the company, they could see through his eyes and have video confirmation of all that was happening? I am sure the company received all the info they needed before he was offline.

Even earlier than that: when the Dallas Lambert and Kane go out to the derelict, and the computer deciphers some of the acoustical beacon. Ripley tells Ash that it looks like a warning, not a call for help, then asks (like it's a dumb question) "shouldn't someone go after them?" He replies, "Why?" *stutters a sec* "I mean, by the time you got out there, wouldn't they know if it was a warning or not?" Ripley finds it odd, and the question goes unanswered. They do nothing.

Yeah...I almost forgot that scene... I would say, it was all set up from the beginning. So we know the company or the people remaining around who knew about the Prometheus journey found they had another opportunity to try and get what did not come back successfully first time around....

I also remember how he shouts: "Don't touch it! Don't touch it!" as the infant Alien bursts out of Kane's chest, as if to protect it. Then there is a kind of expression that Ash has on his face as the creature runs off, the one that is filled with fascination.

anyone notice the color of the acid, when ash goes to remove the facehugger from kane .........green,,,very similiar to the green thing pulled out of the vase in the prometheus trailer?hmmmm

@engr Of course Ash might have implied to Parker Not to touch the freshborn chestburster because of the hazardous acid, it is true That he was rather not wanting the alien Beeing hurt or killed. When ripley asked Ash about what he Has found out about the alien, he obviously Only tells her basis stuff but he seems to know Much more about it.

Surely ash did know of the order but i think it was a standard hidden procedure ( to retrive exotic things even at the risk of compromising the crew ). What i dont buy is that the company did know much about the aliens ...to me they were blind like the crew ...they just wanted IT (whatever it was ) . And Ash of course did know nothing about the xenomorph ...thats why he study it so intensively ,and thats why he make so many errors that can possibly lead to the destruction of the alien too ( cutting the finger could lead to destroy the ship too , also hes totally unaware of the SJ , and hes totally surprised by kane's death )

and in alien, dallas states that ash replaced there original science officer just before they left on there mission, so this is all making sense, now ...wow

maybe Prometheus will shed light on that very thing regarding how much the company new when it comes to alien.

I believe as well, it will open up the door even more for Alien. I have to believe from watching Alien, someone in the company knew of the ship and knew there was something of an organism there....how else would they know to gather a specimen? Okay, I am thinking too much, lol. Also, I would think only a hand full of people knew of the Prometheus mission as well as the Nostromo. A high dollar/exploration ship is know but the mission is well kept under wraps and classified. The Nostromo was just bad luck for them...stuck in the middle and well, no one would miss them.

you know, I always thought it was odd how quickly Ash responds to Mothers alert to Dallas when they are first eating. I think he did know and wanted the opportunity to get down to business. He exudes a prepared eagerness when he opens that hatch and breaks quarantine protocol.

Yeah...I am betting he was updated of what the creature and is how it hosts with a human....there's more here than meets the eye! lol

When you program a computer, you are specific. The company, which is 30 years after the fact, lost their multi-billion research vessel and their high ranking company exec, you just don't let these things go. There is someone on the inside, or group or elite people, most likely former workers of the Prometheus Exploration pulling strings....

Yeah I think its pretty solid the company knew exactly what was going on from the jump. Ripley's crew was probably the first ship they could get out there after the events in Prometheus. On thing that does confuse me, is that the atmosphere of LV427 in Prometheus seems much different than that in Alien. I'm assuming that the time travel has some role in this. Prometheus crew travels back in time, the space jockey ship crashes, and the planet's atmosphere changes over hundreds of years.

Ash and any android in alien franchise except the one in Aliens 4 were Weyland corporate control. Some guy in the corporate can watch what the crew were doing and can control the situation of the crew in a way. Why they need an android anyways in any mission? I just think it's to spy on the crew and give a direction in the corporate`s way. Maybe in prometheus it will show how much control the corporate has on the android or infected android or an android that can control aliens.

Cain 1977, I like the idea of the 'live feed' through Ash back to the Company at the point of Kane's demise, that is a very original and chilling concept.

from what i understand it was standard company protocol to investigate the foreign signal i dont think the company knew what they'd find, however ash was placed on the journey quite obviously to secure the return of any alien lifeform special order....to bring back lifeform at all costs crew expendable. (same as that jerk burke!!) this has been discussed before, if the company knew what they were dealing with they would have sent proper scientists/security to capture the specimen. not some greedy space miners!!!!

The company obviously knew about the possibility of SJ/Xenomorphs and had the strong desire to bring a sample back. Agree it is strange if the company knew beforehand why would they send a space freighter? Unless: a) it was the only ship they could get there in a reasonable time, or b) the company wanted to keep the mission to obtain a sample covert (sending a Military/Science vessel would have meant it was too overt)... However, my question/uncertainty from the Alien set-up is: was the signal received by the Nostrodamus screen at the start of the film the "unknown origin" signal from LV 426 or was it mid-flight instructions from the company to initiate the crew wake-up? From this there are 3 possible scenarios: Scenario 1: it was the LV 426 signal received "out of the blue". The company did not anticipate it for this particular flight, but ALL company flights had the secretly embedded Special Order 937. Scenario 2: it was the LV 426 signal "out of the blue" which was then relayed back to base. After which the company realised what it was and sent Special Order 937. Note: there is no time period clear between the signal being received and how much later the crew was woken up. So for both of these, the LV 426 signal was not anticipated before the Nostrodamus left port... However: Ash was put onboard at Thedus just prior to flight - implies the company knew beforehand, so the LV 426 signal was not "out of the blue". Unless company android Science Officers were common? Ash did not seem surprised when they discovered they were not at Earth i.e. he knew when he woke up. He also directs Dallas at breakfast: "Mother wants to speak to you" implying he knew what it would say. So, this implies Scenario 3: it was not the LV 426 signal. It was the wake-up initiation sent from the company. They knew the Nostrodamus was headed to LV 426 before it left Thedus. The signal had been picked up previously. I also think it is implied that the Nostrodamus had been significantly diverted out of their flight path to Zeta II Reticulli: "what are we doing out here?" There are possible plot inconsistencies in each of these Scenarios... maybe us Alienphiles look for a clear Master Plan in the plot which with all the script rewrites and filming, did not exist in every detail :) Bottom line: "there is an explanation for this you know": the company knew about Xenomorphs enough to secretly look for them and want a sample as a top priority. But they did not know details about what the xenomorph would be - Ash was genuinely studying it to learn. However, remember there is meant to be 2 prequels: so perhaps Prometheus will not answer every Xenomorph/Alien question? Got to have something to look forward to in Prequel No. 2!

Note: Ash knew Kane had a chestburster inside him at dinner. In the scene where Ripley goes to the lab to confront him about his overriding her order to not break quarantine, Ash clearly has the image of the fetus on his screen (which he turns off as soon as Ripley arrives... "what is it?"... "I don't know yet") and he asks her not to look in the microscope. BTW, I love the two pointers we are given in the dialogue at the start of the film: Parker to Kane at breakfast: "anyone ever tell you you look dead man?"... Dallas referring to Ash: "Parker will you just listen to the man!" Makes me think that Ash's casual comment to Dallas re "Mother wants to talk to you" also means more than it seems.

Ripley was able to access the special instruction "for science officer eyes-only". So doesn't that mean Dallas also had the authority to access this message and see the instruction of "Bring Back Organism. Priority One. All other Priorities Rescinded. Crew expendable." Does this mean Dallas was in cahoots with Ash about bringing the organism back? Perhaps this is why he was particularly insistant on skipping quarantine policies, and basically played fiddle to Ash's stick. or perhaps collusion with Ash is giving Dallas too much credibility as an intellectual. Perhaps he really was out of his depth with the situation and just didn't think to intercept the message "for science office eyes-only". Interesting to think about.

It was special order937. I put that in my prequel when the company activated the 120 a2's. You'd have to read it... It does go to another crew finding another derelict....