Was the Alien dying near the end of the first movie?

Vincent Ward's wooden planet had Ripley raped and impregnated by the alien.Of course there are a lot of sexual under tones in the series such as the ones discussed here as well as Lambert's death.

"The sexual aspects of the Xeno were never explored in the other movies. That would have added a creep factor of like 25. This species straight rapes EVERYBODY"

One take on Aliens is, because the sex act has become so corrupted by the Alien, Ripley is gifted an instant family without having to go through the reproductive act.  So it was effectively explored - by its absence.

myrddin....that's exactly how O'Bannon envisaged it, when he and shusett were stuck on how to get the alien on the ship, he said 'the alien fu**s one of them'

Well said S.M. i never looked at it that way before.

The concept of the xeno living only until it is without purpose/drained of lifeforce is interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing this incorporated into future films in some way.

I'm curious now. Could someone clarify whether Ridley intended for the creature to expire as a result of fulfilling it's purpose or alternatively if it was a result of expending it's lifeforce on egg morphing?

I think it simply had a limited life span, and did everything it could to reproduce in that limited span.  But don't quote me.

my take on interviews is yes. as ridley was going with the morphing concept he had the xeno expend all its energy with the egg morphing process. it would, in a perfect situation, go off somewhere to be alone and die. it had done its part, it had created eggs that would lay dormant till disturbed and then there could be 2 xenos or 1 xeno and a queen. that's why I like both queen and morphing concepts. morphing for such situations like the nostromo, limited hosts so no need for a queen to keep producing eggs that wernt needed yet create eggs to lay dormant till more hosts were available and then a queen for situations such as hadleys hope or on a planet with an abundance of hosts

Xenos having a expiration date is effective as weapon. They clear the planet eggmorph the hosts and die leaving the cycle opened fppr another adventure.

A4 tho showed us they dont expire,now if its because theres still hosts around them or not remains to be seen

However..what do they eat or comsume to stay alive?

Every living organism needs to eat or consume something. 

What were they feeding them on a4?

if they were engineered then it would make sense to have them only live so long. in A4 they were more a cross breed remember so some things may differ

S.M

I see. If that's the case, I suppose it would be difficult to incorporate the concept into top tier canon at this point. Alien only told the story of the xeno over the course of a day. With the subsequent films (mostly Aliens and Alien Resurrection), they appear to stick around for much longer.

It really is a shame Ridley didn't work with Cameron on the second film. I'd imagine a stronger baseline for continuity in xeno characteristics could have been established which would have perhaps created a sense of obligation in the other films to abide by such a foundation.

its a shame ridley and Cameron didn't make the 3rd movie. nothing against the film or fincher, big fan of his, but imagine having both those films then the 2 directors putting theyr visionary minds together for a 3rd????

QES pretty much nailed the statment.

Thats exaclty how it should be done.

ali81

That would have been exquisite. Even having them both there as advisers probably would have greatly enhanced the film. I have a feeling that if Ridley had been involved, we very possibly could have seen egg morphing incorporated. Perhaps even as the means for which Ripley is impregnated with a queen. Cameron perhaps could have improved on pacing.

I'm a Fincher fan as well. That being said, it would have been quite interesting to see his first big project augmented by two titans. They perhaps would have served as a force to unlock the potential that he has since demonstrated he possesses.

couldn't agree more. fincher had no control over what was happening and basicaly denounces his involvement in the movie, rejecting interviews etc. if scott/ Cameron were onboard as advisors I think hed have doen a movie he was proud of. the cgi tech wasn't good enough and he wanted to do the wooden monk planet script