Can chestbursters be surgically removed?

think when it was all being planned out ridley, as quoted by miss weaver, asked Blomkamp to release his after Prometheus sequel but ridley has changed things. that's what makes me think AC is something extra that we weren't meant to get. alien5 has been put back/ off again due to an AC sequel. makes sense to me for blomkamp to wait. plus ridley is producing alien5 so hes the one with the power. plus the Prometheus project was well under way before alien5 was considered

Yeah.I remember Blomkamp saying that there was one thing he needed to change for it to link up with Prometheus 2,so Covenant definitely needs to happen first.

if I was a betting man id bet ridley has full control over the Prometheus project and a good say in alien5. the fact ridley has altered his project and Blomkamp has put alien5 back def adds weight to this. it would also help Blomkamp in a way as he would be less inclined to put things in his movie that contradict previous events in alien or its prequels 

Yeah there's a lot of confusion regarding Alien 5's placement,on whether 3 and Resurrection are being ignored or not.

from what I took from ridleys comments is that they exist, hes not putting them down of disrespecting the work any director has done. hes simply saying after aliens, this is the movie I would have made, and the fans can decide what they like themselves. if u don't like alien5 then u have 3 and AR to watch again or vice-versa. I doubt there will be facts in alien5 about the xeno itself that will contradict the others, its just an alternate sequel I believe

As pointed out.... by others.

Spaights Draft removed a Chest Buster... is this Canon... Nope... does it mean this cant happen... Nope.... so yes the potential is there to be able to REMOVE ONE

Ignoring Spaights draft...

I would say YES a Chest Buster can be removed, it would be hard and maybe there would be some failures.. but with enough infected Hosts i think they could manage to obtain one.

As far as however, to remove one and the Host being OK?  I would say this would be very slim and it would depend on a number of things.

1) Stage of Growth.... if they try to extract it at a early stage and so say like when Ash and Dallas had tried to get the Face Hugger of Kane.... then yes with the right equipment i would say getting a early stage Embryo would be a success...

*Less risk to the Host and so a higher possibility of survivial

*However why does the Xeno need a Host? and so would maybe removing a early stage result in the Organism being useless as it would not develop and be like aborting/removing a Human Fetus after its weeks old?

2) How active is the Xeno Chest Buster at certain stages.

*would it at a stage when it would be of use as a Organism (so be like a Human Fetus at 20 weeks + Stage) would the Xeno react when medical staff open up the Rib-cage, locate the Xeno Embryo would this Organism be in placid state, or would it react and try and escape or be hostile... the more active and hostile and how it would attempt to move or react to someone trying to take it out... would no doubt lead to Trauma to the Hosts Organs and especially if it gets wounded in the process (Acid).

*also what defense mechanisms the Organism has... the Face Hugger can secrete Acid, its how it managed to get into Kanes Helmet and onto his Face... we see the Xeno do this in AVP movies (Spit Acid) but its a case of as far as Canon to Alien Franchise can a Xeno or Chest Buster, secrete or spit Acid.. if so then if it does this as a defense mechanism , we then get potential Acid Damage to the Host.

HOWEVER....

With Advanced procedures we cant rule out them being able to use some needle to inject the Xeno with something to incapacitate it and then Proceed with removal and if they can nowadays removed Large Tumors... then in future removing a Xeno would be simple..... provided the Organism is sedated.

"if u don't like alien5 then u have 3 and AR to watch again or vice-versa"

I think this is the Fork in Road idea that Weaver said.. and how we are to look at the movie if it got made....  simply as TWO alternative sequels.

@BD

Like S.M pointed out, we did get to see a chestburster getting surgically removed from Ripley 8 in AR. But since she wasn't a human maybe it doesn't apply the same way. 

As big Dave mentioned, there is a fantastic description of removing Watts' (Shaw's) chestburster in Spaiht's draft. While it's true that it doesn't qualify as canon, it's quite grizzly and most definitely serves as food for thought in regards to this topic.

Including the excerpt below:

"Naked she staggers into the pod. Hits INITIATE. The surgical apparatus swings into place. Scalpels, forceps, scopes and suction tubes. A spraygun mists her torso with yellow antiseptic. The clear canopy descends over her. Watts SCREAMS. A wail of indescribable agony. An ARMORED PARASITE erupts from the deepening incision. Its needle-toothed maw snarls through a fountain of blood. Arterial blood sprays the inside of the canopy. The parasite slithers out of her. Drops to the floor of the pod: a pale serpent with a demon’s skull. It has a hard brow, a horny hide. Very different from the soft white worm that Holloway gave birth to. It drops to the floor, thrashing and hissing in fury at its confinement. Watts convulses. Her eyes roll back. In shock. Dying. The parasite tears through the grille of the drain. Escapes out into Vickers’s cabin. In the pod, scanning beams and sensors probe Watts’s horrific wound. A nightmare list scrolls across the pod’s screen:
COLLAPSED LEFT LUNG
PUNCTURED RIGHT VENTRICLE
PERFORATED STOMACH
RUPTURED SPLEEN
GROSS MUSCULAR TRAUMA...
Manipulators plunge lines into her veins - recharging her body with artificial blood. An oxygen tube slips down her throat. An epidural into her spine. Watts moans around her tracheal tube. Her eyes flutter open.
Through the blood-spattered glass, she sees the parasite slither across Vickers’s bed, tracking blood on the sheets. As she slips into unconsciousness. Head lolling. Time passes. 90. Manipulators reach into her wound. Re-positioning organs. Suturing ravaged flesh. A nozzle sprays antiseptic sealant. Hours grind by in bloody labor. Watts’s eyes snap open. Vigoda breaks into the cabin, a gun in his hand. He scowls at the bloody track on the bed - and then freezes, seeing Watts inside the Med Pod, a vivisected woman. The autosurgeon hard at work. The parasite crawls into view behind Vigoda. It has already trebled in size. He does not see it before it leaps at him. He dies in seconds. His throat ripped open. Lies staring at nothing. His submachine gun lies beside him. Watts’s body jerks as manipulators tug and sew at her guts. She stares at the dead man in a fog of horror. The parasite’s skin splits, spraying the carpet with acid. Limbs erupt from its shoulders and haunches. Spines from its back. Metamorphosis. With a crack of carapace, its head swings down from its serpentine position. It becomes a devil with an lethal, elongated skull. An Alien. The Alien turns its head. Looks at Watts inside the Med Pod. Her breath catches. She passes out.

INT. MED POD - LATER
Watts wakes as the oxygen line withdraws from her mouth. She looks down, bleary and hurting. Her star-shaped wound is stitched closed with mechanically precise sutures. The pod releases the restraints securing her arms and legs. She takes a deep breath. Looks out - and freezes."

They also recently removed one in Alien: Defiance.

Excellent insights every body.Which one is Aliens:Defiance?

Current comic series.  Well worth a look - particularly the issue where they remove an embryo.

Thanks.I'll look for them online.

I thought i did mention Alien Resurrection... must have forgot..

But yes this movie shows they had successfully removed one, while it never showed us how they did it, i think a procedure like i put in my other Topic would work.

The key would be to sedate the Xenomorph inside before attempting to remove it,  but if you did not care about the Host then you could just try and remove it... but if it was sedated it would lessen the chances of damaging the Organism as it attempts to escape or move.

I think that’s better (scarier) than what we get in Prometheus, QueenES (no giant facehugger). But I suppose they wanted something new?

When it comes to surgically remove an alien baby, you could perhaps see it as it depends on what stage in development it is in? It grows very fast and the host doesn’t seem to feel it until it wants out? Then it would be dangerous (especially to the host), but perhaps sedation (as BD suggests) would be possible (although we don’t know how it would react to it? It is very enduring to vacuum, fumes, chemicals etc.)?

We've discussed Alien Resurrection a bit BigDave.Its does indeed show an alien being successfully removed,but i believe those are special circumstances.

I don't see why they'd be special.  Ripley 8 had an embryo, before it was mature enough to burst they used a surgical laser to cut her open, held the wound open, and extracted it, cutting with umbilical it had attached to her.

Because it was a Queen that takes more time to mature, they had more time to remove it.  You might not be so lucky with a non-Queen.

I believe it's special because of the cloning.They're not 100 percent the same xenomorph.

While that is true - what difference would it make?

They are born differently.This time they are spawned from a human host not an egg.There's more human in them than ever.That got to make some difference.

Why?

The Queen inside of Ripley8 would've burst through her chest like any other Alien had it not been removed.  Same as how they burst out of the Xarem hostages.  And spawned Aliens that looked and acted much like Aliens in other films.

Clearly there are differences in how the Queen ultimately turned out, but I don't see how that makes any difference on whether chestbursters could be surgically removed.

I understand what you mean S.M.,they are pretty much the same except for a higher level of intelligence.They're even better problem solvers than before,but that's a different topic.You are right perhaps there is no difference,but there just might be.Before Ripley 8,there still was no successfull removal of the xenomorph that im aware of.

None that were in a film, correct.

"Clearly there are differences in how the Queen ultimately turned out, but I don't see how that makes any difference on whether chestbursters could be surgically removed."

Not sure what you mean... SM

Unless its looking at it from the Company or who ever wants to obtain a Specimen....  then indeed its a case of would they want to safeguard the Human Life or obtain the Alien?

Being as how the company is portrayed in the movie franchise, i would say they would care little for nothing more than getting the Alien and so indeed why surgically remove it...

Just let some poor Humans get Chest Busted then capture the Chest Buster.... pretty much as Alien Resurrection had done with the Cargo the Betty was to deliver.

I think that was your point?

I understand also with Ripley 8 its a case of once they have successfully cloned her with a Chest Buster growing inside, then the company would just let her die...

The movie had to use the surgically removal method purely so they could have Miss Weaver in the movie to play a role...

What's some official canon where they were removed?

It's more likely they removed it surgically so it was completely controlled.  Possibly as a result of some undocumented cockup with Ripley 7.

My point, however, just because Ripley and the Queen were cloned, it shouldn't make any difference to whether a chestburster could be surgically removed or not.  If they could remove one from Ripley 8 successfully, there's no reason that it couldn't be done on other hosts.

"What's some official canon where they were removed?"

The aforementioned Aliens: Defiance comic.

Yeah totally agree, kind of what i was saying too.... so its like if they can remove it from Ripley 8 then why not those hosts used for the Eggs.... 

I would assume they was expendable... i think with Ripley they had to remove it for sakes of the Plot,  as otherwise they could just let her get Chest Busted and then we have no Ripley.

But indeed SM  it would be more ideal to remove it if they can sedate the Chest Buster while its inside and remove it, so they can catch it with less hassle and chance of escape...

I think the way they could look at needing Ripley 8 was if in the failed Clones. they tested the DNA and found the Cloned Ripley had different DNA to a Human and this is something worth trying to investigate and try and harvest.

Hence keeping Ripley 7 alive.

I'm gonna go Big Dave style here ;) (said with glint in the eye) 

Regarding Alien Resurrection, the scientists also showed a great deal of strenuous accuracy (one expertly showed by Brad Dourif, one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood and magnificent in AR) as they carefully removed the chestburster in a nail-biting scene. 

This leads me to believe that they possibly feared that:

a) the host Ripley 8 would die just like a human would, she is after all created with a ton of effort after several previously failed attempts and thereby extremely valuable. 

b) the Queen burster, a rarity to say the least, would die.

c) both would die, a complete failure scenario.

In conclusion, you have to exercise extreme caution to successfully remove a chestburster without killing the host, human or not. That's how I see it.

I'm probably the only one in the world who would go into such in-depth detail about a scene in AR lol 

After seven failed attempts they're going to exercise a great deal of precaution with that Queen.

How was it successfully removed?

In Defiance?

I don't have the comic in front of me, but from memory the host was a doctor who performed it on herself with help from a marine named Hendricks and an android named Davis.  They had a proper surgical bay.

The story hasn't progressed enough to see if there's any lasting affects post-removal.

Okay thanks.