One major thing that Cameron left out in ALIENS

Anyone ever wondered how Ripley could shoot the Alien with the harpoon, the Alien not spilling one little single drop of acid inside the Sulaco befor getting sucked out into space?

The Sulaco was the name of the large ship in ALIENS. Ripley's escape ship from ALIEN was named the Narcissus. 

As for the spilling of acid blood before she jettisoned the xeno... I never really gave that too much thought. There could easily be a few reasons why no acid was sprayed or spilled. Maybe the harpoon prevented much from coming out. Or maybe only a small, insignificant amount came out and it didn't affect the hull integrity. It's not that big of a deal imho.

One issue that I always had a big problem with... HOW did facehuggers get on board the Sulaco at the end of ALIENS?

ALIEN 3 established that facehuggers must have breached one or more of Ripley, Hicks, and/or Newts cryosleep chambers, which set off the alarms, and forced their ejection from the main ship.

But how did the facehuggers get on the Sulaco in the 1st place. There's only a few possibilities.

- the queen quickly laid a few eggs in the landing gear of the drop ship before attacking Bishop and Ripley.

- the drop ship somehow scooped up some random eggs with it's landing gear, along with the queen and some of the metal debris, as shown when they takeoff. (but there were no random eggs lying around the platform area before they took off)

- Bishop secretly gathered some eggs, or some facehuggers in stasis, and placed them in the drop ship before he picked up Ripley, Hicks, and Newt.

This question was never shown or explained in ALIEN 3. They just wrote that sequence in and used it as the catalyst for the whole movie. Without those facehuggers... all of the events of ALIEN 3 don't unfold. But they never adequately explained where those facehuggers came from. And neither did the ADF novelizations.

That's one of my biggest pet peeves.

It's never been adequately established how the eggs got on board and each theory has varying numbers of holes.

"Anyone ever wondered how Ripley could shoot the Alien with the harpoon, the Alien not spilling one little single drop of acid inside the Sulaco befor getting sucked out into space?"

Either it gets sucked out into space (as seen when it's flying out the airlock), or maybe it doesn't react the same in a vacuum.

Chadsbrothermatt - Re the company having no idea about the Alien..... See direct incrimination quote below. In my mind they knew all along. In my mind Ellen knew she couldn't simply blurt out all that she knew as it could put her in an even worse position than she was already in. The Board inquisitors may not have known any more than the basics (or let on that they did) in order to protect "The Company". Also I've always suspected that The Company knew everything that it's Synthetic staff heard or saw directly. Possibly hard wired spies permanently on duty with no need to report in as their every move was being watched via the very own eyes. Bishop knew and I suspect felt guilt when he was awoken in A3 "It was with us all the way".

[typed on a computer]______ Request Clarification on Science Inability to Neutralize Alien______ Unable to Clarify_______ Special Order 937 - Science Officer Eyes Only______ Emergency Command Overide______ Special Order 937 Nostromo rerouted to new co-ordinates. investigate life form. Gather specimen. Priority One. Insure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable

That's precisely why I've always believed the same thing. Key words, "life form", "ensure return or organism", "crew expendable".

There are so many indications that the company knew what they were doing.

Ash being strategically placed on board the Nostromo by replacing the normal science on their last stop. And so many of Ash's actions indicate that he was on specific orders from the company from the very beginning. He lied about the signal, he knew it was a warning all along, or at least he knew whatever the company already knew about it. He didn't want Ripley to go out and stop or warn Dallas and Kane. And the biggest reason of all... by letting Kane on board, despite Ripley's orders not to open the door... he broke the rules of standard procedures, quarantine laws, and chain of command. And he let the alien grow inside of Kane, without informing any of the crew.

Ash was programmed to do whatever W-Y wanted him to do. Therein lies the crux of the whole matter... the company has been behind everything, and it goes all the way back to Prometheus. Which is why I hope the prequels will satisfy many of the lingering questions. 

@cmutt

Yes ofcourse, the Narcissus.  Don't know why the Sulaco ended up in that sentence...

The answer is quite simple actually, the company is the largest in the universe, she was believed to be suffering PTSD so no one would believe her, she was one employee that wouldn't be missed, and no one would question it if she "committed suicide" because they are basically the mafia of this universe

Why did the Company the supposedly "knew everything" do precisely nothing for 57 years?

Well I don't know about them "knowing everything", in terms of the xenos, engineers, or the derilect, etc... I mean, how could they?

But what I'm getting at, is that I think the company certainly knew what they were doing, and why they were doing it.

But I think your theory is probably pretty close. Perhaps all of the events that took place with the Nostromo, it's crew, and Ash somehow became a potential problem, or a threat if the details were to be disclosed. So maybe they had to shut it down and bury it, until such time that it would be safe for them to continue.

What about this?

What if the family members of the Nostromo's crew were pressing for W-Y, the ICC, and whatever other agencies to search for the ship and it's crew? And what if the families were demanding full disclosure to find out what happened, and where the crew might be, or if they were still alive?

Maybe W-Y had reasons to want to keep LV 426 completely unknown. Maybe they felt that any kind of search or investigation would cause them to lose the rights or claims to whatever was found there.

So in order to avoid any disclosure of their secret, they buried and hid all of those details from the families. Maybe they concocted a whole different scenario as to what happened with the Nostromo. For all we know, they may have just said that they lost contact with the Nostromo and it's crew, and it just disappeared. They could have kept the details within their secret division, and just created a cover story for everyone else.

Like we've said, who knows, we're all just guessing and trying to come up with good explanations and trying to fill in the blanks.

@cmutt  -- This is my favourite part on Aliens, yes Ripley want to explain what happen etc. but she not had proof. But most import thing, compony members do-not-want and don't believe that. And Ripley says, "what happened, why i was not here, your IQ's is drop!..." 

Also this sequence is a forward for Ripley angers and make-believe them and she went to Hadley's Hope. Also she left drive licence too.

I think it is just a sequence for more forward to begin action.

Nobody interesting about how much W-Y know about Alien etc. And W-Y is hard bastard, still says lies "W-Y make better worlds... incl. a alien for you"

I have a theory based on Newt being found without a personal data transmitter. This might seem like an odd point to bring up, but please bear with me and I will elaborate.

What we appear to get is the summation of the ICC hearing. Ripley tells us that she has gone over her story several times. Who is to say that during all that time she did not try to defend herself tooth and nail and demand questions about what happened on the Nostromo. It is at the end of the hearing that Van Leuwen declares the case closed.

It would make sense that when the Nostromo disappeared, there would have been some sort of enquiry, and perhaps Ripley’s daughter may have fought to get answers. That is something we don’t know, but Burke certainly had the time to trace her. I think that once the case was officially closed this could have greenlit W-Y to assume their previous occupation of getting a Xeno. With the case closed why would any further investigation be needed ?

Meanwhile, back on LV 426 we have a shake and bake colony, the Derelict and no mention of any beacons. This could suggest that W-Y already knew the Derelict was there, and turned off the beacon. This brings me to Newts personal data transmitter. Perhaps Newt was not meant to be offsite with her parents, and perhaps left it at the colony base to give the impression she was still there along with Timmy. The site where the Derelict was may have been out of bounds, or referenced in such a way, that no one would really want to explore that area. We have no idea why Newts parents went to look in that area but they did. We can pretty much take a good guess as to what events followed. One thing that is for sure is that contact was lost with that colony, which I personally put down to sabotage. I’m guessing here, but my money would be on an android.

One thing I have wondered is whether the Sulaco was at LV 426 prior to picking up the marines and Ripley. I’m referring here to Bishops comments about the facehuggers being with them all the way. All the way from where exactly? From a previous trip to LV 426? We know there must have been a fair bit of time elapsed from the ICC hearing and Burke turning up on Ripleys doorstep since he reveals what she was now doing for a job and her psyche evaluation reports. Perhaps W-Y’s plan was to send Ripley out on a doomed mission to keep her quiet for good.

Snorkelbottom, didn't we get into a arguement/debate about 5 years ago on one of my posts that you didn't buy into the whole ship shadowing the Sulaco?

"We have no idea why Newts parents went to look in that area but they did. "

Yes we do.  Burke sent a directive to Hadley for them to check out a grid reference and the Jordens got tapped to do it.

"All the way from where exactly?"

LV-426.  It came with them after they escaped.

"We know there must have been a fair bit of time elapsed from the ICC hearing and Burke turning up on Ripleys doorstep since he reveals what she was now doing for a job and her psyche evaluation reports. "

It's about 3 and a half weeks.

"Perhaps Newt was not meant to be offsite with her parents, and perhaps left it at the colony base to give the impression she was still there along with Timmy."

PDTs are surgically implanted.

"But what I'm getting at, is that I think the company certainly knew what they were doing, and why they were doing it."

Yeah they knew about a transmission that detailed a potentially hostile organism.  Not much beyond that.

Another thing with these grand conspiracies regarding the colony - it was co-financed by the ECA.  If they really wanted an Alien, they wouldn't pair up with a government authority they'd have to share the find with.

S.M - Newt could have been born at Hadley's Hope and thus no PDT implanted

@ S.M

"All the way from where exactly?"

The bit I question here is whether there was a chance, I know I might be stretching it a bit, but was something on board prior to them escaping.

PDTs are surgically implanted.

This is something I have trouble with because, why should Ripley really need to give Newt a locator if a PDT had already been implanted?

If they really wanted an Alien, they wouldn't pair up with a government authority they'd have to share the find with.

Was'nt there something about respecting finding rights regarding the Jordans?

"S.M - Newt could have been born at Hadley's Hope and thus no PDT implanted"

She was born at Hadley.  Why would she not have a PDT though?

"This is something I have trouble with because, why should Ripley really need to give Newt a locator if a PDT had already been implanted?"

So she could find her with the hand held locator and not have to use the desk bound computer that Hudson used.

"Was'nt there something about respecting finding rights regarding the Jordans?"

There was, but there would've no doubt been clauses in their employment contracts that would determine the Company, ECA, who knows who else, could make a legitimate claim to the Derelict and it's contents (with the Jordens getting a finders fee), since they financed the whole operation in the first place.

Some jurisdictions are setup that the government has certain rights to whats in the ground even on property you own.

Brego: thanks for the quote. The big thing to consider with that, though, is that that quote is not the original text from the Alien film. There was no indication in the film itself (that I am aware of) that the Nostromo crew were specifically tasked with bringing back a sample of some kind. It's also worth pointing out that the Nostromo being rerouted to investigate a lifeform and to bring back a sample still doesn't really demonstrate that the company knew about the existence of the xenomorph in particular, only that they were expecting a lifeform - which they should, as what else would be emitting a signal out in deep space? 

To me, watching Aliens as if the company had known about the Xeno all along just causes more problems for the plot than it does to just ignore Ripley's line about "being sent there on company orders to get this thing". Of course, my mere opinion :)

Brego: thanks for the quote. The big thing to consider with that, though, is that that quote is not the original text from the Alien film. There was no indication in the film itself (that I am aware of) that the Nostromo crew were specifically tasked with bringing back the xeno from the start. It's also worth pointing out that the Nostromo being rerouted to investigate a lifeform and to bring back a sample still doesn't really demonstrate that the company knew about the existence of the xenomorph in particular, only that they were expecting a lifeform - which they should, as what else would be emitting a signal out in deep space? 

To me, watching Aliens as if the company had known about the Xeno all along causes more problems for the plot than it does to just ignore Ripley's line about "being sent there on company orders to get this thing". Of course, my mere opinion :)

"There was no indication in the film itself (that I am aware of) that the Nostromo crew were specifically tasked with bringing back a sample of some kind. "

Yep.  Ash was supposed to make sure it got back to Earth.  The others had no idea.