Is MUTHUR the true conspirator of the Alien movies?
Gavin
MemberTrilobiteNovember 14, 2019Since the first Alien movie audiences and fans have perceived 'The Company' Weyland-Yutani as an evil corporate entity that seemingly views its employees as merely expendable assets and willing to sacrifice the lives of over 60 families in its blind pursuit of acquiring a specimen of possibly the most dangerous entity it has ever encountered.
But what if our presumption about Weyland-Yutani is wrong? What if Weyland-Yutani didn't know about the Alien's existence until August 2179, when the USSCS Patna was sent to Fiorina-161 to pick up Ellen Ripley after learning she had one gestating within her chest? What if Michael Bishop (or Bishop II, depending upon your preference) genuinely wanted to help Ripley?
In Alien, although the crew of the Nostromo was contract-bound to investigate the signal being transmitted by the derelict vessel on LV-426, Special Order 937 was never actually identified as having been a company order. It was in Aliens that Ripley presumed that her crew was sent there on company orders, while the company representatives in the same room seemed genuinely perplexed at Ripley's claims and insinuations. Could it be that only Carter Burke believed Ripley's wild tales of acid bleeding alien monsters and that after learning the truth he seized the opportunity to profit from the discovery?
It is how in Alien 3 that the USCSS Patna learns of Ripley's unfortunate predicament that we get a glimpse of who the real conspirator in the Alien franchise could truly be. Aaron, and before him Andrews use 'the network' to communicate that Ripley, and the corpses of Newt and Hicks, and the remains of Bishop had arrived on Fiorina-161. This network, also mentioned in Alien, seems to be a communications network that allows for near-instantaneous communication across vast stellar distances. Am I saying that 'the network' is the evil conspirator intent on acquiring specimens of the Alien? Partly, but it is possible that we know 'the network' by another name.
In the Alien Vault, supplemental material for the first movie, MUTHUR is referred to as an AI aboard the Nostromo that is responsible for the micromanagement of the vessels systems while having ship-wide control when its crew is in stasis. Examples of MUTHUR's access to the ship's systems would be when it re-routed the vessel towards LV-426 and when it (possibly) prevented Ripley from aborting the self-destruct sequence. In Alien: Covenant the USCSS Covenant is also shown to have an onboard AI called MUTHUR. It is possible that with the Nostromo being an old ship that it may have been using an old MUTHUR onboard AI (allegedly the MU-TH-UR 6000). However, another, more sinister possibility may be the case.
Having it so that each deep space vessel has its own onboard AI makes a certain degree of logical sense, as does having a communications network that (somehow) allows said vessels to communicate with each other instantaneously. But what makes more sense would be an AI communications network that could access and even control deep space vessels and filter communications to its own end. Maybe the MU-TH-UR 6000 wasn't an actual AI but merely the interface used to communicate with MUTHUR, AKA the network. Evidence for this can be found with the interface used by Andrews and Aaron on Fiorina-161, of which is virtually identical to that used by Ripley in Alien, despite not being connected to an AI.
Think about it, it was MUTHUR that rerouted the Nostromo, Special Order 937 did not say it was a Weyland-Yutani order, nobody investigated the signal coming from LV-426 except for the Nostromo (could MUTHUR had masked/covered up the signal), the company representatives at Ripleys hearing disbelieved her claims, it was only after Hadleys Hope and the USS Sulaco had fallen silent that Weyland-Yutani sent the USCSS Patna to investigate which was then immediately rerouted to Fiorina-161 when Ripleys med-scan was received by the network, and finally in Alien: Resurrection the USM Auriga also allegedly had an onboard AI called FATHER.
@ Hox,
If MUTHUR is the network then in Alien all she blew up was an allegedly expensive ship, especially if she knew the Alien was already hiding on the Narcissus. Being an AI MUTHUR probably thought that one-on-one Ripley was as good as dead.
Don't get me wrong, I am a supporter of the Weyland-Yutani corporate conspiracy angle, despite that it was added to Alien by David Giler, but even I have to admit that W-Y being the evil corporate entity has issues, such as why they waited 57 years to revisit the derelict.
However, if MUTHUR was the network and was self-aware it would not be restrained by mortality and cold definitely play the long game.
As for the slime, it may have been sucked out into space when Ripley opened the airlock door. As for SO 937, being an AI MUTHUR likely suffers from a superiority complex and possibly thought the Alien killing all of the crew was a foregone conclusion, or possibly MUTHUR wanted to toy with or study the crew while they were under duress.
This idea came from an exercise in which I asked myself what would make Alien better. Unfortunately, the list is quite long and maybe the subject matter for another discussion but in that list was a more vocal, more interactive and more antagonistic MUTHUR.
Imagine if in Alien that once Ripley and the surviving crew members learned of SO 937 MUTHUR, who had up to this point played the nice role of the servant, switched roles and became protective of the Alien in line with SO 937, such as sealing characters in a room with the Alien, or turning off their life support if they harmed the Alien.
So then I looked back at Alien and noticed that while not very vocal MUTHUR was quite antagonistic already, having rerouted the Nostromo, SO 937, possibly stopping Ripley from aborting the self destruct sequence. Then I looked at the sequels. With Alien 3 it seemed Weyland-Yutani didn't care about Ripley until they got her Med-scan results. But in Aliens there was something else. Burke claimed he didn't know if Ripley was lying or not about the Alien, even after contact with the colony was lost, yet the colony was fitted with CCTV and chances are the CCTV footage was being sent over the network to Weyland-Yutani. If W-Y knew for certain that there were Aliens on LV-426 would they really send a bunch of trigger happy marines (USS Sulaco) or would they send a research and capture vessel (USCSS Patna)? Burke didn't know that Ripley was telling the truth until he witnessed the Facehuggers suggesting he hadn't seen any CCTV footage. Meaning that either his superiors had him on a need-to-know impromptu verbal contract or he was gambling on Ripleys claims being true so that he could profit from them, and in the movie, it is shown that the latter is the case. So, if the CCTV footage was being sent but not received by the W-Y slimeball sent to ascertain if these things exist or not, why didn't W-Y receive the footage and reports sent over the network.
That's when I started to see a pattern, that while not intended by any of the writers/directors at the time pointed to a distinct possibility that while by Alien 3 W-Y wanted the Alien, prior to that there is no concrete evidence that anyone at W-Y, other than Burke knew that the Alien even existed, but yet there are breadcrumbs somebody or something should have and would have noticed. That is unless someone with a lot of time on their hands was covering it up.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant also plays into this theory. Why didn't the Nostromo pick up Shaw's message? Why does the USCSS Covenant allow David access? How can Burk be so oblivious to what the Alien is after Davids Advent messages? The answer could very well be MUTHUR.
@BigDave,
... and thus knowing that the colonial marines will be sent in on a search and rescue mission MUTHUR tunes in and listens to see how the Alien it so desires handles against trained armed soldiers. To MUTHUR the events of ALien and ALiens are analogous to Petri dishes.
Fast forward to Alien: Resurrection, which granted is the weakest of the original movies, but we learn that W-Y was sold to Walmart and its intellectual properties and research acquired by the USM, of which the Auriga, which is breeding Aliens is governed by FATHER,
The rabbit hole deepens.
The question is; how did the Alien know to hide in the Narcissus, especially being that it was the only viable place to hide with the self destruct sequence counting down. Possible answer; MUTHUR opened and closed doors guiding the Alien to the lifeboat while Ripley was too busy getting Jonesy.
@Hox,
Clearly you are a devout believer that W-Y are the conspirators of the Alien franchise, and I mean no offense but usually when people are so single-minded they cannot be swayed by any other opinion, however, your dedication to your beliefs can help drive the integrity of opposing beliefs - your well-founded criticisms allow for deeper insight into the opposing belief and deeper thought out counter-arguments to the aforementioned criticisms.
So to that effect, again in regard to SO 937. As with W-Y being the conspirator, we do not know the ultimate goal of why MUTHUR would want the Alien, but what remains is why an AI would reveal such sensitive information. the why not is obvious - kee the humans in the dark and acquire your specimen. But what are the benefits of revealing said info? A simple answer would be to test the creature. It had already proved effective as a predator against unprepared prey, which in its self is not much of a test. However, leveling the playing field somewhat would test the Alien in extreme circumstances, which would be considered a true and worthy test, would it not?
@ S.M.,
Yes, according to the lore of Alien Mother (AKA the MUTHUR 6000) is indeed an onboard, computer-based AI. However, this is a speculative thread, a 'what if'. Speculation can be the driver of creativity and every discussion or debate does not need to be restrained by the current status quo. Example - before 2012 you would have argued with authority that the Space Jockey was the remains of a giant elephantine alien race, however, John Spaihts and Ridley Scott dared to speculate, to think outside the box and seem to have made the Space Jockey into a tall, bald, hairless guy.
Also,
Ripley says that the network should pick her up when she reaches the frontier, but that does not dictate that the network is only available once you reach the frontier. And, when I use the term 'near-instantaneously' I am talking in relative terms. Using communications at the speed of light it would take 39 years for any transmission from LV-426 to reach Earth, yet in Aliens it takes approximately 7 days (taking into account Al said three weeks for a reply, plus Hick's statement of back up arriving in 17 days) which relatively speaking is 'near-instantaneous'.
The point of any 'what if' scenario is to discuss and explore other perspectives. In doing so it encourages those discussing to open their own perspective to those beyond their own, which in turn deepens not only the discussion but one's understanding of what is being discussed, and more importantly, it's fun!
The instantaneous messages after the scan above were a nice touch and a small view into how the "network" (COMNET) operates, below.
The CCTV images on the Alien 3 Blue-Ray may show that COMNET was aware of everything on Fury 161 and prepping Michael Bishop's team.
The synthetic white noise in the communications, encrypted for a few "select" in the company may show some human direction in the overall strategy to acquire the organism.
Centuries Later
"Andrea Rollins didn’t care in the least about white noise or interference. She did, however, pay a great deal of attention to the signal embedded inside of that synthetic static.”
Year 2497, Alien: Sea of Sorrows, page 160-161.
Who knows though?
I thought it was strange in the novel that it took until the year 2497 to get "organically grown synthetic life" samples. MURTHUR could be sandbagging humans.
MURTHUR could certainly be using humans to acquire/cultivate Xenomorphs in different settings (trials) and selecting/editing what information can be viewed on a human level. David and Ash's actions tend towards this as well as the rerouting of the Nostromo.
... and thus it feasible to speculate that once the Alien sneaked onboard MUTHUR allowed for the Nostromo to self destruct to cover up any evidence and likely thinking Ripley would lose one-on-one with the Alien.
And when Ripley jettisoned the Alien into space, if we postulate that MUTHUR and the network are one and the same, MUTHUR could have masked the Narcissus' transponder leaving Ripley to drift forever, if not for the salvage team that found in 2179.
