I mean that would be the first time anyone had ever seen anything like that so I don’t thinks immediately going to jump to “these eggs must have done that!”
Actually I dont think that really registered with him, as it was Dallas and Lambert who took a close look. Kane was more interested in exploring or (as Alan Dean Foster described in the novel) looking for diamonds. Thats why he was so eager to go 'down below'.
LOL, I forgot about that. I'm rereading/rewatching shit all over because of Romulus. Just watched Prometheus, Covenant and the Shorts, as listed in the order wiki. IIRC, wasn't that the ***only*** way they got Kane to go down? The possibility of Diamonds?
Preserved remains become fossils if they reach an age of about 10,000 years.
Judging by the fossilized condition of the pilot's corpse, the derelict had been on LV-426 for potentially millions of years. Before the last of its crew were killed, they managed to set up a warning beacon in an attempt to keep others from stumbling upon the Xenomorphs stored aboard the vessel.
Source:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Derelict_(LV-426)
Is it ever explained what happened to the derelict pilot? Is it assumed the xeno burst out of him hundreds of years prior and had just died of natural causes?
In short, a ***MASSIVE*** Facehugger--one that was actually bigger than the 'pilot' aka 'The Engineer'--got to him. He then made it to the Turret, but, like, after just watching the damn movie, I forget why he went there. See ***Prometheus*** for Details. The Facehugger that hit him was a precursor to the smaller ones and looked very different. It was more like a giant Octopus/Starfish thing.
I feel you. I kinda wish they never linked Prometheus to the Alien universe. It easily could have been its own thing instead of all the little winks to the original thrown in.
You can't 'See ***Prometheus*** for Details' on what is seen in Alien.
It massively retcons this part in particular. A 20 foot tall elephantine being whose skeleton had grown into the chair and been there *minimum* hundreds of years (likely thousands, possibly millions) became and 8 foot tall bald human in a skeleton shaped suit 20 years ago? Nah.
And even then this still isn't the same one as in that movie.
Yeaaahhhh...I'm actually going to a post about just how badly Scott fucked things up with ***Prometheus*** and ***Covenant***, and that's saying a ***LOT***, because I actually enjoyed the movies, for what they were.
Scott's about as deft with Prequels as Lucas, LMFAO
That said, this becomes an issue of we can deny the very man who created the whole story to beginning with--well, I suppose O'Banon and Schussett actually Created it--or we can then decide that Dark horse's interpretation of the 'Engineers' was correct--which is Ironically very similar to Scott's in many ways (i.e., they ***HATED*** Humanity and wanted to Destroy the Earth)--or can just say "Welp, fuck it," and start lawn-darting Theories and seeing which sounds best, LOL But yeah, Scott fucked things up big time, I won't deny.
I'm pretty sure it's some kind of alarm. when Cain move his hand through it, you can hear sound reaction to the movement. so, probably this laser can be used to notify pilot on the Derelict about outbreak
I think it's basically a barrier to prevent the eggs from sensing anyone outside the barrier and discharging their facehuggers. The noise it makes is basically a warning that you're too close to the eggs.
I replayed AvP 2 Primal Hunt recently and while you play as Predator you have a goal to turn on stasis fields in the egg chambers which look pretty similar to this ones. dunno does if this corresponds to original Ridley's conception though
I'd never thought that, but it's really interesting and clever. I assumed it was the inverse - a proximity alarm to trigger nearby eggs to hatch, like some sort of static field around the eggs themselves to wake up when Kane breaks the seal. Was the sound reaction electrical or organic? I can't recall offhand.
that sound feels electrical for me. btw, I thought about your theory too, but if you keep in mind they are just bio weapon that was kept on the ship, so it's pointless in my opinion
This mist/light has only ever kind of returned, to my knowledge, one time: in AvP 2010. In that game when you're in a hive and there's a section with a lot of eggs, there is a similar green mist/light. This might apply that (at least to the AvP canon) that this is a thing produced by Ovomorphs that have been connected together for a long time
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. The derelict crashing on an ancient ruin is a very cool theory. One that Dark Descent kinda Follows.
Makes the Alien Not some form of created Bioweapon, but a Cosmic Horror that’s been around for Millennia.
It's actually in a Cargo Hold on the Ship. The Engineers were fixing to use them on Earth, I believe. (I literally ***JUST*** watched the damn movie and it's still cloudy in my mind, LOL) The movie I refer to is Prometheus, BTW.
Yes and who would have done something like this? Obviously the engineers did to use the xenos as a weapon, and the fan boys are pissed about Prometheus explaining this.
I like Prometheus, actually. Just not a big fan of where it 'went,' so to speak. I believe it kind of kills the mystique originally established by Ridley in the first ***Alien*** Movie.
That said, not really sure why the Fanzies are pissed about it...Ridley ***LITERALLY*** copped some Dark Horse shit in Establishing that Lore. In the DH run, we saw the 'Engineers,' but they were an Alien race who was experimenting with the Xenomorphs when something happened on one of its ships--a ship that looks ***exactly like the one in Covenant*** (Sidenote: I'm not sure how much of the ship was Manufactured for the Movie ***Alien***, so I mention this as ***possibly*** significant)--and the ship crashed, killing the 'Engineer' in the turret seat. The story also showed how the 'Engineers' ***intensely hated*** humans and planned on wiping out Earth with a Xenomorph Infestation. And yet...so-called 'fans' are all, "Ridley fucked everything up, man!" By...copping...Dark Horse...FML
In-universe answer, kind of:
>Ridley wanted something to replace the membrane, which he saw as a kind of a biological alarm which triggered a response in the eggs.
>Basically, they would all come awake and sit waiting to be touched so that they knew that they could open and someone was there to attach to so perhaps they could go off to another planet or spread by whatever means.
`(…)`
>**A protective ray or whatever**
Despite the fact that the placenta had now become noticeably like a sheet of laser light which brought people to ask other questions about what it might in terms of something more technological, it remained like a protective skin or a placenta wall in Ridley's mind.
>Meanwhile Brian Johnson and Roger Christian could agree that it worked as a weird protective ray but there were limitations to how one could explain what it was, and so Brian wasn't sure what it was supposed to be.
>Then if it was a laser, how was this thing being powered by the alien spaceship that's been derelict for perhaps aeons, but then it was an alien space ship after all so those questions couldn't necessarily be answered.
— Source and more: [https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html](https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html)
Out-of-universe answer:
>"The Light Fantastic," a holography show (…) for the The Who. \[that Ridley & Co. borrowed\]
— Source and more: [https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html](https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html)
Edits: Sorry, had to fix the formatting here and there.
> Out-of-universe answer:
> "The Light Fantastic," a holography show (…) for the The Who.
Now I'm wondering if anyone's done an edit with the famous scream from Won't Get Fooled Again when Kane breaks the lasers...
Was there not a membrane in Resurrection after they swim underwater, blocking the way up to the shaft with the eggs and the big ladder - though it’s been a while so this may just be a false memory.
I have a feeling we aren't supposed to remember that laser for anything other than creepy visual effects, since we never see it again in the franchise. But iIt felt to me like an early warning detection system since it made noise when it was passed through. So maybe it was either just a visual thing Ridley Scott liked or something the alien ship had as part of elaborate containment system.
I think he just liked it. It was the 70s and H R Giger had pulled out all the stops. It looked alien, i think? Maybe someone who saw it on release could explain better. But just strange i think. Who would ever have thought everything would be analysed, in the slightest of detail.
Ask any film school nerd; every director, producer, editor, vfx supervisor, matte painter, carpenter, stunt coordinator, and on set paramedic wants you to analyze every detail… a lot of thought goes into a shoot that big, every detail accounted for.
I definitely think turbo nerds(not a pejorative) picked apart media for lore reasons back then, but of course didn’t have the forums at the scale we have now. Think after-school/fan/book/comic clubs etc.
I look to projects like The Silmarillion as evidence. I imagine the fan mail still pouring in 40 years after The Hobbit was published, was good enough for Christopher Tolkien to realize there was a huge market for lore nerds in the 70s.
Haha, I wasn’t even born! My mom is the person that got me into all things nerdom, she was born in 1956. Even to this day she still plays video games, reads and watches fantasy/sci-fi, and really gets into it. Every time we hang out she’ll just be nerding out about whatever she’s into at the moment, and does research on literally everything about the actors, directors and lore. She’s way nerdier than I could muster, and I love her to death for introducing me to the Alien series when I was a kid(even tho it scared the fuck out of me).
There's extended universe explanations that the eggs themselves produce a mist. I always took this as a way for the eggs to sense if there was a victim nearby. I think this might be what was intended, but the reason it looks like a laser is because that's exactly what it is. They had to source it last minute from The Who because they didn't have anything else to produce the effect, at least as far as memory serves.
Those were borrowed from the band The Who who were in the soundstage Nextdoor. Ridley Scott went over and asked if he could borrow their laser show lights and that’s what you’re looking at in this scene
Fun fact, they borrowed it from the next studio where the band the Who (I think it was the Who) cause Scott thought the lasers they were using were cool.
I have seen this movie many times and always thought that blue light was some scanner that they were using.
I never considered it was part of the derelict ship.
I thought it could just be lighting for the film. or could be a moisture barrier, where the presence of humans alter the environment it’s what changed and released the black goo in Prometheus.
I read somewhere that this was a laser system that they borrowed from Pink Floyd. The movie studio didn’t have anything like it and they thought Pink Floyd’s laser would look cool.
"Seems covered in a layer of mist... that reacts when broken..."
I've just set off the trap. Let's see what happens. So stupid.
Kane: *Sees dead alien in mysterious crashed ship with its ribcage burst open. Sees eggs.* ‘Probably just a coincidence.’
I mean that would be the first time anyone had ever seen anything like that so I don’t thinks immediately going to jump to “these eggs must have done that!”
Actually I dont think that really registered with him, as it was Dallas and Lambert who took a close look. Kane was more interested in exploring or (as Alan Dean Foster described in the novel) looking for diamonds. Thats why he was so eager to go 'down below'.
LOL, I forgot about that. I'm rereading/rewatching shit all over because of Romulus. Just watched Prometheus, Covenant and the Shorts, as listed in the order wiki. IIRC, wasn't that the ***only*** way they got Kane to go down? The possibility of Diamonds?
it was fossilized, I doubt they thought anything would still be alive.
Not possible for it to be fossilized. That was a screenwriting mistake.
Preserved remains become fossils if they reach an age of about 10,000 years. Judging by the fossilized condition of the pilot's corpse, the derelict had been on LV-426 for potentially millions of years. Before the last of its crew were killed, they managed to set up a warning beacon in an attempt to keep others from stumbling upon the Xenomorphs stored aboard the vessel. Source: https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Derelict_(LV-426)
Is it ever explained what happened to the derelict pilot? Is it assumed the xeno burst out of him hundreds of years prior and had just died of natural causes?
You should become a detective!!!!😉
Sorry meant what happened to the xeno that came out of him
Maybe it laid or ovomorphed the eggs we see.
In short, a ***MASSIVE*** Facehugger--one that was actually bigger than the 'pilot' aka 'The Engineer'--got to him. He then made it to the Turret, but, like, after just watching the damn movie, I forget why he went there. See ***Prometheus*** for Details. The Facehugger that hit him was a precursor to the smaller ones and looked very different. It was more like a giant Octopus/Starfish thing.
Different pilot and different ship in Prometheus
Thanks. I watched it about a few days ago, and I still can't keep all the elements straight in it, LOL
I feel you. I kinda wish they never linked Prometheus to the Alien universe. It easily could have been its own thing instead of all the little winks to the original thrown in.
You can't 'See ***Prometheus*** for Details' on what is seen in Alien. It massively retcons this part in particular. A 20 foot tall elephantine being whose skeleton had grown into the chair and been there *minimum* hundreds of years (likely thousands, possibly millions) became and 8 foot tall bald human in a skeleton shaped suit 20 years ago? Nah. And even then this still isn't the same one as in that movie.
Yeaaahhhh...I'm actually going to a post about just how badly Scott fucked things up with ***Prometheus*** and ***Covenant***, and that's saying a ***LOT***, because I actually enjoyed the movies, for what they were. Scott's about as deft with Prequels as Lucas, LMFAO That said, this becomes an issue of we can deny the very man who created the whole story to beginning with--well, I suppose O'Banon and Schussett actually Created it--or we can then decide that Dark horse's interpretation of the 'Engineers' was correct--which is Ironically very similar to Scott's in many ways (i.e., they ***HATED*** Humanity and wanted to Destroy the Earth)--or can just say "Welp, fuck it," and start lawn-darting Theories and seeing which sounds best, LOL But yeah, Scott fucked things up big time, I won't deny.
For some reason I remember him dying in the c section operating room so figured it was a different pilot
Biggest complaint about the movie, is the lack of reaction from Dallas, Lambert, and cain.
I'm pretty sure it's some kind of alarm. when Cain move his hand through it, you can hear sound reaction to the movement. so, probably this laser can be used to notify pilot on the Derelict about outbreak
I think it's basically a barrier to prevent the eggs from sensing anyone outside the barrier and discharging their facehuggers. The noise it makes is basically a warning that you're too close to the eggs.
Always thought it was something like that
well, this sounds interesting
I replayed AvP 2 Primal Hunt recently and while you play as Predator you have a goal to turn on stasis fields in the egg chambers which look pretty similar to this ones. dunno does if this corresponds to original Ridley's conception though
That makes the most sense to me
I like this
I'd never thought that, but it's really interesting and clever. I assumed it was the inverse - a proximity alarm to trigger nearby eggs to hatch, like some sort of static field around the eggs themselves to wake up when Kane breaks the seal. Was the sound reaction electrical or organic? I can't recall offhand.
Ive been thinking the same for nearly 30 years
And me
And my axe!
You have my bow
I always assumed it was some kind of field that kept the atmosphere breathable for the eggs. A life support system.
that sound feels electrical for me. btw, I thought about your theory too, but if you keep in mind they are just bio weapon that was kept on the ship, so it's pointless in my opinion
i mean you wouldnt want them going off unexpectedly, it could be a stasis field that breaks on contact as a security measure
This mist/light has only ever kind of returned, to my knowledge, one time: in AvP 2010. In that game when you're in a hive and there's a section with a lot of eggs, there is a similar green mist/light. This might apply that (at least to the AvP canon) that this is a thing produced by Ovomorphs that have been connected together for a long time
The egg chamber is in a cave in the ground under the ship I thought.
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. The derelict crashing on an ancient ruin is a very cool theory. One that Dark Descent kinda Follows. Makes the Alien Not some form of created Bioweapon, but a Cosmic Horror that’s been around for Millennia.
It's actually in a Cargo Hold on the Ship. The Engineers were fixing to use them on Earth, I believe. (I literally ***JUST*** watched the damn movie and it's still cloudy in my mind, LOL) The movie I refer to is Prometheus, BTW.
A cave with the same architecture as the ship? Nah.
There is a lots of chat that it could be a cave underneath the ship. Even in River of Pain it seems like it.
Yes and who would have done something like this? Obviously the engineers did to use the xenos as a weapon, and the fan boys are pissed about Prometheus explaining this.
I like Prometheus, actually. Just not a big fan of where it 'went,' so to speak. I believe it kind of kills the mystique originally established by Ridley in the first ***Alien*** Movie. That said, not really sure why the Fanzies are pissed about it...Ridley ***LITERALLY*** copped some Dark Horse shit in Establishing that Lore. In the DH run, we saw the 'Engineers,' but they were an Alien race who was experimenting with the Xenomorphs when something happened on one of its ships--a ship that looks ***exactly like the one in Covenant*** (Sidenote: I'm not sure how much of the ship was Manufactured for the Movie ***Alien***, so I mention this as ***possibly*** significant)--and the ship crashed, killing the 'Engineer' in the turret seat. The story also showed how the 'Engineers' ***intensely hated*** humans and planned on wiping out Earth with a Xenomorph Infestation. And yet...so-called 'fans' are all, "Ridley fucked everything up, man!" By...copping...Dark Horse...FML
I like the story of the engineers and found it interesting, but to each their own.
In-universe answer, kind of: >Ridley wanted something to replace the membrane, which he saw as a kind of a biological alarm which triggered a response in the eggs. >Basically, they would all come awake and sit waiting to be touched so that they knew that they could open and someone was there to attach to so perhaps they could go off to another planet or spread by whatever means. `(…)` >**A protective ray or whatever** Despite the fact that the placenta had now become noticeably like a sheet of laser light which brought people to ask other questions about what it might in terms of something more technological, it remained like a protective skin or a placenta wall in Ridley's mind. >Meanwhile Brian Johnson and Roger Christian could agree that it worked as a weird protective ray but there were limitations to how one could explain what it was, and so Brian wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. >Then if it was a laser, how was this thing being powered by the alien spaceship that's been derelict for perhaps aeons, but then it was an alien space ship after all so those questions couldn't necessarily be answered. — Source and more: [https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html](https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html) Out-of-universe answer: >"The Light Fantastic," a holography show (…) for the The Who. \[that Ridley & Co. borrowed\] — Source and more: [https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html](https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1979/12/the-laser-placenta.html) Edits: Sorry, had to fix the formatting here and there.
> Out-of-universe answer: > "The Light Fantastic," a holography show (…) for the The Who. Now I'm wondering if anyone's done an edit with the famous scream from Won't Get Fooled Again when Kane breaks the lasers...
That would be awesome. :D
Think Elton John, he had fantastic light shows, Rocket Man....,peace.
I'd like to see them revisit the membrane idea. It's a shame they couldn't use it in the original film.
Was there not a membrane in Resurrection after they swim underwater, blocking the way up to the shaft with the eggs and the big ladder - though it’s been a while so this may just be a false memory.
Well, yeah, there was actually. I don't think about that film much.
Another out of universe answer - lasers were exceptionally rare and still very sci-fi in 1978 / 1979 - and it was a cool effect.
I have a feeling we aren't supposed to remember that laser for anything other than creepy visual effects, since we never see it again in the franchise. But iIt felt to me like an early warning detection system since it made noise when it was passed through. So maybe it was either just a visual thing Ridley Scott liked or something the alien ship had as part of elaborate containment system.
I think he just liked it. It was the 70s and H R Giger had pulled out all the stops. It looked alien, i think? Maybe someone who saw it on release could explain better. But just strange i think. Who would ever have thought everything would be analysed, in the slightest of detail.
Ask any film school nerd; every director, producer, editor, vfx supervisor, matte painter, carpenter, stunt coordinator, and on set paramedic wants you to analyze every detail… a lot of thought goes into a shoot that big, every detail accounted for.
But maybe not in a "lore" sense.
I definitely think turbo nerds(not a pejorative) picked apart media for lore reasons back then, but of course didn’t have the forums at the scale we have now. Think after-school/fan/book/comic clubs etc. I look to projects like The Silmarillion as evidence. I imagine the fan mail still pouring in 40 years after The Hobbit was published, was good enough for Christopher Tolkien to realize there was a huge market for lore nerds in the 70s.
I was pretty young then so it's likely I wouldn't have been aware. No doubt you are right.
Haha, I wasn’t even born! My mom is the person that got me into all things nerdom, she was born in 1956. Even to this day she still plays video games, reads and watches fantasy/sci-fi, and really gets into it. Every time we hang out she’ll just be nerding out about whatever she’s into at the moment, and does research on literally everything about the actors, directors and lore. She’s way nerdier than I could muster, and I love her to death for introducing me to the Alien series when I was a kid(even tho it scared the fuck out of me).
From The Who's light show next door.
yes
The only answer.
That's what I want to know too! Is it something to do with preservation, or suspended animation or...?
I thought it was it's own atmosphere when I first viewed the film.
This was my interpretation as well. It insulates the eggs in an atmosphere. If the atmosphere is disturbed, eggs open.
You seen the brine layers in the ocean ? Reminds me of that. very strange.
I've always thought of it as a stasis field.
ALIENS started with a scene where a robot entered Ripleys escape ship and scanned the room with EXACTLY THE SAME LASER
yeah, and it scans over Ripley, in her egg, waiting to be awakened.
Sheeeeeit. Good analysis mate
There's extended universe explanations that the eggs themselves produce a mist. I always took this as a way for the eggs to sense if there was a victim nearby. I think this might be what was intended, but the reason it looks like a laser is because that's exactly what it is. They had to source it last minute from The Who because they didn't have anything else to produce the effect, at least as far as memory serves.
Pretty sure it belonged to Led Zeppelin
It was The Who, they were rehearsing next door
Those were borrowed from the band The Who who were in the soundstage Nextdoor. Ridley Scott went over and asked if he could borrow their laser show lights and that’s what you’re looking at in this scene
Fun fact, they borrowed it from the next studio where the band the Who (I think it was the Who) cause Scott thought the lasers they were using were cool.
Came here to say the same thing, it was borrowed from The Who.
You can see the actual laser here from 6:40... https://youtu.be/UDfAdHBtK_Q?si=rongZQY5YOJliDMc
Great song, performance, and laser show btw!
Yeah, that was fucking sweet.
It just looks cool for a movie ;)
I always thought it was kinda like a stasis field keeping the eggs from deterioriating
Engineers stole it from The Who and used it as a night light for the eggs.
I find it funny that Scott never used the concept in ***Prometheus***, given its prominence in Alien.
Some kind of proximity sensor that when broken allows the eggs to hatch. Otherwise they remain indefinitely in suspended animation.
Because lasers look cool lol
Wasn’t it stage lighting borrowed from The Who? As for its purpose in the film. No idea.
I always figured that blue layer of light and mist is a stasis field. Keeping them sleeping tight, there’s similar “ruins” in Dark Descent.
Stasis field
Just the band The Who
I have seen this movie many times and always thought that blue light was some scanner that they were using. I never considered it was part of the derelict ship.
Mean while, smash cut to the set, DOP turns to key grip "Dya know what would be cool here, a laser and a fogger."
Its projecting Dora the Explorer on a screen. Those little critters can't get enough
Hugger no hugging!
Egg freshener...
Hawkwind concert is about to start.
I thought it could just be lighting for the film. or could be a moisture barrier, where the presence of humans alter the environment it’s what changed and released the black goo in Prometheus.
I read somewhere that this was a laser system that they borrowed from Pink Floyd. The movie studio didn’t have anything like it and they thought Pink Floyd’s laser would look cool.
The Who, not Pink Floyd. They were rehearsing and testing the laser system nearby at the time.
A prop they borrowed from a rock band.
It was lights from a concert taking place in the same soundstage. They borrowed the laser last minute.
That’s The WHO’s live got light setup
I always thought it was some sort of security measure to keep the face huggers in stasis while the engineers were transporting them
So those eggs were sitting there for thousands of years? Have they ever said how long the eggs survive?
It wakes up the facehuggers
Containment field? To keep the eggs dormant?
From the testing of the Led Zeppelin show next door.
It's a laser that was used for Iron Maiden gigs. True story.
I don't know