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- “The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility. [...] I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”
- ―Ash's admiration for the Xenomorph
Xenomorph XX121 (shortened as Xenomorphs or Xenos), also known as Internecivus raptus or simply the Aliens, are the main antagonistic species in the Alien franchise.
Background
There is no known origin to how the Xenomorphs came about. While the films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant depict them as being an indirect creation of the Engineers through infecting a group of scientists, this has apparently been retconned in later installments. What is known is that the creatures were created, possibly as weapons for war, and are hellbent on their own survival. Like any animal, they react on their own primal urges and do not hesitate for any reason.
Physical appearance
The Xenomorphs are essentially tall, slender, black, abstract humanoids. Their bodies almost look skeletal in nature with a noticeable ribcage, and are covered in a biomechanical exoskeleton. Their arms are long with clawed hands while their legs are reptilian-like with hind legs and pronged feet. They possess a long tail with scales and frills and a jagged dagger like end. Their most distinguishing trait is their long, oblong heads that lack eyes, but have a sharp toothed jaw. Rather than a tongue, they have what looks like an exerted extra mouth with sharp teeth of its own. Underneath their heads is a distinct human skull, though the skull is barely visible.
Xenomorphs have a trait known as the DNA reflex, enabling them to adopt forms based on their host's physical attributes. For notable examples, Xenomorphs spawned from quadrupedal species like dogs and oxen have a quadrupedal stance, Yautja-spawned Xenomorphs (also called Predaliens) from the non-canon Alien vs. Predator films sport the Predators' signature dreadlocks and mandibles, and Tarkatan Xenomorphs from Mortal Kombat X sport more muscular appearances and the Tarkatans' iconic arm blades.
Life Cycle
The life cycle of the Xenomorph is a complex process involving several stages and the use of a living host organism as a vessel inside which the infant gestates. The Xenomorph goes through about four to six stages of development, beginning with the egg which releases a Facehugger that will attach itself to a host's face and impregnate it with a Xenomorph embryo (also called a "seed"). Facehuggers are drawn to sound and heat, which helps track down hosts. Once the embryonic Xenomorph is secure, the Facehugger will detach from the host and subsequently die.
In the third stage, after several hours, a couple of days, or a few minutes, the infant Xenomorph, better known as the Chestburster, will force its way through the host's ribcage, killing the host in the process. Immediately after it emerges, the Chestburster will typically flee and find a secure location to molt into its adult form.
Appearances
The Great Movie Ride
A Xenomorph appears on the ride in the Alien section. Riders are taken through the ship the Nostromo where the Xenomorph pops out of the wall and the ceiling to scare the guests. Luckily, Ellen Ripley, equipped with a flamethrower is there to scare the creature away.
Aliens: Dark Descent
The Xenomorphs appear in the game. They are held within a shipping cargo that is unfortunately opened up on the Bentonville, taking over the whole facility and entrapping the crew there.
Alien: Romulus
The Xenomorphs appear (portrayed by Trevor Newlin), with their parasitoid form, the Facehuggers, having been kept in a lab in an abandoned space ship.
It is established that following the events of Alien, the ejected Xenomorph that was encountered by Ellen Ripley, was discovered curled up on a rock by the Weyland-Yutani corporation and immediately experimented upon the science ship known as the Romulus and Remus. The scientists involved managed to discover that its DNA allowed itself to easily be applied to other living organisms. It is revealed that they have the ability to quickly heal itself from disastrous injury, a trait that Weyland-Yutani found useful. Unfortunately, it creates the horrific side effect of turning whoever was injected by the Xenomoprh DNA to transform into a hybrid creature of some kind. At some point, the Xenomorphs began to wreck havoc on the ship, killing practically everyone.
The scavengers aboard the Corbelan accidentally awaken Facehuggers onboard the ship and immediately impregnate Navarro. She is quickly killed by her own Chestburster, creating a new Xenomorph that shortly afterwards kills Bjorn by stabbing him in the eye and dripping its own acidic blood on him. It later captures a gravely injured Kay Harrison before eventually rejoining its brood which have created a hive within the Romulus.
While Rain Carradine, Tyler Harrison, and the synthezoid Andy rescue Kay, Tyler is killed by a horde of Xenomorphs. Rain later rescues Andy from them and manages to take out several, avoiding their acidic blood by taking advantage of the ship's zero gravity. Rain, Andy, and Kay manage to escape the Romulus, supposedly destroying the ship and killing all the Xenomorphs onboard.
This would turn out to be a short lived victory, as Kay, who was revealed to be pregnant, took some of the Xenomorph DNA to save herself, resulting in her rapidly giving birth to a horrific Xenomorph-Human hybrid, dubbed the Offspring (played by Robert Bobroczkyi). This creature kills Kay and severely damages Andy before getting ejected out into space by Rain.
Alien: Earth
The Xenomorphs, along with several facehuggers and eggs, are present in the series.
In both "Neverland" and "In Space, No One...", it is established that several specimens were acquired by the crew of the USCSS Maginot. In typical Alien fashion, a facehugger impregnated a crewmember named Bronski before creating a Xenomorph that laid waste to the entire crew, with the exception of the cyborg Kumi Morrow who has made it his goal to capture it and take it back to his superiors at Weyland-Yutani. In "Metamorphosis", the Xenomorph attempts to attack Joe Hermit, only for his sister, the newly integrated hybrid Wendy, rescues him and successfully kills the Xenomorph. It's remains are then taken back by Prodigy, along with Weyland-Yutani's specimens. One of the seeds from the facehuggers is taken and implanted into a lung removed from Hermit to create a new Xenomorph.
In "Observation", the new Xenomorph is birthed from the lung in the presence of Wendy who managed to learn the Xenomorph language. She begins to tend to it as it rapidly grows and behaves in a docile manner around her. It eventually comes to listen to her, with the Xenomorph acting as a protector of sorts to Wendy, whom it will only listen to.
In the meantime, the hybrid Slightly is threatened by Morrow to acquire another Xenomorph specimen. In "The Fly", he tricks Arthur Sylvia into getting impregnated by a facehugger (unaware of its biology) and with the help of Smee is forced to carry him away, as seen in "Emergence". Arthur ultimately succumbs to a Xenomorph birth, but the newborn is quickly captured by Kirsh.
Trivia
- The Xenomorph was supposed to be the main antagonist for the ride ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter when it was being developed as a ride based on the franchise. Disney hire ups were concerned over the subject, but the Imagineers were allowed to take the concept and turn it into something else, resulting in the final product.
- The creatures initially lacked a specific name, and were simply called "Aliens" in the credits of the first few films. Aliens and Alien3 refer to them with the term "Xenomorph" (Greek for "alien form") as a generic term for extraterrestrials in general, which led to fans adopting it in reference to them. The book Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report gives them the official designation Xenomorph XX121.
Gallery
.jpg "Alien Earth official poster (1).jpg (136 KB)")
.jpg "Alien Earth official poster (2).jpg (733 KB)")
.jpg "Alien Earth official poster (3).jpg (175 KB)")
External links
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