Countdown to Alien: Covenant: Xenomorph

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You can’t have a discussion about the Alien universe with out tackling the Xenomorph!  

Nothing says Alien like aliens. That pretty much goes without saying, but I don’t think any depiction of alien life forms is as iconic and dread inducing like the Xenomorph. From their screen debut in 1979, they have been the ugly mug of the franchise and have creeped their way into the collective nightmares of all who’ve seen them.

The Xenomorph got it’s start from a print by the Swiss artist H.R. Giger a few years earlier. Before writing the script for Alien, Dan O’Bannon was working on an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune for Alejandro Jodorowsky. Unfortunately the film never took off, but O’Bannon was able to meet Giger, who was also working on the movie. He was impressed by the artwork he was shown, and it sat in the back of his mind until it came time to start designing the creature for Alien. He suggested Giger to director Ridley Scott and he loved the biomechanical art style, beautiful and terrifying. Scott brought him on board and the rest is history.

Birth of the Beast

The horror aspect that the Xenomorph presents is amplified due to it’s main biological trait; it’s an endoparasitoid. In a nutshell, that’s a parasite that kills the host in the process. That’s some seriously messed up stuff.

And it all started with an egg.

Originally, there was no explanation given for the origin of the eggs. They were just there, waiting in the belly of a crashed alien craft on an inhospitable rock. It’s when you get near them that the fun really kicks off. Somehow, the organism inside knows when a potential host is near, and releases the facehugger.

This is the second stage in their life-cycle and where it gets good. The facehugger is a spider-like, crab-like organism that attaches itself to the host and renders them unconscious. With its legs around the victims face, and its tail wrapped around their neck, it inserts a proboscis into the throat and deposits an embryo. During the process, it also supplies oxygen to keep them alive. Once attached it cannot be removed without killing the host. Afterwards, the facehugger detaches and quickly dies off. It only has the one task of implanting the embryo, much like a bee has only one sting in them before dying. The host will eventually regain unconscious, seemingly unharmed. A body scan though will show something quite different.

The next stage is the chestburster. The gestation period can take anywhere from several hours to several days, as it absorbs nutrients and grows. Violently, it erupts from the hosts chest, and ends their symbiotic relationship permanently. Quickly they escape in order to continue their growth into a fully mature adult.

The Final Form

There have been a few variations on the Xenomorph design between films. All sharing the same “Biomechanical” appearance; an organic and machine hybrid look, the changes sometimes reflect the type of host they inhabited. In Alien 3 for instance, a dog was the original host, so the resulting adult has a more animalistic nature, like double jointed legs. All are covered in a hard carapace exoskeleton, or armor, and have an elongated crescent shaped skull. The head contains no eyes, and an inner jaw that it uses as a weapon to puncture metal and bone. Another weapon they possess is their tails. Sometimes shown with a single barb to sting with, at other times with one or many segmented blades.

They are able to climb and run incredibly fast making them extremely difficult to injure, and exhibit amazing hunting instincts. They are seen throughout the series as efficient, silent hunters; striking out from hidden places such as ventilation systems and dragging away their prey. Acid for blood is another handy thing to have as well.

Varying degrees of intelligence are observed in the species; limited to more complex problem solving skills, hunting in packs, etc. They have a distinct class system separated into a Queen at the top, followed by warriors and drones. They exhibit a hive mind mentality, gathering hosts and building large cocoons to expand the hive.

The Evolution Continues

Now that they’re exploring the potential origins of the Xenomorph species, they’re developing a whole new angle to the story. Prometheus hinted at the Engineers development of a biological agent, a chemical weapon, the purpose of which still remains unclear. Through a series of events; deliberate infection of a crew member, transfer of contamination through sexual intercourse and a “birth” of a new creature referred to as the Trilobite…new forms are produced.

Fun Fact: The Trilobite that infected the Engineer at the end resembles an original concept for the facehugger. The idea was floated around of a creature with tentacles but was scrapped for the current design.

With Alien: Covenant the story will be expanded again, and I can’t wait to see it. I love the concepts that they’re exploring. Creation, both in our creation and what we’ve created ourselves for better or worse. There is something truly scary about reaching out to solve questions we’ve had since the dawn of our civilization, and not liking the answers.