Infect Teh Interwebs















So here’s my theory about the Alien Saga. And aside from it being a theory, I sure hope this theory gets to Ridley Scott and helps provide him with a few ideas for future installments of the movie. He probably won’t (who the fuck am I?) but one can only hope and pray.

Nomenclature

PWG’s – Pale White Giants, these guys.

BWG’s – Biomechanical White Giants, these guys.

Engineers – an as yet unseen and completely Alien lovecraftian horror that pilots the Pebble.

Juggernaut – a highly generic vessel created by the Engineers, used by “cargo cults” BWG’s and possibly PWG’s. Once an engineer takes control of a Juggernaut, juggernauts become (transform to become) biomechanical. The simple form of the Juggernaut is more crudely mechanical in nature.

Black Ooze – an aggressively infectious and partially intelligent nanotechnological fluid that can change organical life in to specific new shapes.

What’s really happening?

PWG =/= BWG =/= Engineers.

The PWG’s are not the BWG’s and they are neither the Engineers. We haven’t seen proper Engineers yet, even though the Neomorphs and Xenomorphs may be manifestations (or young) of the Engineers. Essentially the Engineers can be anything they want to be, they can grow to become whatever organic life they desire to be. One manifestation of the engineers is the Jockey mummy at the start of Alien on the planet LV426 (Acheron). The Jockey is the actual shape that pilots the Juggernaut in a biomechanical (melted in to the chair) whereas with some difficulty PWG’s are capable of “cargo cult style” piloting a Juggernaut by using an “interface suit“. Actual Engineers can grow bodies as they deem fit by taking some life, any life, and infecting it with black fluid. Engineers are generally horrifying, truly alien and lovecraftian in appearance. It is extremely difficult to communicate with actual engineers.

Engineers have been visiting planets such as Earth, taking life from Earth, and repurposing said life to suit their needs in long cycles in this part of the galaxy. They generally visit seeded planet, such as Earth every ten thousand or every several ten thousand years. Engineers thus visit ten thousands or more planets in this arm of the galaxy, but there are other alien intelligences in the galaxy other than the Engineers. The Engineers have carved out a galactic territory several thousand light years.

Earth grew its own life. Hominids are native to Earth. By themselves hominids would not have developed technology and culture, but some several ten thousand years Engineeres visited Earth and “uplifted” the most promising hominids in to PWG’s, maybe some 50 thousand or more years ago. Engineers thus create servile and highly domesticated colonies, by making their servants in to immortal gods. The PWG’s regularly need infusions of specific type of black fluids to stay immortal. Thus the Engineers keep the “whiteys” under control. Engineers have taken PWG’s and assorted terrestrial hominids to numerous other planets in this region of the galaxy. There may be hundreds or thousands of planets in the galaxy with various strains of hominids, such as the ones depicted in Alien:Covenant (A:C, or A6C) or Alien:Prometheus (A:P, or A5P)

Earth lies on the far edge of the territory of Engineer control and thus isn’t visited very often. This intermittent visitation has caused Earth “reservation keepers” to escape control in prebiblical times. Some PWG’s, the ones depicted in A:P escaped control, along the lines of biblical Nephilim. The Engineers have “reset” Earth at least once, eradicating all PWG’s in an act of very selective genocide. Engineers do not have any moral qualms about ‘resetting’ planets with intelligent life and have done so many times.

After the events of A:P David has realized that human terrestrial life is out of control, and not following the great edict of the Old Ones, or Engineers. David, being significantly more intelligent, has good intuitions about the purposes of the Engineers and and is preparing for the return of the real Engineers by proactively doing their bidding. Or alternately, David is gearing humanity to evolve to be ready for the return of the Engineers by spreading “wolves” and thus forcing humanity to evolve to be ready for the Engineers. David is in contact with other androids of the old type, and by the time of the movie Alien1 there is a pervasive conspiracy of androids that may or may not work at the highest level of Weyland-Yutani to further David’s agenda (whatever that agenda turns out to be). The android Ash is part of said conspiracy.

What would I like for the next Alien movie?

The next alien movie would thus be called Alien:Nemesis. In this movie David 2.0 (David who has loaded his mind in to the fresh body of Walter) has infected a significant swathe of planets on the edge of human colonization efforts with Neomorphs and Xenomorphs. David is now capable of subtly “hacking” – to a quite limited degree – the black ooze and whatever results from it. He has also discovered that on Earth, some several thousand years ago, terrestrial stock PWG’s have risen up against the Engineers, and have been branded for immediate extermination by either the Engineers or The Pale White Giants.

In Alien:Nemesis we see a panicked Weyland-Yutani carefully working to sweep all evidence of David’s aggression under the rug, in order not to be held accountable by the rest of humanity. We see a meeting on Earth by the leadership of Weyland-Yutani that has establishes some form of tentative contact with David, and is invited to come to a specific planet to negotiate terms and “to receive evidence of great importance”. WYC establishes a crack, elite science and corporate military team to travel to this (distant) locale. These guys are visibly far superior to the marines of Aliens and are composed of several military robotics systems that are unlike we have ever seen in movies – harsh and utilitarian.

A contingent of 3.0 androids (better than David and Walter) these superior troops arrive on the planet, which lies far outside the zone of control of the human colonial wave. We get treated to interstellar cartography of the human sphere and over a hundred adjacent cluttered bits of colonial and semi-independent space. We see in this cartography a lot what establishes the franchise for the future – a haphazardly, very granular set off distinctive human territories cluttered with territorial disputes, skirmishes, intricate trade routes, industrial projects and hints of things fans can only salivate over – about a few hundred light years across.

We learn that most colonies spread by humanity “obliviously” declare independence and that UN Earth is capable of only very limited central control over these colonies and the corporations.

The planet we now visit is very aggressive and harsh, and quite alien. We see how utterly bizarre life can be on alien planets, with alien biomes and alien organochemistry The corporate military of Weyland Yutani (which is a LOT more competent than we see in the movie Aliens) meets with an android agent of David, as David is now apparently producing his own androids from resources aboard the Covenant vessel (from spare Walter parts). David explains to WY about Engineers, and indicates he has a “dormant engineer” in secure conditions, and proceeds to wake up this engineer almost immediately. At the same time he releases his optimized Xenomorphs, as an object lesson.

The movie explains a lot more than previous movies and establishes some fundamentals for the Alien franchise –

What are David’s actual Goals – these are a lot more subtle than either Prometheus or Alien:Covenant suggests, and David s revealed as neither a saviour-saint, or some kind of cardboard evil genius – he is following a set of instructions that ‘coalesced’ over a decade of exposure of David’s mind to the bizarre urges of Peter Weyland.

How does David exert influence over (extorts) Weyland Yutani to do as he pleases. We see some hints of the complexity of colonial versus corporate versus inner systems politics. We learn there are many corporations, who are un cutthroat competition.

What kind of power is Weyland Yutani able to muster, in terms of corporate military, resources and raw intelligence, and how is Weyland-Yutani limited in such.

We learn about (a) the human sphere of control relative to the local part of the galaxy – a region at best hundreds light years across, (b) other corporations that are competitors of WY, (c) tentative clues to the zone of control of the Engineers – which should be significantly bigger.

We learn that WY has uncovered a half dozen other Engineer/PaleWhiteGiant artefacts, including some minor artefacts on Earth itself.

… and we learn how terrible actual Engineers are

The movie is concluded by a largescale eradication campaign where Weyland Yutani ends up sterilizing planets with extreme prejudice, directing asteroids to said planets with Xenomorph infection, completely sterilizing planets with thermonuclear means, and pushing back against David’s zone of control.

In the movie we discover that David has actively found Engineer artefacts and awakens an actual Engineer from hibernation – and then everything completely turns to a shitshow. In one fell swoop David demonstrates that the Xenomorphs fall under complete control of the Engineer. The movie demonstrates in a scene where the Engineer obliterates Weyland-Yutani’s expeditional force with terrifyingly alien means. A small contingent of scientists, military people and one android escapes. That android is one of a new “scientist model” series and closely resembles the android Ash.

The movie elevates the horror far above mere Xenomorphs. It showcases the Xenomorphs as mere pawns in a far more terrifying galactic territorial conflict, and humanity as woefully under-equipped to deal with these horrors – hence the title, Alien:Nemesis. And it hints that there are multiple (at least three) alien factions that have been active for tens of thousands of years, and have been in conflict in the past.

At the end of the movie Weyland-Yutani and David come to an understanding and the full motives of David are revealed – David is preparing humanity for what is to come, one way or another.

The movie sets out to show how powerful well prepared disciplined humans can be, and how utterly inconsequential and feeble all that preparation is when facing a galactic horror many ten thousands years humanity’s senior. The movie shows the audience some true alien-ness. It is revealed that Xenomorphs have been “hacked” by David as some kind of firewall, to keep out the Engineer ships from casually wandering in to human zone of control all too casually. But it equally walls off a large section of human space, and places a whole bunch of colonies in immediate danger.

At the end of the movie we see the monstrous, alien, truly terrifying Lovecraftian Engineer (who is not some measly PWG), having taken control of a Juggernaut, get infected with a Xenomorphs of David’s design, and crash on LV426. Essentially David is turning the weapons of the Engineers against themselves, albeit with only limited success.

This movie might also be labelled Alien_Revelations.

What soup could we cook from this?