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I am a massive fan of the alien series because of its scientific explanations and basic survival struggle storylines. It's kept simple and hardcore, muck about with a hostile organism with a profit motive and nature strikes back, big time. However there's always been one thing that bothered me terribly because of it scientific impossibility. In the 1979 masterpiece "alien" the creatures growth rate is simply impossible. I have an explanation thats extremely simple and after searching the internet I can't find anyone else that has floated this simple theory...the xenomorph that killed the crew is not the chestburster but another adult alien that boards the ship while its on lv 426.
Disclaimer: This theory is only applicable to this movie.
I am a massive fan of the alien series because of its scientific explanations and basic survival struggle storylines. It's kept simple and hardcore, muck about with a hostile organism with a profit motive and nature strikes back, big time. However there's always been one thing that bothered me terribly because of it scientific impossibility. In the 1979 masterpiece "alien" the creatures growth rate is simply impossible. I have an explanation thats extremely simple and after searching the internet I can't find anyone else that has floated this simple theory...the xenomorph that killed the crew is not the chestburster but another adult alien that boards the ship while its on lv 426.
Disclaimer: This theory is only applicable to this movie.
What's impossible about the growth rate? We essentially know nothing about xenomorph biology for the rather obvious reason that it's not an Earth-based life form and we're just not told all that much. If it can extract the requisite material (ie, whatever it's made of) from its environment, why might it not grow so rapidly? Because life on Earth doesn't? That life on Earth does not do certain things hardly means that those things are impossible for any life anywhere.
If you can accept that a member of the crew is a robot that is indistinguishable from a human, and that artificial gravity in a non-rotation spacecraft is possible, then accepting the unusual biology of a creature that comes from who knows where is pretty trivial.
What's impossible about the growth rate? We essentially know nothing about xenomorph biology for the rather obvious reason that it's not an Earth-based life form and we're just not told all that much. If it can extract the requisite material (ie, whatever it's made of) from its environment, why might it not grow so rapidly? Because life on Earth doesn't? That life on Earth does not do certain things hardly means that those things are impossible for any life anywhere.
If you can accept that a member of the crew is a robot that is indistinguishable from a human, and that artificial gravity in a non-rotation spacecraft is possible, then accepting the unusual biology of a creature that comes from who knows where is pretty trivial.
That organism grows from a 1/2 pound to 7 foot tall in a matter of hours, that's absolutely impossible under any conceivable circumstances.
I always thought it should have been written that they gave up looking for the larva and went back to cryosleep for a few months and then a mechanical problem awakes them where they discover all food storage gone and a few hundred rat TAILS scattered throughout the ship or something like that.
There's some attempt to explain it in the books I'm told but I haven't researched it
I have a biology degree and a few decades in animal science and I just can't accept that kind of growth rate.
At least 90 days and even thats fantastic, plausible at 6 months.
If you look at films from simply a perspective of their being free floating stories that have no greater meaning, or you focus on plot flaws, you can miss the greater context of the film in society and what - at a gut level - makes it popular or worthy.
Many movies are variations of ancient themes. That is not surprising, as mythology developed as coded crystalizations of the fears and awes of mankind. When you come across Jungians and scholar geeks seemingly nattering on about some obscure ancient myth, you might want to consider how that introspection relates to a greater understanding of us as humans.
The "Alien" franchise works in part because it is a re-connection with myth, a re-telling or variation of fears so pervasive in humans that they still resonate after thousands of years. Mythic themes bypass logical barriers and can reach deep into the psyche of the viewer (or reader). That power can captivate, can force a drive towards a greater understanding of the mythic themes or the details of the myth container story.
The "Alien" is a form of one of the Greek "furies" or Erineyes. The world on which the eggs are formed can be interpreted as Gaea, and the greed and acquisitive drive of humans being avenged by a furie in the form of the alien.
When going to the movies, it is usually best not to expect stories about spaceships and aliens to adhere too closely to science.
How is the Nostromo so far from Earth without faster-than-light speeds? If they are going faster than light, then why aren't they returning to Earth 5,000 years after they left?
Why do they take such a massive part of the ship down to that planet? You're telling me on a ship that size no one thought to pack a shuttle craft?
They are going into unexplored territory of space, and the only weapon onboard is a MacGyvered blowtorch???
And yes, an alien larva gaining 8,000% in mass in a matter of hours with no food source readily available doesn't make much sense.
All that is true, yet I don't really care. ALIEN remains a classic horror movie, one I never tire of watching.
I really like the science part of science fiction and when they focus on near future technology and keep things plausible through the scientific faccts we understand today I enjoy my movie going experience much more.
furthermore I think it takes much more skill planning and intelligence to keep things plausable on the science fiction front.
I come from a biology background and have done a fair amount of hands on science, about 75% of my career has been in animal science and 25% public safety.
I'm not here to touch on space travel because I don't know crap about that but in the world of biology there is simply no plausible explanation for that kind of growth rate.
Brett finds a fresh larval "shed" with a complete tail section just moments before the 7 ft adult takes him out.
It's the ONLY plausible explanation, there was a second xenomorph on the ship, the larval xenomorph simply was not involved.
It probably wasent conceived that was but I think it should have been.
Brett finds a fresh larval "shed" with a complete tail section just moments before the 7 ft adult takes him out.
It's the ONLY plausible explanation, there was a second xenomorph on the ship, the larval xenomorph simply was not involved.
It probably wasent conceived that was but I think it should have been.
There was only one xenomorph on the ship. That is clear in the narrative.
From the time the chestbuster busts out and slithers away until the fully grown xenomorph appears ... it isn't really clear. But even in the context of the movie, it's clear that at least several hours have passed. It could even be as much as a day or more.
Is it likely that a creature could grow to ten times its size in a 10-20 hour period without a reliable food source? On Earth ... no. Nothing like that exists. But in ALIEN you are talking about an extraterrestrial life form. We simply don't know what biological functions apply.
Yeah, it still seems unlikely to me. Impossible? Insufficient data.
But hey, it's a movie, not a documentary. As long as it is plausible, I'm in.
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