Xenomorph: Encyclopedia II - Xenomorph - Variations

Xenomorph - Variations

The Alien has been portrayed in noticeably different ways throughout the films. Much of this is due to the special effects technology and techniques used to bring it to life.

Xenomorph - Body shape

In the original Alien film, Alien, and sequel Aliens they were depicted as tall, slender creatures with a roughly human silhouette and a biomechanical design. Notably, the creature in the first film was far taller than those in the second. This was because of the difficulty of finding multiple seven-foot tall high actors; ballet dancers were used instead. In later films, like Alien: Resurrection and Aliens vs. Predator, they were depicted as being shorter and bulkier creatures, portrayed by either the traditional men in suit technique for closeups or full form using computer-generated imagery.

Xenomorph - Tail

Originally, the Alien's tail was roughly the length of the creature with a small, almost surgical stinger-like barb on the end. From Alien³ onwards, however, the tail has grown in length and now features a knife-like blade at the tip. In Alien: Resurrection and Aliens vs. Predator, the tails have also sported a fin right before the blade. This was introduced in Alien: Resurrection to help the creatures swim convincingly, and was left on in Alien vs. Predator as ADI, the company that redesigned the creatures, did not have enough time to alter the designs.

The original shooting script for Aliens features a scene in which Lieutenant Gorman is "stung" by an Alien's stinger. He was not killed, merely stunned, and the barb remained lodged in his shoulder, having torn loose from the Alien's tail, much like a bee stinger. The novelisation also includes this scene, though the movie itself does not. However, this was integrated into Aliens vs. Predator 2. According to the game, the tip of the alien's tail sports a neurotoxin that allows it to stun enemies that it manages to hit.

Xenomorph - Head

In Aliens the xenomorph was depicted as having ridges along its cranium, while in all other films the creatures had smooth cowls covering their skull, the logistic reason being that the cowl-less aliens in the sequel were easier to make and were more resistant to damage (director James Cameron was worried about the dome cracking).

In Alien: Resurrection and Alien vs. Predator, the head was shortened greatly to approximately half the original thirty-three inches. It was also made flat at the base, with little to no similarity to the original designs.

While it is never explained why the aliens from Aliens are missing the transparent cowl from their heads, a plausible theory exists in the fan community that since these Aliens are weeks older than the ones featured in the other films, they have fully matured and so their exoskeletons had fully hardened.

It is also very noteworthy to know that the original alien depicted in the first movie were Hans Ruedi Giger's original designs. H.R. Giger's original alien head design is based on the human male penis.

Xenomorph - Fingers

In Alien and Alien³ the xenomorph had six fingers, with the index & middle fingers conjoined into one digit and ring & pinky fingers also conjoined, and a thumb on both sides. In Aliens the xenomorphs were shown with five fingers, missing the extra thumb. In Alien: Resurrection and AvP, the aliens were shown to have four fingers.

There is no explanation for the fluctuating number of digits; however, if you count the conjoined fingers from each variation as a single finger, each alien had four fingers.

Xenomorph - Reproduction

It is impossible to even tell the sex of the alien. The cast referred to it as being ambi-sextrous while designer HR Giger says it is genderless. The alien appears to not need sexual reproduction, relying on the eggs alone. In Alien: Director's Cut, the alien originally had a second method of reproduction, whereby it could transform humans into eggs, as shown when Ellen Ripley discovers two victims of the xenomorph under the landing gear of their ship at the end of the film. This offered an origin for the eggs that did not require a queen, which seems to have been superseded (some would say merely complemented) by the queen in Aliens. None of the other films have continued with this method, and it is mostly considered atypical for the xenomorph life-cycle. Outside of the deleted scenes in recent versions of the film, this method of reproduction has never been seen and is not strictly considered canon.

In a deleted script for Alien³, these "eggs" are actually cocoons, inside of which a human is painfully transformed into a fullgrown alien, which then emerges from the cocoon like a perversion of a butterfly. This non-canon "tertiary" version of reproduction bypasses queens and facehuggers entirely. In another deleted script, the aliens reproduce via parasitical spores, which also turn humans into fullgrown aliens; but these "spore aliens" are actually genetically altered clones, so their way of reproduction is not the norm (and is impossible for normal alien species).

In Alien³ another addition was made: that of a "super facehugger" (another fan term used regularly) that could impregnate two hosts with a Queen and regular embryo and was larger and darker compared to normal. This explains why both Ripley and a dog were impregnated from one egg. The super facehugger was found by some of the inmates, who thought it a type of jellyfish. Another explanation was that there were either two facehuggers, or that the "super facehugger" is actually just a normal queen facehugger, which has the second drone to protect the queen as it matures; which may be why the dog alien might have tried to protect Ripley.

Oddly enough, even though it seems unlikely, some people think that all of the "Hive" Xenomorphs are female, and that the males are expelled from the hive upon sexual maturation, and that the queen emits a pheromone that prevents female sexual maturation.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Variations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki