Alien: Romulus raised the stakes by reintroducing the Xenomorphs in a thrilling horror plot that pays tribute to the franchise's greatest hits.
Directed by Fede Alvarez (Don't Breathe), it follows six young space colonizers who encounter the Xenomorphs while trying to steal highly regulated equipment aboard an abandoned space station drifting in space.
The film is set in 2142, taking place between the events of Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and James Cameron's Aliens (1986).
The anticipation surrounding Alien: Romulus has been high, especially after strong positive reactions from critics.
Alien: Romulus Spoilers From Start to Ending
Warning - the rest of this article contains spoilers for Alien: Romulus.
Alien: Romulus begins with Rain (Cailee Spaeny) attempting to leave Jackson's star-mining colony after fulfilling the necessary service hours. However, her request is denied.
Together with her android brother, Andy (David Jonsson), they are recruited by Tyler (Archie Renaux) and his crew to steal highly regulated equipment in an abandoned space station named Renaissance composed of two modules — Remus and Romulus.
This equipment is later revealed to be cryo-chambers which they would use on their way to Yvaga III and they need Andy to open the space station.
Tyler, Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Andy are the first ones to go to the space station while Rain, Kay (Isabela Merced), and Navarro (Aileen Wu) stay on their ship.
There are two main problems for the team: the space station only has 36 hours left before it hits the rings of the nearby planet, and they are not aware that it is infested with facehuggers and a hive of Xenomorphs.
How Did the Xenomorphs Invade the Space Station?
The early moments of Alien: Romulus reveal that the original team aboard the Renaissance managed to retrieve "Big Chap" (aka the original Xenomorph from 1979's Alien) while it drifted into space.
For those unaware, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) defeated Big Chap by kicking him out of the ship and into deep space at the end of 1979's Alien.
Rook, the science officer/android aboard the ship, explains that the team spent 1770 days in space as they tried to search for the creature in deep space.
The team thought that the original Xenomorph was already dead when they found it, but it was still alive and it went on a rampage, killing everyone on board.
Big Chap also managed to lay eggs and create a hive inside the ship.
While this connection is surprising to some, it makes sense in the Alien franchise's timeline since the 1979 movie is the humans' first encounter with a Xenomorph.
Although Big Chap is later revealed to be dead, seeing it again, albeit briefly, is a worthwhile callback to Ridley Scott's first Alien movie.
Who Dies in Alien: Romulus? Character Deaths Explained
Circling back to the team's mission, Tyler, Bjorn, and Andy manage to find the cryo-chambers that they are trying to steal, but the energy inside isn't enough to transport them to Yvaga.
The trio head to a chamber-like location inside Romulus and they encounter a horde of facehuggers. Rain and Navarro try to help, but the latter is caught by a facehugger (Alien fans will know what happens next to her, sadly).
Bjorn leaves Rain, Andy, and Tyler behind to get Navarro back to a ship where a pregnant Kay waits. Navarro is then subdued by the alien inside her and instantly dies.
Navarro's chaotic death prompts the ship to bump into the space station, causing it to change course and accelerate its time of impact to the planetary rings (from 36 hours to approximately 47 minutes).
Bjorn is then killed by the adult Xenomorph for trying to become a hero. Tyler is the next victim when he sacrifices himself to save Rain and Kay from a rampaging Xenomorph.
Andy and Rain then have a tense standoff with the horde of Xenomorphs, with Rain using a primitive version of the Pulse Rifle that the colonial marines used in Aliens.
After an epic duel which even includes Andy saying Ripley's iconic line from Aliens ("Get away from her, you bitch!") before saving Rain, the trio manages to escape the space station unscathed, but the story is far from over for them.
Who Is Rook? 'Alien' Connection & Mission Explained
Rook is a dismantled synthetic and science officer aboard the Renaissance and it resembles Ash from 1979's Alien. The android even has the likeness of Alien actor Ian Holm.
He is the one responsible for telling Rain and the others about what happened to his team and his main mission.
A good chunk of the movie shows that Andy is affected by Rook's programming after his module is transferred to him to gain access to most of the space station's controls.
His prime directive? Fulfill the mission of the company (the Weyland-Yutani Corporation) by retrieving the specimen or their experiment by any means necessary even if the whole crew goes down. Coincidentally, it is the same goal that the original Ash has in the first movie.
In a lengthy exposition, Rook reveals that they are experimenting with the Xenomorphs to retrieve and develop a black goo named Prometheus 5 to make humans immune to novel diseases, with him even calling it an "upgrade for humanity."
A canister of black goo is taken to the ship by Kay while Rain and Andy narrowly escape the space station's destruction as it collides with the planetary rings, effectively killing Rook and the rest of the Xenomorphs aboard.
Prometheus and Alien: Covenant fans may recognize the black goo since it is the same form of substance that David (the android responsible for creating the Xenomorphs and the main villain of the prequels) used to experiment with humans and kill the Engineers.
The black goo in Romulus is reverse-engineered and it seems that Rook is hoping that it will finally live up to its potential.
The "Steatite Ampules", which is another connection to Alien: Covenant, appear via hologram during the lab scene where Rook explains the company's plan. These are urns designed to store the black goo from Prometheus.
Alien: Romulus' Wild Ending Explained
As the last remaining trio prepares to head to Yvaga, the nightmare is not yet over for them. At the center of the film's crazy third act is Kay, who is already pregnant.
To recap, Kay is initially kidnapped by a Xenomorph early on, but she gets rescued by her brother, Tyler, and Rain.
She has lost a lot of blood after being stabbed by the alien. Given that she is so weak and she wants to save the baby, she injects herself with Prometheus goo to try and save her life (For context, she is not aware of Rook's revelation about it earlier).
As Kay prepares to go into stasis, she unexpectedly gives birth to a terrifying human and Xenomorph hybrid. The creature looks skinny and pale, resembling a Slenderman-like figure that has Xenomorph features.
The hybrid (aka "Offspring Creature" in the credits) wreaks havoc inside the ship, killing Kay instantly and dismantling Andy who tries to save her.
Rain comes face to face with the Offspring Creature and they have a lengthy clash.
She manages to outsmart it by luring it into one of the air ducts, successfully pushing it to space similar to how Ripley defeated the first Xenomorph in Alien.
Rain even wears a space suit during the tense confrontation, mirroring what Ripley did in the first movie.
The movie ends with Rain putting Andy into stasis with hopes of fixing him in the future as they head to Yvaga. She also creates a log entry that mirrors what Ripley said in Alien before going into stasis.
Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Read more about Alien: Romulus below:
Alien: Romulus Cast, Characters, & Actors (Photos)
Alien: Romulus Popcorn Buckets Guide: Where to Buy & When They’ll Release (AMC, Cinemark & Regal)
