Hi all,
I always wondered why the xenos would kill or not someone. On what basis do they decide if they kill or keep someone for implanting an egg ?
One could say it is based on how aggressive someone could be against it but of course no-one would no react when seeing one
Any ideas ?

There's a rumour that at least some Xenos carry a paralysing sting in their tail spikes that immobilise hosts for transportation and implantation.

They might not bother if someone is presenting an immediate threat.
Or, they may only take whoever exhibits the qualities they need the most at that time, assuming the embryo will take on those qualities - ie a fighty type for warriors, a docile type for drones, an ugly one to play "2 Aliens 1 Marine" with, etc...

well, even thought the marines presented a threat on LV 426, it seemed that aliens were more inclined to take them for implantation rather than killing them outright.

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PFC Mike Rizzuto MVM
USS Blackhawk
3rd Batt 12th Regt

Tell that to Spunkmeyer and Ferro.

It would seem that the Xenos (according to the scripture of almighty J.C.) do possess some "threat assessment" ability- Ferro and Spunkmeyer were killed without any attempt to secure them as hosts.

Since they were the Dropship crew, it could appear that the Xenos understood that the Dropship provided not only the greatest threat to the hive with its firepower, but also the remaining humans (hosts) primary means of escape.

Of course it could also just be a coincidence.


Kevin

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Xenos can perform 'Enny, Meany, Miney, mo' in under a third of a second.

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AKA: Simon

Kevin - I think you may be giving the aliens too much credit. We don't know what happened to Spunkmeyer - he may have been immobilized for transport back to the hive. Ferro bought it most likely because she posed an immediate threat: reaching for a weapon in a confined space. The alien may have felt cornered and opted to kill her as opposed to take her for baby fodder. I'm also not sure the alien(s) understood the dropship. It was likely just a big room that closed up and started to move. If Spunkmeyer was killed it may have been a result of the alien(s) being on the defensive over the fact that their surroundings were changing, they didn't understand it, and they felt trapped. (the sound of the engines, the vibration, and the sensation of forward and upward momentum combined with variations in lateral stability.) This may also account for the killing of Ferro too, since other Marines with active weapons were taken instead of being killed.

How would the aliens know what a dropship is, how it worked, the weapons it possessed, the threat it posed to the hive, or what it was created to do? That's some pretty advanced alien tech. That would be like a monkey understanding a UH-60.

I think it's very logical that the aliens would base the choice of killing or keeping on the level of threat the potential host posed to the alien, or the hive. ...however then why did Dietrich, Apone, Wierzbowski, and Hudson get taken and not killed? Then compare that to the beastie on Fury 161... it seemed to revel in the wanton killing of unarmed inmates even before it realized Ripley was carrying a queen. ...And afterwards you would think that logically it would start collecting hosts for the queen's offspring... but it keeps on killing.

...Hmmm.

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By your own argument, how would the alien have known that Ferro was reaching for a weapon? Or even what a weapon is?

Near the end Ripley had to "demostrate" to the Queen what the capability of her flamethrower was before the Queen "got it". So how would the alien aboard the dropship have known that Ferro's weapon was a danger before she even fired it?

Don't get me wrong- I'm the first person to call into question any and all instances of the Xenos demostrating high intelligence as simply being ambiguous.

I did say it could just have been a coincidence.


I think Ferro was killed in order to have a cool blood splatter effect against the cockpit windscreen.

Kevin

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Assuming that Spunkmeyer wasn't snatched out of the dropship right as the ramp was closing (which I think is highly unlikely) even if he was only "tranquilized" by the alien on the dropship, wouldn't he have been killed anyway when the dropship crashed and exploded?

Jeff

Fair enough, and good points. However, Apone did say, "Looks like hits from small arms fire." It's possible the aliens involved in snatching armed colonists remember handguns. This may have been one of them. ...however that argument is somewhat moot by the fact the alien probably couldn't have known what Ferro was reaching for since her body and the seat obscured it, and the aliens in the air ducts were moving pretty slow and calculated toward Gorman and Vasquez - my guess is to take them back to the hive for cocooning... and Vas had just drilled an alien in the head and Gorman was shooting at another - both acts done with sidearms.




I like it!

...or perhaps the alien popped in to watch the chestburster Ferro was secretly carrying come into the world.



I think it's pretty much understood that whatever happened to Spunkmeyer it happened after he was on board. We even see him closing the hatch. We don't know how many aliens were onboard... probably no more than two, but it's most likely just one given the single pool of slime we saw. Once the door closed if the alien immobilized Spunkmeyer for cocooning it might have decided to do a smash and grab and get a twofer out of it and take Ferro and Spunkmeyer back together. ...or at lest try. And yes, even if he was paralyzed he would have bought it when the ship went down.

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I would argument on that with the possibility that this precise alien might have encountered colonists with such weapons before and had learned how leathal it could be.

But I agree on one point... the special effect on the windshield

The best argument on this is the Lambert/Parker vs Alien confrontation.

Yes Lambert was killed by the Alien but the Alien took its time over killing her because she was terrified into submission, the Alien sensed that somehow. Parker who had the flamethrower was bigger and much more aggressive and stronger. He charged the Alien trying to protect Lambert. The Alien immediately turned and took Parker out straight away no toying with him, pinned Parker against the wall and killed him.

This was before the Queen hosts business with Aliens, i would presume Lambert would have been taken for a host if the Alien needed to at the time, it already captured and cocooned Dallas and Brett. Perhaps it needed to feed.

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http://www.richarddaborn.com
Now a member of the Freebooters, another Pirate about! Aaar!
A12/TQ0.0.72138F1 ECG Daborn, R RustiSwordz South East England-UK
'In Space, there is no Horse'

Hicks was able to give an alien a shotgun lollipop without any difficulty.


I think the notion of the Xenos recognizing weapons is nearly zero (with the Ripley/Queen incident being the only exception). For instance it took them "forever" to understand going into the corridor where the sentry guns were located was a bad thing. The guns practically ran dry before they decided to find another way in.

In the Operations last stand, our heroes blasted the Xenos left right and center and yet they kept coming despite this- so I think we can rule out "self preservation" as being high on their list of priorities as well.

Gareth put it best that the Xenos aren't "stupid" but rather "driven". And I also like Rusti's take on the Parker/Lamber confrontation. Unfortunately it doesn't really explain the alien "raping" Lambert.

However this is what I'm really beginning to hate about Cameron's changes to the alien's behaviour- they are much less mysterious and foreign as the alien was in ALIEN, and much more recognizable as the behaviour of insects. They have a rudimentary system of needs- "find hosts", "protect hive/Queen"... and we really never saw them actually feeding until A3. They are fearsome because of their numbers and fearlessness.

I think I preferred the uniqueness of the alien in the first film.


Kevin

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

The bug-like appearance in Aliens sort of fits better with Hudson's explanation of their behaviour and may have been the feeling that Cameron was going for.

I think he was trying to give them more of a feeling that these creatures do have a social structure and they are dedicated to the advancement and protection, even to the point of self sacrifice, of their establishment.

This is a problem for fans, however, when they use a different director to push a franchise and this director's vision is different to that of the original director so you get a different, and sometimes not a good, feeling to the story line and structure of the film. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't and a lot of the time the production company is at fault for wanting to push the end product out even at the expense of the viewing experience and wonder why they fail at the box office.

That's just my two cents anyway.

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Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps! - Sgt. Apone

well going on the ferro argument, if you remember in alien, the alien hit brett in the head with its tongue before taking brett into the airducts, screaming. i would only assume that the alien in the dropship did the very same thing to ferro. the head strike was an immobilizing strike, not a death strike.

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PFC Mike Rizzuto MVM
USS Blackhawk
3rd Batt 12th Regt

It will interesting to see how the new movie will take this subject.

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http://www.richarddaborn.com
Now a member of the Freebooters, another Pirate about! Aaar!
A12/TQ0.0.72138F1 ECG Daborn, R RustiSwordz South East England-UK
'In Space, there is no Horse'