Protecting the queen?
Maybe the bug saw them as a threat to the queen.

But killing everyone.......does seem odd.
Unless somehow they knew more were coming?

Ahh the shroud darkens.....

_________________

...and the plot thickens . But yeah, I would think that it would kill some of the prisoners for food or if threatened (like that first guy in the vent, the poor SOB). But all the alien seemed to do was go around and kill everything, with no attempt being made to secure hosts for the growing queen. It's like the alien had gone rouge. I kinda like to think that, sense I'm not the biggest fan of the whole "alien variation" according to the species it incubated in. Maybe the Fiorina 'Fury' 161 alien was an example of an alien mutant. Make for interesting time wasting discussion.

Or maybe it was just dumb.


Kevin

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

Thinking out loud:

A few things to remember with the prisoners: We never actually see the alien's lair - Ripley was below the alien when she found it, so we don't really know what was up there with it... possibly cocooned prisoners being held for the soon-to-be-hatched queen. ...however, that area seemed rather cramped for a queen.

We also never saw what happened to all of the prisoners. And as we learned in ALIEN and ALIENS a head strike doesn't necessarily equal death. Brett was still screaming as he was carried away after his attack, and Hudson points out that Apone is still alive (his vitals were low, but he was still alive) - and Apone was hit in the face. Also head wounds bleed profusely - ever get a good gash on your head? The amount of blood that pours out is scary as hell! My point? Andrews may have survived his attack. There a slim chance that Clemens survived as well. ..or at east enough to serve as a host or material for creating an egg ala Brett. We also don't know what happened to the inmate that was attacked that started the fire.

Now, to counter my points: Andrews lost a lot of blood, so even if he did survive he may have bled out a short time later which means he would probably have served better as egg material rather than a host. Clemens' wound looked pretty severe as well, so he may have suffered he same lot as Andrews. The inmate on the ladder before the fire is probably the best bet (that we see) for a captured host.

Hmmm... there is a flaw in the prisoner-egg idea: W-Y would have scoured the facility after it was closed for anything relating to the alien. Partially transformed prisoners would have been found. And according to Resurrection Ripley's blood was all they found.

...Perhaps the best explanation for the killing spree may be that the alien was creating ample food supplies for the Queen to aid in her development once she was born, so perhaps its behavior wasn't so unusual - it's just that we've never seen what aliens do when they are in the presence of a queen embryo. And the wanton killing didn't seem to really start until after the alien discovered Ripley. Murphy was an act of self defense, Rains was bait for the other two, and Boggs was likely a first meal. And Clemens may have been intended as a potential candidate for a egg morphing, but after discovering Ripley he may have just become Queen fodder.

On a separate note: I'm still searching down a copy of the script I mentioned. The link I had bookmarked is no longer working, and I can't find the version I downloaded. Will post when I have something.

_________________