Xenomorphs - ruthless killing machines or just misunderstood?

[Not Lord Atkin]

Okay, so I finally went and watched the first Alien movie. It was a really good film, not as scary as I thought it would be but really well-written and interesting. There was just one thing about it that I find slightly disturbing.

Given that I haven't lived my life in a locked chest on the bottom of an active volcano, I have soaked up quite a bit of Alien lore by now, even without ever watching any of the movies before. I know what Xenomorphs are, I know how their bodily structure works, I know how they reproduce, how they hunt their prey and how overwhelming a threat they are portrayed as to squishy humans. Out of all this, just about the most widely-known piece of general knowledge about them is, that they are little more than remorseless predators whose one and only purpose is to wipe out every single human they can find.

Well after watching Alien, I'm kind of starting to doubt that.
.
.
.
For those who haven't seen it yet, spoilers from the fist Alien film ahead:
.
.
.
The first nagging doubt appeared with something that Ash said near then end:
"A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I realised that this particular alien did not have much choice in the matter of killing the crew members. Ash referred to him as a 'survivor', and that's precisely what he was. Not strictly a predator. At least not in the fist movie.

First of all, he did not choose to board the ship. He was born there. I may be using the term 'born' loosely here, but then again, that's how alien reproduction works. It was not his fault that he burst out of Kane's chest. It's not like it was his choice to be born. What's worse, he was born among hostile creatures, one of which immediately started to threaten him with a knife. So he fled.

And here comes the important bit. The crew assembled and immediately devised a plan to catch him and throw him out of the airlock. They were actively searching for him with the intent to kill him. The crew were the predators here. At that point, the alien hadn't killed anyone (besides Kane but that doesn't count because Kane died as a consequence of the alien being born, which the alien had no control over).

The first kill was less of a self-defense and more of an attempt to even out the odds. He needed to discourage the crew from actively searching for him, so he killed one of them. He then proceeded to hide in the ventilation system, hoping to be left alone.

This calculation, however, backfired when the crew decided to go after him into the ventilation shaft. With a flamethrower. Now I don't know about you but if there was a guy with a flamethrower out there to kill me, I wouldn't just wait around for him to get to me.

After that, it was clear that the alien had no other choice but to kill all of his pursuers if he wanted to survive. They wouldn't have left him alone otherwise. He killed most of the remaining crew and chased the terrified but now ultimately harmless Ripley away. Notice that at this point, he had the chance to kill Jones the cat but he did not. Jones did not constitute any kind of danger to him, so he left he cat alone.

At last, lured into a false sense of security, the alien would take a nap in the escape shuttle. That's when Ripley tried to eject him into outer space. Which is just cruel. You don't do that to a sleeping person.

To me, the alien's behaviour in the first Alien movie can be easily justified. He was simply trying to survive and he chose to do that as efficiently as possible. Remember that the crew members were the first to attempt to kill him, he was simply better-equipped to fight them off.

Does anyone here share my view? Or is there anything I'm missing? Discuss.

Also, please avoid spoilers about the later films, I haven't seen any of those yet.

 

[DefunctTheory]

The xenomorph is a predatory/parasitic animal. What you see in the movie is nothing more then an animal doing what it needs to do.

You're applying human logic to something that isn't even from Earth. Xenomorph's actions cannot be 'justified,' any more then a man eating bear's actions can be justified, because there's nothing TO justify. It just is.

EDIT: Also, if you're just going by the first movie, the Xenomorph is a rapist. So... have fun with that.

 

[Zhukov]

If I was locked in a cage with a hungry tiger, I don't I'd call the tiger misunderstood. I'd understand it just fine. Which is why I wouldn't want to be locked in a cage with a hungry tiger.

[small]User was banned for: What is going on with all the bans? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/520.401227]. (Permanent)[/small]

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'd say it's misunderstood, in that no way it's the perfect predator or top of the food chain.

Now, the Predator, maybe. But in that it thinks like a human, not due to being big or anything.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

What do you see as canon? Because if we take Prometheus into it, then they are biological weapons meant to be planet cleaners.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Animals are amoral. They do what they must to survive, as the quote says. Their actions are neither good nor evil as they do not understand such concepts. The xenomorphs are bright, but still animals. They lack true consciousness and so lack the capacity for moral judgment.

 

[Thaluikhain]

the xenomorphs act iike animals, you are interpreting too much in their behaviour.

They cut the power. How did they do that, they're just animals?

Also, the alien queen recognised the flamethrower, and a threat, an alien opened a door on the dropship, the queen operated the lift, one stowed away on the ship and must have operated machinery when everyone was asleep, an alien understood the freezing button thingy, and also knew that the acid from a dead alien would release them etc

 

[IronMit]

Also watch the sequel 'Aliens'. This will support all that 'remorseless predator' lore you have picked up over the years.

I think James Cameron's Aliens completely altered what Alien was about. It turned it into a space shooter...some 15 year old Michael Bay fantasy where someone would think up 'what would happen if the xenomorphs were fighting soldiers!'..and then actually made the movie.
It was made very well but everything after the original is all just official fan fiction to me. Especially Prometheus. Turned them into a Biological weapon created by our creators to kill us for some reason but why? oh please.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Does anyone here share my view? Or is there anything I'm missing? Discuss.

Predatory parasitic hive organism. All they do is breed, eat and lay traps to help them breed. When there's no prey around they literally curl up into a ball and go to sleep, over the course of the films they prove to be quite clever, but every single thing they do is geared towards killing and multiplying, which is fairly easy to understand from my point of view.

<spoiler=It also makes sense in the context of>
Prometheus and the Dark Horse comics, where it's more or less shown that the aliens are not naturally occurring animals, but engineered weapons. Their explosively violent breeding pattern and behaviour makes sense as a method of unconventional warfare to soften up the enemy, spread chaos and put them on the defensive massively before anyone who matters has even turned up. Although Prometheus shows that they (or the technology that likely created them) was far too good at the spread chaos part for it's creators own good.

 

[loa]

If it has to kill to survive and that is imprinted into its instincts down to the reproduction cycle, how does it differ from the ruthless killing machine we misunderstand it as?

 

[JasonKaotic]

Well, if I remember correctly, the dog alien in Alien 3 wasn't provoked before it started killing people. But maybe it's just down to the kind of alien it is.
But yeah, I do agree. I did feel bad for the alien when Ripley killed it, since it left her alone at that point. But at the same time they are predators. If their instinct is to kill and eat you, you'll want to kill them before they get a chance.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

the xenomorphs act iike animals, you are interpreting too much in their behaviour.

They cut the power. How did they do that, they're just animals?

Also, the alien queen recognised the flamethrower, and a threat, an alien opened a door on the dropship, the queen operated the lift, one stowed away on the ship and must have operated machinery when everyone was asleep, an alien understood the freezing button thingy, and also knew that the acid from a dead alien would release them etc

Being an animal does not preclude intelligence. Squirrels, dogs, chimpanzees, dolphins etc, all pretty bright, capable of reasoning and learnt behaviour.

OT: No, the alien is an emotionless, amoral, killing machine. A bit like a large army ant.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

animals also hunt to eat and multiply, but also can defend themselves when faced with danger. like a poster siad before, they are acting with no conscience whats right or wrong. they are acting whats best for their species or pack.

That's precisely what I'm getting at. It was only trying to survive given the circumstances and chose the most efficient way to do so. The crew was out there to kill him and that's a fact. Any animal would have done the same in his situation, especially the more intelligent ones. That doesn't necessarily make him a ruthless killer out there to wipe out the crew, as he's often portrayed. He's more of a survivor doing their best to preserve themselves.

And yes, I think he did display a very high level of intelligence, especially when it comes to stealth and tactical approach.

what if the crew had left it alone?
who would guarantee that it wouldnt multiply and infest the entire ship?
and then, what does that thing eat? and what if it sees the crew as food?
what if it tries to take over the ship by force? can it do that?.
can it be reason with? what if not?
you cant let something run free in a contained enviroment you live in when you know nothing about it.

the crew acted reasonable.

not strictly speaking reasonable, they just didn't want to take any chances and I guess that's alright. However, they did pose a threat to him. Many people likened the alien to an animal in the sense that it will do its best to survive and it will attack if it feels threatened. And that's exactly what happened. The alien felt threatened, he wasn't out there with the sole purpose of killing everyone.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

not strictly speaking reasonable, they just didn't want to take any chances and I guess that's alright. However, they did pose a threat to him. Many people likened the alien to an animal in the sense that it will do its best to survive and it will attack if it feels threatened. And that's exactly what happened. The alien felt threatened, he wasn't out there with the sole purpose of killing everyone.

Then the same could be said of the crew. They felt threatened after it kills Brett.

Brett was no threat, the alien had no idea they might hunt it. Brett's there searching for the cat when BAM. Dead.

 

[Lieju]

Animals are amoral. They do what they must to survive, as the quote says. Their actions are neither good nor evil as they do not understand such concepts. The xenomorphs are bright, but still animals. They lack true consciousness and so lack the capacity for moral judgment.

Animals living in groups that communicate with each other and have social behaviour also have empathy and morals.
It's not like those qualities just appeared in hominids suddenly, they evolved from similar kind of behaviour.

You'd need to look on how the xenomorphs act with each other.
I'm not an expert on this, but it could be possible they see humans just as food/place to lay eggs, and would not feel empathy towards them any more than many people feel towards animals.

But they might be capable of getting attached to others of their kind (although their parents don't raise them, do they?), and have social ties that for example would make them feel bad if something bad happened to their loved ones.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

Then the same could be said of the crew. They felt threatened after it kills Brett.

Brett was no threat, the alien had no idea they might hunt it. Brett's there searching for the cat when BAM. Dead.

yes, I guess that's true. But think about it. It's either him or them. He didn't really have a choice in the matter. He was simply better-equipped than they were.

Imagine he was human. In those circumstances, he would probably be the protagonist. And indeed, many movie and videogame heroes share the alien's predicament. Locked away in an unknown environment with a bunch of people that are out there to kill them, possessing a special skillset that helps them survive.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't feel that Alien is the bad guy in that movie. He is one of the victims, along with the crew. The bad guy here is Ash, who willingly put both parties into that situation.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Aliens if I recall have human level Intelligence, they just apply it in different ways than humans do.

Thats why you see them "talking" in Aliens 4 as much of an abomination as that movie is.

Though as to the OT: they are not overly aggressive on their homeworld acording to the lore, its only after they are taken from their homeworld that they go a bit bonkers.

Not really. The queen maybe, but not the bog standard warriors. They are intelligent within their field. Animals have been known to communicate with each other from time to time. I sincerely doubt humans would try rushing sentry guns for as long as the aliens did or not attacking people displaying the right pheremone trace. I'd say more like a higher primate or squirrel. That's still pretty damn clever.