Directed by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus is the latest film in the Alien franchise. The franchise made its debut in 1979 and was known for its horror and mysterious storyline. However, the franchise shifted heavily towards action after James Cameron’s 1986 film, Aliens. The 2024 film, Alien: Romulus, hopes to bring back the early horror and mysterious storyline of the franchise, giving its fans back the original flavor. Here’s everything you need to know about the Easter eggs in Alien: Romulus.
Alien: All the Major Easter Eggs in Romulus
After the success of the first two films in the Aliens franchise, the subsequent films were not as impressive. However, Fede Alvarez is determined to reclaim the lost glory through Alien: Romulus. The film takes place 20 years after the events of Ridley Scott’s Alien and 37 years before James Cameron’s Alien.
The opening scene of Alien: Romulus is very similar to Alien (1979), as is the opening credits and technical equipment depicted. In addition, the particular scene of birds eating toys and Rook’s involvement adds to the similarity between the two. Alien: Romulus also has features similar to James Cameron’s Aliens.
Aliens (1986) became popular for many things. One of them was Ripley’s famous line, “Get out of here you bitch.” Andy also utters the same line in Romulus. Also, Jackson’s mining colony looks very similar to Hadley’s Hope. Also, the alien nest discovered by Ren and Andy is similar to the one in its prequel.
Alien 3 (1992) was not as popular as its predecessors, but Alvarez still managed to add details from this film. Romulus features a very waning 20th century pomp at the beginning of the film. Alien Resurrection (1997) also inspired details in the 2024 film as the producers took inspiration from the hybrids born in Resurrection to create K’s mutant child.
Prometheus (2012) serves as the origin of all the other films, as it explains the birth of the Xenomorphs. One of the film’s most important scenes shows Elizabeth Shaw giving birth to an Alien. Romulus includes a similar scene where Kay gives birth to an Engineer-Xenomorph-human hybrid.
Fede Alvarez on his Alien: Romulus approach
Talking about Alien: Romulus, film director Fede Alvarez spoke to Variety about how he maintained the differences and balance between Scott and Cameron’s Alien worlds to present his latest story. The film director also talked about dropping several Easter eggs in Romulus, stressing that all of them had to be done very carefully.
Alvarez said, “All of these things are supposed to be done in a harmless way. Meaning, ‘If you know, you know.’ But I hope that new audiences, twenty years or older, will say, ‘Wow, this isn’t like the movies I saw last week. It has a different kind of atmosphere.'”
Speaking further about the seventh installment of the already popular franchise, Fede Alvarez explained that they tried to recreate not only the style of the original film but also its emotions, as he highlighted that their efforts were directed towards creating a similar experience to the one given by the original films for the new generation.
He said, “I have tried to replicate not just the style but the emotions I got when I watched those films… Hopefully the film will make a new generation understand why ‘Alien’ is so brilliant and scary. All credit goes to the original films. I feel my job is to show how brilliant those films are and how crazy their ideas were.”
Well, it seems that Fede Alvarez’s efforts were worthwhile as the film received positive reviews from both the public and critics. Alien: Romulus was released on August 16, 2024 and is currently playing in theaters.
Also read: Alien Romulus ending explained: Is the new Xenomorph lineage still alive?
