The life cycle of the Xenomorph

The Alien series has always benefited from the grisly designs created by Swiss artist HR Giger for the first film. His combination of organic and mechanical material unsettles viewers, especially given the sexual nature of the characters. The Xenomorph has several phallic features, from its long head to its retractable jaw, which it uses to penetrate its victims. The Facehugger looks vaginal beneath its hand-like exterior, alongside a penetrating tube.

These disturbing elements come to the fore throughout the entire life cycle of the Xenomorph, which was established in the first two films. The Xenomorph begins its life as an egg laid by the Queen (at least according to Aliensalthough like the first film Romulus (suggests that a queen is not always necessary). The egg then develops into a facehugger. The facehugger finds a host and inserts its proboscis into it, turning the host into an incubator. Once the facehugger has completed its task, it dies and falls off, allowing the Xenomorph to prepare for its next phase.

The third stage of the life form is called a Chestburster, which is fitting since it bursts out of its host’s chest, killing them in the process. A Xenomorph is vulnerable in its Chestburster stage and tends to flee in preparation for its final stage. Since Foreignerwe assumed that the Chestburster would simply grow into a full-fledged Xenomorph and lose its skin in the process.

But in Alien: Romuluswe see another stage between Chestburster and full Xenomorph. While they search their ship Consoles Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and his cousin Kay (Isabela Merced) find a huge capsule for the chestburster that killed his girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu). In the beautiful tradition of Giger’s designs for the first Foreignerthe capsule looks vaginal, which only gets worse when Björn slams a shock stick into it, hoping to kill the creature inside.

The plan doesn’t work and acid blood finishes off Björn, forcing Kay to run for her life. What remains in viewers’ minds, however, are the images of pregnancy and assault. A vaginal cocoon or egg that can defend itself against violent penetration by secreting life-giving fluid onto the attacker.

A terrible rebirth

Pregnancy also plays a role in climax Alien: Romuluswhen Kay gives birth to something that is between a Xenomorph, a human and an engineer from Prometheus. This happens after she injects herself with the black goo from the prequel (or at least Weyland-Yutani’s best approximation of it).