Includes SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus!
Summary
Alien: Romulushas been hailed as a return to form for the iconic sci-fi horror franchise, and its popularity has brought along a number of hilarious memes. In a movie series known for its gruesome body horror, terrifying, vile creatures, and mass murder of main characters,the only approach that makes sense is to embrace the absurd aspect ofAlien. Especially given the jaw-droppingAlien: Romulusending, which many audiences on social media reacted to appropriately, humor is perhaps a necessary coping mechanism to survive the latest Xenomorph blockbuster.
Horror filmmaker Fede Álvarez brought his own unique aesthetic to thefranchise, taking over for Ridley Scott, whose previous iterations weren’t the most well-receivedmovies in theAlienseries. Álvarez has been praised for returningAliento its roots, paying homage to the style of the original 1979 movie, but also for expanding on its ideas with shocking new developments.Many memes have reacted to the film’s new hybrid alien creature, which appears in the climax sequence,affirming that Álvarez introduced an unforgettable new species to the lore.
10Reacting To The Third Act
X User: @Jessifreakinlyn
Alien: Romulusfelt like it was winding down after the Xenomorph was defeated, but one unexpected foe, even more terrifying than all the ones before, still remained. When theAlien: Romulushybridcreature first appeared, no one was prepared for what they were seeing.The hybrid somehow took the scariest qualities of the classic Xenomorph, combining them with the freakiest parts of thePrometheusEngineers, and added in some human elementsto make matters worse.
The use of Kathryn Newton’s character fromAbigail, another fun 2024 horror thriller, perfectly captures what it was like to see the hybrid appear for the first time in theaters. Most of the movie effectively utilized old tricks from theAlienfranchise for its thrills, but this is the major moment inAlien: Romuluswhere the horror is entirely fresh and original.
I Feel Better About Alien: Romulus Bringing Back That Original Alien Actor Now
Alien: Romulus brings back the likeness of one actor from the original Alien, and I’m feeling better about this controversial decision.
9Simon Cowell Reacts
X User: @Kneon
X user @Kneon further capturesthe transition audiences in theaters experienced as the new hybrid arrived on screen. As mentioned, so many elements ofAlien: Romulusup until that point were just rehashes of the originals. It’s a beautifully shot film with an extraordinarily talented cast, but it’s understandable that it might’ve been underwhelming for tried and trueAlienfans who’d experienced all of it countless times before. And then the hybrid shows up.
the perfect summation of theAlien: Romulusshock.
Fede Álvarez hit the ball out of the park with this new creature, and even Ridley Scott has been active in his praise for the film and the hybrid. It’s undoubtedly one of the most horrifying beings ever to grace the movie screen, and Simon Cowell’s widening eyes are the only way to describe the experience truly. It’s the perfect summation of theAlien: Romulusshock.
8Total Chaos On The Renaissance
X User: @mcumagik
The final act ofAlien: Romulusis beyond just terrifying; it’s utterly bonkers. An interesting aspect of theAlienfranchise is that it dips into the psychosexuality of body horror in a way that most mainstream media franchises would never dare touch.TheAlien: Romulusclimax is insane compared to the contents of the typical blockbuster, as it mixes all of these elements that resemble the incredible manic weirdness of films likeEraserheador Possession and is truly unforgiving with them.
In the third act, audiences see a woman give birth to a tiny alien baby, which quickly returns to her and devours her. Then, that baby turns into a ginormous, lanky, pale monstrosity in a matter of moments and tries to hunt and kill the main character. It’s terrifying, and thisFamily Guygif sums it up nicely.
7Dora Gave Birth To The Hybrid
Instagram User: @shadowplaypdx
What’s even more freaky than the hybrid itself is the scene where it’s birthed. After Kay (Isabela Merced) uses the Renaissance science team’s substance to attempt to heal herself, it causes her human baby to transform into the Xenomorph/Engineer hybrid. What proceeds is a brutal birthing scene that shortly after results in Kay’s awful death at the hands of her own child. As the Instagram user points out,it’s kind of crazy to connect Kay as being the same girl from 2019’sDora and the Lost City of Gold.
Isabela Merced played the lead role in the live-actionDoramovieyears before winding up inAlien: Romulus, which is a hilarious contrast of starring roles. Not to mention, the meme chops together a few images to form a fairly accurate depiction of the hybrid, seeing as there aren’t any clear images available of it just yet.
6Rook’s Deepfake
X User: @DefendtheUnique
Aside from the hybrid, the othermost potentially disturbing part ofAlien: Romulusis Sir Ian Holm’s deepfake face used for the character Rook. Holm played the secret android character Ash in the originalAlienmovie, so the 2024 film marked his return to the franchise 45 years later. However, Holm passed away in 2020, so the face shown on screen is computer-generated, and the voice is from another actor imitating him. Naturally, this caused a divisive response.
it’s just bizarre to be looking at a computer-generated remake of a real person, especially when it’s noticeably computer-generated.
While Álvarez has since assured audiences that Holm’s family encouraged the idea of him being used in the film, many audiences still found the posthumous appearance to be jarring. The morality of the situation aside, it’s just bizarre to be looking at a computer-generated remake of a real person, especially when it’s noticeably computer-generated. @DefendtheUnique’s tweet uses a snippet of Colin Farrell’s Penguin fromThe Batmanto summarize their disgust whenever they had to look at the “deepfake monstrosity.”
5Disturbing The Theater
X User: @mulhollandmiya
For some audiences, the hybrid wasn’t the only aspect of the movie that caused genuine terror. To be fair, a creature tore its way out of a woman’s stomach, a man got burnt to death by horrible alien acid, and an android head got left in disturbing white goo.There’s plenty of stuff inAlien: Romulusto make any viewer freak out in their seat, and it can be hard to contain one’s self while sitting in the theater and experiencing all of that.
X user @mulhollandmiyasummarizes what that theater-going process is like, constantly reacting to the film’s gutwrenching eventswhile everyone in the surrounding seats starts to question their sanity. Luckily, in a movie likeAlien: Romulus, they probably weren’t the only one having those reactions every 5 seconds.
Every Performance In Alien: Romulus, Ranked
The cast of Alien: Romulus is relatively small yet filled with fantastic performances, begging the question of how they rank against one another.
4From Good To Great
X User: @Goji_Saurus
The last meme that praises the dramatic shift ofAlien: Romulus’insane third act uses another of August 2024’s box office heroes: Deadpool. As previously mentioned, up until those closing moments,Romulusreally presents itself as a straightforward reiteration of the originalAlienmovie with some minor inclusions from other eras of the franchise.
The final sequence hits like a truck, and it’s enough to unexpectedly shift the viewer’s entire perceptionof the movie. It speaks to Fede Álvarez’s abilities as a horror filmmaker to shift theRomulusexperience with such a sudden, impactful change of pace.Alien: Romulusproves to be more than just a retreading of old material; it’s its own experience entirely, and the last sequence seals the deal on that.
3Say The Line
Reddit User: u/blazinjesus84
Alien: Romulushas no shortage ofdirect references to the originalAlienfilms, including the usage of Ellen Ridley’s iconic line from the 1986 sequel: “Get away from her, you bitch!” When Andy and Rain have their final confrontation with the last Xenomorph aboard the Renaissance ship inRomulus, the monstrous creature has Rain pinned against the wall with nowhere to run. Of course, that’s when Andy comes to the rescue, repeating the classic Ripley line.
While much of the film’s homage was effective in makingRomulusa captivating return to form for the franchise, it’s fair to say that the direct reuse of exact lines could be a bit much. This Redditorcompared Andy’s use of the line to the classic episode ofThe Simpsons, where Bart has become famous for only one line, and people have stopped seeing him for anything but that catchphrase.
2Defend Andy At All Costs
X User: @soberthots_
David Jonsson terrifically plays the new android character Andy. Prior to the film’s events, Rain’s father found Andy and repaired him, though he was never fixed completely.Andy’s malfunctions cause him to be quite shy and childlike, making him one of the more sympathetic android charactersin theAlienuniverse. This makes it all the more enraging when Bjorn (Spike Fearn) continues to threaten and attack him throughout the early acts of the movie.
Particularly when Rain isn’t around to defend Andy, it’s hard to watch him get bullied.This X user summarizes the audience’s reaction to Bjorn quite perfectly, as his role in the movie is essentially just to be horrible. Even though he has a tragic story and motivation for his android hatred, Bjorn never really redeems himself, and there’s not much sympathy for him when he suffers one of themost gruesome deaths inAlien: Romulus.
1Taking Home The Alien: Romulus Popcorn Bucket
X User: @PhysicalMedia_
One of the funniest reactions toAlien: Romulusdoesn’t even involve the contents of the film. Like other blockbuster movies of the year,Romulusoffered moviegoers a chance to pick up their own collectible popcorn bucket, inspired by the sandworm bucket forDune: Part Two.TheRomulusbucket from Regal Theatres is shaped like a Xenomorph’s head, with a latch along the long alien head, making it one of the most ridiculous special popcorn bucket ideas yet.
User @PhysicalMedia_ hilariously demonstrated their use of thepopcorn bucket, hovering it in front of their house cat. The reaction is absolutely priceless, and it’s probably the closest a cat has come to experiencing the sheer terror ofAlien: Romulus.If Fede Álvarez ends up making a sequel, the studio needs to make its next popcorn bucket inspired by the hybrid.
Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the Alien franchise. The movie is directed by Fede Álvarez and will focus on a new young group of characters who come face to face with the terrifying Xenomorphs. Alien: Romulus is a stand-alone film and takes place in a time not yet explored in the Alien franchise.
