Disclaimer: This article is written from a cis-normative lens because we live in a cis-normative society. The author is transmasculine. Content warning for mentions of sexual violence.

“I said, ‘That’s how I’m going to attack the audience; I’m going to attack them sexually. And I’m not going after the women in the audience, I’m going to attack the men. I’m going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs.’” – Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon about “Alien” (1979). 

I will be reviewing the most recent installment of the “Alien” franchise, “Alien: Romulus”, with a focus on the original allegory of sexual violence and whether it fulfills the writer of the 1979 movie’s professed goal of making men in the audience feel what women feel daily. With the death of Roe v. Wade, I expected “Alien: Romulus” to bring out the big guns and stay true to its roots. Could there be a more perfect time to release film about forced birth and sexual violence?

The first “Alien” movie is a male-dominated environment, which is essential to the plot with Ellen Ripley being consistently undermined by her male peers. Not listening to Ripley is how the ship becomes compromised when her decision to not allow the first victim of xenomorph impregnation (a man) back inside is overridden by the men around her. 

Now to examine “Alien: Romulus”. The first victim of xenomorph impregnation was a woman. As you may infer, this was a poor decision. In fact, zero men in “Alien Romulus” were impregnated. The male characters just died in other non-sexual ways, rendering them meaningless to any overarching theme or message. If women are being sexually violated instead of men, the goal of the plot has clearly been lost.

The worst part of the movie, by miles, was when a pregnant character injected herself with a serum made of xenomorph and human DNA (which, I must say, did not make sense because the protagonist said she did not trust the serum yet brought it with them for no reason other than furthering a plot point). The baby morphs into a horrific half-breed in an absolutely horrific birth scene. In a shocking turn of events, Dan O’Bannon was on the three person writer team (listed last on IMDB) Why has he backed down so pathetically from his initial goal? Was he overridden? Is he burnt out and unable to execute his ideas?

There was solid sexual imagery in “Alien: Romulus”, including a vaginal-sack where xenomorphs crawl out of, but that is not enough. One “wall vagina” cannot make up for the lack of pregnant men. 

Despite this, the concept for the half-breed creature was interesting and I did genuinely enjoy that. The android from the “Alien” (1979), who stated he “admired” xenomorphs, took it one step further and created a serum for the “perfect organism” in “Alien: Romulus”. I just wish more thought and care was put into the movie with respect to the original. The concept could have been something truly awesome and unfortunately fell short and backfired horribly.

I wonder if it is even possible to have an “Alien” franchise today, with the amount of modern cash-grab movies made with no soul. With “Alien” in particular, movies don’t want to be male dominated even when that is what makes the story powerful. We live in a strange feminist limbo, where we are both moving forwards and backwards, often performatively, but that is for another article.

Overall, “Alien: Romulus” did not live up to its predecessor, but I don’t think anything ever could. I do think it was entertaining though, and I didn’t hate it. However, the only people squirming and crossing their legs were the women in the audience, signaling yet another failure of Dan O’Bannon’s goal (despite his apparent presence in the writers room). 

Correction: It is implied that Dan O’Bannon was present for the writing of this film. He passed away in 2009. The Scarlet regrets this error.