Alien: Romulusis set on a spaceship called the Renaissance that is split into two halves, one lending its name to the film’s title and the other named Remus. Regarding theranking of theAlienmovies,Alien: Romuluswas deemed a return to form after the negatively receivedAlien 3andAlien: Resurrection, and the divisive prequels,PrometheusandAlien: Covenant, crafted by Ridley Scott. One of the reasons for this wasAlien: Romulus’decision to tie to most past entries, slotting seamlessly into theexpansiveAlienmovie timeline.
By the time ofAlien: Romulus' ending, this became clear. Not only did the film exhibit a return to the more claustrophobic, people vs. aliens vibe of the first two movies, but it also included the wider, more intriguing lore elements of Scott’s prequels. Interestingly,Alien: Romuluswisely split between these two tones using the ship on which it is based, the Renaissance. The ship was split into two parts, Romulus and Remus, that had their own designs and story elements; one heldvariants ofAlien’s iconic Xenomorphs, while the other possessed the deeper story elements at play.
Alien: Romulus Introduces A Weyland-Yutani Scientific Research Ship Called Renaissance
The Renaissance Follows Past Alien Tropes But With An Added Twist
As is the case with mostAlienmovies, the idea that a ship is important to the plot of the movie is utilized inAlien: Romulus. This time, the ship - named the Renaissance - is a scientific research ship used by theAlienfranchise’s mysterious Weyland-Yutani Corporation. This makes the Renaissance noticeably different from previousAlienships. For example, the Nostromo fromAlienwas a freighter ship, used to tow mining materials to and from planets. Other prominent ships include the Prometheus and Covenant, both scientific-based, yet the former was an exploratory vessel and the latter was a colonial ship.
Commercial hauler/towing vehicle
Troop transport ship
Medical research vessel
Scientific exploratory vessel
Colony ship
The Renaissance
Scientific research space station
Where the Renaissance is concerned, it is primarily used for research. As the central characters ofAlien: Romulusbegin searching the Renaissance, they begin to discover exactly what it was used for. This allows the twin sections of the Renaissance to become more clear as well, Romulus and Remus, named after the Roman myth. Not only that, but the Renaissance’s dangers come to light, threatening the lives of Rain, Andy, Kay, Tyler, Bjorn, and Navarro.
What Weyland-Yutani Used The Renaissance For
ThroughoutAlien: Romulus' story, it is revealed what exactly the Renaissance ship was used for by Weyland-Yutani. As alluded to, the ship is split into two separate labs, one named Romulus and the other named Remus. The latter, Remus, is shown to house several facehuggers inAlien: Romulus. This, as well as the cryo-technology and other aspects, seem to imply that the Remus lab was used to experiment on Xenomorphs specifically. This lab was where the iconic sci-fi aliens were tested on and, subsequently, cloned and frozen.
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The Romulus lab, however, goes deeper than this. As discovered byAlien: Romulus' cast of characters, the Romulus side of the Renaissance is for deeper scientific exploration. This lab holds the Prometheus Fire, officially known as the Z-01 compound, which links to theAlienprequels as an updated version of the black goo experimented on by the Engineers that was found inPrometheusandAlien: Covenant.The Z-01 compound was being experimented on by Weyland-Yutani as the organization attempted to mix its Xenomorph-creating qualities with human DNA to perfect the latter species and give them notable benefits for space exploration.
How The Renaissance’s Remus & Romulus Modules Represent Alien & Aliens
What makes the Renaissance’s two unique halves even better is the fact that they were consciously designed differently by the crew ofAlien: Romulus. In the “Crafting Alien: Romulus” featurette found as part of the movie’s extras released on digital, the project’s production designer, Naaman Marshall, outlines the differences between the Romulus and Remus labs.Marshall explains that the Remus lab was designed to emulate the more gritty, old-fashioned elements of the franchise shown inAlien.According to Marshall, Remus is more“dark and eclectic with a bit more use and aging."
Marshall then explained how the Romulus lab was different from this.The film’s crew wanted to make Romulus more reminiscent of the highly-advanced locations and environments shown in the likes ofAliens.This explains why Romulus is"a bit slicker"according to Marshall, as it imitates the more advanced elements fromAliens, which was set afterAlien.Also, the Romulus lab is where the connections toPrometheusandAlien: Covenantwere found in the movie, both of which were more slick with their designs thanAliendespite being set earlier in the franchise’s timeline.
InAlien: Romulus, the two sides of the Renaissance are working to build a perfect human race, yet what they house causes conflict and death…
Finally, there is the meaning behind the Romulus and Remus labs being named as such. While the connections betweenAlien: Romulusand the more minute details of the tale of Romulus and Remus are minimal, the overall themes of the former emulate those of the latter. In the story of Romulus and Remus, the twins seek out a new home, leading to strife and conflict between them, causing catastrophe before Romulus builds the city of Rome. InAlien: Romulus, the two sides of the Renaissance are working to build a perfect human race, yet what they house causes conflict and death.
What Happened To The Renaissance After The Events Of Alien
How Does Romulus Tie To 1979’s Alien?
Thetimeline ofAlien: Romulusis established early in the movie. The film is set midway between the events ofAlienandAliensand ties heavily to the former. It is revealed that the Xenomorph from the finale ofAlienformed a cocoon after being ejected into space by Ripley. This cocoon was taken back to the Renaissance station and thus tested on, allowing the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to clone and freeze the manyfacehuggers seen inAlien: Romulus.
However, at some point after this, the Xenomorph awakened and managed to kill everyone onboard before being killed itself. This explains why the Renaissance station is completely abandoned inAlien: Romulus, save for the half-destroyed body of the lateIan Holm’s android Rookand the frozen facehuggers. When the cast ofAlien: Romulusfinds the Renaissance, it has been left dormant for years and is on a slow collision course with the planetary rings of LV-410.
Why Alien: Romulus' Characters Docked At The Renaissance & What Happened To Them
Alien: Romulus' Characters Walk Into Danger For Their Own Survival
The last major question about the Renaissance fromAlien: Romulusis why the film’s characters docked at the station and what became of them. The early portions ofAlien: Romulusoutline the terrible quality of life for characters like Rain, Kay, Tyler, Bjorn, Navarro, and Andy as part of the Jackson’s Star colony on LV-410. They are forced into work by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, with the film highlighting how Rain’s contract was forcibly extended by several years, despite her wishing to leave for the supposedly beautiful planet of Yvaga.
Navarro
Aileen Wu
Given how bad life on the colony is, Rain’s friends hatch a plan to flee to the planet of Yvaga. The planet can only be reached using cryostasis, andTyler, along with his sister Kay, their cousin Bjorn, and his adoptive sister Navarro, discover that a derelict space station orbiting LV-410 houses cryo pods. The crew decides to head to the station, along with Rain’s adoptive synthetic brother Andy, to recover the pods and hopefully find their way to Yvaga.
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.
Unfortunately, the chaos that ensues from the discovery of the Xenomorphs and the true nature of the Renaissance means not everyone survives. Navarro is the first casualty when she is enveloped by a facehugger, eventually becoming a Xenomorph. That same Xenomorph kills Bjorn before the other aliens created by the former crew of the Renaissance kill Tyler. Kay dies in the film’s third act after being killed by The Offspring, which she birthed after injecting herself with the Z-01 while pregnant, leaving Rain and Andy the only survivors as they escapeAlien: Romulus' Renaissance station and head to Yvaga.
Alien: Romulus
Cast
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.
