# "Alien" nitpick: How did it get so big?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 23, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267 "2005-01-23T17:32:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/41 "2005-01-24T02:23:44Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#):
>
> You, sir or madam, need to be CULLED from the herd!!
>
> (Jus’ kidding. Or am I…? :D)
Your opinion. I have had plenty of people tell me exactly the opposite. 😉 I liked it a lot, although Wynona could be shot in the forst 30 seconds and I’d never notice.
And it’s **miss** , please, don’t make me feel old!
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/42 "2005-01-24T02:41:16Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> Your opinion. I have had plenty of people tell me exactly the opposite. 😉 I liked it a lot, although Wynona could be shot in the forst 30 seconds and I’d never notice.
Really? She made the movie for me! But then, I’ll watch **anything** that has Wynona in it! 😉
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/43 "2005-01-24T03:59:59Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#):
>
> Maybe the chest burster was incredibly DENSE. So when it started growing it was capable of trading density for size.
No, it has to be the other way around: the full-sized form was incredibly _light_. It may have been eight feet tall, but it only weighed five pounds because it was all puffed up with air. The Alien was just a big, scary balloon!
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### Author:  [@grey\_ideas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grey_ideas)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/44 "2005-01-24T12:05:58Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#):
>
> No, it has to be the other way around: the full-sized form was incredibly _light_. It may have been eight feet tall, but it only weighed five pounds because it was all puffed up with air. The Alien was just a big, scary balloon!
Hey now there’s an idea!
The large Alien that we see in the movies is really just over inflated little Alien (I’m thinking along the same lines as a puffer fish here).
Imagine a scene where the crew come across this tiny little Alien in a corridor.
“awwww who’s a cute little Alien then…wesss ooh areee…”
Alien sucks in massive amounts of air (alright water with a puffer fish but still) and confronts the crew at the size we see it in the movies.
“Argghhhh…holy \*\*\*\*\*!”
_sounds of stampeding feet as crew leg it down the corridor_
yes, yes, I know it’s silly, the idea just amused me okay 😃
grey\_ideas
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### Author:  [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/45 "2005-01-24T13:31:30Z")
> [@Pushkin](#):
>
> The Director’s Cut/Special Edition had a scene put back in where Ripley saw the crew cocooned on the way to the escape pod. Was that crewman (who was sent to get the cat) there or eaten?
Well I think you mean Harry Dean Stanton’s character, Brett. I don’t think he was there. In the reinstated scene, Ripley speaks to the cocooned captain, who tells her to kill him, IIRC, which she does.
(I was relieved to see Tom Skerritt (the captain) introducing the series about great American planes on Discovery Wings recently. He seems to have fully recovered from his nasty experience with the Alien 😉 )
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### Author:  [@WilhelmGefallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilhelmGefallen)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/46 "2005-01-24T21:02:14Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> ::snort::
>
> \*Aliens \* is better, I think anyway.
>
> And I’ll say it again cause I always get such varied reactions: I liked Aliens 4!
Hell I preferred all 3 sequels to the original movie pretty much in the order of release so 2, 4, 3 (Non-Directors Cut from the Quadrilogy set).
I’ll wait on AvP for the Directors cut when they add back in the 30 minutes of film that Fox had Anderson cut out to secure a gorram PG-13 rating.
As to what the Xenomorphs ate, I’d have to go with an off-scene pantry raid.
The cocooning in Alien:TDC is actually turning the crew into eggs as opposed to anything else.
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/47 "2005-01-24T21:19:43Z")
Great piece of trivia on Alien:
The “alien” that pops out of the stomach was actually a very large parrot. The actor who had the parrot hidden in his stomach was working in cahoots with the director.
It seems the director neglected to tell the other actors that there was going to be a real surprise, and he simply told them to look at the guy’s stomach, and when the director said “now” they were all to look surprised, and digitally an alien would be superimposed later in the film making.
Fine. So all the actors gather around and BAM! Out pops that screeching parrot and the actors about crapped their collective pants! It was exactly the look the director was going for. Next time you see that scene, notice how “real” their look of horror and shock is - because they truly were scared to death.
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### Author:  [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/48 "2005-01-24T21:24:31Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#):
>
> It’s got acid for blood an super strong teeth. My guess? It ate a wall.
That’s my take on the subject too, the aliens can pretty much eat anything, they just need lifeforms for complex hydrocarbons and reproduction. They are almost like macroscopic viruses, requiring a living ‘cell’ (life form) to reproduce, and taking on some of the characteristics of the life form they used.
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### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/49 "2005-01-24T21:39:52Z")
Stay tuned next week for this (non sci-fi) Cafe Society rant:
Why are musicals so big & Who the hell breaks into song in real life anyway?
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/50 "2005-01-24T21:42:15Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#):
>
> The extra mass still has to come from somewhere.
It’s simple. The alien eats nitpickers. :eek:
That’ll teach you to talk in the theater. 😛
Stranger
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/51 "2005-01-24T21:56:54Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Odo on _Deep Space Nine_ did that all the time. Once he morphed into a rat – an ordinary, rat-sized rat – with no explanation of where his extra mass went.
Subspace. Naturally. If its physically impossible and on Star Trek it probably involves subspace or tachyons.
Not sure if they ever tried to explain Odo’s size changing abilities, but I’m sure that would have been the easy one sentence solution. As I recall, the extra mass certain Transformers gained or lost (Megatron and Shockwave in particular) when they transformed was explained way in a similar manner.
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/52 "2005-01-24T22:27:35Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#):
>
> No, it has to be the other way around: the full-sized form was incredibly light. It may have been eight feet tall, but it only weighed five pounds because it was all puffed up with air. The Alien was just a big, scary balloon!
More like a certain [beach](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069945/plotsummary) [ball](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069945/trivia), actually. 😃
_In space, no one can hear you scream about plot holes._
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/53 "2005-01-24T22:33:08Z")
> [@JohnBckWLD](#):
>
> Stay tuned next week for this (non sci-fi) Cafe Society rant:
>
> Why are musicals so big & Who the hell breaks into song in real life anyway?
I do, but not in public. But then, I like musicals.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/54 "2005-01-24T23:19:18Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#):
>
> It’s got acid for blood an super strong teeth. My guess? It ate a wall.
…mmmmmm… sugar walls…
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### Author:  [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/55 "2005-01-24T23:40:42Z")
> [@jinty](#):
>
> Well I think you mean Harry Dean Stanton’s character, Brett. I don’t think he was there. In the reinstated scene, Ripley speaks to the cocooned captain, who tells her to kill him, IIRC, which she does.
> (I was relieved to see Tom Skerritt (the captain) introducing the series about great American planes on Discovery Wings recently. He seems to have fully recovered from his nasty experience with the Alien 😉 )
Actually, he (Brett) was there - sort of. In the original “lifecycle” envisioned for the Alien, it used victims to produce eggs. Essentially, the victim somehow (Magic of Hollywood!) mutated into the egg. You can see a partial egg/partial Brett on the same wall that Dallas is cocooned to.
The entire scene was cut from the theatrical release and with the release of Aliens a whole new “lifecycle” was introduced, that of the Queen.
MeanJoe
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/56 "2005-01-25T16:07:59Z")
> [@Pushkin](#):
>
> If it did have a super metabolism that made it grow quite quickly (and then presumably) died quickly too, it might give credance to the fan fiction that has it as a genetic weapon of some sort. Let it grow, eat some people, then die off so the invading forces can simply stroll right into town again.
That would explain why it has a life cycle that can’t work without a host of some other species to incubate the larval form – and a fierce instinctive drive to kill off every organism it encounters that might serve as such a host. Hard-wired population-limiting behavior.
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/57 "2005-01-25T16:22:30Z")
Where do plants get their added mass as they grow? From the atmosphere and from water. Nostromo had air and there was water dripping everywhere. Why could an alien not add mass from those sources?
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### Author:  [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/58 "2005-01-26T22:36:28Z")
From this site:
> **[UGO](http://www.ugo.com)**
>
> UGO is a pop culture comedy site. We celebrate our obsessions by cracking jokes and making awesome videos. We kid because we love.
“The original script features the cute alien fleeing into the crew’s food storage room and gorgeing itself on all the crew’s rations. Apparently this was done to explain the massive growth of the alien, as two of the characters marvel at its size and speculate that their food led to its growth. The crew decides to flood the storage unit with poison gas to kill the alien, but debate rages because it will poison what’s left of their food. The argument is made that they won’t need food in hypersleep, so they gas the badboy. But it escapes into the air vent.”
Also, The good ship Nostromo was originally supposed to be named “The Snark.”
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/59 "2005-01-27T03:06:24Z")
And anyway, what did the Aliens live off before a human-crewed spaceship happened to hove into view? How did they evolve to so perfectly live off humans before they were there?
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### Author:  [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-nitpick-how-did-it-get-so-big/286267/60 "2005-01-27T04:15:14Z")
Ok try this on for size. The alien stores the energy required from its host during its gestation period. The critter is deposited in the stomach where it starts leeching from the host. Notice that the host is rendered unconcious by the experience. So it takes… what a few hours or was it days (I was never clear on that) to start storing the energy it requires to grow. Perhaps even taking something from the face hugger itself which dies after a while.
Ok a stretch, but it sounds a little more plausable than it running around eating metals… mind you having molecular acid for blood is pretty far fetched too.
Aw dang it… it is an Alien… 'nuff said.
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