The Predators were obviously intelligent and technologically advanced. How about the Alien monsters?
Do they have Human (or higher) level intelligence? Any evidence of technology or language? Or are they just very advanced “sharks” (instinctive killing machines)?
Well they know enough to shut off light sources when fighting humans and they have basic problem solving skills (they figured out an alternate route when attacking the Marines in Aliens when getting blown away by the sentry guns and they managed to burn their way out of their cages and release the other imprisoned aliens in Resurrection) I’d say they were as smart as monkeys at least. Also in Resurrection one of the aliens learned that when they guy hit the button it would be punished very fast.
Who knows they may even be smarter then men but due to their thought processes things like tech just aren’t important to them.
Yeah, to me, they seemed “resorceful,” if not actually intelligent.
But, the lack of tools or weapons makes me wonder. True, they are a weapon themselves… Still, they don’t have their own transportation even. Yet, they are smart enough to hitch hike. Or is that supposed to be an instinct?
How would such instincts develope in the first place?
Anyone ever do a back story on them? A writer’s guide?
Based on the films and the few comic series I’ve read, I’d say that workers are of roughly chimp intelligence. Queens tend to be of roughly human inteligence.
In one series a marine thinks he has conditioned the aliens not to attack without his command. In the lab, things work fine. As soon as he does a field test (without flamethrowers standing by to destroy a disobedient alien) the queen gives the order and the marine is killed.
Even without biological differences, human level inteligence doesn’t necesarilly lead to advanced technology. There are human cultures will never got out of the stone age.
Semi Hijack-
The films showed us the queen and workers. Have any of the comics shown us a drone, a male whose only purpose is to fertilise the queen?
I think there were plans at some point to show an Alien “civilisation” but they never made it into a film. I think there maybe conflicting ideas in various back-stories (comics vs films).
Observations on possible alien intelligence:
The Ripley clone in Resurrection has ‘inherited’ her memories - an alien trait.
The aliens’ thinking/motivation is left vague, so are their senses - they don’t have eyes 
.
The pink alien in the last film was part human.
I’d opt for they’re smart, but in a totally different way from humans. I like that, they are supposed to be alien! The predator is more like Arnie in a crab mask.
I think in one of the comics, (Earth War?) they showed the Aliens home planet, where they live in a big beehive dome thing, but aren’t the top of the food chain there, they get eaten by other species on the planet. I think it goes into how they got off the planet too, with the pilot species from the first film.
But they do have a level of intelligence, like in the posts above’s examples, the Alien Queen works out how to use the lift at the powerstation. But not open the door Ripley escapes through to get the PowerLoader back on the Sulaco. Basic instinct and problem solving skills. maybe like an Octopus.
I often wonder why sometimes they kill outright and sometimes they take victims off to be host for chestbursters.
Its stated by the doctors on the Auriga that her memories are through her cloned human DNA being the same as the original Ripleys. Its nothing to do with the Aliens. This would also imply that the Aliens are like Flatworms, ie memories/abilities appear to be passed down by ingestion of previous flatworm that has learned to do something. There’s no evidence I can see in the films of this. its rudimentary intelligence and instinct that they do stuff, though how they know their blood will melt through the metal of the ships hull in Ressurection baffles me. unless their intelligence is such that they know their own blood can be a weapon. We know, from previous films, but do they?
Also, Aliens tend to inherit characteristics from their host–the dog (or cow, depending on which version you watch of A3) and one of the comics where an Alien bursts from a massive alligator, thus it looks similar.
Also, they do have eyes. They are underneath the front of the dome. Theres pics on the net of the skull underneath the dome, which is remarkably similar to a human skull, well, that bit anyway.
try a search on Carlos Rambaldi, that should show it, and I think Giger did some limited edition sculptures showing Alien skulls.
Feel free to correct me if i’m wrong and you can cite it.
cheers,
PT
It’s no sort of conclusive proof, but the alien in Van Vogt’s Black Destroyer, which Alien was supposedly based on, was extraordinarily intelligent.
You’re wrong.
The original design did have 2 oval eyes on the front of the skull. It was decided that this looked too human and the dome was added. However, the original 12" alien action figures have a semi-transparent dome with 2 eyes underneath. In no other film, comic book, or product do the average alien (the pink half-human thing in Resurrection is not yer average alien) have eyes.
I don’t have a copy of the book, but I have read Giger’s Alien cover to cover at a local bookstore. After the decision that aliens have no eyes, the dome was made partially transparent so that the actor inside could see. In continuity, the dome is not transparent and aliens have no eyes. There’s an alien skull in the trophy case in Predator 2. It has no eyes.
One line in the first Aliens Vs Predator comic series runs under a panel of an invisible predator being killed by aliens ‘But, invisibility is useless against creaures with no eyes.’
I distinctly remember in the adaptation for the first book that eyes (large…like horse’s eyes) are mentioned in the text.
That might have been lifted from the final shooting script, though.
That would be my guess.
The foreword in my giant size Marvel Empire Strikes Back comic explains that Yoda has been redrawn due to changes in the final design. Apparently, in the original edition of the comic, Yoda looks very different and is purple.
In Clive Barker’s Cabal, the novella which Nightbreed is based on, Pelloquin is a normal looking man who can change into a reptillian monster. In the film, he’s a man with red skin and ropey tentacles for hair, and can change into a more muscular and bestial version of himself. In the early issues of the comic book, Pelloquin is a reptillian monster with ropey tentacles for hair- clearly a transitional stage before the final version used in the film was decide on.
There are many changes between the early version of the Mystery Men screenplay I have, the comic book adaptation, and the final version of the film.
As I said earlier the Kenner action figure was made when the alien still had eyes. Rather than sculpt a new head, retool the assembly line, etc a transparent dome was added to the toy. This feature is not found on any other action figures or models.
Was the transport filled with eggs in Alien ever explained? I was curious about the pilot(?) of the ship who had been killed by a face hugger and the reasoning behind their transportation. I was wondering if perhaps one of the comics or novels had gone into why the ship was their to be found in the first place.
In Aliens, Ripley demonstrated the flamethrower to the queen, then pointed it at the eggs. The queen ceased her attack, showing she was aware of the threat to her eggs, and able to form some kind of implied contract that if she stopped threatening Newt, Ripley would spare her eggs. I always felt Ripley betrayed a agreement by then torching the eggs, especially since the colony was about to self destruct anyway, and it just resulted in the queen chasing her up the elevator, which, I just recalled, the queen figured out how to operate, further showing signs of intelligence.
You just answered your own question. If Aliens pass on memories genetically, then the memories of Ellen Ripley would be passed not only to Ripley-8 but also to the Queen replicated inside her (and by extension, her offspring). So the Aliens in that movie would know from Ripley’s experience that Alien blood is capable of melting through several deck’s worth of metal, because they would have a genetic memory of it happening on the Nostromo.
I recall reading somewhere that the aliens had some kind of hive conciousness, where the experiences of one would be relayed to other aliens from the same queen. This allowed aliens to know about and understand certain things that they hadn’t yet directly experienced. Was this just random speculation that I heard, or is this idea used in any of the books or comics somewhere?
Question: Weren’t most of the aliens we saw in the movies babies? I thought most of them were pretty freshly hatched. Would a forty-year-old creepy crawly be smarter? Was Ripley fighting toddlers?
Except the queen didn’t. The elevators automatically went back up to the landing pad. Riply called two lifts when she was going back up because one wasn’t arriving fast enough. She got in one and went back to the landing pad, the Queen got in the other and also went back to the pad without having to figure out anything other than getting in the lift.
This very cool little website takes a serious look at Alien behavior and biology:
Neat stuff.
But think of old explanation of the difficulty of making a perfect robot…The Queen may not of used the fine motor cordination to use the lift BUT she saw Ripley use it. Saw how the lift moved her, saw how another one came down. Her mimicry and response to many moving processes suggests a super-chimp though sub-human understanding of the world…and one the first try! Certainly above a Dolphin!
I guess we’ll find out all these answers soon. They’ll be able to apply for guest worker papers, and they can take the jobs Americans won’t do (devouring humans, for example.) This will help our economy in some way, especially when the aliens send their wages back to their home planet. I don’t understand it, but our nation’s advisers have it all figured out.
