# What was Weyland-Yutani's plan in Alien and Aliens?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 21, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532 "2012-04-21T20:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/21 "2012-04-22T22:13:56Z")
The _Colonial Marines Technical Manual_—which, while officially licensed, wasn’t written by Cameron or Scott, and would be overwritten by higher levels of canon, anyway—goes into this a bit in the later chapters, which consist of the “transcripts” of W-Y execs/operatives trying to piece together what happened in the wake of Aliens/Alien 3. It’s neat stuff; one relevant section: > [@](#): > > Uh, what success have you had with the ERDOM files?" > “What about them. They’re virtually useless. Whoever ordered the Nostromo to stop off at LV426 took a lot of pains to cover their tracks.” > “Why?” > “Who knows. Some bunch of bright sparks who didn’t want to split their bonus share too many ways ordered a starship and a valuable cargo off on a harebrained mission, chasing some weird signal that may — or may not — have been an alien warning beacon rather than a distress beacon. From what Ripley says, they punched in a ‘crew expendable’ directive to the ship’s Mother to protect against contamination or contagion and put a ‘minder’ on board. Then the ship never came back. My guess is that they got scared and covered up rather than followed up. Of course, I could be wrong but—” > “—Put yourself in their shoes, eh?” > “Christ, yeah. Oh, the one thing that did check out was Ripley’s claim about Ash. Someone did order a synthetic aboard the Nostromo as a replacement Science Officer shortly before it left Thetis. I don’t know who it was made the order, but it would imply that Science Division was running the show—” > “—As they are now. What goes around—” There’s also speculation about Burke’s strategy, alien biochemistry, and company efforts to profit/backstab one another over the discoveries. Fine cyberpunk stuff, all—find a copy of the book for yourself, if you can. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/22 "2012-04-23T00:28:10Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > For that to work out logistically, then Newt’s dad must get implanted with a queen, which then lays all the eggs for the rest of the aliens. I guess that fits with the travel time, since we know from Alien3 that queens take much longer to gestate. It’s never made entirely clear how long it takes to go from egg to chestburstser. In the first movie from the time the victim is attacked to the time he dies the crew has time to carry him back to the ship, do some tests, then the facehugger dies some time later, then he wakes up some time after that then he dies some time after that. The whole process takes at least 24 hours. According to the novel it varies from person to person and nest to nest. Sometimes it’s as little as 6 hours, sometimes over a week. Even if we go with 24 hours, if we assume it took 3 days of careful driving 10 hours a day to get to the crash site, in an emergency driving 24 hours non-stop at full speed would be more then enough to make it back to the colony. And of course we are never told \*how \*the colony became infected. The victim may have been dead for any amount of time when the tractor made it back to the colony, with the alien hiding aboard. It then left the tractor and proceeded to wreak havok. But all this is rather irrelevant, since the colony would presumably have had air support in the form of those helicopter thingies that James Cameron puts in all his movies. So in an emergency the victim would have been back at base within a few hours. IOW, the distance from the base to the crashed spaceship is more or less irrelevant. the only relevance to this thread is that it wasn’t miraculously located right beside the colony. The relevance in the novels is that, being on the far side of a major mountain range, the ship was completely unaffected by reactor explosion. The company then goes back and collects more eggs. Hilarity ensues. > [@drastic\_quench](#): > > That chemical signal would have to be picked up by the gestating chestburster then, because - and this is only according to the wiki - queen chestbursters gestate longer. According tot he novels, the Aliens are like some termites and wasps in this regard. If a worker isn’t exposed to a queen for more than a few days, it starts to lay eggs. It doesn’t become a queen, it remains a worker but its starts to lay unfertilised eggs, and it can only produce a handful. Any eggs raised outside the presence of a queen will develop into a queen. So a single individual can re-establish the colony, but workers don’t transform into queens. Queens are born. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/23 "2012-04-23T16:26:43Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > This may be only sort-of right. It may be that all aliens have the capacity to grow into queens, but that this capability is switched off by some sort of chemical cues emitted by existing queens in a hive. So a newborn alien in a hive with a queen would just grow into a drone, because it’s been exposed to this chemical “grow into a drone” signal - but absent that signal, an alien would naturally grow into a queen as its last stage of development and begin building its own hive. > > The key point here is that Newt’s dad didn’t get fantastically unlucky and find himself implanted with a queen - any alien would have doomed the colony. That’s a clever idea, but it’s not consistent with the first movie. There are no other Aliens of any kind on the Nostromo, so we should have seen a queen, right? > [@Blake](#): > > But all this is rather irrelevant, since the colony would presumably have had air support in the form of those helicopter thingies that James Cameron puts in all his movies. So in an emergency the victim would have been back at base within a few hours. Good point. I seem to recall Newt’s mom calling for help on the radio when she brings her dad back to the vehicle. If they call in air support, then the first one doesn’t necessarily have to be a queen, either. They may well have sent another team into the derelict ship to try to figure out what they were dealing with. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/24 "2012-04-23T17:26:49Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > That’s a clever idea, but it’s not consistent with the first movie. There are no other Aliens of any kind on the Nostromo, so we should have seen a queen, right? For all we know, that might have been an immature queen that Ripley blasted out of the airlock. We don’t know that it had finished growing by the end of the movie. Alternatively, mature drones might have the capability of mutating into a queen if they’re in a queenless environment. Not a bad adaptation: if something happens to a hive’s queen, any surviving drones could replace her, ensuring the hive’s survival. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/25 "2012-04-23T23:18:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > For all we know, that might have been an immature queen that Ripley blasted out of the airlock. We don’t know that it had finished growing by the end of the movie. Alternatively, mature drones might have the capability of mutating into a queen if they’re in a queenless environment. Not a bad adaptation: if something happens to a hive’s queen, any surviving drones could replace her, ensuring the hive’s survival. Workers. Not Drones. Drones are the big ones with tubes on their backs. They’re all male. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/26 "2012-04-24T00:25:57Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Workers. Not Drones. Drones are the big ones with tubes on their backs. They’re all male. :eek: What have you been doing in your spare time that you know this? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/27 "2012-04-24T01:36:05Z")
Okay. You’ve got the workers. And the drones. And the queens. So the workers and queens have sex. But the drones. WHO has sex with the drones?! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/28 "2012-04-24T01:41:42Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Okay. > > You’ve got the workers. And the drones. And the queens. So the workers and queens have sex. But the drones. WHO has sex with the drones?! Her Majesty. Their sole purpose for being is to impregnate her, much like Prince Phillip. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/29 "2012-04-24T03:11:18Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > Can you imagine Carl Sagan fighting aliens? [Yes. Yes I can.](http://beyondcapes.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/carl-sagan-ftw-atomic-robo-the-shadow-from-beyond-time-4.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/30 "2012-04-24T03:27:14Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > This is get’s even more complicated depending on whether you accept the AvP movies as canon or not. If so then Weyland-Yutani has had some kind of vauge knowledge of Xenomorphs since the early 21st century when they were seperate companies. AvP is officially non-canon now. Only the four current movies, Prometheus, and the not-yet-released video game Aliens: Colonial Marines are official Alien canon. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/31 "2012-04-24T03:28:28Z")
Or Dr. [Carl Hagan](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltxqv0mrL11qcs3pdo1_500.jpg) teaming up with Superman to save Batman. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/32 "2012-04-24T05:30:06Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > AvP is officially non-canon now. Only the four current movies, Prometheus, and the not-yet-released video game Aliens: Colonial Marines are official Alien canon. What are we counting _Predator 2_ as, now? I mean, it being largely harmless, yet also completely responsible for the AvP movies. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/33 "2012-04-24T05:37:30Z")
As far as I’m concerned, the first two are valid, the others, no. A nice extension to the first two movies was the Dark Horse Earth War series. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/34 "2012-04-24T06:06:55Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > AvP is officially non-canon now. Only the four current movies, Prometheus, and the not-yet-released video game Aliens: Colonial Marines are official Alien canon. According to who? I understand with a property like Star Wars, which is basically owned by one man, he can declare what’s canon and not. How does that work with Alien(s) which as far as I can tell has its rights spread around the place. Not that I want AvP or AvP2 to be canon, as both where utter tripe, but just curious who has the power in the Alien(s) universe to declare things canon or not. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/35 "2012-04-24T06:26:29Z")
I believe their plan was: 1. Capture live xenomorph 2. ??? 3. Profit ! ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/36 "2012-04-24T12:50:24Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > It’s been a while, but I don’t think the corporation knew about the planet and the derelict in _Alien_. I think Ash was (and possibly Mother, also) just operating on a pre-programmed “bring home any interesting shit you find that might be good for the corporation” directive. > > Maybe it’s just in the special edition, but in _Aliens_ it’s made pretty clear that the corporation doesn’t really know about the derelict until settlers reported finding it, and didn’t put two and two together until people started dying. > > Thaaaaat’s when the evil plans started. Nope - the corporation absolutely knew about the Alien and put Ash on the Nostromo specifically to bring it back alive. It’s straight from Ash after they broke his head off - [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZxKGxNmWz4). IIRC, the novel goes into a little more detail - another ship had recorded the distress call, and the company had already decoded it and realized it was a “Stay away, evil monster on this planet!” message. They put Ash on the ship with orders to bring it back. That’s why Ash opened the airlock doors when Ripley wanted to keep Kane outside the ship for quarantine. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/37 "2012-04-24T15:07:21Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Speaking of, you must see [this](https://www.weylandindustries.com/david). Thanks for posting that! I am very much looking forward to this movie! I hope to hell they haven’t fukt it up! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/38 "2012-04-24T15:12:10Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Nope - the corporation absolutely knew about the Alien and put Ash on the Nostromo specifically to bring it back alive. It’s straight from Ash after they broke his head off - [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZxKGxNmWz4). I stand corrected. Like I said, it’s been a while. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/39 "2012-04-24T15:15:16Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Nope - the corporation absolutely knew about the Alien and put Ash on the Nostromo specifically to bring it back alive. It’s straight from Ash after they broke his head off - [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZxKGxNmWz4). > > IIRC, the novel goes into a little more detail - another ship had recorded the distress call, and the company had already decoded it and realized it was a “Stay away, evil monster on this planet!” message. They put Ash on the ship with orders to bring it back. That’s why Ash opened the airlock doors when Ripley wanted to keep Kane outside the ship for quarantine. This is why I thought it was brilliant to have Weyland along on the expedition in **AvP**. I thought it set up future events well without actually bashing our heads in with it. **AvP2** was just a terrible mess, tho. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532/40 "2012-04-24T16:28:22Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > According to who? > > I understand with a property like Star Wars, which is basically owned by one man, he can declare what’s canon and not. How does that work with Alien(s) which as far as I can tell has its rights spread around the place. The developers of the Aliens: Colonial Marines game, speaking on behalf of 20th Century Fox. > **[Aliens: Colonial Marines is officially part of movie canon; Wii U version “is...](https://www.warpzoned.com/2012/04/aliens-colonial-marines-is-officially-part-of-movie-canon-wii-u-version-is-not-a-port/)** > > We learned two very interesting things about Aliens: Colonial Marines at this weekend’s PAX East. One, the Sega-published shooter has been inducted into the “official canon” of th… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-weyland-yutanis-plan-in-alien-and-aliens/619532.md?page=3)