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1979Alien

Xenomorph

The Alien sometimes referred to as a Xenomorph is a fictional endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species that is the primary antagonist of the Alien film series. The species made its debut in the 1979 film Alien, and reappeared in its sequels Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997), as well as two crossovers Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), and finally in Ridley Scott's 2012 film Prometheus. It also appears in various literature and video game spin-offs from the series.

Unlike many other recurring enemy extraterrestrial races in science fiction, the Aliens are not an intelligent civilization, but predatory creatures with no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the destruction of life that could pose a threat. Like wasps or termites, Aliens are eusocial, with a single fertile queen breeding a caste of warriors. The Aliens' biological life cycle involves traumatic implantation of parasitic larvae inside living hosts, which mature before erupting from the host's chest. Their design deliberately evokes many sexual images, both male and female, to illustrate their blurring of human sexual dichotomy.

The Alien design is credited to Swiss surrealist and artist H. R. Giger, originating in a lithograph called Necronom IV and refined for the series' first film, Alien. The species' design and life cycle have been extensively added to throughout each film. Although only the original's relevant to Prometheus at the time of release.





Xenomorph 1979 01

The original adult Alien.

The Alien lifecycle's as follows:

Egg, Facehugger, Chestburster, Adult.

Other naturally occurring variations upon this include the following types: Alien Queen, human born bipedal adult, animal born quadrupedal adult, Praetorian Guard or Charger and PredAlien.

Deacon

Main article: Deacon

Ridley Scott's 2012 film Prometheus, originally conceived as a direct prequel to Alien, ends with the birth of a creature noted for its similarity to those in the Alien franchise. Scott christened the creature the "Deacon" in reference to its oblong head, which resembles a bishop's mitre. Designer Neal Scanlan said that the Deacon's appearance had to reflect its complex genetic heritage: "It came from Shaw and Holloway, which then produced the Trilobite, which impregnated the Engineer, which then mixed its DNA with the Trilobite. We tried to hold on to some of Shaw, some femininity since it was born of a female before being born of a male." According to Scanlan, the Deacon "represented the beginning of H.R Giger's Alien, although it did not directly resemble that creature." The designers based the Deacon's skin on horse placenta, in an effort to give it an iridescent quality "between horrific and beautiful". Its pharyngeal jaw was inspired by that of the goblin shark.

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