Alien: Romulus managed to dominate the box office this past weekend by taking the number one spot away from Deadpool & Wolverine, and director Fede Álvarez is revealing why he decided to make one crucial change to the series that longtime fans have become accustomed to. The ninth installment in the Alien franchise (including the two AvP crossovers) opened with a massive $108.2 million worldwide, with $41.5 million of that being domestically. However, it failed to reach the heights of Prometheus, which still holds the record for the highest-grossing debut of the series, earning $51 million in North America during its opening weekend back in 2012.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Álvarez talked about the chestburster scene in Romulus, revealing why he decided to change things from what audiences were used to seeing. In the past, when a Xenomorph was born from its human host, it would immediately dart off into hiding, leaving those who witnessed the birth in shock. Such was not the case in Álvarez’s movie, which saw the newborn stick around to get to know its mother. It was a conscious change that the director says was done to add a sense of realism to Romulus.
“When babies are born, they’re exhausted. So it would be this slow burn coming out of the body. I think it’s more gruesome and perverse, but also doesn’t betray reality. I approached it as if it was a nature documentary. The direction I gave the puppeteers was stuff like, ‘The baby looks for the scent of the mother now,’ and so it raises his head to do that. That just makes it way more realistic, and we applied that principle to everything in the Alien world.”
Álvarez Went One Step Further to Make the Birthing Scene Even More Real
Alien: Romulus
4/5
Alien: Romulus takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots. While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
- Release Date
- August 16, 2024
As if that one change wasn’t enough to make Alien: Romulus as real as possible, Álvarez went one step further to make the birth scene even more practical for everyone involved. Instead of just shaking the camera to mimic the spacecraft spiraling toward the titular space station, the director says the entire set was vibrating with all the actors in it. Of course, to make sure everyone was safe, stunt doubles were used as a precaution.
“We literally vibrated the set. The whole cockpit was built on a massive gimbal. So, anytime there was a moment where the shuttle crashes against the station, the whole gimbal would shake. When the character falls, it’s super violent. We had to work with stunt doubles, obviously, to do it safely. During the whole birth and everything, all the shaking is real.”
Álvarez wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to experience what everyone else was, however, and led by example by being right there in the thick of things with his young cast and crew. He called the moment “awesome.”
“It was the best theme park ride. We were all in it with them. I was with my monitor, trying to stay in place while people were shaking the hell out of that thing. It was awesome.”
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With Alien: Romulus having a strong opening weekend, it still has a long way to go in its theatrical run. Though it currently sits on the list as the ninth highest-grossing film of the franchise, it’s poised to overtake Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection, though it’s doubtful it will even come close to topping Prometheus, which ultimately went on to gross over $403 billion dollars.
Alien: Romulus
is now playing in theaters from 20th Century Studios, and you can check out the trailer below.
