Alien Romulus is now showing in Malaysian cinemas. It’s been 45 years since the very first Alien movie directed by Ridley Scott in 1979, so there’s a lot of history behind this iconic franchise.

If you’re looking for a spoiler-free guide before watching Alien Romulus, head on over here, or you can check out our glowing review of Alien Romulus by heading over here.

In this article, I will be discussing full spoilers from Alien Romulus, so here’s a warning:

Alien Romulus Ending Explained

Basically, the plot of Alien Romulus is that Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her friends, Tyler (Archie Renaux), Kay (Isabela Merced), Navarro (Aileen Wu) and Bjorn (Spike Fern), want to leave their home colony and planet to escape the overbearing and slaving work forced upon them by the megacorporation Weyland-Yutani (their parents even worked themselves to death for Weyland-Yutani, so they want to avoid that fate).

Rain’s friends discover an abandoned space station called the Renaissance just wandering in orbit around their home colony/planet. Their plan is to find cryo pods on this space station and use them to travel to an independent planet not under Weyland-Yutani control since the trip will take nine years. To break into the abandoned space station, they need the help of Rain’s synthetic android brother, Andy (David Jonsson), in order to reboot the space station and open doors.

Once they reach the space station called Renaissance, they discover that it’s separated into two parts, Remus and Romulus (which is where the movie gets its title from). They also discover a broken synthetic Android named Rook (who is made to look like Ian Holm. the late actor who played the synthetic android Ash in the original Alien).

Rook reveals that the purpose of the space station is actually to conduct research and experiment on the Alien Xenomorph which was thrown out of the airlock by Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) at the end of 1979’s Alien (which took place several years before Alien Romulus). However, they initially believed that the Xenomorph was dead, but it was actually still alive, which resulted in the death of everyone on the space station (which is the reason why it’s abandoned and simply wandering in orbit).

Later in the movie, after the deaths of Navarro and Bjorn, Rook overrides Andy’s programming so that Andy is now working for the company (Weyland-Yutani). He can do this because earlier in the movie, Rain replaced Andy’s chip with that of another synthetic android on the space station. However, Rain would later be able to remove the programming after rebooting Andy while escaping from the Xenomorphs.

The biggest reveal of the movie is when Rook confesses to Rain that the reason why the space station is conducting research and experiments on the Xenomorph is not to build biological weapons. Instead, its purpose is to continue the objective of Peter Weyland, the former CEO of Weyland-Yutani who started looking for ways to become immortal during the events of 2012’s Prometheus (which took place many years before Alien Romulus). By experimenting on the Xenomorphs and the Parasitoids AKA Facehuggers, the scientists on the space station were able to extract the same ‘black goo’ used by the ancient alien race called the Engineers to create life forms such as humanity and the Xenomorphs. Rook refers to the ‘black goo’ as Prometheus Fire or the more scientific name, Z-01.

Weyland-Yutani is planning to use the Z-01 or ‘black goo’ to instantly evolve humans to be more like the ‘perfect organism’ that they perceive Xenomorphs to be. Why? Because too many humans are dying from their colonisation efforts, be it through disease or mining disasters. If they can make humans stronger and more like Xenomorphs, the company will be able to obtain more profits because fewer humans will die.

While trying to escape the space station, Tyler dies, while Rain, Andy, and Kay manage to get on their ship in time before the space station hits the ring surrounding the planet and gets destroyed. However, it turns out that Kay injected herself with the Z-01 when she was alone (because she was dying from a wound and had no choice).

This results in the baby inside Kay (yes, Kay was revealed to be pregnant earlier in the movie) prematurely bursting out of Kay’s womb. However, what comes out isn’t a normal Xenomorph, but a Human-Engineer-Xenomorph hybrid that sort of looks like a Necromorph from EA’s Dead Space games. Kay gets killed by the Human-Engineer-Xenomorph hybrid but Rain and Andy manage to eventually defeat it.

The movie ends with Rain and Andy going into cryosleep and setting a course for the independent planet they were planning to go from the start (Yvagga or something).

Alien Romulus Post-Credits

There is no post-credits scene in Alien Romulus, so you don’t have to wait for the credits to finish rolling.

That being said, here are the most interesting details that might be important for what’s next in the Alien franchise:

Is There More Z-01 ‘Black Goo’ Out There?

Black Liquid

Again (if you didn’t read my concise summary of what happened in Alien Romulus above), the biggest reveal of the movie is when Rook confesses to Rain that the reason why the space station is conducting research and experiments on the Xenomorph is not to build biological weapons. Instead, its purpose is to continue the objective of Peter Weyland, the former CEO of Weyland-Yutani who started looking for ways to become immortal during the events of 2012’s Prometheus (which took place many years before Alien Romulus). By experimenting on the Xenomorphs and the Parasitoids AKA Facehuggers, the scientists on the space station were able to extract the same ‘black goo’ used by the ancient alien race called the Engineers to create life forms such as humanity and the Xenomorphs. Rook refers to the ‘black goo’ as Prometheus Fire or the more scientific name, Z-01.

Weyland-Yutani is planning to use the Z-01 or ‘black goo’ to instantly evolve humans to be more like the ‘perfect organism’ that they perceive Xenomorphs to be. Why? Because too many humans are dying from their colonisation efforts, be it through disease or mining disasters. If they can make humans stronger and more like Xenomorphs, the company will be able to obtain more profits because fewer humans will die.

Amidst the chaos of everything that happens in Alien Romulus, it’s hard to confirm or pinpoint if there is more Z-01 with Rain and Andy. There might also be more Z-01 out there, considering that we know that Weyland-Yutani continues to experiment on Xenomorphs in the future (the events of Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection).

If anything, the Z-01 ‘black goo’ will likely be an important aspect of the Alien franchise moving forward, especially if we get more movies and TV series after Alien Romulus.

What Is That Human-Engineer-Xenomorph Hybrid?

After injecting herself with the Z-01 ‘black goo’, Kay’s baby forcibly comes out of her womb and turns out to be a Human-Engineer-Xenomorph hybrid.

Kay’s child is definitely the first Human-Engineer-Xenomorph hybrid. Its head and face looks like an Engineer but its body and tail are like a Xenomorph’s. The only reason I say that it’s a Human-Engineer-Xenomorph is because it started as a human baby before being corrupted by the X-01 black goo.

That being said, hybrid Xenomorphs are not a new thing. However, we’ve seen dog Xenomorphs (in Alien 3) and even Human-Xenomorph hybrids (in Alien Resurrection), as well as Predator-Xenomorphs AKA Pred Aliens in the Alien Vs Predator movies. However, chronologically, all of that has yet to happen in the Alien universe because Alien Romulus takes place before all that (and the Alien Vs Predator are pretty much non-canon).

Most of all though, the Human-Engineer-Xenomorph hybrid sort of looks like a Necromorph from EA’s Dead Space games. I’m sure I won’t be the only one thinking that.

Will Rain And Andy Return?

Since Rain and Andy both survive, we might see them in a potential sequel. We have no idea if their ship will even reach their destination. In the first four Alien movies, Ripley never gets to go where she sets out for in the previous movie. For instance, Ripley set her course for Earth at the end of Aliens, but instead found herself stuck on a prison planet at the beginning of Alien 3.

Rain and Andy could find themselves in a similar situation. Maybe Weyland-Yutani somehow intercepts their ship before it reaches its destination, or maybe the ship finds itself reaching someplace else. Who knows? The Alien universe is an unforgiving one.

Alien Romulus Easter Eggs

Rook Is Based On The Likeness Of The Late Ian Holm, Who Played Ash In Alien

There is a synthetic android named Rook in Alien Romulus, and he looks exactly like the synthetic android Ash in the original Alien. The late actor Ian Holm played Ash in the original Alien, so they used CGI and his likeness for Rook in Alien Romulus as a tribute.

RIP Ian Holm.

Ripley’s Iconic Line

Ripley’s most iconic line is arguably when she said “Get away from her, you bitch!” to the Alien Queen in Aliens.

One of the characters in Alien Romulus repeats the same line. Andy (David Jonsson) says the line when he kills a Xenomorph to save Rain (Cailee Spaeny) during a climactic moment.

Colonial Marines

The Colonial Marines from Aliens get a shoutout when Tyler (Archie Renaux) teaches Rain (Cailee Spaeny) how to use a Pulse Rifle,

There’s a similar scene in Aliens when Hicks teaches Ripley how to use a Pulse rifle.