What did you miss in all that gloom? Read my whole plot recap below (or if you’re after my four star review, it’s here)
Where we are (time and place)
It’s 2142 and the Wayland-Yutani Renaissance space station – made up of two sides, Romulus and Remus – has a mission to locate and bring in the xenomorph that Ellen Ripley blasted the f*ck into space 20 years earlier. Locating the wreckage of the Nostromo drifting gently in space, the ship homes in on what looks like a giant fossil inside a lump of coal: black and shiny with a skeleton visible. They retrieve it and split it open, not unexpectedly from a company whose best ideas always seem to have supremely terrible consequences.
Meanwhile on the mining colony of Jackson Star, where the sun never shines, a young woman called Rain is meant to be leaving the colony for Yvaga, nine years’ travel away, with her synthetic brother Andy. She has worked the required number of years to be able to go, but the company is short of workers and she is told her travel pass is revoked, and they are sending her to the mines with Andy.
The mission
She is contacted by ex-boyfriend Tyler, his sister Kay, cousin Bjorn and Bjorn’s adopted sister Navarro. The group are scavengers, and have a hauler ship, the Corbelan. They’ve discovered that drifting above them is a company ship (the Renaissance, though they don’t know this) which they believe abandoned. Their plan is to steal its still-functioning cryochambers to get them to Yvaga. But they need Andy – as being a Weyland-Yutani android he can access the systems and get them on board.
Tyler convinces Rain that it’ll be easy and she won’t even need to get out of the Corbelan when they dock.
They take off – Navarro is a skilled pilot – and as they head into space above Jackson Star, Rain at last sees the planet’s sun. She and Kay talk about Yvaga’s famous sunsets. Andy is looking forward to seeing them with her but Rain knows he won’t be coming with them. Yvaga does not accept synthetics.
They see the abandoned ship which is much larger than they expected. And the planet’s rings are closer too with Tyler estimating the ship will actually crash into the rings in about 36 hours.
Navarro docks the Corbelan and Rain asks Andy if he wants to do this. Andy explains his own directive is to do what is best for Rain.
The cryopods
Andy, Tyler and Bjorn head into the freezing ship. They locate where the pods should be and Tyler reactivates the ship’s power systems and the company operating system, MU/TH/UR.
He extracts the cryopods but discovers they are only set up for just over 3 years’ cryosleep which not enough to get to Yvaga. He detects a cryofuel depot elsewhere on the ship.
Bjorn is rude to Andy on the Corbelan, and Navarro explains to Rain he is very suspicious of synthetics as one had sealed his mum into a mine after an accident along with three others. Though synthetics can’t harm humans it was able to do this as by sacrificing three people it could save 12.
From the Corbelan, Navarro ejects the pod container from the abandoned ship and guides them into the hauler’s loading bay.
Kay rushes off to be sick and Rain finds out from her that she is pregnant.
As Tyler, Bjorn and Andy look for the extra cryofuel Bjorn lets slip to Andy that he won’t be allowed to go to Yvaga. He’s needed to watch over the pods on the ship then will be decommissioned when they reach their destinatio; synthetics won’t be allowed on Yvaga as it is a non-Weyland-Yutani system. Rain can hear all this. Andy claims to be fine with this as it’s what is best for Rain.
They reach the deck and realise the ship is deserted but not decommissioned. Bjorn, still needling Andy, finds an electric weapon which he says he could charge and use against a synthetic. Andy grabs him but it turns out it’s to stop Bjorn falling through a massive hole caused by something burning through several floors of the space station.
They see the top half of a synthetic on the floor. They find the room with the fuel; it’s shin-deep in water. Pulling out one of the fuel rods, Bjorn’s hand is injured, then they find themselves locked in as alarms go off; and Andy, in the room with them, does not have clearance to get them out.
Navarro has brought the Corbelan round to the nearest airlock. She and Rain board the ship to find the others and free them. Once on deck Rain tries to remove the module from the half-android so she can transfer it to Andy, which should mean he will be able to open the door. The room where the men are stuck has lines of incubating facehuggers. Navarro finds an x-ray torch, and the half-android wakes up and grabs Rain. Navarro extracts the module from it and it sinks back down. Rain passes the module to Tyler through a small gap in the door.
Andy is slowly rebooting with the new module, but the facehuggers are birthing. They attack but Andy is finally rebooted and manages to open the door. One facehugger makes it to the deck before the doors close, attaching itself to Navarro’s face.
Andy has changed with the new module. He stops them trying to remove the facehugger as he says it is keeping her alive, though he doesn’t know why. He explains who he is and welcomes his upgrade. He also stops Rain removing the module from him. Andy suggests the half-android might be able to help and they plug it into a computer.
Rook, the half-android, wakes up and tells them to kill Navarro as an act of mercy and leave. He tells them the facehugger has implanted a seed that will mix with her DNA and create a creature that will grown out of her. He points above them, to where a xenomorph (the XX121 Xenomorph according to Rook) hangs dead above them. Rook explains a towing ship had contact with it 20 years before, but after killing all but one of the crew the creature had been blown out of the airlock. 170 days ago it had finally been found, and brought on board. They thought it dead – but it wasn’t.
The remaining crew had finally managed to kill it but then its acid blood had burnt through all the floors and the hull of the ship killing everyone left. Rook had then sealed the ship.
They use the cryofuel to freeze the facehugger tail on Navarro’s face then kill it. Navarro wakes up but Rook thinks it likely it had already done its job. Rook tells Andy to help the humans accept “the hardest path” and not let their emotions rule them. Andy understands and says Navarro cannot go back on their ship. Bjorn electrocutes him with his weapon and he and Navarro returns to the ship while Rains stays with Andy to help him. Andy tells Rain she won’t see him as a child as now he can help her. He runs off to stop Bjorn, but Bjorn and Navarro get back on the ship and undock. Tyler, Rain and Andy are left on the Renaissance.
On the hauler Navarro starts twitching, and looks at her chest using the x-ray torch she found. There is something inside. As she seizures, her foot kicks the controls and the Corbelan spins out of control, eventually crashing into another part of the space station. A baby alien emerges from Navarro’s chest killing her.
On the Renaissance, Andy explains to Rain and Tyler that the explosion from the crash has pushed them off axis and the Renaissance will hit the asteroid belt in 47 minutes.
Rook asks Mother about the integrity of compound Z-01. It is okay: “there’s still hope” he says.
Tyler and Rain head to the other side of the ship where the Corbelan has crashed, to help the others, but the corridor in between is full of facehuggers.
Rook introduces himself to Andy and asks for his help. Andy explains that he can only do what is best for Rain but Rook tells him the upgrade has overridden that and he now has to help the company finish the mission.
Andy goes to Rain and Tyler and explains the facehuggers are blind but track by sound and body temperature. Rain suggests they raise the room temperature to match their bodies so they are invisible to the facehuggers.
As they wait Tyler says everything that has happened to them is all his fault, but Rain tells him they all decided to do it.
Time to impact: 40 minutes
With Tyler and Rain’s body temperatures now matching the room they have to go through, Andy warns them not to panic – currently they are not “visible” to the facehuggers (or parasitoids as they call them). They walk slowly through, shocked by the dead bodies of crew members they find.
On the Corbelan, Kay has regained consciousness after the crash and climbs back into the Renaissance. She comes across a pulsating cocoon. Bjorn grabs her from behind to keep her quiet. He plugs in his electric weapon and thrusts it into the pulsating thing, until he thinks it is dead – but a tentacle lashes out and throws him to the floor, injuring him. It starts squirting him with acid, his fingers burning off as he writhes on the floor and dies.
As the pulsating cocoon starts to hatch Kay is trying to get out but the doors won’t open. She calls Tyler who tells her about a key. Meanwhile the xenomorph is hatching. She finally finds the key on the floor and opens the door but as she runs out falls down several floors.
The noise over their communicators has alerted the facehuggers to their presence, and Andy, Tyler and Rain rush down the corridor. Andy gets out and starts to close the door; just in time Rain and Tyler roll through it. Rain accuses him of shutting the door on Tyler but Andy points out he timed it perfectly. (A reference to when they escaped the cryofuel depot and one facehugger managed to get through before he could shut the doors.)
Time to impact: 30 minutes
Kay, unconscious on the floor after her fall, is woken by water from a sprinkler, triggered by a small fire on board. A xenomorph is walking above her; she makes it to the door with Rain, Tyler and Andy on the other side but Andy refuses to open the door to let her out. As the xenomorph comes towards her, They beg Andy to open the door. Rain tells him Kay is pregnant but Andy says if they let her out by the time they close the door the creature would get to them. The alien lifts Kay up and disappears upwards with her. Rain slaps Andy.
Rain asks him his directive and he says his new directive is to do what is best for the company. He won’t let her remove his new module.
Rain asks how he could have done this (refuse to open the door to save Kay) and he pointedly responds “what, leave someone behind?”, a reference to the humans’ plan to use him to help them get to Yvaga then abandon him. In a travel pod moving across the space station, Tyler asks where they are going. Andy says he has to finish a task given to him by Rook; then the Corbelan will be cleared for departure and the two of them (Rain and Tyler) can go in to Yvaga together. Andy will then return to Jackson Star. He is taking them to the lab.
In the lab Rook is on the computer screen. Andy explains that there are too many new diseases affecting humans, the colonies dying. Rook states that “the perfect organism” – how he once referred to the xenomorph – should be how we refer to humans. He explains that he bioengineered the facehuggers from xenomorph DNA, and discovered within them a non-Newtonian fluid, “life in its most primal unadulterated form”. Rook has then synthesised this dangerous serum into Prometheus Fire, a “divine gift to humanity” (cue music from Prometheus). It is called Z-01 and is what lets the xenomorph speed up and slow down its metabolism. It will upgrade humanity by overwriting our DNA; in Rook’s words “we simply cannot wait for evolution anymore”. While he explains this Rain sees a video of a rat which has been given the compound and becomes reenergised – they have already left the lab when the video shows the same rat with something bursting out of its back.
Andy retrieves the compound and says he has to take it back to Jackson Star for further investigation. Rook is tracking it; once it’s on the Corbelan, Rook will send the hauler back to the colony on autopilot.
When Rain spots the xenomorph on the screen – stalking them – Andy realises they will have to change their plan. He dishes out guns, and Tyler shows Rain to use it while admitting he himself has learnt this from “games and magazines”. Andy points out that if they shoot a xenomorph its acid blood will burn through the hull causing decompression – however it may see the guns as a threat and retreat. Andy has found them a route through the space station, along the conveyor belt.
Time to impact: 20 minutes
They are heading to the lift which will take them to the Corbelan. Andy puts the lights on and they see the corridor they have to get through is a giant alien nest. They turn around to find another way but then Tyler hears whimpering further along and realises it is Kay.
They go past dead cocooned bodies, their faces fixed in grimaces of death. But Kay is still alive – they detach her from the cocoon she is in. Andy surmises that she hasn’t been implanted yet as she is losing so much blood. He offers an injection of Prometheus Fire but Rain stops them, suggesting they get her in a cryopod so they can get her back to the colony for treatment. They rush to the Corbelan, but as Rain is comforting Kay, Tyler sees the xenomorph behind her.
The alien spears him with its tail and lifts him upwards. Andy is convulsing, but Rain manages to grab the file of Prometheus Fire and gets Kay into the lift. She tells Kay to get into the Corbelan and into a cryopod, and she gives her the Prometheus Fire. The autopilot will take Kay back to Jackson Star – Rain herself will find her own way back.
While Rain heads back down in the lift to find Andy (who is still in the nest corridor) Kay injects herself with the compound in a desperate attempt to heal herself.
Rain finds Andy and tells him he will die if he doesn’t let her remove the module, which is not in the company’s or her best interest. She swaps the module with his original one and waits for him to reboot.
Time to impact: 10 minutes
The xenomorphs are approaching along the nested corridor. She asks Rook, who appears on a screen, to help them, but he refuses to open the door so they can escape.
Kay makes it to the Corbelan, with Rook appearing on the screen telling her to press a button so he can fly her out remotely. Her friends, he says, have died to save her.
As Rain and Andy sit, waiting for the xenomorphs to get them, he tells her his terrible jokes: “I read a great book about zero gravity – I just couldn’t put it down”, which makes Rain realise if she turns off the gravity generator the acid blood won’t get to the floor but will float. Which means they can use her gun. She switches it off and starts firing at the approaching xenomorphs. Their acidic blood hangs in the air, and Rain and Andy float through it to the other side.
They make it to the lift shaft and close the door but a xenomorph grabs Rain. She fires to escape it and fl0ats upwards but loses her gun. The gravity automatically switches back on and Rain starts falling back down, as the floating blood in the corridor falls to the floor and starts burning through it. The xenomorph catches her and puts her on the ladder. As more xenomorphs rush up the shaft Andy sends the lift crashing down, crushing them. The original xenomorph reappears and moves towards Rain, who is still on the ladder. Andy sees her gun wedged on the side of the shaft as a facehugger also scuttles towards her.
He retrieves the gun and shoots the alien dead while declaring “get away from her – you bitch”. With just a few seconds to spare before impact onto the asteroid belt, they make it onto the Corbelan.
Kay asks what took them so long while Rook on the screen claims he’s glad they made it.
The Corbelan ejects from the Renaissance, which starts crashing into the asteroid belt. Rain puts Kay into a cryopod. Rook, on the screen, thanks them and says the company will collect the compound from Jackson Star in a few months. Rain overrides the route while Rook shrieks at her. The Renaissance is breaking up and his mission is not accomplished – and he knows he is doomed.
Rain settles Andy for the journey to Yvaga and gives him a new directive: to do what is best for the two of them.
An alarm sounds from Kay’s cryochamber. She is screaming and Rain sees the injection mark where Kay had self-administered the compound. Kay gives birth to a pod. Rain breaks the umbilical cord and runs off with the pod, dropping it on the floor while she looks for something to destroy it with. The pod slowly opens revealing a cooing baby. The acid from the pod burns through the floor and the pod drops into the cargo bay below. She climbs down but the pod is empty. She follows its large foot/claw prints.
Andy finds Kay, whose breasts are emitting slimy black “milk”. He turns around to see a massive human-xenomorph hybrid is there. It hits Andy then crawls over Kay, a tube emerging from its human mouth. Andy, found injured by Rain, asks her to help Kay. She finds the mutant holding Kay and apparently suckling her, but it kills Kay (its own mother) and then stands up to its now-enormous height, walking towards Rain.
She fires at him with a freezer gun and as it writhes in the cold she rushes over to Andy, who is still lying on the floor. She begs him to get up then has to stagger past him as the mutant comes after her. She manages to get to a small room where the spacesuits are kept but the temperature is dropping rapidly and she can hardly breathe. Climbing into one of the thick suits, she can finally breathe properly – as the mutant (called the Offspring in the credits) breaks through the door.
She lets herself down into the cargo bay on a metal rope, and finds instructions on the wall how to manually release the cargo bay doors by releasing four levers. She releases the first two and climbs up to release the others. She manages to release the third then stops – the Offspring is behind her and throws her to the floor. She cowers as the creature walks slowly towards her, grinning and shrieking, its bones cracking. Then Rain kicks the little birthing pod near her feet and the acid gunk it contains spills out, burning through the floor and pulling Rain and the Offspring out into space.
Rain is still attached to the metal rope, and she starts climbing up. But when nearly at the top, the Offspring appears, bloodied, below her, and grabs her. Its tubular tongue emerges and suckers Rain’s visor, the acid slightly cracking it. As she gets to the top the metal rope catches on the final leaver and pulls it down. Rain shouts “die motherfucker!” and both are again ejected into space. She gradually climbs back up the rope into the Corbelan as it skims the asteroid belt, the Renaissance burning in the distance.
On board, she sets the autopilot for Yvaga and puts the injured Andy in the cryopod, removing his module. As he sleeps she tells him she will fix him. Rain records a last message, as the last survivor of the Corbelan, saying she has set a course for the Yvaga system but does not know if she will reach it. Then she sleeps.