Why do xenomorphs drool so much

But we think this one is probably the most fearsome. In the prequel film Prometheus, it's revealed that the Xenomorphs are essentially the ultimate form of biological warfare. They are essentially the perfect killing machine. As Ash describes in the first film, they are unhindered by conscience or morality, making them ideal for carnage.

The problem is keeping the monsters contained. Then it's time to call in the Predators to clean up the mess. One of the most iconic moments in sci-fi movie history is the appearance of the Chestburster towards the end of Alien 's first act. When the larva-like creature bursts out of Kane's chest, it not only disgusted and frightened countless audience members, but the cast as well.

In a jumpscare completely unknown to the rest of the crew outside of John Hurt, the Chestburster effect garnered real reactions from the grossed-out crew. Ron Shusett, producer and screenwriter, said Ridley didn't tell the cast, "They're just going to see it. Riddle us this, how do you kill the most blood-thirsty creature in the galaxy? The answer, cook 'em!

The Xenomorphs are extremely sensitive to heat, making flamethrowers the weapon of choice against these cosmic critters. Not only does it make for an effective weapon, but the use of fire also makes for some pretty stellar-looking scenes as well. Whether it's Ripley wandering the shadowy halls of a spaceship with a flickering flame or a monster mashing item in Alien: Isolation, you can't deny how awesome it is to watch these things get toasted.

Or you could just launch them out the airlock, to each their own. A group of travelers on a spaceship with a rabid alien on their backs: What an awesome idea for a video game! The Xenomorph would definitely be more dangerous than your typical space invader, but Nintendo had the perfect solution. Instead of a licensed Alien title, the film inspired one of the company's biggest titles, Metroid. Think about it, Metroid is a game with a strong female protagonist, a planet full of head-sucking aliens, and a spooky, isolated atmosphere.

Sounding like something you've seen before? The Xenomorph and Mickey Mouse don't seem like they'd be the best of buddies, do they?

From to , Disney's Great Movie Ride was host to a cast of familiar movie characters and one scary space creature. Complete with its own Disney animatronic, the Xenomorph was easily one of the more memorable, and certainly the scariest, moment from the attraction. The ride car pulls guests into the climactic escape from the Nostromo. Alarms ring and fog gushes from the pipes of the ship, along with an "acid" spitting Xenomorph from the walls and ceiling!

Unfortunately, the ride closed in , but this wasn't the alien's first dance with Disney. Believe it or not, the House of Mouse once considered making an Alien- themed attraction for Tomorrowland.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Kyle Jones Kyle Jones The second answer sounds more likely to me, because why not excrete large amounts of it when it's time to cocoon up a host, rather than just leeching it onto the floor all day. But I really like your second answer. Thanks for answering! Another possibility is that it's building material for the caverns they build in old spaceships.

Remember how the walls become more and more like an H. Giger painting, with an organic ribcage motif? They might constantly add to it as they slime by, and in their free time, mold it into those shapes. Jeff Jeff k 28 28 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

Mark Beadles Mark Beadles FuzzyBoots FuzzyBoots k 15 15 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Upcoming Events. November Topic Challenge: Samuel R. Delany ends Nov Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. It's also proven that when a host awakens, there is some sort of a memory lapse in which they don't remember anything that has happened to them.

This short-term memory loss is most likely a result of the temporary oxygen deprivation caused by the facehugger's tail, as it asphyxiates the host. Different facehuggers are known to exist, including some highly abnormal variants. The royal facehugger will give rise to Queens or to members of the Praetorian caste, the latter which may be promoted to Queens later on.

However, there's also a poorly-known caste of giant facehuggers which are also known as queen facehuggers , but don't seem to be related to Queens directly.

Unlike regular facehuggers, these giants don't seek to impregnate hosts, but merely protect the ovomorphs. They may use their legs and tail to immobilize potential hosts, allowing regular facehuggers to latch onto the victims' faces and impregnate them [11].

Another highly aberrant form is the Infectoid facehugger, which doesn't implant an embryo, but rather fuses itself to the host's body, transforming the host into an undead zombie -like being, linked to the aliens' hive mind [12]. After attaching itself to a vein and gestating in the chest cavity, Xenomorph infants - called chestbursters - push and chew through the host's chest, causing severe pain, blood loss, shock and death.

The host's rib cage is cracked open, bones bent outward. No one has survived this process other than Emil Zorn, who was fitted with an artificial torso following this encounter. However, Ripley was cryogenically frozen after she was cloned, and then had it surgically removed.

It was also revealed that high amounts of stress can actually make the chestburster more frantic. This causes it to push and chew through the chest at a faster pace, therefore emerging slightly earlier than normal. On one occasion, the chestburster erupted out of the head of a host Human instead of the chest. It is suggested that the removal of the chestburster would still lead to the death of the host due to the remaining alien tissue acting like a malignant tumor, in effect developing into a fatal cancerous growth.

At this stage, the Xenomorph is small, limbless, and very vulnerable. Among other possibilities, its neck can be snapped. It needs to get to a safe area so it can reach its next life stage. It moves with its long tail, and can coil up and jump. It cannot climb on walls or ceilings, but despite these drawbacks it can traverse an area with astonishing speed. In some cases, they turn into a cocoon [14] , though this could be a subspecies.

The common assumption is that the alien molts, grows legs, and develops much like a tadpole turning into a frog. Another common theory the most accepted one is that chestbursters shed their skin upon growing, as shown when Brett picks up a chestburster skin he found on the floor in an area the chestburster took shelter in. At very rare times the chestburster emerges after the host has already died, which has been observed in an ox [15].

Why the ox died after it was implanted is unknown; though the most likely reason would be due to a combination of the stress of implantation coupled with the poor health of the animal. It is seen to be riddled with parasites and presumably spent much of its life in the harsh environment of Fiorina "Fury" Strangely, in this circumstance, the chestburster lived.

This was also seen after the Empress killed a Predator and the chestburster survived. In some cases, morphological traits acquired from the host may already be visible in the chestburster stage, for example: a chestburster born from a Yautja will already display the characteristic mandibles of the race.

Some types of chestbursters already have legs when they emerge, including the royal chestburster and the "Runner". A variation of this stage is known as the bellyburster , which erupts from the host's abdomen, rather than chest. These seem to be formed when the host is pregnant, and the alien embryo develops inside the womb, presumably feeding on the fetus or multiple fetuses. A Predalien has been observed to impregnate several hosts with multiple embryos each through the mouth, which later gave rise to bellybursters.

Since multiple bellybursters can develop inside a single host's womb, they can be used as an efficient way for a young future-Queen to establish a new hive faster. Little is known about the transformation that occurs between the chestburster and adult phases.

As already stated, the Xenomorph appears to molt before reaching maturity. Maturity is reached in a few hours, and involves a dozen-fold increase in mass, which would presumably require some form of nourishment.

In the Nostromo , Ripley comes across a food locker that had been raided, apparently by the Xenomorph to get food. When the first Drone encountered on record was born in the Nostromo , it had a smooth, long head, and an upright-standing body. It had no visible eyes, a tail, and strange spines protruding from its back. However, many years later on LV, the same species was found, but they looked slightly different. The head was no longer smooth, but ridged. One theory is that the smooth-headed Xenomorph was a Drone, and the ridge-headed Xenomorphs were Warriors.

This is supported by the fact that the alien aboard the Nostromo built a nest, which only Drones can do since it is part of their job in the colony. Another widely accepted idea, however, is age - the Xenomorphs found on LV were more than a few days old, while all of the others encountered were less than a day old.

On the other hand, some hives seem to have a distinct coloration for each caste, in which the Drones are black and the Warriors are a very dark blue; the color difference indicating that age is not a factor. Another variation was encountered on an expedition to Antarctica.

These Warriors were less humanoid and sometimes walked on all fours. Their tails were longer, with a large, curved barb at the end. The head was smooth but much shorter than normal. It is important to note, however, that this particular Xenomorph hive was grown by the Predators, who introduced a hormone with unknown effects into the Queen's system.

As the Xenomorph has been shown to be an extremely adaptable organism, which lays hundreds of eggs, develops quickly and is highly efficient at altering its own genome to better fit the environment absorbing traits from its hosts , it's very likely that some phenotype variations are simply the result of genetic variation between different populations, which evolve very fast.

Like normal Xenomorphs, a Predalien gains traits from its host. From the chestburster stage, it is noticeably different from other Xenomorphs. It is a somewhat dark shade of green with external mandibles, due to its Predator Yautja heritage.

Although larger about the size of a Praetorian and far deadlier than normal human-spawned Xenomorphs, they lack speed, and their acid blood is not as deadly as a normal Xenomorph's. If a Predalien is part of a hive that has no Queen, it may serve as Queen due to its reproductive capabilities - its mandibles hold the host's head in place while its inner mouth implants one or more Xenomorph embryos into the host's throat, similar to the function of a facehugger.

Up to four Xenomorph embryos may be planted in a host, if the Predalien needs to build up numbers quickly. It also possesses higher intelligence than normal Xenomorphs. Though an accepted breed among the Xenomorphs, the Yautja believe this kind to be totally and insultingly unacceptable abominations that must be vanquished by any means necessary. Runners , a. They act as scouts for the hive, likely due to their quadrupedal and fast nature.

Runners are tinged a noticeable brown and run on four legs like the host they hailed from. However, they will walk and stand on two legs sometimes. On their back, there are no dorsal tubes, likely for better head mobility. Unlike most Aliens, they are digitigrade i. Their chestbursters are not as larval as the other aliens, but rather a smaller, pale version of themselves.

The Runner is all about speed and agility, perhaps one of the fastest castes of Xenomorph ever encountered. It stalks its prey much like a lion or tiger, waiting for an unfortunate victim to come about and killing them outright, rather than cocooning them in a nest like others would. They are known to use stealth, just like their siblings. Although not as strong as other castes, Runners are still strong enough to lift a full grown Human. Like other Xenomorphs, they're also known to attack the head of their prey with their pharyngeal jawed tongues, and are capable of spitting acid.

Runners are shown to be more animalistic in nature and are not the sharpest caste in the hive. They do have some intelligence, but not as much as their bipedal counterparts. The Runner on Fury utilized hit and kill tactics, rather than capturing creatures and cocooning them in an established nest.

They are smart enough to not harm any members of their own kind, especially hosts impregnated with larval Queens.

This was seen when Ellen Ripley was in the medical bay of the Fury penal colony. After the Dragon killed Chief Medical Officer Jonathon Clemens, it quickly turned to Ripley, who was horrified of the creature and despite its intimidating moves towards her, left her completely unscathed. It even tried to protect Ripley from Leonard Dillon who was trying to get her away from it while it was trapped in a corner.

Conversely, this same individual has also demonstrated a desire for revenge, even against those carrying unborn Xenomorphs. This was seen after it was drowned in hot lead and managed to survive. This led to the creature chasing after Ripley until she dowsed it in water from the sprinklers, causing it to explode via thermal shock.

The Tarkatan Xenomorph is a strain of Xenomorph born from a Tarkatan host. Although, by genetic identification, this strain is identified as "Tarkatan", this type is only one of three variations of this specific strain. This Xenomorph strain appears to be a bit more bulky and muscular than their wiry, lanky Human-spawned siblings.

It is black, like them, but has a shorter head and a more impressive set of teeth, like its host. The Xenomorph also has arm blades, a trait taken from its host, though its blades are segmented and hooked at the ends. The primary difference between the three variations of the Tarkatan strain is the head. The primary variation's head is similar to the ridged head of the Warrior. The Acid variation is smooth-lined like the Drone caste, while the Konjurer variation's head bears a close resemblance to the larger crest of a Praetorian.

The Tarkatan Xenomorph appears to be able to adhere itself to surfaces like most of its species. Its most obvious and striking feature is its arm blades, which bear a resemblance to some Yautja weaponry.

The Acidic variation of this strain is able to spew blood out from its body, while the Konjurer variation has the ability to summon Drones and facehugger "traps" on the battlefield. Numerous Xenomorphs have been recorded which aren't the product of gene transference from a host. As a widespread species with fast reproduction, the emergence of a number of subspecies and mutations is to be expected; although some of them haven't evolved naturally, but were intentionally engineered by scientists.

The Xenomorphs have a caste system similar to that of bees and ants. A major difference is that their caste system is far more complex. It's believed that the Drones in this instance used to indicate a "worker" caste, instead of mating-capable Xenomorphs have the smooth cowl while the Warriors display the ridges.

The Drones and Warriors have different tasks: Warriors defend the hive, and Drones hunt potential hosts, while some live only to protect the Queen, such as Hive-Warriors or Praetorians. The basis of any Xenomorph hive; the Drones are very much like worker bees or ants.

Their main tasks are to keep the hive in good condition. Also, they seem to have the job of creating their nests with their own secretions. They have the basic body build of the Warrior, except that their dome is completely smooth, whereas the Warrior's dome is typically more ridged.

Drones are smaller and somewhat more delicate than the Warriors, not considered quite as dangerous by Yautja standards, but striking fear into the heart of any Human. Like all of their brethren, they have acidic body fluids, but only the Drone can spit this secretion onto prey over a short distance. Drones have an organ in their bodies that releases a sticky fluid that they can spit out of their mouth onto any surface. It can be used to harvest cocooned hosts for the Queen's facehuggers. Warrior Xenomorphs - commonly known as simply Warriors - are the soldiers and protectors of the hive.

They are all children of the hive's Queen, bigger and stronger than the Drones. The Drones are less deadly and somewhat less intimidating. In most cases, the Warrior looks the same as a Drone, except that the dome on top of the head is generally ridged. They may evolve into Praetorians, which may serve as the Queen's personal guard and potential successors. Typically, there are four of them at any given time. However, when the Queen wishes to watch them battle for her attention or increase protection in preparation for an attack on the hive, she will release pheromones which cause four additional Warriors to evolve into Praetorians.

Praetorians "Royal Guards" , are bigger and stronger than the Warriors and are seen to have a developing crown. Their primary role within the hive is to guard key locations of importance or interest, and, if nothing else, to protect the Queen herself. Most Praetorians can be found very close to the Queen's chambers.

The physical features of the Praetorian are pristine and very similar to the Queen's: it has a crown-like head crest, large size, and great strength. The Praetorian is said to be created by special eggs and facehuggers known as a royal facehugger these are generally larger and a darker color than normal facehuggers , which carries a genetic code known as the Royal Jelly Line, which is passed from the Queen herself to the facehugger and embryo.

However, there are cases in which the Praetorians evolve from the Warrior caste. The Queen selects a Warrior to become a Praetorian, and the Warrior is then attacked by fellow Xenomorphs from the same hive and banished.

The Warrior must survive on its own for a long period of time. It returns to the hive as a worthy guard to the Queen. Besides their guard duties, Praetorians may also act as the "princesses", or immature Queens of the hive, who can be promoted to Queens.

Some varying reports of Praetorians with massive shield-like growths on their forearms have been seen. She lays many eggs that hatch to become the first stage of Xenomorph. It is unclear whether the Queen engages in combat outside of protecting her hive. The Queen is usually nestled deep within the hive, protected by Praetorian guards. She has been known to display some logic-based intelligence, primarily in using simple Human technology such as lifts.

She is the most dangerous of the hive, displaying extreme aggression and using her intelligence to devastating effect. When attached to her egg sac ovipositor , she is immobile and vulnerable to attack.

When she removes herself from it, however, she can move surprisingly fast. She attacks with her four clawed arms, as well as her long, bladed tail. She has also been shown to use her main and inner jaws in combat. Interestingly enough, it seems that the size of Queens varies.