 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | I’m just happy this baby will get to see the sun. | „ |
| ~ Kay talking about her unborn child before its eventual mutation. |
The Offspring is a major antagonist in the 2024 sci-fi horror film Alien: Romulus, the ninth installment in the Alien film franchise. It was a human fetus that got severely mutated due to its mother Kay injecting herself with the black goo whilst pregnant. Ultimately leading to the Offspring being born, which began growing in an unbelievably fast rate, all to chase and kill the leftover scavengers of the Corbelan IV.
It was portrayed by Robert Bobroczkyi.
Appearance[]
The Offspring is a hybrid between a human fetus and the black goo pathogen, Z-01 (a recreated version of the original black goo alien pathogen Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 based on the residual substance within the Nostromo Drone), which created the Xenomorphs. The Offspring therefore has clear Human/Xenomorph features, resembling a tall, pale-skinned, humanoid man, but with clear biomechanical Xenomorph-like qualities.
The Offspring's back appears to have underdeveloped back spikes, looking more like craters that constantly discrete black goo out of them. On the front, it had what appeared to be fleshy slits in its lower abdomen and groin area. But the creature does have its own fully developed inner jaw, which it uses to suckle from its mother, but also to kill its enemies.
Despite its clear Alien appearance, the Offspring stands out by being one of the few Xenomorphs (along with the Newborn) to have human facial expressions, as its entire facial region appears to be very much human-like, apart from its eyes that have a clear black complexion. However, many of the "human" features that the Offspring has resembled that of the Engineers, as they both are pale bald humanoids with black eyes, which may be due to humanity being spawned from Engineer genetic material.
Personality[]
Despite its short lifespan, it seemed to achieve a sense of sentience after shedding its birth chrysalis. While its attack on android Andy and fatal feeding on its "mother" Kay may be instinctual, it later displayed clear malicious intent.
When pursuing Rain, it would aggressively snarl and hiss at her, which was animalistic, but when it got close to killing her, it displayed a sadistic smirk, thus indicating a sadistic choice to kill, unlike the typical impersonal, if brutal, attack patterns of Xenomorphs born through Facehugger impregnation.
After Rain vented the cargo hold, its final attacks on her displayed evidence of rage, from its scowling expression, and failure to adhere to Xenomorph survival instincts by attacking her, even though it could have simply climbed the cable back to the ship.
Story[]
Alien: Romulus[]
Kay was abducted by a Xenomorph and cocooned in the hive within the Romulus half of the space station, however, since it wounded her, she was left unimpregnated by a Facehugger due to her not being an ideal host. During their attempt to find an escape from the station and a swarm of Facehuggers, Kay's brother, Tyler, heard her pained groans, thus he, Rain, and a reluctant android Andy follow the noise to its source.
Tyler pried Kay from the hive wall, with her blood loss necessitating her to lean on the others; the four headed towards the elevator. However, Andy gets knocked down, triggering one of the android's seizure-like malfunctions, and Tyler blocks a Xenomorph tail from reaching Rain and Kay, which impaled him instead; the Xenomorph carried Tyler up into the fleshy cavern that the creatures made above, and he is ripped to pieces by several other Xenos. Rain dragged Kay into the elevator, closing it before the creatures could reach them.
Deciding to return to aid her android-adopted brother, Rain halted the elevator. She handed Kay a case of vials of the pathogen reverse-engineered by the station's dead scientists and crippled science officer, android Rook; Rain told her to continue to the Corbelan IV, and assured her that Rain herself will find a way to escape, too.
While Rain and Andy dispatch the Xenomorph infestation, Kay's fear for the survival of her future child compelled her to take one of the pathogen vials and inject herself with the mutagenic fluid. Rain and Andy make it to the ship with Kay, and they escape the Remus-Romulus before it is obliterated in the ice ring of colony planet Jackson's Star. Rain helped Kay into a cryo-chamber, telling her that when she thawed, she could get medical treatment. Rain connected Andy to the ship's mainframe, so he wouldn't suffer the experience of time alone during the trip.
Before Rain could enter cryo-sleep herself, Kay's chamber was setting off an alarm and deactivating due to an unknown instability; Rain slid out of the chamber, discovering Kay jerking in pain, with her few-week pregnancy absorbing the injected pathogen to engorge her abdomen to become larger than a 9 month pregnancy. Blood gushed from Kay's womb, as she screamed in agony; she painfully pushed out a chrysalis. Kay begs Rain to get rid of it, thus Rain has to struggle to break the freakishly thick umbilical cord, which also hurts Kay, but it is severed. The ship's alarm breaks Andy from his connection to the mainframe.
Rain carried the chrysalis towards the cargo hold, but she froze when it split slightly to reveal a human baby, but with pallid white skin and black markings; the shell overflowed with acid, which burned Rain's arms, making her drop it. The pod melted through the walkway and fell below deck in the cargo hold. Rain rushed to retrieve a cryo-thrower pack, and then went down to locate the pod. Andy arrived in the cryo-chamber hold, and helped Kay out of her chamber, leaving her to weakly lean against the wall.
Rain found the pod in the cargo, however, it was empty; yet she was able to follow hands and foot prints that gradually grew bigger. Unfortunately, the Offspring had already double-backed to where Andy and Kay were; the Offspring had grown to be a monstrous humanoid-Xenomorph hybrid, which effortlessly swatted away Andy, leaving him too damaged to stand again. Kay recoiled in terror as the Offspring approached her; it seemed to examine her with curiosity, but she meekly tried to push it away. The Offspring's tongue protruded, which seemed human, but it extended and the tip opened like a Xenomorph's nested mouth.
When Rain had returned to Kay, she was already dead, as the Offspring appeared to be feeding on her. Rain tried to fire her weapon, but it malfunctioned, and she dropped it in frustration, however, this shot out cryo on the pipes, which burst them to cause a reaction of subzero gas flooding the room. Rain fled, with the Offspring following, and it seemed only slightly inconvenienced by the cryo fog.
Rain was able to don a spacesuit, and connected it to a cable in the cargo hold, in preparation to dump the creature into space. Before she can reach the opposing levers, the Offspring blocks her path. Rain kicked the chrysalis, covering the floor with acid, which ate through it, until breaching the exterior hull. Rain was sucked out into space, but stayed connected to the ship via the cable.
Rain began to climb the cable, as sand flew around her; however, the Offspring emerged from the sand, clinging on to her; its nested mouth latched on to the visor of her helmet, and caused small cracks. While the Offspring's flesh was being shredded by the sandfall, it remained on the attack. Rain was able to move the cable to pull the final levers, which released the cargo hold from the ship; she was safe through the gap, but the cargo crushed the Offspring, forcing it into the ice ring to be torn apart and exploded, avenging Kay's death.
Rain made it back on the ship, and put Andy in a secure chamber to prevent him from suffering further damage. Rain made a log akin to Ripley's, noting the tragedy that she was the sole human to survive, as she herself went into cryo-sleep, while the destination she programmed into the auto-pilot hopefully taking her to a far better future.
Trivia[]
- The Offspring is the chronologically first, but second appearing Xenomorph/human hybrid in the series, with the first being the Newborn, however, the two contrast one another by the fact that:
- The Offspring is much more human looking compared to the Newborn, presumably because the Offspring was already in development as a human fetus from the beginning, with the Xenomorph genes being added later in its development when its genetic makeup was already set.
- The Offspring appears to be the first creature born from black goo with genitals.
- The Newborn appeared to have a true instinctual connection to Ripley 8, seeing her as its mother. The Offspring, however, is much more hostile towards its mother, only being concerned with absorbing the black goo from her.
- The Newborn showed fear and sorrow upon facing its death, whereas the Offspring showed blind fury.
- In Prometheus, Elizabeth Shaw was also impregnated via the womb-like Kay, but she had it removed by a C-section, and it became a giant Facehugger-like tentacled creature called Trilobite, rather than the final creature. Shaw's case, however, was attributed to her being sterile instead of fertile and/or having a growing fetus like Kay.
- Fede Alvarez, during an interview about the presence of Ian Holm, took the opportunity to talk about the design of the Offspring, saying that, just like the Xenomorphs, the Engineers would come from the same black pathogen [1]
References[]
- ↑ https://variety.com/2024/film/features/alien-romulus-ending-director-fede-alvarez-resurrecting-ash-1236107526/ “It’s the root of all life, but also particularly the Xenomorphs come out of that thing, which means it has to be inside them. It’s the Xenomorphs’ semen, almost. So we thought, if it affects your DNA, and the Engineers clearly came out of the same root of life, it made complete sense to me that [the offspring of a human and a Xenomorph] was going to look like that.”
