Is Weyland Corporation Portrayed as Evil?

Started by Xenomorphine, Aug 18, 2015, 07:54:27 PM

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Is Weyland Corporation Portrayed as Evil? (Read 4,892 times)

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Aug 19, 2015, 08:38:31 PM
Quote from: Alien³ on Aug 19, 2015, 08:01:53 PM
I own the Agent 9 fan edit on DVD which has the movie open with this, replacing the Engineer drinking on the waterfall.

I would be very curious to see that someday.  Is the policy of this website such that I can't request hints on where to find it?  Anyone?

By all means. We support fan edits.

Eldritch_DM

Quote from: Xenomorphine on Aug 19, 2015, 03:49:29 PMAnd he's the guy who told David 8 to infect Holloway for shits and giggles - that was what placed him firmly in the 'evil' camp.

Wait... when did this happen? I don't remember David being told to "infect" Holloway in the movie...

Xenomorphine

That was what the conversation with Weyland in his cryosleep chamber was meant to have been.

Perfect-Organism

"Try harder."  Remember?  Wink, wink.

Alien³

Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Aug 20, 2015, 12:08:28 AM
"Try harder."  Remember?  Wink, wink.

"Try Harder" is what David interprets as see what happens if someone ingests it. His robot mind is figuring it out independently. Hence the trick he pulls on Holloway to inadvertently let Charlie give David the permission to infect him.

"What would you do?"

"Anything and everything."


This is going off track though. The original conversation was about whether the company is evil or not?

I'm in the camp which believes that Weyland Yutani must be doing some things right because they've conquered space and other worlds. However for the purpose of story-telling we (as the audience) see moments where sections of the company pull immoral acts.

Just to go back to this...

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 19, 2015, 12:35:57 PM
The CEO is the face of the company though. When the president of the United States says or does something it is seen as representative of the entire nation. Not everyone might agree with him but people will still tend to judge the nation based on his actions and words.

That is why wars break out. Because everyone bows or judges to a leader of a country without thinking of the broader picture. Personally I don't look at Australia, or China and judge the entire country on one, or a handful of individuals, and I don't for a fictional company in a science fiction series either.

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯

Quote from: Alien³ on Aug 20, 2015, 08:16:56 AM
This is going off track though. The original conversation was about whether the company is evil or not?

No, this thread is about whether Prometheus 2 is holding up Alien 5. It might be best to stop the discussion about Weyland Corp or continue it in the Prometheus sub-forum.  :)

QuoteI'm in the camp which believes that Weyland Yutani must be doing some things right because they've conquered space and other worlds. However for the purpose of story-telling we (as the audience) see moments where sections of the company pull immoral acts.

Nazi Germany must have been doing some things right because they conquered Europe and half of Asia and Northern Africa.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#36
I'll split it off when I get chance.

T Dog

T Dog

#37
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Aug 20, 2015, 12:56:41 PM
I'll split it off when I get chance.
Thanks.

Corporal Hicks


Alien³

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 20, 2015, 12:33:32 PM
Nazi Germany must have been doing some things right because they conquered Europe and half of Asia and Northern Africa.

I'm pretty sure theres a few things different between Nazi Germany and Weyland Yutani :laugh:

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Aug 20, 2015, 01:19:16 PM
Done.

Cheers Corporal!

Quote from: Alien³ on Aug 20, 2015, 02:57:54 PM
Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 20, 2015, 12:33:32 PM
Nazi Germany must have been doing some things right because they conquered Europe and half of Asia and Northern Africa.

I'm pretty sure theres a few things different between Nazi Germany and Weyland Yutani :laugh:

Probably very similar situation. Most Germans during WWII were decent people much like they are today. Unfortunately their leaders were mostly a bunch of evil keneevals and that is why most of the world today perceives the Third Reich as evil. But my point was that you don't have to be a good guy to succeed. Historically conquerors were never saints.

The Company wasn't portrayed as evil in Aliens. Burke was only a junior executive and just one man so he was hardly a good representation of the Company.

There is also a good case for assuming that the Nostromo in Alien was diverted by one or more rogue individuals within the Company.

But by Alien 3 the Company has seemingly started its transformation into a bunch of mustache twirling baddies. Prometheus ups the ante by making the CEO himself a very nasty person. The rest of the Company in Prometheus aren't portrayed as very nice people either. In the EU and games W-Y is also almost always portrayed as bad guys.

Xenomorphine

Quote from: Alien³ on Aug 20, 2015, 08:16:56 AM
"Try Harder" is what David interprets as see what happens if someone ingests it. His robot mind is figuring it out independently. Hence the trick he pulls on Holloway to inadvertently let Charlie give David the permission to infect him.

Not quite, according to Lindelof:

QuoteIn the scene preceding him doing that, he is talking to Weyland (although we don't know it at the time) and he's telling Weyland that this is a bust. That they haven't found anything on this mission other than the stuff in the vials. And Weyland presumably says to him, "Well, what's in the vials?" And David would say, "I'm not entirely sure, we'll have to run some experiments." And Weyland would say, "What would happen if you put it in inside a person?" And David would say, "I don't know, I'll go find out." He doesn't know that he's poisoning Holloway, he asks Holloway, "What would you be willing to do to get the answers to your questions?" Holloway says, "Anything and everything." And that basically overrides whatever ethical programming David is mandated by, [allowing him] to spike his drink.

http://io9.com/5917448/all-of-your-lingering-prometheus-questions-answered

David 8 might be accused of extremely broad interpretation, but Weyland would have known "I'll go and find out" means someone on the crew isn't going to have a good day.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#42
Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 20, 2015, 03:36:13 PM
Probably very similar situation. Most Germans during WWII were decent people much like they are today. Unfortunately their leaders were mostly a bunch of evil keneevals and that is why most of the world today perceives the Third Reich as evil. But my point was that you don't have to be a good guy to succeed. Historically conquerors were never saints.

The Company wasn't portrayed as evil in Aliens. Burke was only a junior executive and just one man so he was hardly a good representation of the Company.

The thing is that that is what is important to most people. There's too many people who aren't able to look past the surface of a situation or take other elements/people into consideration. It's human nature. So to us Ash/Order is supposed to be the Company in Alien, Burke is supposed to be the Company in Aliens so we're judging it on the actions of those representatives. Is that intentional? I certainly expect so.

And to go slightly off the side, The Weyland-Yutani Report is making it blatantly obvious that Burke was informing his superiors of everything so they did know.


Alien³

Alien³

#43
This is also the same company which allowed families to flourish and help establish new planets when terraforming.

I'm fully aware that Burke pretty much set them up by not warning them about the Derelict but for the people on LV-426 it was just another terraforming job. So we must assume that is how it worked for other planets because no one stated anything like "Isn't it nice for once that the company has allowed us to terraform with our families."

That is why I love companies like Weyland Yutani, or InGen from Jurassic Park. They're not necessarily evil but not 100% good. It's what makes them feel more realistic.

It's all about the $$ and defence for them.

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Aug 21, 2015, 08:36:59 AM
And to go slightly off the side, The Weyland-Yutani Report is making it blatantly obvious that Burke was informing his superiors of everything so they did know.

Strange, because the film always seemed to suggest that Burke was acting alone.

QuoteRipley: I just checked the colony log. Dated 0-6-1-2-7-9, signed Burke, Carter J. You sent them out there and you didn't even warn them. Why didn't you warn them, Burke?
Burke: Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? I didn't know! So now, if I went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody; nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley, it was a bad call.
Ripley: Bad call?

Ripley: These people are *dead *,Burke! Don't you have any idea what you have done here? Well, I'm gonna make sure they nail you right to the wall for this! You're not gonna sleaze your way out of this one! Right to the wall!

And Ripley were only interested in nailing Burke to the wall, not the rest of the company.

Anyhow, I don't think he could have told them much really since after arriving at LV-426 he had no way of communicating with W-Y. The colony's transmitter was down and I doubt he could have snuck off to the APC in order to phone home.

Quote from: Alien³ on Aug 21, 2015, 08:56:40 AM
This is also the same company which allowed families to flourish and help establish new planets when terraforming.

I'm fully aware that Burke pretty much set them up by not warning them about the Derelict but for the people on LV-426 it was just another terraforming job. So we must assume that is how it worked for other planets because no one stated anything like "Isn't it nice for once that the company has allowed us to terraform with our families."

That is why I love companies like Weyland Yutani, or InGen from Jurassic Park. They're not necessarily evil but not 100% good. It's what makes them feel more realistic.

It's all about the $$ and defence for them.

The colonies fall under the Colonial Administration so it's not just W-Y that's responsible for their welfare. The long term prospects for LV-426 was mining which is the only reason why W-Y invested all those billions into terraforming the planet. Not out of a sense of altruism.

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