How do xenomorphs see?

Started by DEATHGRIND, Aug 27, 2007, 11:34:30 PM

Author
How do xenomorphs see? (Read 44,029 times)

SM

SM

#15
Quotethere are also "near-POV" shots.

We also hear what the Alien hears.  This is as near as it's going to get, and I don't see any reason to not take it at face value.

Quotewell, where are their complex light-sensing organs?

Behind the front of the cowl; or simply just - the front of the cowl.

arachnophilia

arachnophilia

#16
Quote from: SM on Aug 28, 2007, 07:10:19 AM
Quotewell, where are their complex light-sensing organs?

Behind the front of the cowl; or simply just - the front of the cowl.

there's only bone behind the front of the dome, taken from a replica of a human skull. empty eye-sockets. it HAD eyes there, but they were removed during pre-production of alien because giger and co felt they looked too much like "motor-cyclist's goggles" and to generally make the alien creepier. the dome itself is only semi-transparent. neither the proper transparency or shape for an entire eye or a lens to an eye.

in the models for aliens, the front section is simply opaque and solid -- not different than any other section of the alien's body.

IF they have eyes, it's something i've never seen anyone talk about, ever. i thought once that maybe those bulges just forward of the tube that run laterally down their heads, just under the carapace, could be eyes. but they seem to be solid fleshy nodules, and are not positioned where a predator's eyes should be. animals that hunt by vision have eyes on the fronts of their skulls, not the sides. the front is good for binocular vision, and depth perception: neccessary to hunt by sight. the sides are good for peripheral vision, ie: watching for predators. since the xenomorphs seem to be at the top of their food chain, and if they hunt by sight, their eyes would be in the front. no eyes in front? they don't hunt by sight.

TheAntagonist

TheAntagonist

#17
Isn't that the reason why there head is so large/long? Because it indeed senses by sonar or telepahy? The sound/psywaves are picked up better from the large skull.

I never questioned whether the Alien has eyes or not. It just seemed more plausible that the way its senses is 'alien' to us anyways.

SM

SM

#18
Quotethere's only bone behind the front of the dome, taken from a replica of a human skull. empty eye-sockets.

Only if you take out of universe info as biologically accurate.  Which it may or may not be.

You keep talking about 'eyes'.  I prefer to refer to it as a visual sense.  Not strictly 'eyes' as we know them with- balls with pupils, retinas, lenses etc.

arachnophilia

arachnophilia

#19
Quote from: TheAntagonist on Aug 28, 2007, 11:07:34 PM
Isn't that the reason why there head is so large/long? Because it indeed senses by sonar or telepahy? The sound/psywaves are picked up better from the large skull.

according to the comics, that'd be correct -- the head is used for telepathic purposes, possibly including some form of sensory perception. who knows how seriously people take that, though. though the "telepathic link" is in a:r, iirc.

Quote from: SM on Aug 28, 2007, 11:56:19 PM
Quotethere's only bone behind the front of the dome, taken from a replica of a human skull. empty eye-sockets.

Only if you take out of universe info as biologically accurate.  Which it may or may not be.

you mean, like, giger's alien? the way the alien was physically built affects how it appears in the movie. the dome is semi-transparent, and so given the right conditions, you SHOULD be able to see through it. if you're looking carefully, the empty eye-sockets are there. how well they show up in the movie itself is a different question. whether or not it even shows up clearly or at all in the movies, it's there.

Quote from: SM on Aug 28, 2007, 11:56:19 PMYou keep talking about 'eyes'.  I prefer to refer to it as a visual sense.  Not strictly 'eyes' as we know them with- balls with pupils, retinas, lenses etc.

well, it can't work by voodoo, unless it's the telepathic thing as above, from the comics. if it's actually a visual sense (and looks how we see in a3), it has something that forms light into an image (a lens) and something that collects it (a retina) and something that transmits it as electric signals to the brain (an optic nerve). it might be very, very different from ours, but you can't see in images without components basically like those. if you can think of another way to transmit an image of your surroundings to your brain, let me know.

SM

SM

#20
Quotewell, it can't work by voodoo

You mean like telepathy?  Oops you covered that already.  I hate Aliens being telepathic.  There's nothing to support it in the films.

Quotewhether or not it even shows up clearly or at all in the movies, it's there.

You can see the eye sockets behind the cowl during the scene on the shuttle.  But for all we know they may have beady little black Newborn eyes sunk deep in those sockets.  We simply don't know.

I know it's a terribly simplistic POV but for a lot of things with the Alien I just go by the adage that - it's an Alien.  Both in noun and adjective.

Munkeywrench

Munkeywrench

#21
Quote from: arachnophilia on Aug 28, 2007, 01:32:37 AM
Quote from: Miker25 on Aug 28, 2007, 01:25:25 AMSomeone on here mentioned ultrasonics or sonar kinda like bats

the one in the first movie has a particular sound associated with it, a kind of high-pitched snarl. it's possibly that's how they see.



Yeah wasnt it like a buzzing noise?

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#22
I alway thought that scene was music.

But then again, if you turn off the music to avp2 and switch to alien vision mode, guess what you hear?

arachnophilia

arachnophilia

#23
Quote from: SM on Aug 29, 2007, 02:37:13 AMYou mean like telepathy?  Oops you covered that already.  I hate Aliens being telepathic.  There's nothing to support it in the films.

like i said, i don't know how seriously people take that idea. i'm not advancing it, just saying that it is in some of the comics. and, well, sort of in the movie. the queen DOES communicate to the others somehow, in the newt-rescue scene in a2. not much to say it's telepathic over, say, pheremones or auditory (that we simply can't hear). maybe that hiss she makes even has a meaning. who knows.

but i also seem to recall some "connection" between ripley and the aliens in a:r. which i happy to write off. i hated that movie.

Quote from: SM on Aug 29, 2007, 02:37:13 AMYou can see the eye sockets behind the cowl during the scene on the shuttle.  But for all we know they may have beady little black Newborn eyes sunk deep in those sockets.  We simply don't know.

...well, as i said, considering they weren't part of the costume, it's fairly safe to say it doesn't have eyes.

Quote from: SM on Aug 29, 2007, 02:37:13 AMI know it's a terribly simplistic POV but for a lot of things with the Alien I just go by the adage that - it's an Alien.  Both in noun and adjective.

exactly -- i really don't think they perceive the world in the same we do. there is absolutely no evidence, anywhere, for eyes, except that alien novelization, which is clearly not using the final giger designs.

they might not even need any extra special sense. there are predators on this planet that hunt nearly by smell alone.

arachnophilia

arachnophilia

#24
Quote from: Kimarhi on Aug 29, 2007, 02:52:23 AM
But then again, if you turn off the music to avp2 and switch to alien vision mode, guess what you hear?

yeah, it's possible. it sounds like the lower end of a high-pitch wave, just out of human hearing.

brad873

brad873

#25
how does an alien see, i think i have and idea. most aliens are black to u cant see much on there head. but if u look at the original, lighter colord alien, tou can see under its hear it has big human eye socket eyes. if they didnt serve a perpos the alien would not have them.



Uncanny Antman

Uncanny Antman

#26
How has every Alien since the first film been able to see, then?  None of them have the skull that was put there for aesthetic reasons, so...

brad873

brad873

#27
maybe they have aa skull hidden under there skin. we cant see it but it may be there, remember the alien in alien was a lot lighter

also the alien skull in pred 2 has eye sockets.


Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#28
Fixed your posts for you.

maledoro

maledoro

#29
Quote from: brad873 on Sep 08, 2007, 09:34:08 AM
maybe they have aa skull hidden under there skin. we cant see it but it may be there, remember the alien in alien was a lot lighter

also the alien skull in pred 2 has eye sockets.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q201/brad872/5.jpg
Those look a bit too shallow to be eye sockets. On a historical parallel, some ancient Greeks found the skulls of miniature elephants and mistook the center hole for an eye socket. They then concluded that the skulls were that of giant cyclopses, and then wrote legends about a race that never existed.


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