This is a little theory I've brought up a few times in various discussions over the years. I can't say it is uniquely mine as I've heard similar things from others over the years. This is my attempt to build something of a coherent argument regarding Weyland Yutani/The Company as depicted in the original trilogy of films, and why I think the EU, and the later sequels, started to get this wrong.
I remember playing Alien Trilogy a lot as a kid. It's one of my favorite Doom clones. One thing that always sat wrong with me was the really strange briefing given to Burke during the opening cinematic.
Okay, why are we talking about Alien Trilogy all of the sudden? "That's not a movie!' I hear you say. Quite right. It does represent a fundamental, I think, misunderstanding of the original films. At least the first two. This poison is found flooding the EU any time corporations are brought up. They want it for bio-weapons, for greedy reasons, and they don't care who gets hurt... and this seems universal across just about every corporation we ever see. There are no upstanding businessmen out there. Everyone is a monster.
In fact, hold onto your butts, the only time the entire Alien universe ever gives benefit of the doubt to these companies is in AVP of all things. Charles Bishop Weyland is depicted, not as a greedy monster, or nefarious or evil. He's a guy who's dying and wants to leave a legacy. They treat Weyland, not as a monster, but as a human. With human foibles. In the end he dies heroically. I always liked that. That is one positive I will always give to that film. I honestly expected Weyland to turn into "Burke 2.0" when I went into the film originally.
Back to the EU. The problem is it starts to become something of the consensus. That Weyland Yutani, Seegson, Chigusa, etc... They all become evil for the sake of being antagonistic presences in the story. Which is such a weak way to write. You want a villain, fine, but form follows function. Give them a motive, and show them taking the steps, that makes sense. *snap* Imagine a rival corporation, instead of going down the same exact route, was trying to dig up dirt on Weyland Yutani to use against them to blackmail them or strong arm them during various business deals? You could generate so much conflict by having multitudes of motivation. Add some depth to it.
This is one of the reasons I enjoy the UPP from Gibson's Alien III so much. They do go down a similar route, but their motive for it makes perfect sense. They're suspicious of their corporatist adversaries, and afraid that they will exploit the Alien against them, so they try to get there first. It makes sense. It creates a logical conflict, and it doesn't seem to come from a nefarious place.
Then it becomes the question of "what are they going to do with it?" What's the intention with the Alien? The first film smartly leaves it vague enough as "for the bioweapons division." That's great. However, after awhile that motivation does need to be expanded on... How are we going to use it? Alien Resurrection, strangely enough, offers a little more insight into the potential applications. "New alloys. New vaccines." Alright! I like that. The problem is, it came from Alien Resurrection.
Then, of course, you have the really silly stuff in the EU. AVP Classic 2000 had Weyland Yutani building... *sigh* Xenoborgs. So, you have this really lethal, fast, adaptive alien organism... and you strap an exoskeleton and laser guns on it which take away all of its unique properties... Why not just build a giant mech robot? I never did get this. Rebellion? I get that you needed a plot twist at the end of the marine campaign... but... Why this? Why? It's so... Awful!
So back to my original point:
I don't think The Company, as depicted in the first two films, was a nefarious entity. Alien in particular actually does just about everything possible to imply an uncaring machine and our characters are just trapped in it. There is nothing in the original film that requires the presence of nefarious individuals back home to be plotting anything. Signal gets picked up, Nostromo is rerouted with a new S.O. being assigned. As the situation unfolds various parameters and special orders are issued to deal with it. Priority one being to recover technology and organisms of an extraterrestrial origin. This is supported by the clause that Ash quotes to Parker. If you find anything intelligent or of value you have to check it out or
we won't pay you.Frankly, I find any stories that go down that path of all of this being part of some larger plan as being... Well, awful. The evil corporation is such a tiresome cliche, and the reality is this didn't really get any credence in the films until Alien 3 when Michael Bishop put a face to the evil intentions of the company.
The same logic applies to Aliens. Nothing backs up Ripley's claims, and nothing happens until Burke specifically makes something happen. That means that nobody was checking out the Aliens on LV426 that entire time. Which only further supports the idea that there wasn't any individual or group of individauls behind the events of the first film either. It never made sense to think it was by clandestine design either because if you truly suspected the presence of an Alien organism, you would send a special team. You wouldn't send space truckers who are completely ignorant of what is going on.
I've watched several reactions to Aliens on Youtube over the last few months, and it seems just about everyone ignores what Burke says about that meeting. It is not a company show. It is an ICC show, with all kinds of players involved. If I recall right Burke and maybe one other person are the only actual Company reps present there. Everyone else has other interests in the events. "Insurance company guys" etc... Van lewen certainly wasn't with Weyland Yutani.
This is still a theory that is a work in progress, and it ultimately doesn't work because of Alien 3, going forward. Just about all of the EU, the games, comics, and novels, all lean into the "huge overarching conspiracy." Even Ridley Scott bought into that and was going in that direction with the prequels at one point... I don't know. Just as a writer I think the idea that you could get lost in the "paperwork" is far more terrifying than some guy in a suit sitting at a desk, smoking a cigar, thinking "Ya know... We could use this monster thing as a weapon somehow... I'm sure of it... Lets send some space truckers to pick one up!"
