Quote from: SiL on Oct 22, 2022, 10:59:41 AMQuote from: ralfy on Oct 22, 2022, 03:16:42 AMIf comms had gone down early (with no reason given), then that would have alarmed the company and government, and that would have taken place early on during the hearings. Also, one would think that such a large project would have backup systems, if not means to restore communications.
The hearings are before Burke send the colonists out. They lose communications, then send the team out.
QuoteThe implication, then, is that weeks may have been involved from the time Burke sent the colonists to the ship (did he know the location, or did many groups fan out, with one accidentally finding the ship, something that they were not able to do since the colony was set up twenty years earlier?) to the time that only Newt remained.
It took the marines 3 weeks to get to LV 426. They likely left when the outbreak was in its early stages and arrived at the tail end.
Communications are lost early on, either incidental to the Aliens or as a result of their first contact with adults. Cameron gives the reason they don't immediately hail anyone in two pieces of dialogue; Simpson and lydecker (it takes two weeks and the answer is always don't ask ), and the Jordan's (let's wait to see what to call it in as).
By the time they thought to call they couldn't, wherever and why that was.
The catch is that Ripley provided a deposition, which means the company and government were informed about what happened to Ripley even before the hearings began. That involves a lot of time, more than enough for the suits to contact the colony after receiving the initial report from Ripley.
How did the company know the location of the ship, i.e., if the company logs indicate that they sent the colonists to the ship? Was it in the deposition?
BTW, I'm only looking at the movie and not the deleted scenes. If we include the deleted scenes, it gets even worse because it turns out that colonists were told about the location. Also, keep in mind that even though it takes two weeks for signals to reach the company, they would have sent the report right away ("don't ask" refers to not asking why they're ordered to go to the grid reference, but I'm sure the company would have been eager for even brief reports, e.g., "we found the ship" and "one of the wildcatters has something attached to his face" and "we managed to capture several live and dead facehuggers") which could have been sent immediately.
As for the Jordans waiting to see what to call in, that'd be referring to finding the ship. Given the fact that they had to return with a facehugger strapped to the dad's head pretty much invalidates keeping their find a secret.
Given all that, what happened is that for some weird reason the colony comms go down right after the Jordens arrive with a facehugger, and for some reason the company never hear from them after that and aren't bothered by the silence. (Given the urgency that the company has in acquiring such creatures and ships, and even to the point that they find their own personnel expendable in doing so, one would think that they would order the manager to give daily or immediate reports, even brief ones like the ones given above. And the two-week transmission delay refers to receiving signals, not the frequency of reports transmitted.)
That's why the expendition arrives not only late but unprepared, i.e., with everyone still assuming that Ripley's report is a hoax.
Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Oct 22, 2022, 12:14:06 PMAlthough I get that, and definitely agree to a degree, but it is the sheer amount that pushes it into the unbelievable to me.
A colony even existing on that particular moon being one in of itself in my opinion. Then no clear communication of exactly what happened.
The squad leader being a first timer.
Leaving not a single individual onboard the ship, just people in the dropship and the APC. Then the dropship not only being destroyed but crashing into the APC.
All of it is a bit much for me to believe without turning my brain off. So to some degree a conspiracy theory to make it a bit more believable I can understand the temptation of.
Spoiler
Not Carter Burke lying about Amanda Ripley though lol lmao
The only conspiracy theory that'll work with this is that the company knew the grid reference of the ship but ordered Burke to take care of everything. For some absurd reason, colony comms fell apart even before aliens appeared. Burke, who likely is the only one who believes Ripley, then informed the company that he lost contact with the colony and must go there with an armed expedition to find out what happened. Meanwhile, the company doesn't bother to ask why Burke wants an armed expedition.