Quote from: City Hunter Yautja on May 28, 2023, 01:33:56 AMGotcha. But that goes back to my point, Weyland operates through sneaky folk like Burke. Or was he doing that on his own and Weyland would gladly take his specimens, but have deniability?
Burke could have only been able to operate secretly if only he had access to the location of the ship, was the only one who could communicate with the colony, and could manage to commandeer a military ship and armed unit.
The problem is that the only source of the location of the ship would have been the lifeboat logs, and both company and government would also have access to that. If so, then that means they would not bother to investigate the location given van Leuwen's ridiculous excuse, and for some perplexing reason Ripley would not demand the same even as it's the only piece of evidence that she has to prove her story.
For the first, the fact that the company has a very strong policy of investigating phenomena to the point that they consider both crew and even company assets expendable contradicts van Leuwen's excuse. Add to this Ripley's point that discoveries may involve development of bioweapons, which would have made the government very interested, too. As for the view that they've never experienced encountering alien phenomena, the Marines' references to bug hunts and Arcturians show that they had encountered various species, and that would have made the need to investigate this matter even more plausible.
For the second, one wiki entry and a point raised by several in this thread shows that the colony is a joint project of the company and the government. That would have made the government even more interested, and both communicating with the colony, and through Burke. That plus the fact that Burke is intent on getting a percentage plus the source of the alien ship shows that he could not have been working alone. In addition, if he did consider that, then he would have commonsensically argued otherwise with himself as he has no means to obtain and develop technology from aliens himself, and would have operated on a rock that's likely owned by the company and government.
Third, I think it would have been unlikely for a private individual to order a military vessel with Marines to accompany him without the military and the government not knowing. Even the commander of the Marines would not move unless he received orders from higher-ups. That means top officials were definitely involved, and they made Burke their point man.
Quote from: City Hunter Yautja on May 28, 2023, 02:04:27 AMQuote from: SiL on May 28, 2023, 01:58:27 AMThe latter. He's operating solo - but the company would gladly take whatever he found.
I agree on that. Between what you and Trouble shared, that makes the most sense.
Pardon if I am slow on this, Weyland is an evil corporation got stuck in my head for many scenes that I failed to grasp the govt is separate.
Me: https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-a11ce11eb4113b1b649f08db7d18ba60
Why would a company and government that basically controls not just the colony but even own the rock with its mineral rights think that Burke gets everything and they get a percentage? It's the other way round: they own everything that's on the rock and Burke, the wildcatters, the truckers in the first movie, etc., get a percentage.