Aliens: An Analysis

[Engineer]

Water isn't an acid neutralizing agent. You need something alkaline for that like a lime slurry or caustic soda.

The tubes were filled with a clear liquid. That's about all we know. Maybe it's water, maybe it's a 50% caustic soda. Maybe something else entirely.  Who knows. But my guess is, it was probably something non-hazardous like water (not caustic soda) since Burke just dumped them out in the room with ripley and newt, without any burns to the flooring or to himself from splashing (caustic soda is corrosive just like acids, just on the opposite side of the pH-scale).

[City Hunter Yautja]

Water isn't an acid neutralizing agent. You need something alkaline for that like a lime slurry or caustic soda.

The tubes were filled with a clear liquid. That's about all we know. Maybe it's water, maybe it's a 50% caustic soda. Maybe something else entirely.  Who knows. But my guess is, it was probably something non-hazardous like water (not caustic soda) since Burke just dumped them out in the room with ripley and newt, without any burns to the flooring or to himself from splashing (caustic soda is corrosive just like acids, just on the opposite side of the pH-scale).

In the future might they have a liquid that isn't so corrosive? Perhaps something the Engineers have?

[Engineer]

Water isn't an acid neutralizing agent. You need something alkaline for that like a lime slurry or caustic soda.

The tubes were filled with a clear liquid. That's about all we know. Maybe it's water, maybe it's a 50% caustic soda. Maybe something else entirely.  Who knows. But my guess is, it was probably something non-hazardous like water (not caustic soda) since Burke just dumped them out in the room with ripley and newt, without any burns to the flooring or to himself from splashing (caustic soda is corrosive just like acids, just on the opposite side of the pH-scale).

In the future might they have a liquid that isn't so corrosive? Perhaps something the Engineers have?

It's possible yea, hence why I mentioned it could be something else entirely. They never specify what it is, so your imagination is the limit...

[Eal]

Can I pipe in with my dumb tangent that's semi-related to the liquid in the stasis jars? It's more related to the universes technology in general.

It's also never specified in Aliens (or Alien) that the 'CRT TVs' on the colony are actually intended to be CRT displays (only in the future)or something else entirely. They're just shown to be displays that sort of resemble CRTs.

Also, any time in the movies when there's standard CRT signal interference, it's always in the context of the signal being cut off or (in Alien)the astranauts moving away from video broadcast/streaming(or whatever tech)range. But in Isolation, every single fricking monitor looks like someone kicked it with a magnetic boot. I don't think that's  quite what the video displays featured in Alien and Aliens were intending to convey with the displays and signal interference.

It's also worth considering that while the graphics and displays themselves are obviously 70s CRT displays, closeups and insert shots show impossibly high-resolution (at least for 1979s standards)hand-drawn vector graphics in acid green. Not something a 70s computer could do. I have a feeling that along with the original flatter displays that Cobb envisioned, there probably would have been more inserts rather than live video (like Kubrick did for 2001s terminal displays and tablets).

[Necronomicon II]

It's the retrofuturist aesthetic, "imagine what it'd be like if these CRT monitors were capable of just a little more but still very much analogue."

[SiL]

"Cassette futurism".

[Engineer]

I like analogue

[Eal]

I like analogue

I enjoy well-engineered anologue and aesthetically-pleasing analog signal vids myself. But then I also enjoy the Nostromo's OS and a lot of CLI interfaces too.

It's the retrofuturist aesthetic, "imagine what it'd be like if these CRT monitors were capable of just a little more but still very much analogue."

I don't know if I'd go with literal analogue, unless there's an absolutely darn good reason to do so for the plot or story. I'd keep it an undefined display technically that has 70s aesthetics.

In my head, if one were to pull back all the pristine, white, 1970s/2001-esque exterior and chassis, this is what you get underneath:

Spoiler

[close]

Something hulking, analogue-y....and monstrously alien, technology-wise.

[Necronomicon II]

I need them bleeps, bloops, and soothing hums. Nostromo ambient tracks, Aphex Twin.

[Eal]

I need them bleeps, bloops, and soothing hums. Nostromo ambient tracks, Aphex Twin.

More bleeps I say. More bleeps. More bloops. More acid-green, commodore 64 fonts. More kshkshkshkshkshkshtktktktktk noises.

[Local Trouble]

I need them bleeps, bloops, and soothing hums. Nostromo ambient tracks, Aphex Twin.

More bleeps I say. More bleeps. More bloops. More acid-green, commodore 64 fonts. More kshkshkshkshkshkshtktktktktk noises.

[Necronomicon II]

Btw @Local Trouble I just realised we came up with the Queen leaking out an embryonic STI into the subflooring on the Sulaco independently of each other, it's been my headcanon since a wee lad. 😂 Great minds...

[Eal]

Btw @Local Trouble I just realised we came up with the Queen leaking out an embryonic STI into the subflooring on the Sulaco independently of each other, it's been my headcanon since a wee lad. 😂 Great minds...

So basically, when the alien's tail poked Brett, and the queen's tail poked Bishop, it gave them an STI?

[Necronomicon II]

No what leaked into the floor contained fluids/discharge, which eventually formed into those creamy iggs 🥚🥚🥚. However I changed my view re the egg(s) on the sulaco to it being a hypersleep nightmare mixed with literal events lol

[Eal]

No what leaked into the floor contained fluids/discharge, which eventually formed into those creamy iggs 🥚🥚🥚. However I changed my view re the egg(s) on the sulaco to it being a hypersleep nightmare mixed with literal events lol

Fair enough! Would've been pretty easy to implement with a view insert shots of a bubbly-giger substance but the people doing the reshoots and adding the eggs never bothered.