Weyland Yutani's prior knowledge of the aliens

[SM]

if it had specific coordinates where to stay away from, i think the nostromo would have landed a little closer to the derelict so that kane, lambert and dallas wouldn't have to walk as far and ash would have had his specimen sooner.

They homed in on the signal and landed as close as they could.

So something had to initially prompt them to want to use alien organisms as weapons. You don't just wake up out of the blue and decide to include alien lifeforms in your bio-weapons division, which most likely would have originally pertained to microscopic things/germ warfare.

Kinda shot your own argument in the foot there.  Aliens can effectively be used as bio-weapons just like germs can.  The transmission only talks about 'organism' - which could very well have meant microscopic ones.

[Ballzanya]

if it had specific coordinates where to stay away from, i think the nostromo would have landed a little closer to the derelict so that kane, lambert and dallas wouldn't have to walk as far and ash would have had his specimen sooner.

They homed in on the signal and landed as close as they could.

So something had to initially prompt them to want to use alien organisms as weapons. You don't just wake up out of the blue and decide to include alien lifeforms in your bio-weapons division, which most likely would have originally pertained to microscopic things/germ warfare.

Kinda shot your own argument in the foot there.  Aliens can effectively be used as bio-weapons just like germs can.  The transmission only talks about 'organism' - which could very well have meant microscopic ones.

i doubt they would have went to such great lengths to obtain alien microbes considering by that point in the future, they could have engineered all the microbial weapons they want. Neither kane, lambert or dallas were carrying anything that could retrieve microscopic samples. They brought weapons, kane in the director's cut of alien, has a little gun with him.
Even if the signal did have specific coordinates, which i guess is possible, I doubt it contained any specifics about what the danger was. Its not as if it was translated into english in a detailed statement, it was more like morse code and all that could be determined was it was a warning originally thought to be a distress signal.

Ash clearly wants them to check out the ship even at this point, hiding his intentions, saying that it would be pointless to turn back, although a reasonable decision would be to inform the others that it was a warning and tell them to indeed turn back.

[Kimarhi]

We already know the company didn't care about the crew.  If the dangerous organism happened to be microbial, who gives a shit?  The company doesn't care about the crew either way.

For the second point, nobody is arguing ash's intentions.

[Ballzanya]

We already know the company didn't care about the crew.  If the dangerous organism happened to be microbial, who gives a shit?  The company doesn't care about the crew either way.

For the second point, nobody is arguing ash's intentions.

I never implied that the crew was not considered expendable.
So let me get this straight your argument is that they were expecting possible microbial life that they would bring to the ship via the infected crew members, rather than collecting samples?

[SM]

No the argument is the organism/ specimen mentioned in SO 937 COULD have been only microbial.  They didn't know at the time either way.

Neither kane, lambert or dallas were carrying anything that could retrieve microscopic samples.

Why would they?  They thought they were responding to a distress signal.

And the signal didn't have co-ordinates - they just traced it to the point of origin.  As mentioned in the film.

[Ballzanya]

No the argument is the organism/ specimen mentioned in SO 937 COULD have been only microbial.  They didn't know at the time either way.

Neither kane, lambert or dallas were carrying anything that could retrieve microscopic samples.

Why would they?  They thought they were responding to a distress signal.

And the signal didn't have co-ordinates - they just traced it to the point of origin.  As mentioned in the film.

true..but ash would have tried to get them to get samples even if he had to lie to them to do it. Unless they just were not equipped with such things, it being a commercial towing vehicle and all.
This is all moot anyway. There still is nothing said or featured in alien to outright dismiss the possibility of the company knowing about the aliens in some capacity. No one is arguing that they knew about the derelict ship or the exact details of the alien. But it could be possible that they knew something, that does not break continuity and thus avp-r will not, even if some military officials are somewhat aware of what was happening in gunnison, colorado.

[Kimarhi]

Except the 57 years thing.  C'mon.

And to collect microbial life, all they would have to do was walk around.  Your covered in head too toe with them right now.  If it had been microbial, they still could've brought it back. 

I think the special order 937 thing comes from the discovery of violent life.  I would think at the time, the company had a higher interest in the derelict spacecraft than any unknowns.  Once it was known how deadly the alien was, then 937 is sent out to whatever agent WY has to offer and things proceed from there.

[SM]

Yeah except the 57 year thing.

And the fact they sent tug jockies to do the BWDs dirty work.

If they knew all about the Aliens why risk.  Especially considering how eager they were when Ripley showed up on Fiorina.

[Ballzanya]

Yeah except the 57 year thing.

And the fact they sent tug jockies to do the BWDs dirty work.

If they knew all about the Aliens why risk.  Especially considering how eager they were when Ripley showed up on Fiorina.

They didn't have any alien specimens that is why they were eager to get the queen from ripley. It doesn't mean they didn't have some possible knowlege that the aliens existed and would be good for the bio-weapons division. Plus the derelict craft was destroyed by the atmosphere processor station exploding. ("a cloud the size of nebraska", so yeah it was blown up)

[SM]

You miss the point.  If they knew all about the Aliens and were so eager to get their mitts on them - why send tug jockies, rather than the BWD.  Very risky sending a freighter if they realise how important the Aliens were.  Since they didn't send the BWD, we can surmise they didn't know all about the Aliens beforehand.

[Kimarhi]

Yep.  Otherwise they would've sent a more capable team to land a speciman.

We didn't see that. 

Secondly given the fact that the Patna was sent in Alien 3 to gather the alien speciman in a very short order, if they knew exactly where and when to get one, and how dangerous it was, don't you think they'd strike into the derelict a little sooner than 57 years?

I don't think they ever knew how deadly the creature was exactly, and thus in there hurry to cover it up, negated its potential bioweapons value.

[Major Alan Schaefer]

This leads to the question that did the companyy purposely leave Ripley out there..

[maledoro]

This leads to the question that did the companyy purposely leave Ripley out there..

No. There would be no way of knowing what had happened to the Nostromo, much less one of her lifeboats. There was also a reference made to the lifeboat's beacon going out, which would make it more difficult to find something that no one could be looking for.

[Corporal Hicks]

I think it's looking obvious from AvP2 that they knew about the Aliens. But I don't think they knew they were on LV426. As Dallas says the Company put out orders to investigate foreign signals. And if we're taking AvP/2 into consideration it means they also knew about the Predators and there connection to the Aliens.

So if they wanted the Aliens, I think it's likely they were trying to find them via the Predators which is why it is a mandate to investigate any OWL signal. Of course, this is all bullshit conjecture with no real basis.

[maledoro]

But if evidence of the aliens and the predators gets wiped out at the end of AVP2, then we're back to square one.