Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: 20th Century Studios
There’s a scene in the new Alien movie where someone shows the heroine, played by Cailee Spaeny, how to handle a pulse rifle. “It’s the one the colonial marines use,” the teacher tells his student, as if the way the moment is shot and blocked weren’t enough to, well, trigger the desired rush of fond memories in the audience. Like so much else in this week’s Alien: Romulus, it’s an explicit callback — namely, to an iconic interaction in the first of the Alien sequels, James Cameron’s exhilarating Aliens. Of course, that rifle is also a torch Romulus passes to Spaeny. We’re meant to look at her and see Ellen Ripley, the resourceful, increasingly wearied survivor Sigourney…
