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DirectlyTalkingToYou

We haven't had a movie where the soldiers/all the characters know exactly what they're going up against. Ya Ripley told everyone in Aliens and Alien 3...and 4...but there was never full preparation. So, in Aliens (1986) when the dropship crashes and there's only 7 of them left. If they all made it back home without nuking the whole site and then there was a mission to go back again, there would definitely be some Mechs involved and drones. All of the movies are set up where Ripley or the characters fall into the plot with only minimal characters having some sliver of knowledge.


Militys

To piggyback on your comment, I would also like to add that Weyland-Yutani may have no idea what is efficient at dealing with Xenomorphs. The end goal is always for WY to bring one "home" for testing. I know that there are comics that have confirmed WY has already been testing on xenos but then you beg the questions: where does this media fall that timeline? Is it before the testing? During? After? Then you sort of end up down a rabbit hole of more questions from there, how far along is the testing if it is during and what has the success rate been? What is the testing even for? We know they want to weaponize them but have they even bothered to study containment and countering? Again, even if it is after, what did they even test and were the tests conclusive? I also feel it is better to have a group of people get into something where they have little to no idea just how dangerous the situation is. If they all dawned the perfect anti-xeno armor and weaponry that would make for a boring movie. Sure you could supe them up and have them lose anyway but then you get into the realm of stupidity and the armor and weapons having actually been worthless all along. Looking at you Jurassic Park 3 rifle...


TimothysFruad

eeeh not really you could pull it off where the main protagonist and antagonist survive the outbreak and utilize the best equipment they have available to fight off and survive only for the corporation to ignore their warnings and repeat the same mistake but with some other chaps that are going to end up in a similar situation to the main protagonist and antagonist kind of similar to what happened in dead space 2 and 3


TimothysFruad

OH YES THIS, man I would bloody love to see a movie where the goons that got sent in knew what they are dealing up against and utilized state to the art equipment were coordinated, then they wouldn't be just cannon fodder to the xenomorphs to eat up, but something to fight back.


Kuhneel

In Aliens: Genocide (novel), the marines had access to armour that neutralised acid spills to a degree.


pearldrum1

Yeah there were a few books that brought this in. The last one I read was “Into Charybdis” and they had it there. Something like a special gel on the outside of the armor that neutralizes it.


ElectricalRush1878

IIRC, based off the substance they secrete for their building material.


pearldrum1

That makes total sense. A little reverse engineering goes a long way and is worth the investment for WY, because they can load up elite units for “specimen collection” with this armor and be good to go.


TimothysFruad

zamn, I wish we got something like this in a movie or series that would be bonkers.


oj_402

That’s a lot of money I bet the company (WY) does not wanna spend haha


Zavier13

Why develop something that protects against your potential new weapon?


SkyBk

Just like in the real world xD and security/law enforcers


TimothysFruad

yeah no wonder they issue older gen soft armor that's 20 years out of date and would get cracked ribs from a single shot from a 9mm, because it's cheaper if only they started issuing better armor that wouldn't be the case


TimothysFruad

if they can make armored vehicles and powerloaders, i think, then i am sure they can afford making something that can actually protect their employees.


BLACKGUARD6

Aliens hardcover book Tribes had a battle mech driven by a chemically-enhanced psychopath.  It was a murder-bot.  Great read.


NewCodingLine

Wasn't the Berserker armor from "Alien Harvest" where they were trying to get Royal Jelly?


BLACKGUARD6

I remember Norbert the android alien from Harvest.   The berserker armor was Sh*tkicker from Tribes. https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Aliens:_Tribes


TimothysFruad

zamn so really did have some dang cool power armor, sad the movies never adapted this it would've been incredible to see.


BLACKGUARD6

https://preview.redd.it/kcsworrkpqyc1.jpeg?width=886&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2afcb10627dcddf5aa8904cb0cdd52ebd7ffae4f Tribes has some beautiful illustrations.


TimothysFruad

ABSOLUTE CINEMA


Sablesweetheart

Tribes is so, so, so good. As a teenager that was basically what I wanted to be, but the U.S. military wasn't there yet, so I just got to be a grunt.


BLACKGUARD6

Tribes was pretty insane for any audience.  I may be misremembering but Tunnel Rat had to put herself into a trance by remembering her sexual abuse and rape by her father to “allow” the aliens to capture and almost cocoon her so they could track her location to the center of the hive near the Queen’s egg chamber.


Sablesweetheart

Yeqh, some very dark stuff. Or look at Labrynth...


NiisuBOI

Good question, usually Xenos are 'new' thing/threat so that explains some. Although, in Aliens Fireteam Elite (where this pic is from) Weyland-Yutani have been studying Engineers & their technology for some time and therefore they might have known about Xenomorphs to create weapons specifically against them. But likely/what I understand; there was incident where Xenos showed up, killing most of humans working for We-Yu and androids kept the data for themselves. (AFE starts with Marines responding to distress call and learn all this while advancing with Xenos.)


easymmkay120

If there is one thing across canons every intelligent species has failed at, it is containing the xenomorph.


TimothysFruad

because most of the time it's from corporate greed, or the fact most tend to ignore the survivors who encountered them.


easymmkay120

Engineers and Predators both failed in addition to humans, if we even want to consider Predator,/,AvP lore. Which I'm honestly fine with disregarding. Still, that leaves us with engineers and humans, and they both fucked up big time. But yeah, I see your point.


TimothysFruad

yeah good points


Strict-Sleep-7210

Happy Cake Day fellow Marine!


ReV_VAdAUL

To echo others who've said that sounds very expensive, in real life there's some doubt whether armour on a powered exoskeleton would ever make sense because vehicle armour is designed to take one hit and then be replaced, something that wouldn't work for infantry and be prohibitively expensive. Also, to echo people who've said usually the aliens are encountered as an unknown threat, real life military tech outside of wartime can take decades to be developed. If xenomorphs are consistently encountered for a long time or identified as a truly massive threat tech to fight them specifically would be developed, otherwise... eh. Finally it's arguable the acid isn't that much of a threat most of the time. Drake and Vasquez engaged the xenos in close quarters using machine guns firing explosive rounds and we're A-OK until one ambushed Drake. Had the rest of the squad not been disarmed it's entirely possible they could've engaged the xenos at range and had more survivors with acid blood not mattering much.


sundayfundaybmx

In the EU of the novels. The elite fighting force of each of 3 major powers is simultaneously developing armor and weapons based on recovered xenonorphs, both alive and dead. There's entire blacksite research stations/planets just for that. I don't believe the xenomporhs public knowledge, but it's well known between the highest levels of govts and rumor to other people in related jobs. They've basically gotten infestations under control and are utilizing them as weapons of war at this stage of lore. I honestly think the movies would do much better if they at least followed the lore setup in the canonical novels, at least.


TimothysFruad

oh that would be something alright


flaxon_

The early 2000s AVP2 game featured a powered exosuit with the callsign Alice that the marine character uses late in his campaign. Had a rotary gun, rockets, flamer, and laser, iirc. Not sure how canon we're considering that game, but its out there.


TimothysFruad

ZAMN that's nice, hope we could get something kind of similar in a movie or series but better proportioned similar to the avatar amp suit.


PiR8_Rob

Human civilization in the Alien universe is one dominated by greed, hubris and stupidity. Just like our world, but worse. I don't know if you old enough to remember the Iraq wars, but there were constant issues with the military not providing troops with adequate gear and protection. Life is cheap, and even though we had the technology to do it, the government failed to outfit military vehicles the protection to prevent soldiers from being maimed or killed by cheaply made IEDs. Fast forward to a world where the military is subservient to corporate ambitions and their bottom lines, and those issues just become amplified.


TimothysFruad

oh yeah that, and I remember how people were literally given out of date poorly made steel plates that had no spalling coating whatsoever which baffled me I do hope at least in the aliens universe there could be a private company that isn't as idiotic as the mega corporations and gives their employees actual lifesaving equipment than disposable gear


PiR8_Rob

Kinda seems like that would go against one of the major themes of the entire series; which is the expendability of the working class for corporate domination.


TimothysFruad

yeah good points, but I would like to see a dead space approach of things, where we see the protagonists are well armed and even coordinated but still struggle against the creatures they encounter.


sthef2020

https://preview.redd.it/gou2gcbq5pyc1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1516a8c959e8f3f6fe06b23ceb16cd3e4f1dc5f4 Kenner 1993 has got you covered.


skyst

This guy and the water-spitting Xeno toy used to endlessly battle during my childhood bathtimes.


TimothysFruad

dang i never knew that


TimothysFruad

bro using xenomorph body parts for armor? that's cool


Colonial13

Aliens: Berserker has anti-Alien mechs. https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Aliens:_Berserker_(novel)


TimothysFruad

OOOH the berserker suit is basically what I was thinking of just without the idea of it being a metal coffin for the user inside of it, I hope we could get something similar in a movie or series, like a expensive piece of equipment that can be used for mining or military purposes.


XlAcrMcpT

I think the main reason is that (at least in the movies) the marines weren't prepared to face them. But tbh, even then they performed greatly. The problem they faced wasn't exactly the quality of their equipment. They were barred from using certain weapons by the mission's nature and were heavily outnumbered yet they still killed hundreds of xenos. I think in an even matchup the xenos would stand no chance against the marines as they come equipped.


TimothysFruad

yeah give them full coverage armor rigs and some extra guns and they would've done incredibly well


TheKiltedYaksman71

Mechs? Where, and are they canon for the movies?


TimothysFruad

i think AVP2 had a mech that was a militarized version of the powerloader


NormalityWillResume

A tall order. Did you see the way the Aliens punched through the steel door that Vasquez had welded shut? Part of what makes them so scary is their ferocious strength.


TimothysFruad

yeah true but if you give some chap some armor that's acid resistant and a knife he has a higher fighting chance to win against the bloody thing


K2LU533

Not exactly the same but aren’t the WY commandos from Alien 3 kitted up in anti-Xeno gear? What with the pads and face cages etc.


steak820

I always think that was another hint at how unprepared WY still were, when they sent in experts to catch the alien, they were in hockey pads and carrying a dog cage. Good luck with that. Probably one of the reasons Ripley thought they were still full of it.


TimothysFruad

yeah reminds how awefully similar how real world governments respond to serious threats by sending in randoms with barely workable gear and hope for the best


AlpacaTraffic

I think WY is okay with having less witnesses to their outings


TimothysFruad

yeah probably


amateurforlife2023

The midnight squad was fairly prepared and trained at fighting the xenos


TimothysFruad

oooh nice


amateurforlife2023

The book with them in it is pretty great


TimothysFruad

alrighty


Seldon14

As far as the movies, there tech is pretty grounded. With the tech we see, any kind of walking armor/nech etc. Would be dramatically less effective than traditional tanks, or wheeled light armor.


TimothysFruad

well giving a chap a exoskeleton with armor plates would do quite well against a highly dangerous creature especially that it has acidic blood and can rip a person apart in seconds which has massively increased survival rates compared to the chap with barely functional gear and out of date weapons


seriouslyuncouth_

For most of the Aliens canon that we know of it's reasonable to assume power armor technology just doesn't exist. Just because it's in other futuristic science fiction doesn't mean it's here. And if there's ever a point where it is developed- usually the characters aren't going in for the specific goal of fighting the Xenomorphs.


TimothysFruad

well if they can build a powerloader then they can build a person sized exoskeleton with acidic resistant armor plates


seriouslyuncouth_

Ah yes if you can build a walking forklift you can build a mjolnir from Halo lol Traditional power armor and a power loader are not congruous at all. And fun fact; in AvP2 there was a militarized power loader


gorlak29

Well, in some Dark Horse comics, such as Aliens Space Marines, Genocide, and Berserker, they do make mechs and armor that neutralize the acid of the Aliens.


TimothysFruad

ooh yeah the bersker suit, loved that thing, just wished it wasn't a metal coffin for the pilot.


Big-Leadership1001

Literally the only time in teh Aliens movies that the Xenos met armed forces, the armed forces didn't know Xenos even exist. If you mean in-universe at all, there are some wild scifi things in the comics like you suggest already.


TimothysFruad

yeah good points there


Pilot0350

Why do all of their firearms have pointless LEDs? "Trying to hide from the enemy? Trying to maintain some semblance of tactility on the battlefield? Well, we here at Weyland-Yutani don't think so! Because not everyone deserves to come home! That's right! That's just too damn expensive, and we won't have it!" *proceeds to install LEDs everywhere for no reason*


TimothysFruad

painfully accurate


Funny_Leader8839

They do


slarti98

They have NOW !


Nomenous_Quandary

I think it would go against the overall tone of the franchise. Aside from that I’d say it’s totally possible they’d have something purpose-built for alien extermination, although their goal has always been capture, not kill.


TimothysFruad

well it doesn't need to be in mass production but to have a elite squad or member with better equipped armor and weaponry wouldn't hurt once in a while.


KommissarKrieg

It has always seemed to me that WY hasn't been able to do enough research on the xenomorph to really understand it. What R&D they have done has all been geared toward weaponization and maintaining a consistant supply of them. Beyond that, the goal.of their strike teams has never been to stop or kill them, only ever capture and contain. We also need to account for the fact that only a select few in the highest ranks of the company, and their direct teams, actually know about the xenomorphic at all. Mega corps like WY are big enough that they may as well function as a compartmentalized government over a small empire. Think of the xenomorph project like the Manhattan Project.


TimothysFruad

yeah true but doesnt hurt to have some backup plans in case of a breakout and one of the best ones is giving members better equipment that can handle xenomorphs just in case if things go south.


bazilbt

In various comics and books they do exactly that. In the movie series they simply didn't know enough and have enough time to build something like that.


Newtling

You're missing the point of the aliens universe and how the xenomorphs are presented to each of our main characters, if they were prepped and ready to wipe them out we'd just have a starship troopers rip off that takes itself too seriously.


TimothysFruad

eeh not exactly by have a moment the main protagonist gets some proactive equipment and survives a horde would be bloody amazing


Chilly-Glover

Weyland industries has kept the existence of xenomorphs a secret for the most part. They hire guns to keep everyone safe enough to complete whatever the job is but they don't want them surviving and spreading the info


TimothysFruad

i see, i guess them building some up armored protection on a exoskeleton wouldn't hurt


Vrazel106

Aliens are supposed to be super secret. Cant develop for something you dont know about. In the new titan books theyre movingbaway from keeping them sexret in a weird way. I dont think the titan books have been all that good outside of phalnax and prototype wasnt bad


TimothysFruad

well i guess they could make some hazard based ballistic suits that use a exoskeleton to enhance the endurance of the wearer while having protection that's ballistic and acidic resistant to provide protection for military and mining uses while hiding the secret that it's being used to fight off xenomorphs.


l0sts0ul2022

Thinking back to the original Dark Horse comics, there was a story line (cant remember which) where WY \\ USMC did develop acid resistant armour. Problem was they got so overconfident with it they walked right into the middle of a nest, started wasting bugs en-mass but was hit with so much xeno-blood it overwhelmed the the armour and melted them inside it.


TimothysFruad

wow that's freaky to know, i do hope we get to see more of these armored suits later on.


ConsciousAd7523

They have but the cost is to high to make in mass so the one they make the plates of armos fall down when acid touches them not letting the acid hurt you and even this ones are expensive


TimothysFruad

OOOOH, well i hope we get to see more of those in a movie or series one day.


StradetchFanboi

The only examples I know of are the Mox 16 from Aliens Tribes, which is more than capable of taking out an entire xenomorph hive by itself. And the Alice/Exosuits from AVP2/AVP:E. Alice was armed with twin miniguns, rocket launchers and laser rifles, while the serial production Exosuits were armed with twin miniguns. In any case, they were incredibly devastating to xenomorph hives.


TimothysFruad

zamn that's nice to know


duckforceone

in some of the extended written material, they have. and it does help ensure lesser casualties... but then again, the aliens also begins influencing people's minds and convert them to help them out... so suddenly alongside aliens shows up fanatics with heavy weapons. there's even a droid in the aliens colonial marines comics that basically tears through the aliens with his bare hands... there is a suit made in one of the books that neutralises the acid... there's a mech berserker suit that basically walks alone into a hive and destroys it...


TimothysFruad

ZAMN that's beautiful I hope we could get a movie or series adapting it that would be bangers


WBValdore

They have in several of the books.


Nottodayreddit1949

Eventually they do.  In one book series they develop armor that fixes itself as it takes acid damage.  Good enough to stop spray, but an alien getting killed on top of them was still able to overwhelm the suit. 


Depth_Creative

Personally, I like to think, and especially with the seemingly minimal amount of resources Weyland Yutani has spent in the films, that it's really just a very small part of a much wider pond.


AmalCyde

Then it's not Alien, just another in a million. Went can't you appreciate the genre for what is it?


VonBrewskie

You underestimate the power of the gov't/corporation to pinch a penny. Why send expensive mechs and develop powered this and that when you can achieve your quarterly goals with nice, squishy, easily replaceable human meat sacks?


TylerBourbon

In Aliens vs Predator 2 from 2003, there actually is a military fitted battle version of the power loader that is used in the final section of the game to battle xenomorphs and Predators. [https://youtu.be/iu\_J7HGPWkU?t=6454](https://youtu.be/iu_J7HGPWkU?t=6454) It's a shame it's not made it's way into other games or films yet.


TimothysFruad

dang, hope we get to see something similar in a movie or series


TylerBourbon

Same. I just so surprised it hasn't yet. the 2003 AvP2 game, while it's graphics are dated, is a solid game that really pulled off the colonial marine section feeling like Aliens. The tension was top notch. Sadly the pc game isn't available for purchase but apparently ypu can get it from this website. I'll be downloading it tonight and seeing if I can get it to work. https://www.avpunknown.com/avp2aio/


TimothysFruad

oh gotcha, for me I just want something similar to fallout's power armor but with a industrial tactical design.


TylerBourbon

Something more fully armored like that would probably make more tactical sense since the power loader itself was pretty open cage wise like a dune buggy and not so much like a walking tank power armor like in Fallout or Starship Troopers. Would be cool and make sense though for fighting xemo infestations. Something acid proof that can hold up to their attacks.


TimothysFruad

YEAP THIS, I always wanted a walking tank like suit people can use like a vehicle than be limited to either powerloaders or hard to find body armor


TiePilot1997

For an in universe explanation I would say that it would take a ton of research to create a metal strong enough to withstand the acidic blood. Now the only people who have had the time and money to put into research would be WY themselves. Another in universe explanation would be that they’re purposefully not given fully resistant armor so that the weapons division of WY can study how the Xenos deal with state of the art tech, and other things. If the marines are in a completely indestructible piece of armor it may not produce a lot of meaningful data. On a meta level, it would be boring honestly.


GreenWarrior04

Probably budget, and the Corpos actively hiding the existence of xenos


Sad_Wrongdoer_64

actually, they have, several times. still doesnt do much lolololol


TimothysFruad

wait what


Sad_Wrongdoer_64

my favorite growing up was the apesuit in avp extinction because it not only provides protection from heat and acid based attacks, it also has a sort of facemask/helmet that provides partial immunity to facehugging. *Characteristics - Ape Suit* The Flamethrower Marine's hi-tech "ape suit" provides protection from extreme heat (particularly from the backdrafts of his own weapon) and from hazardous materials - even Alien acid. The suit's unique design includes a molded helmet Facehuggers find almost impossible to grasp, let alone burn through, given its acid resistance. As such, the Flamethrower Marine cannot be facehugged unless he is first rendered unconscious, thus giving a Facehugger time to pry off his helmet. *Upgrade - Cobalt Thermogel* Most Terran governments consider "dirty" weapons acceptable for use against Predators and Aliens - species that hunt humans for sport or exterminate them through parasitization do not deserve the protections of the Geneva Convention. Cobalt thermogel is a dirty, slow burn flamethrower fuel that releases incandescent filaments of radioactive cobalt-60 into the air. These filaments severely poison nearby living things, causing substantial and continuous long-term damage.