‘Alien: Romulus’ absolutely bonkers ending (almost) one-ups the original

Now that director Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus has landed in theaters, let’s break down that jaw-dropping ending—and what it means for the future of the Alien franchise as a whole.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Alien: Romulus.

A quest for freedom quickly becomes a fight for survival when a group of young workers, contractually bound to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, go on a mission to steal cryo pods from the abandoned space station floating in orbit above their mining colony. What they don’t account for, however, is that the Renaissance has some secrets of its own—namely, an army of Facehuggers and Xenomorphs, who, predictably enough, were the very things that destroyed the vessel and its crew in the first place.

Alien: Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny as Rain, an Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) type who agrees to jet off into space with the hopes that she and her AI bestie, Andy (David Jonsson), will one day get to see the sun set on the planet Yvaga. Of course, there’s plenty of infighting along the way, with Archie Renaux’s Tyler, Spike Fearn’s Bjorn, and Aileen Wu’s Navarro all having drastically different approaches to the whole “prison break” thing. Oh, and Rain’s friend, Kay (Isabel Merced), is pregnant—more on that later.

So how does it all go down?

How does Alien: Romulus end?

In the final act of Alien: Romulus, most of the original crew has been killed off, with Rain, Andy, and Kay being the sole survivors. Things are actually looking up after Rain uses her Pulse Rifle to gun down a swarm of Facehuggers and Xenomorphs to bring her and Andy—now returned to his usual, chipper self—to safety on the hauler Corbelan with Kay in tow.

However, Kay throws a wrench in things when she decides to inject herself with the “Prometheus fire” that Rook (Ian Holm/Daniel Betts) cooked up after she’s badly injured—yes, Alien: Romulus shares some connective tissue with Alien: Prometheus here. With everyone now on board the Corbelan, things start to go sour when Kay speedruns her pregnancy and gives birth to a human-alien hybrid (played by Robert Bobroczkyi) dead set on killing everyone in sight, including his “mother.”

And yeah, if you thought the Xenomorph was the big bad of Ridley Scott’s Alien universe, well, think again. The “Offspring” shown in the final moments of Alien: Romulus is pure, old-school nightmare fuel—and I truly cannot stop thinking about it. Rain does get the jump on the Offspring in the end, and the movie closes with her and Andy entering stasis as they finally set course for Yvaga, with Rain recording one final log ahead of their arrival. Fade to black.

It’s a finale reminiscent of 1979’s Alien, and it makes sense why Fede Álvarez would want to use the same formula here. Tapping into viewers’ sense of nostalgia by giving us an ending nearly identical to Ripley’s— this time, with Rain—helps build a bridge between each of the Alien entries, and pays homage to the franchise’s many iterations. So even though Ripley’s last stand in Alien will forever go down as one of the most iconic endings in cinema history, Alien: Romulus certainly delivers with a terrifying final villain, more than proving itself a worthy successor.

Will there be an Alien: Romulus 2?

It’s important to note that Alien: Romulus does work perfectly well as a standalone film, and by no means does it leave its story unfinished. However, you can’t deny that it did leave the door open for some sort of followup centered around the human-alien creature, as I can imagine that these things are pretty hard to kill. Yes, the Offspring is ultimately defeated, but its introduction in the movie could have some bigger implications for the franchise all around—especially if a sequel is ever given the green light by 20th Century Studios. Plus, do Rain and Andy ever make it to Yvaga? Your guess is as good as any.

Personally, I think the Offspring is one of the creepiest monsters I’ve seen in quite some time—and that’s saying something coming off of Nicolas Cage’s serial killer in Longlegs. Because of this, I’d love to see him pop up in future Alien installments, as he’s a whole lot more cool-looking than the “Newborn” we met in 1997’s Alien: Resurrection. So even though an Alien: Romulus 2 might not be strictly necessary, there’s nearly 40 years’ worth of untold storytelling for filmmakers to explore leading up to the events of Aliens. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see where the Alien Cinematic Universe chooses to take us next.