In many ways, the true villain of theAlienfranchise is not the eponymous monstrosities but is instead the openly corrupt megacorporation Weyland-Yutani. Multiple films in the series reveal the desire of the company to somehow acquire a live Xenomorph, usually at the cost of several lives, but what were they planning to do with it when they caught it?
Weyland-Yutani, often obliquely referred to as The Company, was introduced inAlien,though never addressed out loud and kept to sparse mentions on computer screens and beer cans. Since then, The Company hasextended its influence across media, appearing in works fromPredator,toAngel,to Firefly.
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Weyland-Yutani is a global conglomerate forged in 2099 through a harsh corporate merger. The Company is hugely powerful, with influence in essentially all aspects of space travel, military, science, technology, engineering, industry, and much more. Almost every weaponseen in the Alien serieswas developed by The Company. Weyland-Yutani also developed top-of-the-line synthetic humanoids, also known as androids, which replicate human behavior and take on tasks with superhuman abilities. Exercising great imperial strength, The Company routinely colonizes and takes over planets far outside the solar system. The Company has gone out of its way to demonstrate ruthlessness, complete lack of decency, and total commitment to profit.
Weyland-Yutani’s desire to capture a Xenomorph was first explored in the originalAlien.The crew of the Nostromo is awoken unexpectedly to investigate a distress signal and encounter the iconic Facehugger. From there, the ship’s crew is picked off one by one by the deadly alien before the truth is revealed.The film’s hero, Ellen Ripley, uncovers the orders given by The Company to safely transport the Xenomorph for later usage. This is done at the cost of the crew’s lives, a consequence that The Company was well aware of, but completely disinterested in. The Company is very sparsely present in the first film, but their existence is more central to the sequel.
Aliensputs a great deal of focus on thecorporate malfeasance of Weyland-Yutani.Aliensintroduces slimy monster Carter J. Burke, who attempts to smother the Xenomorph back to a Corporation laboratory in the body of Ripley and a little girl. In this film, another mass of innocent workers is fodder for the Xenomorph horde, all at the behest of The Company. The film’s military force, the Colonial Marines, is largely helpless against the alien threat. All of this slaughter so that the owners can get their hands on an uncontrollable space nightmare.
The complete decimation of the Colonial Marines, the incredible rate at which Xenomorph hordes repopulate, and the sheer destructive power they wield make their primary use clear. Weyland-Yutani had a clear intention to mass-produce the Xenomorph for use as a bioweapon. The Company has a rich history of weapon production, from firearms to flamethrowers. A species of living weaponry, capable of outbreeding any effort to defeat them and able to cleanly exterminate entire populations in short order would be an unbeatable asset to an unethical goliath like Weyland-Yutani.
The Xenomorph’s purpose as a bioweaponis no doubt central to The Company’s desire to capture one alive, but it’s likely not the only reason. Weyland-Yutani has a substantial hand in scientific endeavors, capturing the species alive would allow for a variety of experiments and developments. Aspects of the Xenomorph could be retrofitted into further breakthroughs. In the real world, many early weapons were crafted using shark teeth or stingray tails. For a more modern example, silk produced by genetically engineered spiders and silkworms is often used to produce body armor. A Xenomorph would likely have numerous applications in the crafting of military and civilian products.
The origin of the Xenomorph is a questionable aspect of the narrative. It is implied byPrometheusthat the Xenomorph is already a biological weapon created by the android David, but other pieces of lore indicate thatthey evolved on their home planet. If David did create the Xenomorph, then in a roundabout way, Weyland-Yutani is responsible for their existence, as David is The Company’s property. This questionable aspect of the Alien franchise canon is almost the closest to a reasonable justification for Weyland-Yutani’s quest to acquire a Xenomorph.
Fans very rarely heara real justification from any representative of The Company. Weyland-Yutani is almost always portrayed as a faceless conglomerate or represented by amoral drones incapable of moral reasoning. One of the few examples of a Company leader speaking out comes from an unlikely source, Rebellion’s 2010 video gameAliens vs. Predator.Karl Bishop Weyland, the game’s antagonist, sums up Weyland-Yutani’s goals by claiming it is their duty to forge Xenomorph weaponry for a higher purpose. Weyland claims it isn’t about profit, but about ensuring humanity’s place as the dominant species in the universe is unchallenged. This is an outlier in the franchise, but galactic human supremacy is a deeply fascinating goal despite the unforgivable methods.
In short, the usual motivation for Weyland-Yutani’s desire to capture a live Xenomorph revolves around their usefulness as a weapon. Though their motivation is almost always questionable, The Company does feature a couple of more philosophical figures in their corporate murderers row.
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