“Alien: Earth” introduces a lot of fascinating ideas into the long-running “Alien” franchise. Arguably, the creepiest aspect isn’t even the xenomorphs, but the hybrids that place children’s minds inside of adult robotic bodies. There’s the underlying concept of how much humanity you can strip away before someone stops being considered human. And also, the “Ice Age” movies are apparenrly still super popular 100 years in the future.
The nod to “Evil Dead” was one thing, but this is a whole other level. One of the strangest aspects of the first two episodes of “Alien: Earth” is repeated references to 2012’s “Ice Age: Continental Drift.” In a flashback, Joe (Alex Lawther) watches the film. Later in the show, Joe tries to resign from his position by telling the robot attendant, “Have a heart, or face my fury.” Wendy (Sydney Chandler), who contains the mind of Joe’s sister Marcy (Florence Bensberg), hacks into the robot and says, “Or face your furry what?” This wordplay is a line from “Continental Drift” that comes accompanied by an off-putting fade-in of Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo).
On the surface, the reason for the inclusion seems readily apparent. It’s a film Joe and his sister bonded over when they were kids, and Wendy hacking the robot lets him know, albeit subtly, that she’s still out there even thought he believes she’s dead. Plus “Ice Age” and “Alien” are both owned by 20th Century Studios, so it makes sense to use something that’s already in the studio’s library. But there might be a deeper reason why “Ice Age: Continental Drift” shows up in “Alien: Earth.”
Does Ice Age: Continental Drift foreshadow the events of Alien: Earth?
“Alien: Earth” is set in the year 2120, so Joe and Marcy/Wendy are nostalgic for a film that’s 108 years old. But “Ice Age” is a popular franchise, so maybe that’s given it some cultural longevity. It’s a little weird they have a fondness for “Ice Age: Continental Drift” specifically, the fourth entry in the series, but it’s possible that the show’s creator, Noah Hawley, is trying to foreshadow what’s to come.
As the title suggests, “Ice Age: Continental Drift” is about Pangea breaking apart while the main cast are adrift in the ocean on an iceberg. The film ends with their home destroyed, and Precious, a whale, taking them to a lush, new habitat. On “Alien: Earth,” humanity seems to be chugging along fine in 2120, but it’s not going to be that way for long. The ending of “Alien Resurrection” sees Ripley 8 (Sigourney Weaver) and Call (Winona Ryder) arrive on an Earth that’s a desolate wasteland devoid of most life. During Ripley’s time away, the planet goes through catastrophic changes to such an extent that it’s no longer recognizable to her (or this version of her, anyway).
“Alien Resurrection” takes place in the year 2381, over 250 years after the events of “Alien: Earth.” That’s still a long time for humanity to mess things up, but there’s no reason why the dominoes can’t start falling now. If “Alien: Earth” is allowed to continue past Season 1, we might begin to see Earth change in cataclysmic ways, just like it did in “Ice Age: Continental Drift.”
Alien: Earth could plant the seeds for humanity’s doom
“Alien: Earth” opens with a Weyland-Yutani vessel, carrying not just xenomorphs but other terrifying aliens, crashing into a city on Earth. Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), CEO of the Prodigy corporation, sends his new hybrids into the wreckage to retrieve what they can. With so many different types of alien species on board, it wouldn’t be unheard of for one to carry a deadly pathogen that humanity isn’t equipped to stop. After all, Call mentions in “Alien: Resurrection” how humanity suffered at the hands of something called the “Lacerta Plague.” What if one of these creatures, perhaps the xenomorph itself, is responsible for making the plague run amok?
The “Alien Resurrection” novelization takes it a step further and slightly changes the line to refer to it as the “Lacerta Worm Plague.” One of the creatures onboard Weyland-Yutani’s ship looks pretty worm-like. It’s a bit of wild speculation, but Noah Hawley could be laying the groundwork for this otherwise inconspicuous species to break containment and infect most of humanity with some sort of terrible disease, explaining why Earth is barren in the future and why humanity has become an interplanetary species.
Just like the animals in “Ice Age: Continental Drift” need to find a new home, humanity in the “Alien” franchise needs a fresh habitat as well, and it could be hastened with a deadly pandemic introduced later on “Alien: Earth.” It’s just a theory — and a pretty big stretch at that — but you heard it here first.
