What is the Aliens Tail For? - Alien Romulus
The tail of the Xenomorph XX-121 from the Alien movies are long, segmented, prehensile appendages, that work not only to balance the creature like a traditional tail, but serves a number of other functions as well.
At the end of the tail is a sharp, bladed tip, used as its secondary weapon after the inner-jaw. The tail blade is used to stab and impale its victims, and the tail itself has been seen to be strong enough even to lift a Predator off the ground.
Could the tail be capable of injecting venom once it has punctured into someone, just like that of a Scorpion?
In an earlier draft of the script for “Aliens”, originally, instead of being knocked unconscious by falling objects inside the APC, Lt. Gorman was going to be “stung” by a Xenomorph tail, and fall into a coma, until his body would eventually break-down the non-lethal substance, which was meant to paralyse, but not kill outright.
It would make sense for the Xenomorph to possess this ability, as it would be the perfect tool to immobilise victims to then be taken back by a Drone or Warrior for impregnation by Facehugger.
When a person is taken by an Alien back to the hive and affixed to a wall with hive resin, they will wake up from having just been unconscious; the Xenomorph must possess some way to make them fall comatose, so could they in fact actually still have this venomous ability afterall? And it being in the form of a sting from their tail would probably be the best explanation.
Another speculated use for the Xenomorph tail is that it is used to communicate with others of its own kind, by twisting and forming a number of shapes and movements; or even cross-species, maybe not as a means to try and communicate with prey directly, but maybe it could be used to investigate; such as the scene just before it kills Parker and Lambert, in the extended cut of this sequence, the so-called “crab walk” scene, the Alien unfurls its tail, and raises it in the air towards Lambert, perhaps in some kind of display of curiosity.
In the movie, Alien Resurrection, the Cloned Xenomorphs had a section towards the end of the tail with raised vertebrae; these worked as a paddle aiding in helping the creatures swim, like the end of a Crocodiles tail, as seen in the underwater scene.
This feature returned in the Alien versus Predator designs.
In the comic adaptation book of the first movie, named “Alien The Illustrated Story” When Brett is killed by the Xenomorph; before he is grabbed, we see the tail of the creature snaking its way between his legs, before raising up behind him, and stabbing him.
This was initially going to be used for Bretts death in the final movie, and was filmed at least in part, but for one reason or another, was repurposed for Lamberts death instead. Where you see Lamberts foot here, is actually the actor for Brett.
What do you guys think? Do you think they should have kept the part where Brett is stabbed by the tail? Do you think it is venomous? Or do you think it may be used for communication, or for sensing things in the environment?
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This article uses material from the Xenopedia wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.