How Intelligent Are Aliens? - Alien Romulus
When it comes to the Xenomorphs from the Alien movies, including Alien Romulus - their exact level of sentience is a matter of debate. However, what is clear, is that they are clever and tenacious hunters, and excel at observational learning and problem solving, at least by animalistic standards.
Examples include, how in Aliens, after taking casualties from the sentry turrets, they decided to take a different route into the control room, via the crawlspace above the ceiling, and figured out to cut the power source, leaving the Marines in the dark and vulnerable to attack.
In Alien Resurrection, while being held behind bulletproof glass, they were aware of themselves having acidic blood, and sacrificed one of their own members to escape; also, another was quickly able to learn the function of the red button, which would release an ice-cold gas into the chamber, even using it against a Human when he went inside to investigate.
And in Alien Covenant, the Protomorph Alien knew what a security camera was, and destroyed it.
These are just a few examples, but hint toward what else they could be capable of doing.
Ash commented that Xenomorphs are "perfect organisms" with the only match to their structural perfection being their unmatched hostility. He even said they have an admirable purity, describing them as survivors "unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."
Among members of a hive, there exists a hierarchical structure, mainly the larger, more intelligent types of more importance rank highest, then they filter downwards; A Queen Mother is the highest of all Aliens, and then within a hive, a Queen is the rules, then the Praetorians, (smaller protectors of the Queen, which are next in line should she die), then Warriors, (the soldiers of the hive), and lastly, the Drones, (the workers of the hive).
There appears to be an internal hierarchy too within each specific caste themselves; as seen in the movie Alien vs Predator, the Grid Alien was what is known as an “Alpha Drone”, a physical Drone itself, but which acts as a leader of a group.
Also, as mentioned previously in Alien Resurrection, the two Aliens turn on the third in order to create an escape route, this third Xenomorph must have been the lowest on the pecking order among the three.
Curiously, when Xenomorphs are attacking, they will do so at the cost of their own lives, certain death, without hesitation, but at other times, will show signs of self-preservation, and will retreat or flee; as is the case when fire is used to fight them, they will turn and run rather than be burnt, but have been seen to proceed head first into a volley of bullets.
And when it comes to killing, usually when attacking, they’ll seem to mindlessly kill anything in sight with no hesitation, remorse, or purpose, as if they can’t help themselves, like how a Zombie would; but are actually fully capable of restraining themselves from doing so when it comes to taking people back to their hive for hosts.
Xenomorphs are theorised by some to enjoy killing, and actually feel pleasure and satisfaction from inflicting fear, as sometimes they take their time, as if to savour the panic they are inflicting on their victims.
This is best shown in the first Alien movie, as it is about to kill off Lambert.
Communication among the Xenomorphs is thought to be done telepathically as a hive-mind, or at least between the Queen and her subordinates; between lower castes such as Drones and Warriors, they do make hisses and growls towards each other, so may communicate mainly vocally; although it is also speculated that one purpose for the Aliens tail is to form a number of different shapes and movements as a means of communicating among one another.
The smartest Xenomorph by far in a single hive is the Queen, and she can give commands to her minions, such as to attack, or to stand down.
We see this in Aliens, where Ripley holds the Flamethrower towards her eggs, she calls off her Warriors momentarily.
And she is able to figure out how to use an elevator by merely observing Ripley doing it once. She also is smart enough to decide to stowaway inside the landing gear bay of the Dropship, pursuing Ripley to seek revenge for her nest being destroyed.
In Alien vs Predator, the Queen in that movie calls the Drones to come and free her from her restraints.
In the comic books, during testing on a captive Queen, she was found out to have an intelligence level equivalent to that of an IQ of 175 for a Human, smarter than most people to have ever lived.
Usually it is the higher castes such as Queens and Praetorians who possess higher intelligence levels, but intelligence can also be influenced by the type of host a Xenomorph is born from. The Predalien from AVP Requiem was shown to be more
This article uses material from the Xenopedia wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
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