Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus is returning to a crucial point in the Alien timeline with its story, and in so doing looks set to answer a major unsolved mystery from the original 1979 film. Part of the power of the Alien saga comes from its mysterious and often unexplained story details. Even after Ridley Scott’s prequels, it’s still unclear how the Engineer ship ended up on LV-426, preserving the sense of terrifying discovery that made the first Alien so haunting. However, while maintaining some mysteries is important for the franchise’s overall legacy, resolving some select plot points could also enhance the action.

Over the years, Alien movies have frequently addressed and rewritten crucial aspects of the franchise’s lore. James Cameron’s first sequel, for instance, introduced the idea of an alien queen – explaining where the original movie’s strange eggs could have come from. Taking things even further, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant completely transformed what many fans understood about the alien’s origin, turning it from a by-product of evolution to an engineered monster. It’s unclear whether Álvarez’s movie will offer anything this radical. However, from the official Alien: Romulus trailer, it seems one ongoing mystery will finally be addressed.

Alien: Romulus Is Bringing Back The Original Movie’s Blue Mist

It Hasn’t Been Seen Since The Very First Movie

While the Alien: Romulus trailer reveals dozens of intriguing details about Fede Álvarez’s film, one of the most subtle – yet potentially fascinating – is the return of the blue mist that first appeared in Ridley Scott’s original movie. Approximately 30 seconds into the trailer, Andy (David Jonsson) places his hand on the floor of a corridor, breaking a layer of strange blue mist hovering a few inches off the ground. While this may seem innocuous, it is in fact a direct callback to audiences’ first-ever encounter with the xenomorph threat and a question that has dogged fans for over four decades.

The brief shot mirrors the moment from the original Alien when Kane explores the bowels of the Engineer ship. When he rappels down into a cavernous “cave of some sort“, he describes seeing rows and rows of “leathery objects, like eggs or something“. Crucially, he then identifies “a layer of mist just covering the eggs that reacts when broken“. The suggestion is that this is what prompts the original xenomorph egg to open, unleashing the facehugger. However, despite the mist’s seemingly crucial role in the alien lifecycle, it has not been seen again in the franchise – until the Alien: Romulus trailer.

Alien’s Blue Mist Was Never Fully Explained

It Was Never Clear How It Worked, Or Where It Came From

Exactly how the blue mist works, how it appeared on the Engineer ship, and why it hasn’t been seen since the first movie have been unresolved issues for 45 years. As Kane’s experience demonstrates, it seems like the mist may be a form of atmospheric protection. In Alien, steam and other gases are seen struggling to break through the mist’s surface, suggesting that it might be a way of maintaining optimal conditions for the eggs. Its eerie blue hue also suggests an artificial origin – raising even more questions about how it is being generated.

All these details, coupled with the absence of a queen in the original Alien movie, make the blue mist a crucial and underexplored aspect of franchise lore. Its presence suggests that, unlike the organic lifecycle seen in Aliens, the original xenomorph eggs were there artificially and deliberately, creating further questions about the whole franchise’s origin. Considering that Alien: Romulus is set between Alien and Aliens, it seems like the blue light’s return could be a sign that the 2024 film will address aspects of the franchise’s first films that have hitherto remained unclear.

Alien’s Blue Mist Is Just Part Of A Wider Original Movie Trend

There Were Many Similar Mysteries

If the return of Alien‘s blue mist does herald a return to other previously abandoned franchise details, Alien: Romulus will have plenty to explore. In fact, the existence of the blue mist and lack of explanation around its origin is just part of a trend that runs throughout the first film, where seemingly important details are left deliberately obscure and mysterious. The whole question of what happened to the Space Jockey, for example, gives the sense that Alien is really beginning in medias res, with another terrifying tragedy having already befallen a different species.

There are dozens of other Alien details that are also unexplained. Even with the attempted background provided by Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, it’s still unclear how the original eggs got onboard the Engineer ship, nor exactly how Weyland-Yutani knew where to send the Nostromo crew. If Alien: Romulus is revisiting one seemingly insignificant detail, like the blue mist, there’s no reason why it can’t address these bigger questions – potentially making it one of the most significant installments in the franchise to date.

What The Return Of The Blue Mist Means For Alien: Romulus

It’s A Clear Connection To The Original Film

Although it may seem minor, the presence of the blue mist reveals some key details about Alien: Romulus. For starters, it underscores how well-versed the movie is in franchise lore – with an awareness of details that previous films have either overlooked or deemed unimportant. For long-term fans of the series, this is an exciting development that bodes well for the movie’s commitment to what made the franchise originally successful.

While Álvarez has previously outlined his hatred for plot spoilers, the combination of the blue mist’s role in the original Alien and details from the Romulus trailer potentially provide further narrative clues. Working on the theory that the blue mist is some sort of artificial barrier, its inclusion suggests that the Alien: Romulus cast’s encounter is part of a manufactured scenario rather than something more organic. The revelation that Alien: Romulus takes its name from a lab lends further weight to this theory, reinforcing the idea that the blue mist could be a way of controlling xenomorph encounters and protecting the eggs.

Although it’s impossible to say prior to release precisely how the xenomorph threat will manifest in Alien: Romulus, the return of the blue mist suggests that the film will recreate key aspects of the encounter from the first Alien movie. Instead of further additions to franchise lore, the evidence indicates that Alien: Romulus will instead explain details that were already prevalent in the series. This could be an exciting sign that Álvarez’s film represents a return to what made the Alien series so iconic instead of getting bogged down in revisionist stories that overcomplicate the wider narrative.