10 Essential Parts Of Movie Franchises (That Weren’t Introduced Until The Sequel)

10. The Word Xenomorph - Aliens

The Iconic Element: You can't get a much more iconic movie monster than the xenomorph. With its phallic design, sexually driven attacks and unforgettable birthing scene, the still unknown (even after Prometheus) beast really gets under your skin (in John Hurt's case literally). That it's starred in all manner of comics, books and video games as well as the central movie franchise certainly hasn't hurt. Unlike Predators, whose species name (Yautja) is firmly in the realm of extreme fandom, the xenomorph moniker is so well known it's impossible to not immediately think of the drooling teeth snarling as the second mouth readies its attack at the simple mention of the word. When It Was Actually Introduced: The phrase xenomorph wasn't spoken at all until the Marine briefing scene in Aliens; before then, the creature had simply been called an organism, thing or, shockingly, alien. But here's the really kicker; when it was first spoken, xenomorph wasn't actually meant to refer to this one species. The word is derived from the Greek for alien form; i.e. an extraterrestrial being. It's implied in the film that there's various aliens out there (Hicks describes the mission flippantly as another "bughunt"), making the term some sort of umbrella phrase for the unknown. Fans simply took the cool sounding phrase and made it something strictly synonymous with ol' penis-head.