When it comes to heavyweights of the science-fiction genre, they don't come much bigger than Blade Runner and the Alien franchise, both of which were the product of director Ridley Scott. In recent years, we had to put up with substandard Alien sequels and the spectacularly underwhelming and trashy Alien Vs. Predator series, but then Scott reappeared in the sci-fi game to release Prometheus. In the build up to the movie, we were all asking whether this would be a true Alien film - almost an origin story for the xenomorph. Of course it was. No matter how strongly Scott protests that it's a separate story, you basically see how his most famous creature came into being. But this was a link which was more expected than not. What took us off guard slightly was the hidden inclusion of a connection between the Alien universe and Blade Runner. Whilst it is clear that Scott has a fascination with robotics, due to his attention to the Replicants in Blade Runner, and the androids (Bishop) in Alien, we had previously been led to believe that these were merely coincidences in an interest of a theme, not a directly-related issue. That view was changed thanks to an easter egg found on the Prometheus DVD, which displays a message from Peter Weyland, CEO of the Weyland Corp., producers of human-like robots who are still built to serve human needs, such as David, the robot charged with assisting the journey of the ship's crew in Prometheus. The message tells of communication between Weyland and a mentor/competitor who offers to join forces in order to perfect their quest for robotic perfection. It describes a man with a God complex, watching over his creations from his tower, but that it "blew up in his face" - a fate more or less identical to that of Dr. Eldon Tyrell, head of the Tyrell Corporation, who was killed by one of his own Replicants. This not only suggests that Prometheus is taking place before the Alien franchise took off, but also after Blade Runner, and could provide the unexpected set-up to the rumoured sequel of the latter. Whilst it doesn't necessarily change our outlook on either film, it does provide a fascinating look at the parallel of two previously unlinked competitors toiling away in their quest to upgrade humanity. Do you think any other movies are tied to the same universe? Let us know in the comments below.
