The Worst Line in ‘Alien: Romulus’ Is a Stupid Reference

'Alien: Romulus' is the first recommendable movie in the 'Alien' franchise in nearly 40 years. Despite this, the film features a callback to 'Aliens' that is beyond stupid.

Even when monster movies are good, they’re usually still kind of bad. For example, Alien: Romulus is the first recommendable movie in the Alien franchise in nearly 40 years. Despite this, the film features a callback to Aliens that is beyond stupid. It’s the sort of daft moment that holds the film back from being a lot better.

‘Alien: Romulus’ is at its worst when it pays unnecessary homage to other ‘Alien’ movies

Alien: Romulus has a lot going for it, including pacing, a cool setup, and suspense. However, sometimes, it gets bogged down in unnecessary callbacks to earlier films in the series. For example, nobody asked for Ian Holm’s likeness from the first film to be recreated using CGI. It’s gratuitous, and the film would have been even better if it had taken the effort to craft another android design.

Alien: Romulus also pays homage to a famous moment from Aliens as awkwardly as possible. When Ellen Ripley tried to protect her surrogate daughter, Newt, from the alien queen in Aliens, she famously shouted “Get away from her, you b****.” It was a great line, and its use of a feminine slur referenced the fact that Ripley and the alien queen were, in their own way, mothers. Alien: Romulus vomits up the line without understanding it.

How the best line of 1 movie became the worst line of another

The co-leads of Alien: Romulus are scrappy orphan Rain and her adopted android “brother” Andy. The villains are a cluster of Xenomorphs, none of whom are more important to the story than the other. When he kills a Xenomorph, Andy says “Get away from her, you b****.” He sounds more confused than triumphant.

This moment doesn’t work at all. It lacks the girl power of the original scene. Andy has no reason to truly hate the Xenomorph he kills because they’ve built up no major enmity. This creature is no alien queen running the show; it’s just another random obstacle.

The director of ‘Alien: Romulus’ said the line worked

During a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez felt that the line aided his film. “When I watch it with an audience — like I did last night for the first time with a big audience — I see it through their eyes,” he explained. “It’s the first time you have a clue of what you made. The director is the last person to understand what the movie truly is because you’ve been in it every step of the way there. So it takes 10 years for me to watch my movies and understand, ‘Oh, that’s why people like it, or that’s why people didn’t like it.’

“It takes me 10 years to really gain objectivity, but last night gave me a good glimpse of what works about [Alien: Romulus],” he said. “There’s a moment at the beginning of the third act [when Andy says, ‘Get away from her, you b****,’] and we got a great cheer in the audience, which was a relief to me. Whenever you hear cheers at some point, you go, ‘Thank God we had them.'”

Maybe some members of the audience are falling for this cheap nostalgia bait but that doesn’t stop it from being Alien: Romulus‘ worst moment.