Alien: Romulus Director Reveals Alien: Isolation Easter Egg for Video Game Fans

The director of Alien: Romulus has revealed one of the surprising sources of inspiration for his Alien prequel - and it’s not a film or series.

Instead, Fede Álvarez says 2014 video game Alien: Isolation was a massive influence during production.

"I was playing, and realizing how terrifying Alien could be if you take it back to that tone,” Álvarez tells GamesRadar .

It was the horror game, developed by Creative Assembly, that convinced Álvarez to try directing an Alien movie. “I played a few years after it came out. Don’t Breathe was coming out. Or was I waiting for Don’t Breathe to come out, and I was playing the game. That’s why, at the time, I was like, ‘F***, if I could do anything, I would love to do Alien and scare the audience again with that creature and those environments.’”

Álvarez loves the game so much, he even included an Easter egg in Alien: Romulus . These come in the form of emergency phones, which appear in the game as save points - devices that let players save their progress.

“The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone,” the Romulus director says. “When you see the phone, it’s like: brace for impact.”

And for those who need it, here's the Alien: Romulus timeline confirmed by the director .