Is Alien: Romulus Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 6.5 out of 10. It's a monster movie in a station with no way out, and it has jump scares.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6.5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
You will be fine by morning, though a cocoon on the ceiling may get a second look.
DOG
Dog: fine
there is no dog.
Ruling: Watch it with friends if it's dark, because alone you'll keep checking what is above you.
Alien: Romulus runs one hundred nineteen minutes, and it opens with colonists on a mining colony whose employer has just extended their work contracts. They steal a ship and fly to a seemingly abandoned station that has facehuggers in it.
The premise, briefly
Six people steal a ship to reach a seemingly abandoned space station and its cryosleep gear, and they find out what the station's scientists left behind.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Tyler, Bjorn, Navarro and Kay all die. Rain and her android brother Andy escape the station before it is destroyed, then eject a monstrous hybrid Kay gave birth to. They go into cryosleep bound for a new planet.
The scene you're dreading
Around the middle, a baby xenomorph bursts out of Navarro's chest on the ship. It kills her, and then it matures rapidly.
The dog
There is no dog in Alien: Romulus, so no dog dies. Lab rats are seen dying and reviving in an experiment.
It is a tense chase with some gore and jump scares, and knowing who survives takes some of the sting out.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Employer extends your contract and ruins your plans
Our story starts in 2142, when a probe from Weyland-Yutani picks up a cocoon among the wreckage of the Nostromo. Months later, on the dark mining colony of Jackson's Star, Rain Carradine learns the company has extended her work contract without asking. She joins a plan to steal the hauler Corbelan IV and fly to Renaissance, a seemingly abandoned station made of two modules, Romulus and Remus, where they can take cryosleep equipment for the nine-year trip to a planet called Yvaga III. The crew is Rain, her android brother Andy, her ex Tyler, Tyler's pregnant sister Kay, and a cousin named Bjorn who brings along his adopted sister Navarro. Bjorn points out that Yvaga III bans androids, so Andy would be left behind. Aboard the station, Tyler and Bjorn set off a lockdown and release dozens of facehuggers. Rain upgrades Andy with a chip from the station's broken android, Rook, and Andy leads them to safety, though his loyalty now belongs to the company. A facehugger still gets Navarro.
Navarro's chest is not a safe place to keep an alien
Rain wakes Rook, who explains that the Nostromo cocoon held a xenomorph. Scientists on the station studied it and used it to make facehuggers, then it broke loose and killed nearly everyone. Bjorn tries to take Navarro and Kay away on the Corbelan, and the worst moment of the movie arrives in the middle: a baby xenomorph bursts out of Navarro's chest and kills her. The creature matures rapidly afterward. The ship crashes into the Romulus hangar, which speeds up the station's collision with the planet's rings. Bjorn hits the creature with a stun baton, and its acid blood kills him. Kay runs into Romulus with the creature behind her. Rain and Tyler try to reach her, but Andy suspects the creature is using Kay as bait and will not open the door. They have to watch it carry her off.
Rain turns off gravity to avoid a hull breach
Rook orders Andy to retrieve Z-01, a fluid taken from the facehuggers that can rewrite DNA. The company wants it to build humans suited for space, and Rook says the Corbelan stays locked until the fluid is on its way to Jackson's Star. Rain and Tyler get rifles, but Andy warns them that a hull breach would depressurize the station. They find the nest and rescue Kay, who is badly hurt. Andy gives Kay a vial of Z-01 as medicine, and she holds on to it. Facehuggers and xenomorphs swarm them, and Tyler gives his life to cover Rain and Kay while Andy is down. Rain gets Kay to safety, goes back for Andy and restores his original programming. Surrounded, she shuts off the station's gravity so she can shoot them without acid hitting the hull. When gravity returns, the xenomorph that came from Navarro goes for her, and Andy kills it. Rain and Andy fly off in the Corbelan as the rings destroy Renaissance.
The ending, explained
Rain tells Andy that they will stay together on Yvaga III, whatever the rules about androids say. Kay has injected herself with Z-01, and she gives birth to a hybrid of human and xenomorph that the fluid has mutated. It kills Kay and disables Andy. Rain gets the creature out of the ship and into the rings of LV-410, where it disintegrates. She sets a course for Yvaga III, and she and Andy go into cryosleep. Tyler, Bjorn, Navarro and Kay are all dead. Rain and Andy are the only two who make it out.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: there is no dog.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Alien: Romulus scary?
Alien: Romulus is a 6.5 out of 10 with moderate dread. It has jump scares and some gore, and the fear comes from a monster hunting people in a station they cannot leave.
How does Alien: Romulus end?
Rain and Andy flee the station before it is destroyed. Kay gives birth to a hybrid that kills her, Rain ejects it into the rings of LV-410, and she and Andy enter cryosleep for Yvaga III.
Does the dog die in Alien: Romulus?
There is no dog in Alien: Romulus, so no dog dies. Lab rats used in an experiment are seen dying and reviving, and a dead rat is shown floating in the air.
Is there a post-credits scene in Alien: Romulus?
No. Alien: Romulus has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What is Z-01 in Alien: Romulus?
Z-01 is a fluid harvested from the facehuggers that rewrites and adapts DNA. Weyland-Yutani wants it for humans built to thrive in space, and in Alien: Romulus it ends up in Kay, with bad results.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Alien: Romulus is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't need one hundred nineteen minutes on that station to know how Alien: Romulus ends. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror like this before you see it.
