Alien: Romulus Director Reveals Latest Film Has An Alien: Isolation Easter Egg

The latest film in the Alien series, Alien: Romulus, is set for its global release in theatres on 16th August 2024, for which its marketing has been garnering attention on social media. Recently, the film's director, Fede Alvarez, sat down in an interview with Total Film, where he discussed some of the film's inspirations and a few surprises for audiences who head to theatres soon.

Alvarez revealed an Easter Egg for fans of the 2014 horror game Alien: Isolation, detailing this subtle inclusion. Isolation fans may want to keep their eyes peeled during their viewing of Romulus, but it's quite fascinating that the licensed game was worthy of inclusion in an Alien film, and it was done in quite a unique way, according to Alvarez.

In the Total Film interview with Alvarez, he discussed the inclusion of an Easter Egg from the 2014 Alien: Isolation game. He told the publication that "Alien: Isolation was kind of what made me see that Alien could truly be terrifying and done well [today]," which he revealed he played Isolation "a few years after it came out."

The director realized "how terrifying Alien could be if you take it back to that tone," and he executed this by including a familiar reference to Isolation. This was evident in one of the film's first behind-the-scenes (BTS) set photos, in which a payphone can be seen in the background, which is a callback to Isolation's Registration Points, which were used by protagonist Amanda Ripley to save the game with a key card manually and can provide her with some information, like whether an enemy is nearby.

While using a Registration Point does leave Amanda Ripley more susceptible to attacks, and this was referenced in Romulus, which Alvarez explained. "The movie is set up in a way [that] every time something bad is about to happen, you will see a phone."

In the game, every time you knew there's a phone, you'd go, 'F**k, I'm about to go into some bad set-piece.' It's the same thing here. You'll see they're planted strategically throughout the film. When you see the phone, it's like brace for impact.