Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
The disturbing, endoparisitic species known as the Xenomorphs, made famous in the Alien
series, are savage, dangerous creatures.
They lurk in the shadows, seeking to eat or impregnate unknowing prey.
But what if these bad boys resided not on the silver screen, but actually existed?
Let’s explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if Xenomorphs were Real?
In case you've been living under a rock for the last 40 years, let's quickly go over what
exactly the Xenomorphs are.
The Xenomorphs are alien monsters, first seen in the 1979 film Alien.
They go through a number of metamorphic stages, and change a great deal throughout their life
cycle.
They begin in egg form, called Ovomorphs, where they lie dormant, awaiting a suitable
host.
Lucky for them, they can wait a long time, and they aren't too discerning about their
hosts.
When a host is nearby, the spider-like creature in the egg, dubbed a facehugger, is launched
at their face, impregnating the unwitting host with a larva.
This has led a number of teenagers to have hilariously inaccurate ideas about sex.
As the parasitic larva grows, it consumes the host from the inside, and exits in a worm-like
form, dubbed a chestburster.
Finally, the creature continues to grow, quickly taking on its large, adult form.
The depiction of adult Xenomorphs has changed over the years, largely as a result of improved
digital technology, but there are a number of common characteristics.
They tend to be large, black, and slimy, with long pointed heads and incredibly sharp teeth.
They also have a secondary jaw in their mouth, which can be used in close combat, and also
to totally gross people out.
They’re capable of bipedal movement, but often move on four legs.
They’re incredibly strong and fast, able to cling to walls and ceilings, and very stealthy.
They can also use their powerful tails as weapons, and bleed dangerously acidic blood.
While there is often a queen Xenomorph that lays the eggs, it’s possible for regular
Xenomorphs to turn victims into eggs, thus starting a new life cycle.
Great, now that we know what these things are, we can discuss what would happen if they
were actually real.
Luckily, this might not be too much of an issue.
As aliens, the Xenomorphs aren’t actually from Earth.
Which means even if they were real, we wouldn’t really see any effects here on this planet.
However, the Alien series tells of various encounters with humans, including some on
Earth, so let’s imagine a world where they found their way to Earth and began reproducing.
If the Xenomorphs were spotted, news would spread quickly.
These are creatures of nightmares, made to strike fear in the hearts of humanity.
Many people would be paranoid of going out into the wild, for fear of attack by them.
This would be true even if the aliens attacked rather seldom; every attack would be widely
publicized, and availability bias would cause people to assume it was more likely than it
actually was, as is the case with shark attacks and plane crashes.
That said, as the Xenomorphs grew in number, this fear would become more and more reasonable,
which means we would want to exterminate them as soon as possible.
On the bright side, our weapons would be quite useful against them.
It’s true that human crews had some difficulty against them, but this was while stranded
out in space, in an environment well-suited for the beasts.
Considering crews have had some success fighting them off with rather limited weaponry, a coordinated
military effort would likely be highly effective.
Attacking from medium to long range would allow humanity to keep them at bay, meaning
any outright battle would likely end in a human victory, unless the predators had huge
numbers.
However, their ability to go dormant would make it very difficult to exterminate the
Xenomorphs if they were on Earth.
We might think we’ve killed them all, but we’d never know if there were a few still
dormant, just waiting to come back and repopulate in the shadows.
The Earth is a big place with an awful lot of caves, making it damn near impossible to
ensure that they’re all dead.
Unfortunately, it’s possible that some people would make it even more difficult to exterminate
the deadly creatures.
Despite the importance of removing the alien menace as quickly as possible, it’s likely
that some would attempt to capture them for a variety of reasons.
Dissection and testing is one obvious use; we could learn a great deal from their physical
and genetic makeup.
They would also be incredibly popular attractions, so if you managed to capture one and put it
on display, you could make a good deal of money.
It’s even possible that we’d see thrill-seeking hunters engaging in similar Xenomorph hunts
as the Predators did in Alien vs Predator.
However, these sound like great ways to have one escape and start turning other organisms
into Ovomorphs, thus allowing for repopulation.
So it’s likely that possession of Xenomorphs or their eggs would be punished severely.
It should be noted that, as previously alluded to, it isn’t only humans that would be in
danger.
Ovomorphs care not what species their potential host is; if it moves and has a hole, they’re
in…
Okay, that came out wrong, but you know what I mean.
This would result in a number of varying Xenomorphs, each taking characteristics from the various
hosts.
We saw in Alien vs Predator that when the Xenomorph impregnated a Predator, it resulted
in a hybrid of the two.
This would mean that we could see various different kinds of Xenomorphs, which could
be terrifying.
Bird Xenomorphs could attack from the skies, shark Xenomorphs would be terrors of the sea,
the possibilities would be endless... and nightmare inducing.
This all means that we would never be rid of the Xenomorphs, and they would become just
another danger of life.
It’s likely that specialized hunters would become fairly prevalent, collecting bounties
for whatever aliens they find and kill.
Potential hiding spots would be monitored to minimize the spread of the creatures, and
people would be instructed to report any sightings to the authorities.
The films depict the creatures as being vulnerable to high heats, meaning people might want to
arm themselves with some sort of flamethrowing when going out in the wilderness.
At the end of the day, the world would be a scarier place, but we could probably hold
them at bay.
And now we return to our question: What if Xenomorphs were Real?
Well, assuming they made their way to Earth, we would probably be in big trouble.
Our weapons would be able to hurt them, meaning a coordinated military effort would likely
be able to exterminate most of the aliens.
However, animal hybrids, as well as their ability to camouflage and remain dormant in
egg form, would make it close to impossible to kill them all, so it would likely be a
rather persistent problem for humans to deal with moving forward.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what YOU think would happen if the Xenomorphs were
real.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.