Alien: Romulus ending explained – Are the Xenomorphs back for good?

Alien: Romulus certainly doesn’t end on a whimper, but rather a terrifying, nightmare-inducing bang. Here’s the full recap on how the new film draws to a close and what it could mean for the future of the franchise.

Set between Alien and Aliens, Romulus tells a new tale focusing on a new group of characters. While it no doubt connects back to the originals in plenty of creative ways, the way its story reaches its conclusion is wholly original.

Unlike anything else we’ve seen in the series, the final sequences are stomach-churning, to say the least. With Alien: Romulus out already out in multiple European territories, and releasing everywhere else this week, here’s how the movie ends, as well as what it means for the series as a whole.

It goes without saying, but major spoiler warning from this point on. We will be discussing the end of the movie, so do not continue reading if you want to experience it as intended.

Alien: Romulus ending explained

All hell breaks loose

It wouldn’t be an Alien movie without some Xenomorph-fulled carnage, and that’s exactly how the second half of Romulus goes. Once a few Facehuggers have emerged, planted their seeds, and rapidly grown some Xenomorphs, it’s off to the races.

Our ragtag crew has one mission: To find enough fuel to sustain their stolen cryopods through a few years of deep sleep. In their search for said fuel, things quickly go from bad to worse.

Every member of the crew meets a brutal fate save for three key characters. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), our protagonist, Andy (David Jonsson), her synthetic (artificial human) brother, and Kay (Isabela Merced), a pregnant friend in dire conditions, are all that remain for the grand finale.

With everyone else gone, the trio plans their escape. A nearby elevator leads directly up to their ship for a swift exit. Only problem, the path to the elevator leads them through the biggest Xenomorph nest on the ship.

Naturally, it’s halfway through their dangerous trek that Andy decides to malfunction. Seizing up on the ground, the others are unable to help him in the heat of the moment as swarms of Xenomorphs round the corner close behind.

Forced to flee, Rain and Kay make it to the elevator and begin the ascent back to safety. Halfway up, however, Rain changes her mind.

Saving a brother

Halfway to freedom, Rain decides she can’t leave without her brother. She tells Kay to keep going though, encouraging her to return to the ship alone, set the ship to autopilot, and get in a cryopod. Given her near-fatal condition, this plan should keep her alive in stasis for a few years and optimistically, arrive in the future to some helping hands.

Splitting up, Rain heads back down and finds Andy still on the ground. Quickly removing his newer personality chip and in the process, reverting back to his old directive, the previous, considerate Andy comes to life and Kay has her brother back.

Interrupting the heartwarming reunion, a bunch of Xenomorphs just wanted to say hello. Together, the two fend off a massive horde of aliens thanks to a handy auto-aim gun they found on the ship. Mowing through one after another, they all but rid the ship of the biggest threats, or so they think.

The situation goes from bad to worse in the blink of an eye though, as the ship’s not-so-functional gravity generator comes into play.

Mowing through the Xenomorphs left pools of their acidic blood nearby, acidic blood that just so happens to be floating all around as the ship shifts to Zero-G. Carefully floating through it all, the two make it back to the elevator shaft before one final faceoff.

Meanwhile, back at the ship, Kay has made it onboard, though she’s not too keen on the idea of leaving her friend stranded. Deciding to hold out and not leave without Rain and Andy, she resorts to injecting herself with a dangerous serum.

As we learned earlier, scientists aboard the ship prior to its destruction were working on a way to ‘push humanity forward,’ effectively forcing evolution. By merging some Xenomorph DNA with other animals, they found these animals could regenerate, all but become invincible. Though these effects were only temporary, as the animals quickly evolved some more, morphing into purely violent beings.

With Kay’s dose of the magic drug now getting to work, it’s worth remembering she’s pregnant. Kay and Andy make it back onboard, though their safety is again threatened, this time in the freakiest way yet.

Human-Xenomorph hybrid is pure nightmare fuel

If you haven’t connected the dots by this point, what comes next is one of the creepier characters the Alien franchise has ever seen. Violently emerging out of Kay, a giant human-Xenomorph hybrid begins to wreak havoc on the ship.

Killing his mum, Kay, the devilish creature then gravely wounds Andy with one well-placed slice. It’s all up to Rain to deal with the freakish abomination.

While Kay stands no chance in a proper fight, she manages to evade the creature, luring it to the bottom of the ship where she plans to detach the compartment and launch it into a debris field.

Before she can set her plan in motion, however, some acid blood creates a hole in the ship and in the blink of an eye, everything in the compartment is sucked out into space, Rain included. Barely holding onto a very convenient rope, she has one last jump-scare from the human-Xenomorph before it disintegrates and she climbs back up to the ship.

Does Alien: Romulus open the door for a sequel?

With the last remaining threat now dealt with, Rain places Andy into a cryopod, promising to “fix him when they emerge in a few years.

Delivering one last audio log before going down for a long sleep herself, it’s unclear if Rain and Andy ever make it to their dream destination of a sunnier planet elsewhere in the galaxy.

As for whether their story will continue, that’s anyone’s guess for now as we’re yet to see how the film performs at the box office. Though there are some ways the plot could continue.

For starters, there are plenty more vials of that deadly serum left on the ship. What happens to this highly dangerous substance if Rain and Andy make it to a ‘safe’ planet? Could it be refined and actually fulfill its purpose? Or could it just lead to a power struggle with more human aliens fuelling our nightmares some more?

On the other hand, there’s also a possibility history repeats, somewhat. In Prometheus, we see an Engineer consume a similar substance before disintegrating and spreading its DNA into a nearby waterfall, thereby infecting the planet and all its inhabitants.

The human-xenomorph hybrid disintegrated in a much different way given the debris field was ripping it to shreds while Kay was safe in her protective suit. But in theory, its remains are now scattered in orbit of a nearby planet.

Could its DNA similarly be spread among another society, paving the way for plenty more alien-hybrids to come? This is obviously just speculation for now, but Romulus certainly keeps the door open for potential continuations.

We’ll just have to wait and see how the film performs during its run in cinemas. In the meantime, be sure to check out our full review along with our exclusive interview with the film’s director.