Alien: HR Giger's Alien Life Cycle Hieroglyphs according to SciFi Explained

leading from
Alien: Perspectives on HR Giger's Life Cycle Hieroglyphics tableau (work 384) (1978)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a) Looking at Giger's Life Cycle Hieroglyphs Tableau

 

In 2020, "Howitzer" who runs the ScifiExplained youtube channel explored HR Giger's Life Cycle Hieroglyphs Tableau to some detail.

 

He voiced his perspective on ideas and theories that had evolved up to that point, many that were already being offered around the internet, and his video condensed what this individual had decided was relevant into a video performance lasting often several minutes

 

Perhaps the creator of the video probably could personally have more to say on the subject far beyond his short videos, so it's unfair to critical, but perhaps I might point out some discrepancies that are minor but still important, and assume that he could easily find these things out by himself anyway. I will always be happy to look for his new videos and see how his theories evolve and perhaps this will cause me to update this page.

Here I refer to him as the Scifi-Explainer almost as if I'm trying to transform him into a fictional character of my own making, trying to suss out the universe of Alien, and perhaps the way I presenting it chewing through the information is becoming removed from Scifi Explained.

Alien Life Cycle Tableau, 2nd stage (1978) by HR Giger

 

 

 

 

b) First step into the hieroglyphs

 

b.i.1) Pictograms in the script

The early alien script script described a series of life cycle pictograms as a form of hieroglyphics originally to be presented having a primitive, religious appearance. 

 

They were carved into the wall of a birth chamber of an alien pyramid discovered on a nameless planetoid presented in a tomb like chamber.

 

The character Broussard (who would be renamed Kane) responded to the sight of the place "It's unbelievable! It's like some kind of tomb... some primitive religion! "

 

The Scifi Explainer recalled this as the character Broussard (who would be later renamed Kane) had thought that the hieroglyphs conveyed a religious intent.

 

b.i.2)  Visions of the life cycle

 

From it he could see that there was the alien spore, inside of which would be the face hugger that would then attach to a host causing the growth of the chestburster from within it, that would then exit and mature into an adult. 

 

But from it he couldn't see how what he thought was the adult form stretched across the top of the painting would make more aliens spores in order to continue on with the next generation of its life cycle.

 

b.i.3) The hieroglyphs in the background

 

He decided that the hieroglyphs in the background of Giger's painting were not meant to convey any real meaning beyond giving us an Egyptian Aesthetic . 

b.i.4) Scene of ritual sacrifice

 

He also thought that the tableau showed a scene of ritual sacrifice to the xenomorph, which could be said was a part of the original idea in the original script where the birth chamber was to be found in a pyramid structure left behind by an unknown civilisation, but a host animal was used to act as a host rather than one of the lost race's own species. 

b.ii) The role of the goddess

 

Across the top of the painting was the feminine biomechanical figure stretched the top of the painting, and it could be found to be based upon the sky goddess named Nut was known to protect the dead as they entered the afterlife. 

 

With this idea in mind, he guessed that it was possible that this alien humanoid form stretching across like this goddess was offering protection or reverance for the life given in sacrifice to the xenomorph.

 

b.iii)  The sky goddess as the alien beast or even an alien queen

Having earlier decided that the biomechanical Egyptian sky goddess was an the adult alien beast as sometimes referred to in the Alien production as "Big chap" that we see in the film, he later thought that perhaps it could very well have been Giger's take on the first alien Queen as if there had been an inkling of a thought about it in the air.

 

 

Work 386 Egg Silo version I

 

 

 

 

b.iv) Biomechanical goddess figure as the derelict ship

 

He also went with the need to compare this biomechanical figure stretching across the top of the painting to the Space Jockey's own derelict ship which was a strange idea but he was not the only person to think about this.

 

b.v) Alien Theorists deduce that the derelict ship created the eggs

 

The SciFi Explainer's views had been influenced by what were known to him as the 'Alien Theorists', as he had read their theories over time. 

 

He had known of them since before Jim Cameron made Aliens  but their identity is never revealed 

It was they who had come up with the idea that the derelict ship itself was grown and possibly even alive with the Space Jockey being part of the ship itself and even that it was the derelict ship creating the eggs.

The ScifiExplainer looked at the artwork Egg Silo (work 386) version  by HR Giger as seen in Giger's Alien which was published the year that Alien came out and in relation to the theory about the derelict creating the egg, he wondered if it was a coincidence that it had pregnant belly like capsules on the wall and so he thought that the two shoots coming out of each were conveyor belts that would move eggs down from the capsules to the ground.

 

b.vi) Reading nothing about Alien's cut cocoon scene

As far as SciFi Explainer knew, the idea of "eggmorphing" wasn't around to explain where the alien spores were even from,  because the "buman to egg " stage was cut from Alien, but reintroduced in the director's cut in 2003 had become talked about when the film was released. 

 

It was if no one was able to read up about it in the magazine interviews and articles, and Jim Cameron hadn't aired his misunderstanding of his logic on why the 'human to egg ' stage didn't make sense until Aliens was released.

 

It mattered not what the dedicated enthusisasts who had read all of the interviews that they could for the original Alien film had thought, but the scene with the alien nest later  became much more significant when the Alien Director's Cut was released.

 

There were a number of theories about the connection between the Space Jockey, the derelict ship and the spores in the silo, but in the productions , they were somehow one way or the other created by the alien life form anyway.

 

1. SciFi Explained:Curiously the adult 'xeno' in the image is also standing in a shape very close to the jockey's own derelict space craft. This may be just a coincidence but Giger's art for the egg chamber showed conveyor belts that that would move eggs down from round objects on the wall. This would lead some alien theorists to come up with the idea that the ship itself was grown and possibly even alive with the space jockey being part of the ship itself, leading to other ideas that it was the derelict that was creating the alien eggs. (Scifi Explained: SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020) 
2. SciFi Explained: As I already said, the derelict craft shares its biomechanical traits with the alien itself. It was this fact that led many an alien theorist from back in the day to come up with the conclusion that the derelict craft may be a living vessel.
   I mentioned the 33 year gap between movies but there was also a seven year gap between Alien and Aliens. Before getting the James Cameron directed Aliens , we didn't have the queen alien. During this time before Aliens, there were many rumours as to where the aliens came from.
   We have to remember that no one saw the egg morphing until the alien director's cut that was released in 2003, so the idea of 'eggmorphing' wasn't even around explaining where the alien eggs were even coming from.
   Many people began to wonder if it was the derelict craft itself that was creating or laying the xenomorph eggs. Here we have the concept art for the derelict craft's egg room as drawn by HR Giger. Many people speculated that these bulbs on the side of the walls were a kind of womb that were producing the eggs. There even appears to be a type of biomechanical conveyor belt leading from the womb to where the eggs are placed.
   Now again remember that there was no evidence of queen alien or any evidence of egg morphing
   at this time to the alien fan base.
   The sheer idea of a living derelict craft that was giving birth to aliens was a crazy idea but the craziness doesn't stop  (Scifi Explained: Alien Derelict Ships Growing Eggs and Jockeys / Early fan theory and H R Giger Art, 25th August 2017) 
3. Scifi Explained: The original alien life cycle was layed out like this, you'd have the alien spore, inside of which would be the face hugger that would then attach to a host causing the growth of the chestburster from within it, that would then exit and mature into an adult. But how is this adult making more aliens spores in order to continue on with the next generation of its life cycle.(Scifi Explained: The Secrets of Eggmorphing Explained / Xenomorph Alien Eggs from Humans?!?, 4th December 2020)
   

 

 

The eye of god?

 

b.vii)  The Eye of God?

 

The SciFi Explainer thought about the eye like form on the belly area of the biomechanical sky goddess in the painting, and came up with the idea that Giger himself must have mentioned somewhere that it was "the eye of god". 

 

Perhaps there were discussions that he had witnessed where other people believed that the goddess figure spread across the top was the alien queen laying eggs.

 

His idea was that from the 'eye of god' would come the 'ovomorph' which meant the spore, with the face hugger inside, believing that it was a reference to something referred to as 'eggmorphing' which appeared to be a coloquial Alien fanbase term for the creation of the spores.

 

 

1. SciFi Explained: It would go on to be seen in the Aliens extended universe and would tell the story of Alien from Giger's own perspective, so let's find out all there is to know about this Alien life cycle mural. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
2. SciFi Explained: When we analyse the image, there is a lot here to decipher, first of all we have what looks like hieroglyphs in the background which I don't think are meant to convey any real meaning beyond giving us that Egyptian aesthetic. At the top of the image is what I interpret to be an alien like 'big chap' standing in the same commonly depicted pose at Egyptian sky goddess nut. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
3. SciFi Explained: On the belly of this alien like creature is an eye said to be the eye of god by Giger himself and from it would come the ovomorph and the face hugger which to me is a reference to 'eggmorphing' because the queen alien would not enter the franchise for years. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)  
   
4. SciFi Explained: In Egyptian culture, the sky goddess nut was known to protect the dead as they entered the afterlife, so I guess that it's possible that the alien at the top of the mural is doing the same offering protection or reverence for the life given in sacrifice to the xenomorph. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
5. SciFi Explained: Huge religious symbols dominate one wall. Now they don't explain how he figures out the foreign pictographs convey a religious intent to him but that's what they've written in the script. (Original Alien 2 Sequel that never was, and its ties to Prometheus / Covenant Part 2)
6. SciFi Explained: Curiously the adult 'xeno' in the image is also standing in a shape very close to the jockey's own derelict space craft. This may be just a coincidence but Giger's art for the egg chamber showed conveyor belts that that would move eggs down from round objects on the wall. This would lead some alien theorists to come up with the idea that the ship itself was grown and possibly even alive with the space jockey being part of the ship itself, leading to other ideas that it was the derelict that was creating the alien eggs. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)

 

(Source: Warren Presents Alien Collector's Edition)

 

 

 

 

c)  Ovomorphing

 

c.i.1) Process of making eggs

 

He went to tackle the subject of the alien spores, using the term "Ovomorph" which was something used in the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual (first published 1995), rather than simply refer to this thing as a spore which was the original name for these egg shaped things in the original Alien movie.

 

c.i.2) The "eggmorphing" term 

 

He referred to the cocooning process as seen in the Alien director's cut as 'eggmorphing' which was a term that  evolved in the online Fanbase, perhaps in these forums by people who knew how to say "Egg McMuffin" very quickly. 

 

It certainly wasn't a known term in the old alt.cult-movies.alien newsgroup that was popular in the earlier years on the internet

 

That evolved with the idea it was method of creating eggs was ridiculous because of what Jim Cameron said about it in his exaggerated ideas about why he didn't want to use the "human to egg" stage of the life cycle taking place in the alien nest sequence cut from the original Alien movie, because he didn't think that it made sense. 

 

c.i.3) Exploration in 2017 

 

In 2017, SciFi Explainer looked at the issue, following what would be Jim Cameron's point of view about the 'human to egg stage'

 

He went with the idea that what he referred as an alien drone (which appeared to be an idea conforming with the idea of a hive in Jim Cameron's Aliens movie), that would create a small hive like area known in the original Alien film production as a nest and the alien beast will then cocoon dead or alive human hosts. 

 

He couldn't be certain how it was done, but went with the idea of some substance or secretion being possible, and so this alien would be able to cause biological matter to rearrange into the material needed to create a new egg.

 

With this idea in mind, rather than understanding that Dallas was in the early stages of becoming one of these egg like things, he thought that he was likely cocooned next to a growing egg so that the newly hatched face hugger would have living prey to infect, which reflected a curious abstract statement that Ridley made that was not easy to make sense of

 

(See also: Alien: Human To Spore and Aliens: Replacing the human to spore stage with the alien queen)

 

 

 

c.ii)  Encountering Andrew Gaska's use of the term Ovomorphing 

 

In November 2020, the Scifi Explainer would come to encounter by video  face to face online Andrew Gaska, man of good humour, who was a Twentieth Century Franchise consultant and the Alien Role Playing Game writer.

 

Gaska had written in the newly released roleplaying game book that 'Naturally occurring alien eggs are generated in one of two forms—either they are the result of a transformation perpetrated on a living host, causing it to metamorphose into an Ovomorph, or they are simply birthed by a Queen. Queen produced eggs are hardier and healthier than those produced through ovomorphing.' 

 

But what exactly did he mean by metamorphose?

 

There was a little moment where Gaska said "I've always loved the Ovomorphing thing for"

 

But the Scifi Explainer interjected "Eggmorphing" as the term he knew and understood

 

Gaska responded "Yes, okay, it's officially Ovomorphing" 

The Scifi Explainer said said approvingly "That's cool to hear, I've always heard the fanbase say 'eggmorphing''"

 

But Gaska told him "Yeah, well, the egg is called an ovomorph"

 

Which SciScifi Explainer would have known, saying: Sure,

 

"So" Gaska continued "you're being transformed into an ovomorph, so you're ovomorphing. What do you call it, the um, that is, that just makes the life cycle go of course, now it all makes sense, you know, it's that one little thing, by cutting that out of the move, you lose all that. um, I don't even know if Cameron was aware of it when he wrote his version"

 

Perhaps the Scifi Explainer perhaps had been told something about it "I thought I heard that he was, but I can't guarantee it"

 

Gaska went on "I mean I  know, I know when he, I know some point in the production he found out about it and was like "well it wasn't in the final cut, who cares?" the fact that no one's going to think "Oh that deleted scene is going get put back in the 2001 restoration", no that didn't happen kids, that's what you millennials, we didn't have that back in the day, but um, yeah, so it's, it's, it's tough because there's nothing not to like about aliens, but I think the lore that they were trying to set up in Alien, it's more powerful"

 

The Scifi Explainer had learnt a new phrase "The the, Ovomorphing, now I've got to get used to saying Ovomorphing, the Ovomorphing is definitely more dangerous"

 

Perhaps Gaska didn't mean to make it sound as it he was trying to be too serious "What ever works for you"

 

The Sci-Fi Explainer replayed: Yuh, yuh, it's, heck my last video was talking about the egg from the poster, so I'm trying last week, I'm trying to talk about the two and why they went with the egg and the ovomorph

 

Andrew Gaska joked "Let's put a crack in an egg and hang it over a rope net, yeah, that's Alien"

 

c.iii) Further in a new direction

c.iii.1) Approaching the "human to egg" stage again

 

In December 2020, the Scifi Explainer would now use  "ovomorphing" term as a more technical term when dwellng on the confusion of what he referred to as "eggmorphing" further.

He could see in the nest scene from Alien the Director's cut that Dallas was cocooned to the wall and was somehow still alive, while it looked as if an 'alien egg' was growing around Brett in the cocoon scene.

 

c.iii.2) Ideas involving other people's theories

 

He would use term "hive resin" which he understood was a substance that he seemed to be sure was secreted from the alien beast's mouth. 

 

But it was as if he just couldn't be interested in looking at what Ridley had said about the cocoon from numerous interviews to do with Alien since it wasn't considered canon, and so had taken instead  alternative pathways to develop more musings that conformed with the Alien Fanbase who became use to thinking that the host would slowly metamorphose into to the "ovomorph" .

 

c.iii.3) Getting nearer to Ridley's idea

 

By now he was getting closer to what Ridley had envisioned when he talked about a so called "more common theory" that the alien was somehow able to implant something that would use the host as a food source or source of materials to construct the new egg. 

 

He couldn't find the ability to reason with Ridley's idea that it was the alien's young feeding on the hosts, but he may have found all this information from other sources in a chewed up manner.

 

1. Scifi Explained: It was a logical question to ask where all those eggs came from on the derelict ship in the first movie Alien sort of, it didn't make the final cut of the film but many of you are familiar with the hive scene . Ridley Scott did address this in the out takes to Alien, This is where the eggmorphing comes in. With this, a drone will create a small hive like area, they will then cocoon dead or alive. Now the next part is uncertain how it is done but with some substance or secretion possibly, the alien is able to cause biological matter to rearrange into the material needed to create a new alien egg.
   
   Dallas was most likely cocooned next to growing egg so that the newly hatched face hugger would have living prey to infect (Scifi Explained: Hail to the Queen Part 2 Ridley Scott vs. the Alien Queen! 24th March 2017)
2. Naturally occurring alien eggs are generated in one of two forms—either they are the result of a transformation perpetrated on a living host, causing it to metamorphose into an Ovomorph, or they are simply birthed by a Queen. Queen produced eggs are hardier and healthier than those produced through ovomorphing. (Alien Roleplaying Game by Andrew Gaska, 2020)
   
3. Andrew Gaska: I've always loved the Ovomorphing thing for
    
   Scifi Explained: Eggmorphing
   
    
   Andrew Gaska: Yes, okay, it's officially Ovomorphing
   
    
   Scifi Explained: Oh,
   
    
   Andrew Gaska: Um
    
   
   Scifi Explained: That's cool to hear, I've always heard the fanbase say 'eggmorphing'
   
    
   Andrew Gaska: Yeah, well, the egg is called an ovomorph
    
   Scifi Explained: Sure,
   
    
   Andrew Gaska: So
   
    
   Scifi Explained: Yuh,
   
   
   Andrew Gaska: You're being transformed into an ovomorph, so you're ovomorphing. What do you call it, the um, that is, that just makes the life cycle go of course, now it all makes sense, you know, it's that one little thing, by cutting that out of the move, you lose all that. Um, I don't even know if Cameron was aware of it when he
   
    
   
   Scifi Explained: I thought
   
    
   Andrew Gaska: wrote his version
   
    
   Scifi Explained: I thought I heard that he was, but I can't guarantee it
   
   
   Andrew Gaska: I mean I  know, I know when he, I know some point in the production he found out about it and was like "well it wasn't in the final cut. who cares?'
   

   that fact that no one's going to think "Oh that deleted scene is going get put back in the 2001 restoration of the film", no that didn't happen kids, that's what you millennials, we didn't have that back in the day, but um, yeah, so it's, it's, it's tough because there's nothing not to like about aliens, but I think the lore that they were trying to set up in Alien, it's more powerful
   

   Scifi Explained: The the, Ovomorphing, now I've got to get used to saying Ovomorphing, the Ovomorphing is definitely more dangerous
    
   Andrew Gaska: What ever works for you
    
   Scifi Explained: Yuh, yuh, it's, heck my last video was talking about the egg from the poster, so I'm tryinglast week, I'm trying to talk about the two and why they went with the egg and the ovomorph
    
   Andrew Gaska: Let's put a crack in an egg and hang it over a rope net, yeah, that's Alien
    
   (Conversation w/ Andrew E.C. Gaska / Alien Franchise Consultant & RPG Writer Part 1)
    
4. Scifi Explained: Investigating, she notices a weird growth on the wall followed by another whimpering sound. It's Dallas, he's been cocooned to the wall and is somehow still alive. To the right also plastered to the wall would be what's left of Brett with what looks like an alien egg growing around him. Dallas then begs Ripley to kill him and she lights up the area with flame throwers. (Scifi Explaned: The Secrets of Eggmorphing Explained / Xenomorph Alien Eggs from Humans?!?, 4th December 2020)
   
   
    
    

 

Facehugging stage

 

 

f) Facehugger and egg

 

f.i) Astronaut touch an egg

 

Where the astronaut is seen touching the egg and is again then on the same tier shown as a victim lying down with the Facehugger on his head, which in the movie would later be re-enacted by Kane who would touch the egg, look inside it and become the victim of the Face Hugger, 

 

f.ii) Sacrificial ceremony

 

The SciFi Explainer followed a different route thinking that they were two separate entities, as if one astronaut that helped to open the egg like spore as as if it required assistance so that the other astronaut willingly became the victim part of a sacrificial ceremony.

1. SciFi Explained: On the next level down we see what appears to be two astronauts still wearing their equipment. One can be seen helping the face hugger by assisting the opening of the egg while the other is layed out on a platform with its hands relaxed or perhaps even in a ceremonial posture on its chest. This sacrifice to the alien was likely done willingly as there seems to be no restraints or force applied to the subject. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)

 

 

Chest bursting

 

 

 

 

g) Chestburster 

 

For the SciFi Explainer, the images showing the chest burster sitting on the victims chest after having bursted.

 

One might wonder if he saw a connection with the incubus sitting on the chest as in Fuseli's painting Nightmare (1781)

1. SciFi Explained: Now on the bottom tier is yet another one of our astronauts, with this one laying on the platform like the one from above, except this is further on in the life cycle with Giger's concept of the chest burster sitting on his chest having recently bursted. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
   

 

The helmet of the astronaut figure from the first version
and the Space Jockey type head in the second

 

 

 

 

h) Changes in the mural

 

h.i) Two versions

 

The ScifiExplainer was aware that there were two versions of HR Giger's Life Cycle hieroglyphs tableau seen in various books. 

 

It seemed to him as if he thought that two separate paintings had been done but then it occurred to him that it was one that had been altered. 

 

h.ii) Different heads

 

He thought how the astronauts in the first version has very human shaped heads, and that their helmets were of the standard NASA type, while in the second version they would have a head like that of the giant dead Space Jockey.

 

h.iii) Scale

 

A problem he could see with the scale was in the tableau was that going by the size of the egg shaped spore, as if scale was something of importance in the hieroglyphs, it would be as if the Space Jockey figures were human sized, while the huge skeletal thing seen in the derelict ship's pilot chamber was almost three times as large going by the size of the egg shaped spore

 

h.iv) Comparison to Engineers from Prometheus

 

When he looked at the humanoid figures in the image, especially in the revised version, it was hard for him not to see the similarities between the astronauts and the engineers of Prometheus. 

 

He could see the similarities with their biomechanical design, and he went as far as to reason with the fact that Giger may well have been trying to illustrate what the space jockeys looked like when not attached to the pilot chair of the derelict space craft.

h.v) Explaining away the Space jockey's elephantine look

Here the astronauts would even have air tubes coming from their helmets almost similar to the tubes on the masks of the engineers. 

 

It seemed as if he came to believe that the ribbed tube coming down the rib cage of the space jockey was meant to be perhaps a trunk like form and so he felt that the tubes in the painting were meant to explain away the way it appeared to many as if the jockey had an elephantine look. 

(See also: Alien: Variations of Giger's Life Cycle Hieroglyphics painting)

1. SciFi Explained: The mural would go on now two separate versions. In the first one, the astronauts were very human like with human shaped heads and standard looking NASA type helmet. It would later be updated and the astronauts would be given elongated heads that looked very much like the head of the space jockey' A change that would make much more sense to the story at the time as one would wonder why the humanoid looking space would have biomechanical bodies or suits, when the space jockey would already have the same design. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
2. SciFi Explained: The size or height of the jockeys or the astronauts here is actually closer to the engineers of Prometheus when you see them next to the ovomorph, but I chalked that up to the original version having humans or human sized creatures. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
3. SciFi Explained: In an earlier video, I covered the life cycle mural, a piece of art depicting what would appear to be three astronauts involved in what may be some form of self sacrifice, allowing themselves to become incubators for alien chestbursters. The work in question was created for Alien in 1979, yet, when I look at the humanoid figures in the image, especially in the second revision, its hard not to see similarities between the mural's astronauts and the engineers of Prometheus. The unused mural in question was done by none other than the original Alien designer than HR Giger and was meant to be staged somewhere in an Alien pyramid on LV426.Due to budget and time constraints, the pyramid would later be removed from the film with its contents then moved into the derelict vessel causing the placement of the mural to be scrapped. However the pyramid concept would return to the franchise decades later in Prometheus. There are two different versions of the life cycle mural, with the main change being the shape of the heads of the astronauts in the image. The original mural featured humanoids with heads shaped like our own while the later one had the heads elongated similar to the shape of the head of the space jockey. When we examine the astronaut suits more closely and compare them with the pressure suits of the engineers in Prometheus, they are defiinitely similar with their biomechanical design. For all we know, Giger may well have been trying to illustrate what the space jockeys looked like when not attached to the pilot chair of the derelict space craft. The astronauts would even have air tubes coming from their helmets themselves similar to the tubes on the masks of the engineers. Tubes meant to explain away the elephantine look of the Jockey  (SciFi explained: HR Gigers Engineers! Prometheus Engineers Inspired from 40 Year Old Mural? 8th May 2020) 

 

 

 

i) Egg silo and derelict merged into one

 

i.i) Proposed acement of the tableau

The Scifi Explainer would see how the hieroglyphs tableau originally designed for the silo would then be moved into the ship.  

 

He saw how the painting by Giger of the egg silo showed where it would be placed on the wall, and pointed out that Giger had mentioned mentioned it possibly showing up in the hallway of the derelict ship and so show up before the chestburster scene

i.ii) The tableau is soon removed

 

As much as the Scifi Explainer loved the piece, he felt that Ridley Scott's decision to remove it entirely was the right decision as it would have spoiled the chest bursting scene. but for him it was still it was was something still important to examine as a part of the alien mythos

See also: Alien: Placement of the Life Cycle Tableau

1. SciFi Explained: For budget and time constraints, the ovomorphs and egg silo would be moved into the derelict vessel and the silo would be taken out of the film. Since the mural was said to be in the silo, it would now get moved into the ship. You can see the image here on the walls as in the chamber of the storage area of the derelict, and Giger mentions it possibly showing up in the hallway of the ship. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
   
2. SciFi Explained: Unfortunately for Giger, Ridley Scott would make the decision to remove the art piece entirely, and I have to be honest, I agree with him here, as much as I love the artwork, every scene where the mural was meant to be used would have been before the chest bursting scene and that scene itself was responsible for the film to even get financed in the first place or made altogether, so they sure wouldn't want to spoil it with a mural that would only appear in a scene for what would likely would be a few moments at best.  (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)
   
3. SciFi Explained: So what do you guys think of the Alien life cycle mural? Should it have been included in Alien, perhaps after the chestburster scene, or was it the right idea to remove it. Personally again, I agree with Scott to take it out of the final product, but I'm still glad we have the art to examine. (SciFi Explained: HR Giger Unused Alien Life Cycle Mural Explained, 7 Mar 2020)