Alien : Romulus - Facehuggers in the cryochamber

(still collating)

 

leading from

Alien: Romulus

 

a.i) Call for practical Face Huggers

All of the Face Huggers were to be done as practical effects. They realised that there was no way that they were going to make them CGI because of the interaction with the water that was going to make it impossible.

Joe Dunckley and Cameron May as part of Wētā Workshop took on the challenge of creating an army of practical face huggers for the film  

Joe Dunckley took in the fact that everything had to be physical. He felt it was wonderful to have a director who is a fan of physical effcts. He could see that Fede was a huge fan of the franchise and would see that it came across in the physical product. He felt that the franchise was in the best hands with him. This enabled them to get specific on their builds and he didn't often get the time to approach pactical effcts with the correct amount of rehearsal and build time. So from that perspective, this would be a really unique pleasure.

They were basically telling themselves "okay, the best facehugger puppets we've seen were in Aliens, but what's out there?" The very first thing they did was got to YouTube, and look up the Stan Winston School video on the facehugger attacks [from Aliens].

At the beginning of their work together, Wētā got the script, they broke that down into sequences, then they broke the sequences into actions and catagories of puppets that they would use for those actions. That meant they ended up with many puppets in the end, leading them to produce seventy three Face Huggers which was an incredible number.

The Wētā Workshop team devised a vast range of Face Hugger puppets for the film. All of them had a different purpose. They ranged from animatronic facehuggers to what they would call comfort huggers that people could wear on your face with breathing mechanisms, to static prop facehuggers. 

There were all these different variations and iterations that were called out in the script that they then developed a build list of. From there they could design and build these creatures specifically to the needs of the show. 

A lot of these breakdowns of the specific gags and builds were masterminded by Joe Dunckley, one of their manufacturing art directors.

The build would be driven primarily around both practical and aesthetic considerations, 

They paid specific attention, for example, around what the knuckle joints look like. How were they going to be big enough so that we could actually practically make these things work? How is the skin going to interact with the mechanisms underneath? They were actively thinking about those things and as they were trying to refine the design aesthetic around it, they were trying to already formulate a plan for how they were going to build these things and turn them into practical puppets so that they didn’t back themselves into a corner.

3D printing and the generation of mass molds for large-scale casting reproductions allowed Wētā Workshop to produce so many of the critters. 

To get the product out wasn’t the heart of the challenge, instead for them it was ensuring that the facehuggers actually looked lifelike and could actually wrap around someone’s head or breathe with the performer’s body. That was actually the true tricky part.”

To ensure that occurred, it was vital for Wētā Workshop to break down the specific gags that the facehuggers would be required to perform and map them down, Even though there’s such a complex array of them, we were able to break those things down so we had a nice structure in terms of how thtey were going to approach them. 

They found themselves saying ‘Right, that’s going to have a movable joint over here and this is going to have this type of control. And we’re going to have rods that are going to go on here. Or, this is going to have this type of digital mold that we’re going to use to create a silicone cast from.’ 

In the end it worked out very well. 

In general, the facehuggers were crafted with an aluminum interior armature, 3D printed nylon joints and silicone skin–with different additional materials used depending on whether the creatures were animatronic or more static. Even though the facehugger’s movements are quite different, a lot of their end joints were identical just to keep a design language that was quite consistent amongst them.
 

1. Wētā Workshop had already been working on facehuggers for the upcoming series Alien: Earth, so it was a no-brainer to have them do something similar on Alien: Romulus. Winston spoke with Joe Dunckley and Cameron May from Wētā Workshop about their work on Alien: Romulus and the challenge of creating an army of practical facehuggers for the film. “We're huge fans of the Alien franchise," said Dunckley. "It's probably one of the reasons why we're all sitting here today, actually. The experience of watching the first two films as a kid blew my mind, and I think it drove me to get into the industry.” (https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)  
2. Drawing upon concept designs for the facehuggers established by production, Wētā Workshop set about a build methodology for the many varieties needed for the film. “What was apparent on Romulus was that the facehuggers are all through it,” declares Gillies. “We ended up delivering 73 facehuggers to the show, which is an incredible number. They ranged from animatronic facehuggers to what we call comfort huggers that you’d wear on your face with breathing mechanisms, to static prop facehuggers. There were all these different variations and iterations that were called out in the script that we then developed a build list of. From there we could design and build these creatures specifically to the needs of the show. A lot of these breakdowns of the specific gags and builds were masterminded by Joe Dunckley, one of our manufacturing art directors.”(https://beforesandafters.com/2024/10/18/why-dont-we-just-put-a-facehugger-on-top-of-a-radio-controlled-car-and-drive-it-around/)
3. The build would be driven primarily around both practical and aesthetic considerations, as May points out. “We paid specific attention, for example, around what the knuckle joints look like. How were they going to be big enough so that we could actually practically make these things work? How is the skin going to interact with the mechanisms underneath? We were actively thinking about those things and as we were trying to refine the design aesthetic around it, we were trying to already formulate a plan for how we were going to build these things and turn them into practical puppets so we didn’t back ourselves into a corner.”(https://beforesandafters.com/2024/10/18/why-dont-we-just-put-a-facehugger-on-top-of-a-radio-controlled-car-and-drive-it-around/)
4. 3D printing and the generation of mass molds for large-scale casting reproductions allowed Wētā Workshop to produce so many of the critters. “To get the product out wasn’t the heart of the challenge,” notes Gillies. “For us, it was ensuring that the facehuggers actually looked lifelike and could actually wrap around someone’s head or breathe with the performer’s body. That was actually the true tricky part.”(https://beforesandafters.com/2024/10/18/why-dont-we-just-put-a-facehugger-on-top-of-a-radio-controlled-car-and-drive-it-around/)
5. To ensure that occurred, it was vital for Wētā Workshop to break down the specific gags that the facehuggers would be required to perform. “We visually broke those and mapped those down,” outlines May. “We said, ‘Right, that’s going to have a movable joint over here and this is going to have this type of control. And we’re going to have rods that are going to go on here. Or, this is going to have this type of digital mold that we’re going to use to create a silicone cast from.’ Even though there’s such a complex array of them, we were able to break those things down so we had a nice structure in terms of how we were going to approach them. That ended up working really well.”(https://beforesandafters.com/2024/10/18/why-dont-we-just-put-a-facehugger-on-top-of-a-radio-controlled-car-and-drive-it-around/)
6. In general, the facehuggers were crafted with an aluminum interior armature, 3D printed nylon joints and silicone skin–with different additional materials used depending on whether the creatures were animatronic or more static. “Even though the facehugger’s movements are quite different, a lot of their end joints were identical just to keep a design language that was quite consistent amongst them,” says May. (https://beforesandafters.com/2024/10/18/why-dont-we-just-put-a-facehugger-on-top-of-a-radio-controlled-car-and-drive-it-around/)
   

a.ii) Fully animatronic hero face hugger

There was the fully animatronic hero facehugger which had individual control of evey joint. 

With this they were very much looking to the precedence of the past Face Huggers for how they were built

The puppet required thirty servos and as many points of articulation. Each individual finger had three degrees of freedom, the knuckle joint and the two degrees of freedom in the finger itself. These were all cable driven and depending on the shot, the cables ran out of tthe facehugger's back or underneath the tail

Because of all the servos and articulation, the Weta Workshop mechanical team worked to reduce the number of puppeteers. They tried to get it down to two operators, one who was doing the finger controls and another who would be on the rod puppet to control the body position.

They were really focusing on how they could improve the puppeteering experience, rather than have remote control of individual legs.

Camero May and his team focused on finding a way to use software and one puppeteer on the control system to drive the thirty servos in the Face Hugger, and acheive the articulation required

They designed different Kinematic gaits (which was how the joints move) for the Face Hugger and then joysticks that could over ride those individual commands.

The focus on mechanical innovation meant that a single puppeteer, essentiall with a tablet and a couple f joysticks , could control the multiple finger movements of the Face Hugger puppet.

One thing that they noticed early on is that so much of the language of the facehuggers was not about perfect control, but actually quite aggressive random articulation. So, they still had to have some of that kind of language in the way that the facehuggers operated because that was part of their history in terms of how they look and feel on screen.

1. When asked about the methods of articulation for the hero facehugger puppet, Dunckley turns it over to Cameron May, his mechanical effects compatriot at Wētā Workshop. “With the hero, we were very much looking to the precedence of the past facehuggers for how they were built," said May. The Wētā hero facehugger puppet required thirty servos and as many points of articulation. “Each individual finger had three degrees of freedom, the knuckle joint and the two degrees of freedom in the finger itself. They're all cable-driven.” Depending on the shot, the cables ran out of the facehugger’s back or underneath the tail. (https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)
   
2. “We had such a vast range of them, and it was really Fede's insistence that he wanted to approach this in a practical manner that enabled us to get that specific on our builds," said Dunckley. "You don't often get the time to approach practical effects with the correct amount of rehearsal time and build time. So, from that perspective, it was a real pleasure, really unique.” (https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships) 
3. Because of all of the servos and articulation, the Wētā Workshop mechanical team worked to reduce the number of puppeteers, “We were just trying to get to two [operators], one that was doing the [finger] controls and then one that would be on the rod puppet to control the body position," said May. "We were really focused on how we could improve the puppeteering experience." Rather than having RC control of individual legs, May and his mechanical cohorts focused on finding a way to use software and one puppeteer on the control system to drive the thirty servos in the facehugger and achieve the articulation required. “We designed different kinematic gaits [how the joints move] for the facehugger and then had joysticks that could override those individual commands.” This focus on mechanical innovation meant that a single puppeteer, essentially with a tablet and a couple of joysticks, could control the multiple finger movements of the facehugger puppet.(https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships) 
4. Cameron May: One thing that we noticed early on is that so much of the language of the facehuggers was not about perfect control, but actually quite aggressive random articulation. So, we still had to have some of that kind of language in the way that the facehuggers operated because that's part of their history in terms of how they look and feel on screen. https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)
    
5. Dunckley talked about working with director Fede Álvarez, “He wanted everything to be physical. It's wonderful when you have a director who is a fan of physical effects.” Fede was a diehard Alien fan, to boot. "He's a huge fan of the franchise. And that comes across in the finished product. The franchise was in the best hands with him.” Dunckley continued, "We got the script, broke that down into sequences. Then we broke [the sequences] into actions and categories of puppets we would use for those actions. That meant that we ended up with many, many puppets. In the end, we produced seventy-three facehuggers.”

   The Wētā Workshop team devised various types of facehugger puppets for the film. “All of them had a different purpose. The fully animatronic [hero] facehugger, which had individual control of every joint," said Dunckley. "We had remote control running ones for scuttling about on the set floor. We had one that was specifically for swimming underwater. And then we had various attack huggers that would carry out different types of attacks.”

   And there were even more facehuggers. “Then we got into stunt-safe ones. We knew they’d be flying around everywhere, so we had ones that would be safe to throw at an actor. We had ones that were robust enough to fly across the set and slam into the set and not get broken.” And the hugger list keeps going. “Inside the cryo chambers, we had a different type, and silicone ones that could escape from those chambers. And then dead rotten huggers and just prop huggers as well.” https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)

a.iii) Remote control face hugges scuttling on the floor

They had remote control running ones for scuttling about on the set floor.

Thy started lookng at the running Face Huggers engineered for Aliens by Stan Winston Studios mechanic Rick Lazarrini.  

This designed was based on a pull toy type mechanism that moved the face hugger's legs in an organic way but was somewhat restricted in its movements due to the fact that it had to follow a thin monofilament line.

For Alien Romulus, the running Face Huggers would have more rance of movement and use a diffeent toy as their inspiration, remote control cars.

1. In Alien: Romulus, some scenes called for facehuggers similar to the famous running ones built by Stan Winston Studio for Aliens. The Wētā Workshop team started by looking back at the running facehuggers engineered for Aliens by SWS mechanic Rick Lazarrini. It was a "massive influence. Full credit to them for having such a massive influence on where we are now," said Cameron May. This SWS design was based on a pull toy-type mechanism that moved the facehugger's legs in an organic way but was somewhat restricted in its movements due to the fact that it had to follow a thin monofilament line. For Alien: Romulus, the running facehuggers would have more range of movement and use a different toy as their inspiration: RC cars. (https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)

 

a.iv) They had one that was specifically for swimming under water.

At one point in the film, an area of the derelict space station becomes partially flooded with water. The scavengers struggle through the flooded corridors with Wētā Workshop’s facehuggers swimming after them.

Álvarez was very specific about how he wanted to reveal the swimming facehuggers on camera, 

He wanted to see like a bow wave out in front of them, so that the viewer wasn't quite sure what it was at first. 

So the first thing they did was, they got a puppet that was just a prop one, put it on a rod, went to the community swimming pool just down the block from then. Then Ben Price, the project supervisor on this, got in the pool, and Dunckly attacked him with that facehugger all day to see what sort of swimming motion they could get out of it, just on a rod. And they could get some nice motion and a good bow wake.

But it wasn't everything that they needed. Álvarez wanted to get a continuous shot over a facehugger in the water as it's approaching someone, and then it leaps up and attacks. So their engineering department created a rail on a winch that would bring the facehugger along, just at the right height. 

The swimming motion was translated through a mechanism as it traveled along the rail.  On the rail, there was a wheel that was picking up the linear motion of the rail, translating it to rotary, and then there was a cam mechanism, which just essentially flipped the tail around in the water. It was a simple, what they could call "old-school" method, but they found it worked really well.

They broke that moment up into two puppets in one shot. Right at the last moment on the rail, the swimming facehugger exited the bottom of the frame, then they had another puppet at the end of the rail that we just flipped out of the water to jump up and attack.

The facehugger that swam along the rail was silicone with a urethane foam core. The team tried several variations to get the buoyancy of the tail right.  They wanted to have a little bit of drag and weight in the water, but they wanted it to be just breaching the water. So, they did a series of tests in the pool, each time attacking Ben. They were having a lot of fun

1. Swimming Facehuggers

   At one point in the film, an area of the derelict space station becomes partially flooded with water. The scavengers struggle through the flooded corridors with Wētā Workshop’s facehuggers swimming after them.

   Álvarez was very specific about how he wanted to reveal the swimming facehuggers on camera, "He wanted to see like a bow wave out in front of them, so you weren't quite sure what it was at first," said Dunckley. So the “first thing we did was, we got a puppet, just a prop one, put it on a rod, went to the community swimming pool just down the block from us. Ben Price, the project supervisor on this, got in the pool, and I attacked him with that facehugger all day to see what sort of swimming motion we could get out of it, just on a rod. And we could get some nice motion and a good bow wake.”

   “But it wasn't everything we needed," said Dunckley. Álvarez wanted to get a continuous shot over a facehugger in the water as it's approaching someone, and then it leaps up and attacks. "So our engineering department created a rail on a winch that would bring the facehugger along, just at the right height. The swimming motion was translated through a mechanism as it traveled along the rail." Cameron May elaborated on the technique: “On the rail, there was a wheel that was picking up the linear motion of the rail, translating it to rotary, and then there was a cam mechanism, which just essentially flipped the tail around in the water. It was a simple, old-school method, but it worked really well.”

   "We broke [the moment] up into two puppets in one shot," explained Dunckley. "Right at the last moment on the rail, the [swimming] facehugger exited the bottom of the frame, then we had [another puppet] at the end of the rail that we just flipped out of the water to jump up and attack." The facehugger that swam along the rail was silicone with a urethane foam core. The team tried several variations to get the buoyancy of the tail right. "We wanted to have a little bit of drag and weight in the water, but we wanted it to be just breaching the water. So, we did a series of tests in the pool, each time attacking Ben. It was good fun, really.” (https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)

a.v) And then they had various attack huggers that would carry out different types of attack

The 'attack' facehuggers were built and shot with methods similar to those used by James Cameron and the Stan Winston Studio team for the med lab scene in Aliens, where a pair of the creatures attack Ripley and Newt. 

As in Aliens, they planned on using reverse photography, since sticking the landing would be a difficult thing. They did some tests in-house, starting with a facehugger attached to a victim's face with the tail wrapped around the neck. They had spring-loaded fingers so that it had tension on them. 

Wētā Workshop puppeteers would then release the finger tension and pull the facehugger off the victim. When played back in reverse, the creature appeared to jump onto the victim and grasp their face. This reverse photography trick allowed them to achieve a more accurate landing than a facehugger puppet that's physically being thrown. It also gave them an opportunity to make it look more violent without actually hurting the person.

1. The 'attack' facehuggers were built and shot with methods similar to those used by James Cameron and the Stan Winston Studio team for the med lab scene in Aliens, where a pair of the creatures attack Ripley and Newt. As in Aliens “we planned on using reverse photography, since sticking the landing would be a difficult thing," revealed Dunckley. "We did some tests in-house, starting with a facehugger attached to a victim's face with the tail wrapped around the neck. We had spring-loaded fingers so that it's got tension on them." Wētā Workshop puppeteers would then release the finger tension and pull the facehugger off the victim. When played back in reverse, the creature appeared to jump onto the victim and grasp their face. This reverse photography trick allowed them to achieve "a more accurate landing than [a facehugger puppet] that's physically being thrown. It also gave us an opportunity to make it look more violent without actually hurting the person.”(https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)

b) The chaos begins

Around midway in the second act of the movie, the explorers reach the cryochamber which is found to be full of  frozen facehuggers.

Most of the group are locked in the room while the others are outside, and they're trying to help them get out of there before the situations becomes worse.

Andy the android who is trapped in the room needs an upgrade to be able to open the security lock for the door.

It was one of the scenes written in the script where they always wanted the idea of a bunch of friends who are like children trapped in a room with a lot of facehuggers.

With that there was the simple concept of adding one foot of water so that on doesn't see them coming, and so they could jump out from any possible corner.

 

1. Fede Alvarez: This is a cryochamber scene close to the beginning, I would say midway through second act of the film. Most of the group had got locked in this room and half the group is outside, and they're trying to help them to get out of there before things get really bad, the way they're about to get. Andy needs an upgrade to be able to get out of that door and open the door for them. That's what's happening right there. One of the first scenes written on the script, I would say, where we always wanted, the idea of a group of friends, a bunch of kids trapped in a room with a lot of facehuggers. And the simple concept of just adding one foot of water so you don't see them coming and they could jump at you from any possible corner. (Alien: Romulus | Scene Breakdown With Fede Álvarez Part 1 video on the official Alien Romulus Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/alienanthology/videos/518812343944560)

c) Face Huggers in the water

Every one of those shots was just Fede Alvarez holding the camera and moviing the face hugger along the water. 

He was fascinated by how effective such a simple trick was.

He felt that the audience could really feel as if they can see these creatures swimming on the water.

This was where the chaos starts to happen.

The first face hugging that they shot in the movie lasted perhaps six days which required them spending each day inside the room.

It was one of Fede's favourite shots in the movie.

He felt that it was important to show a new generation of people wha this creature was trying to do which was why they are jumping on people's faces.

They needed to show the proboscis, as it were the tongue that the Facehugger had, which was like a spike that's trying to get into the host's mouth, to lay an egg, which Fede thought was one of the best ideas in science fiction horror.

1. Fede Alvarez: All those are practical Facehuggers as well, there no way we were going to make them CGI because the interaction with the water was going to make it impossible. Every shot of those is just me holding the camera and move the facehugger on the water. I was fascinated how effective that simple the trick was. You really feel like you see them swimming on the water. This is where chaos starts to happen. First face hug we shot on the movie. This was probably shot almost like six days we spent inside that room. That was very important, though. It's one of my favourite shots in the movie. It was very important to show a new generation what this thing is trying to do, why are they jumping on people's faces, and so, we needed to show the proboscis; the tongue that the Facehugger had, that is the spike that it's trying to get inside your mouth. Because it's trying to lay its eggs inside you, which is of the best ideas in science fiction horror. (Alien: Romulus | Scene Breakdown With Fede Álvarez Part 2 video on the official Alien Romulus Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1349757326002226)

 

d) The Face Huggers' final attack

So they were just throwing the Face Huggers at  the actor Spike, from the left and right so he could bat them all the time. Fede found that it was fun.

There was a shot that was a homage to David Fincher's Alien 2 which has a shot of the alien beasts's point of view, and here the camera is closely following the facehuggers until we get to see the point of view while the viewer might ask the question about who was going to be face hugged first. 

All the characters are trapped in there and for many moments there's a close encounter and one of them can almost get it, but the viewer wouldn't know who was going to get it.

They had to film the shot of the face hugger jumping through the door 24 times

The mass of face huggers are coming out though the gap in the nearly shut door, one sneaks through, boom and it's Aileen Wu playing Navarro who gets face hugged.

 

1. Fede Alvarez: That was us just throwing facehuggers at Spike, just left and right so he could bat them all the time. That was a very fun thing to do. That was an homage to David Fincher. Alien 3 has that shot of the xenomorph POV running around on a red room as well. A part of the whole plan of the scene was to ... to bet who's gonna get face hugged first. You have all these characters trapped there and for many moments there's a close encounter and one of them can get it. You don't know, really, who's gonna get it and that's the tension building of the scene that anybody can get it at any moment. That's actually practical. We had to do that 24 times to get that thing to jump through a door. Those are practical as well by the door. This is a mix of techniques but wow that's my favourite shot in the movie right there. They're coming out, one sneaks through. Boom. Face-hug. I love it. (Alien: Romulus | Scene Breakdown With Fede Álvarez Part 3 video on the official Alien Romulus Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/alienanthology/videos/1018022123109005)
2. 
   

 

 

e.i) Navarro’s Facehugger

There is a graphic scene in the film where a facehugger attacks Navarro, played by Aileen Wu. 

In previous Alien franchise films, if anyone tries to remove a facehugger while it's implanting an embryo inside its host, the facehugger will tighten its tail and choke the person. 

But, this time, her friends successfully pull the facehugger off Navarro’s face, and we watch its proboscis tube withdraw from Navarro’s mouth. The rescue seems successful... at first. 

Three different types of proboscises were created to achieve this effect. 

They had one that was mechanized, that could do the movements that have been seen in other Alien franchise films. So, it was what they referred to as "tentacle mech" in there. 

Second, they had one that was retractable. It could come in and out of the under orifice.

For the third puppet built for the scene, the real challenge was that as they were removing the facehugger, Fede wanted to see the proboscis being pulled out of the throat. So, what they did was have one that was hollow silicone, and then they had just a bent piece of stainless steel in the correct shape with a little loop on the end. 

A group was in charge of the facehuggers and they had their own studios that they worked out of on set. When they were filming in Budapest,  Aileen could walk into the building that they were stationed in and it felt like walking into Hugger Depot. She saw  shelves and rows of just the tail, just the tongue, just different finger parts. That was her first introduction. 

Then they started rehearsing

The first thing they had here do was taste test a bunch of lubricants: There was one that was strawberry, one that was mango, one that was pineapple, and one that one has no taste. 

For the practical, they would rub lubricant all over the hugger to have that glistening effect. 

When they got to shooting that part of the scene, she thought that she shot that scene over three to four days. 

e.ii) The comfort hugger

The longer takes that they shot in the wide shots were challenging because  she noticed that it was quite heavy, perhaps around three pounds, and that was only partly hollowed out, or hollowed out around the middle where it was around her mouth and nose but since it was made out of silicone, so it’s not very easy to breathe

But that the actual what she would refer to as the actual pyschosexual organ part of the feature wasn't there, so it could mold around her face

While the production made Wu as comfortable as possible, she did note that being fitted with a Facehugger inhibited her breathing at times .

Then they would wrap the fingers around my head and secure it in the back with a bunch of rubber bands to get it as tight as possible, and wrap the tail around her neck. 

For some shots, they would have a fishing line attached to the very tip, so that somebody could tug on it off-camera and it would tighten and look like it was choking her.

Overall, she estimated, the segment—from the time the Xenomorph attaches to her face to when she thrashes around as it chokes her to the moment the crew extracts it—took about two or three days to shoot.

They then turned the silicone proboscis inside out and lubed it up. As it's being extracted, they could extend the steel loop, inflating the proboscis so it would look like it was coming from her throat. 

Then there were the bladders on the hugger that hung out around this cheek-area where one can see the hugger breathing, which she had to match her breathing to as well because story-wise that’s how the creature keeps the victim alive while it’s doing its thing. 

She struggled a lot because it’s a long take of her hitting the ground, thrashing around, struggling. 

Spike [Fearn], who plays her brother Bjorn, is trying to take that off her face. She would pass out after getting choked out by the tail and then immediately having to match my breathing was very intense.  

When they shot it, one take was at least three, four minutes and she had to match the Face Hugger's bladder's breathing which was real as well, since someone was off camera pumping it what seemed to be a balloon pump which had a very long syringe. 

That was controlled by someone off-set, just pumping the thing throughout the entire scene. 

Sometimes she would mess it up and then she would think, “Ah, it’s fine. I’m doing enough.”

She noticed that Alvarez was very detail-oriented in the execution of the scene because, after four decades, he know that Alien fans were paying very close attention to details when it comes to Facehugger and other Xenomorph attacks.

Aileen's charactr Navarro will soon discover, the next stage in the alien lifecycle is the emergence of the implanted alien embryo from its host.

 

1. There is a graphic scene in the film where a facehugger attacks Navarro, played by Aileen Wu. In previous Alien franchise films, if anyone tries to remove a facehugger while it's implanting an embryo inside its host, the facehugger will tighten its tail and choke the person. But, this time, her friends successfully pull the facehugger off Navarro’s face, and we watch its proboscis tube withdraw from Navarro’s mouth. The rescue seems successful... at first.(https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)
2.  Three different types of proboscises were created to achieve this effect. “We had one that was mechanized, that could do the movements we've seen [in other Alien franchise films]. So, it was a tentacle mech in there," said Dunckley. "Second, we had one that was retractable. It could come in and out of the under orifice.” For the third puppet built for the scene, “The real challenge was that Fede wanted to see, as they were removing the facehugger, he wanted to see the proboscis being pulled out of the throat," said Dunckley. "So, what we did was, we had one that was hollow silicone, and we had just a bent piece of stainless steel in the correct shape with a little loop on the end. We then turned the [silicone proboscis] inside out and lubed it up. As it's being extracted, we could extend the steel loop, inflating the proboscis so it would look like it was coming from her throat.” (https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)
3. This approach is similar in concept to the effect used in Aliens, where the android Bishop (played by Lance Henriksen) is impaled on the Alien Queen’s tail. There, a monofilament line pulled a collapsible latex tail section out of Bishop’s shirt while the actual end of the Queen’s tail was attached to a mount on the actor’s back. As the collapsible tip of the tail emerges, it expands and appears to be coming out of the android’s chest.(https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)
4. About the proboscis effect, Cameron May said, "This was like the moment that we were all genuinely disgusted with what we were doing. It was a horrible object, and to just play with it, you know?” Dunckley agreed, “When we were doing our tests, we were like, you know, it's really invasive what we're doing here. The actor is really gonna have to be up for it. And apparently, they absolutely were."(https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships)
5. As Navarro will soon discover, the next stage in the alien lifecycle is the emergence of the implanted alien embryo from its host.(https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/alien-romulus-behind-the-scenes-practical-effects-with-fx-legends-creating-xenomorphs-facehuggers-chestbursters-rook-offspring-spaceships) 
6. Aileen Wu: It was pretty heavy. It was hollowed out a little bit, so the actual psychosexual organ part of the feature wasn't there so the piece could mold around your face. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2024/08/16/alien-romulus-star-breaks-down-her-scary-facehugger-xenomorph-scene/)
7. Variety: What was the process like when you had to wear the facehugger?

   Aileen Wu: A group was in charge of the facehuggers and they had their own studios that they worked out of on set. When we were filming in Budapest, you walk into the building that they were stationed in and it felt like walking into Hugger Depot. There would be shelves and rows of just the tail, just the tongue, just different finger parts. That was my first introduction, and then we started rehearsing. The first thing they had me do was taste test a bunch of lube: This one’s strawberry, this one’s mango, this one’s pineapple, this one has no taste. For the practical, they would rub lube all over the hugger to have that glistening effect. When we got to shooting that bit, I think we shot that scene over three to four days. For the longer takes that we shot in the wide, those were challenging because the facehugger is very heavy — I think it weighs around three pounds. The middle part, where it’s around my mouth and nose, is hollowed out, but it’s still made out of silicone, so it’s not very easy to breathe.(https://variety.com/2024/film/news/alien-romulus-made-facehuggers-chestbursters-1236103040/)

8. Aileen Wu: Then they would wrap the fingers around my head and secure it in the back with a bunch of rubber bands to get it as tight as possible, and wrap the tail around my neck. For some shots, they would have a fishing line attached to the very tip, so that somebody could tug on it off-camera and it would tighten and look like it was choking me. Then there were the bladders on the hugger that hung out around this cheek-area where you can see the hugger breathing, which I had to match my breathing to as well because story-wise that’s how the creature keeps the victim alive while it’s doing its thing. I struggled a lot because it’s a long take of me hitting the ground, thrashing around, struggling. Spike [Fearn], who plays my brother Bjorn, trying to take that off my face and passing out after getting choked out by the tail and then immediately having to match my breathing was very intense. It was like a balloon pump and it had a very long syringe. That was controlled by someone off-set, just pumping the thing throughout the entire scene. Sometimes I would mess it up and then I would think, “Ah, it’s fine. I’m doing enough.”(https://variety.com/2024/film/news/alien-romulus-made-facehuggers-chestbursters-1236103040/)
9. While the production made Wu as comfortable as possible, she did note that being fitted with a Facehugger inhibited her breathing at times since the piece was secured tightly to her head with rubber bands. Overall, Wu estimated, the segment—from the time the Xenomorph attaches to her face to when she thrashes around as it chokes her to the moment the crew extracts it—took about two or three days to shoot. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2024/08/16/alien-romulus-star-breaks-down-her-scary-facehugger-xenomorph-scene/)
10. “When we shot it, one take was at least three, four minutes and I had to match the [Facehugger] bladder's breathing,” Wu said. “The bladder’s breathing was real as well, since someone was off camera pumping it with a balloon pump.”(https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2024/08/16/alien-romulus-star-breaks-down-her-scary-facehugger-xenomorph-scene/)
11. Wu said that Alvarez was very detail-oriented in the execution of the scene because, after four decades, he knows that Alien fans are paying very close attention to details when it comes to Facehugger and other Xenomorph attacks.(https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2024/08/16/alien-romulus-star-breaks-down-her-scary-facehugger-xenomorph-scene/)