A behind-the-scenes detail in Ridley Scott's Alien makes the twist that the ship's science officer, Ash (Ian Holm), is secretly an android much scarier. Set on the space freighter Nostromo, Alien follows the ship's crew as they investigate a distress signal of unknown origin. Onboard the alien spacecraft they discover, executive officer Kane (John Hurt) is attacked by a Facehugger. Warrant officer Ripley attempts to stop Kane from returning to the ship, but her efforts are in vain as Ash lets him back aboard. This sets the rest of the film's events in motion as a Xenomorph bursts from Kane's chest and begins killing the crew.
However, this event is not Ash's only villainous action in Alien. Later in the film's runtime, he attempts to kill Ripley with a rolled-up magazine after she discovers that the distress signal was a setup and the crew is considered expendable. Chief engineer Parker (Yaphet Kotto) stops Ash from murdering Ripley by clubbing his head clean off, revealing that Ash is an android. In the director's commentary for Alien, director Ridley Scott discloses that Ash being an android is not unique to the Nostromo, revealing a scarier detail within the movie's universe.
Ash Hints At Every Alien Ship Being The Potential Setting For The Movie
In Alien's audio commentary, Ridley Scott states that Ash being an android is standard for any Weyland-Yutani spacecraft. The intergalactic corporation does this to keep tabs on the human members of their crews. This makes the Ash android twist scarier in Alien as it is not some unique event within the movie's universe. It could have happened on any ship owned by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. As seen in Alien, Ash, and therefore any Weyland-Yutani android, is willing to put the company's directives over the lives of every single human crew member aboard the ship.
This means that secretly every Weyland-Yutani ship has a potential monster aboard, whether they encounter any Xenomorphs or not. If the Nostromo hadn't encountered the distress signal, it would have only been a matter of time until the company sent a different ship to secretly bring a Xenomorph back to Earth, unbeknownst to any human crew members. The Ash android twist, not being a unique event, makes Alien all the more terrifying.
Why Weyland-Yutani Corporation Ships All Having Robots Is So Scary
The horrifying implications of every Weyland-Yutani spacecraft having a potentially murderous android like Ash aboard make the Alien universe even more terrifying. It exemplifies how little regard the powerful corporation has for the workers that keep the company operational. The frightening outcomes of having a company android aboard every Weyland-Yutani ship extend beyond sabotage and murder. If any of the workers aboard a Weyland-Yutani ship discussed collective bargaining for more shares, as Parker and Dallas (Harry Dean Stanton) do, the android could report that to the company, thereby putting those workers at risk.
Throughout the Alien film series, Weyland-Yutani is shown to have no reservations about getting people killed. Therefore, this could mean that any workers not towing the company line could be secretly killed by the android aboard their ship. The reveal in the film's audio commentary that Ash being an android is not unique to the (cleverly named) Nostromo, but is a company-wide policy, makes Alien even more terrifying.