lionhead

Question: Curious on why the surgical equipment doesn't melt when removing the Queen chest burster from Ripley when she has acidic blood?

Answer: This is just speculation (and I haven't watched the movie for ages) but the operation is done with medical equipment in a facility designed for studying Aliens, which the military knows a little about. Maybe it is made of futuristic acid proof material.

If the surgical tools were acid proof, surely the floors of the cells that contain the grown alien specimens would also be acid proof. But that is how they escape: by sacrificing one of their own in order to spill acid blood onto the floor.

Well, you can imagine any acid-proof metal is probably very expensive. They can't make the entire station out of that stuff. Surgical equipment is probably necessary for their research, so they make an exception.

lionhead

Corrected entry: When climbing above the nesting grounds, one of the guys gets a dead, very heavy alien on his shoe. To save the crippled guys life and keep him climbing, he unhooks from the crippled guy and falls to his death. He didn't have to die, though. He could have just pushed it off with his other foot.

Correction: Christie was very badly injured from the acid that hit him. He was barely conscious and simply couldn't move his foot to get rid of the alien. It wasn't a certainty it would work either, Christie simply thought of the fastest and surest way for Vriess to be saved.

lionhead

I always got the impression Christie was paralyzed from the waist down after he gets hit with the acid. It's a fitting way for him to die, because he saves Vriess who is also paralyzed in the same way.

BaconIsMyBFF

How would he get paralyzed from the acid? It hit his face.

lionhead

Went into his brain. I can't see him being too tired to move his leg but not too tired to un-snap his harness. Either way, it's a very poorly explained scene. Not saying I'm right and you're wrong, it's just the way I always read the scene when I watched the movie.

BaconIsMyBFF

Right, right. I get where you are coming from. But let's be realistic, if the acid had gone in his brain he'd be dead. He just didn't have the strength left, not tired, just in and out of conscious. And again, it would have taken too long to try and get the alien off.

lionhead

He won't necessarily be dead. Brain injuries are not all fatal, but can result in loss of different body functions.

Corrected entry: If the mission is to capture and use xenomorphs, why on Earth aren't the areas of the ship meant for them acid-proof?

dizzyd

Correction: Perhaps there is no material strong enough to resist the acid. It's extremely volatile. Also, the station isn't built for the containment of xenomorphs, and since it is a secret operation they couldn't get any materials without drawing suspicion.

lionhead

Yep, not even the Predators have armor that can stand the xenomorps' acid, and they have been technologically advanced for thousands of years.

lionhead

Even 400 years in the future!? My entire point is that why aren't they better prepared for confining the xenomorphs?! By any means and at all levels?! Weyland Yutoni is powerful enough to get what they need secrectly.

dizzyd

It may well be 400 years in the future, but that doesn't mean they have developed a very specific material to resist the acidic effects of the alien blood.