Outside of the movies, it’s hard to find something more beloved within the Alien franchise than the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation. More than just a cash grab, it’s truly been embraced as an outstanding survival/horror game, divorced of its Xenomorph connections. It was finally, recently confirmed that Alien: Isolation 2 is on the way after years of waiting. While we wait, it’s worth pointing out that 2024’s Alien: Romulus contains a pretty cool Easter egg related to the game.
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Both the video game and director Fede Álvarez’s movie take place on derelict space stations. In both cases, our main characters wind up on the run from Xenomorphs and Facehuggers. In Alien: Isolation, players can save their game at save stations that look a little bit like retrofuturistic payphones. This is something that Álvarez directly referenced in Romulus. Check it out.
The above image shows the save station from Isolation. The image below it shows Cailee Spaeny’s Rain standing by a phone-like device that looks almost identical to the one from the game. It’s a very neat little tip-of-the-hat from the filmmaker, one that the makers of the game absolutely noticed.
“We were deeply honored when we discovered that Fede Álvarez chose to include the save stations from Alien: Isolation in the sets for Alien: Romulus,” Alien: Isolation and Alien: Isolation 2 game director Al Hope recently said while speaking with Fango’s George Yang. “What a delightful piece of recognition.”
Yang had the chance to get some hands-on time with the long-awaited sequel and addressed the Easter egg with Hope personally. Clearly, they were happy to get the nod to their game within the canon of the films. As for what’s coming next? The synopsis for the forthcoming sequel reads as follows:
“When a survey team on a remote colony-planet discovers a mysterious crashed vessel, one member makes it her priority to investigate. No one is prepared for the horror unwittingly unleashed on the settlement. Nowhere is safe.
So begins a desperate journey to survive and escape, as she is relentlessly hunted by the deadly creature.”
Meanwhile, a sequel to Alien: Romulus is in the works, but Álvarez won’t be returning to the director’s chair. It remains to be seen who Disney and 20th Century Studios will entrust with the next chapter in the storied franchise but one can only hope we’ll hear something official sooner rather than later.
Alien: Isolation 2 doesn’t have a release date yet but stay tuned.
