Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In the Alien movies, something we see when a Xenomorph is about to attack, is that it will begin to secrete heavy amounts of saliva from its jaws, usually just before performing a headbite on their victim. Apart from adding to the creatures’ menacing appearance, what is the purpose to them doing this?
The Xenomorphs saliva is clear, and has been seen to be quite thick and viscous, but at other times it almost has the consistency of water.
With Earth animals, the function of saliva is to begin the process of breaking down food as well as lubrication to prevent choking. But as the Xenomorphs are not confirmed to eat, theirs serves a different purpose.
One theory is that the saliva is a byproduct of their acid blood, which they need to produce as a strong alkaline derivative in order to flush their system with - to prevent oxidation.
Or could it be, how they seem to do it as they are about to headbite someone, could the excess saliva be a natural coolant for the inner jaw shooting out, as doing so may use so much energy, it actually increases the creature’s internal temperature? This would correlate with how the Xenomorph starts to shake and tremble before launching the attack, as if it's building up the energy required, “charging” itself up to attack.
But the main theory behind the Aliens producing copious amounts of saliva, is that as the substance dries, it hardens into hive resin; this is the material we see coating every surface inside a Xenomorphs hive. It is a dark, ridged substance and can reflect almost the same biomechanical look of the Xenomorphs themselves.
The resin serves a few different functions, including marking the hives territory, and provides nutrients for Ovomorphs (the Alien eggs), and the Aliens themselves, allowing them to regenerate health and recover faster from injury, as seen in the videogame AVP Extinction where it would grow outwards from Hive Nodes.
And the best-known function is to attach hosts to the walls and prevent their escape, so that a Facehugger can easily attach itself to them.
In a deleted scene from the original Alien, the hive resin was used in Eggmorphing. During the climax of Alien, Ripley discovers Dallas and Brett cocooned in the Nostromo's hold, both at various stages of being "digested" and turned into Eggs. This was going to be the original explanation for how the eggs were created, before it was cut, and James Cameron’s Aliens introduced the Queen.
When absent of a hive, a Xenomorph Drone will begin taking hosts and cocooning them in a secreted resin which would gradually break down their body and repurpose the biomass into an Ovomorph.
Notably, the victim does not need to be alive for this process to be successful — deceased matter is equally viable, as was the case with Brett.
In an earlier draft for Aliens, originally, inside the Xenomorph hive, we were going to see another caste of adult Xenomorph, separate from the Warriors. This type was the Worker, or also called Weaver. It was to be an albino-coloured, smaller version of a Drone - at around 5 feet tall, and docile towards Humans. They were to be a worker class of Alien which would build and maintain the hive. Instead of an Inner jaw, it has a long, pink proboscis which it uses to secrete Hive resin. The resin would then be shaped using the creature’s hands and feet.
Workers would rarely, if ever leave the safety of the hive.
They would also tend-to, and move the eggs around, which would explain how they get from the Queens nest to other areas.
They may have also performed other duties, such as cleaning the other Aliens, and removing dead bodies from the hive area.
I always found how the Xenomorphs salivate to look really menacing, and a trademark of them; it’s one of the things that comes to mind when thinking about the Aliens.
I think it would be interesting to see if they may show us in a future film, a Xenomorph creating the hive resin using its saliva.
Something else I’d like to see return in a future film is eggmorphing, as I think it’s a really cool concept, and is more “alien” than having a Queen. Perhaps if a Queen hasn’t appeared yet, then we could see Xenomorphs eggmorphing people.
As always, let me know what your thoughts are, and give the video a like if you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.
This article uses material from the Xenopedia wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Deep Space by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Artist: audionautix.com
#alienromulus
In the Alien movies, something we see when a Xenomorph is about to attack, is that it will begin to secrete heavy amounts of saliva from its jaws, usually just before performing a headbite on their victim. Apart from adding to the creatures’ menacing appearance, what is the purpose to them doing this?
The Xenomorphs saliva is clear, and has been seen to be quite thick and viscous, but at other times it almost has the consistency of water.
With Earth animals, the function of saliva is to begin the process of breaking down food as well as lubrication to prevent choking. But as the Xenomorphs are not confirmed to eat, theirs serves a different purpose.
One theory is that the saliva is a byproduct of their acid blood, which they need to produce as a strong alkaline derivative in order to flush their system with - to prevent oxidation.
Or could it be, how they seem to do it as they are about to headbite someone, could the excess saliva be a natural coolant for the inner jaw shooting out, as doing so may use so much energy, it actually increases the creature’s internal temperature? This would correlate with how the Xenomorph starts to shake and tremble before launching the attack, as if it's building up the energy required, “charging” itself up to attack.
But the main theory behind the Aliens producing copious amounts of saliva, is that as the substance dries, it hardens into hive resin; this is the material we see coating every surface inside a Xenomorphs hive. It is a dark, ridged substance and can reflect almost the same biomechanical look of the Xenomorphs themselves.
The resin serves a few different functions, including marking the hives territory, and provides nutrients for Ovomorphs (the Alien eggs), and the Aliens themselves, allowing them to regenerate health and recover faster from injury, as seen in the videogame AVP Extinction where it would grow outwards from Hive Nodes.
And the best-known function is to attach hosts to the walls and prevent their escape, so that a Facehugger can easily attach itself to them.
In a deleted scene from the original Alien, the hive resin was used in Eggmorphing. During the climax of Alien, Ripley discovers Dallas and Brett cocooned in the Nostromo's hold, both at various stages of being "digested" and turned into Eggs. This was going to be the original explanation for how the eggs were created, before it was cut, and James Cameron’s Aliens introduced the Queen.
When absent of a hive, a Xenomorph Drone will begin taking hosts and cocooning them in a secreted resin which would gradually break down their body and repurpose the biomass into an Ovomorph.
Notably, the victim does not need to be alive for this process to be successful — deceased matter is equally viable, as was the case with Brett.
In an earlier draft for Aliens, originally, inside the Xenomorph hive, we were going to see another caste of adult Xenomorph, separate from the Warriors. This type was the Worker, or also called Weaver. It was to be an albino-coloured, smaller version of a Drone - at around 5 feet tall, and docile towards Humans. They were to be a worker class of Alien which would build and maintain the hive. Instead of an Inner jaw, it has a long, pink proboscis which it uses to secrete Hive resin. The resin would then be shaped using the creature’s hands and feet.
Workers would rarely, if ever leave the safety of the hive.
They would also tend-to, and move the eggs around, which would explain how they get from the Queens nest to other areas.
They may have also performed other duties, such as cleaning the other Aliens, and removing dead bodies from the hive area.
I always found how the Xenomorphs salivate to look really menacing, and a trademark of them; it’s one of the things that comes to mind when thinking about the Aliens.
I think it would be interesting to see if they may show us in a future film, a Xenomorph creating the hive resin using its saliva.
Something else I’d like to see return in a future film is eggmorphing, as I think it’s a really cool concept, and is more “alien” than having a Queen. Perhaps if a Queen hasn’t appeared yet, then we could see Xenomorphs eggmorphing people.
As always, let me know what your thoughts are, and give the video a like if you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.
This article uses material from the Xenopedia wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Deep Space by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Artist: audionautix.com
#alienromulus
