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Be warned: MAJOR SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus are in this article.

At San Diego Comic Con 2024, Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez told fans that even newcomers to the franchise could enjoy the movie, no homework required. Now that the film is out, we're going to rank that statement as partially true. Though the movie is great on its own, there's also a lot of connective tissue between it and the other Alien movies that. And to fully appreciate it, you'll need to know at least a few things about the films that have come before.

We're going to teach you about that connective tissue, going from least to most important easter eggs, as we dive into this Alien: Romulus ending explained. I shouldn't have to tell you that here there be spoilers, but just in case you've made it this far without having seen the movie, this is your very last chance to turn back.

Still here? Welcome, let's get on with it.

All (well, some) of the easter eggs in Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus is littered with "point at the screen and explain" moments from the rest of the Alien franchise, but some of those moments are more for dressing than anything else - a "snack" of nostalgia as compared to the film's main course dinner, as Álvarez told SDCC '24. For example, one scene that made it into the trailer features Cailee Spaeny's Rain Carradine pressed up against a wall as a xenomorph bears over her, extending it's tiny mouth in a shot almost identical to one with Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley in Alien³.

Almost immediately following that moment, the lovable synthetic android Andy (played by David Jonsson) saves Rain, gunning the xenomorph down and saying, "Get away from her, you bitch!" This moment, too, is a purposeful reference to Ripley, a word-for-word copy of a line she delivers in Aliens.

But just like the titular Alien of the movies, those easter eggs hatch into something far more powerful. Over the course of the movie, other links between Romulus and its predecessors stop acting as "snacks" and become ingredients to the main course - and in case you don't have the taste for them, we've got a palate refresher right here.

How does Alien: Romulus end?

This movie tells the story of a plucky party of pirates attempting to escape their life of servitude to the evil Weyland Yutani corporation. To do so, they break into the spaceship Romulus, where they are unfortunate enough to find a host of xenomorphs awaiting them. Like so many good horror flicks, the middle point of the film contains a "reveal," a moment of clarity where all the terror we've seen and are about to see starts making sense. a familiar face, if not a familiar character, in the broken-down android called Rook. Rook has the exact same visage and voice as the character of Ash - played by Ian Holm in the first Alien film - and like Ash, is actually a sleeper agent for the corporation. 

(As an aside, we can't help but think that Rook's name is a reference to Bishop, the non-evil android played by Lance Henriksen in Aliens.)

Rook explains that the Romulus was on a scientific expedition to find an alien lifeform last known to be on the doomed ship Nostromo, and that we met in the first Alien film. Rook tells the crew that the Nostromo found what they were looking for, and we see the body of Hollywood's first xenomorph, complete with the battle scars it got from Ripley. Of course, the xenomorph wasn't 100% dead, and the denizens of the Nostromo died for it. But not before they made one last, important discovery: what Rook calls "Prometheus's fire."

Yeah, "Prometheus." As in, "the title of the once-secret prequel to the Alien franchise." Rook even namedrops Peter Weyland, the sycophantic CEO we meet in that film. The "fire" Rook talks about is a black, liquid mutagen extracted from the xenomorph, one that appears to hold the key to eternal life. But as we who have seen Prometheus know, the black mutagen looks a lot like a bioweapon created by The Engineers, humanity's progenitors and attempted executioners. 

(For more about The Engineers, check out our Alien timeline explained.)

Anyway, thanks to some misdirection by Rook and a swarm of rapidly growing xenomorphs, the pirates that entered Romulus are whittled down to just Rain, Andy, and Isabela Merced's Kay, who was revealed to be pregnant at the beginning of the movie. Just when it seems like the trio is about to blast away from the Romulus, Kay's vital signs go wild - it turns out, to heal a grievous she sustained earlier, Kay has injected herself with the mutagen.

Her baby is suddenly born, but it is not human. In fact, its giant frame, white, hairless face and black eyes bear all the marks of an Engineer, but it's body (complete with a bladelike prehensile tail) is full xenomorph. The creature (which the internet has already dubbed "The Offspring") squares of with brave Rain in a duel to the death and, for the last time, the film presents us with a near identical parallel to Ripley.

Forced to don a spacesuit, Rain opens the doors of her vessel into the void of space, launching The Offspring into an asteroid belt as she barely clings to the ship's hull. In the epilogue, Rain sends out a directionless SOS, explaining to anyone that will listen that she's the last survivor of her spaceship. She puts herself in one of the franchise's cryopods, hoping beyond hope for rescue even in the starry blackness of the galaxy.

But hold on. Before I leave you, there's one giant question we've got to answer to fully explain Romulus's ending...

Is there a post-credit scene for Alien: Romulus?

No.

Alien: Romulus is in theaters now.

If you love aliens bursting out of chests and hugging your face, then we have all you could want from  Popverse's Alien watch order, details on where Romulus fits into the Alien timeline, and all you need to know  on the upcoming Aliens TV show with Timothy Oliphant.