One of the most impactful moments of the original Alien is the reveal that the Nostromo’s science officer Ash (Ian Holm) isn’t human. Instead, he’s a synthetic, or android, programmed to carry out Weyland-Yutani’s alien-gathering wishes, even at the expense of the Nostromo’s human crew.
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The Ash reveal completely recontextualizes what we’ve known about him and Weyland-Yutani up to that point, opening up the world of Alien to new kinds of technology. It also kickstarts a mini franchise tradition: that of the surprise synthetic.
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