Movies in the Alien franchise are always filled to the brim with references to each other, and Alien: Romulus is no exception. In Fede Álvarez’s Alien sequel/Aliens prequel, there’s a subtle bit of set decoration that’s become a tradition in the franchise: the drinking bird.
In one of the very first scenes in Alien: Romulus, mine worker Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) and her android brother Andy (David Jonsson) are dining in a Weyland-Yutani company canteen. Sitting on their table is a drinking bird. The kind of toy sometimes found on office desks, the drinking bird was patented in 1945 by American scientist Miles V. Sullivan and is now sold in varying quality on Amazon by the bucketload.
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It’s a dual-bulbed glass bird on a fulcrum, which uses thermodynamics to dip its beak into a glass of water repeatedly. Plus, they usually have a fancy little hat, because this is a place of business.
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