I bet the Nostromo's original science officer was rather pleased he got reassigned.

I believe that the company had a idea of what was going to happen when they sent the Nostromo. That is why Ash kept insisting they go down and investigate. Plus if you take the deleted scenes into account, you see Ash looking at Kane's lungs, Ripley comes in and asks about the dark stain on the x-ray of Kan'e lungs and he promptly shuts off the monitor. I took this to mean that he knows that the face hugger is implanting a embryo. It also explains why Ash wants Kane to go back into stasis just after waking up from the facehugger, but Kane insisted on eating first. Watch the dinner scene where Kane gives birth. Before Kane starts to choke in pain, Ash is watching Kane very closely, something he didn't do in the previous eating scene at the beginning of the film. Like he was expecting something to happen. That is as much as I know though.

In 1979, the filmmakers were not envisioning a FRANCHISE. One-off movies generally don't need to worry about so much detail.

"The Company knows everything"-Bishop in Alien 3

I am pulling a lot of this from the Movie book Alien by Alan Dean Foster, and from memory at that. WY knew EVERYTHING. They sent the Nostromo deliberately because there is a ban on importing dangerous animals. So, by having some truckers stumble into it, take it into custody for study, because it attacked and killed crew, got to make sure there's no diseases with it, allowed WY to have plausible deniability. And since it was their ship, and they had the best resources to study it, would have gotten it for research anyways. The company honestly underestimated the lethality of the creature, and it bit them in the wallet.

One question I've always had is "When Alien takes place, has mankind discovered alien life elsewhere beforehand?" The crew of the Nostromo upon finding out about the distress call say "Is it an SOS? Is it human?". It seems like an odd thing to ask if no previous contact with alien life had been established. But then in Aliens the marines refer to "bug hunts" as if killing alien creatures (not xenomorphs but something more benign perhaps) is an every day, mundane occurance. I suppose it's possible that when Alien is set, there's no other alien life that humanity knows of, but then at some point in the 57 years between Alien and Aliens, it becomes common knowledge that we're not alone. What do you think? Have you done a video on this?

I want to invest on Weyland Yutani, they are building better worlds.

I'm still not happy with the whole "David made the Aliens" thing 😒

"A Jockey can create many Xenomorphs." "Explain how." "Black Goo can be used to create goods and services."

This is great thought that has been placed into this ! I wish for had people like you writing for them!!!

I'm in minority but I would like to see a separate movie about Weyland Yutani and its mysteries, lies, secret files.....

Having worked for many companies - I’ve found management delight in finding ways to do jobs on the cheap- regardless of any hazards or hardship for employees. I imagine Weyland didn’t want to mount an expensive mission before they knew the true potential of the organism.

You've got me totally hooked on this channel! I can't wait until your next video!

The novel answers some of these questions. It would have been more expensive to send an exploration expedition and would have been harder to get the alien back through quarantine if it didn't appear to be a happenstance discovery vs a strategic exploration mission. Also, it alludes to the fact that Weyland Yutani had already picked up and decoded the transmission, knowing it's full details, including the fact that it was not a distress call but actually a warning. It is assumed that there are details about the alien within the message as well, which helped prepare Ash for their encounter. In the novel, Mother eventually figures out it is a warning and not a distress call but it is too late because Kane has already encountered the egg\facehugger. As for losing the Nostromo and it's valuable cargo, WY did not anticipate anyone surviving with the exception but Ash. The fact that Ripley figured it out and had the balls to destroy the ship and cargo to save the remaining crew at the time did not factor into their decision to send the Nostromo.

Spot on analysis, good job

Great video with some interesting theorys ,big thumbs up from south wales.

You mentioned that because Peter Weyland was on the Prometheus mission, Weyland-Yutani would have extensive records on it. However, I think it's important to remember that Peter faked his death and went into cryo years before the Prometheus mission launched, so because of this W-Y could also be in the dark about what happened to the Prometheus crew. Both scenarios (W-Y knew what happened or didn't know) are possible.

The company assumed that the crew would do exactly what they did and expected a sample to be delivered when the Nostromo was recovered (with the crew dead, aside from Bishop). They didn't anticipate that Ripley would be resourceful enough to not only survive but destroy the alien(s) as well.

Great break down of the information. Good stuff.

SciFi Explained This is great insight into tying together the Company and it's knowledge of the Alien's existence and why they sent the Nostromos to investigate this call for help, as Ridley reported vs just a random transmission. With the prequels taken into consideration, Weyland-Yutani had all the information it needed to go after what was once just "black goo" and now, as they expected to find, an advanced Alien life form that had great potential as a WMD. You make awesome videos and I look forward to more of this channel's videos and in depth explanations of what makes this franchise extremely interesting and thought provoking. Thank you for your hard work! 👽👍

well, i have made my own explanation long ago, we all know Ripley managed to decipher the signal, discovering that it was more like a warning, but as it was only partially deciphered maybe Weyland Yutani that had knowledge of this signal long before and had more information about xenomorphs decided to send ash on a commercial ship to bring back, study and protect a specimen using the crew as experimental subjects in the most confidential way possible

I think an actual good answer would required a better movie than Alien Covenant.

I always knew that the Company knew! Adding Ash to the ships crew a few days before the mission. Was my clue! Thanks for confirming my suspensions!

Excellent explanation; Special Order 937 and Ash were a big thorn in the other Alien movies for me. This connects the dots very well.

Nostromo was an old ship, if it crashed/failed/lost, they had plausible deniability as to the fate of the ship... also, it's plausible that if the ship was infected and crew was lost, they (Weyland) could remote pilot the ship back to their labs. The hang-up was, Ripley survived.

The android on Nostromo was told by "MOTHER" "alien life a priority--crew and ship expendable."

...excellent!

Liked and subbed, have been a fan of the original series

Interesting video. I would address the question of why Weyland would order a cargo type of ship to investigate the cargo: Weyland was DRIVEN; an obsessed megalomaniac determined to have ETERNAL LIFE. There were no other more suitable ships or crews to make that long distance voyage to LV 246 before the NOSTROMO. So Weyland sent an artificial being named Ash to make that flight that was programmed with his instructions. He even disguised it by having Ash in a cryo sleep chamber along with the rest of the crew. Thanks for addressing this very important mystery.

This is exactly what the prequels are leading up to. In Aliens Burke even makes a remark that the Company wants the xenomorph to ensure mankind stays on top reign or something along those lines. Anyone think that in the original trilogy David may be running the Company?

You know what? I will leave a like and I will subscribe, your videos are good and I like your channel. well done

Great video

Remember that in the earlier parts of the movie, Prometheus, in the holographic message that Peter Wayland left for the ships crew, he states in 2091 that he is already "long dead", it would stand to reason he let everyone back on earth believe that he was dead, as he himself was aboard the Prometheus in secret, only to be revealed still alive, and because of that, I believe there wouldn't be any record or documentation of him being aboard or even alive, that's all, everything else I like (y)

nice video mate. some very interesting points raised. I have a theory that in Aliens Burke ( as a company man) deliberately picked Gorman as the LT for the mission as he was operationally inexperienced so it would fail and the marines would all be captured/ impregnated. The company just want specimens, regardless of the crew investigating.

This is a legitimately good question and something I was wondering myself

Thank you.

absolutely Weyland knew about the signal

A special Order that prioritises getting the life form, even at the expense of human life, has to suggest whoever switched science officers and set in motion SO 937 not only knew of the alien, but also what it was capable of. They certainly knew what they were getting into. Remember, Ash called it a perfect organism. How could he know that from his limited interactions alone?

Nice video;)

Weyland Yutani was already the leading company on the planet. In Scotts universe, Blade Runner is set in 2019, and Weyland Corp set the record for making a $100 billion turnover in their first 5 years of operation due to their technology. Weyland had merged with Yutani by 2099, 23 years before the event's of Alien.

Great video as always, company knew and just wanted to weaponize the xenomorph only for themselves!!

When I watched Alien, my first take of the company's knowledge was that they knew of the signal. Likely the order given had been issued to obtain the 'alien' that had sent the signal with crew expendable if necessary. I had no reason to believe the company ( Ash by extension ) had any knowledge of the Alien or eggs. When it was discovered that the pilot had been long dead, but the crew returned with something attached to Cain, Ash's priorities shifted to a living specimen thus over riding Ripley to allow it on board. Regardless if it had some disease it could spread to humans, Ash would survive, and be capable of bringing it back to the company with that information. The company had no information to that point what was brought on board. The cargo could've been the pilot's young.

Why they didn't investigate the Jockey and or the ship more always puzzled me. Also, note this: In Aliens Burke wanted to sneak back one of those inside Newt or Ripley after jettisoning the rest of the crew per Ripley's explanation to the Marines. Burke sneaking back something implies that the company itself may not be after this but some opportunist individual or group within the organization. Burke himself said it would be worth millions and set up Ripley and him for life. This would explain a person or grouping switching science officers and re-routing the Nostromo to go have a look-see and retrieve the find with Ash brining it back with no one the wiser for it. Then those who set this up would come into their money and glory. Your scenario brought out mine so thank you and well done

I've been wanting to make a video on this subject for awhile, good job. It's also interesting to consider that in Alien Covenant there is a deleted scene where they do stress tests on the crew before the mission. All the stress tests involve Alien like situations and show clear videos of face hugger like creatures infecting people. Video they have from the previous missions? Very likely

Couldn't the special order on the Nostromo be some kind of a standing order, only activated when an alien organism is encountered? It always seemed to me that Ash was making things up as he went- indicating that he didn't know any details about the Xenomorph, other than that he needed to bring it back per his programming.

Its possible that the order is a standing one. Since WY knows that at some point, a crew may very well come across an example of ET life, they make procuring a sample a priority. Ash's inclusion in the crew could have been fortuitous in this event, in that it was the only ship within range that also had an AI on board who could be expected to follow this protocol. Bottom line, the story had such potential until they screwed the pooch with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. With these movies, the xenomorph went from being a creature of mysterious origins to key element in a plot arc ripped off from 2001: A Space Odyssey. And with A:C, they became the experiment of a crazed AI who wants to wipe out humanity for no reason. If the franchise does decide to do another reboot, I hope and pray they pretend that anything after Aliens didn't happen, or at least pretend the prequels don't exist. Pick up where Aliens left off, dammit! Don't squander that opportunity again!

You make good points in this video

You raise some very valid points

In the book, the it was suggested the signal was man made, place there by the company, and when the derelict was discovered, they find the signalling device and turn it off. Ash explains the company wanted one, or more, of the Nostromo crew infected, placed in hyper-sleep, so under alien embryo could be smuggled past government quarantine.

In alien engineers - what Prometheus was going to be before it was ruined, it was the engineers terraforming technology the company was interested in so that they could 'build better worlds'

Very interesting suppositions on what Weyland Yutani knew about the alien transmission using only the original film, Alien and with the perspectives of the sequels; Aliens, Prometheus and Alein Covenant. I think, however, the last two films Prometheus and Alien Covenant have different storylines and focus which diverge from Alien and Aliens that necessitate keeping these two films separate from the last two. My hypothesis on why Weyland sent the commercial towing vessel The Nostromo to investigate LV426 is someone did completely decipher the alien transmission and realized an important scientific discovery of alien technology could be acquired. I base this hypothesis on the fact that in Alien, Ripley succeeds in deciphering enough of the alien transmission to understand it is a warning. When Ripley tells Ashe what she has deciphered and says she wants to go after the initial investigators Ashe persuades her not to because the investigators will realize the intercepted message is a warning. Ridley Scot gives this interpretation credence because the scene on the Nostromo with Ripley deciphering part of the alien transmission is preceded by the scene of the space jockey in the chair face as if it is attempting to warn the Nostomo's crew from beyond its death. The fact the Nostromo's human science officer was replaced with a "synthetic" person indicates the alien transmission was completely deciphered by Weyland Yutani BEFORE the ship left. Typically investigations of alien transmissions/contacts are the domain of governments NOT private corporations. Weyland Yutani did not want any subsequent investigation to uncover the fact it had information of intelligent alien life and did not report it. Weyland Yutani wanted to deliberately lie and claim the Nostromo had inadvertently intercepted the alien transmission while returning to Earth, followed company policy and landed on LV426. Any discovery would thereby be Weyland Yutani's corporate property. This hypothesis is supported by Ashe being put aboard the Nostromo before departure to make sure the "organism" was returned, "priority one" with all other "considerations" secondary and classifying the Nostromo's crew as "expendable" per his Special Order. The Nostromo's entire mission was simply a cover Weyland Yutani used to get to LV 426 and retrieve the alien "specimen". Weyland Yutani knew "infection" of one or more of the Nostromo crew was a high probability because of the information contained in the deciphered alien transmission. Ashe, being synthetic' could not be "infected" by the discovered "Alien" organism and could return the Nostromo to Earth with the "specimen" for analysis. Ashe and Mother would NOT inform the governmental agency controlling interplanetary commerce of the discovery and infection of the Nostromo crew upon return to Earth. In addition, there is the scene in Aliens where one of the Weyland Yutani executives at Ripley's inquest states the Nostromo's discovery of the alien organism she described had not occurred once in over several HUNDRED previously surveyed planets. My supposition is the space jockey was an explorer who discovered the xenomorph on another plant outside the known galaxies. The alien jockey collected specimens which were placed in the alien ship's cargo hold. At some point in the alien jockey's return, it discovered it was infected and crash landed on LV 426 to prevent the spread of the infectious organism it had discovered. The acoustical beacon Weyland Yutani intercepted was a combination SOS and complete biological hazard warning. The executives at Ripley's hearing seem unaware of any prior alien transmissions or special orders. Van Lewan informs Ripley there is no need to investigate her claims because colonists have been on LV426 for decades a without intercepting the acoustical beacon or discovery of the derelict alien spacecraft.

It was stated in the novel of the first film that the company had fully decoded the alien message and Ash actually says that the message was "frighteningly specific" - and also comments on the pilot race.

It would arouse less interference if Ash had brought back a specimen on board a freighter than an expeditionary vessel.

My eight year old son claims that he's ready to experience Alien. I was about his age when I watched Aliens with my mother. I'll never forget the first time I heard "get away from her you bitch!" My mom quoted it too. Maybe that's why it means so much to me. Who knows. Anyways...this weekend is Alien marathon with my child. I cannot wait!

A Mantra that goes through the franchise 'the company knows everything' clears out a lot of things.

Thank you for starting off without acknowledging the prequels

Thanks for this video. This is always been a question and an assumption of mine that the Company knew more in Alien. Just as others have said, a different crew wasn't needed, they were meant to die once their purpose was served. Ash was installed most likely to contain the alien on board the ship in some way and was under no threat as an android. Well. much less threat presumably. And to get them info. They didn't predict Ripley surviving and destroying the sample. Kinda infers they knew about facehuggers, i think. ie David's info.

Having worked and interacted with Big Business for years now, it makes perfect sense why they sent the Nostromo. You would have to experience it to understand.

this channel needs more subs I love it!

The fact David the Android made the Xeno is a slap in the face to the lore from Alien and the questions you start to ask yourself. And the Scott basically fucking it up for future films or the whole franchise that's out.

In the original's novelization, it tells of the Company having deciphered the Jockey's message.

You would think the company would certainly make an appropriately planned return mission to LV-223 a top priority, along with acquisition of any living or dead organism samples they can get their handsvon. There are *at least* four more temples in the area Prometheus landed on LV-223 and all likely contain samples of the black goo pathogen, multiple Juggernauts, bodies of space Jockeys and possibly one or more of them in stasis. The moon has been undisturbed (aside from the Prometheus fiasco) since the "incident" 2,000 years ago and it is a research scientists wet dream. But, as far as we know the company did not get a full update on all of the findings on LV-223 but they do know contact was made there and that David & Shaw left the moon in an alien space craft. Enough to plan a mission there.

Ms. Yutani: The world isn't ready for this technology. Col. Stevens: But this isn't for our world, is it, Ms. Yutani?

I can't believe I'm contemplating a movie that came out when I was 7. That shows the allure of this franchise and I hope to see at least one good film before I retire....where no one can hear me scream.

Weyland would sacrifice entire space stations just to get hands on a Xeno. I think they sent in the nostromo knowing/hoping the crew would be wiped out and that the tug ship they own would be host to the alien. Weyland owns the ship...what better way to ensure you don’t lose track of a high priority asset when it’s locked on a space ship you own and can track with no rush on time now.

Weyland-Yutani probably knew about the signal and the Xenomorph prior to the Nostromo finding it is because it's revealed in recent Alien Covenant Blu-Ray material David makes a report to the Company about all his experiments and his Xenomorphs, his murder of Shaw on the Engineer planet and his intentions to create a Xeno Queen and his intention to destroy humanity and unleash his creations upon the galaxy.

Great video and insight on the subject. One thing I always questioned was : In the space jockey's chamber/ bridge of the ship, how did the hole accessing the lower area where the eggs were get there? Was a xenomorph killed and if so how? You can clearly see the floor has been melted. The hole raises so many questions.

A company so large it becomes inherently decentralized is insane concept

When I first saw “Alien”, I thought that anything as deadly as the xenomorph would have long ago hunted all of the prey animals on its homeworld into extinction and then gone extinct itself - unless the other organisms in its environment were even more deadly. I think it would have been more interesting to explore the idea of a planet where such terrifying life forms had evolved, rather than making the xenomorphs into a bio-engineered living weapon. (I also thought it would be interesting to make them into an intelligent, not necessarily hostile species - the one aboard the “Nostromo” was just feral).

My thought is the company knew about the signal and knew that it was a generic distress signal. But only one who was an expert in communications would know that. So it would stand to reason that the space jockeys were known on some level to human beings but not all. I would suggest in fact a very select few. That is why the Nostromo was sent with a new science officer. They were miners and their ship was a mining ship. While valuable, they didn't have high level communication clearances so while Ash knew what the acoustical beacon really was, nobody including Dallas would be high enough on the totem pole so to speak to truly know what they were hearing. They wouldn't even know who the space jockeys were much less what they were attempting to communicate. They were low level enough that they could be sent to make first contact and even if all hell broke lose plausible deniability would still be work as an explanation. " We don't know what that ship is. We dont recognize what the signal was that the Nostromo picked up." Even though its possible, even as you suggested friend, probable that the high level executives did know. Now I also think that all this us not just for the money, it's for what anyone and everyone wants. Power. If the the company could actually weaponize the alien before government knew they even had it, they could hold the planet and all cosmic frontiers hostage and force governmental compliance with any and all demands under threat of alien exposure. It's why we never hear about any other company or government agencies because Weyland Yutani is no longer acting in compliance with law. Just the mere thought of such epic power has the highest level executives at the company acting outside the law and giving directives that are grossly illegal. The company has in effect "gone rogue ." They are effectively a crime syndicate and have lost any sense of humanity. They are possessed by the notion of total power and as the story is being told NOBODY even knows this is going on. Kinda makes the predator the most important figure in the entire story. If you think about it, they are truly the only hope humanity has of survival. Xendava

At the end of Prometheus, David says there are many others engineer ships in LV-223. All Wayland Yutani should do was send another team to LV-223 to find out what happened to the comany's president.

Aliens just got to Amazon Prime so I'm gonna be going thru all your videosb

If Peter weyland wanted to live forever why didn’t he put himself into cryo sleep until mankind was at the right level

the story is best when you don't know all the details. Order 357 is about getting any alien organizm that spacers can find ...

Good question, common logic hole in many franchises. But here interesting possibilities.

I give you like 0:29 in for seperating prequels and orignals. I personally would look at the first movie on its own before considering sequels (because I hardly believe everything was planned by the writer of "Alien"). Retconns happen often or explanation outside of the movie .. I really lack the words, what I'm trying to say. Just glad you take a look at each series and then relate them to another, instead of one universal truth. It's far more interesting this way.

they knew. the crew was expendable for the bio weapons division.

I have an idea it's kind of a theory but I don't know enough to back it up to a satisfying degree and being one of the greats of KZfaq I'm sure you could find a way to prove or disprove it I believe that the xenomorphs aren't actually being created in the movie (at least the species itself isn't being created) they existed long before the black goo and the engineers made the black goo by finding a way to weaponize their genetic make up, (and I noticed a few things that suggest that the Xenos are considered deities for some reason and maybe a few were pets I don't know I'm just going off of what I got and there's plenty that suggests one thing plenty that suggests another so I'm doing the best that I can I mean we don't know what their society runs on who know maybe for them it's okay to weaponize a god's DNA and keep him as a pet or whatever other purpose) Any way the black goo is just xenomorphs DNA weaponized and the xenomorphs are around well before that was even a thing And with the experiments done by the black goo the evolutionary ancestors of the xenomorphs are being recreated and are currently at conflict but eventually the the xenomorphs will find them and they all will realize they're just different pieces of one puzzle and cooperate or something The engineers were doing a perfect combination of religion and science (I have no idea how that's possible I mean I'm agnostic but that just means I'm open to the idea of god not that I see him as a definitive thing hell for all I know there could be multiple gods so it's not a perfect combo of beliefs or whatever) Anyway eventually what the engineers were doing backfired on the and they became about as useful as a screen door on a submarine diving into a body of water only inches away from an electric fence Then the story of the franchise started (What do you think?)

Is it just me or is does this guys voice give off a “he’s happy to talk about this and because he’s happy I’m happy” type of feel?

I haven't seen the prequels, but from what I've heard, it really (surprisingly) made me less of an alien fan. I had no control over it. I am still a big fan, but I was a HUGE fan!

Black goo = engineer seamen

wait.. nanoparticle A.I ??

As for why they sent the Nostromo it’s also possible they felt they had to get there fast. Remember it was supposed to be an “SOS” signal to begin with. Later Ripley thinks it may be a warning, Ash says they’ll find out soon enough. So it’s possible the company also was unsure if it was an SOS or a warning. Therefore send the nearest verses sent a specialized vessel.

If you include games in the canon, another ship(Anesidora) "encountered" the derelict 15 years after. The block box of the Nostromo and a facehugged crewmember then make their way to a nearby station(Sevastopol), Weyland-Yutani bought the station in advance and reprogram it's APOLLO central computer. The loss of the station and even the actions of Amanda Ripley were likely covered up. Thus no mention decades later. IMO Sevastopol would have been easily covered up, a backwater station that hardly anyone cared about.

It really bugs the perfectionist in me at 0:35 that the A in aliens is the only one with the under bar.

Why the desperate urge to know every single background detail? Should have left well alone with the sublime 'Alien'.

Dude ur good

Also on wayland yutani they are using the commercial ships as unwitting search craft sent to pick equipment in long range systems deeper into space that isn't fully charted. When they pick the gear mining or whatever the company plant/droid on board informs them of a distress signal or any number of ways to get em to investigate something to get them to bring "something" on board and get it back to base. There's no way a guy like weyand and his daughter disappearing after commissioning a ship with a mercenary unit, yutani would be very interested.

Ahh Weyland Yutani, the fictional Elon Musk.

I find it amusing that people are seriously questioning a simple plot hole in a horror movie that was released over 40 years ago. It's not that important.

Yutani knew about Predator technology at the end of the first Predator movie. They recovered some after the blast.

We need a tv series about weyland-yutani.We need answers to why they would get hold of the xenomorphs.Who they would use them against and why it was so easy to sacrifice people to get them.We need to know more about the robots and about their evolution.

I still think that AvP gave a better background story.

I can see how weyland went bankrupt.

The book Alien talks a bit about this topic. It only touches on it by saying the "distress call" was very detailed and was indeed a warning signal.

I think David from the prequels goes back to Earth and becomes Weyland. It would explain everything that the company has done afterwards.

I think.. It's another bug hunt.

Alien was a B movie with an A pic budget that happened along at the right time to be a success. All the stuff and junk other filmmakers came up with was just about telling their own version of the same basic story. Up until Prometheus. That was a rather lame attempt to tell a different story. Covenant was an even dumber attempt. The longer this story goes on the less Alien is alien and the more it is just an other man-centered universe that we have seen a million times before, boring, and over done. In fact Alien 4 was, sadly, far superior to either Prometheus or Covenant. In that its story line at least held together. Prometheus was just a very bad script with crappy characters. Covenant was more of the same.

If you study the second film Aliens, during Ripley's interrogation by the c-suite boys and girls, the company is disbelieving of her story " you found something never seen before in over 300 surveyed worlds..." Either 1) The company is covering it tracks, knew about the alien and is trying to hang it all on Ripley 2) The company didn't know about it but someone found out, put Ash on board and sent the Nostromo there covertly Given that: Carter Burke, in Aliens, was able to send out the colonizers to check out the alien spacecraft AGAIN, without warning them what was there (and no one found out about it on Earth, but it was in the company logs the Ripley found - because had the company found out he did send them and they suddenly lost contact, he would have been raked over the coals, not sent along with the team)... ...it is quite possible that the Weyland Yutani Corporation is quite in the dark about the Alien species, but someone WITHIN the company knows. After all, Burke talks about getting the species back through ICC quarantine, meaning the company would never have been allowed to have the species to study "...everybody steps in...no exclusive rights...etc etc" So it's either a cover-up or someone behind the scenes...

Even before any sequels/prequels, my understanding of what happened in the first movie was that the crew on the Nostromo were not only expendable, but they were _specifically to be used as vessels with which to bring the alien back._ Ashe was there to oversee everything, and was immune to being infected in any way. Weyland may not have known exactly how/what form the alien could be brought back, but the crew was at Ashe's disposal to use in any way to ensure the alien was somehow brought to earth.