Final Alien: Romulus trailer shows off its plot and Chestbursters

For Alien: Romulus, it’s nearly game over, man. The first mainline Alien movie set on a haunted spaceship since 1997’s Alien: Resurrection, Fede Alvarez’s long-awaited sequel is about to launch, and the studio is ready to tell us what this new movie is about. With this final trailer, 20th Century Studios cordially invites the Weyland-Yutani faithful to enjoy the setup for Alien: Romulus.

There is a lot to get into here, but the most exciting part of the trailer is the view from whatever planet this doomed crew starts on. We can only hope that Alvarez doesn’t spend too much time there because everything about Alien is slightly better when we don’t get the whole story. Even the best parts of the Prometheus movies take some shine off of Alien, particularly the Space Jockey, who turns out to be a hulking god who hates its creations. (Prometheus is so fun.)

The story is classic Alien. This latest bucket of Xenomorph chum heads to the Romulus, an abandoned vessel floating in the cosmos, searching for “highly regulated equipment, which could offer them their only ticket out of their station in life. Unfortunately, they’re in an Alien. As soon as the crew comes aboard—well, we know what happens next. The ship’s Mother wakes up, and so does a murder of Facehuggers. Alvarez is going all in on those spidery little breed freaks, and it couldn’t be more thrilling. He is focusing on some under-explored areas of the Alien mythos while situating them in a classic Alien setting. To wit, this is probably the most detailed look of a Facehugger’s proboscis in the franchise’s history, and, boy, does it look disgusting. Could Alien: Romulus be the back-to-basics return-to-form the Xenomorph has been itching for?

Alien: Romulus opens on August 16.