WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus
Summary
Although Kay’sAlien: Romulusdeath is one of theAlienreboot’s nastiest surprises, the scene is clearly foreshadowed very early on.TheAlienmovies allfeature some nasty death scenes.Alienhas its infamous and iconic chest-burster,Alien 3has Ripley’s swan dive into a vat of lava, andPrometheushas Ledward’s horrific body horror fate. However, directorFede Alvarez’s 2024 Alien rebootAlien: Romulushas upped the ante for the franchise going forward.Alien: Romulusfeatures some truly horrifying deaths, including one that breaks an unspoken rule of horror movies. Surprisingly, this twist is heavily foreshadowed.
Broadly speaking, most horror movies don’t kill off pregnant people. Even extremely dark horrors likeEvil Dead Riseallow their pregnant characters to live since this is seen as a particularly brutal fate. However,Alien: Romulushas no interest in continuing this genre tradition.Alien: Romulusintroduces Isabela Merced’s kind Kay early on, establishing that the character is a warm presence in the central gang. Considering how hostile Navarro and the particularly insufferable Bjorn can be, Kay’s role as the group’s peacekeeper is a full-time job. Her friendliness makes her survival seem unlikely, but it is her pregnancy that seals her fate.
Alien: Romulus Ending Explained
Alien: Romulus' ending leaves the door open for another entry in the franchise. We break down the Alien sequel’s final moments & what might come next.
Alien: Romulus’ Baby Painting Confirmed How Kay Would Die
The Ship’s Mural Depicts A Baby Feeding From A Human Corpse
Almost immediately after she reveals she is pregnant,Alien: Romulusreveals how Kay will die via a creepy mural. The painting appears inside the Weyland-Yutani ship’s halls, and it is encountered by Bjorn, Tyler, and Andy as they explore the abandoned craft. The mural depicts the sacking of Rome and, as the characters stare, there is a lengthy closeup of a baby suckling at a dead woman’s teat. This gruesome image comes immediately after Kay reveals her pregnancy to Rain, withAlien: Romuluscross-cutting between the two scenes. Sure enough, this exact fate befallsKay inAlien: Romulus’ ending.
Rain later discovers the Xenomorph/ human “Baby” holding Kay’s dead body, feeding on her. It is not clear whether the human Xenomorph hybrid is drinking her blood or eating her, but the monster definitely kills Kay shortly after she gives birth to it. Admittedly, the mural features an ordinary human baby whereas Kay’s child, thanks to an experimental serum, is a nine-foot-tall Xenomorph/ human hybrid that grows rapidly in the minutes after she gives birth to it. However, the image from the mural is still recreated by the pair, making the earlier scene a macabre instance of visual foreshadowing.
Alien: Romulus’ Painting Also Teased The Offspring Twist
Kay’s Baby Becomes The Reboot’s Xenomorph-Human Hybrid
Alien: Romulus’ mural obviously doesn’t feature a human Xenomorph, but it does feature a visual clue that warns viewers about the fate that will befall Kay. Kay’s baby is nowhere near due, so the audience knows that she is unlikely to enter labor duringAlien: Romulus’ brief time frame. However, when Kay is handed the serum that rapidly regenerates a lab rat’s injuries, the connection between the mural and her fate becomes clear. By taking the serum, Kay inadvertently shortens her gestation period and turns her fetus into a Xenomorph hybrid, leading to the fate depicted inAlien’s rebootAlien: Romulus’s mural.
