1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,439 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,680 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 2: focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. 5 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 2: In our look at the xenomorph life cycle, we finally 6 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 2: come to the horrifying face Hugger. This is the creature 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 2: that emerges from the traditional xenomorph egg, aggressively attaches itself 8 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 2: to the face of a human host, implants an embryo 9 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 2: in the comatose host organism, and then dies. The embryo, 10 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 2: of course, develops into a standard xenomorph, which we'll explore 11 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 2: in the next episode. There are a few different ways 12 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 2: to look at the basics of the face Hugger. On 13 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:55,280 Speaker 2: one level, we can ground it in the dark surrealism 14 00:00:55,320 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 2: of hr Giger, another twist on sexual reproduction, Freudian death drive, 15 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 2: and physiology. But just as we previously face the question 16 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,679 Speaker 2: of whether the xenomorph egg is an organism in and 17 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 2: of itself, we must also consider this with the face 18 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 2: Hugger to some degree. In HowStuffWorks dot COM's How the 19 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,919 Speaker 2: Alien Xenomorph Works from twenty twelve, I explored the idea 20 00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:20,679 Speaker 2: that the face hugger might not constitute a true organism 21 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 2: at all, but would rather be a delivery system for 22 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 2: the embryo. No more an organism than a sperm cell 23 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 2: is an organism, and of course this alone is a 24 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 2: comparison worth considering. A human sperm cell is not a 25 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 2: human being, but it does metabolize sugar to produce energy, grow, 26 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 2: and move on its own to reach the egg as 27 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 2: part of human reproduction. But anyway, back in twenty twelve, 28 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 2: the face hugger also brought to my mind at any rate, 29 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 2: the male argonaut or paper nautilus, which has a detachable 30 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 2: spermatophore filled arm called a hectocautulyus that it leaves with 31 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 2: its mate. So if the xenomorph egg could be considered 32 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 2: an organism, we might consider the face hugger to be 33 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 2: its hectocodulus of sorts, only one that moves on its 34 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,639 Speaker 2: own to seek out the host. However, there's an important 35 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 2: point to be made here, and one that I don't 36 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 2: think is properly reflected in that twenty twelve How Stuffworks 37 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 2: article that I wrote. A hectocodulus is not free swimming 38 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 2: like a sperm cell. Some creatures of the hectocodilust use 39 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 2: it as a sex organ that remains attached. In others, 40 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 2: such as with the argonaut, it detaches and the male 41 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 2: manually leaves it, with the female leaving it inside a 42 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:38,799 Speaker 2: special cavity in her mantle. In the Free League Alien RPG, 43 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 2: the authors present three rival theories concerning the face hugger. 44 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:45,960 Speaker 2: The first, in line with what we've been discussing, is 45 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 2: that it deposits an embryo of some sort, thus making 46 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 2: it another morph of the same species. The second idea 47 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:55,520 Speaker 2: is that it deposits not an embryo, but a cancerous 48 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 2: growth that mutates into a chessbuster. This, I would imagine 49 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 2: puts it more in line with the concept of the 50 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 2: black goo in the alien universe. The third premises of 51 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,679 Speaker 2: the face hugger is its own species in a symbiotic 52 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 2: relationship with the prime xenomorph species, and that it injects 53 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,800 Speaker 2: bacteria into the host that leads to the development of 54 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,040 Speaker 2: the chess burster. Part of the confusion here is due 55 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 2: to the fact that the developing embryo or chess burster 56 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 2: inside the host takes on at least some of the 57 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 2: host's genetics, be it the chessbuster we see emerge from 58 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 2: the quadruped host in Alien three, or if we're considering 59 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 2: Ash's comments in the original Alien that the xenomorph that 60 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:42,120 Speaker 2: emerges from Nostromo Executive Officer Caine is essentially quote Cain's Sun. 61 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 2: And even this is not entirely outside the boundaries of 62 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 2: the natural world, as recent studies have shown that horsehair 63 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 2: worms steal genes from host organisms in order to control 64 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 2: their behavior, and we see plenty of other examples of 65 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 2: horizontal gene transfer, the non sexual transfer of genetic information 66 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 2: between genomes. But let's get back to the face hugger itself. 67 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 2: I turned to the paper Science Fiction The Biology of 68 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 2: the Alien in Alien by Armand im Curis and Mona 69 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 2: Wi Leo, published just last year in the Portland Press. 70 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 2: They classify the face hugger as a quote hoaxed attack 71 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 2: larval stage and conclude that quote unattacking larva injecting the 72 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 2: next larval stage is realistic for Earthling parasites. For a 73 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 2: natural world example of something related, they turn to Seculina Carcini, 74 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 2: the crab Hacker Barnacle, one of the parasitic Rhizocephala crab 75 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 2: castrator barnacles. One of the organism's early motes is a 76 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:47,440 Speaker 2: specialized juvenile form known as a kinragon, which boasts only 77 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 2: the antennuals necessary to attach to its crab host, and 78 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 2: is otherwise a living hypodermic needle that exists only to 79 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:59,920 Speaker 2: inject a cell mass known as a vermigon into the crab, 80 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 2: and the vermigon is described here by the authors as 81 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,839 Speaker 2: microscopic and worm like. The injected vermigon then proceeds to 82 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 2: grow like roots through the host organism, branching through its organs, 83 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:16,719 Speaker 2: leaving it unable to reproduce and completely controlling its physiology 84 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,800 Speaker 2: and behavior. Absolutely fascinating and another example of how the 85 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 2: natural world is always willing to match even our most 86 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 2: bizarre sci fi and fantasy inventions. We might well think 87 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,719 Speaker 2: of the face hugger as a kind of kentragon and 88 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:35,160 Speaker 2: its reproductive payload as a vermigon, And indeed, the vermigon's 89 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 2: role in the natural world is to grow and establish 90 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:40,960 Speaker 2: the adult form of the organism within the body of 91 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,440 Speaker 2: the hosts. Only in the case of the xenomorph, that 92 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 2: final form must burst free. As we'll discuss in the 93 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:53,040 Speaker 2: next Monster Fact episode, so tune in for additional episodes 94 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 2: of the Monster Fact each week. We'll be wrapping up 95 00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 2: our series concerning the alien's xenomorph in the next week 96 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 2: or two leading up to the debut of the new 97 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 2: Alien Romulus film, and if there's anything new and noteworthy 98 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 2: in that film, I may do an extra Monster Fact 99 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,480 Speaker 2: where I just chat about that a little bit. As always, 100 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 2: you can email us with feedback and requests at contact 101 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:30,159 Speaker 2: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 102 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 103 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,119 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 104 00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:39,040 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.