Question about the plot to Aliens (1986)

I don't expect the law to be the same but I expect some sort of explanation as to why it's illegal, as in this future.

Oh okay, if the only way to tie up is to make it look like a Xenomorph accident, than so be it.

As for implanting the aliens in human hosts, I can understand how that would be illegal.

However, why not just bring one of them back when they are still in the small form? Burke had access to one when he tried to get the alien to impregnate either Ripley or the little girl.

So why not just bring that small alien back to Earth, if everyone is on the same page and agrees on the mission in the first place?

They said that bringing back an alien back to Earth might not pass quarantine, but what if it did? Wouldn't it be worth bringing it back to see if it past and then everything becomes legal from that point, when it comes to studying it?

Then what's the point of comparing it to current law? There's no law about aliens because we have no idea if they exist and we're not traveling the galaxy enough for it to matter. If we start traveling the galaxy, hey, we'll probably make some laws. There's nothing about space travel in the Magna Carta, either, because at the time it was written there was no need for it.

This is the crux of the problem, and the cause of most of these threads, I think: expecting things to be spelled out even if it's relatively easy to come up with plausible explanations.

Telling a good story involves, among other things, excluding extraneous details. We need explanations for things that are perplexing or irrational absent that information. We do not need (and should not get) explanations for things we can easily imagine or explain with a little thought. Since we already have all sorts of laws about animal testing, and since space is scary and unknowable, it's easy to imagine a future space-going society might make a law prohibiting this kind of thing. Therefore, no explanation is required and it would be very poor storytelling to include it.

People aren't allowed to volunteer themselves for death or enslavement under current law, either, so it's very strange to think this is somehow more plausible than the opposite, especially if you're using current law as your baseline of expectations.

Oh okay thanks. Sorry I meant if they are going to choose to operate illegally, then why not just get volunteer hosts, who believe in the cause, if they are choosing to go illegal anyway.

Finding people willing to die is usually harder (and more difficult to cover up) than finding people just willing to break a law, particularly breaking a law far away from the physical seat of the government you're defying.

Yeah that's true. I think at the heart of it for me, it's just hard for me to swallow that people wouldn't want to bring back an alien if they believed in the cause, because in other works of fiction you see a large group of villains believing in causes all the time. In Goldfinger for example, Goldfinger had no problem getting a large group of people together that also believed in his crime. He didn't have to fool a bunch of morally stand up people into believing they doing something else for him.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the nazis knew they were going after the Arc of the covenant and were not surprised or duped when they found it. They knew what they were doing.

So why is it that in this world, the future has so many morally righteous people in, that this company cannot find anyone to agree with their cause, compared to other works of fiction, where the villains are able to do so?

Well, first, it's important to establish that those other films have no relationship to this question, at all. The internal logic of one film does not carry over to any other. There are comedies where a stick of dynamite explodes in someone's face and all that happens is their hair gets pushed back and their face is covered in soot. Put that in a serious war drama and it's suddenly ridiculous.

Second, I didn't say that they wouldn't be able to find anyone. I said it would be tougher, and riskier, and harder to cover up. Being willing to "operate illegally" is not binary, where once someone has established a willingness to break the law, they must logically be just as willing to break any other law.

Yeah, that's true I can see that. It's just hard to find examples, but I feel that even in real life there are criminal organizations who where all the members know the secrets and are on the same page. But it would be difficult.

Far to difficult for a corporation (Corp not government!) that’s trying to operate secretly and illegally whilst generally being a law abiding entity. Regardless of how shady they really are.

Just very strange that it was suggested that persons volunteer for the cause effectively suiciding for a Corp. if that really happened in the plot what are the chances ironpony would write a question at how unplausable that scenario was.

Yeah I see what you mean, it's just I am use to movies where their are several people in the government willing to commit to a conspiracy, so since I see it all the time, it's hard to get use to something like Alien were they are only able to send one corrupt person on a mission (Burke).

So why didn't the company program the robot character to be in on it as well, for extra help?

Good question. Well maybe they foresaw that Ripley would be suspicious and could hack the robot like jailbreaking an iPhone. You see robots have been easily hacked in other movies so he could be hacked and all the company secrets and yummy goodness inside that chrome dome of his would spill out and there would be evidence to destroy weyland Corp.

Do you know the management structure of weyland. The whole companies not evil is it? Ripley worked for them, she wasn’t in on it, she’s not evil. Maybe only a select few, maybe only a hand full really know the secret agenda Burke being on of them. Who knows if they had the man power to send an additional person whom would be willing to risk his/her life.

Yeah I guess. I'm actually surprised the company thinks that the alien would make good weapons, because they seem to know hardly anything about the aliens.

As for Ripley hacking the robot, she doesn't have any hacking experience that was established before, and since she has been frozen for 57 years, wouldn't computers work completely differently, compared to 57 years ago, and thus she wouldn't know how to operate them?

To laws and why they didn't just bring a small alien, can you currently bring a foreign species into your country without legal consequences?

Well they in the movie that they might have trouble getting the alien past quarantine which is where having a host would come in. But let's say the company brings back a small alien. Can't quarantine examine it and if the alien has no diseases, they can let it on through? I mean there is a chance it might not pass, but I thought maybe it would just be easier to take that chance, rather than having to manipulate Ripley into being the host.

How would they know what an "alien" and unknown life form would or would not have regarding disease, contagion, or if the species is hazardous itself just by existence? You can't get a DOG through without a 6-month quarantine. I can't imagine the wait time for an unknown, off-world species. Even if just 6 months, that's time enough for competitor weapon industrialists to bribe their way to access or outright theft. Best case still: everyone knows because media.

But if competitors can bribe then why not Wcorp? Why BOTHER? Just cryofreeze your infected and let them pass through completely ignorant of the infection beneath and bypass the circus.

Also, and again: they don't care about Ripley. You're still coming at all this as though characters view their world as you view yours. They do not. You must project from their perspective and motive. What may be rational to you may be absolutely irrational to another particularly when corruption and profit affect that motive.

On your robot point ironpony..maybe they didn’t trust it to do a good enough job, only entrusting Burke.

Ripley hacking Bishop?
When did that happen?

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I was talking ****e. He used many references from other movies...so I just used the same that robots could be hacked in other movies so why not in aliens. lol,