In a strange and unexpected development, a 2000s animated movie is now canon inAlien: Earth. TheAlienfranchiseis nearly fifty years old, with Ridley Scott’s prolific original movie redefining the sci-fi genre, demonstrating one of the scariest possibilities of a space-exploring future.
For the first time in franchise history,Alien: Earthhas brought the series to Earthfor a deeper exploration, and with that comes a fascinating hypothesis of what our planet might look like roughly a century from now.Alien: Earthtakes place justbefore the originalAlienfilmin the year 2120.
While we’ve seen the world of theAlienfranchise aboard ships and other planets, these haven’t offered much of an indicator of what Earth culture would be like in an era of synthetics and deep space travel. Not to mention, creator Noah Hawley is putting his own spin on things.
Wendy & Joe Bonded Over The Ice Age Movie As Kids In Alien: Earth
DespiteAlien: Earthoccurringnearly a century in the future, the world’s culture looks a lot like ours. Characters listen to hip-hop music, play basketball, and children still watchIce Age. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and her brother, Joe (Alex Lawther), bonded over this film as kids and fondly maintain those memories years later.
Episode 1 shows them laughing over the scene fromIce Age: Continental Drift, in which the word “fury” is misinterpreted as “furry” by Sid the Sloth. This is a wholesome moment on its own, establishing an emotional undertone for the show’s two main characters, but it comes into play again later in a pivotal way.
In the broader sense, it seems relevant to the plot that children in 2120 might still be enjoying culture from a century earlier. In this high-tech, industry-focused era with rampant artificial intelligence, it makes sense that cultural developments would have faltered, and people would be watching the same media on repeat. This is also quintessentially Noah Hawley’s style.
The Deeper Meaning Behind The Ice Age Movie In Alien: Earth Explained
InAlien: Earthepisode 2, theIce Agereference returns in a crucial scene. Joe tries to resign from his contract as a medic and travel to Mars for medical school, but while Wendy watches him on her cameras. When the robot declines his resignation, Joe says, “Have a heart, or face my fury.”
Joe is named after baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, establishing another connection to the old world.
To the shock of her creators, Wendy touches the screen and rewrites the robot’s code, allowing it to say “Or face your furry what?” This unexpected reaction leaves Joe shocked. The scene sets up Wendy’s hybrid potential inAlien: Earth, and shows the strength of the primary sibling bond.
