Alien: Romulus Detail Spoiled A Dark Character Death Long Before It Happened

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Romulus

Although Kay’s Alien: Romulus death is one of the Alien reboot’s nastiest surprises, the scene is clearly foreshadowed very early on. The Alien movies all feature some nasty death scenes. Alien has its infamous and iconic chest-burster, Alien 3 has Ripley’s swan dive into a vat of lava, and Prometheus has Ledward’s horrific body horror fate. However, director Fede Alvarez’s 2024 Alien reboot Alien: Romulus has upped the ante for the franchise going forward. Alien: Romulus features 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 like Evil Dead Rise allow their pregnant characters to live since this is seen as a particularly brutal fate. However, Alien: Romulus has no interest in continuing this genre tradition. Alien: Romulus introduces 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’ 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: Romulus reveals 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, with Alien: Romulus cross-cutting between the two scenes. Sure enough, this exact fate befalls Kay in Alien: 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 during Alien: 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 in Alien’s reboot Alien: Romulus‘s mural.