The USCSS Maginot, a Weyland Yutani research vessel, crashed into the large lawn next to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. Onlookers remarked they hoped there was nothing dangerous on board, as containers had spilled all over the surrounding area.
That’s both the tease for a very cool activation put together by FX for its new show, Alien: Earth, as well as the setup for Alien: Earth itself. The show, which debuts August 12, centers on a crashed ship and all the horrors that it contains. One of them is a xenomorph, everyone’s favorite killer alien with acid for blood. But the xeno isn’t the only creature on the Maginot. At least on the show. At Comic-Con, it was the main one, but there were teases of others.
io9 was lucky enough to walk through the Alien Earth activation during the daytime of the con, with the understanding this was just half the experience. You could also come back in the evening, and what was once light, bright, and open becomes dark, dim, and scary. It’s a whole other, more terrifying experience.
But even in the daylight, the amount of work and detail that’s been put into this activation is impressive. You enter through an almost military installation surrounding the crashed ship. Containers with those classic Alien eggs are scattered about, as well as some new, odd, yellow eggs. You enter the MUTHUR computer room, just like out of the original film, and traverse two long hallways, both of which have been torn to pieces by… something. Finally, you enter a massive research facility, which offers a hint of just how many different species had been collected by the ship, only to, in the end, finally be greeted by the Xeno itself. Luckily, we survived. Here’s a video of the experience.
And here are a few photos.
If you’re at Comic-Con, the Alien: Earth exhibition is on the Hilton Bayfront Lawn and is open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the one experience and then 4:30 to 10 p.m. for the “Code Red” evening experience. The daytime experience will also be open Sunday from 11 a.m. to a.m.-3 p.m.
Alien: Earth is on FX August 12, and we’ll have more soon.
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