Is Jones, the cat from Alien, actually a Flerken? In a world where retcons rule reality, we may just find out, and as with most alien encounters, we may not like the answer.
To start with, if you are unfamiliar with Jones (aka Jonesy), he’s the cat aboard the Nostromo who survives along with Ripley in the original Alien movie. A Flerken is an alien creature from the Marvel universe. They resemble cats, but they aren’t cats. Their mouths contain pocket dimensions that can hold a seemingly unlimited volume of matter, much like a chipmunk or me when there are Cheez-Its in the house. A Flerken named Goose (known in the comics as Chewie) was recently introduced to the moviegoing public in Captain Marvel.
It used to be Easter eggs were intentional, hidden by creators, and celebrated when they were found by fans who scoured the source material. These days, creators’ Easter eggs are being supplemented with something I’ll call Flerken eggs for now. Easter eggs are well-designed and often beautiful in detail. Creators delicately craft these Faberge goodies and leave them in the darkened corners of the set or in the details of a prop for us to find. We rejoice and fill our nerd basket with these goodies. We often take them to parties and share them with other nerds. Never attend a gathering empty-handed, folks. A little-known Easter egg can be more valuable than a bottle of cheap wine at your next dinner party.
If you’re of the chaotic sort, maybe you thrive on drama, you’ll do well to bring a Flerken egg to your next dinner party. Nonchalantly drop this Flerken egg into your host’s nerd basket at the door as you are removing your hat and coat. They’ll be distracted and at peak politeness. Pro tip: If they have a cat, it’s a great opening: “I love your cat! By the way, that reminds me…” Then you just drop that bomb and watch the fireworks. “Jones, the cat from Alien, is actually a Flerken.”
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I’m not going to bother making the million or so points that might prove Jones is just a cat. We can leave that to the naysayers. These are the people who arrived early. They’re sitting on the couch staring at you as you enter but never bother smiling or introducing themselves. They probably also brought in Easter eggs we’ve consumed before. Jones is a Flerken, and here’s why…
Since Disney now owns Fox Studios, it owns all its content. All is not being used as a legal word here, lawyer geeks. Essentially they own it all. Disney now owns Alien. Disney also owns Marvel. Case closed. Just kidding. There’s more. This isn’t a “Leia is now a Disney Princess” claim, though we know she is, no matter what the official stance is. She’s the toughest of princesses if you don’t count Merida from Brave.
Okay, so they are potentially in the same universe. Big whoop. Here’s a little-known fact: The majority of orange cats are male. Because the ginger gene in cats (and Flerkens, I bet) is in the X chromosome, a male cat has a better chance of being orange. A female cat needs the gene from both parents, while a male cat only needs it from one. Goose and Jones both happen to be males. That doesn’t prove anything you say? Maybe not. But it suggests that both Jones and Goose (and Chewie, also orange, by the way) could not only be the same species but actually the same cat! Er, Flerken. Double down when they argue.
Flerkens have a mass of tentacles that can protrude from the maw within their mouths. They can use them to consume threats. You saw Goose do it in Captain Marvel. Why didn’t Jones just consume the Xenomorph that was threatening the crew of the Nostromo? Very simple, my friend. Cats are not dogs. Cats and Flerkens are one-person animals. If you’ve ever owned a cat (or a Flerken), you know they are usually aloof sorts of creatures who tend to show affection toward one person in the house (or on the ship). Jones didn’t care about the crew. He only loved Ripley, believe it or not.
When Harry Dean Stanton’s character Brett encounters the fully formed Xenomorph for the first time, Jones hisses, but there’s no reason to consume the alien. Jones isn’t threatened – Brett is. And the Xenomorph is sentient enough to recognize that Jones could easily do him in. He takes off with his prey and doesn’t mess with the Flerken. It’s instinctual. The Xenomorphs on planetoid LV-426 have encountered Flerkens before. Flerken eggs even look eerily similar to the Xenomorph eggs that Facehuggers emerge from. They may have even shared a nest on LV-426.
We may never know. Kane (played by John Hurt) may have just lost the lottery. Instead of getting a warm squishy hug, he could have been devoured by a hungry and scared Flerkitten. Our reality would have been different, and we’d have seen movies like Flerkens, Flerken: Resurrection, and Flerken: Covenant. What would the world have been like without the infamous chest-burster scene? We aren’t living in a simulation. We’re living in another reality inside a Flerken’s mouth maw! Okay, too much.
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Let’s discuss some of the experiential similarities between Jones and Goose. Both are comfortable and at home on a spaceship. Both find affinity with a bad-ass heroine. Both only exist in scenes in which they are called for, save for an initial establishing shot for both of them. Oh, look, there’s a cat in the scene! This humanizes everyone else. But both Jones and Goose have mysterious origins in film. How did they come to choose their respective human-woman friend? Why isn’t Jones in one of the freezing chambers? Ripley puts him into a stasis chamber at the end of the movie, but he doesn’t come out of one in the beginning. He just sort of appears. The same way Goose just appears. There’s no “Oh, that’s my cat. I rescued him” moment. They’re just there. They are using their inter-spacial and inter-dimensional abilities to appear.
The Alien franchise exists across time into a distant future, but it’s also connected to our time. With Alien vs Predator, we’ve already merged their universes. Predator happened in the ’80s, and there is a scene in Predator 2 that shows a Predator’s trophy wall. There you’ll see a couple of human skulls, a Xenomorph skull, and a few random or unidentified skulls belonging to creatures of extra-terrestrial origins. What’s missing from the wall? A Flerken skull. Do you want to know why? Because a Predator can’t possibly bag a Flerken. That’s the real reason the Predators returned to Earth in the ‘80s. They were looking for Goose, who just happened to be there at the same time.
See? Flerken egg. Pretty soon, you’re going to find them everywhere, and every orange cat in climatic history, heck every cat… heck every cat in entertainment history will be bought up by Disney and retconned into a Flerken. We refer to Disney as “the Mouse.” But what if Disney is actually a Flerken bent on consuming all matter into the universe they carry in their gaping maw? Goose is a cinematic Easter egg hidden as a metaphoric warning. From now on, Disney will lay Flerken eggs. They will get their tentacles on everything.
Watch out, Lionsgate. Soon Buttercup from The Hunger Games will be a Flerken. Garfield: The Movie, distributed by 20th Century Fox. Flerken. DHX Media, Disney is coming for Heathcliff. Flerken. Mr. Bitey from Kick-Ass? Flerken. Hermione’s cat Crookshanks? That’s a Flerken. Everybody gets a Flerken! Maybe they’ll even reboot Jake, The Cat From Outer Space. Reboot… retcon… Flerken!
And when a joke has gone too far… “The Aristo-Flerkens!”
If Jonesy was a flerken Alien would have been a very short movie.
That is unless Weyland-Yutani sent Jonesy there to oversee the operation.
No, Jones’y was just a cat.
There’s no need to cross-pollinate stuff from the long-past-its-prime, dying MCU cliche / epoch onto a timeless classic like Alien.
And I say that as someone w/ nearly 10,000 comics, most Marvel, collected since the early ’80s.
Cheers!