Weyland-Yutani is a
fictional corporation in the motion picture
AlienAlien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto...
and its sequels, often referred to simply as "
The Company". It is one of the corporations that runs the human colonies outside the
solar systemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by gravity, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago...
through the Extrasolar Colonization Administration, has a seat in the Interstellar Commerce Commission's Company Review Board, and also has a large presence on
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
.
Weyland-Yutani is consistently portrayed as exhibiting the worst aspects of corporate profiteering, willing to sacrifice decency and human life in the pursuit of profit. In various portrayals of the
Aliens universe, the corporation has its hands in all aspects of space colonization and research. The corporation has consistently ordered its employees and agents to attempt to obtain living xenomorphs so that they can be exploited as a biological weapon, without regard for their obtainers' lives.
Weyland-Yutani is a modern example of the longstanding
tropeA literary trope is a common pattern, theme, motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
of the evil megacorporation in
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
.
Alien
The compound word Weylan-Yutani appears on the display screen during the ship awakening sequence and at the bottom left of a badly vibrating display screen during the planetoid landing sequence in
Alien. It was also printed on the prop beer cans in the film, where it is partially visible in some scenes ("Original and Genuine Weylan-Yutani Aspen Beer - Extra Strong -
AspenThe City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
").
Aliens
When
James CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian film director, producer and screenwriter. His writing and directing work includes The Terminator and Titanic. To date, his directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$1.1 billion domestically, unadjusted for inflation...
was assigned to write and direct the sequel, the role and significance of Weyland-Yutani increased greatly, becoming an indispensable element in Alien lore. The original
Weyland-Yutani logo was an Egyptian winged-sun emblem; it was modified to its current corporo-industrial interlocked W/Y for
Aliens.
It can be viewed in various places, most prominently on the front of a big-wheel tricycle in a scene from the
director's cutA director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
.
Alien³
In
Alien³, Weyland-Yutani's name appears on screen several times written in
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
. It appears once on a box of supplies as ウェイランド湯谷. The first six
kanaKana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the roman alphabet known as rōmaji. There are three kana scripts: modern cursive hiragana , modern angular katakana , and the old syllabic use of kanji known as man’yōgana that was...
of this are part of the Japanese
syllabaryA syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound.-Languages using syllabaries:...
katakanais a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet. The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji....
which is used to spell foreign words, and here they spell
weirando (Weyland). The second part is the Japanese name Yutani written with two
kanjiare the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet . The Japanese term kanji literally means "Han characters".- History :Chinese characters first came to Japan on...
, which literally means "hot-water valley" in English. The corporation's name also appears in a newspaper headline where the last four kanji read
kabushiki gaisha which means "joint stock corporation," and the company logo can be seen stenciled across the shirts, prison jackets and caps worn by various characters in the film, including Ripley.
Alien Resurrection
In the Special Edition release of
Alien Resurrection, The character of Dr. Wren (played by J.E. Freeman) states Weyland-Yutani had been bought out by
Wal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and...
decades before the start of the film. Consequently an interstellar military force called "
United Systems Military" now controls all the weapons and R&D interests previously held by Weyland-Yutani.
Alien vs. Predator
In
Alien vs. PredatorAlien vs. Predator, also known as AVP, is a 2004 American science fiction film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson for 20th Century Fox. The film adapts the Alien vs. Predator crossover imprint bringing together the eponymous creatures of the Alien and Predator series, a concept which originated in a...
, the founder of this company (then known as
Weyland Industries) is shown to be Charles Bishop Weyland. He is played by
Lance HenriksenLance James Henriksen is an American actor, and artist, best known to movie and TV audiences for his roles in science fiction, action and horror films such as The Terminator, and the Alien film franchise, and on TV shows such as Millennium.-Early life:Henriksen was born in Manhattan, New York City...
, the actor that played the android Bishop in
Aliens and
Alien³, suggesting that the
androidAn android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human. The word derives from ανδρός, the genitive of the Greek ανήρ anēr, meaning "man", and the suffix -eides, used to mean "of the species; alike" . Though the word derives from a gender-specific root, its usage in...
was modeled after him. In the novelization of
Alien³ (released before
Alien vs. Predator), it is said that the Bishop android was created by a Weyland-Yutani employee named Michael Bishop.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
In the finale of
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, the man who called himself Colonel Stevens meets with a character named Ms Yutani, offering her a
PredatorThe Predator aliens are a fictional extraterrestrial species featured in the Predator science-fiction franchise, characterised by their trophy hunting of other dangerous species for sport, including humans and their fictional counterparts, Aliens....
gun recovered from the survivors of the explosion in
Gunnison, ColoradoThe historic City of Gunnison is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. As of the U.S. Census 2000, the city had a total population of 5,409. The city was named in honor of John W. Gunnison, a United States Army...
.
Other works
As an homage to the
AlienAlien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto...
movies, the Weyland-Yutani logo was used on some weapons in the TV series
FireflyFirefly is an American space western television series created by writer/director Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, under his Mutant Enemy Productions. Its naturalistic future setting, modeled after traditional Western movie motifs, has been praised as an "oddball genre mix"...
, and can be seen on a heads up display in that show's pilot episode. In
SerenitySerenity is a 2005 space western film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is considered a continuation of the cancelled Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set 510 years in the future, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew...
, the motion picture continuation of
Firefly, the Operative's claim that the Alliance was "building a better world" echoes the slogan of Weyland-Yutani, "Building Better Worlds." (The show's creator,
Joss WhedonJoseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American director, executive producer, occasional actor, and creator and head writer of the television programs Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse...
, wrote the fourth
Alien film,
Alien Resurrection.)
In Whedon's series
AngelAngel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
, Weyland-Yutani is also named as a major client (along with
YoyodyneYoyodyne is the name of several companies in fiction and real life.Yoyodyne is a fictional defense contractor introduced in Thomas Pynchon's V. and featured prominently in his novel The Crying of Lot 49 . Described in the latter book as "a giant of the aerospace industry", Yoyodyne was founded by...
and
News CorpNews Corporation is the world's second largest media conglomerate as of 2008 and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009...
) of the evil law firm
Wolfram and HartWolfram & Hart, Attorneys at Law is a fictional, international, and interdimensional law firm featured in the television series Angel.-History:...
(see "Harm's Way").
The firm's name also appears on the bow of a supertanker passing under the
Gibraltar BridgeA Strait of Gibraltar crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the Strait of Gibraltar that would connect Europe to Africa.-Bridge:...
, near the end of an
Extreme EngineeringExtreme Engineering is a documentary television series that aired on the Discovery Channel and The Science Channel. The program features futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. As of 2007, the show aired its sixth season. The show has been hosted by Danny Forster since season 4...
installment, on the
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
.
A Weyland-Yutani ship can be seen, among other crashed ships, in the
Red DwarfRed Dwarf is a British television situation comedy franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following. It was created by, and the first six series were written by, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor...
episode "
Psirens"Psirens" is the first episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VI and the 31st in the series run. It was first broadcast on the British television channel on 7 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony...
".
Within the
Aliens vs. Predator novel seriesThe Aliens vs. Predator novel series is a trilogy of novels that belong to the fictional crossover franchise of Aliens vs. Predator, based on the original Aliens vs. Predator comic book series by Dark Horse Comics.- Prey :...
Weyland-Yutani was mentioned as the main corporation in the book
War, but as for the other two novels different corporations were in charge of the events that occurred. Weyland-Yutani and other, similarly minded megacorporations have appeared in the Aliens expanded universe (novels, comics, and videogames).
Origins of name
The name "Weylan-Yutani" was created by
Ron CobbRon Cobb is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director.By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown artist on...
, one of the designers of the
Nostromo and her crew's uniforms.
The original spelling of the Company's name was
Weylan Yutani (note that there was no
D in the name). At no time in
AlienAlien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto...
nor in the portfolio was the name of the Company spelled with a
D. This was changed to "Weyland-Yutani" in
AliensAliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton. A sequel to the 1979 film Alien, Aliens is set fifty-seven years after the first film and is regarded by many film critics as a...
.