The final episode of Alien: Earth includes a hidden reference to one of the best characters from an Alien sequel. The ending of Alien: Earth season 1 brought all its lingering plot threads together; Wendy and the other Lost Boys began living for themselves, rebelling against Boy Kavalier with help from some of Alien: Earth‘s distinct creatures.
Not only did this allow Alien: Earth‘s Xenomorphs to take on new dynamics never before seen in the franchise, but it also meant that several other extraterrestrial creatures wrought havoc on Prodigy’s island paradise.
What the lasting ramifications of this mean for Alien: Earth season 2 remains to be seen, but it allowed for an action-heavy finale to season 1 that included a subtle reference to a great sequel character from the Alien franchise.
Alien: Earth’s “Stay Frosty” Line Is A Callback To Hicks In Aliens
Siberian and Rashidi holding guns in the alien lab in Alien: Earth (2025)
The reference in question comes as a group of Prodigy soldiers, led by Joe Hermit’s friends, Siberian and Rashidi, enter the lab housing Alien: Earth‘s various otherworldly species. As they do so, Rashidi says to his fellow soldiers, “Stay frosty. This is a bad place.”
This is a subtle nod to a character in one of the best Alien movies, 1986’s Aliens. One of the more memorable characters introduced in Aliens is Michael Biehn’s Dwayne Hicks. Hicks is one of the few survivors at the end of Aliens. This comes after Hicks gives his peers a pep talk in which he says, “Hey, listen. I know we’re all in strung-out shape, but stay frosty.”
The use of “Stay frosty” in Alien: Earth is simply an Easter egg to Aliens, partly due to the latter often being considered one of the two best Alienmovies, and partly because Hicks’ line has since become iconic. There is no other direct link between Alien: Earth and Aliens here, given that the former takes place almost 60 years before the latter.
How Alien: Earth Draws From Aliens’ Team Of Soldiers
Alex Lawther as Hermit pointing a gun with a laser coming out in Alien: Earth
Aside from the more direct Aliens reference with the “Stay frosty” line, Alien: Earth takes wider inspiration from James Cameron’s 1986 sequel. Aliens took the franchise in a more action-centric direction, focusing on Ripley, Hicks, and a team of marines fighting through a nest of Xenomorphs. This was in contrast to Alien‘s more horror-based roots, established by Ridley Scott.
Across its eight episodes, Alien: Earth has time to emulate Alien’s horror aspects. In the final few episodes, though, as Prodigy’s estate becomes more and more unstable, Alien: Earth draws from Aliens by having several squads of soldiers patrolling the island.
Be it Prodigy’s own soldiers who are searching for the Xenomorphs and other alien species on Boy Kavalier’s island or Morrow and his batch of Weyland-Yutani agents, Alien: Earth‘s final few episodes feel more like Aliens.
The same can be said for the premiere, with Joe and his squad searching USCSS Maginot’s crash site, resulting in more action scenes than horror ones. Again, while Alien: Earth certainly does have its scarier, more ambient, Alien-inspired sequences, the final episode, be it via soldier squads or a “Stay frosty” reference, feels much more akin to Aliens.
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