Weyland-Yutani

Weyland-Yutani is a fictional corporation in the motion picture "Alien" and its sequels, often referred to simply as "The Company". The original spelling of the Company's name was Weylan Yutani (note that there was no "D" in the name). At no time in "Alien" nor in the portfolio was the name of the Company spelled with a "D". This was changed by the time of "Aliens" to "Weyland-Yutani."

Weyland-Yutani is a modern example of the longstanding trope of the evil megacorporation in science fiction.

Company portrayal

Weyland-Yutani is portrayed as one of several corporations that run the human colonies outside the solar system through the Extrasolar Colonization Administration, and as having a seat in the Interstellar Commerce Commission's Company Review Board, and also a large presence on Earth.

The company is consistently characterized 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.

"Alien"

The compound word "Weylan-Yutani" may be viewed at the upper left of 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 - Aspen Colorado").

"Aliens"

When James Cameron 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 cut.

"Alien³"

In "Alien³", Weyland-Yutani's name appears on screen several times written in Japanese. It appears once on a box of supplies as ウェイランド湯谷. The first six kana of this are part of the Japanese syllabary katakana which is used to spell foreign words, and here they spell "weirando" (Weyland). The second part is the Japanese name Yutani written with two kanji, 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."

"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 brought out by Wal-Mart 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. Predator", the founder of this company (then known as Weyland Industries) is shown to be Charles Bishop Weyland. He is played by Lance Henriksen, the actor that played the android Bishop in "Aliens" and "Alien³", suggesting that the android 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, who is seen in the third film.

"Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem"

In the finale of "", the man who called himself Colonel Stevens meets with a character named Ms Yutani, offering her a Predator gun recovered from the survivors of the explosion in Gunnison, Colorado.

Other works

As an homage to the "Alien" movies, the Weyland-Yutani logo was used on some weapons in the TV series "Firefly", and can be seen on a heads up display in that show's pilot episode. In "Serenity", 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 Whedon, wrote the fourth "Alien" film, "".)

In Whedon's series "Angel", Weyland-Yutani is also named as a major client (along with Yoyodyne and News Corp) of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart (see "Harm's Way").

The firm's name also appears on the bow of a supertanker passing under the Gibraltar Bridge, near the end of an "Extreme Engineering" installment, on the Discovery Channel.

A Weyland-Yutani ship can be seen, among other crashed ships, in the "Red Dwarf" episode "Psirens".

In the 2005 game Predator: Concrete Jungle, a clip at the end shows the new current owner of Weyland and a Japanese man (presumably the CEO of the Yutani Corporation) celebrating the formation of their joint venture. They mention in a discussion something about Mr. Weyland's disappearance.

Within the Aliens vs. Predator novel series 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.

Origins of name

The name "Weyland-Yutani" was created by Ron Cobb, one of the designers of the Nostromo and her crew's uniforms.