Underwater Director Confirms Alien Easter Egg

Director William Eubank's Underwater landed in theaters earlier this year and, while connections [...]

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Director William Eubank's Underwater landed in theaters earlier this year and, while connections to more established franchises weren't explicitly made, Eubank took to Twitter to point out a reference to the Alien franchise he managed to sneak into the film. The filmmaker noted on Twitter that one of the characters wears a piece of equipment sporting the Weyland-Yutani Corporation logo, which is the company responsible for sending researchers into the furthest reaches of space in the popular sci-fi franchise, only to accidentally stumble across various intergalactic monstrosities. With both Underwater and the Alien series being distributed by 20th Century Fox, it's possible this Easter egg was meant to unify the universes to some degree, even if these details aren't entirely canonical.

"Since it's [Alien Day] I figure now is a good time to post this," Eubank shared on Twitter. "I'll let the keen eyes find it..."

Accompanying the tweet was a still from Underwater featuring Vincent Cassel's Lucien with a piece of equipment slung over his arm, with eagle-eyed fans quick to point out the Weyland-Yutani logo.

Recent years have seen the strong embrace by studios of shared cinematic universes, with major blockbusters including direct references to other properties they own. This isn't a new concept by any means, as Predator 2 featured a nod to the Alien franchise more than a decade before Alien vs. Predator hit theaters, with this Easter egg likely being a loving nod at the famous franchise more than confirmation that Underwater fits into the extended universe of the series.

This wasn't the only way Eubank connected his film to a larger mythology, as he previously revealed that his film secretly focused on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu.

"He was written in the script as a big, whale-like creature," Eubank shared with Mr H Reviews on YouTube. "A massive behemoth – it was called 'The Behemoth.' And in designing the movie – we were done shooting, but we obviously never shot the behemoth cause we were gonna do him later – I just basically was like … we were early enough in the design that was able to shift more to a mystical being. So that's where we started going Lovecraftian. So I was like alright, '[We're] making Cthulhu here.'"

Underwater is out now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

Would you like the film to be connected to the Alien series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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