Facehugger

The Facehugger

Once released from the egg, the facehugger uses its tail to propel from the egg and attach itself to the host by use of its tail and fingers as shown on the picture to the right.

When attached to the face of the host, it tightens its hold around the neck of the victim thereby rendering him (or her) unconscious due to lack of air. It then subsequently attaches its fingers around the head, whereafter it forces a long tube down the throat of the victim, in order to be able to feed him oxygen, keep him unconscious and most important, plant the embryo inside him (or her).

It would seem, that the facehugger doesn't need any oxygen itself (or any other atmosphere for that matter) since Dallas and Lambert were able to transport Kane all the way back to the Nostromo, and according to the script, that's 3000 meters in an atmosphere made of nothing more than 10% agron, 85% nitrogen and 5% neon. So the facehugger must be able to convert the atmosphere to that of the victim, or else Kane would most likely have been dead.

[Facehugger] The two small "bags" attached to the lower back, just below the legs on each side of the tail suggests that the facehugger does all the breathing for the host, pressing and sucking the air in and out of the lungs, thereby keeping him alive.

The facehugger has no visible sensory units, but it is speculated through the books that the facehugger senses only by hearing, and that it has no visual sensory. This seems a bit unlikely though, because it has to somehow know where the head of the victim is, and unless it has some sort of sonar capabilities with which it can create a picture of the surroundings, this is probably not the case.

[Facehugger] The skin of the facehugger consists of an outer layer of protein polysaccharides and a lot of Amino Acids for prolonged resistance to adverse environmental conditions. As with the adult alien, the facehugger also has acid for blood, as shown in ALIEN, and it has an incredible ability to heal over in almost no time. The form of the back and the tail of the facehugger suggests that the facehugger has a spine and a Central Nervous System.

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