The Unrealistic Physics of the Headbite!

dude, it is just a film, i bet they didnt expect it to be such a massive hit, they didnt make every tiny aspect of it a perfectly explained thing.

aliens are well...alien, they dont have any skin known to human technology, therefore making it bend all physics

First off, the tongue, or more commonly known as the duel jaw, does shoot fairly fast ( not as fast as bullet, however, but still fairly fast)

Secondly, further studying of the duel led me to the conclusion that, if opened enough, the teeth in the duel jaw can be made to point outward.

Now for the penetration of the mask.If you recall, the Grid alien was able to scratch Celtic's mask with it's claws. What does have to do with the duel jaw, you might ask? The fact that teeth are stronger than claws.The aliens duel jaw teeth would be as strong, if not stronger, than the alien's claws. So imagine a duel jaw that has teeth that, not only is stronger that razor sharp claws, but is also moving at a fairly fast speed. That duel jaw would be able to at least break through the mask.

*sigh* If only I was witty enough to think of something to say here.

amen brother

I mostly agree with what Mishmuf is saying, however there are certain points which we must bear in mind.

A xenomorph may be able to scratch metal with its claws, but that does not necessarily mean that it is capable of biting through it. It is easier to scratch the surface of a metal than punch into it, especially depending on the thickness of the object.

The yautja's masks are thick enough to resist small quantities of acid, as seen when Scar marked his mask with a xenomorph's severed digit.

Additionally, we already know that xenomorphs are incapable of biting through space-age glass (bullet-proof or stronger) due to the scenes in Alien: Resurrection. This may or may not have been stronger than the yautja's masks, but considering the fact that the yautja use technology (and most likely materials) outside of our comprehension, it is most likely weaker than yautja metals.

So, despite the fact that a xenomorph may be able to scratch a mask, being able to bite through one, even with that kind of muscle, is fairly unlikely.

However, a xenomorph is definitely capable of punching through an organism's skull. As previously mentioned by Mishmuf, a xenomorph's teeth point outward during the bite, allowing them to pierce the scalp and skull. This, coupled with the punching power behind their facebite ability, allows them to break straight into an organism's cranium.

Just because a xenomorph's facebite is slow does not necessarily make it incapable of such feats. It is still fairly fast, but a xenomorph's head is elongated in shape, and is backed by an extremely strong neck (and body). Therefore, it can be assumed that a LOT of muscle goes behind the stalk which makes the facebite possible. Even if the bite is slow, the xenomorph's powerful neck (and body) would be able to support its head against the pressure which its facebite may incur, allowing it to continue to drive forward and pierce into the skull of its victim before losing momentum.


And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen forth from holy writ
And seem a saint when most I play the devil.

I honestly think that the Xenomorph's ability to bite through a Predator mask, which was shown in AVP, was a complete exaggeration. In Predator 2, Harrigan fired several rounds from an M-16 straight into the mask, & it didn't even leave a scratch, which shows it's incredible durability & resistance to attack. Wheras in Alien Resurrection, the drone's inner jaw didn't even leave a mark on the bullet proof glass.

It is quite obvious that an Alien's inner jaw is easily capable of penetrating through flesh & bone, but Predator metal, I severale doubt it. As I have stated many times before, in my opinion it was due to Paul Anderson wanting to make the Aliens seem more powerful than they actually are, due to his (in my opinion) bias outlook on the creatures.

wow this is a touchy subject, well lets think here for a moment the alien's second jaw contains razor sharp teeth and the head, body, and neck is very strong but if the alien cannot puncture mere bullet proof glass and yautja armour as easily as strong as such.Thus the second jaw would have had no ability to puncture the mask and as for speed the second jaw flies out at what I beleive to be thirty miles per hour which judging on the armours strength would take ten tons of pressure on contact and twice that in momentum to truely peirce the metal wereas from what I have seen the alien can only generate two-thirds of said strength and momentum.Thus in conclusion the alien would have broken it's teeth rather than puncture the yautja armor.

btw seriously it's only a movie so why must we be tortured by these arguments which will only lead to making someone's brain ache.
Dude how did I just say all that without boring myself to sleep?




In Hell no one cares about your sreams.

It's all about mass. I could hit you with my fist and only cause a cut to you yet if I hit you with a metal poll at the same speas and distance it would cause a lot more damage and may kill you and cause sever injury to you because it has more mass. Simple. :)

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