What really caused Ashes Meltdown in Alien?

Interesting theory! But then again, why didn't David malfunction when Vickers pushed him up against the wall in Prometheus? 

I think Ripley's attack made her a threat that needed to be eliminated as per his orders rather than a fault in his processing.  He wasn't 'damaged' when he was talking to them later on (aside from that bit about his head being knocked off).

Ripley did damage him, because Ash starts bleeding down the side of his forehead (just before he snatches her hair). But I'd concur that that didn't make him berserk, rather triggered a different path in his programming logic, which told him Ripley must be eliminated. You see he returned to a relaxed state when he was atop a table, decapitated.

I think his orders told him to kill her, rather than any programming or error in programming.

I often find some people (in general; no one specific) get hung up on 'well so and so could have programmed this or that android'. No need to go to that trouble if you can just give them a verbal or written order to follow.

Interesting that the chip is not installed in a less vulnerable space like in the chest cavity. That could problematic though to access it if needed.

dk, At the same time when you watch where the processor is absorbed into the head (walter video) looks like it goes in the top in the video not at the back near the base.

Alex, where Mere pushes David hits in a different location near where the crest of occipital bone is.  Ash was struck closer to where the occipital condyl is located.  Human anatomy of course not android.

Thanks Stan, the white blood (milk) if you will ran down his forehead which happens right after him and Ripley have that confrontation in the communications room which is what made me think about Ash being damaged from the blow at the base of his skull when she pushed him against the wall.

I also thin S.M is right to a point.  I know SO-937 said crew expendable but at that point they hadn't made it a point to blow up the ship until after they torch Ash so she wasn't really a threat to him or the specimen.  Well maybe when she pushed him into the wall, but that was more of a desperate reaction than a threat.  I mean that was really creepy him silently sneaking in and looking over her shoulder and then speaking at the last second.  How did he get into the room without the door making any noise. (really?)

You do have a good theory there however... you have to take ALIENS for canon, and I just don't. James Cameron had his own ideas and while I did enjoy the product he put out I believe he watered down the ALIENS. My reasons why are my own personal preferences. He got rid of the awesome "domes", he never explored the "eggmorphing" which was pretty terrifying considering that was what he was going for??? And... he turned them into bugs??? If Giger or Ridley didn't have anything to do with it then for me anyway it's just another in the series but I don't consider it canon. For now it's PROMETHEUS, ALIEN: COVENANT and ALIEN. That's it. I hope Ridley has six more in him. Fingers crossed!   

I think the yoghurt dripping down the head of Ash and his brief indecipherable mumbling in that scene sort of reveals that it was at least partly a malfunction that lead to him attacking Ripley.

I think Ash attacking was either a standard safety-mechanism when the chassis (specifically the head) had sustained enough damage intentionally caused by humans (wasn't this a flawed unit?) or a specific objective (independent or programmed) that was triggered after the shove impact to kill the main threat: Ripley.

Well, in aliens : out of the shadows ash downloaded himself into the nostromo'so computer before his confrontation with ripley which could have effected his robotic body to malfunction

Shasta, I'm not sure if Lebbons book is considered canon.  I know the movie novelizations are.  I'm not trying to take anything away from Tim.  I hear his books are really good, but I can't accept that.

"How did he get into the room without the door making any noise. (really?)"

He used his 'not giving away the surprise Ninja android skillz'.

S.M - LOL, ok he must have been really good.  I mean to get into the room you have to play 10 minutes of PONG, play tick-tack-toe on the keyboard, then pull the slot machine lever to get in.

How did he get into the room without the door making any noise. (really?)

I think that was an actual oversight.

No, it was deliberate to not give away the surprise.  If you look very closely you can see the light change very briefly behind Ripley to indicate the door opening and closing, but as Ripley is so focused on the computer she doesn't hear it and so we as the audience can't hear it.

Hmm.. I had read it was a mistake. I can see how Ripley would not have heard the door but as a viewer, I would have expected to. I never even noticed until a blooper site mentioned it. Maybe some one could do a cut and have a door open that sounds like the Star Trek OS door!

It could technically be a mistake, since the door obviously makes noise, but if you had it make noise in this scene it would ruin it since Ash enters before Mother displays the 'Crew expendable' payoff.

The scene is shot with close ups on Ripley, the keyboard and the screen, so we're focused tightly on those things, so cinematically you can get away with deliberately leaving out the sound effect.

S.M even if we're focused tightly on what she is doing the problem is we're in the forest when the tree falls.

Not sure what you're saying.

S.M no quotes this time....really?  (poke poke, lol)

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's there, does it make a sound?

Rick. Do you mean that the Mother room was the forest and we didn't hear the door open (tree fall) like we did shortly before in the same scenr?

Yeah I get that, but I'm not sure how it's relevant.  The focus of the film is on Ripley uncovering something revelatory and we're finding it out as she does.  She's focused on that; we're focused on her.  She doesn't hear it so we don't.

It's the same sort of cinematic device as when someone looks around for the monster in the dark and it's nowhere to be seen, then a lightning flash shows it standing right next to them in defiance of all logic.

LOL yes dk......S.M is trying to go all technical on me.

It may have been a continuity error instead of a blatant mistake. I cannot find information stating whether it was deliberate.

I always thought that us not hearing the door open was intentionally done for the surprise factor. There are no other known 'silent door' errors are there? For this to be an error and be in this scene specifically is way too much of a coincidence for me to accept.

Indeed.

its most definitely a deliberate removal of the door noise opening and closing I believe. its not until ripley rests back in the chair that ash comes into view, thus surprising ripley and the audience. sometimes when we r so focused on one particular activity we can miss things going on around us and I think that's what is being portrayed here. ripley is so engrossed in finding out information that she doesn't realise someone has entered the room. the door does normally make a noise but its not a very specific loud clunk so could be missed

For another bit of "Ash/Door" spookery, how about after his confrontation with Ripley?  He quaffs the drink, leaves the infirmary, and the door closes behind him without (literal) digital manipulation. 

Actually all the doors close when Ripley tries to go to them and Ash does nothing but stand there.  Yeah that is creepy

Nice point and who knows if any minor damage can cause him to go a bit haywire, he is a Machine after all and if some parts of a Machine are damaged they can start to malfunction or not perform as they should.

But if the question is, did Ripley pushing him up against the Wall cause a malfunction that then made him try and force a Magazine down her throat...?

I will have to agree with SM on this and Ash realized that his plans (Special Order 937) could now well be compromised and so Ripley was expendable and she would have been a Thorn in the sides of Special Order 937 and Ash then had to eliminate her.

I think there's mundane explanations for the doors closing (ie. scope for someone to be pushing a button off screen).

Or Ash has Bluetooth.

Or did Ash suffer from a bit of what wrecked HAL9000's brain?

Lambert: You admire it. 

Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. (Italics mine.)

This has always suggested to me that Ash admired its pure unclouded instincts, himself being bothered by his own conscience, feelings of remorse and conflicted morality.  The way Ian Holm delivers the lines seems to imply something deeper: perhaps that Special Order 937 wreaked havoc with the synthetic consciousness that was 'Ash'?

Or then again, maybe it was just Bluetooth...  :)

I don't think Ash had a conscience or was capable of remorse of morality - just mimicking (possibly via Bluetooth :) ). I read that line as him having a go at the humans and how he saw them as deluding themselves than they were somehow better than the animal trying to kill them.  The Alien doesn't pretend to be something other than what it is.

It's a kind of mockery akin to David (or indeed Roy Batty's) use of "You people".

S.M You know Ash could have been connected to MUTHUR through Wifi and uploading the info to corporate on the Xeno the whole time.  Remember Call had a wireless modem, granted a couple of hundred years more advanced.  At the same time I have all sorts of gadgets at home connected to my network through wifi and bluetooth.

When Ripley enters "EMERGENCY COMMAND OVERRIDE 100375", is it possible that any attempt to override Special Order 937 is to be treated as a hostile act?

I'm wondering if Ash was programmed by W-Y with a "terminate with extreme prejudice" mode, prior to the Nostromo leaving Thedus, in the event that anything were to jeopardize the fulfillment of SO 937. 

"It's a kind of mockery akin to David (or indeed Roy Batty's) use of "You people"."

True, that. An interesting through-line across the years...and franchises. 

I can agree with the mimicry and would really expect the synthetics to be dead-pan and mechanical in their movements when not with humans, but a lot of the 'business' Holm does with the character cured me of that POV.  (The most chilling "android" moment in Alien for me is Ash's lack of expression as Dallas has his encounter with the creature.)

I rewatched Holm's scenes by himself to remind me of his performance.  The mimicry includes many unnecessary human gestures in the performance of his duties when no one is watching.

If the mimicry is so embedded in his programming, it seems that something certainly disrupted it for him to have exhibited such a restricted affect during his encounter with Ripley after SO 937 was out of the bag.

Was it a mechanic reason (damage) as has been proposed, or a breakdown in his mental processes resulting from possible conflict?  We'll never know, I suppose.

Ridley Scott's depiction of artificial humans in his films suggests some interesting assumptions on his part.  Curious that a comprehensive analysis hasn't been written yet.  Maybe with the coming movies and possibly more revelations on this topic, we might see such...or better yet, something in his own words?

Next time you watch the film watch Ash when Dallas tells Ripley and Ash to take the main airlock while he goes into the airduct.

Very interesting theory.

However, Bishop II in Alien 3 contradicts it.

Bishop 2 was human.

I'm sure it's been debated that Bishop 2 was an android.