Weyland Corporation
Weyland Corp is a multi-national corporation with a stock worth of $218 trillion in 2093, specializing and developing in major advancements in technology such as holographics, off-world colonization, FTL travel, and others. Weyland Corp soon became the first company in history to make $100 billion within five years due to massive successes in technological advances. At some point in the 21st Century, the British corporation Weyland Corp eventually merged with the Japanese company Yutani Corporation and became the antecedents to the Weyland-Yutani comglomerate corporation.
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In this TED 2023 speech Peter Weyland says that now, after many centuries of laborious and toilsome development, people have finally become gods; they reached a stage where there are no limits to their aspirations. They are able to solve all humanity’s problems and secrets, and are ready to start occupying cosmic space.
In January 7, 2024, Weyland manufactures the first advanced android prototype model of its kind. He is affectionately called David, a name Sir Peter Weyland had initially reserved for his own human son. A short time later the Japanese start-up Yutani Corporation files a lawsuit against Sir Peter Weyland for the patent of the android. After years of litigation, Weyland wins the David patent lawsuit against the Yutani Corporation, in December 12, 2029, effectively protecting the investments of both Weyland Industries and its shareholders.
By the time the mission lands on LV-223, Holloway asks Meredith Vickers, the company’s representative on Prometheus, whether Weyland Corporation is pursuing an unknown agenda. She patronizingly replies, “My company paid a trillion dollars to find this place and to bring you here. If you had raised this money yourself we would happily be pursuing your agenda. But you didn’t. And that makes you an employee.” This theme—that of a company devaluing its employees and their interests—permeates the narrative of the Alien franchise. It is part of why Weyland Corporation, and its descendants, embodies the notion of the evil corporation.
Over the years, Weyland’s health begins to decline. In 2089, archeologist Elizabeth Shaw contacted Weyland to share her discovery at a cave located in the Isle of Skye regarding a star map that she interpreted as an invitation from humanity’s forerunners, or “Engineers”. Believing that this would save him from death, Weyland funds the creation of the scientific vessel Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223. However, he also left his company in ruin, leaving his daughter Meredith Vickers to run the entire company all by herself.
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