Some thoughts on the titles of the Alien movies

So, the first three Alien movies in order are:

Alien
Aliens
Alien³

I have always loved the progression of the first to the second, and hated the hokey superscript of the third. Even the Wikipedia article seems to do away with it entirely and simply call the movie Alien 3. I wish to retract my annoyance, at least a little bit. Here's why:

if Alien = singular = 1 and
Aliens = plural = >1
then
Alien³ = (singular)³ = 1³ = 1

So, it works. In the first movie they fight one alien, in the second they fight more than one, and in the third they fight only one, but with the ominous suspicion that exponentiation might be a problem (Ripley's concern that she is hosting a potential queen). I still think it looks silly, in a Cube 2: Hypercube kind of way, but it works for me now. It's too bad every other aspect of the movie doesn't.

Side note: thinking about the movie titles in this way also makes AVP more palatable as it can be read as simple logic notation: A v P. You may end up with just one, both might survive, but we can guarantee you won't leave with neither.