After the principal shows a movie about aliens made by a director named James Finson, Finson announces that he plans to make a movie in the city, using the factory as the prime location. The group would rather not have people setting up shop in their factory, so Ulrich tries to convince Finson that making a movie there would be a bad idea.
All his efforts achieve the opposite result, and he's even given a part in the movie, but the principal won't let him miss school. Sissi, who wants to be in the movie, convinces her father to let Ulrich miss school so she'll get a part. While Ulrich is guarding the lower levels, X.A.N.A. possesses the alien monster prop and uses it to capture Ulrich and Sissi and use them as bait for the others. Because of this, Yumi heads to the factory but eventually gets trapped with them. Even though she blocks the door the XANA-possessed monster gets in after awhile. It uses its tentacles to strangle Ulrich and Yumi, forcing Sissi to watch such a scene. Aelita deactivates the right tower before Yumi and Ulrich choke to death, Jeremie then activates a time reversion. In the end, Ulrich is able to convince Finson to not make the movie by using James' ego and saying that there was already a film about aliens filmed in the factory.
This episode contains examples of:
- Berserk Button: Finson's is anybody questioning his originality in any way, shape, or form. He tosses a hissy fit when Ulrich says that his alien design reminds him of the one of the Alien franchise, insisting that it's an original design, and once the team returns to the past they avoid the whole mess of him using the factory as a film set by talking that they think the place was used in another sci-fi film before (but that they can't seem to recall), which makes Finson pull stakes and seek another location immediately.
- Captain Ersatz: A prima donna director well known for films about aliens? They weren't even trying to hide it.
- Cue the Flying Pigs:Sissy: Or what, Ulrich? An alien's going to shoot goopy goo all over me?note
- Elevator Action Sequence: Leads to Elevator Failure, which Sissi and Ulrich escape via the elevator hatch, and then into an Air-Vent Passageway.
- Expy Coexistence: Whatever that alien monster is called that Finson made, versus the Alien franchise, though this is only implied, as Ulrich and co. never name the film in question.
- Glad I Thought of It: Inverted, as Finson can be seen arguing with his producer over the phone at the end for "lying" about the location having never been used for a film before. He denies ever coming up with the idea, much to the producer's irritation.
- Homage: To the Alien Franchise, neatly Lampshaded by Ulrich at the start of the episode:Ulrich: (looking at the alien amused) "Funny, but it makes me think of the Alien in that film... I can't remember the name-"
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: At one point Ulrich loses a shoe, thanks to the prop alien grabbing it. He goes without it for the rest of the episode until the return trip.
- Never Say "Die": Sissi wonders to herself why XANA let her Ulrich live after cornering them, but stutters and doesn't complete the thought before she can actually say "kill."
- Parental Bonus: This entire episode is set up like a horror movie, making references to similar scenes seen in the genre; such as the monster punching through walls and metal to get at their victims, close-ups of the alien multiple times, strangling Yumi and Ulrich, Sissi and Ulrich moving from room to room to escape the Super-Persistent Predator; hell, even the In-Universe movie shoots the alien without cutting away from the gore or the action (a very rare sight in kids shows). Oh, and it references Alien, a franchise no kid should know of yet.
- Pet the Dog: For all his egotism, Finson is nice enough to invite Ulrich as a technical advisor for his film after the boy accidentally causes him to settle on shooting in the factory. He also praises people who have a lot of nerve such as Ulrich and Sissi.
- Prima Donna Director: James Finson fits this to a tee. He doesn't appreciate his originality being questioned despite the obvious homage/rip-off his monsters have to the Alien franchise.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Principal Delmas, at first, refuses to allow Ulrich to work with Finson's crew on the movie, even after the director offered to put Delmas' name in the Special Thanks section of the closing credits. He caves after Sissi talks him into it.
- Skewed Priorities: James Finson reaction to the Lyoko Warriors (and Sissi) fleeing from his animated creature is to order his crew to go after the children in spite of the monster in front of them. They get promptly slimed to the wall for their foolishness, with Finson following not long after after trying to order "his creation" around.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Subverted, as while Finson is reasonably well-known in the movie world of the Lyoko-verse, he isn't nearly as clever, original, or as cool as he'd have you think. His reaction to Ulrich pointing out his latest monster's similarity to a xenomorph, plus his vain attempt to get the possessed alien to obey him show just how far up his own ass he can be.
- Smug Snake: James Finson shows signs of it. He's hardly a full-on villain but is still enough of a jerk to qualify.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The alien constantly chases Sissi and Ulrich, and then later Yumi, all three of which nearly succumbing to the monster.
- Too Dumb to Live: In addition to the skewed priorities with ordering his crew to focus on catching the kids, which in itself counts as an example, Finson thinks he can order the alien to stop and grabs its tail when it's focusing on pursuing the children. He gets pinned to the wall by the beast for his trouble.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Technically, Finson created the xenomorph ripoff, which was possessed by XANA and couldn't care less about Finson's vision. It was made perfectly clear when he initially vied to ignore Finson and focused on Yumi and Ulrich instead.
- The Unfettered: Nothing will stop James Finson from shooting in the factory. Ulrich's attempts to discourage him with rumors of it being haunted and poor filming conditions only serve to warm him up to the concept.
- The Juggernaut: The alien constantly breaks through walls, doors and even the elevator floor in an attempt to kill Sissi and Ulrich.
- Xenomorph Xerox: The Monster of the Week is an animatronic rip-off of the Xenomorph that was created for James Finson's film. In fact, it's so similar to a Xenomorph (the only true difference is the Predator-style dreads on its head, which it uses as Combat Tentacles when XANA takes over) that it gets lampshaded In-Universe and Finson has to insist that he didn't rip it off from any other film. A clip of another film Finson made earlier in his career is played for the students at the beginning of the episode and another Xenomorph rip-off appears as a monster in it, one that has some similarities with the "Deacon".
