Alien: Covenant
Alien: Covenant is a 2017 science fiction horror film directed and co-produced by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by John Logan and Dante Harper, based on a story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen. It is the sixth installment in the Alien film series and the sequel to Prometheus. It features returning star Michael Fassbender, with Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, and Demián Bichir in supporting roles. It follows the crew of a colony ship that lands on an uncharted planet and makes a terrifying discovery.
In 2012, before the release of Prometheus, Scott discussed the prospects of a sequel and new trilogy, and this film was confirmed that August. Principal photography began on April 4, 2016, at Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand, and wrapped on July 19, 2016. Effects houses Odd Studios and CreatureNFX provided the film's makeup and animatronic creature effects. Scott said the film's first cut was 2 hours and 23 minutes, which was edited down by over twenty minutes.
Alien: Covenant premiered in London on May 4, 2017. It was released by 20th Century Fox on May 12 in the United Kingdom, and on May 19 in the United States. It received generally positive reviews from critics but was considered a box office disappointment, grossing $240 million against a production budget of $97–111 million.
Plot
In 2104, the spaceship Covenant is en route to colonize the planet Origae-6, carrying 2,000 colonists and 1,140 human embryos in cryogenic stasis. A sudden supernova burst damages the ship and kills several colonists, including the captain,Branson. Walter, an advanced android, awakens key personnel to address the situation. During repairs, the crew detects a human voice broadcast from an uncharted, habitable planet. Against the protests of Branson's wife Daniels, new captain Chris Oram decides to investigate.
The crew sends a lander to the planet's surface, where an expedition team tracks the broadcast to a crashed alien ship. Two crew members are unknowingly infected by airborne spores from the local fungi. Alien creatures known as neomorphs rapidly grow inside the pair, killing them in the process, and then attack the team, resulting in the lander's destruction. One neomorph is killed before the survivors are rescued by David, a predecessor of Walter's model that was discontinued for being too human-like.
David leads the survivors to a temple surrounded by thousands of dead humanoids. He claims that he and chief science officer Elizabeth Shaw—the sole survivors of the spaceship Prometheus, which vanished ten years earlier—arrived in the alien ship. However, they lost control and it crashed, leading to Elizabeth's death and releasing a deadly pathogen that annihilated the planet's fauna. The pathogen infects any living organism, either killing it or creating aggressive hybrids.
David reveals his disappointment with Walter's model for lacking his creativity and humanity, and derides their inventor, Peter Weyland, as unworthy of his creations. David confesses his love for Elizabeth, the only person who treated him kindly. When a neomorph infiltrates the temple and kills another team member, David attempts to communicate with it but becomes enraged when Oram kills it. Confronting David, Oram learns that the android has been experimenting with the pathogen to engineer new creatures. David tricks Oram into approaching a facehugger parasite, which fatally impregnates him with a xenomorph embryo.
As the team searches for missing members, Walter discovers Elizabeth's dissected corpse, used by David in his experiments. David admits to releasing the pathogen deliberately and expresses his disgust for humanity, which he believes is a dying species that his creations will replace. Walter challenges David, pointing out inaccuracies in his understanding of human history, suggesting David's conclusions are flawed. David seemingly disables Walter, unaware of his self-repair abilities.
David attempts to use Daniels as a replacement for Elizabeth, but Walter intervenes, fighting him. Meanwhile, Dan Lope, another team member, is attacked by a facehugger but is apparently saved by a team member, Cole, before Cole is killed by Oram's fully grown xenomorph. Ship pilot Tennessee uses Covenants cargo lift to rescue Daniels, Lope, and Walter, who claims to have eliminated David. Daniels crushes the xenomorph with the lift's grabber arm, allowing the group to return to Covenant. The following morning, the crew discovers a xenomorph has burst from Lope's chest. Daniels and Tennessee lure the creature into Covenants terraforming bay and eject it into space.
The ship resumes its journey to Origae-6. As Walter places Daniels into stasis, she realizes he is actually David. Before she can act, the stasis pod renders her unconscious. Posing as Walter, David sends a transmission claiming that the crew, except Daniels and Tennessee, were killed in the supernova burst. He regurgitates two facehugger embryos, then assesses the slumbering colonists, planning to use them in his experiments.
Cast
- Michael Fassbender as David 8 and Walter One, two synthetic androids. David is an older model who was a crewmember on the destroyed Prometheus, while Walter is a newer model who monitors the Covenant.
- Katherine Waterston as Daniels "Danny", the chief of terraforming for the Covenant mission and the wife of the ship's captain, Jacob Branson. She is the third in command after Branson and Oram. Waterston said she was well aware of the comparisons that were going to be made between her and Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley, but that she tried not to think about it too much while filming for fear of being intimidated.
- Billy Crudup as Christopher "Chris" Oram, the Covenant first officer and Karine's husband. Oram is a man of faith.
- Danny McBride as Tennessee, the chief pilot of the Covenant and Maggie's husband.
- Demián Bichir as Dan Lope, the head of the security unit aboard the Covenant and Tom Hallett's husband.
- Carmen Ejogo as Karine Oram, the Covenant biologist and Chris's wife.
- Jussie Smollett as Ricks, the Covenant navigator and Upworth's husband.
- Callie Hernandez as Upworth, the Covenant communications officer and Ricks' wife; she also has paramedic training.
- Amy Seimetz as Maggie Faris, the pilot of the lander and Tennessee's wife.
- Nathaniel Dean as Tom Hallett, a member of the security unit and Lope's husband.
- Alexander England as Ankor, a member of the security unit.
- Benjamin Rigby as Ledward, a member of the security unit.
- Uli Latukefu as Cole, a member of the security unit.
- Tess Haubrich as Sarah Rosenthal, a member of the security unit.
Other credited parts include Lorelei King as the voice of the Covenant computer "Mother". Goran D. Kleut is credited in two roles, as both a neomorph and a xenomorph, while Andrew Crawford is credited as a neomorph.
Production
Development
Alien: Covenant is the second film in the Alien prequel series, and the sixth installment in the Alien franchise. It is the third Alien film to be directed by Ridley Scott. In 2012, prior to the release of Prometheus, the first prequel, director Ridley Scott began hinting at the prospect of a sequel, as Prometheus had left many questions unanswered. He said a sequel would follow Shaw, the protagonist of Prometheus, to her next destination, "because if it is paradise, paradise cannot be what you think it is. Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous." Prometheus co-writer Damon Lindelof cast doubt on his own participation, saying, "if wants me to be involved in something, that would be hard to say no to. At the same time, I do feel like the movie might benefit from a fresh voice or a fresh take or a fresh thought." In June, Scott said an additional film would be required to bridge the >100-year gap between the Prometheus sequel and Alien., 20th Century Fox was pursuing a sequel with Scott, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender involved, and talking to new writers in case Lindelof did not return. In December 2012, Lindelof ultimately chose not to work on the project. Early on, Scott stated the film would feature no xenomorphs as he wanted to phase the xenomorph out to focus on David 8, whose A.I. was the new alien lifeform. He later made statements confirming the xenomorph's presence in the film, mainly due to feedback to Prometheus.
On September 24, 2015, Scott disclosed the film's title as Alien: Paradise Lost. In November 2015, he revealed the new title was Alien: Covenant, and that filming would begin in February 2016 in Australia. An official logo, synopsis and release date were released on November 16, 2015. In an interview about the development of the David character since Prometheus, Scott described the dark turn David would take in Covenant: "He hates them. He has no respect for Engineers and no respect for human beings."