Introduction

Alien: Covenant is a 2017 science fiction horror film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by John Logan and Dante Harper, from a story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen.

A joint American and British production, the film is a sequel to Prometheus (2012) and is the second instalment in the Alien prequel series and the sixth instalment in the Alien franchise, as well as the third directed by Scott.

The film features returning star Michael Fassbender and Katherine Waterston, with 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.

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Outline

Business magnate Peter Weyland speaks with his newly activated android, who chooses the name “David” after observing Michelangelo’s statue. Weyland states that one day they will search for mankind’s creator together. David comments on his own unlimited lifespan as compared to Weyland’s, which unsettles Weyland.

In 2104, eleven years after the Prometheus expedition, the colonisation ship Covenant is seven years from reaching planet Origae-6, with 2,000 colonists in stasis and 1,140 human embryos in cold storage. The ship is monitored by Walter, an advanced android model that physically resembles David. When a shockwave damages the ship, Walter reanimates his 14 human crewmates, themselves couples and colonists. The ship’s captain, Jake Branson, is burned alive when his stasis pod malfunctions. While repairing the ship, the crew picks up a transmission of a human voice from a nearby planet, which appears eminently more habitable than Origae-6. Despite the protests of Daniels, Branson’s widow, that this new “perfect” planet is too good to be true, newly-promoted captain Chris Oram decides that they will check the new planet.

With pilot Tennessee maintaining Covenant in orbit, his wife Maggie flies a small lander to the Earth-like planet’s surface, where an expedition team tracks the transmission’s signal to a crashed alien ship. Crewmates Ledward and Hallett are infected by spores from fungus-like organisms. Oram’s wife Karine helps the increasingly ill Ledward back to the lander, where Maggie quarantines them inside the med-bay. A small pale alien creature (neomorph) bursts from Ledward’s back, killing him, and then mauls Karine to death. Maggie returns and attempts to kill the creature with a shotgun, but triggers an explosion which kills her and destroys the lander. Nearby in the fields, another neomorph bursts from Hallett’s mouth, killing him. The neomorphs attack the remaining crew, killing crew member Ankor. The crew manages to kill one before David, who survived the Prometheus mission, appears and scares off the neomorph.

He leads the crew to a temple in a city full of dead humanoids. David tells them that upon his and fellow Prometheus survivor Elizabeth Shaw’s arrival at the planet, their ship accidentally released a virus which annihilated all fauna on the planet, and that Shaw perished when the ship crashed. Meanwhile, attempts to radio the Covenant are stymied by ion storms. When the remaining neomorph infiltrates the temple and kills crew member Rosenthal, David tries to communicate with the creature, and is horrified when Oram kills it. Oram questions David, who reveals that the Aliens are a result of his releasing and experimenting with the pathogen to produce new lifeforms. He manipulates Oram into being attacked by a Facehugger Alien. A new form of Alien, the Xenomorph, later erupts from Oram’s chest, killing him.

As the others search for Oram and Rosenthal, Walter finds Shaw’s dissected corpse, used by David as material for his evolving creature designs. David states that humanity is a dying and unworthy species, and his designed creature is a “perfect organism” set to eradicate them. When Walter disagrees, David disables him, then threatens Daniels. Walter’s advanced systems self-repair, and he attacks David while Daniels escapes. Crewmate Cole quickly cuts another facehugger off security chief Dan Lope, leaving Lope with acid burns on his face. The now fully grown xenomorph kills Cole, while Lope escapes and meets up with Daniels. Tennessee arrives in another lander to extract Daniels, Lope, and Walter, who says David has “expired”. They kill the attacking xenomorph and return to Covenant.

The next morning, Daniels and Tennessee discover that another xenomorph burst from Lope’s chest, killing him, and is loose on the Covenant. It matures, and kills crew members Upworth and her husband Ricks. Final crew members Tennessee and Daniels lure the creature into Covenant’s terraforming bay and kill it.

Covenant resumes its voyage to Origae-6. As Walter helps Daniels into stasis, she realises that Walter is in fact David, but is unable to escape from her pod before falling asleep. David regurgitates two facehugger embryos and places them in cold storage with the human embryos.

He poses as Walter to record a log stating that all crewmembers except Daniels and Tennessee were killed by the solar flare incident at the beginning of the film and that the ship is still on course for Origae-6.

Cast

• Michael Fassbender as David 8 and Walter One.
  • Both are synthetic androids; David is an earlier-made android, who was formerly a crew member of the destroyed Prometheus, while Walter is a newer model android who monitors the Covenant.
• Katherine Waterston as Daniels:
  • The chief of terraforming for the Covenant mission and the wife/widow 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 Chris Oram:
  • The Covenant’s first mate and Karine’s husband. Oram is a self-serious man of faith who believes their role on the Covenant is an act of destiny, and shares a “contentious” relationship with Daniels.
• Danny McBride as Tennessee Faris:
  • 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 husband of Sergeant Hallett.
• Carmen Ejogo as Karine Oram:
  • The Covenant’s biologist and Chris’ wife.
• Jussie Smollett as Ricks:
  • The Covenant’s navigator and Upworth’s husband.
• Callie Hernandez as Upworth:
  • The Covenant’s communication officer and Ricks’ wife; she also has paramedic training.
• Amy Seimetz as Maggie Faris:
  • The lander’s pilot 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.

A number of actors appear in uncredited roles. Guy Pearce reprises his role as Peter Weyland, the trillionaire founder and CEO of Weyland Corporation (the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in “later” storylines) who died before the destruction of the Prometheus. James Franco appears onscreen in photos and a video as Jacob Branson, the original captain of the Covenant and husband of Daniels; he also appears in deleted scenes. Noomi Rapace had played archaeologist Dr. Elizabeth Shaw as a member of the destroyed Prometheus in the prequel film, and appeared in a short promotional prologue to Covenant that was set in the period between the two movies, but does not act in the final cut of the movie itself, though her voice is heard from the planet early in the film and her image and voice appear later. Logan Marshall-Green’s character Charlie Holloway, also from Prometheus, also appears in an archive image alongside Shaw.

Other credited parts include Lorelei King as the voice of the Covenant’s computer “Mother”; King was a colleague of Helen Horton, the voice of the Nostromo’s “Mother” in 1979’s Alien. 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

In 2012, prior to the release of Prometheus, director Ridley Scott began hinting at the prospects of a sequel. Scott said that a sequel would follow Shaw 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, and said, “if [Scott] 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.” Scott said that an additional film would be required to bridge the >100-year gap between the Prometheus sequel and Alien.

As of 01 August 2012, Fox was pursuing a sequel with Scott, Noomi Rapace, and Michael Fassbender involved, and was 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 that the film would feature no xenomorphs, “The beast is done. Cooked.” However, Scott later made contradictory statements, confirming the xenomorphs’ presence in the film.

On 24 September 2015, Scott disclosed the film’s title as Alien: Paradise Lost. In November 2015, Scott revealed the new title to be Alien: Covenant, and filming was set to begin in February 2016 in Australia. An official logo, synopsis and release date were released on 16 November 2015. During an interview concerning the development of the character of David since Prometheus, Scott indicated the dark turn which David would take in Covenant, saying, “‘He hates them. He has no respect for Engineers and no respect for human beings.’”

Writing

The initial screenplay was written by Transcendence screenwriter Jack Paglen in June 2013. In March 2014, Michael Green was hired to rewrite Paglen’s script. Dante Harper later wrote a new script but an extensive rewrite was performed by screenwriter John Logan. Logan had previously worked with Scott on Gladiator. For Logan, the main concept was to adopt a dual plot line for the film which would combine the horror elements of Alien with the philosophical elements of Prometheus. He said, “With Alien: Covenant, I just really wanted to write something that had the feel of the original Alien, because seeing that movie was one of the great events of my youth. It was so overpowering in terms of what it communicated to me and its implications, that when I started talking to Ridley about what became Alien: Covenant, I said, ‘You know, that was a hell of a scary movie.’ I wanted to write a horror movie because the Grand Guignol elements of Alien are so profound. We tried to recapture that with Alien: Covenant, while also trying to pay homage to the deeper implications of Prometheus. In terms of tone, pace, and how we chose to play this particular symphony, we wanted to create a really frightening movie.”

Pre-production

In late August 2015, Scott confirmed that he had started scouting locations for the film. In October 2015, the Australian government attracted the production of the film, and of Thor: Ragnarok, to Australia by providing AU$47.25 million in grants. Woz Productions Ltd., a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, visited Te Anau, New Zealand on 28 March 2016 for a location scout, for filming in Fiordland.

Casting

In August 2015, it was announced that the film would star Rapace and Fassbender, while Rik Barnett was in talks to join the cast. That December, Katherine Waterston was cast in the lead role of Daniels; it was Waterston’s second film alongside Fassbender, after Steve Jobs. Summer Glau, Carolyn Murphy and Alice Eve were also being considered. Dariusz Wolski, longtime collaborator with Scott, was confirmed to serve as the film’s cinematographer. In 2016, Ridley Scott stated that Noomi Rapace would not reprise her role of Elizabeth Shaw. However, in June, it was announced that Rapace would shoot weeks’ worth of scenes (though no new footage of hers appeared in the final film). Creature designer Carlos Huantes said in a 2019 interview that he believed it was the studio’s decision to remove her from the film.

In February 2016, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Jussie Smollett, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo, Callie Hernandez, Billy Crudup, and Alexander England were reported to have joined the cast. In March 2016, newcomer Benjamin Rigby also joined the cast. In December 2016, it was announced James Franco had been added to the film, as Captain Branson, husband to Daniels and captain of the Covenant. The role of Branson in the film was limited to a cameo appearance of the deceased captain.

Production Design

In an article for Cinemablend from May 2017 titled “Mythbusters’ Adam Savage Toured The Set Of Alien: Covenant, And It’s Wonderful”, Connor Schwerdfeger included a five-minute short video of Savage’s discussion of several of the props and stage sets used in the production design for the filming of different scenes from the film. In an article for The Hollywood Reporter on 18 May 2017 titled “‘Alien: Covenant’: How the Xenomorph Continues to Horrify Audiences Decades Later”, Patrick Shanley interviewed the art director for the film, Damien Drew, and creature design supervisor Conor O’Sullivan, regarding the involvement of the San Diego Zoo and its representative Rick Schwartz as a consultant for the design of the realistic effects of the creatures and Xenomorphs appearing throughout the film.

The VFX supervisor Charles Henley summarised the several vendors that were used to support production of the visual special effects seen in the film when the selection process was discussed, stating: “Both history and need guided the decisions on which vendors we used. Ridley had worked with MPC on many previous projects, in particular Prometheus for which I was MPC’s VFX supervisor as well as The Martian. There had a been a lot of great digital double and creature work done at MPC on recent projects so there was confidence they should be the lead facility. Framestore had recently worked with Ridley on space for The Martian, similarly Animal Logic now had the original crew who did the holograms for Prometheus. Also as we were shooting in Australia there was good reason and incentives to use Australian-based companies and so Luma and Rising Sun came on board.”

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on 04 April 2016, at Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand, and wrapped on 19 July 2016.

Effects houses Odd Studios and CreatureNFX provided the film’s makeup and animatronic creature effects, respectively, while Australian-based effects house Animal Logic provided the film’s digital visual effects. Approximately 30 people from CreatureNFX worked on the project for almost six months building animatronics. Actors wearing creature suits with animatronic heads were used to portray the aliens.

Post-production

Pietro Scalia, the editor of the film, spoke of the structural difficulty of integrating the two story lines in the final editing of the film in an interview with the ProVideo Coalition stating: “We moved some pieces around structurally dealing with when do we leave, what action or story beats on the planet and when to go back onto the spaceship. There were several longer beats between Farris and Tennessee trying to establish communication. Going back and forth too many times tended to make the journey to the Juggernaut and the Engineer’s City belaboured and tedious. We combined certain scenes between Farris and Tennessee, eliminated the walking and talking through the forest, getting the ground crew up the mountain quicker. Later on, after the attack in the Med Bay on the lander, we held back going back to Tennessee, for the part where he says: ‘I never heard my wife so scared before’, not after her death as scripted but after the second Neomorph birth as to not interrupt the momentum. The middle part of the film was more challenging after the reveal of David. Once the Covenant story merges with the Prometheus storyline, finding the proper structural order of the scenes proved to be difficult because of the distinctive dynamics of the two story lines in addition to the separation of the two locations of the action. In one sense, the action, the tension and unfolding drama going from one group to the other had to be balanced and spaced properly as not to lose the connective tissue of the film.”

Filming Countries

The complete list of countries representing the origin of the film was identified by BFI at the Sight and Sound as: UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand. Previous partial lists often listed only one of the four countries involved in the development and production of the film.

Music

The musical score for Alien: Covenant was written by Australian musician and composer Jed Kurzel. Initially, Harry Gregson-Williams was selected as the film’s composer. When the first trailer was released in late 2016, Kurzel was revealed as the replacement for Gregson-Williams. Themes from Jerry Goldsmith’s original score for Alien were incorporated, as well as themes from Marc Streitenfeld’s and Harry Gregson-Williams’ score for Prometheus. A version of “Nature Boy” sung by Norwegian singer and songwriter Aurora was used in the first trailer, while another song, “Under the Water”, was used in an extended promotional footage featuring the character Daniels (Katherine Waterston) battling a xenomorph.

Melanie De Biasio’s track I Feel You – Eels Remix was used as the soundtrack for the in-universe short movie “Meet Walter” starring Michael Fassbender, that was created to promote the movie.

Additional song credits include: “Theme from Alien” composed by Jerry Goldsmith, “Das Rheingold, Scene 4: Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla” composed by Richard Wagner, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver, “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” by Fred Gilbert, “Ancient Flute”, “Life” and “We Were Right” composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, and “Let Me Down Easy” by Paolo Nutini.

Release

Alien: Covenant premiered on 04 May 2017, at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. The film was released on 19 May in the US, in 2D and IMAX 2D. It was originally set to be released on 06 October 2017 before being moved up to 04 August, and then again to its final date.

The film was released in Mainland China on 16 June 2017, but is trimmed by 6 minutes, leaving the film total released length in China at 116 minutes. It is very likely that the move was due to usual censorship by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, because of the monstrous violence depicted in the movie.

Alien: Covenant was released in Japan on 15 September 2017.

Novelisation

The release of the film was accompanied by a novelisation of the film by Alan Dean Foster, who also authored the novelisation of the original Alien film from the 1970’s. A companion volume of the art and stage design of the film was released at the same time, written by Simon Ward and titled The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant.

A second Covenant novel by Foster was initially billed as a book sequel to the film to be released in September 2017, before being revealed as a direct prequel to Covenant under the title Alien: Covenant – Origins. Titan Books, as the publisher for this direct prequel, released a plot summary promoting the release of the book on 26 September 2017.

Home Media

Alien: Covenant was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 15 August 2017. The home release includes an audio commentary by the director, and 22 minutes of missing scenes and unused footage from the first cut of the film.

Virtual Reality Experience

On 26 April 2017, 20th Century Fox released Alien: Covenant In Utero, a virtual reality interactive demo teaser for Alien: Covenant for the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR. The experience was produced by RSA, FoxNext VR, MPC, Mach1, AMD Radeon, and Dell Alienware. The trailer is a first-person experience in which the viewer plays the role of a neomorph. The experience was executive produced by Scott, and directed by David Karlak.

Box Office

Alien: Covenant grossed a worldwide total of $240.9 million, including $74.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $166.6 million in other countries, against a production budget of $97 million.

Fox released the film in several countries before the US. It was released in 34 markets, where it debuted to $40.1 million, opening at number one in 19 of them. Its overall rank for the weekend was second behind the continued run of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 02. The top openings were in South Korea ($7.2 million), the UK ($6.4 million), France ($4.5 million), Australia ($3.1 million), and Mexico ($2.5 million). In China, the film was released on June 16 and grossed $30 million, topping the box office.

In North America, the film was released alongside Everything, Everything and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, and was projected to gross around $40 million from 3,760 theatres during its opening weekend. It made $4.3 million from Thursday-night previews at about 3,000 theatres, and $15.4 million overall on its first day, which was below the $21.5 million Friday of Prometheus five years prior. It went on to open to $36.2 million, down 34% from Prometheus’s debut, but still finishing first at the box office, as the third-highest debut of the series. In its second weekend, the film grossed $10.5 million, finishing fourth at the box office and dropping 70.9%. The film was pulled from 1,112 theatres in its third weekend and dropped another 62.3%, finishing sixth at the box office with $4 million.

Accolades

At the 44th Saturn Awards, the film was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film, but lost to Blade Runner 2049, another film by Scott Free Productions. Ridley Scott was executive producer of this film.

Future

In September 2015, Ridley Scott said he was planning two sequels to Prometheus, which would lead into the first Alien film, adding, “Maybe [there will] even [be] a fourth film before we get back into the Alien franchise” (which means there would be not two but three sequels to Prometheus). In November 2015, Scott confirmed that Alien: Covenant would be the first of three additional films in the Alien prequel series, before linking up with the original Alien and stated that the Prometheus sequels would reveal who created the xenomorph aliens. The screenplay for the third prequel film was written during production of Alien: Covenant and finished in 2017, with production scheduled to begin in 2018. In March 2017, Scott said, “If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six. I’m not going to close it down again. No way.” In May, Scott announced that Neill Blomkamp’s sequel to James Cameron’s film Aliens had been cancelled. In a later interview, he said he would have participated as a producer but that 20th Century Fox had decided not to pursue the project.

In an interview, Ridley Scott confirmed the next film sequel will include surviving engineers who were away from their planet while David destroyed its indigenous population. Michael Reyes, writing for Cinema Blend in July 2017, quoted Scott stating that if Sigourney Weaver could reprise her role as Ellen Ripley in the prequels, then “Well, we’re heading toward the back end of the first Alien so [using CGI] may be feasible. Ripley’s going to be somebody’s daughter, obviously. We’re coming in from the back end. The time constraints of what’s the time between this film, where we leave David going off heading for that colony, I think you’re probably two films out from even considering her.” In the audio commentary for Alien: Covenant, Scott confirmed that a sequel to Alien: Covenant, tentatively referred to as “Alien: Covenant 2”, is being written by John Logan, with Fassbender, Waterston, and McBride reprising their roles. Scott also confirmed that the film will complete his prequel series, leading directly into the events of Alien.

By September 2017, chief executive officer of 20th Century Fox Stacey Snider, stated that although Alien: Covenant was a financial disappointment, the studio intends to proceed with Ridley’s sequel. In late September 2017, screen-graphics designer Carl Braga announced that the project had been delayed. In October 2017, Ridley Scott stated that “Alien: Covenant 2” will focus more on the androids and A.I.s as opposed to the xenomorphs. Scott said, “I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.s. The world that the A.I. might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one.” In November 2018, it was announced that the film would take place on LV-426, with the extraterrestrial Engineers being featured in the film and being in pursuit of David 8, following his nefarious actions against Planet 4.

At the 2019 CinemaCon, it was stated that after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney “will continue to create new stories” in the Alien series. In May 2019, Variety reported that another prequel is reportedly “in the script phase”, with Ridley Scott attached to direct.

Trivia

• In 2012, prior to the release of Prometheus, Ridley Scott discussed the prospects of a sequel and new trilogy, and the film was confirmed that August.
• Principal photography began on 04 April 2016, at Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand, and wrapped on 19 July 2016.
• Effects houses Odd Studios and CreatureNFX provided the film’s makeup and animatronic creature effects.
• Scott said that the first cut of the film was two hours and twenty-three minutes long, and was eventually edited down to the two hours and three minutes of the released version.
• The film received generally favourable reviews from critics but underperformed at the box office.
• On a budget of $97-111 million the film grossed $240.9 million at the box office.

Crossover

The Alien vs. Predator franchise combines the continuities of the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise and consists of two films as well as various series of comics, books, and video games.

Alien Series

You can find a full index and overview of the Alien Series here.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Ridley Scott.
• Producer(s): David Giler, Walter Hill, Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, and Michael Schaefer.
• Writer(s): John Logan and Dante Harper.
• Music: Jed Kurzel.
• Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski.
• Editor(s): Pietro Scalia.
• Production: 20th Century Fox, Brandywine Productions, TSG Entertainment, and Scott Free Productions.
• Distributor(s): 20th Century Fox.
• Release Date: 04 May 2017 (Odeon Leicester Square), 12 May 2017 (UK general release), and 19 May 2017 (US).
• Running Time: 122 minutes.
• Rating: 15.
• Country: UK and US.
• Language: English.

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