Alien: Covenant
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, it is a sequel to Prometheus (2012), the second entry in the Alien prequel series, and the sixth installment in the series but counting crossovers eighth film in the overall Alien franchise (three of which have been directed by Scott). 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.
Alien: Covenant
- John Logan
- Dante Harper
- Jack Paglen
- Michael Green
- David Giler
- Walter Hill
- Ridley Scott
- Mark Huffam
- Michael Schaefer
20th Century Fox
- May 4, 2017 (Odeon Leicester Square)
- May 12, 2017 (United Kingdom)
- May 19, 2017 (United States)
122 minutes[2]
English
$240.9 million[4]
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 mostly positive reviews from critics but underperformed at the box office; its worldwide gross was $240 million against a production budget of approximately $100 million, not including marketing costs.
Plot[edit]
In a prologue,[a] business magnate Peter Weyland speaks with his newly activated android in a lakeside apartment. The android chooses the name "David" for himself after observing Michelangelo's statue. Weyland states that one day they will search for mankind's creator together. David comments on his unlimited lifespan as compared to Weyland's, which unsettles Weyland.
In 2104 AD, 11 years after the Prometheus expedition, the colonization 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 neutrino burst damages the ship, Walter reanimates the human crewmates. The ship's captain, Jake Branson, is incinerated 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, the new captain, Christopher Oram, decides they will investigate.
With pilot Tennessee maintaining Covenant in orbit, his wife Faris flies a lander to the planet's surface, where an expedition team tracks the transmission's signal to a crashed alien ship. Crewmembers Ledward and Hallett are infected by spores from fungus-like organisms. Oram's wife, Karine, helps the rapidly deteriorating Ledward back to the lander, where Faris quarantines both inside the med-bay. A small pale alien creature (neomorph) bursts from Ledward's back, killing him, and mauls Karine to death. Faris tries to kill the creature with a shotgun but triggers an explosion that kills her and destroys the lander. Nearby in the fields, another neomorph bursts from Hallett's mouth, killing him. The creatures attack the remaining crew, killing crew member Ankor. The remaining crew kills one neomorph before David, who survived the Prometheus mission, appears and scares off the other.
David leads the crew to a temple in a city full of dead humanoids. He tells them that, upon his and fellow Prometheus survivor Elizabeth Shaw's arrival at the planet, their ship accidentally released a pathogen that annihilated all fauna on the planet and that Shaw perished when the ship crashed. Attempts to radio the Covenant are prevented by ion storms. When the remaining neomorph infiltrates the temple and kills crewmember Rosenthal, David tries to communicate with it and is incensed when Oram shoots it dead. Oram questions David, who reveals the aliens are a result of his releasing and experimenting with the pathogen to produce new lifeforms, before tricking Oram into being attacked by a facehugger. A new form of creature 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 that his designed creature is a "perfect organism" that will eradicate them. When Walter disagrees, David incapacitates him and threatens Daniels. Walter heals himself and engages David, allowing Daniels to escape.
Elsewhere, another facehugger attacks security chief Dan Lope. Crewmember Cole quickly cuts it off, 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 a lander to extract Daniels, Lope and Walter, who says David has "expired". They kill the attacking xenomorph and return to the Covenant.
The next morning, Daniels and Tennessee discover a xenomorph has burst from Lope's chest, killing him, and is loose on the Covenant. It matures and kills crewmembers Ricks and Upworth while they are in the shower having sex. Daniels and Tennessee lure the creature into Covenant's terraforming bay and eject it into space.
Covenant resumes its voyage to Origae-6. As Walter puts Daniels in stasis, she realizes he is actually David but is unable to escape from her pod before falling asleep. David regurgitates two facehugger embryos, which he places in cold storage with the human embryos and inspects the colonists. Posing as Walter, he sends a transmission in which he says all crew members except Daniels and Tennessee were killed by the earlier solar-flare incident.
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 shortly before the destruction of the Prometheus.[16] James Franco appears onscreen in photos and a video as Jacob Branson, the original captain of the Covenant and deceased husband of Daniels; he also appears in deleted scenes and a short promotional prologue to Covenant.[17] Noomi Rapace, who played archaeologist Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus, 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.[18][19]
Other credited parts include Lorelei King as the voice of the Covenant's computer "Mother".[20] Goran D. Kleut is credited in two roles, as both a neomorph and a xenomorph,[21] while Andrew Crawford is credited as a neomorph.[22]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
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 the first prequel (the fifth Alien film overall), Prometheus, director Ridley Scott began hinting at the prospect of a sequel, as Prometheus had left many questions unanswered.[23][24][25] 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 [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."[26] In June, Scott said an additional film would be required to bridge the >100-year gap between the Prometheus sequel and Alien.[27]
As of August 1, 2012, Fox was pursuing a sequel with Scott, Noomi Rapace, and Michael Fassbender involved, and talking to new writers in case Lindelof did not return.[28] In December 2012, Lindelof ultimately chose not to work on the project.[29] 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.[30][31] He later made statements confirming the xenomorph's presence in the film, mainly due to feedback to Prometheus.[32][33]
On September 24, 2015, Scott disclosed the film's title as Alien: Paradise Lost.[34] In November 2015, he revealed the new title was Alien: Covenant, and that filming would begin in February 2016 in Australia.[35] An official logo, synopsis and release date were released on November 16, 2015.[36] 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."[37]
Release[edit]
In the run up to release, 20th Century Fox released a number of short prologue films as part of the marketing for Alien: Covenant. The first, called Prologue: Last Supper, was directed by Ridley Scott's son Luke Scott and features the crew of the Covenant having a last meal before they enter cryosleep.[85] The second prologue, called The Crossing and directed by Ridley Scott, reveals what happened to Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and the android David (Michael Fassbender) following the ending of Prometheus.[86] Another was called Meet Walter, starring Michael Fassbender and directed by Luke Scott, which was a fictional advertisement for the Walter series of androids.[87]
Alien: Covenant premiered on May 4, 2017, at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.[88] The film was released on May 19 in the United States.[89][90][88] It was originally set to be released on October 6, 2017, before being moved up to August 4, and then again to its final date.[91][92]
The version of the film released in China on June 16, 2017, was six minutes shorter than the version released elsewhere due to censorship with most of the scenes involving the aliens[93] and a scene where the two characters played by Michael Fassbender kiss having been cut.[94][95] The film was released in Japan on September 15, 2017.[96] The Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD releases of the film came out on August 15, 2017. The home release includes an audio commentary by the director and 22 minutes of deleted scenes and unused footage from the first cut of the film.[97]
Adaptations[edit]
Novelization[edit]
The theatrical release of the film was accompanied by the release of a novelization by Alan Dean Foster, who also authored the novelization of the original Alien film.[98] A companion volume about the film's art and stage design was released at the same time, written by Simon Ward and titled The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant.[99]
A second Covenant novel by Foster was initially billed as a sequel to the film, before being revealed to be a direct prequel to Covenant under the title Alien: Covenant – Origins.[100] Titan Books, as publisher of the book, released a plot summary in advance of its release on September 26, 2017:
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Alien: Covenant underperformed at the box office grossing 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,[4][106] not including marketing costs.[107] The film was a box office disappointment for the studio, especially when compared to Prometheus which had grossed a worldwide total of $403.4 million.[107][108]
Fox released the film in several countries before the United States.[109][110] 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 Vol. 2.[111] 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).[111] In China, the film was released on June 16 and grossed $30 million, topping the box office.[112][113] 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 theaters during its opening weekend.[114][115] It made $4.3 million from Thursday-night previews at about 3,000 theaters, and $15.4 million overall on its first day, which was below the $21.5 million Friday of Prometheus five years prior.[116] It went on to open to $36.2 million, down 30% from Prometheus's debut, but still finishing first at the box office,[4] as the third-highest debut of the series when not counting for inflation.[117][118][119] In its second weekend, the film grossed $10.5 million, finishing fourth at the box office and dropping 70.9%.[120][121][122] The film was pulled from 1,112 theaters in its third weekend and dropped another 62.3%, finishing sixth at the box office with $4 million.[123]
