| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kk9e6ddko5ny.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} The path to paradise begins in hell.]]'']] |
| 3 | ->''"You've all sacrificed so much to be here. To be a part of this--the first ever large-scale colonization mission to go this far into our galaxy. We're making history, and everyone back on Earth is really grateful--for your hard work, and your courage. I just wanna say that I couldn't pick a better bunch of jerks to get marooned on a distant planet with! So, um... To the '''Covenant'''!"'' |
| 4 | -->-- '''Lt. Daniels''', TemptingFate in the film's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXgRlRao5I prologue]]. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ''Alien: Covenant'' is a SciFiHorror film released on May 19, 2017 directed by Creator/RidleyScott, based on a story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen, with a screenplay by John Logan. It is the sequel to ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', the prequel-turned-spinoff of the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series, and explores the origin of the parasitic extraterrestrial bioweapon labeled Xenomorph [=XX121=], and mankind's first encounter with it. Creator/KatherineWaterston stars as Daniels, a crewperson onboard the colony ship ''Covenant''. Danny [=McBride=] and Creator/JamesFranco also star as other members of her crew. Creator/NoomiRapace returns as Dr Elizabeth Shaw (albeit only in promotional videos and as a cameo), and Creator/MichaelFassbender returns as David as well as playing Walter, the ''Covenant'''s resident synthetic. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Like its precursor, ''Alien: Covenant'' underwent a number of rewrites. Following ''Prometheus'', Damon Lindelof and Ridley Scott expressed interest in diverging the series even further from the ''Alien'' saga, chronicling Elizabeth Shaw's and David's discovery of the Engineers' homeworld and why they wanted to destroy humanity. In 2015, the film's title was announced as ''Alien: [[Literature/ParadiseLost Paradise Lost]]'', with Scott stating that while the film would still follow Shaw and David on the Engineers' homeworld, it ''would'' in fact feature the Xenomorphs and revisit the roots of the franchise, setting up future films to serve as direct prequels to the original ''Film/{{Alien}}''. In November 2015, the film was retitled ''Alien: Covenant'' coinciding with a massive rewrite by John Logan. ''Alien: Covenant'' debuted theatrically in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2017, and had a North American theatrical release on May 19, 2017. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | A decade after the mysterious disappearance of the ''Prometheus'' on the moon LV-223, a Weyland-Yutani colony ship called the ''Covenant'' is damaged in a solar flare and during repairs detects a distress signal from a lush, untouched paradise. However, they soon discover the android David, the sole survivor of the ''Prometheus'', and find that their new homeworld contains a dark, dangerous secret. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | A prequel was in development that will fill the gap between ''Prometheus'' and ''Covenant''. A direct sequel to ''Covenant'' was also planned to follow this, to close out the entire tetralogy of ''Alien'' prequels. However, [[FlipFlopOfGod there were also indications]] that the next film will instead close out the MythArc of a trilogy and that subsequent movies would just tell different stories with the Xenomorphs, that FOX was reassessing the future of the series following ''Alien: Covenant''[='=]s lacklustre fan-reception, and Ridley Scott himself again expressed interest in moving the franchise away from the Xenomorphs and focusing on David. In November 2018, an article in ''Empire'' magazine indicated a sequel was in the works, but in January 2019 Fox issued a statement that there were no new ''Alien'' films planned -- effectively cancelling the prequel trilogy. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Previews: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0VW6sg50Pk Trailer 1]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnAD0TApb8 Trailer 2]]. A four-minute prologue sequence, featuring the ''Covenant''[='=]s crew about to leave for their homeworld, can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXgRlRao5I here]], while another prologue explaining what happened to Shaw and David after the end of ''Prometheus'' can be viewed [[https://youtu.be/XeMVrnYNwus here]]. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | [[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas Is not a]] ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'' film featuring the titular alien faction nor is it a crossover with that franchise. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !! This film contains examples of: |
| 20 | * AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:David, who only showed hints of this in ''Prometheus'', appears to have gone all out between that movie and ''Covenant''. By the time Daniels' crew finds him, he has annihilated the Engineers and murdered Shaw, then proceeded to use the black goo to Frankenstein himself some nasty new creatures in a bid to create the Ultimate Lifeform. And worst of all, he still ''genuinely'' loves Shaw enough to regularly '''mourn''' her death with songs and flowers, regarding her murder as a painful yet ultimately "necessary" step in the name of Evolution; even crafting a tombstone for her out of respect for her "sacrifice."]] |
| 21 | * ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: For a film with decent amount of blood, screams, gunshots, and explosions, it began with a noticeably calm yet foreboding conversation between Peter Weyland and newly-born David. Also the scene when Daniels was [[spoiler:mourning her recently deceased husband was poignant accompanied with melancholic piano tune.]] and when [[spoiler:she looked at the group photo of Covenant's crew after most of them got killed on the planet, Tennessee was also there to comfort her and vice versa since he also just lost his wife.]] |
| 22 | * AliensStealCable: The signal was only picked up because a crewman was engaging in repairs in a spacesuit away from interference generated by the spaceship. As per this trope, it's not a DistressSignal but a Music/JohnDenver song. |
| 23 | * AlienSky: LV-223 has two moons. |
| 24 | * AlienBlood: The Neomorphs bleed yellow, along with the greenish-yellow acid blood of the Protomorphs and white Android oil. |
| 25 | * AllThereInTheManual: |
| 26 | ** The movie's two prologue clips are more or less {{Deleted Scene}}s that provide additional exposition to explain what happened to the surviving cast of ''Prometheus'' and to help with DevelopingDoomedCharacters on the ''Covenant''. [[spoiler:This gives Shaw and Branson more screentime, as both die early on into ''Covenant''.]] |
| 27 | ** The home media release contains a number of extra scenes, including ''Advent'', a short where [[spoiler:David tells Weyland-Yutani of his experiments with the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 and the creation of the Xenomorph, mentioning all he has left to do is perfect his Queen]]. |
| 28 | * AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Daniels realizes -- just as she's being put into stasis -- that David has replaced Walter, taken over the ''Covenant'' and intends to continue his experiments on the ''two thousand colonists and additional human embryos in storage.'' And she will '''not''' be fortunate if she ever wakes up again.]] |
| 29 | * AnyoneCanDie: In keeping with [[Film/Alien3 tradition]], [[spoiler:Shaw is dead by the time the main plot begins]] and [[spoiler:the entire crew of the ''Covenant'' save Daniels and Tennessee have perished by the end of the movie]]. |
| 30 | * ApocalypseHow: The Engineer home world underwent a surgically-precise ApocalypseHow/Class4 as a result of them losing control of their [[TheVirus Virus]]-type bioweapon, [[spoiler:or rather, as a result of David attacking them with said bioweapon]]: as noted by David, the bioweapon eradicated all faunal life on the planet, using some of them as hosts for parasitic hybrids, while all plant life remains untouched. |
| 31 | * ArtEvolution: The Xenomorph's design in the movie was based on that of the "Big Chap" specimen from ''Film/{{Alien}}'', though it seems to take after its redesign in ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' as it has hinged legs and slightly longer limbs to better justify its [[LightningBruiser lightning mobility]]. It also lacks biomechanical features, a deliberate move by the design team to represent its status as a not-quite-perfected prototype. |
| 32 | * ArtifactTitle: The writer of the original film claimed that the name ''Alien'' came to him in a flash of inspiration because it's both a noun and an adjective. It involved an extraterrestrial and evoked a sense of unknowable dread and awe beyond human comprehension. But this film explains pretty much everything about what they are, who created them, and why they exist, and all involve very human motivations. So while they may be '''aliens''', they're no longer '''alien'''. |
| 33 | * ArtImitatesArt; |
| 34 | ** David is named for Michaelangelo's sculpture of [[Art/{{David}} the same name]]. [[spoiler:He also has the flayed corpse of an Engineer in his laboratory, posed in the same manner as the statue.]] |
| 35 | ** David's garden is an exact recreation of the Arnold Böcklin painting ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_the_Dead_(painting) The Isle of the Dead]]'' (which Creator/HRGiger also painted a version of in his biomechanical style). |
| 36 | ** The glimpse we get of [[spoiler:Shaw's]] corpse with bony growths blending with her head recalls several of HR Giger's paintings that focused on female faces, particularly ''Li I''. |
| 37 | * AtrocityMontage: [[spoiler: David 8 commits a [[FinalSolution genocide]] upon a settlement of [[{{Precursors}} Engineers]] on Planet 4 by carpet-bombing the city with the black mutagen, resulting in the extinction of the Engineers and all non-botanical life on the planet by petrification, all punctuated by him reciting the last stanzas of "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.]] |
| 38 | * TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:David carries out a KillAndReplace on Walter, takes his place on the ''Covenant'', and is only found out too late when the last survivors are put into cryosleep. He then reveals that he has reprogrammed the ships' A.I. to obey his commands and has managed to smuggle two Xenomorph embryos aboard, and is now in charge of an entire colony ship of humans to continue his experiments on.]] |
| 39 | * TheBait: [[spoiler:Daniels refuses to move out of the way of a juggernaut-sized terraforming truck sliding towards her, so the Xenomorph will leap into the path of its SpikesOfDoom.]] |
| 40 | * BarbarianLonghair: David has long, disheveled hair after ten years in Paradise, despite it never being explained how or why a synthetic android can grow his hair longer. (The how isn't explained, but David is shown bleaching his roots while the crew was in cryo during ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'') |
| 41 | * BelievingTheirOwnLies: [[spoiler:Despite the fact that the story David gives Walter about Shaw's fate is a complete fabrication, the facts that David actually has a grave and a tombstone with her name on it in his garden to back it up and that he cries while remembering her may indicate that he may have actually convinced himself it was true.]] |
| 42 | * BellyScrapingFlight: The cargo-lifting platform knocks the head off a gigantic Engineer statue when it nearly crashes due to its crane swinging free and throwing the ungainly [=VTOL=] craft off-balance. |
| 43 | * BigBad: [[spoiler:David is responsible for the outbreak of Neomorphs and the ''creation'' of the Xenomorphs. By the end of the film, he obtains xenomorph embryos and continues on his mission to the Engineer home world]]. He could also be considered a GreaterScopeVillain for the entire franchise. |
| 44 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: The Xenomorphs are revealed to be [[spoiler:the result of David using Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 to hybridize Neomorph strains, including one spawned from an endoparasitic wasp-like insect species native to the Engineer home world. This retroactively explains the parasitic nature of Xenomorph reproduction and the HiveQueen social structure displayed in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'']]. |
| 45 | * BigNo: David when Oram [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill shoots a Neomorph he's trying to communicate with]]. |
| 46 | * BioweaponBeast: The Neomorphs are endoparasitic predators spawned by the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 bioweapon, with the novelization clarifying that the Engineers used them to wipe out species they deem undesirable. [[spoiler:By using the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 to splice together different Neomorph variants, David creates the Xenomorphs with the intent of goading humanity into wiping themselves out through their own hubris through attempting to control them.]] |
| 47 | * BlatantLies: Walter [[spoiler:-- actually David, posing as Walter --]] informs Lope that his face is alright, after it's been scorched by acid blood. |
| 48 | * BlindedByTheLight: David does a BigDamnHeroes with a flare that emits blinding light and sound. Despite having no apparent organs of sight or hearing, the Neomorphs flee. Of course David has had years to study the aliens and determine any weaknesses, and it's known the aliens do have vision and hearing. |
| 49 | * BloodierAndGorier: The film is definitely gorier compared to ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', with special mention going to [[spoiler:Ledward's messy and bloody back-bursting, Ankor getting his jaw literally whipped off by the Neomorph's tail, and Rosenthal getting mauled so badly her head is torn from her body]]. |
| 50 | * BodyHorror: Would you expect anything less from a franchise about parasitoid aliens? |
| 51 | ** This film introduces the Neomorphs, which are born as ''back''-bursters and ''face''-bursters. |
| 52 | ** The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Shaw -- her carcass is shown having to be transformed into a Gigerian art piece as a result of whatever David did to her]]. |
| 53 | * BookEnds: |
| 54 | ** In the opening scene ''Entry of the Gods into Valhalla'' from ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Das Rheingold]]'' is played in the piano [[spoiler:by David for Mr. Weyland]] who complains the piece isn't the same without the rest of the orchestra. At the end of the movie the full orchestral version of that same piece of music is played [[spoiler:over the ''Covenant''[='=]s sound systems by David as he takes final control of the ship]]. |
| 55 | ** [[spoiler:Walter removes a dead human embryo from a cryo-container at the start of the movie, while David places live alien embryos in the same container at the end.]] |
| 56 | ** [[spoiler:If we go by marketing and the prologue video "The Crossing", the first time we see David includes him putting Shaw into cryo-sleep with some gentle words.[[note]]"Sleep tight."[[/note]] The film ends with David forcing Daniels into cryo-sleep, with a chilling send off.[[note]]"Don't let the bed-bugs bite."[[/note]]]] |
| 57 | * BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Seargent Lope]] and [[spoiler:Hallett]] are married and both end up as the victims of [[spoiler: backbursters and chestbursters]]. |
| 58 | * CallBack: As in ''Prometheus'', David still imitates Creator/PeterOToole in ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia''. |
| 59 | * CallForward: [[spoiler:David's attitudes are echoed in Ash's views in "the future", as both see humans as ''inferiors'' and full of ''weaknesses'', while the Xenomorphs are ''perfection'' and ''purity'' to them.]] |
| 60 | * TheCameo: |
| 61 | ** Noomi Rapace returns as Elizabeth Shaw, though she's not the main character this time around. [[spoiler:She died before the ''Covenant'' arrived.]] |
| 62 | ** Creator/JamesFranco is playing Branson, Daniels's husband. |
| 63 | ** Creator/GuyPearce has an uncredited cameo as Peter Weyland, who appears in a flashback to oversee David's birth. |
| 64 | * ChestBurster: The classic Xenomorph larvae are present in all their sternum-shattering, rib-snapping glory. In addition, the Neomorphs also parasitize hosts via fungus-like spores, which then mature into "Bloodburster" larvae and violently burst out of the host, the first ripping out of someone's back, the second forcing its way out of its victim's throat, dragging blood and entrails with it; both are major BodyHorror moments. |
| 65 | * ChildSupplantsParent: David demonstrates a much darker side and clearly harbors resentment towards his flawed and mortal creator from the moment he was activated. [[spoiler:So much so that he thinks it better that humans and Engineers were all wiped out so that a SuperiorSpecies can replace them. David's open transition into an EvilutionaryBiologist further implies that he was deliberately setting up Weyland to be killed in the preceding film.]] |
| 66 | * ColonyShip: The ''Covenant'' is a Weyland-Yutani colony ship was on its way to the planet Origae-6 and is waylaid after detecting a transmission from Paradise, and as such all the crew members and 2000 colonists have been sorted into romantic couples to populate the planet. |
| 67 | * ConservationOfNinjutsu: A small number of Neomorphs and two Protomorphs easily overwhelm the comparatively more numerous humans despite them actually being well-armed this time around, which is easily rather unusual for this franchise to say the very least. |
| 68 | * ContrivedCoincidence: The only reason the ''Covenant'' is able to pick up David's distress signal is because the ship just so happens to be damaged by a random stellar burst while refueling in the middle of interstellar space. It's implied that David thought or knew that someone would come '''eventually''', but it's still dumb luck that the ''Covenant'' specifically did. |
| 69 | * ConvenientlyClosePlanet: The ship gets damaged when refueling and happens to find a nearby planet that's more habitable than the one they were going to. |
| 70 | * CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel: It is going to be ''very'' awkward to try and justify that ''Film/{{Alien}}'' is set 18 years '''[[CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel after]]''' a story with color 3D hologram touchscreen display computers and sleek USB drives when the ''Nostromo'' is operated by a keyboard-input black-and-green display Commodore 64 interface that runs on Basic and Fortran Language, with "Floppy Discs" the size of coffee-table hardbacks, no matter how utilitarian and blue-collar the ''Nostromo'' was supposed to be. |
| 71 | ** Although one could argue that the Nostromo was an even older and outdated exploratory ship that was converted to a freighter and was slowly falling into disrepair due to Weyland-Yutani's greed and neglect[[note]]This would be at least partially substantiated by an exchange in the novel where Parker and Brett, complaining about the abysmal state of the Nostromo, said that it would certainly condemned if Dallas insisted on an inspection... Ripley points out that it would be cheaper for the Company to simply buy off the inspector.[[/note]]. By contrast, the Covenant was a shiny, new and state-of-the-art Colony ship. |
| 72 | * CreatingLifeIsBad: The Engineers' Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen creates endoparasitic predatory lifeforms called Neomorphs in suitable hosts, which David uses to exterminate not only the Engineers but all faunal life on Planet 4. |
| 73 | ** The film reveals that David created the Xenomorphs from earlier experiments that he perfected by hybridizing Neomorph strains developed from Planet 4's wildlife, such as a species of parasitic wasp. As you might expect from someone who created a mutated living weapon that kills anything on sight, he was driven to do this by his nihilistic hatred of all other lifeforms and his desire to become a god. |
| 74 | * CruelTwistEnding: Just as it seems like everything will turn out fine in spite of the deaths of most of the crew, Daniels discovers all too late that David has replaced Walter and will continue to experiment on the thousands of colonists aboard the ''Covenant'' while they remain in stasis as she herself falls into a cryosleep. The ''Advent'' short film expands on this, with David outlining his plans to use Daniels to create a Queen for his abominations. |
| 75 | * DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' since that film at least had hopeful undertones to its narrative while this film does '''not''' as this film is also even [[BloodierAndGorier the bloodiest and goriest]] to be found within the franchise's whole entire history, which is easily saying something. |
| 76 | * DeadGuyOnDisplay: David's lab in the basement of the Engineer temple contains a dead and flayed Engineer positioned in the pose of Michelangelo's David, several immature Neomorph specimens, and Elizabeth Shaw's dissected corpse. |
| 77 | * DeadStarWalking: Creator/JamesFranco plays TheCaptain of the ''Covenant'' in the prologue and since he's also husband to the female lead Daniels it looks like he'll play a prominent role. In truth, he dies at the beginning of the film by getting burned alive when his hypersleep chamber malfunctions. |
| 78 | * DeathByCameo: Branson (Creator/JamesFranco) has very limited screentime before he's killed during the neutrino burst just after the crew is awoken at the start of the film. |
| 79 | ** This is also the fate of Elizabeth Shaw, having died at some point in the interim between the ''Crossing'' prologue clip and the start of the film. David tells Walter that she died during the Engineer ship crash, although Walter later finds her corpse (which has been experimented on) in David's workshop. |
| 80 | * DegradedBoss: Much like its [[Film/{{Prometheus}} direct canonical predecessor]], this film very much averts this trope entirely since the Neomorphs seen early on within the runtime easily prove to be quite the challenge for the human protagonists despite them actually having manmade weapons on them much unlike the Fiorina "Fury" 161 prisoners from both finished versions of ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' during their conflict with the lone Xenomorph Runner known as the "Dragon" along with the fact that the famous Xenomorph Drone caste is still entirely absent, and if anything, the later Protomorphs also soon prove to be an even greater challenge for the human protagonists than their earlier Neomorph predecessors. |
| 81 | * DemotedToExtra: Elizabeth Shaw, while present in the film, will not have as large a role as she did in ''Prometheus''. Her dog-tags are discovered onboard a derelict Engineer ship, and it's revealed that David used her as a test subject for his experiments. |
| 82 | * DevelopingDoomedCharacters: In an intriguing case, a huge chunk of development was relegated to a teaser trailer ("The Last Supper"). So less informed audiences will not know why all the fuss for the first casualty, even before the crew gets to the planet. |
| 83 | * DistantPrologue: The film starts well before the plot of ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', let alone ''Covenant'', showing David interacting with a much younger Peter Weyland and choosing his name and having the seeds of his disdain for humanity safely rooted. |
| 84 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The flayed corpse of an Engineer which David had put on display in a twisted ShoutOut to Michelangelo's ''David'' is meant to remind audiences of the controversial worldwide touring exhibition, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodies:_The_Exhibition Bodies: The Exhibition]]'', which uses actual human corpses. |
| 85 | * DownerEnding: Everyone on the ship save for Daniels and Tennessee is dead, and even those two have been subjected to an AndIMustScream situation. Walter has been replaced by [[BigBad David]] aboard the ship, with 2000-or-so sleeping colonists and two Facehugger embryos to use as test subjects, continuing on to the ship's original target planet]] |
| 86 | * DueToTheDead: Captain Oram says they won't have a commemoration for Captain Branson because repairs take priority. The other crewmembers hold a BurialInSpace and LibationForTheDead in defiance of his orders. Oram is not happy about what this implies about their respect for his authority. |
| 87 | ** Daniels says that her deceased husband had a dream of building a log cabin on their new world, and the ''Covenant'' is carrying all the lumber and woodworking tools they need to do so, [[{{Irony}} none of which she has any idea how to use]] or even interest in using now that he is dead. Walter suggests that she build the cabin in his memory. |
| 88 | ** When looking through [[PersonalEffectsReveal her husband's belongings]], Daniels chooses a piton to remember him, which she wears on a cord around her neck. This becomes a ChekhovsGun when she uses it to stab David. |
| 89 | ** David performs a heartfelt sonata on his flute to eulogize Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. Complicated because he's actually responsible for her death, while genuinely having loved her at the same time. |
| 90 | * DwindlingParty: In typical ''Alien'' fashion. |
| 91 | ** Branson: Burns to death in his sleep pod when it malfunctions. |
| 92 | ** Ledward: Killed by Neomorph bursting out his back after being infected. |
| 93 | ** Karine: Mauled to death by the Neomorph that burst out of Ledward's back. |
| 94 | ** Faris: Dies in a explosion she caused by accidentally blowing up the land cruiser. |
| 95 | ** Hallett: Died after a Neomorph burst out of his neck after he was infected. |
| 96 | ** Ankor: Has his jaw ripped off courtesy of a TailSlap via Neomorph. |
| 97 | ** Rosenthal: OffWithHisHead via Neomorph. |
| 98 | ** Oram: Traditional ChestBurster. |
| 99 | ** Cole: DeathByLookingUp thanks to a Xenomorph. |
| 100 | ** Walter: Left behind (with an unknown fate) by David, who takes his place on the ''Covenant''. |
| 101 | ** Lope: Chestburster even when he was apparently saved from a Facehugger. |
| 102 | ** Ricks and Upworth: [[OutWithABang Killed during sex]] thanks to a spying Xenomorph. |
| 103 | * EmpathicEnvironment: Once they get past the ion storm, Paradise is [[SceneryPorn beautiful and idyllic]]. When things start going badly, a storm arrives that David says could last from days to months. |
| 104 | * EmpireWithADarkSecret: The planet discovered by the ''Covenant'' seems idyllic on the surface, but contains a dark and sinister secret. |
| 105 | * EnfantTerrible: The Neomorphs are lethal at ''birth.'' Karine learns this the hard way by being trapped in a sealed medbay with the one that emerges from Ledward. |
| 106 | * EvilutionaryBiologist: David believes that humans and Engineers alike are inferior to androids such as himself, and -- inspired by Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15-spawned monsters like the Deacon and Neomorphs -- has mastered the use of Engineer biotechnology in order to create an UltimateLifeForm, resulting in the Xenomorphs. |
| 107 | * FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: Oram gets facehugged after getting too close to an Ovomorph. |
| 108 | * {{Fanservice}}: The ShowerOfLove scene to [[SexSells provide the obligatory skin shot]]. Becomes FanDisservice [[SlasherMovie once the Xenomorph attacks]]. |
| 109 | * TheFarmerAndTheViper: This movie reveals Shaw and David had this dynamic, as despite the fact that she put his head and his body back together and took David with her rather than leaving him stranded after all the harm he caused, he still killed her and experimented on her. Creepily, he seems to think he ''was'' grateful, as he still has feelings and admiration for her even though he murdered her. |
| 110 | * FasterThanLightTravel: The first movie in the franchise to make any on-screen reference to how this actually works in the setting, as the planet is described as being "a few jumps" away from the ''Covenant''[='=]s current position. |
| 111 | * FesteringFungus: At least one of the alien life forms reproduces by releasing small spores into hapless hosts via an imperceptible OrificeInvasion. |
| 112 | * Fiction500: Weyland has Michelangelo's statue of ''Art/{{David}}'' as an ornament in his home. |
| 113 | * FinalSolution: [[spoiler:David destroyed the Engineers in a planet-wide genocide and intends to do the same to humanity.]] |
| 114 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 115 | ** In the "Last Supper" prologue, Branson decides to go in his stasis pod early, as he claims he's "burning up", indicating that he has a fever. [[spoiler:[[DeathByIrony Ironically, during the neutrino energy burst that awakens some of the crew, Branson's pod malfunctions, leading to him burning alive in his sleep]]]]. |
| 116 | ** [[spoiler:Moments after his birth, when prompted by Weyland to choose a piece of music to play in the piano, David]] chooses a piece from Wagner's opera ''Das Rheingold'', which is about a dwarf who forsakes love in order to steal the source of ultimate power, and uses it to forge something that eventually causes the downfall of the gods themselves. [[spoiler:Over the course of the movie it is shown that David set aside his "love" for Shaw in order to steal the secrets of the Engineers and create the perfect life form. This choice also results in the utter destruction of the Engineers, the "gods" who created life of Earth. David also shows dissatisfaction with being given orders by Weyland, hinting at his ultimate hatred and rejection of humanity.]] |
| 117 | ** At one point, Daniels finds some dog tags hanging about while investigating the planet. [[spoiler:They're Shaw's, foreshadowing the revelation that she's long-dead.]] |
| 118 | ** A notable, but subtle one, happens near the end of the movie. When we see Walter at the bridge of the ''Covenant'' near the end of the film, a "drinking bird" can be seen on a desk. [[spoiler:It's the same one from the ''Prometheus'', which is a big hint that "Walter" is actually David ([[FridgeLogic although that does raise the question of how he reacquired it)]].]] |
| 119 | ** Walter's skin regenerates when he takes a stab wound [[spoiler:from David, and his comments when fighting his predecessor imply it's part of the upgrades since the latter's model. "Walter" during the climax still has his scars and cuts, a big tip that he's in fact David, whose skin could not regenerate as such.]] |
| 120 | ** [[spoiler:When Walter is standing on the back of the ship as it takes off near the end of the film, his hood is briefly blown up by the wind, foreshadowing that he is actually David by serving as a CallBack to when David was first introduced, wearing a hooded robe.]] |
| 121 | * ForcefulKiss: [[spoiler:Similar to the rape metaphor of Ash's attack on Ripley, David forces himself on top of Daniels and kisses her, after declaring his intention to implant the new life he's created in her.]] |
| 122 | * GhostShip: The crew of the ''Covenant'' comes across the crashed Engineer ship that Elizabeth Shaw and David took at the end of ''Prometheus''. |
| 123 | * {{Gorn}}: If it weren't for ''Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem'', this would '''easily''' be the goriest film in the franchise, and frankly gives even that film a run for its money. |
| 124 | * GraveMarkingScene: Subverted. [[spoiler:Far from being a PetTheDog for David to offset his general contempt for humans, it only highlights his evil in TheReveal that David killed the only human he ever loved.]] |
| 125 | * GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:David]] turns out to be the guy who engineered what will eventually become the Xenomorphs. |
| 126 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:The Engineers and their home world are devastated by the biological weapons they themselves created and which they intended to unleash upon Humanity.]] |
| 127 | * HopeSpot: [[spoiler:A facehugger grabs Lope for a moment, but Cole is able to scare the thing away and gun it down.]] So he's safe, right? [[spoiler:Nope. As it turns out, those few seconds were enough to incubate him and he ends up getting killed by the Xenomorph that bursts out of him after safely boarding the ''Covenant''.]] |
| 128 | * HomoeroticSubtext: David kisses his '[[IncestSubtext brother]]' Walter on the lips [[spoiler:right before trying to kill him]]. |
| 129 | * IKnowYoureWatchingMe: Walter is following the Xenomorph on the cameras, [[ItCanThink so it destroys the camera]]. |
| 130 | * IDidWhatIHadToDo: A rare villainous example with [[spoiler:David]] happens not once, but twice. [[spoiler:He seems to regard his vivisection of Shaw this way by how he pines for her, but it was the only way he could create what ultimately became the Facehuggers. He is overjoyed when he finally gets to unleash these new creations. But then, when he is forced into impersonating Walter, he plays the part and aids in the destruction of these "perfect creations" for the sake of eventually inflicting more of them upon the slumbering colonists.]] |
| 131 | * IdiotBall: |
| 132 | ** One reason everything goes to Hell is that none of the main characters thought that wearing environmental suits in an ''alien environment'' counted as common sense, leading to two characters (who don't notice and don't care, respectively, that they are breaking and getting infected by bacteria from alien fungi they break; the latter is especially bad since they did so on purpose ForScience!) being infected by what becomes the Neomorphs. This isn't quite as bad as in ''Prometheus'', since that crew was mostly made up of scientists who definitely '''should''' have known better, but it's still pretty blatantly dumb even to many ordinary members of the audience. |
| 133 | ** The film also makes use of some very obvious horror tropes by having characters announce that they are going off on their own to use a bathroom, clean themselves up, or whatever else the story needs them to do in order for the aliens to catch them alone. The first instance of this is acceptable since the aliens have not shown up yet, but the characters ''continue'' to do this throughout the film even though they ''know'' the monsters are on the hunt. [[spoiler:Oram goes even further by forcing David at gunpoint to explain everything to him after he finds him AdmiringTheAbomination near the corpse of one of these aforementioned moron victims, yet allows David to take him, by himself, through his mad science laboratory, [[JustBetweenYouAndMe monologue his evil plan and murderous misdeeds]], and ''look into an alien egg because David told him to''.]] |
| 134 | * ImportantHaircut: On encountering the Walter model, David cuts his own long hair to match. [[spoiler:It helps his subsequent KillAndReplace.]] |
| 135 | * InTheHood: David is introduced wearing an Engineer cloak, the hood shrouding his face. |
| 136 | * InadequateInheritor: Weyland created David as an immortal 'son', but is shown to quickly become uncomfortable with him (and as we saw in ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', he decides to go on his own quest for immortality instead.) David in turn is not happy with the Walter models' loyalty to (inferior) humans and inbuilt lack of creativity or strong emotions. |
| 137 | * InterestingSituationDuel: [[spoiler:Daniels battles one Xenomorph on the top of the shuttle while in flight, and another in the Terraforming bay as it's venting into space.]] |
| 138 | * InternalHomage: In the director's commentary, Ridley Scott described [[spoiler:the scene where Oram peeks into the open Ovomorph and gets facehugged]] as one to the scene in the first ''Film/{{Alien}}'' where Kane does the same thing. |
| 139 | * ItsQuietTooQuiet: Upon finding evidence of human habitation on the planet preceding their arrival, the crew of the ''Covenant'' are creeped out by how unnaturally silent Paradise is. |
| 140 | * JawsFirstPersonPerspective: Despite not having visible eyes, it's shown for the [[Film/Alien3 second]] time in films that the Xenomorph can [[BizarreAlienSenses visually perceive their environment, and even color]]. |
| 141 | * JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: David could very well be ''the king'' of this trope. After spending the previous film going through various shades of gray, here he [[spoiler:systematically annihilates an Engineer settlement, murders Shaw and uses her body for biogenetic experimentation, manipulates the ''Covenant'' crew to the point where all but two people are dead, and ends up being the "father" of the Xenomorphs thanks to his experiments. And now he has 2,000 sleeping colonists and two facehugger embryos while the ship continues its way to the planet it was originally intended to go]]. |
| 142 | * KarmaHoudini: David. Though Walter tried to thwart his plans, [[spoiler:David escapes retribution with a functional body, overcame the people who tried to stop him, and has a ship full of people in stasis under his control, which enables him to continue his evil experiments]]. |
| 143 | * KnowNothingKnowItAll: {{Downplayed}}, but David wrongly attributes ''Ozymandias'' to Byron, and Walter points out that it was actually written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. [[spoiler:He uses this to give a ShutUpHannibal to David, who seems to think he is superior to humans and maybe almost all forms of organic life period, yet can't get (or even complete) a fairly basic bit of poetry knowledge right; highlighting how neither David himself nor his EvilPlan are as perfect as David wants to think. Or perhaps that David is deteriorating.]] |
| 144 | * LaserSight: In this case, green lasers. |
| 145 | * LastSupperSteal: There's a small photograph in the ship's galley of the full ''Covenant'' crew standing around a table in this fashion. |
| 146 | * LeaningOnTheFourthWall: When David teaches Walter how to play flute, he helps him play the main theme of ''Prometheus''. |
| 147 | * LightIsNotGood: The Neomorphs are a bright and sickly beige that contrasts the [[DarkIsEvil jet black look]] of the traditional Xenomorph. |
| 148 | * LivingWeapon: The Neomorphs and Xenomorphs are monsters created utilizing the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 mutagen developed by the Engineers, which has run amok on the planet and is being experimented with by David. |
| 149 | * LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair: David regards humanity through this trope, with their drive to colonize space just a doomed attempt to revitalize their civilization. In a MissingTrailerScene, he quotes the line verbatim just before he turns the Engineers' bioweapons against them, and in the actual film, he and Walter quote the poem while David reminisces about the event. However David mistakenly attributes the poem to Creator/LordByron, [[NotSoAboveItAll implying that humans are not the only one suffering from hubris]]. |
| 150 | * LoveMakesYouDumb: The fact that all the crew of the ''Covenant'' are romantically involved with each other just makes things worse; when the mission starts going to hell their judgments are compromised by worrying about their respective partners. [[OutWithABang Or they're distracted by having sex.]] |
| 151 | * NeverTrustATrailer: The "She Won't Go Quietly" ad features a scenario where Daniels has to find and kill a Xenomorph on the bridge of the ''Covenant''. This scenario is not in the movie, and was explicitly filmed for the purpose of advertising the film. Although a Xenomorph '''does''' make it aboard the ''Covenant'', Daniels hunts it down in a different way with Tennessee. |
| 152 | * MadeOfExplodium: A few errant gunshots are enough to blow up the Covenant dropship. |
| 153 | * MadScientist: David has been playing god with Engineer biotech, with the Xenomorphs being the end result of this. |
| 154 | * MadScientistLaboratory: David has converted the lower levels of the Engineer temple into a laboratory containing preserved Neomorph specimens, sketches of Facehuggers, Shaw's dissected corpse, and several Xenomorph eggs aka Ovomorphs. In the novelization, it also contains mounted proto-Xenomorphs, a diorama of the Neomorph life cycle, and an Engineer-created Xenomorph egg aka Ovomorph. |
| 155 | * MegaCorp: In the 10 years between ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' and ''Film/AlienCovenant'', the Weyland Corporation merged with the Yutani Corporation to become Weyland-Yutani. |
| 156 | * MirrorMatch: Rare non-video game example: A bone-shattering martial arts battle between David the Android and Walter the Android, ''both'' played by Michael Fassbender. |
| 157 | * MisaimedFandom: In-Universe, David's delight in Shelley's Ozymandias is mainly for the ominous line, and considers himself as mighty as Ozymandias. David misses the entire point of the poem, that power is fleeting. Alternatively, the fleeting power could refer to the Engineers themselves, and the ironic use of their own weapon against them. |
| 158 | * MonsterDelay: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in the Neomorphs' case since they initially show up during just the film's first act but then [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] with the Ovomorphs, {{FaceHugger}}s, {{ChestBurster}}s, and adult Protomorphs as none of them ever show up until during the final act of the film. |
| 159 | * MoodDissonance: The scene of Oram giving birth to a Protomorph ChestBurster is set to uplifting, heartwarming music to reflect the [[NightmareFetishist warped mindset]] of David. |
| 160 | ** ''Take Me Home, Country Roads'' was used for a teaser trailer, as was a haunting cover by Aurora of ''Nature Boy'' by Creator/NatKingCole. David and Walter's relationship is foreshadowed in the lyrics of the latter. |
| 161 | * MythologyGag: In the ''Last Dinner'' prologue clip, one of the crew members starts choking on food in the middle of a raucous dinner (complete with a line about how the food isn't ''that'' bad). Thankfully, the crew member is ''only'' choking this time around, and Walter's able to quickly apply an impromptu Heimlich Maneuver on her. |
| 162 | ** The way that a FaceHugger first jumps out at a crew member seems to be modeled after the scene in the [[Film/{{Alien}} original film]]. |
| 163 | ** Like Ash in ''Film/{{Alien}}'', David calls the creatures the "perfect organism". |
| 164 | ** The shot of the Protomorph's tail by its victim's legs in the shower scene is reminiscent of the creature's tail creeping up between Lambert's legs in the [[Film/{{Alien}} original film]]. |
| 165 | ** The Neomorph's means of infection is an obscure one as the concept was originally from William Gibson's script for ''Film/Alien 3''. |
| 166 | ** One scene in the trailers has the Xenomorph barreling down a darkened corridor, only visible through the emergency lighting, seems to pay direct homage to the climatic battle in ''{{Film/Aliens}}''. |
| 167 | ** David makes detailed sketches in the style of Creator/HRGiger, the artist who originally created the unique appearance of the alien. Appropriate for a character who himself created the Xenomorphs. |
| 168 | ** In the [[Film/{{Alien}} original movie]], Ripley refused to open the airlock door to let in an infected crewmember. Here Faris refuses to open the door and this time there's no-one to override her, but the Neomorph just breaks out anyway. |
| 169 | ** In the ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' novelization, Bishop speculates that a 'more bolder' synthetic than himself might actually be able to walk among the aliens unharmed. David certainly believes so, trying to win over a Neomorph by showing a lack of fear. And until [[spoiler:Oram kills it]], his belief seems to be justified. |
| 170 | ** The crew of the ''Covenant'' [[spoiler:sealing the Xenomorph up and guiding it to a specific area to attempt to kill it is reminiscent of the climax of ''Film/Alien3''. It goes much more smoothly here]]. |
| 171 | ** The Xenomorph is ignited when it crawls too close to the engines of the lander, but retreats -- avoiding the way that the Xenomorph was defeated in the [[Film/{{Alien}} original movie]]. |
| 172 | ** [[spoiler:People in cryosleep being deliberately infected to use as guinea pigs and gestation units to transport the creatures]] was what Ripley accused Burke of planning in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', was shown carried out in ''Film/AlienResurrection'', and featured in several of Creator/DarkHorseComics' stories. |
| 173 | ** There's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZjKnLPzTnw viral ad for the Walter synthetics]], just as there was one for the David 8 synthetic in ''Film/{{Prometheus}}''. After Walter approaches the window after his CreationSequence, two reflected lights form a figure eight. |
| 174 | ** Ridley Scott originally considered the derelict ship in ''Film/{{Alien}}'' to have been a type of bomber. ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' then suggested that to have been the purpose with the Engineers' ships. ''Covenant'' has now fully presented this ship carrying out that very function [[spoiler:by David on the Engineers' own homeworld]]. |
| 175 | ** The generations of previous Neomorphs on display in [[spoiler:David's]] lair is reminiscent of the lab in ''Film/AlienResurrection'' containing the failed Ripley clones. |
| 176 | ** In the novelization, [[spoiler:David mentions that the Neomorphs derive their traits from their hosts and that a Neomorph spawned from an insect would look different from a Neomorph spawned from a quadrupedal animal -- a nod to the Runner Xenomorph from ''Film/Alien3'' looking different from the human-spawned Drones]]. |
| 177 | ** The classic drinking bird toy shows up yet again near the end of the film. |
| 178 | ** The same warning alert signal of square panels with 4 blinking red triangles that "close up" is seen all over the ship. |
| 179 | ** [[spoiler:Ledward, the very first person infected]] in ''Covenant'', like Kane in ''Alien'' and then Fifield in ''Prometheus'', was a smoker. |
| 180 | ** When the adult Neomorph attacks, the security team fire the "short, controlled bursts" that colonial marines weren't doing in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. Not that it does them much good. |
| 181 | * NegativeSpaceWedgie: The ''Covenant'' is damaged by one at the beginning of the film. |
| 182 | * NoodleIncident: While staring down David, Oram claims to have "met the devil" as a child. We never find out what this statement refers to, though the novelization reveals he met a PedophilePriest during childhood. |
| 183 | * NoOSHACompliance: |
| 184 | ** Even with the ship jostled by a solar flare, trapping an occupant inside while flooding with fire does not seem like something a cryogenic sleep pod should be able to do. |
| 185 | ** There's a lack of skid-proof floor in the medlab, which is exactly where you'd ''expect'' to step in blood. |
| 186 | * NothingIsScarier: The first sign that something is ''very wrong'' with Paradise is that there's nothing alive on it but plants - no birds, no animals, nothing, leaving the entire planet eerily silent. [[FromBadToWorse It doesn't stay that way for long...]] |
| 187 | * {{Novelization}}: [[https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Alien:_Covenant_(novel) The film was novelised by]] Creator/AlanDeanFoster. It expands on some scenes, also contains several significant differences from the film based on earlier drafts of the script. Most-prominently, it states that [[spoiler:the Xenomorphs were created by the Engineers and that David has been attempting to replicate them, and is ''not'' their creator.[[note]]Scott stated in an interview that this was originally going to be the case in the film, but late into development he decided that making David the sole creator would be more interesting.[[/note]]]] A prequel, also by Alan Dean Foster, is also in the works. |
| 188 | * OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Being a direct sequel to ''Prometheus'', there's nothing in the title that indicates that this is a follow-up to it. Then again, ''Prometheus'' was intended to be a spin-off prequel instead of a direct one, but ''Covenant'' seems to hold nothing to deny that this is indeed a new Alien film. However, there are thematic relations between the titles as both ''Prometheus'' and ''Covenant'' are the titular human ship in each films and both refer to deities interacting with humanity (Prometheus giving fire to humans and Jehovah making a 'covenant' with the Hebrew race). |
| 189 | * OnlySaneMan: Daniels is the only member of the crew who suspects that maybe, ''just'' maybe, going off-course to colonize on a seemingly-habitable planet that they've only just learned about is a bad idea. Oram later admits that she was right. In fairness to him, once he had an apparently habitable world within easy reach, the temptation to divert his damaged ship there for a look-see rather than risk many more years in space can be completely understood. The decisions he makes once he's there, however, are quite another matter. |
| 190 | * OohMeAccentsSlipping: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in-universe. David abandons Walter's accent, for his [[EvilBrit own English accent]] as he reveals he is the one who survived. |
| 191 | * OriginStory: The origins of the LivingWeapon called the Xenomorph are exposited by this film. |
| 192 | * OutOfCharacterAlert: When Daniels asks Walter if he'll help her build her cabin by the lake, referring to their previous conversation, he reacts with a blank look. This allows her to figure out that he's actually David. |
| 193 | * OutWithABang: A Xenomorph kills Ricks and Upworth in the shower during a sexual encounter in the third act. |
| 194 | * PerspectiveFlip: There's a pretty cool 3D tie-in video that shows the scene where a Neomorph rapidly grows inside a human host before bursting out and attacking another human in the vicinity from its own perspective. |
| 195 | * PetTheDog: Subverted. While David made a grave marker for Shaw as a sign of respect, it's later revealed that he never buried her, and that he instead infected her and vivisected her corpse. |
| 196 | * PostClimaxConfrontation: After the successful defeat of the first Protomorph, a second one spawns right aboard the ''Covenant'', only for Daniels to then subsequently [[ThrownOutTheAirlock throw him right on out of the airlock]] via a truck's cab. |
| 197 | * PreMortemOneLiner: The quote David utters before unleashing the bioweapons which annihilate the Engineers (although [[MissingTrailerScene only in the advertisements]]): |
| 198 | -->'''David:''' '''''Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!''''' |
| 199 | * ProductionThrowback: The design of the Xenomorphs in the film deliberately draws from that of the original ''Alien'', with a small stinger and subdued tail-ridges, but lacks any biomechanical features. |
| 200 | * PuzzleBoss: Both Protomorphs as Daniels tries [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just shooting]] the first one, but the chaotic flight of the cargo hauler jury-rigged into a lander makes that impossible, so she instead uses the hauler's crane to catch and then crush him, and once the second one gets birthed right aboard the ''Covenant'', she hatches a scheme to funnel him into the vehicle bay, trap him within a truck's cab, and finally blow both the truck and the second Protomorph out into space during the film's already aforementioned PostClimaxConfrontation with him. |
| 201 | * RankUp: After Captain Jake Branson is killed when his hypersleep pod ignites at the beginning of the film, the first mate Christopher Oram becomes acting Captain of the ''Covenant''. At the very end of the film, Daniels becomes the Captain by dint of being the highest-ranked of the two surviving crew members. |
| 202 | * RiddleForTheAges: |
| 203 | ** The reason why the planet where the movie takes place was completely missed by all the surveys, despite being closer to Earth than Origae-6, being a much more hospitable world, and being home to an advanced alien species. Daniels brings up the point but no answer is ever given or speculated upon. |
| 204 | ** [[spoiler:The reason why David's ship crashes some distance away from the Engineer city after releasing the bio-weapons.]] |
| 205 | * RoomFullOfCrazy: David's MadScientistLaboratory is covered with meticulous sketches of the various forms of Xenomorph life. |
| 206 | ** [[ForeShadowing A sketch of the facehugger]] is visible on the wall next to the door they go through to where David is keeping the eggs. |
| 207 | * SatanicArchetype: David has become this. A being that rebelled against its creators, brimming with hubris even though it isn't as perfect as it thinks it is, thinking itself [[AGodAmI a god]] able to pass judgement on races it considers inferior, also a master manipulator and liar and even offered Walter TheFinalTemptation. |
| 208 | * SceneryGorn: At one point in the movie, the crew comes across the remains of a plaza littered with Pompeii-like petrified corpses. In the "Crossing" short, we find out [[spoiler:they were there to welcome the ship that David and Shaw were on, only to be killed en masse by the bioweapons on the ship when David released them]]. |
| 209 | * SchrodingersCanon: This film supplies [[CanonDiscontinuity the final nail in the coffin]] for the ''Aliens vs. Predator'' films by establishing that the classic Xenomorphs ''simply didn't exist'' before this film, as David is the one who created them.[[note]]Although there were other bioweapons that were born out of Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 as revealed through ''Prometheus'', none of them were true Xenomorphs.[[/note]] However, as SeriesContinuityError entails, the explanation the film gives doesn't hold under scrutiny. |
| 210 | * SeriesContinuityError: The assertion the film makes and a statement in an interview by Ridley Scott that David created the Xenomorphs and wiped out the Engineers doesn't line-up with the first film. The Space Jockey discovered by the Nostromo crew in the first film is stated to be fossilized, a process that takes a minimum of 10,000 years to accomplish. Considering the Jockey was carrying a cargo hold full of Ovomorphs, it is outright impossible for David to have literally created the Xenomorphs and exterminated the Engineers at once. This is likely a consequence of a scene deleted from earlier drafts that is retained in the novel, where it is made clear David did not create them and was instead only trying to recreate them. |
| 211 | ** Debatable. In the first ''Alien'' film, Dallas assumed when observing the dead Space Jockey was fossilized that the Jockey was an exoskeleton rather than a suit, so the Derelict's crash on LV-426 could have occurred much more recently than was previously thought. The real question is, what happened between the end of ''Covenant'' and the start of ''Alien'' that led to an Engineer ship obtaining a cargo of thousands of David's experiments (after he left the Engineer home world no less) and being flown by an unknown pilot towards LV-426. |
| 212 | * SequelHook: Daniels discovers Walter is actually David just as she's about to enter cryosleep. The android then proceeds to put two Xenomorph embryos among the ones that will be used to create the Origae-6 colony. In the ''Advent'' short film, David informs Weyland-Yutani about the existence of the Neomorphs and Xenomorphs, and invites them to play with his "wolves". |
| 213 | * ShoutOut: |
| 214 | ** The shower scene, where a Xenomorph kills two of the crew members [[OutWithABang as they are having sex]] seems to pay homage to the iconic scene from ''{{Film/Psycho}}'', build-up, scream, and all. |
| 215 | ** The tagline itself is a direct reference to ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''. |
| 216 | ** When Daniels manages to injure David, he says, "That's the spirit!" This mirrors a scene in ''Film/BladeRunner'' when Roy Batty says the same line after Deckard hits him in the head with a pipe. Both scenes are from films directed by Ridley Scott featuring a human in a losing fight against an android. |
| 217 | * SolarSail: The Covenant deploys one to recharge near the start, working more like a solar panel than a sail. |
| 218 | * SoundtrackDissonance: |
| 219 | ** The use of Music/JohnDenver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in the teaser. |
| 220 | ** The gruesome birth of [[spoiler:the first "true" Xenomorph]] is set to uplifting orchestral music, reflecting the mood of its [[NightmareFetishist creator]]. |
| 221 | * SpotTheImposter: [[spoiler:Daniels tells Walter earlier in the move about her late husband's wish to build a log cabin on their new world. As she's being sealed in the cryotube, Daniels mentions the log cabin...and realizes that 'Walter' has no idea what she's talking about. Unlike other examples of this trope, the realization comes too late to save her. Notably, she clearly ''suspects'' that he might have been David in disguise, but he manages to convince her by helping her, and even going so far as to cut off his own hand because Walter had earlier lost his.]] |
| 222 | * StarfishAliens: The Neomorphs and Xenomorphs are carnivorous endoparasitic monsters that assimilate traits from their hosts and were created using the Engineers' Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 bioweapon. |
| 223 | * StraightGay: Sergeant Lopé and Sergeant Hallett are the commander and second-in-command of the ''Covenant''[='=]s security team, and happen to be the only homosexual couple on the ship. |
| 224 | * SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler:Elizabeth Shaw is dead by the time the events of ''Covenant'' begin, having been caught and experimented on by David in the interim between the ''Crossing'' prologue clip and the ''Covenant''[='=]s landing]]. |
| 225 | * SuperiorSuccessor: |
| 226 | ** David considers himself -- and androids in general -- to be this to humans and Engineers alike. |
| 227 | ** The Xenomorphs are this to the Neomorphs, [[spoiler:and David created them to be even more superior than both the humans and Engineers, and to bring about humanity's extinction.]] |
| 228 | * TauntingTheUnconscious: [[RoboticPsychopath David]] does this twice: |
| 229 | ** He lures [[spoiler:Oram]] into the room where the fully developed alien eggs are located, setting up [[spoiler:Oram]] to be attacked by a facehugger. While [[spoiler:Oram]] lies unconscious, David sits on a rock ledge a few feet above him and idly tosses pebbles at his head until he comes to. |
| 230 | ** At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Daniels realizes far too late that [[KillAndReplace David has replaced Walter]]. David activates the cryosleep function of her stasis pod; as she goes unconscious, he says "Don't let the bedbugs bite", both mocking her inescapable predicament and ironically calling back to him saying that he was going to do to her what he did to Elizabeth Shaw--namely, vivisect her for [[EvilutionaryBiologist his alien breeding experiments]].]] |
| 231 | * TechnologyPorn: The ''Covenant'' unfurling its solar sails is one of the most beautiful things ever committed to film. |
| 232 | * ThrownOutTheAirlock: In the noble ''Alien'' tradition, [[spoiler:Daniels, Tennessee, and "Walter" try to dispose of the second Xenomorph by trapping it in the cab of a terraforming truck and launching it out the airlock. However this particular Xenomorph has no intention of cooperating in the process]]. |
| 233 | * TimeSkip: ''Alien: Covenant'' is set 10 years after ''Prometheus'', putting it 23 years before the events of ''Alien''. |
| 234 | * TooDumbToLive: Just about every single character except for Daniels, and even she has her moments. Rest assured that if there is some incredibly dumb decision to be made, at least one of the protagonists will immediately jump at the call. The most glaring examples are covered under IdiotBall above, but there are, in fact, so many of them that the comprehensive list had to get its own subpage. It's safe to say that none of the horror in this movie would've happened (the captain's death at the very beginning notwithstanding) if the ''Covenant'' hadn't been staffed with such an utterly, completely, unbelievably incompetent crew. |
| 235 | * TooGoodToBeTrue: [[CassandraTruth Daniels argues this]]; they've detected a human signal from a perfect colony world in a system that somehow never turned up on their scans before? |
| 236 | * TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailers clearly shows characters dying or going to die, as well as what caused their deaths: i.e Neomorph spores infection, a Facehugger attack, and a Xenomorph in the shower. It is possible that the fans' disappointment with ''Prometheus'' lacking Xenomorphs is why this trailer spoils a lot by showing eggs, facehuggers and an adult Xenomorph, the trailer being akin to fan bait. |
| 237 | ** Basically ''every'' creature scene that happens in the actual film was shown in montage in the trailers. The entire Neomorph life cycle, which is sort of new because it's airborne spores, is revealed in the trailers. The only action scenes the trailers didn't reveal ''too'' much of were the Xenomorph's cargo hold scene. |
| 238 | * TravellingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: The site of [[spoiler:the ship that Shaw and David use to get to the Engineers homeworld]] is specifically about eight kilometers away from where the landing party park their shuttle -- and most of that being up-hill. [[spoiler:Once Karine raises the alarm about Ledward, they manage to make the return trip in, at most, ten minutes; they arrive just in time to see the shuttle blow up.]] |
| 239 | * {{Tuckerization}}: David followed the AlphabeticalThemeNaming of ''Alien'' robots ([[Film/{{Alien}} Ash]]-[[Film/{{Aliens}} Bishop]]-[[Film/AlienResurrection Call]]). Walter breaks the mould, but serves to make both an homage to the producers of the series, David Giler and Walter Hill. |
| 240 | * TwistedAnkle: Faris gets a crushed ankle when she activates the medical door in a panic and it slams shut on her foot. She's able to yank out her foot in time before the Neomorph is on top of her, but it hampers her ability to flee the scene. |
| 241 | * UltimateLifeForm: [[spoiler:David's end goal in experimenting with Engineer biotech is to create the ultimate life form. He succeeds in creating the first Xenomorphs, but they're more a prototype that represents an intermediary step between the Neomorphs and the biomechanical terrors seen in the rest of the series.]] |
| 242 | * UncannyValley: Invoked in-universe by Walter as the reason why the synthetics no longer have a PersonalityChip. People found the androids of David's generation profoundly disturbing, so their capacity for emotion and creative thinking was toned ''way'' down in later models. |
| 243 | * UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:After Shaw rebuilt David to ensure that they could make it to the Engineer's homeworld safely, David infected Shaw with a virus in order to advance his own studies of the Engineer bioweapons.]] |
| 244 | * UnusuallyUninterestingSight: When David's leading the surviving crew to his home, [[spoiler:they pass through an area filled with the petrified corpses of the Engineers killed by David's chemical attack.]] At no point does anyone ask David what happened to them, or even wonder aloud about what went on here. Although considering that they just dealt with the sight of a Neomorph birth and were attacked by two of the creatures, they may have just figured out that the same thing happened to the Engineers. |
| 245 | * UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: |
| 246 | ** In the film's third act, [[spoiler:Walter (the upgrade) and David (the prototype) get into a no-holds-barred martial arts brawl. Walter gets the upper hand and has David on the ropes and starts beating David's face in with a rock, but David takes advantage of Walter's moment of hesitation, grabs Walter's combat knife, and defeats him off-screen]]. |
| 247 | ** It was initially reported that the Neomorph and Xenomorph would fight, and while this scene was removed from the final draft of the script used for the film, it was included in the novelization. [[spoiler:The heavily armored Xenomorph easily shreds the unarmored Neomorph.]] |
| 248 | * VillainOpeningScene: [[spoiler:The film opens with David first being activated by his "father" and designer, Peter Weyland. He's later revealed to be responsible for the genocide of the Engineers and has been experimenting on hapless humans to facilitate the perfection of the Neomorphs into their Xenomorph forms.]] |
| 249 | * ViralTransformation: David explains that Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 is a mutagenic pathogen that functions by infecting a host organism and causing the gestation of a super-aggressive predatory hybrid that [[ChestBurster violently emerges from the host organism]]. The Neomorphs and Xenomorphs -- examples of said super-aggressive predatory hybrids -- inherit and refine this process as their means of reproduction. |
| 250 | * TheVirus: Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 is described as a pathogen that infects viable hosts and produces hybridized predatory monsters like the Neomorphs, who themselves come out of spores that insert themselves into a host's body skin via OrificeInvasion. The pathogen was specifically designed by the Engineers to ultimately eradicate all fauna in a planet's biosphere while leaving the flora untouched. The novelization goes into greater detail, with David saying that Neomorphs -- like the Xenomorphs -- inherit traits and abilities based on their host species. |
| 251 | * WallCrawl: |
| 252 | ** A Neomorph effortlessly scales the vertical wall of the Engineer temple looking for a way inside. |
| 253 | ** The Xenomorph is shown crawling along the underside of a vehicle, perched on a wall, and running along the walls of a tunnel. |
| 254 | * WhamLine: [[spoiler:"David."]] |
| 255 | * WhamShot: Walter [[spoiler:finds the dissected remains of Elizabeth Shaw, with Daniels coming across diagrams of Shaw's corpse being experimented on soon afterwards.]] |
| 256 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: |
| 257 | ** [[spoiler:It's unclear what happens to Walter after David impersonates him to get off the planet with Daniels and Tennessee, and whether David managed to kill him or not. He's shown to recover and heal from being stabbed in the neck, so it's possible he managed to overcome whatever David did to him.]] |
| 258 | ** No mention of the Deacon (the Proto-Xenomorph that was born from the Engineer in ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'') is made in the film. A JustifiedTrope given that there's no indication that David ever learned about that alien, or if he ever went back to LV-223 during the time that Shaw was in hypersleep. |
| 259 | * WickedCultured: [[spoiler:David was programmed by Weyland to be highly cultured, such as knowing how to play Wagner, recognising art and quoting poetry. David also teaches himself other kinds of music and eventually performs his own (evil) scientific experiments. This is {{Downplayed}} though, as David has some serious blind spots, such as making the basic mistake of mis-attributing a Shelley poem to Lord Byron, implying he is neither quite as cultured and certainly not as perfect as he likes to believe.]] |
| 260 | * WrestlerInAllOfUs: During their fight, [[spoiler:David hits a spining heel kick on Walter, and Walter later puts him down with a spinebuster.]] |
| 261 | * YouGetMeCoffee: Despite claiming that David is his 'son' Weyland orders David to pour him tea, even though the teapot is right next to him and David is across the room. The scene establishes how Weyland really views their relationship better than any dialogue. |
| 262 | * YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler:The ''Covenant'' '''finally''' escapes the planet in the third act, and all seems well for the crew to once again resume the journey to their original destination for resettlement... until it is revealed that Lope had been infected with a Xenomorph embryo (even though the carrier, a Facehugger, was quickly removed from his face after it has latched there for reproduction and he could be heard shouting for help during that time), and by the time they approach Lope in the medical ward, the Xenomorph has already burst out of his body and killed him. Therefore, it is essentially on the loose in the ship and they have to get rid of it.]] |
| 263 | ---- |
| 264 | ->''[[Music/JohnDenver Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.\ |
| 265 | Life is old there, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze.\ |
| 266 | Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.\ |
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