On the blu-ray release, there are several deleted scenes that were cut from the film. There are also several "shorts", including:
1. "Meet Walter" (which depicts the creation of Covenant's android crewmember, made in the style of a Weyland-Yutani TV commercial).
2) "Phobos" (which depicts the Covenant crew undergoing psychological testing prior to their voyage).
3) "The Last Supper" (a 5-minute scene aboard the Covenant depicting the crew - including Captain Branson - as they have their final meal before they enter hypersleep).
4) "The Crossing" (which depicts what happened with Shaw and David en route to the Engineers' planet after the end of "Prometheus").
5) "Advent" (which depicts David's experiments with the black liquid, the ultimate fate of Shaw, and David's plans for the Covenant crew and passengers).
Not knowing where it is is easy enough, he could just tell the ship to go home/ select it from given options. He also doesn't know what the ship is capable of so since he doesn't know where he's going or how fast it can get there he can't know how long it would take.
The crew were trying to home in on the signal they detected which was coming from a mountainous region on the planet. Faris, who is piloting the lander craft, commented that the terrain was problematic to land safely but the scanners detected a body of "smooth water" in the area which suggested a shallow depth on a relatively flat stretch of land and that she was going to land the craft in "amphibious mode. This would likely be the closest they could land to the source of the signal, which is still 8km away but at a much higher elevation in the mountains. Once they land, the water appears to only be about a foot deep. Later in the film, the water around the craft has disappeared which suggests it was either a tidal pool or caused by rainfall which then drained away (there are several waterfalls in the area which implies the latter).
Yes, this film is the second installment in a planned trilogy of movies that act as prequels to Alien (1979). It is a sequel to Prometheus (2012), taking place 11 years after the events of that film, in the year 2104. The third installment in this prequel series has no official title or release date and has yet to go into production.
In early 2015, when it was unclear whether the proposed sequel to Prometheus would be green-lit, writer/director Neill Blomkamp posted some concept artwork he had drawn for a proposed Alien sequel. Actress Sigourney Weaver, showed an interest in Blomkamp's idea and was willing to reprise the role of Ripley. Despite denying that he intended to "undo" the events of Alien 3 (1992) and Alien: Resurrection (1997), details of Blomkamp's film remained sketchy but it appeared to be an alternative sequel to Aliens (1986), which establishes a different timeline and basically ignores the events of the third and fourth movies in the series. The film was green-lit by 20th Century Fox shortly thereafter, with Ridley Scott producing. However, at the end of 2015, it was announced that the studio had decided to develop Ridley Scott's Prometheus sequel Alien: Covenant (2017) first. Blomkamp was asked to alter his screenplay so as to not clash with Scott's storyline. Blomkamp's project was then put on hold indefinitely while Scott was working on Alien: Covenant and its intended sequel. In 2016, Blomkamp announced that the chances of his film ever being made were now slim and that he intended to move on to other projects. In 2017, Scott also stated that it was doubtful Blomkamp's film would ever be made as there had never even been a script written for it, but simply a basic, undeveloped concept built around Blomkamp's artwork.
As made more clear in the prologue "The Last Supper", many of the crewmembers were couples. Janet Daniels (Katherine Waterston) was married to the ship's first captain Jake Branson (James Franco), though he perishes in the film's opening scenes thus making her his widow. Captain Chris Oram (Billy Crudup) was married to Karine (Carmen Ojogo). Tennessee (Danny McBride) was married to Maggie Faris (Amy Seimetz). Ricks (Jussie Smollett) was married to Upworth (Callie Hernandez). Carl Lope (Demian Bechir) was married to Hallett (Nathaniel Dean).
David was created by Peter Weyland to help him discover the meaning of life and hopefully a way to make him immortal. In Prometheus, Weyland ordered David to "Try harder.". While it was never made abundantly clear what was meant by that, it can be assumed Weyland was ordering David to use the mutagen to experiment on crew members of the Prometheus to see what would happen, in order to try and find some life-extending properties.
In Alien: Covenant's prologue, which takes place decades before Prometheus, we see the first interaction between Weyland and David. It starts out as a conversation between the creator and his creation, much like a conversation between father and son. However, within minutes, David begins to suggest that as a synthetic, he may also have the power to create, thereby implying that he could be equal to a human, or even better as he will never die like humans do. Weyland is visibly annoyed by the notion, and immediately puts him to a menial task, i.e. making David walk across the room and pouring Weyland a tea, from a kettle that is literally arm's reach from him. Essentially Weyland is reminding David "You were created to serve and you will do my bidding." It is suggested that the seeds for David's disdain for human arrogance are sown here.
Throughout Prometheus, there are signs of David feeling increasingly superior over his human colleagues, up to the point where, at Weyland's suggestion, he starts to experiment on them. After confronting the lone Engineer who kills Weyland and beheads David, David may have concluded that the Engineers found their human creations unworthy, given that one of them was setting course to Earth in order to annihilate humanity. Seeing the Engineers as a threat instead of perfect gods, David decided to go to their homeworld with Elizabeth Shaw, where he destroyed the Engineers with their own weapons.
So after Weyland's death and the eradication of the Engineers, David didn't have any specific purpose, as his previous goal in life was to try and save Weyland's. As he confesses, Weyland's death taught him that Weyland (and perhaps, by extension, humanity) was weak. However, Weyland's suggestion to "Try harder" likely stuck, as was his desire to become better than both humanity and the Engineers. David was left on a world full of mutagens and alien creatures to experiment on, and continued his work. He engineered several Alien eggs; as he mentions to Captain Oram, what was still missing was a "Mother", implying that he needed a 'womb' or host for his new creature, the "perfect organism", and sees himself as its father. As soon as the Xenomorph is birthed from Oram, David takes great pride in the creature mimicking his gestures. After David has fooled everyone into thinking he is Walter, one can speculate that he will use the two facehugger embryos he brought with him to birth two more Xenomorphs from Tennessee and Daniels, and from there, use the rest of the colonists aboard the Covenant to create even more.
In Alien: Covenant's prologue, which takes place decades before Prometheus, we see the first interaction between Weyland and David. It starts out as a conversation between the creator and his creation, much like a conversation between father and son. However, within minutes, David begins to suggest that as a synthetic, he may also have the power to create, thereby implying that he could be equal to a human, or even better as he will never die like humans do. Weyland is visibly annoyed by the notion, and immediately puts him to a menial task, i.e. making David walk across the room and pouring Weyland a tea, from a kettle that is literally arm's reach from him. Essentially Weyland is reminding David "You were created to serve and you will do my bidding." It is suggested that the seeds for David's disdain for human arrogance are sown here.
Throughout Prometheus, there are signs of David feeling increasingly superior over his human colleagues, up to the point where, at Weyland's suggestion, he starts to experiment on them. After confronting the lone Engineer who kills Weyland and beheads David, David may have concluded that the Engineers found their human creations unworthy, given that one of them was setting course to Earth in order to annihilate humanity. Seeing the Engineers as a threat instead of perfect gods, David decided to go to their homeworld with Elizabeth Shaw, where he destroyed the Engineers with their own weapons.
So after Weyland's death and the eradication of the Engineers, David didn't have any specific purpose, as his previous goal in life was to try and save Weyland's. As he confesses, Weyland's death taught him that Weyland (and perhaps, by extension, humanity) was weak. However, Weyland's suggestion to "Try harder" likely stuck, as was his desire to become better than both humanity and the Engineers. David was left on a world full of mutagens and alien creatures to experiment on, and continued his work. He engineered several Alien eggs; as he mentions to Captain Oram, what was still missing was a "Mother", implying that he needed a 'womb' or host for his new creature, the "perfect organism", and sees himself as its father. As soon as the Xenomorph is birthed from Oram, David takes great pride in the creature mimicking his gestures. After David has fooled everyone into thinking he is Walter, one can speculate that he will use the two facehugger embryos he brought with him to birth two more Xenomorphs from Tennessee and Daniels, and from there, use the rest of the colonists aboard the Covenant to create even more.
David quoted the sonnet Ozymandias throughout the film. When Walter asks him who wrote it, David responds "Byron". Walter corrects him and says "Shelley". Walter then goes to say "One wrong note eventually ruins the whole symphony.". This implies that David's mental capacities are failing or there's a glitch in his memory banks. Androids should not remember things incorrectly, so it could be akin to madness for an android. Michael Fassbender said in an interview that these days "You know what happens if you don't turn your phone off once in a while.". Essentially, David had gone 10 years without any form of maintenance done on him. So whether these flaws were built in him to begin with or developed over time is up to the viewer to decide.
This is something that was touched upon in the original Alien. When Ash was malfunctioning he tried shoving a rolled up magazine down Ripley's throat. Ridley Scott stated the idea behind this was to suggest that's how an android would rape someone, due to them not having genitalia or at least not sexually functioning genitalia. When David and Walter first meet, Walter explains that David was programmed with too many liberties; he was too idiosyncratic, which made people uncomfortable. Later models were made with more limitations to be more efficient. Therefore, David is programmed with more curiosity (for lack of a better word). He claims that he loved Elizabeth; he is even seen showing emotions such as sorrow, joy, and anger. Clearly, not having these limitations in his programming allowed David to become self-aware and develop consciousness, so it's possible he developed sexual urges, or at least desired to show affection for people without understanding when it was appropriate.
In both Prometheus and Alien, it is shown that the space crews have scanners that can detect what is in a planet's atmosphere. So these scans would indicate the air quality and also pick up on any toxins or airborne pathogens. The reason the scanners didn't pick up the alien pathogen was because it had laid dormant for roughly ten years in the form of spores. It wasn't until these spores were disturbed by the crew that the pathogen was again activated. While it would likely be wise to wear helmets on a planet you know nothing about, it's likely they didn't want to bother with the cumbersome spacesuits on an earth-like planet when they didn't think it was necessary.
While this isn't definitive, it appears that no, the planet the Covenant visits is not the Engineer home world. If one looks closely during the flashback scene; the creatures we see do look similar to the Engineers, large, with bald heads. However, the inhabitants of Planet 4 (viewed here) still look quite different from the Engineers we saw in Prometheus (viewed here). Also, the planet seems primitive and completely devoid of technology, except for the docking bay for the Engineer ship hovering above the city. We know that the Engineers are clearly technologically advanced.
It's most likely that Planet 4 was another "seed planet" for the Engineers, like Earth was. If one notices during the flashback, when David arrives in the Engineer ship, all of the inhabitants of the city flock to the center of the city and cheer at the arrival of the ship. As if rejoicing at the return of their gods.
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- How long is Alien: Covenant?2 hours and 2 minutes
- When was Alien: Covenant released?May 19, 2017
- What is the IMDb rating of Alien: Covenant?6.4 out of 10
- Who stars in Alien: Covenant?
- Who wrote Alien: Covenant?
- Who directed Alien: Covenant?
- Who was the composer for Alien: Covenant?
- Who was the producer of Alien: Covenant?
- Who was the cinematographer for Alien: Covenant?
- Who was the editor of Alien: Covenant?
- Who are the characters in Alien: Covenant?The David 8, Walter, Daniels, Christopher Oram, Tennessee, Lope, Karine, Ricks, Upworth, Faris, and others
- What is the plot of Alien: Covenant?The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.
- What was the budget for Alien: Covenant?$97 million
- How much did Alien: Covenant earn at the worldwide box office?$241 million
- How much did Alien: Covenant earn at the US box office?$74.3 million
- What is Alien: Covenant rated?R
- What genre is Alien: Covenant?Horror, Sci-Fi, and Thriller
- How many awards has Alien: Covenant won?3 awards
- How many awards has Alien: Covenant been nominated for?21 nominations
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