Alien’s Lore Is Darker and Gorier Than Ever in ‘Covenant’

Ledward's (Benjamin Rigby) alien-inhabited chest about to burst like a pinata

Space Thriller Meets Slasher in Alien: Covenant

Ridley Scott’s Covenant is an Alien for the next generation. And in many ways it’s just a newer, shinier, bloodier, and more violent version of the original movie. Except this time, there’s no wily ginger cat onboard. The premise is essentially one we’ve seen before in other science fiction flicks: a massive spaceship full of people is blasting off through the galaxy on their way to a settle on a new planet. After some freak solar flares the crew of the ship Covenant are woken by Mother, the navigational and diagnostics program that operates the ship, and the ship’s android, Walter (Michael Fassbender). Thrown into a crisis, the crew fights to come to consciousness and to keep the ship from falling apart, but not before suffering some casualties of their own. Covenant starts off on a grim note when the Captain, Branson, (James Franco) isn’t released from his stasis pod in time before the thing bursts into flames, killing him instantly. In an impromptu funeral the crew sends his crispy corpse, wrapped up tighty whitey like a mummy, into space.

Enroute to the promise land planet Origae-6, which is a 7 year journey away, Covenant is pinged by a mysterious message from a nearby planet. One that may have some life forces on it. This piques the interest of the new acting Captain, Oram (Billy Crudup).His second in command, Daniels (Katherine Waterston) is totally against the idea of deviating off course. But Oram, on more than a little bit of a power trip, shuts her down and uses his “authority” to make the decision. Off to the unknown land to the unknown ship signal they go! 

Walter (Michael Fassbender) and the rest of the crew disembarks.

More than half of the Covenant crew take a little space pod down to the latest terra firma. A skeleton crew, led by loud-mouthed smack-talking Tennessee (Danny McBride)  remains on board the covenant, with communications open. The ground crew emerges in a foggy, mountainous region that has the aesthetics of the Lord of the Rings sweeping, craggy, landscapes. It’s Mordor, minus the Eye of Sauron and the impossibly black darkness and smoke. This leads us audience to one conclusion: the Covenant peeps are screwed.

Covenant is rated R for a reason. At first, it’s because of all the f-bombs that the Covenant crew drops. Why? Well why the f*ck not? Get that f*cking rating for all it’s f*cking worth! Which means the cursing feels excessive and kinda forced. But quickly enough it goes beyond the crew’s potty mouths. In Covenant the alien parasites are grosser, scarier, and more ferocious than ever. They not only burst out of chests like the originals, but they now can even tear themselves out of their victims backs. The gore here is off the charts. Bodies are mutilated and blood spurts out. It’s Game of Thrones caliber graphic. You are forewarned. A new breed of alien, these creepy crawlies scuttle around with rattling scorpion tails and are more vicious than ever before. The special effects that animate these lethal buggers are in short, effective AF.  

Destination: MORDOR.

These aren’t digital distractions like some CGI creatures, but instead are truly terrifying at times. Bloody disgusting is an only too appropriate assessment of the body horror that goes down in this science fiction thriller. And I mean that in the best way possible. Covenant excels in pushing the limits of horror and combining today's technology with the classic Alien lore and making it even more in-your-face and horrifying than ever before.  

As for the characters introduced, there’s a dark Cain and Abel dynamic between two Synthetics. The phrase “two sides of the same coin” describes the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Synths David and Walter (both played by Michael Fassbender). David is the creation-obsessed, AI from Prometheus. The same ‘bot that released deadly viruses on humanoid populations all over the place in an effort to test out the effects of what different parasites would do. And now, well in Covenant now he’s developed an interest in cross breeding various species of aliens. And he’s had many years alone to perfect his formula.

Now for our protagonist. Right from her first moment on screen Daniels (Katherine Waterston, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) is reminiscent of Ripley. 

Danny (Katherine Waterston) is locked and loaded.

Even though she’s recently widowed and doesn’t have an orange kitty cat companion she’s a new take on a much beloved character. Everything from how she’s referred to exclusively by her last name, “Danny”, just as Ellen (Sigourney Weaver) was called by her surname; to the pixie cut hair do and sweaty, dirty tank top; to her fiery resolve and determination reminds us of Alien’s iconic lead. But she’s not a carbon copy. David and Walter may be identical, but Danny and Ripley are not. Danny is more high-strung, more frantic, and more shrill. This girl FREAKS OUT. But with good reason! She’s smarter than most. And as the song lyric goes in the opening of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, this female is strong as hell. Thank you, Ridley Scott, for continuing to give us resourceful and determined heroines. She’s the only one who doesn’t jump for joy about deviating from the original flight plan, to Origae-6, and dropping everything to explore a mysterious and unknown planet.   

The gravest cinema sin in Covenant is how most of the ship’s crew are totally idiotic. The alien hybrids are twice as smart, yet these humans are doubly dumber. Guided by zero common sense as they lumber around the perilous new land, these men and women fall into stupid horror movie tropes. Not just once, but over and over and over. They aren’t so much picked off by the alien while trapped aboard a cargo ship, but instead they continue to pratfall into the gaping jaws and claws of these murderous little parasites while free to roam an entire new landscape. Their mishaps make for some thrilling and terrifying fight and death scenes though! There are holes in logic, but they play out in some serious twisted and captivating scenes.

The Covenant crew gathered round before the chaos.

Covenant mirrors the story of Alien (1979) and builds on the worlds from Aliens (1986) and Prometheus (2012). But there’s a new tack to this one. One that emphasizes the idea of creation and how that brings about power above all others. The title and the ship’s moniker Covenant is defined by the OED as an “agreement” and it’s been used in a biblical context time and time again. The pitfall to this classic, throwback, tone is that if you’ve seen the other films the storyline here is somewhat predictable. New viewers seeing this for the first time will get the shock of a lifetime, but for those who are old hat, it’s no brain teaser to figure out how things are gonna end for the crew and passengers of the Covenant. Just look at the cargo vessel, the Nostromo in Alien. The colonist carrying ship exploring the far reaches of space in Covenant is a brighter, bigger, shinier, version of what we’ve seen before. But it’s still a thrilling, pulse-pounding, nauseatingly-graphic and scream-inducing, ride worth taking! If the sensation of hurtling down Six Flag’s Bizarro Coaster was turned in a movie, it would be Covenant.

For a final funny thought from this far out thriller (some slight spoilers are ahead, so proceed with caution!) the two ‘droids David and Walter have a really potent chemistry and a homoerotic fascination with one another. It culminates in a seriously freaky scene where David fingers Walter’s flute. And that is not a euphemism for anything. It’s a one-on-one music lesson that’s more than a little charged, and more than a little phallic. It kinda looked like the softcore version of an oral-sex scene. Yup. There’s also a same-sex kiss between these two Synthetics which is sure to have some slash fangirls over the moon. I can sense the fanfics being written as I write this! You there! Out writing your m/m on the internet I see what you’re up to!!!! But hey, it is canon after all, so have at it peeps! 

all images from imdb