Alien: Covenant

Template:Good article

2017 science fiction horror film by Ridley ScottTemplate:SHORTDESC:2017 science fiction horror film by Ridley Scott

## Alien: Covenant

### **Screenplay by**

* John Logan
* Dante Harper

### **Story by**

* Jack Paglen
* Michael Green

### **Based on**

Characters
by * Dan O'Bannon
* Ronald Shusett

### **Produced by**

* David Giler
* Walter Hill
* Ridley Scott
* Mark Huffam
* Michael Schaefer

### **Starring**

* Michael Fassbender
* Katherine Waterston
* Billy Crudup
* Danny McBride
* Demián Bichir

### **Production company**

* 20th Century Fox
* TSG Entertainment
* Brandywine Productions
* Scott Free Productions

### **Release date**

* May 4, 2017 (2017-05-04) (Odeon Leicester Square)
* May 12, 2017 (2017-05-12) (United Kingdom)
* May 19, 2017 (2017-05-19) (United States)

### **Country**

* United Kingdom
* United States

### **Box office**

$240.9 million

***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 *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.

In 2012, before the release of *Prometheus*, Ridley 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 two hours and 23 minutes, which was edited down to the released version's 2 hours and 3 minutes.

*Alien: Covenant* premiered in London on May 4, 2017. It was released 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

In a prologue, 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 burned alive when his stasis pod malfunctions. While repairing the ship, the crew picks up a transmission of a human voice from a nearby planet which appears eminently more habitable than Origae-6. Despite the protests of Daniels, Branson's widow, that this new "perfect" planet is too good to be true, 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, the protomorph, 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 disables 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 protomorph 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 protomorph and return to the *Covenant*.

The next morning, Daniels and Tennessee discover another protomorph has burst from Lope's chest, killing him, and is loose on the *Covenant*. It matures and kills married crewmembers Ricks and Upworth. 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 crewmembers except Daniels and Tennessee were killed by the earlier solar-flare incident.

## See also

* List of films featuring extraterrestrials

## Notes

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

1. ↑ Set before the events of the prequel film *Prometheus*.

## References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 [TBA Film releases]. *Variety Insight*.
2. ↑ [TBA ALIEN: COVENANT (15)]. British Board of Film Classification (May 2, 2017).
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 [TBA Alien Covenant (2017)]. British Film Institute.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 [TBA Alien: Covenant (2017)]. IMDb.
5. ↑ Template:Cite journal

## External links

Template:Wikiquote

* **Lua error in Module:Official\_website at line 90: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).**
* Template:IMDb
* Template:Allmovie
* TBA
* Template:Mojo
* TBA
* TBA

Template:Alien (franchise)
Template:Ridley Scott
Template:John Logan

Template:Portal bar

Template:Authority control