Alien: Covenant - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Alien: Covenant or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Alien: Covenant

[ken]

Some of the scenes were filmed in Sydney, Australia, at Fox Studios. Ridley Scott gave Michael Fassbender time off in order to attend the X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) premiere, held in the same area.

[scarlett]

There are notable differences between the Neomorph from the film and the NECA figure; the film version has smaller spikes on its back and a longer jaw while NECA version has shorter jaw and 2 long spikes on its back. That's because NECA has been provided with concept art by Colin Shulver.

[richard]

On November 27, 2015, director Ridley Scott announced that this film would be the second (following Prometheus (2012)) in a new Alien trilogy that will take place closer to, and lead up to, the original Alien (1979) film. He later suggested that there may even be a fourth prequel film. However, the future of the franchise became uncertain after the purchase of 20th Century Fox by Disney in December 2017. The next film, tentatively titled 'Alien: Awakening', was set to enter preproduction that same month, but according to some sources, the project has been shelved indefinitely. The commercial underperformance of Alien: Covenant as well as its its lukewarm reception by critics and fans were named as reasons, although no official statements were made by Disney. In early 2019, however, the script for Alien: Awakening was actively being written.

[nora]

In the beginning of the movie Peter Weyland explains to David that he is unable to create life, since he is not human. This is David's motivation later in the movie: To create the perfect form of life, using the crew of the Covenant as hosts.

[chris]

The reveal of David taking the place of Walter and leaving a message in his voice is reminiscent to a proposed, alternate ending to the original Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott, wherein the Xenomorph would succeed in killing the crew and take over the Nostromo, ending the movie with leaving a message in the voice of Dallas. This ending was rejected by 20th Century Fox, who instead demanded Scott change the ending to one where the Alien died.

[albert]

This movie marked 20 years since Alien Resurrection (1997) that the original Xenomorph was seen exclusively in an "Alien" film. It had also been ten years since the Xenomorph was seen in a theatrical release, after Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

[linda]

Ridley Scott made Prometheus to answer the question, "who would make such a biomechanoid, hideous thing and for what reason?" That film was always meant as a first step towards answering that question with Covenant continuing the tale. This is why this film opens with a "prologue" showing David (Michael Fassbender) and Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) in their early days explaining the motivations to come.

[miriam]

An unofficial/accidental tradition in the Alien film series is that the androids characters' names each begin with A, B, C, and D in chronological order of each film (Ash, Bishop, Call, and David). The role of Walter in this film is to be David's alter ego. Since David's name starts with the 4th letter of the alphabet, Walter's name starts with the 4th letter from the end of the alphabet. The next android seen in a subsequent movie would have a name starting with the next letter in the alphabet (in this case, this would have been an "E").

[kristen]

The Covenant's discovery of the rogue transmission and the events that followed is similar to the Nostromo's discovery of a beacon that led them to LV-426 in Alien (1979).

[nora]

When David is discussing the Alien with the captain, he says it is "the perfect organism," just like Ash's head said in Alien (1979).

[maureen]

Ridley Scott was surprised that none of the three sequels to Alien bothered to ask the question "why?" in regard to the creatures' origin. "I thought it was really one of the first questions to ask, but it would mean getting out of that idea of the 'old dark house and people are gonna die' which is very simplistic."

[gerald]

There are two logos associated with Weyland Yutani. One is the stylized W over a Y and the other is a broad, winged symbol. This symbol has its origins in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is popularly associated with the falcon-god Horus, with the disc in the center representing the sun god Ra. However, it is more properly known as the Horus of Behdet. Behdet, represented by the sun, was a minor god who was absorbed by Horus. The greater meaning of the symbol is most commonly associated with eternal live and with the heavens.Considering that this symbol is associated with ships personnel (as seen on the individual crew readouts on their stasis pods) as well as ships systems, it is most likely that the winged sun logo represents Weyland Yutani's space-related divisions. The "building better worlds" concept relates both to eternal life (as in propagating our species through colonization) and to space as the location of these worlds.

[marc]

Due to this species accelerated growth, the Chestburster itself seems to be born almost fully developed, similar to the runner Chestburster that emerged from Spike the Rottweiler/and Babe the Ox on Fury 61 on the theatrical or special edition in Alien³ (1992).

[chris]

Despite the overt sexual themes and metaphors present in this franchise, this is only the second Alien film to contain any actual nudity; the first was in [Alien Resurrection](/category/2284/Alien-resurrection) (1997) (the failed Ripley clones). If one counts the poster of a nude woman briefly seen inside a Marine's locker in [Aliens](/category/759/Aliens) (1986), and the magazine cut-outs of nude women in a crew member's bunk in Alien (1979), this would be the fourth film.

[camila]

Ankor dies when the Neomorph tears through his face and throat by striking him with its tail; in the book the creature pierces the top of his skull with its tail.

[norma]

David's fondness for music from the Wagnerian opera Das Rheingold stands out because as of this movie, some parallels between the Alien franchise and The Ring of the Nibelung can be noticed: Like Alberich the dwarf, David forsakes love in order to forge the ultimate weapon. Alberich did it to steal and forge the Rheingold into the eponymous Ring, while David did it to use the secrets of Engineers to create the Xenomorphs. Like the Ring forged and cursed by Alberich, the Xenomorphs, David's ultimate creation, would bring nothing but death and ruin upon all those who sought to take them for their own and use them as the ultimate weapon. Even after David, like Alberich, is long out of the picture. Weyland/Yutani's obsessive and narrow minded pursuit of the Xenomorphs parallels the greedy pursuit by numerous characters in the Ring Cycle to obtain the Ring.

[willard]

In an interview with IGN, when asked why David created the Xenomorphs, Ridley Scott stated he did so out of curiosity -- a callback to Charles Holloway's "'cuz we could" response to David's question of why humans created him; a rejection of humanity as inadequate and the Engineers for having "bleeped-up" by creating something that would ultimately turn against them (humans), and the desire to create a superior species to exterminate and replace them both. In the DVD version, the Director's Commentary has Scott discuss various behind the scenes details that weren't directly shown or were cut out -- like David drugging Oram to make him less cautious around the Xenomorph egg,note and the fact that the Xenomorphs can regenerate even if they're sliced to pieces.

[riley]

As part of the collaboration between Twentieth Century Fox and Audi, a short film created by 20th Century Fox, 3AM and Audi was captured on one of the movie's biggest sets. It shows the Audi lunar quattro patrolling the Terraforming Bay when it detects an unidentified lifeform and goes to investigate what lurks in the dark. The events in the short however contradict the events laid out in the film, with the short film showing the Xenomorph on the Covenant on the same date that the crew woke up from hypersleep. Assuming the date is simply in error, it still does not explain how Cole (who was shown killed on Planet 4) is somehow still alive onboard the Covenant while the Xenomorph prowls about.

[michele]

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