‘Alien: Covenant’ Blu-ray Reveals Answers to Film’s Mysteries

Alien: Covenant was anticipated to be a spiritual continuation of the original Alien film, only to receive mixed reactions from audiences and critics, resulting in disappointing box office numbers.

Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film became the seminal sci-fi survival horror movie and inspired multiple sequels. The various sequels focused on the original film’s formula, focusing mainly on characters trying to survive an environment overrun by xenomorphs.

Scott returned to the franchise he created with the “prequel” Prometheus, which leaned more heavily into the philosophical elements of the original films and themes of creation as opposed to being a full-fledged horror film. That film turned off many fans of the core franchise, with Alien: Covenant being marketed more like the original franchise than Prometheus. The final product, however, still had little in the way of pure horror, causing another disappointment for Scott.

Now that Alien: Covenant is coming to Blu-ray, additional scenes and special features have answered lingering questions from the film, as pointed out by Dread Central.

***WARNING: Spoilers below for Alien: Covenant***

Xenomorphs Cannot Be Killed

At the end of the original Alien, the xenomorph that stalks Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is only neutralized after being blown away by the ship’s engine, allowing it to float aimlessly through space. Subsequent films show all manners of destruction of the creatures, from grenades to pulse rifles.

In Alien: Covenant, Daniels (Katherine Waterston) only escapes the xenomorph by crushing it with a crane, which viewers assumed was the end of the beast.

Scott provides a commentary track for his film and, according to the director, this is far from the end of the xenomorph. The director claims that, once the pieces of the creature land back on the planet, the monster would be able to assimilate itself and go about its business.

With this being only the second xenomorph “killed” in films directed by Scott himself, he may be creating a new mythology for his creatures that could potentially negate the realities of all the other sequels in the franchise.

Engineer Genocide

Michael Fassbender’s android character David from Prometheus emerges in Covenant, answering the mystery of his whereabouts. Upon divulging his backstory, the audience learns that he headed to the home planet of the “Engineers,” the characters responsible for creatures created in Prometheus.

The film also explained that David’s quest to create creatures of his own resulted in killing many of the planet’s Engineer inhabitants, but it’s unclear just how far the devastation extended based solely on one sequence.

Scott’s commentary once again helped inform the audience about the scene, in which the director explains David killed two million Engineers through his actions.

Engineers Had Children, Which David Killed

With Shaw (Noomi Rapace) refusing to succumb to David’s desire to help populate a new planet with “perfect” creatures, the android began a brutal process of experimentation to create the Neomorph.

In the quest for perfection, David’s detachment from living creatures knew no bounds, going on to experiment on the Engineers, but also the young members of the species, as revealed by David’s illustrations on the disc. 

Taking into considering that David had no problem killing millions of Engineers, it should come as no big surprise that he’d exterminate them regardless of their age. However, Aliens helped establish the idea that an android like Bishop (Lance Henriksen) was capable of acting in humanity’s best interests, with David’s ruthlessness giving audiences a new appreciation for the advancements in android technology.

David Contacted Weyland-Yutani

Most audiences immediately associate the massive black xenomorph as the biggest villains in the Alien series, but when looking at the bigger picture, the company who has been sending crews into space could actually be the true evil.

One of the supplementary materials on the Blu-ray involves a video diary of sorts that David kept. He discussed his trials and tribulations when it came to developing a “perfect” creature, but the diary was much more than just a chronicle of his activities.

The videos David recorded were done to relay to the Weyland-Yutani corporation, which would confirm they were aware of the xenomorphs before sending the crew from the first Alien into space, painting them in an even poorer light.