Ridley Scott’s plan to tell us the beginnings of the Xenomorph got off to a rocky start with Prometheus, but if reaction from a screening of the next Alien movie in the series is anything to go by, Alien: Covenant is going to do two things its predecessor couldn’t: Scare us silly, and give some meaningful backstory to sci-fi’s scariest villain.
At South By South West this past weekend, around twenty minutes of Alien: Covenant footage was screened to a crowd that included members of the public along with industry professionals. The overwhelming noise coming out of that screening was that the footage was bloody terrifying, which is great news for anybody who wants to see the franchise returning to what it does best. However, details of the scenes screened also suggest Alien: Covenant will give us some substantial details on the origins of the Xenomorph.
Spoilers for Alien: Covenant follow:
According to a report from The Verge, one of the scenes screened at SXSW focuses on David, the android character played by Michael Fassbender. In that scene, David is showing Billy Crudup’s character around his biological workshop. During this tour, David says he’s been trying to understand the creatures that terrorized the crew from Prometheus. The android goes on to say that his quest has led him to start genetically engineering new versions of the creatures, at which point he opens a door to reveal four eggs that look identical to the ones seen in the original Alien movie. He then says that the final step in understanding them is a “mother” or a willing host, which in this case looks to be Cruddup’s character. And, I assume, it all begins to go downhill from there.
There’s no knowing whether or not this scene is taken out of context, especially as the trailer showed Alien eggs being discovered on the planet the Covenant crew is exploring. However, taken in isolation, it looks as though Alien: Covenant is suggesting that the Xenomorph was not, as we first though, a result of evolution. Instead, this scene appears to be suggesting that the Xenomorph, as we know and love it, was a result of biological engineering by a human-engineered android.
Personally, I’d rather not know anything about the Xenomorph’s backstory. As the first two movies in the series proved, there’s nothing more terrifying than the unknown.
Thoughts? Let us know in the box below….
