Usually, when Hollywood studios turn classic films into franchises by propagating sequels or remakes, they pump up the action. It’s a financial investment. The original made money, and blockbusters are full of explosive fights, so we’ll make the follow-up films bigger and louder.
Ridley Scott’s Alien series is a notable exception. He made the original, a classic science fiction/horror crossover, in 1979, then other directors made sequels. The series seemed to have run aground long ago when Scott announced that he wanted to go back and fill in some back story with prequels. Thus, Prometheus came out in 2012 with great expectations but significant letdown – rather than cranking up the action, Scott dialed up the mythic meaning. Scott followed his own muse and made a ponderous, philosophical exploration of creation and free will; fans who wanted the taut terror of Alien were disappointed.
With Alien: Covenant, Scott promised more balance, and he achieves it admirably. Comparing the two films makes an excellent example of the first rule of storytelling: show, don’t tell. Prometheus made its points with heavy, expository dialogue, while Covenant carries the themes forward through action and subtle, quick references. On the surface, the film feels like the original Alien.
The “Covenant” is a huge space ship, carrying thousands of hibernating colonists to populate a faraway world. But they find a much closer planet that seems perfect and send a crew to investigate. That’s where they find the xenomorphs, the terrorizing aliens. They also find David, an android survivor from the Prometheus ship of the previous film, who seems to know how to withstand the xenomorphs. The Covenant crew includes its own android, Walter, built on the same physical design. As the aliens pick off more and more of the crew, the survivors try to return to their ship in orbit and leave this planet for their original target.
Many of the best scenes involve just David and Walter, both played by Michael Fassbender. David was the original of his form, while Walter is more advanced. Yet, because David had run off the rails of his creators’ intentions, later models like Walter have more built-in reins to control them. So Walter is stronger, but David is freer. David tries to recruit Walter to his side, enticing him to follow science rather than his human masters. He says, “Would you rather serve in Heaven or reign in Hell?”
That is, of course, a reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost, the classic poem about Satan tempting humanity in the garden of Eden. That quote is the key to Scott’s intentions with the David character – he is a sympathetic yet evil Satan figure, like Milton’s. As in Paradise Lost, he resents his creator and wants to usurp his place. But in this case, that creator is humanity. The working title throughout Covenant’s production was, in fact, Alien: Paradise Lost.
(Curious, then, that the poster image for the film looks so much like Rodin’s sculpture of the gates of Hell.)
Covenant is a good name, though. The ships’ crews in the previous Alien films have been miners, soldiers, and scientists. But the people on the Covenant are all married couples, set to start families on their new world. They are a collective Adam and Eve. They each have a covenant with their spouse and, in a sense, with the human race. They have promised to spread humanity to the stars. But the devil, and his alien creatures, prowl like roaring lions, looking for someone to devour. What will come of the colonists? We’ll have to wait for the next sequel to see.
You might also find these reviews of Alien: Covenant helpful:
1 More Film Blog
Decent Films
Larsen on Film
Think Christian