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[SolidusDave]

Shaw agreed to bomb the planet, right?

That was my impression from the ending of Prometheus (revenge/prevent them from attacking humanity again) and in Covenant she could be the one flying while David unleashes the payload.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Shaw agreed to bomb the planet, right?

That was my impression from the ending of Prometheus (revenge/prevent them from attacking humanity again) and in Covenant she could be the one flying while David unleashes the payload.

Nope. In the prologue, she's still asleep, thinking David is her friend. David bombs the planet then turns her into a science experiment.
Dumb.

 

[EBE]

Shaw agreed to bomb the planet, right?

That was my impression from the ending of Prometheus (revenge/prevent them from attacking humanity again) and in Covenant she could be the one flying while David unleashes the payload.

What on Earth gave you that impression? Shaw, the naive and optimistic Shaw? The one who forgave even David, or at least trusted him again by the end?

 

[Toxi]

David knows it's not the perfect organism yet, hence his look of disappointment everytime one of his creations gets destroyed. I think he'll eventually realize that creating the perfect xeno will require his own sacrifice, thus finally creating the final bio-mechanoid look of the Alien. It will finally be the perfect mix of organic and machine, smarts and hate, god and beast.

The entire "perfect organism" shit is hilarious because half the point of the original Alien is that Ash is proven wrong. His so-called perfect organism ends up a sluggish mess that got tossed out an airlock and burnt to a crisp.

The cat outlived Ash's idea of perfection. Chew on that one, David.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

The entire "perfect organism" shit is hilarious because half the point of the original Alien is that Ash is proven wrong. His so-called perfect organism ends up a sluggish mess that got tossed out an airlock and burnt to a crisp.

The cat outlived Ash's idea of perfection. Chew on that one, David.

Yep. It's like Ridley forgot his own fucking film.

He's gone full Lucas on us.

 

[Einchy]

>Implying cats aren't perfect.

 

[SolidusDave]

Nope. In the prologue, she's still asleep, thinking David is her friend. David bombs the planet then turns her into a science experiment.
Dumb.

Oh I haven't seen that prologue, thanks! Although it's still somewhat ambiguous if she's asleep or not (I guess there's no auto-activation though and the sleeping pod requires David to manually wake her). But they also make it clear in that clip that she just wants to meet them (again...?).

What on Earth gave you that impression? Shaw, the naive and optimistic Shaw? The one who forgave even David, or at least trusted him again by the end?

Or maybe I should rephrase it, she wanted to confront the Engineers (instead of flying to Earth). For me, that also included potentially attacking them. Seemed just very stupid to merely seek out answers from a species that wants to eradicate humanity and attacked you without provocation.
But - I just rewatched the ending and yeah, she just wants to ask them why they changed their mind... (should have dropped the super dangerous pathogen bombs into the sun then on the way )



Btw the whole homeworld thing was weird in Covenant. Why did they miss it in their original search for a good planet?
And why, once they got close, did they not pick up the city and stuff nearby? IIRC it was never acknowledged before David walked them there.
I have to assume that wasn't the only city either? Seemed anyway like a ghetto-ass place for such an advanced species.

 

[GoldandBlue]

Yep. It's like Ridley forgot his own fucking film.

He's gone full Lucas on us.

Does this make David the Jar Jar Binks of Alien?

 

[HiiiLife]

I'll do the fingering is probably the greatest line Fassbender has ever done in his career. And he was great in Inglorious Basterds.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Does this make David the Jar Jar Binks of Alien?

More like the Anakin Skywalker.

 

[Toxi]

More like the Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin Skywalker with better acting and more baffling motives.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

I'll do the fingering is probably the greatest line Fassbender has ever done in his career. And he was great in Inglorious Basterds.

I just can't wait for the inevitable Robot Chicken parody. I hope they're able to get Fassbender to voice himself.

 

[Mrbob]

I saw this movie today, didn't really like it. It's too much Prometheus and not enough Alien. The way Shaw was handled was dumb. But I guess it's par for the course because the crew was beyond stupid. The ending was awful and poorly conceived. Daniels seemed like the one intelligent crew member but the ending ruined that. The first xenomorph kill I laughed. Yeah jump into the crane and get squished you idiot. Perfection indeed. I want Bloms Aliens sequel instead of more Ridley Scott garbage.

 

[mariachi507]

All I wanted from this movie was some good practical Xeno action or some shots more reminiscent of the original Alien and did not get either. I can't say there was any tension whenever one of the Aliens was on screen and the generic CGI monster portrayal didn't do anything for me. Nothing here even comes close to the surgery scene from the previous film, which is a bummer.

However, what I did get was a creepy and memorable Fassbender performance. To be honest, he out-acted everyone in this movie twice over with my favorite scene being the hilariously erotic but still tense flute scene. The film became messier the more it went along but overall I came out positive. It's borderline positive but still positive.

Sometimes I really just need a trashy b-movie in my life and this flick qualifies. There is nothing Ridley Scott can do to this franchise that will hurt my enjoyment of the masterful first two installments so I say bring on the next one.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Covenant feels like Ridley told Fox he wasn't coming back so they had another "Taking things back to the roots"Alien/Aliens retread script written, only for Ridley to say he'd sign on if they could cram as much of his best pal Michael Fassbender into the film.

In addition to the Alien/Aliens retread stuff, they kill off prominent characters you expect to see in the sequel like Alien 3 with Shaw/Engineers and David gets the "you're special" treatment like Ripley got in Resurrection. He's not just some android now, he's the father of the Xenomorph.

As a one off Alien movie its decent. As a prequel to Alien and a sequel to Prometheus its basura.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I know every single member of Gaf would have shot David when they saw him doing baby talk with that monstrosity while that women's head was floating in the sink. I liked the movie but that shit was dumb. Even if he didn't destroy David then anyone with sense would have done it down in that cavern after listening to his mad scientist rant.

 

[rekameohs]

Not a fan of this one at all. Some of the HR Giger visuals are solid as usual, but essentially all of the scares fell flat. There was some good stuff hidden in here, but generally it really didn't catch my interest at all. I'd appreciate if Ridley decided not to make the characters fucking idiots at some point. That goddamn captain with the egg - good lord...

I did like the ending with the David switcharoo, though; that was fun enough. In terms of a one-off horror ending, at least. I'll ignore all the retconning and confusion added to this franchise's backstory.

Prometheus was very disappointing, but in the end, its better than Alien Covenant.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

Saw this Thursday. I hadn't kept up with any trailers or pre-release marketing, but it's an Alien film directed by Ridley, even after Prometheus I was willing to give it a go.

I was face-palming by the time the Benny Hill music kicked in and characters were slipping over in the med bay. Sadly the stupidity continued and I was tempted to leave by the time Captain Manhattan decided to stick his head in the egg pod on the advice of the clearly deranged android.

Fassbender's performance alone elevates this above trash tier sci-fi horror, and at least Ridley can still create a film which looks impressive. Just a shame about the script and characters. Again.

 

[Tookay]

Thought it started okay (but kinda weird), then went off the fucking rails by the end.

First of all, they completely squandered the potential of a sequel to Prometheus by killing Shaw and the Engineers the way they did. So, instead of getting a Prometheus 2 in the best of ways by tackling answers about our creators, we get a Prometheus 2 in the worst of ways by watching David fuck around with humans again and said humans acting as stupidly as fucking possible again.

The first act is decent enough at creating some atmosphere and dread. There is a sense of mystery there that Ridley can still execute well. But it's centered around characters who are even more thinly-drawn than Prometheus' lot, so whatever tension surrounds them is rendered moot for the most part.

Then David shows up and things start falling apart. Characters start making really dumb decisions like... splitting off on their own at every possible chance they get... and not asking basic questions of David about everything that's going on. Fassbender acts his ass(bender) off, but it can't really cover up the fact that David is just an obvious mad scientist that nobody can detect because they are all idiots.

Finally, we conclude with a limp as fuck third act where there is no real sense of horror or tension. We just go through the same structure of attacks three or four times, with back/chestbursters growing into aliens, action scenes with zero sense of geography, and a switcheroo with David/Walter that everybody saw coming but makes little logistical sense in how it was pulled off. The direction of all this feels almost perfunctory, like "yeah here's your studio-mandated Alien movie I guess" when all Scott really wants to do is weird mythologizing.

I daresay Prometheus was a more interesting failure than this.

Ridley Scott has become the David of his own franchise.

 

[ArcLyte]

Covenant feels like Ridley told Fox he wasn't coming back so they had another "Taking things back to the roots"Alien/Aliens retread script written, only for Ridley to say he'd sign on if they could cram as much of his best pal Michael Fassbender into the film.

In addition to the Alien/Aliens retread stuff, they kill off prominent characters you expect to see in the sequel like Alien 3 with Shaw/Engineers and David gets the "you're special" treatment like Ripley got in Resurrection. He's not just some android now, he's the father of the Xenomorph.

As a one off Alien movie its decent. As a prequel to Alien and a sequel to Prometheus its basura.

Scott very much wanted to continue to expand the lore introduced in Prometheus with the initial follow-up treatment "Paradise". To me Covenant smells 100% like studio interference was at play where they requested to ease off on the thinking stuff that they felt was what made Prometheus so divisive among viewers, and crank up the horror and xenos. In the end what we got in Covenant is a compromise. The writing-out of the Shaw character may have been necessary to put the film back on a track that was more palatable to Fox. It's unfortunate this type of bureaucracy can butcher a franchise that so many people love for the sake of appealing to the widest audience, because the sequel we may have gotten if Ridley were allowed to make the film he wanted to make would probably have been fantastic.

 

[rekameohs]

We can do better than this.

Ripley is one of the colonists frozen on the Covenant. She's the product of David realizing the errors of his ways, and modifies her so she can be the perfect human foil to his xenomorph killing machines.

This is so stupid that it loops back around to amazing and would salvage this franchise

 

[SolidusDave]

I did like the ending with the David switcharoo, though; that was fun enough. In terms of a one-off horror ending, at least.

That's one of the things I really disliked actually - because they messed up the last act's structure for it.

The audience knows they switched (and Danny would know as well if she had checked for the wound she inflicted with the necklace).

Yet, the movie pretends the audience does not know and barfs out the last act with a random fully grown Alien suddenly being on the ship. I mean, of course it is but it's sudden appearance is so stupid. Simply because they can't show David implanting the Alien etc. - because they don't want to reveal the "twist" lol



Ideally they should have included the switch (but make it less obvious) but show how an Alien gained access to the ship on its own.

Edit: and while we are at it. I don't get why they didn't introduce the final Alien in the shower scene instead of a computer warning. Start with the sex scene and then bam, Alien. Don't even need to reshoot the scene to get a nice surprise (if it wasn't already in the trailer ).

 

[rekameohs]

That's one of the things I really disliked actually - because they messed up the last act's structure for it.

The audience knows they switched (and Danny would know as well if she had checked for the wound she inflicted with the necklace).

Yet, the movie pretends the audience does not know and barfs out the last act with a random fully grown Alien suddenly being on the ship. I mean, of course it is but it's sudden appearance is so stupid. Simply because they can't show David implanting the Alien etc. - because they don't want to reveal the "twist" lol



Ideally they should have included the switch (but make it less obvious) but show how an Alien gained access to the ship on its own.

Yeah, I think I'm referring more to the fact that the plot went in that direction, not the way the handled it, haha. Definitely could've been done better.

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

Man, what they did to Elizabeth Shaw really pissed me off. In Prometheus Ridley Scott wants you to root for her. Her struggles, near deaths, etc. So many times I thought she was going to die and she manages to escape it. At the end of the movie it felt like she was somewhat of a hero. I thought we were going to go on a journey with her in a sequel to Prometheus, instead she is killed by the one android she helped be put back together and is made into a corpse with her stomach dissected for an Alien farm. What was the point of the first movie...

My reaction seeing her body...

Ridley wanted you to root for her? What? She had shit reason for organizing the mission that no one would agree to if they actually knew the reasoning, hence why they were never told what the mission was about in Prometheus. The best she could even suggest for the misson was literally "I choose to believe". She was a stupid, annoying, squaky, fish faced fucker with a terrible wig who made Agent Mulder's "I want to Believe" memes look serious and deep by comparison. That she was quietly shoved off screen was the best thing about this movie.

What "Makes Prometheus the best movie ever made" drug are you all in this thread smoking and can I please have some? Or am I wrong in that it is not smoked?

After watching Covenant and seeing this thread's reactions that Prometheus was "so much better and deeper" and that "Shaw was one of the greatest protagonists ever" in this thread I went back and watched Prometheus and my god are you folks out of your Got. Damn. Minds.

Also there will never be better unintentional comedy than Guy Piece in the absolute worst old man makeup ever made.

 

[ronaldthump]

watched prometheus just then. lol. watching that and watching this. Man, David totally just turned wacko in covenant; not that he wasn't already wacko in Prometheus. Also, lol, shaw's totally responsible for this also - she was the one who wanted to come to their homeworld - David was like I can get us to Earth. It's very strange how David, got saved by Elisabeth and then when they got to the engineer's home world, they just got perfunctorily killed in 2 minutes. Watching prometheus now really highlights this. *cute snake scene is still laughably bad.

It's a shame the engineers are completely underutilised. They could even kept 1 engineer alive and have 1 scene of a engineer chestburster in covenant and maybe even have the final act be engineer xenomorph + alien xeno vs daniels and tennnesse or something. Anything would have been better than what we got in the film.

 

[ronaldthump]

That's one of the things I really disliked actually - because they messed up the last act's structure for it.

The audience knows they switched (and Danny would know as well if she had checked for the wound she inflicted with the necklace).

Yet, the movie pretends the audience does not know and barfs out the last act with a random fully grown Alien suddenly being on the ship. I mean, of course it is but it's sudden appearance is so stupid. Simply because they can't show David implanting the Alien etc. - because they don't want to reveal the "twist" lol



Ideally they should have included the switch (but make it less obvious) but show how an Alien gained access to the ship on its own.

Edit: and while we are at it. I don't get why they didn't introduce the final Alien in the shower scene instead of a computer warning. Start with the sex scene and then bam, Alien. Don't even need to reshoot the scene to get a nice surprise (if it wasn't already in the trailer ).

the 2nd alien came on board when the second facehugger flew past the gay guy and impregnated him super quick. Nothing to do with david. This film has hokey alien logic/birthing speed etc el.

 

[Number_6]

I strongly disagree with your appraisal of his talents as any sort of online personality of worth.

Lol, he has a couple friends that sit in on his reviews and they are just dumb as rocks. Make Joe himself look better.

 

[Toa TAK]

Ridley wanted you to root for her? What? She had shit reason for organizing the mission that no one would agree to if they actually knew the reasoning, hence why they were never told what the mission was about in Prometheus. The best she could even suggest for the misson was literally "I choose to believe". She was a stupid, annoying, squaky, fish faced fucker with a terrible wig who made Agent Mulder's "I want to Believe" memes look serious and deep by comparison. That she was quietly shoved off screen was the best thing about this movie.

Dude

Who hurt you

 

[SolidusDave]

the 2nd alien came on board when the second facehugger flew past the gay guy and impregnated him super quick. Nothing to do with david. This film has hokey alien logic/birthing speed etc el.

Is that really what supposed to have happened? That's so stupid, they immediately removed the face hugger and I'm pretty sure you could see that it hasn't had yet pushed it's tube down his throat like in the other movies.
But in that case I don't get why they didn't show any progression in that act then.

What makes even less sense is that the crew didn't check for alien organisms in him. I mean, that happened like 4 times during the movie...
That's why I assumed it had to be David's doing while they all felt secure again and double checked each person. The movie showed him smuggling the alien embryos on board.

 

[Engell]

Honestly I think Scott just doesn't want to deal with his actors wearing helmets

Ok fine, but then don't make the infection airborne. Could be some spike going trough their boots/gloves or something, didn't matter to the story at all that it took them 10minutes to realise they where sick. Would create much more drama if they knew that something foreign had hit them.

Actually the spores is a pretty stupid concept, ohh they work together and can fly somehow uuh magic. Why would it even take more then one spore to get the job done, Why did we need this?

 

[Caipirinha]

Honestly, there isn't much more to say that hasn't already been said. I'm always up for an Alien movie, it's one of the greatest horror and sci fi series of all times.. But that was shit.

Definitely worse than Prometheus, which is saying quite a lot. It was moderately entertaining to sit through a first viewing but that is about the most positive thing I can say, along with the excellent cinematography.

All I want to add is my agreement that the worst sin is that it actually detracts from the original.

The Xenomorph in Alien was two things: mysterious in origin, and therefore unpredictable, and also depicted the horror of humans being lower on the food chain in the new interstellar jungle it finds itself in than another, superior predator. The idea that the Xenomorph was a product of evolution moulded over vast periods of time into an alpha organism, with it's own history and agency, is so much more interesting than hurr durr bioweapon.

Prometheus and even more so Covenant have thrown all the most unique and interesting concepts of the first movies in the trash and turned it into a cheap, unrealistic trope.

The lore is now so completely fucked up by Ridley "Lucas" Scott that it would now take a complete retcon reboot to make a film that is actually worthy of the original. That, or another director to make his/her own sci fi horror in the spirit of the originals, but it's been a couple decades without anyone really trying properly so I doubt that'll happen either.

 

[Markoman]

I think the lore got messy when they revealed that the black goo is nothing but a bio-technological weapon of mass destruction in Prometheus.

The Engineers being this religious civilization "worshipping" their super-weapon is a Planet of the Apes 2 moment. Now all we need is time travel in the Alien franchise.

I remember that in spite of all the flaws, the first half of Prometheus was quite interesting because of the mystery surrounding the black goo. They should've kept it this way but it would've been nice if they explored the idea that the creator of life is not some humanoid alien species but this kind of micro-organism.

Also, the Engineers wanting to wipe out mankind because we've become dangerous assholes...well, we're not the ones travelling through space with black cum on board that will turn everything into monsters/ can wipe out all life on a planet.

 

[layzie1989]

The inciting incident, a completely random solar flare, as a story-telling technique is incredibly lame and sets up the theme of the movie: "bad stuff happening for no reason."

 

[Timeaisis]

I guess I'm the only one that liked this, huh.

I mean, it's got nothing on the first two, but it's defintely better than Prometheus and Allen 3.

The charcters acting "dumb" made a lot more sense internally than it did in Prometheus. I thought the first infestation scene was handled really well, actually. Sure, the charcters made a few bad choices, but I mean, so would anyone in that situation. A alien just exploded out of someone's spine. I thought that was the best sequence in the film. The only truly dumb moment was Chris looking at the egg, but at that point he didn't know David was a complete lunatic.

Other than that, it wasn't as dreadful as Alien. But it was fun, for the most part. I enjoyed it as a fan.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Referring to how Aliens handled it isn't really making a great case for internal consistency since that movie had a completely different thematic approach than either the original movie or Prometheus/Covenant do

Well, I kinda referred to that in the post you're responding to when talking to Cameron's skill as a director in that film (I don't think "thematic approach" is really the right term for it), but I'm not sure how your argument really applies. You're asking why people aren't wearing full space suits on to alien planets. I pointed out a movie IN the Aliens universe where it's not even a question as to putting on one even when preparing to enter a hostile alien stronghold where the mostly unknown organisms have killed everything.

You didnt' think to ever ask why they weren't wearing full space suits in that movie. Same fictional universe, though.

As someone else pointed out, the main difference seems to be that Cameron didn't have some sort of airborne contagion happen that could have prompted a viewer to go "oh. wait, why aren't these intergalactic badasses wearing the most basic of space suits to fight unknown death from the outer reaches of the universe?" Because he didn't, you never thought to question sending a squad of marines wearing football pads and tank tops into an alien hive.

But the truth is the Alien universe works more on Star Trek logic: They do scans from above, they judge whether the planet is habitable, and then they send you down there to walk around.

That exact thing happened in this movie, and explained why nobody was wearing space suits pretty clearly.

I'm not saying these people weren't still dumb in their actions/reactions. I'm saying the memeified "NO HELMETS DURR" knee-jerk was actually addressed pretty decently in the script this time out.

 

[Z3M0G]

I liked the movie but I'm disappointed with Dr. shaw's story and how she ended up. I'm also a bit pissed about sill not knowing jackshit about the engineers and why they want to kill us. Godammit, I just wanna know about the engineers! How many more movies do we need to go through to finally get some real info about them?!

They are dead. Its over.

 

[Garcia el Gringo]

Dude

Who hurt you

Insulting the costume is one thing, but yikes for taking it there.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

The entire "perfect organism" shit is hilarious because half the point of the original Alien is that Ash is proven wrong. His so-called perfect organism ends up a sluggish mess that got tossed out an airlock and burnt to a crisp.

The cat outlived Ash's idea of perfection. Chew on that one, David.

I always thought the original ALIEN ended on a note of ambiguity, didn't it? Like, it's not clear whether Ripley actually killed the thing. She just shot it into space.

Part of the existential horror of the thing was that it might still just be floating out there in the vaccuum.

Ash's line is referring to a conception of the creature that nobody involved with making these movies seems to adhere to anymore, not after Cameron made them bullet sponges with a queen. Before that, they were weird fucking nightmares that grew without eating, that killed in strange unexplainable ways, that used your mass as part of their reproductive cycle, bled acid, hunted flawlessly/silently, and could survive in the vaccuum of space.

David's line in this movie is a cool callback, but it's a bad description.

 

[Z3M0G]

If Walter which is an old model compared to the rest of the androids that came after it can self heal; why can't the newer model. Opens a whole can of wormmmss.

You mean in Alien / Aliens? Where they were ripped to pieces?

 

[Warm Machine]

Same for me. It basically ruined Covenant for me. Daniels wasn't nearly as memorable as Shaw. I realize that this is all about getting to the first Alien movie, but Covenant felt like a subpar transitional act in between major acts.

Shaw was probably killed in the crash. She probably woke up on board the Alien ship, went to look at the Engineer city, was horrified at what David did to her creators, knew she would never get the answers she wanted, then hopped on board the ship, got to the controls and tried to leave. Crashed in the forest and died. David found her body and cut her up.

 

[ResidentWeevil13]

Has anyone talked about how half-baked Billy Crudup's "man of faith" character was? His characterization as a religious man seemed so tacked on and nothing meaningful really ever came of it, imo.

Also that scene in the beginning where his character gets upset because some of the crew members take a shot to salute their dead captain strained credibility to me. I can't imagine any halfway decent person getting upset by something like that.

 

[Can Crusher]

Man so much nitpicking, crazy. Talkin about space helmets and shit, what?

That flute scene was wonderful.

Has anyone talked about how half-baked Billy Crudup's "man of faith" character was? His characterization as a religious man seemed so tacked on and nothing meaningful really ever came of it, imo.

Also that scene in the beginning where his character gets upset because some of the crew members take a shot to salute their dead captain strained credibility to me. I can't imagine any halfway decent person getting upset by something like that.

So what? Does he have to be a halfway decent person?

"What do you believe in David?"
"Creation."

 

[Fried Food]

I don't get people saying "what was the point of Prometheus?"

You couldn't have had covenant without Prometheus.

 

[Warm Machine]

They are dead. Its over.

They are not dead. Prometheus starts with a giant saucer ship. A ship we haven't seen since. This place looks and feels like some religious epicentre, not a full civilization. A writer can simply write in Engineers whenever they need to.

 

[crazy monkey]

This was soooo bad. Fuck. Alien series is done.
They were modern in Prometheus at least. This was too bad.

 

[Can Crusher]

I don't get people saying "what was the point of Prometheus?"

You couldn't have had covenant without Prometheus.

I can't believe some actually thought this was going to turn into Star Trek, and be about humans vs engineers in some grand space opera.

This was a great follow up to Promotheus.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Looks like the movie opened to 36mil domestic Opening Weekend.

SO: It'll be lucky to make 100mil domestic, which will be less than its reported budget ($97mil)

This isn't great for any grandiose follow-ups to Covenant, would you be waiting for one of those.

I'm going to bet on Fox deciding to do one more of these with Ridley, and that will wind up his return to the Alien films. It will be a prequel trilogy, not a prequel-sextalogy or whatever he was bullshitting about.

They will give him 75-80 million tops. He will finish the story that connects this film to Alien.

I would not be surprised if it's just Fassbender vs. Fassbender set entirely on a spaceship. Maybe (maybe) get Waterston & McBride back.

David will continue experimenting on both his creations AND himself in the pursuit of "perfection." Either he'll invent a queen to take care of making eggs, or Scott will introduce the eggmorphing concept he cut in 79 for pacing reasons, and write Aliens out of canon. David will probably try to make himself INTO an engineer somehow. Walter & co. will probably try to stop him. David will probably hijack a Juggernaut, fill it with eggs, and crash on LV-426, at which point he will chestburst, and whoever crashed him will have to deal with the massive fucking beast that grows from that. Those two, the hero & the beast, will both die, leaving the juggernaut derelict and quiet for another 20 years until the Nostromo swings by.

 

[Can Crusher]

I saw Aliens and Prometheus again during the week in preparation.

Fully admit this will be considered blasphemy, but Aliens aged really fucking horribly. It's a well written script, but the lack of any sci fi themes or ideas to stand the test of time really shows.

 

[MMarston]

I always thought the original ALIEN ended on a note of ambiguity, didn't it? Like, it's not clear whether Ripley actually killed the thing. She just shot it into space.

Part of the existential horror of the thing was that it might still just be floating out there in the vaccuum.

Ash's line is referring to a conception of the creature that nobody involved with making these movies seems to adhere to anymore, not after Cameron made them bullet sponges with a queen. Before that, they were weird fucking nightmares that grew without eating, that killed in strange unexplainable ways, that used your mass as part of their reproductive cycle, bled acid, hunted flawlessly/silently, and could survive in the vaccuum of space.

Well, at least I still got Alien: Isolation.

 

[Warm Machine]

But the truth is the Alien universe works more on Star Trek logic: They do scans from above, they judge whether the planet is habitable, and then they send you down there to walk around.

That exact thing happened in this movie, and explained why nobody was wearing space suits pretty clearly.

Yes. In the original Alien they scan the planets atmosphere as well and find it contains methane and consider the planet "primordial" which is why they go down in suits. In Aliens the atmosphere processor gave the same planet an atmosphere. The series is pretty reasonable about the how's and why's.

Directors dislike having their cast all wearing the same thing and obscuring their face as it becomes difficult to tell who is who on screen.

Someone asked why the gay couple would go because of their inability to have children. It was likely to build community and to keep them sane as they went into and out of hypersleep.