Surprise! 20th Century Fox just released a “Prologue” for May’s Alien: Covenant, directed by Ridley Scott.
“Last Supper” gives us a fun introduction to the larger-than-average “crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy*,” following the disappearance of the exploration ship Prometheus. We have the chance to spend our first and final meal with characters played by James Franco, Billy Crudup, Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterson, Danny McBride… and many more I don’t know yet! These Alien movies have a reputation, so which one or two characters will actually survive?
Watch the Prologue for Alien: Covenant, “The Last Supper” below. Then we’ll hit on a few fun Easter Eggs, references, and foreshadowing from the scene.
Foreboding, no?
First off, this feels like Alien. It looks like Alien. Could this finally be the horror follow-up to 1979’s Alien, that I’ve been waiting for? There is a clever Alien fake-out that comes when one of the crew begins to choke, immediately conjuring images of that Chestburster ripping through John Hurt (RIP) in the original film. Danny McBride’s character also seems to reference the events that kicked off Aliens… or something like it. Of course, Michael Fassbender, playing a different android than David from Prometheus… in this scene… ties the film to the one that precedes it. Even with the Aliens Easter Egg, this should all be set between the events of Prometheus and Alien.
There have been worries that having not one, but two, “Team Seth Rogen” actors, McBride and Franco, would tilt the film too far into the comedy zone, even though the two have both great dramatic work and the initial Red Band Trailer is dark and scary as shit. Franco is sullen in the clip, literally ill, while McBride is off making Cum jokes… which really doesn’t feel out of place when you have Crudup telling his wife that McBride is an ass. What is the deal with Franco, though? In the trailer he seems to be the 1st victim of a possible “backburster,” based on something he picked up on “what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world.*” Or, it could be my theory, a complete transformation into the new Xenomorph!
The other fun detail to note is the new android Fassbender is playing. I say new, because it has been confirmed Fassbender is a robot on the Covenant we’ve never met, while David from Prometheus (or his head) will be found later in the film. Fassbender is playing a very different synthetic at this point; his movement is more robotic than David’s and his sense of humor/humanity is infantile. Though we can assume this is a newer model than David based on the timeline, perhaps he is more of a blank slate, as he has not had the decades alone while his crew was in cryosleep to learn and practice being human.
Finally, we actually see married couples, including two gay men, aboard a ship together. There have often been flings in these movies, but this crew is practically made up of families, sans children. Someone also mentions getting marooned… which seems to be extreme foreshadowing based on the final part of the Alien: Covenant synopsis, “When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape.”
I guess we’ll find out who gets to live on May 19th when Alien: Covenant hits the big screen.
* Excerpts from the official synopsis for the film.
