But apparently not to Ridley Scott since the Queen appears permanently removed from the lore of Alien: Covenant. Given that these details were not in the theatrical version of the 1979 film, it made Cameron’s wrinkles easy to accept in 1986.
The lifecycle and birthing process of the titular Alien in its first movie is intentionally confusing and unknowable, a Lovecraftian nightmare that to learn the answer of would lead you to the same fate as Captain Dallas-a lovable blue collar Joe now caught between humanity and grotesque egg form. Also in the extended “Director’s Cut” of that movie-which wasn’t released until 2003-the solitary Alien that never acted much like a bug or drone was revealed to be turning some of its victims into eggs. This never quite lined up perfectly with Ridley Scott’s Alien, as those eggs seemed to be an ominous cargo belonging to the long deceased “Space Jockey” (which somewhat lines up with Prometheus’ Engineers and biological weapons). In that film, it was established the aliens were actually quite bug-like in their culture and habitat, subservient as drones and (more or less) worker ants to their Hive’s Queen, who bore the eggs which in turn birthed facehuggers.
Most especially in terms of doing away with the procreation cycle Cameron established for his take on the xenomorphs in Aliens. Engineers begat humans who in turn begat David, who in turn begat the perfect species that could destroy us all, making David a god.īut it also begets a great deal of retconning. As we discussed here, David takes on the role of Lucifer in his own head for a passion play, and in a sense it is an amusing reflection on how all children eventually rival their creators. There is a certain logic to this that is appealing. Apparently, the neomorphs and other monstrosities created by the Prometheus’ black goo and spores had a limited lifespan, so it was David, the first robot, who used them to create the xenomorph.
As it turns out, the sinister synthetic spent years on the Engineers’ home world dabbling in gene-splicing. And from their ruin, David went the full Frankenstein and crafted a perfect organism.
What has been the most hotly discussed element of Alien: Covenant among franchise fans is the revelation that David is the mastermind of all this madness. It seems as with playing God onscreen, being a moviemaking progenitor is also a messy business. Excludes: Africa, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, Ukraine, Vatican City State, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands (U.S.In truth, Alien: Covenant somewhat retcons every non-Scott directed Alien movie out of mythology, and doesn’t exactly fit like a glove even with the 1979 original and Prometheus.