With Alien: Covenant out on Blu-ray, a stack of new footage is now available including
a bonus scene that reveals David's plans for an Alien queen.
Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers, it's Jan here, and in this video I'll be explaining a brand
new epilogue scene with new connections to the original first and second Alien films,
plus what we'll likely be seeing in the Alien: Covenant sequel.
I'll also run through many of the official Blu-ray deleted and extended scenes and explain
some of the gaps from the theatrical release that they help fill in.
Also, I'm starting a brand new Funko Pop giveaway for an Alien: Covenant Funko Pop from this
range.
To enter the giveaway, subscribe and leave me a comment with your thoughts on the the
movie's bonus or deleted scenes.
Just before I start: a quick warning that I will be discussing spoilers, so take care
if you haven't seen the movie yet.
Right, let's kick off with the bonus scene "Advent", a 6-and-a-half-minute short film
which serves as a kind of epilogue to the movie.
It begins with David transmitting a secure message to the Weyland-Yutani corporation.
David says he's extending an olive branch to the company, which immediately opens up
all sorts of questions about what exactly has happened between David and the corporation
between the end of the movie and now for him to be trying to reconcile with them, for example,
have they discovered his lies about the crew dying in the neutrino blast or did they find
out he was impersonating Walter at the close of the film?
As David talks, we get to see lots of details of his workshop and the experiments he's been
conducting on the Paradise planet.
In the message, David explains he's been exploring space, following Peter Weyland's vision, and
that together with Elizabeth Shaw he found the Engineer planet which he describes as
a "rotting paradise".
David says he wiped the planet clean as "a gift to [Shaw]" and that he wanted to build
a new civilisation with her help, however "she refused".
It seems that after bombing the planet with the deadly pathogen, David woke Shaw up and
she was presumably horrified at his actions.
David has this totally creepy way of very matter-a-factly talking about something that's
actually truly horrifying, and explains that he had no option but to use Shaw's body parts
to make his "masterpiece".
Of course, David's actions and the way he talks about them are disturbing enough as
it is, but if you think back to the prologue short "The Crossing" which shows David talking
about how Elizabeth Shaw showed him such kindness and basically put him back together after
the events of Prometheus, what David does and says in Advent becomes even more chilling.
David believes the Engineers were too afraid of their own power, which is clearly not a
problem he shares, and although both he and they were creators of what he calls "the wolf
and the lamb", the Engineers were too scared of their aggressive creation.
David then explains that as he researched the black goo, he discovered it was "ripe
with advanced nanoparticles" and functions according to an "algorithm based on evolutionary
computing".
He also describes the living organism as a form of radical and chaotic artificial intelligence,
which is interesting because it ties in with Ridley Scott's belief, which he's mentioned
in interviews and his director's commentary, that in the real world, both A.I. and alien
life could be potential threats to humanity.
David elaborates on his discoveries, revealing that the pathogen adapts to each species of
living organism uniquely and alters it.
As he explains more details about what he's recorded, the video flashes through various
images, with one image in particular revealing that the fourth generation has a shortened
gestation period and additionally that his creations have a hive-like mind that connect
them to a common goal.
Now, this mention of a hive with a common goal is a clear connection to the idea of
an Alien queen which first appeared in James Cameron's Aliens movie, the sequel to Ridley
Scott's original Alien.
David explains that he didn't find the animal life on the Engineer's planet suitable enough
to fully develop his alien creation, but that he discovered Shaw's human body was a much
better host, which he used to finally develop what he calls his "wolf".
The video then jumps back to the Covenant ship to remind us, as David says, that he
now also has his "flock of lambs", in other words, the ship's human cargo, who he views
as fodder for the continued creation of his masterpiece and his experiments.
And next we get the biggest tease for what's coming up in the next sequel when David says
that he's still working on perfecting his queen, then his hand touches Daniels' cryo
chamber!
As this first message ends, David triumphantly states that "this is going to change everything".
So, we've got a big tease here from Ridley Scott for the follow-up movie to Alien: Covenant
that either Daniels will be the source of David's alien queen or possibly even that
she'll be transformed into that, and it will be interesting to see whether Scott will link
her in some way to James Cameron's alien queen from Aliens, especially given there were some
visual similarities between the queen from Aliens and the elongated head of the Xenomorph
we saw David develop in Alien: Covenant and also given the fact that, in David's notes
which we see in the Advent sequence, he mentions a hive mentality.
More importantly though, I imagine, for Scott will be linking up all the prequels to his
own Alien movie which kicked off the franchise in 1979, so I'm guessing we'll be getting
an explanation for the source of all the eggs on the Derelict where they first appeared
in that original movie.
I'm just theorising, but I wonder whether David discovered that female human eggs are
the perfect host for developing his alien creations because in Advent, he explains that
"there was something extraordinary about the substance's reaction to the human genome"
and that he "was able to unlock new properties and tweak the organism's aggression and instinct
for survival."
The Advent video then continues with four more separate transmissions from David to
Weyland-Yutani which include some intriguing visuals of David's research.
Also interesting is that the start of each of these four transmissions is labelled with
a Special Order code, all of which precede Special Order 937 which was the directive
from Weyland-Yutani to Ash we saw in the first Alien movie.
Special Order 937 stated that the Nostromo's primary objective was to collect and preserve
the alien creature discovered in that film and the ship's crew was considered expendable
if necessary.
The special orders seen in Advent suggest that David was in regular communication with
Weyland-Yutani about his research and that the corporation's discussions with him led
them to consider the alien species an extremely valuable potential bioweapon by the time Ripley
and co arrived in the original Alien movie.
Just how much the corporation is in league with David in terms of making suggestions
about his warped experiments is open to question, but we do get one final transmission from
him in the Advent scene in which he declares ominously, "If you do this, there will be
no turning back.
My creatures shall be set loose to rule this galaxy."
So, that was the Advent bonus scene which provides a stack of new connections to the
original movies.
The scene wouldn't have worked particularly well as a final scene because it lacks the
drama of David putting Daniels into cryo sleep just as she realises who he is and the reveal
that David has brought a pair of alien embryos on board.
However, a cut-down version of the Advent scene could have been a really good post-credits
tag.
Just like the prologue scenes which weren't included in the movie, but would have made
it much better, this scene would have also filled in some more gaps about what David
really did with Shaw.
By the way I made a full video about the missing prologue scenes which you can check out by
tapping the top-right of the screen.
Michael Fassbender's performance as David and Walter was, for me, the highlight of Alien:
Covenant and there's a longer opening scene to the movie featuring the android villain
which wasn't used in the final film.
The opening prologue scene in the movie depicts David's interactions with his creator Peter
Weyland just after he's been activated.
The extended version adds a little more dialogue with Weyland asking David to explain the story
behind Wagner's "The Entry of the Gods into Valhalla", the music David chose to play on
the piano for his creator.
David tells the music's story about the gods rejecting "mankind as weak, cruel and filled
with greed", and adds that the gods themselves are false and doomed to "die in a cataclysmic
fire, [since they were] as venal as the humans they rejected and their power is an illusion."
This additional commentary feels a bit too on the nose about David's opinion of people
like Weyland and it's also a little too obvious a nod to the engineers and how David deals
with them later in the film.
Likewise, it seems overly clear a tease of how David himself will likely also become
a victim of his own hubris in a future sequel as he becomes blinded by his belief that he's
the one who's the perfect creator, not Weyland or the engineers.
Another change to the opening of the movie is a deleted scene of Walter in a Greenhouse
on the Covenant.
In the scene, Walter is busy checking on plants in the greenhouse and has a humorous debate
with Mother about whether he's whistling to the plants to help them grow.
Interestingly, the song we hear him whistle is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which is
an easter egg as both Alien: Resurrection and Prometheus featured that track in its
trailers or TV spots.
Walter and Mother's conversation is cut short when the ship is hit by the neutrino blast
that damages it.
In the theatrical release, the neutrino blast happened when Walter was checking on the Covenant's
human cargo, in particular the ship's human embryos and that probably worked better than
including this scene as that moment links nicely to the scene at the end of the movie
when David smuggles in the pair of alien embryos.
James Franco's Branson was unfortunately hardly in the theatrical release of Alien: Covenant,
with his role whittled down to a brief appearance in his cryo chamber and then in a small video
message cameo.
Franco did have some speaking lines in a prologue scene that wasn't included in the final movie,
but there was also a full deleted scene with Branson that explored in more detail his relationship
with Daniels.
It's a flashback scene where Daniels dreams she's back in her New York apartment together
with him.
In the scene, Branson discusses the design of the cabin the couple are planning to build
on Origae-6.
In a way, it's a shame this scene didn't make it in to the final film as it would have helped
the audience establish a stronger connection to the couple and it also reinforces exactly
why the cabin was so important to Daniels.
There's an intriguing extended clip of the Covenant team following David across the citadel
courtyard which is filled with the dead bodies of the engineers.
As they cross the plaza, the additional scene shows the team stopping on a long bridge over
the side of which they throw a flare.
As the flare lights up what's below, they see several enormous juggernauts, confirming
that the Engineers clearly had multiple ships they used for travelling to other planets.
It's possible that the scene ended up being deleted because it might have led the Covenant
crew to be suspicious about David's trustworthiness too early on in the movie given his claim
that he was marooned when his ship crashed, and it also might have created confusion as
to why David hadn't left the planet.
There are also various other extended and deleted scenes which wouldn't have added an
awful lot to the final film and it's easy to see why they were cut, although there are
three which do show a bit more of the bond that Walter develops with Daniels and hint
more strongly at the emotional connection he felt towards her.
Had they been included in the movie, these scenes, which are the extended "Jacob's Funeral",
and the deleted "Walter Visits Daniels" and "Daniels Thanks Walter", would have shown
the audience more clearly the affection between Walter and Daniels, and would have provided
more obvious context for the moment in the final film when David talks about Walter's
love for Daniels and his own for Shaw.
Now, what do you think about David's tease of an Alien queen?
Does it make you more or less excited for the next Alien prequel movie?
And do let me know what you think about the deleted scenes and any theories you've got
in the comments below.
Don't forget to leave a comment and subscribe for a chance to win an Alien: Covenant Funko
Pop!
And if you enjoyed this, I really appreciate your support and your thumbs-ups and you can
check out more of my videos like my Alien: Covenant Prologue Scenes Explained which you
can watch by tapping the screen here.
Congratulations, to my Spider-Man Homecoming and my second Cars 3 giveaway winners on screen
now.
Each of you will have received a message from me, so be sure to reply with your details
so I can send you the prize.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!