Alien: Covenant went through various changes during its development ranging from its title
changing from "Paradise Lost" to "Covenant", to director Ridley Scott changing his mind
about whether Elizabeth Shaw would return, to major scenes shown in promotional material
that we never saw in the movie.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and in this video I'm going to break down
everything we know so far about what was deleted and rejected from the final cut of Alien:
Covenant.
My Alien: Covenant merchandise giveaway is also running on this video so be sure to leave
a comment about the movie and subscribe for a chance to win one of these two awesome packs
of merch.
And just before we get stuck in, obviously, there are spoilers ahead, so be aware of that
if you haven't yet seen the movie.
First, let's take a look a major scene nearly four and a half minutes long that was completely
cut from the final movie.
Fox actually released a clip of the scene online and called it "The Last Supper", a
title which, like so much in the Alien prequels, has strong religious connotations.
The deleted scene is a really great introduction to the crew of the Covenant and is set before
they go into cryo-sleep, so that means it was meant to appear before the opening scene
on the ship in the final movie.
"Follow the light."
"How do you feel Daniels?"
"Fine."
"Any dizziness, nausea?"
"I'm fine."
It's such a shame the scene was cut as there are so many nice little moments that give
some real insight into individual characters and the dynamics between the various members
of the group.
For example, you see the differences in personality and views between Billy Crudup's second-in-command,
Oram, and James Franco's Captain Branson, and also Danny McBride's pilot Tennessee.
"It's a hell of a view, innit?"
"It is, pure majesty."
"I dunno what you're talking about.
Kinda spooks me out.
Big old sea of nothing, huh."
And you get a real sense of the simmering tensions between Oram and the others.
"Tennessee can be a jerk."
"Why are you speaking so loudly?
He's right there."
"I know, he's.., he can't hear me, he's drunk, again he's always drunk."
"His wife is even drunker, have you seen that?"
On top of that, seeing the crew's couples interact with each other would definitely
have helped me feel a closer connection to their characters and therefore would have
made me care a bit more about their deaths when each of them inevitably gets picked off
as the movie progresses.
"I just wanted to say hey before I jet out, I'm feeling kinda queasy."
"What, you not feeling good?"
"I'm just burning up."
"I thought we were gonna have one more drink before we went into cryo-sleep.
Who's gonna lead us in our toast?"
"Have Danny do something, she'll know what to say."
"Aye, aye captain."
"Make sure everyone behaves."
"Oh yeah, you can count on me."
"Good night."
"Good night, captain."
"Feel better."
"Is he gone?"
"Yep."
"Let's party."
And, of course, this scene would have meant that James Franco would have got a bit of
real screen time interacting with his crew instead of us just seeing his character burnt
alive inside a sleeping pod or rock-climbing in a video message for his wife.
And, yes, the scene even includes a bit of foreshadowing of Captain Branson's fate when
he says to the rest of the crew that he's heading off to cryo-sleep early because he's
feeling queasy and "burning up".
There's also a fun easter egg to the original Alien chest-bursting scene in what turns out
to be a little fake-out by director Ridley Scott.
The bit I'm talking about is when coms expert Upworth, who's played by Callie Hernandez,
suddenly struggles to breathe as they're eating, which is a call-back to the scene from Alien
where John Hurt's character Kane has a similar reaction during their meal, but in Hurt's
case it's because a Chestburster is about to explode out of him.
And there's another nice shout-out to that choking scene in Alien when Danny McBride's
character Tennessee echoes Parker's words to Kane, 'the food's not that bad!'
"You alright?"
"Babe, the food's not that bad."
"Babe, babe!"
"You OK?"
"Down the
wrong pipe."
"Thank you."
"I've got your back."
"Ooh, that was a joke, right?"
And the deleted scene finished with a heartfelt and optimistic speech from Daniels to the
crew, which again I think would have enhanced how the audience related to the Covenant's
characters.
"So what about that speech Daniels?"
"Oh, I haven't prepared..."
"Sorry, Jake asked me to say something if that's OK?"
"Please."
"You've all sacrificed so much to be here.
To be a part of this.
It's the first ever large-scale colonisation mission to come this far into our galaxy.
We're making history.
Everyone back on Earth is really grateful for your hard work and your courage.
I just wanna say I couldn't pick a better bunch of jerks to marrooned on a distant planet
with."
"So, erm, to the Covenant!"
"To the Covenant!"
James Franco's Branson and Katherine Waterston's Daniels were also involved in another deleted
scene, though this one was set in their New York apartment.
The cut scene would have set up the backstory in more detail for why Branson and Daniels
wanted to build a house on the lake when they reached the remote planet they were about
to journey to.
Although this would have helped build more of Daniels' backstory, given James Franco
more time on screen, and afforded us greater insight into their connection as a couple,
it seems like this scene could have felt a bit too slow right at the beginning of the
movie, which is where it would have appeared, so perhaps it was cut for time and to get
the story moving along a bit more briskly than it would have done if this had been included.
Another lengthy deleted scene, also released online by Fox, features Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth
Shaw and Michael Fassbender's David.
In the scene, David provides a voiceover where he explains what happened at the end of Prometheus
and how he escaped with Elizabeth on an Engineer's ship.
A little piece of the dialogue from this voiceover is in the final movie although it's used in
a different scene.
There are also some nice moments in this deleted segment where we get to see the interaction
between Elizabeth and David, including how she took care of him and put him back together,
and there's a hint at what feels like a bond building between them.
"After we made contact with the Engineers, the Prometheus was destroyed.
All hands were lost, but I escaped with Elizabeth in one of their ships.
I was badly injured on our mission.
She put me back together.
I never experienced such compassion, certainly not from Mr Weyland, or from any human."
"Green to green.
Red to red.
It's meant to be simple."
"I'm doing my best."
"You're very kind at heart you know."
"We were able to activate their ship and set course for their homeworld.
We were finally going to meet our creator."
"How long?"
"Impossible to say."
"What if they're no better than us?"
"So long as they are no worse."
"Sleep tight.
I'll awake you when we arrive."
I also liked how this final "sleep tight" that David says to Elizabeth, just before
putting her back into cryo-sleep, is later mirrored at the end of Alien: Covenant with
the much more menacing, "sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite", that David says to
Daniels as he sends her into cryo-sleep after it finally dawns on her that he's not Walter.
I think if the final film had included these moments, the implied kindness in them between
Shaw and David would have made what he did to her later when he used her body for his
genetic experiments even more horrifying and impactful.
At the end of the deleted scene, we also get a hint at why David made the shocking decision
to wipe out the Engineers when he reached the planet.
After putting Shaw to sleep, David wanders in the dark among the Engineers' exoskeletons
and he explains how he spent the time on the journey learning about the Engineers, which
suggests he discovered something about them that made him as disappointed with them as
he was with human beings, and this led him to destroy the Engineers when he arrived on
their planet.
And there were a few other deleted scenes on board the Covenant.
The first shows some footage of Daniels talking to "Mother" and in another she's playing cards
with Tennessee and it looks like his wife Faris might be with him, so this could be
a scene before the crew land on the planet.
"Mother, how long have we been travelling?"
"Approximately 24 days."
"Is there anything for breakfast other than oatmeal."
"Rations have been selected for optimal nutritional content."
"Mother, is there a planet in the known universe where a full house beats a straight flush."
"Don't bring Mother into this.
Mother, stay out of this."
"Mother?"
And there's a cut scene with Daniels hunting the Protomorph that emerged inside the Covenant
where "Mother" suddenly informs her it's "four metres above you".
"Where is this goddamm thing?"
"Four meters above you."
In fact, that bit of the deleted scene reminded me of the moment in Alien where Lambert is
talking to Dallas while he's in the air ducts and he suddenly discovers the Xenomorph is
upon him.
So, did you enjoy Alien: Covenant and were you happy with the final cut of the movie?
Were there any scenes you wish had been kept in the film or anything you would like to
have seen cut out?
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Thanks for watching and see you next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!