Alien: Covenant (2017)

Alien: Covenant is a 2017 science fiction horror film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by John Logan and Dante Harper, from a story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen. A joint American and British production, the film is a sequel to Prometheus (2012), the second installment in the Alienprequel series and the sixth installment overall in the Alien film series, as well as the third directed by Scott. The film features returning star Michael Fassbender and Katherine Waterston, with Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Demián Bichir in supporting roles. It follows the crew of a colony ship that lands on an uncharted planet and makes a terrifying discovery.

In 2012, prior to the release of Prometheus, Ridley Scott discussed the prospects of a sequel and new trilogy, and the film was confirmed that August. Principal photography began on April 4, 2016, at Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand, and wrapped on July 19, 2016. Effects houses Odd Studios and CreatureNFX provided the film's makeup and animatroniccreature effects. Scott said that the first cut of the film was two hours and twenty-three minutes long, and was eventually edited down to the two hours and three minutes of the released version.

Alien: Covenant premiered in London on May 4, 2017. It was released on May 12 in the United Kingdom, and on May 19 in the United States. The film received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised Fassbender's performance, and grossed a worldwide total of $240 million against a production budget of around $97 million.

In a prologue, business magnate Peter Weyland speaks with his newly activated android, who chooses the name "David" after observing Michelangelo’s statue of David. Weyland tells David that one day they will search for mankind's creator together. David comments on his own unlimited lifespan compared to his creator's limited one, which unsettles Weyland.

In 2104, 11 years after the Prometheus expedition, the colonization ship Covenant is bound for remote planet Origae-6, with two thousand colonists in stasis and 1,140 human embryos aboard. The ship is monitored by Walter, a newer android model that physically resembles David. A neutrino blast damages the ship, killing 47 colonists. Walter orders the ship's computer to wake the crew of 15, which includes several married couples. The ship's captain, Jake Branson, dies when his stasis pod malfunctions and he is burned alive inside the pod. While repairing the ship, the crew picks up a radio transmission of a human voice from a nearby planet, which appears eminently more habitable than Origae-6 (still 7 years away). Despite the protests of Daniels, Branson’s widow, that this new "perfect" planet is too good to be true, newly-promoted captain Oram decides that they are going to divert and check the new planet.

With pilot Tennessee maintaining Covenant in orbit, his wife Maggie flies a small lander to the Earth-like planet's surface, where an expedition team tracks the transmission's signal to a crashed alien ship. Crew members Ledward and Hallett are infected by spores from a black fungus-like organism. Oram's wife Karine helps the increasingly ill Ledward back to the lander where Maggie quarantines them inside the med-bay. A small, pale, alien neomorph bursts from Ledward's back, killing him, and then kills Karine. Maggie attempts to kill the creature with a shotgun, but triggers an explosion which kills her and destroys the lander. Nearby, another neomorph bursts from Hallett's mouth, killing him as well.

The neomorphs attack the remaining crew and kill Ankor. The crew manages to kill a neomorph before David, who survived the Prometheus mission, scares away the other, and leads the crew to a temple in a city full of dead humanoids. David tells them that upon his and fellow Prometheus survivor Elizabeth Shaw's arrival at the planet, their ship released a black liquid bio-weapon which annihilated the native population and that Shaw died when the ship crashed in the ensuing chaos. The crew members attempt to contact the Covenant but are prevented by fierce storms. When a neomorph infiltrates the structure and kills Rosenthal, David tries to communicate with the creature, and is horrified when Oram kills it. Oram questions David, who reveals that the aliens are a result of his experimenting with the black liquid in an attempt to create a new species. He manipulates Oram into being attacked by a facehugger alien. An alien xenomorph later erupts from Oram's chest, killing him.

As the others search for Oram and Rosenthal, Walter finds Shaw's dissected corpse, used by David as material for his evolving creature designs. David explains that he believes humans are a dying species and should not be allowed to colonizethe galaxy. When Walter disagrees, David disables him, and threatens Daniels. Walter recovers (being a superior model capable of self-repair) and fights with David while Daniels escapes. A facehugger attacks security chief Lope, but he is later rescued by crew member Cole. The now fully grown Xenomorph kills Cole, while Lope escapes and meets up with Daniels. Tennessee arrives in another lander to extract Daniels, Lope, and Walter, who claims David has "expired". They successfully kill the attacking Xenomorph and return to the Covenant.

The next morning, Daniels and Tennessee find out that another Xenomorph burst from Lope's chest, killing him, and is loose on the Covenant. It matures, and kills crew members Ricks and his wife Upworth. Remaining crew members Tennessee and Daniels lure the creature into the Covenant's terraforming bay and flush it into space.

The Covenant resumes its trip to Origae-6. As Walter helps Daniels into stasis, she realizes that he is in fact David, but is unable to escape her pod before falling asleep. David regurgitates two facehugger embryos and places them in cold storagealongside the human embryos. He then poses as Walter to record a log stating that all crewmembers except Daniels and Tennessee were killed by the neutrino blast at the beginning of the film and that the ship is still on course for Origae-6.