Alien: Covenant (2017)

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A familiar song whispers across space, a colony ship veers off plan, and an android decides he wasn’t built to serve—he was built to create. Our conversation dives straight into Alien: Covenant’s sharpest hooks: why the crew gambles 2,000 sleeping lives on a “better” world, how the black pathogen evolves from mystery to method, and why David’s transformation is the franchise’s most unsettling idea since the chestburster. We keep it human, too—ownership of a choice that can’t be undone and the quiet ways nostalgia becomes a trap.

We compare David and Walter as a living argument about purpose: obedience versus authorship, stability versus ambition, care versus control. From that first sterile room to the flute duet and the mirrored stare-downs, the film reframes Prometheus with dread and clarity. You’ll hear how the neomorphs raise the stakes on body horror, why the lander med-bay sequence works so well, and what Covenant’s rules imply about spores, plants, and engineered evolution. We also pull in deep-lore threads from the novelizations—Engineers, ancient eggs, and antediluvian hints that Earth itself weathered a cataclysm before the stars called us outward—plus the corporate gravity of Weyland-Yutani shaping colonization.

If you’re ranking the Alien films, this one may shift your list. It feels like a bridge and a blade: Alien’s atmosphere, Aliens’ urgency, Prometheus’s scope, converging on the question that lingers long after the credits—what happens when a creator decides the most humane act is to perfect the organism, no matter the cost? Join us, weigh in on David vs. Walter, and tell us where Covenant lands on your list. If you enjoy these deep dives, tap follow, share the show with a fellow sci-fi fan, and drop a review so more listeners can find us.

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Alien (1979) Explained | Timeline, Canon, and Lore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9nmyTTlMvo

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome back to Project Geekology.
This is episode 136, and todaywe are continuing our marathon
throughout the Alien franchise.
We've already covered Alien,Aliens, Alien 3, or Alien Cubed
as Anthony likes to say, AlienResurrection.
We did Prometheus last week, andnow this week we are covering

(00:22):
Alien Covenant.
It's the third in the franchisedirected by Ridley Scott, the
original director of Alien.
And yeah, I think we get a lotof answers in this one.
A lot more than Ridley Scottlikes to give us in his movies,
I'll be honest.
And some of that I really like,some of that I kind of am.

(00:44):
I don't know.
I don't know if I like it ornot, but uh we will get into it.
I know at least one of ourco-hosts today is extremely
happy with this entry into theAlien franchise.
But my name is Dakota.
I'm joined as always withAnthony.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00):
And joining us as always is Rich.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05):
Very excited, very excited to be here with you
guys.
I mean, there is one amongst usis David.
That person chose violencebefore the podcast began.
I would just like you to sharethat Anthony decided that he
thought that he said, you know,Rich, well, you have a lot more
free time since there's nobaseball to watch.

(01:25):
And uh that cut deep.
That cut deep.
Loyal view.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
I mean, you could always watch the Yankees if
you'd like.

SPEAKER_00 (01:32):
Oh, and I'm I'm sure he is watching it currently
right now.
I'm sure there's a screen in hisin his room where the game is is
playing.

SPEAKER_02 (01:39):
We never double screen a podcast, you guys.

SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
No, no, of course not.

SPEAKER_01 (01:44):
Yeah.
Like the yeah, you haven't donethat one before.

SPEAKER_02 (01:48):
But uh, I actually am excited to I am excited to
talk about this.
I feel like it was a uh I wouldcall this a Tour de Force if I
was writing a one-line reviewfor this movie.

SPEAKER_00 (02:00):
I like that.
I don't think Tour de Force hasever been used on this podcast
in 136 episodes.
I think that's a first.
And you know what?
I'm here for it.
It definitely was a Tour deForce.
There's a lot to love in thismovie, and I'm particularly
excited about discussing itbecause this was a first for me.
This is the only alien film thatI had never seen before.

(02:22):
So outside of the Alien Earth TVseries, which finished airing a
couple weeks back, which we willbe covering in uh I think two
weeks' time, yeah, it's the onlylike completely fresh thing for
me.
Uh Rich, you look confused.
What's up?

SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
Future Anthony here, and I just wanted to let you
know that the actual discussionof Alien Covenant starts around
10 minutes and 35 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 (02:51):
You said two weeks' time.
So from everything I know aboutthis movie, right, Ridley Scott
said he's making a trilogy, andthen you said we're watching a
movie that's between Alien andAliens, right?
Romulus?

SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
Romulus is next, yes.
It's the it's the next film.
Ridley Scott has not finishedthis trilogy yet, so I
apologize.
You guys, you guys are killingme over here.

SPEAKER_02 (03:16):
Alright, alright.
Oh my goodness.
Oh, alright.
I don't know.
I hope this doesn't change thetenor of the pot.
I am a little bit I don't knowwhat to do with myself right now
because I felt like I goteverything I wanted, and I was
so excited.
I'm I'm so oh no, there's morequestions.

SPEAKER_00 (03:36):
Oh yes, there's a lot of open ends with this
movie.
A lot of open ends, some prettymassive ones, colony-sized
questions that need answeringthat have yet to be answered in
canon.
But before we get into any ofthat, let's jump into what we've
been up to this past week.
Rich, now the baseball's done,at least for you.

(03:57):
Uh what's what's going on?

SPEAKER_02 (04:00):
Well, I've been you know, I have I I have been uh
hate watching a little bit, souh I won't lie.
Like I like to watch and then Iactually enjoy when the games
are very close.
And that's not because it's moreentertaining, but I just like to
see the team that I'm rootingfor to lose get closer to
victory and then lose the gameeventually.
So I've been enjoying that.

(04:20):
I am uh very excited about my uhnew addition to my home theater
system.
I am merely, as we speak now,less than 24 hours away from
upgrading from a 55 inch to a 75inch.
I unfortunately got a blackcolumn of LED darkness.

(04:41):
And I wouldn't say like a line,I'm not exaggerating.
It's about a um on my 55-inchscreen, it probably takes up
somewhere between six to eightinches, and it just goes up and
down.
So that kind of crapped out, soI I got this new guy in.
I'm pretty excited.
I can't wait to play Red Deadand watch some horses poop and
uh in glorious 75-inch 4Kquality.

(05:05):
Uh D.

SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
Oh, Ultra HD.
Wow.
Alright, that's that is actuallyvery exciting.
Uh Anthony, what have you beenup to?

SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
Nothing too much.
Uh just preparing for I have atrip that I'm going on in uh in
a couple weeks, so I'm kind ofpreparing for that, and and so
I'm pretty excited for that.
Yeah, so I'll be uh I'll be outof town for two weeks, so during
that period of time, we may ormay not get a rich Dakota

(05:34):
episode.
You know, we'll see.
We'll see.

SPEAKER_00 (05:36):
We might be extremely lazy, but uh we will
we'll see what we can do.

SPEAKER_01 (05:41):
Look, if Rich and I can do it, you and Rich could do
it.
I don't know him.

SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
I don't know him like that.
No, no, it's okay.
Yeah, we'll figure something.

SPEAKER_01 (05:49):
But yeah, not not nothing too much.
How about you, Dakota?

SPEAKER_00 (05:52):
I actually had a really good week of binging
content that's very applicableto this particular podcast.
I received a job within mycurrent, like the the workplace
that I'm at, I received a uh ajob to do that requires me to
basically be alone for hours onend, just basically putting in

(06:13):
outlets and switches and stuffroom by room by room.
Uh so I have a lot of time tojust listen to audiobooks, and
that's exactly what I did thisweek.
I think I I don't know if it's arecord number of audiobooks that
I've listened to this week sincesince you heard from me last.
Because at the end of lastweek's podcast, I think I
mentioned that I was gonna startreading the Covenant prequel

(06:36):
novel.
I did that.
I listened to the CovenantPrequel novel.
Then I listened to the Alien 3novelization, which was really
good.
Uh it actually made the moviebetter.
And then I did something reallykind of fascinating for me.
I listened to the novelizationfor Alien Covenant, the movie

(06:58):
that we're covering today, priorto ever having seen the movie.
So I had never seen this movie,and I I I finished the
novelization this morning, andjust before we recorded this
podcast, I finished the actualmovie itself.
So that was a really interestingdynamic change for me.
And then I had a little extratime, so there's an audio drama

(07:19):
of the original script for Alien3.
It's a very, very differentmovie.
Ripley's barely even in it.
It's mostly about Hicks andBishop and Newt surviving in
like a political war landscapesort of thing, and it's like
it's such a crazy, like randommovie that probably would have
been a little bit better thanthe Alien 3 that we got, but

(07:42):
alas, it never happened.
So they brought back some of theoriginal actors to play those
roles.
Like the actor for Bishop andHicks were the same, and that
was really cool.
So I listened to basically fourbooks the Alien Covenant
Origins, which is a prequelnovel, the Alien Covenant
novelization, the Alien Threenovelization, and the Alien

(08:04):
Three Audio drama, but like it'san alternate universe, Alien 3.
So, yeah, I had a great time,and I'm like so prepared for
this episode.

SPEAKER_01 (08:12):
Yeah, man, you did uh you did your homework.
No, no, you you did extracredit, bro.

SPEAKER_00 (08:18):
I did a lot of extra credit.
No, I'm not even not evenjoking.
Like I I was full tilt withthat.

SPEAKER_02 (08:23):
It sounds like you might need to um make a video
that answers the questions thatMr.
Scott left us because of yourintense research.

SPEAKER_00 (08:32):
I think if you guys have any questions for me, I can
answer them on the podcast, andI'll do my best to answer them
based on what the novels ornovelizations what I was able to
glean from it, basically.
And there is a lot differentfrom the novelization to the
film.
The the novelization is oddlymore spiritual, I guess.
You know, the name Covenant,it's it's uh it in itself like a

(08:56):
promise between God and man.
That's what a covenant is.
So the novelization was a lotmore in that vein.
There's a lot of littleillusions throughout the book
that I thought were really,really just fascinating that
they kind of either didn't touchon in the movie or they just got
rid of that scene and you knowthat it was a deleted scene or

(09:17):
something.
So that's one of the portions ofthe novelization that I think
was better.
But overall, I really liked themovie.
It was it was cool.
It was fun because I waswatching the movie, and you
know, my wife's sitting next tome.
I'm like, oh, this is this is ascary scene, by the way.
There's gonna be a jump scare.
Oh, yeah.
Well, oh look at this.
This is really cool.
There's gonna be an alien shiphere.
Oh, yeah.
So I had that foreknowledge, andI thought that was pretty cool.

(09:40):
So I don't know if I would do itagain.
I would read a novelizationbefore watching a movie again.
So that's that's one questionthat you don't have to ask me
because I already know theanswer.

SPEAKER_01 (09:50):
Do they have it for probably not, right?
They haven't done anything forAlien Earth.

SPEAKER_00 (09:55):
They don't have a there's no novelization for
Alien Earth.
They usually don't do it for TVshows.
I don't think I've seen it otherthan like the original like
Doctor Who episodes and theoriginal Star Trek series.
That that's but it's like alllike stuff from the 60s and 70s.
Those are the only novelizationsI've seen of a TV show.
But there's no novelization forPrometheus or Romulus.

(10:18):
So as of right now, I'velistened to all of the
novelizations except for AlienResurrection.
So that's it.
That's where I'm at right now,guys.
Next week I will have listenedto that most likely.

SPEAKER_02 (10:30):
You're doing uh doing the Lord's work, friend.
We need it, we need answersbecause obviously uh Ridley
Scott doesn't want to providethem, so I don't know what we're
gonna do.
Anthony, you just Anthony justflashed out of frame into his
background, and I got so scared.
I was like, Where'd he go?
I was like, oh no, xenomorph gothim.
Xenomorph took him down.

SPEAKER_00 (10:48):
Oh man, Daniel's got him.
Yeah, let's let's jump into ouractual discussion of Alien
Covenant.
Let's start with Anthony,because you've seen this before.
You're the only one of us whohave seen this before.
How did this compare to how youremembered it, or did you
remember it at all at thispoint?
What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 (11:07):
So the last time I saw this movie was back in 2017.
I actually saw it in theaters,and that was the last time I saw
it.
And that wasn't because I didn'tlike it, but you know, I I've
never I've never really like hadthe urge to go back and watch
it.
And you know, there was a lot ofstuff that you know, because
Prometheus came out like fiveyears prior, you know.

(11:30):
There's a lot that you canforget from that too.
So there were, you know, I Imean I recognized David and
Walter.
I was like, oh, okay, you know,I remember the Android from
Prometheus, but other than that,this time around it felt like a
fresh view, but it felt a lotdifferent because I had just

(11:51):
watched Prometheus, so it waslike, oh wow, there's a lot that
is explained, especially withthe whole black goo stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (11:59):
Yeah, there's definitely a lot more that we
know about the pathogen that theengineers were creating in the
Prometheus movie.
Rich, let's turn it back over toyou.
Um Anthony mentioned that thismovie retroactively answers and
probably makes better some ofthe uh story cues in Prometheus.

(12:21):
Do you agree with that?

SPEAKER_02 (12:22):
Yeah, I mean, I thought Prometheus was a hot
pile of stinking poo before Iwatched this movie.
I mean, you guys heard me saythat I liked Resurrection.
I ranked it higher than I diduh, you know.
I mean, I have before I watchedthis movie, Prometheus was like
6'7 on my list of Marvel movies,and uh this changes the order.

(12:45):
I know I've complained about theway things get rolled out in
format, but man, this would havebeen a great series.
I would have been far lessirritated watching this as a
40-minute or something.
I don't know how you chop it up,but the fact that there's a
five-year gap here, I just feellike you get left at the end of
Prometheus and you're likefeeling empty.

(13:08):
Uh you're feeling you'researching for answers, and then
this one gives them to you all.
So it's a very satisfying youknow, I thought it was a s
satisfying second installment ofthis story, but you know, here
we are, sir.

SPEAKER_00 (13:21):
Now I've I've stayed relatively uh I've stayed
relatively spoiler-free when itcomes to the Prometheus and
Alien Covenant side of thisuniverse outside of what I'm
currently studying.
You mentioned that Ridley Scottclaimed that there this was
intended to be a trilogy.
I didn't I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
Yeah, I so once you guys, you know, you guys don't
allow me to go forward, so Ihave to I just do like deep
dives into like articles andeverything I can about the
current movie.
So I I did some reading onCovenant, and I heard that you
know originally Scott's idea wasto make this a trilogy because
he wanted to kind of take backthe franchise, he didn't want to

(14:03):
let anybody else kind of jump inand mess things up.

SPEAKER_00 (14:06):
Okay, and that kind of actually ties into something
that I I feel like I rememberhim saying.
Basically, when the people whocreated Romulus made Romulus, he
told them not to use thecharacters like David and
everything from his Prometheusand Covenant movies because he
wasn't I don't know if he wasn'tsure if he had plans for those

(14:29):
characters or what, but he justhe wanted them to steer clear of
specifically that.
So I guess that makes sense.
And yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (14:38):
So you don't want some chinless wonder just
walking in and grabbing yourmovie franchise and messing it
up.
I guess not.

SPEAKER_00 (14:45):
What what is chinless wonder?
I don't know what is what areyou coming up with that for?

SPEAKER_02 (14:52):
I'm leaving it there.
I'm leaving it there.
We can move on.
So Anthony, what did you uh whatdid you think?

SPEAKER_01 (14:59):
I I really do think that you are kinda I mean, and
you know, it's it's an opinion,but I really do think that
you're coming down like onPrometheus like way too hard
just because of the lack of anactual the lack of I I guess
like a full form xenomorph, butyou know, it's like man, you

(15:19):
gotta let the man cook, youknow, like I mean you didn't get
a xenomorph for most of theoriginal movie until like the
end, you know?
And I mean essentially we kindof got the same with Prometheus,
and then at the end ofPrometheus, you get that kind of
proto-xenomorph, and then youstart seeing that in Covenant,

(15:40):
the the same kind of xenomorphsthat were coming out of these
people from that like black goothat that kind of settled in as
like spores.
And no, no, I I thought thatlike so yeah, like I said,
coming off the fresh watch, itdefinitely answers a lot with
Prometheus, and you know, like Isaid, I understand their the
gripes, but there's no way thatI could put resurrection above.

(16:04):
The story is just terrible.
At least Prometheus has a goodstory.
Your gripe is just a lack of uhxenomorph, really.

SPEAKER_02 (16:12):
And Riley, I mean that there was a couple of
things.
I well, I mean, I understandRiley's not there because it's a
prequel, but I don't know.
I I guess I just I feel like themovies had set a standard for
me, and I was just a little bitmaybe it's like it was too
Covenant's the movie that I feellike I wanted Prometheus to be.

SPEAKER_00 (16:29):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (16:30):
I think that's what it is.
I think I I think it's like itwent back further than I
expected it to in thisdevelopment, you know, like so
it's it's the prequel to theprequel.

SPEAKER_00 (16:39):
Yes.
Man, I'll tell you what, youwould absolutely not like the
prequel novel to Alien Covenant,by the way.
Just for those of you listening,I didn't think it was a bad
novel.
Alan Dean Foster, which isprobably the greatest
novelization writer of all time.
He did the Star Wars books, hedid Star Trek, he did Alien, he

(16:59):
did The Thing.
He's done so many greatnovelizations over the course of
40 years or so.
But uh yeah, he wrote thisoriginal novel prequel to the
novelization that he ended upwriting.
And there's no aliens in it.
Like not even there's not evenlike Black Ooh, there's there's
nothing.
It it all takes place on Earth,and it's a it's entirely like a

(17:24):
a corporate battle about like,you know, like there's a there's
a cult called the Earth Savers,I think that's what they're
called, that are trying to stopthe Covenant mission from going
forward.
And the Weyland Utani company,after like the re recent merger,
is trying to figure out like whothese random people are that are
just like you know, kamikazeingtheir lives to like stop this

(17:47):
colony ship from going out intospace.
And basically, like the the cultleader, he is having visions, he
is having nightmares, and it'sit's really cool having now
watched Covenant and read theCovenant novelization.
And if you go back to that likeprequel novel, some of the

(18:09):
visions that he has basicallyare like these like monstrous
abominations like chestsexploding, um, you know, it's
and you think that he's havingvisions of the future, but I
think he's actually havingvisions of what's happening in
real time with David on thisunknown planet to the engineer

(18:30):
population, you know, like themayhem that occurs when he
releases the pathogen onto theplanet.
I think those are the visionsthat this random guy on Earth is
seeing.
He's just like, no, we can't goout there.
And his motto is OTBD, out therebe demons.
And it's such a like a strangebecause it's mostly corporate,
you know, it's mostly likecorporate espionage mixed in

(18:52):
with this cult that's trying tostop the covenant from
happening.
And yeah, you'd never know thatfrom the movie or even the
novelization, because they'retwo very separate entities.
But yeah, so you wouldn't haveliked it, I don't think, because
there's there's no actual aliensin it.

SPEAKER_02 (19:08):
I just want aliens and I want juice, and that's
what I want from my aliensfranchise.
But this this movie gave me thejuice, it gave me two magnetos,
it gave me Kenny Kenny Kenny,you get Kenny Powers?
Danny McBride?
What a surprise! Oh, BillyCrutup, I just have like a

(19:28):
personal I I love that guy, thatactor.
He was in this novel uh themovie of the novel Jesus' Son by
Dennis Johnson.
He's one of my favorite authors,so I I absolutely like just love
that actor.
So I was really happy when wegot into this.
I was happy with the cast.
I thought it was I wassurprised.
I mean, Danny, like I I seeDanny McBride and I just get

(19:49):
super excited because he'salways kind of Danny McBride.
Like, even though he's not asDanny McBride as he can be, I'll
watch I've watched every like Imean Righteous Gemstones, all
those shows like on HBO, even ifthey're only two seasons and
they go, I love it.
So I you can you can you cancheck off another uh Danny
McBride title from your theyjust keep bringing in like stars

(20:13):
Charlie's Theron, like in thelast one, Idris Alba, like Wong.
Yo, Anthony, your boy, yourboy's in this one.

SPEAKER_00 (20:20):
Who's it?

SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
James Franco for Oh oh you know, you know what's
funny is that like you know, I Iwas thinking the same thing.
I was like, man, like it seemslike everybody has been in an
alien movie, and uh yeah, dude,like they have James Franco in
there for like literallyseconds.

SPEAKER_00 (20:41):
Wait, did I where did I miss that?
He was the husband of Daniels.
Oh yeah, alright.
His name is Jacob.
He was the original ship captainfor the Covenant.

SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
He died horrendously.
Like the man was he he burnedup.
Like he got caught fire in thatpod.

SPEAKER_00 (20:58):
Yeah, they couldn't open the pod, and bad time.
It was a bad time, Bob.
So, uh, what are your thoughtson the the whole setup for this
one?
I I think is a reallyinteresting setup.
Basically, these colonists areleaving Earth.
They are going to potentially bethe first colonists on a new

(21:20):
world, basically.
They're going to Oregai 6, andthey there's 2,000 of them, but
they are diverted when they heara potential distress call, or
it's not really a distress call,but it it kind of is with uh
Take Me Home Country Road.
How do you guys feel about theuh the diversion?

(21:41):
Would you have been diverted?
You know, like would you haverather spent another seven years
in cryosleep, or would you havebeen like a couple weeks?
That's kind of nice for a planetthat's near Earth quality.

SPEAKER_02 (21:52):
I I'm gonna I'm gonna be honest here.
I mean, like I get paranoidabout uh going to MetLife
Stadium in New Jersey to see aJets game.
I really like John Denver, sothat's that's difficult, right?
I love that song.
It gives me a lot of fallout 76vibes.
I think that's in that game.
It just makes me feel at home,but that's terrible.

(22:13):
I can't believe I said that.
I I really it's a song that youknow I I I enjoy, but man, I
just felt like that was such adumb decision.
Like, I don't understand.
Just because you heard JohnDenver, like I don't care if
it's Bon Jovi, man.
Like, I'm not I'm not gettingI'm not stopping, you know.
Like I love Bon Jovi, but I'mnot I'm going to the place that

(22:34):
I know is singing.

SPEAKER_00 (22:34):
Now what if it was actually Bon Jovi?
Like what if Bon Jovi wassinging that from that planet?
Like, would you be like, wegotta get him?

SPEAKER_02 (22:42):
Oh well, okay.
Now you've that you've changedthe complete like if I think
it's a recording, I'm not going.
But if I think it's the live ifhe's like, he's like, hey man,
it's me, John Bon Jovi.
I just wanted you to know, youknow, like I wanted you to come
get me before I'm dead or alive,you know, like whatever.
Like, if it was a personalizedmessage almost, I would go.

(23:05):
Like I'm alive now.

SPEAKER_00 (23:07):
You know, he's saying the star date or
whatever, then I show up, but Idon't think you do that if you
just now for all intents andpurposes, this was the better
choice to Orige 6.
Orige 6 they were able to findfrom Earth, but for whatever
reason, their position in spaceallowed them to see and discover
this random planetoid that wascapable of life, and not only

(23:31):
was it capable of life, thescans proved that it was closer
to Earth's atmosphere than theplanet that they were originally
going to.
So it's like, do we, you know,cut seven years off of our trip
and potentially have a bettertime?
Or what's do either of you knowthe answer to this question?

SPEAKER_02 (23:48):
So probably before they, you know.
We're talking about thedecision, but we know that
eventually we know that, right?
The organics are destroyedessentially by this virulent
weapon.
Why the so it doesn't affectplant life though?
It's it's did I I feel likemaybe I missed that line.
Like, why is wheat growing, forexample, uh when they land?

SPEAKER_00 (24:12):
Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't affect plant life, it
only affects um basically.
I mean, I think he actually evenuses the term So is that back in
the menu?

SPEAKER_01 (24:22):
Yeah, he they it said that um it only affects
non-botanical life.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (24:28):
That's that's correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:30):
So yeah, yeah, I'm with Dakota.
I also understand why theydecided to like kind of pull off
because there's not supposed tobe anybody out there, you know?
And it's like, oh, okay, what'sgoing on?
We've got this incomingtransmission from a planet that
is way better than the planetthat we're going to.

(24:50):
Like, you know, I it just seemsyeah, it seems it was the right
call.

SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
But it was too good to be true.

SPEAKER_01 (24:58):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, no, it was a trap, youknow.
But was there David you gottapull the the good old trap card
on him?

SPEAKER_02 (25:05):
But Anthony, did I I just don't why do you guys say
that it's a better choice?
I mean, unless Daniel's wife, Ican't remember her name for some
reason.
I'm gonna call her Riley.
Riley, she argues that her nameis Daniel.
Daniels argues that they'vealready vetted the place that
they were going to, no?
Like they have because here's mything.

(25:28):
If there's 12, 14, 20, 50 crewmembers and they agree to this,
okay, right?
But they're making the decisionfor what amounts to be a 2,000
life forms, right?
Like that's it's no you're notjust you're not on a road trip
and you're just stopping offbecause you know the Vince

(25:49):
Lombardi has Popeyes.
You don't know what that placehas, but you know according to
the movie, your crew or yourpeople have done enough research
that this is the place that theydecided that they're gonna
cryogenically freeze all thesepeople and send them there to
start a new colony.
Like, there's gotta be, to myassumption, because I didn't,

(26:09):
you know, and that's nothingmentioned in the movie.
Don't we need to have it vetted?

SPEAKER_00 (26:14):
So they as far as planet to planet, there's two
ways to answer that question.
Do they need company permissionto divert their trip?
I have no idea.
Based on what we see and thefact that Mother doesn't stop
them, the ultimate mission wasjust to find another world to
live on.
So I I think that it might haveeven saved Whalen Utani money

(26:36):
because it's a lot closer toEarth.
So if they needed to bring morestuff back and forth from the
colony, it would have beeneasier.
So I don't think it would havebeen an issue with the company.
As far as like planet to planet,they didn't ever from Earth
notice this new planet on theirscans, even though it's much
closer to Earth than them.

(26:58):
They found Orige 6, which was ahabitable planet, but only after
they you know experienced thatelectrical storm in space, were
they able to get that radiofrequency from Elizabeth Shaw at
this unnamed planet.
And then they realized, oh wait,this planet actually is more

(27:19):
habitable than the planet thatwe're going to.
So yeah, it's one of those,like, but yeah, so hopefully
that answers your question alittle bit.

SPEAKER_01 (27:29):
Yeah, that that that's what I kind of gathered
at.
It was really just like tryingto find a new place to live, and
that just happened to besomething that they picked up,
you know, and it's like, well,if you found something better
along the way, then you knowwhat, that's awesome.
And yeah, for the for the mostpart, aside from like all the
crazy stuff and the the blackgoo, I mean they had they had

(27:52):
vegetation.
There were there was wheatthere, you know, they could
obviously grow what they neededthere.
The only thing that wasn't therewas any like life outside of the
plants.

SPEAKER_00 (28:04):
Yeah.
So there's a really interestingthrough line, and I'm so after I
finished reading thenovelization for Alien Covenant,
I decided I was gonna read orlisten to this like short audio
drama of this unused script forAlien 3.
It basically was the originalscript for Alien 3.

(28:25):
I just wanted to get it out ofthe way.
It was a quick, uh, it was likea two-hour audio drama.
It was easy, I could do it in aday, basically.
So I listened to that and Ifound some extremely close
parallels between that audiodrama that was never used for
Alien 3 versus what we actuallysee in Prometheus and Covenant.

(28:46):
So the spores that we see thatlike, you know, it's like a
black dust that's kicked up, theblack goo, the white alien
hybrids, those all existed inthis script from 1988 that was
never used.
So it's it's it was crazybecause I'm just like, wait a
minute, this is exactly what'shappening in this movie.

(29:07):
So they reused abandoned lore,and that is so cool to me.
I I I love when you knowfranchises do stuff like that.
But I at first, when I waslistening to this novelization,
I was just like, ooh, this istoo much.
They're changing the way thatyou know people get impregnated
with these things, and now it'sit's like the worst pathogen of

(29:28):
all time.
Like it takes on and mutates itin every form imaginable, and
it's it's actually terrifyingbecause it literally killed all
life on that planet.
So yeah, I felt I I thought thatwas a weird thing at first, but
it kind of grew on me as thestory continued.
And after I watched the movie,I'm down with it.
I'm down with the sickness.

SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
Nice.
Well, and then at some point inthe film you do see that there
are the eggs for the the facehuggers.

SPEAKER_00 (30:00):
Yeah, there's actually a really there's
clearly a deleted scene in thismovie that they did not do.
I'm gonna pull up my I wrotesome notes on this specifically.
So when when uh David is showingAurum, the captain, like the
makeship captain, when he'sshowing Orim around like his

(30:21):
bestiary, he starts pulling offlike the cover of a facehugger
egg, like an original facehugger egg.
In the novelization, youactually see him do that in the
movie, but they cut that sceneout for whatever reason.
But he explains to Orim in thenovelization, you know, like
there's a dead facehugger inthere, and he goes, in case you

(30:43):
were wondering, I had nothing todo with it.
It lies as I found it, a supremeexample of the engineer's skill,
and also, I suppose, of theirhubris.
And basically, like he explainsthat the original facehugger is
thousands of years old.
So he didn't create thefacehugger, he didn't create the
alien, the xenomorph as we knowit, but he tried to replicate
it.

(31:04):
And those experiments in thebasement were his own, you know,
like so.
This is a new-ish type ofxenomorph that's very close to
the xenomorph that we know.
So that that's another questionthat the film didn't answer that
the novelization did, and Ithink that that's actually a
very important distinctionbecause the film, if you just
watch the films, it seems likeDavid created the xenomorphs,

(31:27):
but that's not actually what theoriginal scripts were trying to
get across, which thenovelization is based off of the
scripts, basically.
So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (31:37):
What do you guys think about like how radicalized
David became?
Like he just became crazy.

SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
I'm I'm so glad you said that because as Dakota was
speaking, I did have a thought,but I didn't want to interrupt
his process.
Yeah.
Because I wanted to ask you guysif you're Star Trek the Next
Generation guys.

SPEAKER_00 (31:57):
Are are you you're asking if we're Star Trek the
Next Generation guys?
I am Anthony.

SPEAKER_02 (32:03):
Are you uh familiar with the uh the amazing series?

SPEAKER_01 (32:07):
I mean, I I know of it, but I I like I don't watch
Star Trek like that.
Not because like I hate StarTrek, it's just I've not gone
down that rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02 (32:17):
Do you it's that there's this character, uh
Lieutenant Commander Data, andhe's a uh android, kind of milky
skin.

SPEAKER_01 (32:25):
So uh, you know, kind of Yeah, yeah, I know I I
know what Data looks like.
He's the guy that did that wasit mystery TV show, I forgot
what it was called.
But I know exactly what you'retalking about.

SPEAKER_02 (32:40):
He's uh android and uh the other kind of he's also
created uh there's a lore a guynamed or his kind of brother
Lore was created by the sameguy.

SPEAKER_00 (32:51):
Oh yeah, it kind of did have a lore data.

SPEAKER_02 (32:55):
You know, and they they they just very much lore
was basically data, but he had achip that allowed him to be more
emotional and thus kind of morehuman, but he And Lore was Lore
was the original, right?
I believe so, right?
He's the original that like waskind of faulty, so that the

(33:17):
creator had to kind of dial backthis emotion chip, and that you
know, ironically, what made himyou know, the emotion chip made
the android like a broken human,you know, essentially.
And I think that's what we see,we kind of see here is like that
David is that first creation.

(33:38):
And I I can't and look, I knowthat we can kind of like you
know, there's tropes and stuff,but man, it's it this is
definitely way after NextGeneration came out, you know,
and you have these mirror imagesof each other, but one has
emotion and one doesn't.
And the one that doesn't isactually more human than the one
that does.

SPEAKER_00 (33:57):
Yes.
Yeah, no, it's a reallyfascinating parallel, and it's
it is tropey, but I do thinkthat there was probably some
influence, even if it wassubconscious, you know, to David
and Walter.
What I thought was interestingwas that this movie started with
David's creation.

(34:17):
Instead of showing us Walter'screation, which they could have
easily done, they showed us howDavid began and like how he was
built to serve.
But later, David decided, no, Iwasn't built to serve, I was
built to create.
And it goes into a heavy, heavybiblical parallel to the

(34:43):
creator, God, and the the firstfallen angel, Satan, the devil,
Lucifer, whatever you want tocall him, the tempter.
And uh the whole you know, storythere is that uh the the devil
did not want to serve.
He wanted to either be praised,he wanted to help in creation,

(35:03):
he wanted something that hewasn't getting, so he started
tempting, he started changingthe way that humans interacted
with God.
And that's kind of the role thatDavid takes on in this movie,
where he is now playing God, youknow, like he in the
novelization he actually usesthe term now I play God or

(35:23):
something like that.
So that was a really uh andcreation is a big part of this
movie, right?
Like the even the idea of likecreating a tune is oh, by the
way, the the tune that he wasplaying for Elizabeth Shaw, did
you notice that that was the thetheme song from Prometheus?
Oh, nice.

(35:44):
Yeah, it was a cool little likethe score.

SPEAKER_02 (35:48):
I I'm sorry I'm referencing this series again,
but I just it gave me a lot ofthe um there's an episode of
Star Trek the Next Generationwhere Picard gets like
transported into another.

SPEAKER_00 (36:00):
What is it, the the inner light or something?

SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
Alright, and he plays that too, and like you
know, just that little kind ofact of creation.

SPEAKER_00 (36:07):
That episode is probably the greatest science
fiction TV episode of all time.
Just anything.
I just think it's hands down,just it's immaculate.
Anyway, going back to Covenant,yeah.
So there were a couple I I Ikind of feel like I'm at a I'm

(36:29):
putting you guys at adisadvantage because I I have
more to bring to the table withthis one.

SPEAKER_01 (36:33):
So bring it, Dakota, bring it to the table.
I thought it had been broughtalready, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 (36:40):
What?
I thought it had been broughtalready, so okay.

SPEAKER_00 (36:45):
As as Rich said, that he he did like the sassy
snaps.
Sorry on it.

SPEAKER_01 (36:50):
No, no, see, I like I want a buffet style, just keep
it coming.

SPEAKER_00 (36:54):
Okay, I will keep it coming.
So there's a number of otherlike biblical allegories that
this movie you know brings up.
There's a number of things thatthe film doesn't even show us.
For instance, Orim, the new shipcaptain after Daniel's husband
dies, he's really religious, andhe says that.
You know, he's a man of faith.
They show him with the Bible,they show him, you know, praying

(37:17):
often or whatever.
They don't show it in the movie,but you know, he has a Bible, he
prays.
Very cool.
Just that that exists in thefuture, you know.
I thought that that wasinteresting.
But there's a really fascinatingscene that they change in the
movie that I think is moreinteresting and more meaningful
in the book.
When they enter the alien shipfor the first time and they see

(37:39):
the suits of the engineers,Rosenthal goes, they look like
giants.
And in the movie, in the movie,Aurum goes, Well, those are are
are statues of giants, you know,and that's the end of the scene.
But in the book, it's a lot moreinteresting.
So Rosenthal goes, Looks likegiants, and Orim goes, I don't

(38:01):
believe in giants.
And then she pulls out her Starof David and she goes, I do.
And I had to pause it there.
I had to pause the novelizationaudiobook, and I was just like,
wait a minute, are they tryingto say that the engineers were
akin to the Nephilim of theBible?
Like the people of old, thegiants that you know, like exist

(38:24):
in Genesis before the GreatFlood.
So that was a really coolrevelation.

SPEAKER_02 (38:29):
Um Revelation, nice job.

SPEAKER_00 (38:31):
Okay, yeah, I'm bringing it all the way around.
Genesis to Revelation, yeah.
There's another, there's anotherinteresting one that the film, I
don't know if it was intentionalin the film.
I don't even know if it'sintentional in the novel, but it
seems intentional.
Where Rosenthal, the Jewishcharacter, she goes into that
room with like the water andshe's like bathing herself.

(38:53):
But in the novelization, shegoes to drink from it.
And at first she cups her handsinto the water and brings it to
her mouth, and then she likedips her head fully into the
water to drink from it, and thenthe alien catches her unawares.
That and I I pause it there andI was just like, wait, the
Jewish character did this.

(39:14):
What does that mean?
And there's a scene in or scene,there's a there's a story in
Judges 7 where God is basicallytelling Gideon to cut down the
the amount of people he has inhis army.
So he brings them to a uh ariver and he has them drink from
the river.
Everyone who, you know, likeimmediately like just sticks

(39:36):
their head into the water isdeemed unfit to be in the army
because they are unaware oftheir surroundings.
But those who cup the water intotheir hands are able to, you
know, remain in the army becausethey're aware.
So it's interesting that in thenovelization, she cups the water
first, and then it's only aftershe puts her face into the water
that she is made unaware, andthe alien xenomorph uh is is

(39:59):
right behind or is it no, it'snot the xenomorph, it's it's the
neomorph in the in the yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (40:04):
Is that is that mentioned to us or is that
something that because I caughtneomorph as well, but that was
my like you know, I was goingthrough Wikipedia and different
articles.
It I don't remember hearing it.

SPEAKER_00 (40:16):
In the novelization, it's named, and they they call
it a neomorph in the novel.
Okay, they don't call it it inthe in the movie.
But that was another thing thatI thought was like, whoa, that's
that's kind of crazy.
Like that that's a potentiallylike huge, but that particular
thing is not canon because thefilm changes that scene, you
know what I'm saying?
So yeah, but it was just therethere were certain things that

(40:37):
the novelization did that Iappreciated a little bit more.
And yeah, so on on uh on Twitterthe other day, I mentioned that
there's something that I read inthe novelization for this movie
that made me change the way thatI see this universe.
And I think it's a prettysubstantial one.

(40:59):
And I don't know if it wasintentional, but there's a
couple like major cluesthroughout the prequel
novelization, or the prequelnovel and the novelization.
So I'm gonna read these twoquotes.
In the Covenant Origins, whichis the prequel novel, they're

(41:20):
talking about how male andfemale roles have changed over
the years.
Which you kind of see a littlebit in the movie.
You'll notice that none of thenone of the males or females
have the same last name, eventhough a lot of them are married
couples.
Like Daniels is married toJacob.
Those aren't their first names,those are their last names, you
know.
So in in the prequel novel, it'sit uses it says, such

(41:42):
anti-deluvian conceits as maledominance had long since been
banished by corporations whoseoverriding desire was to make
money.
Okay, that's interesting.
But it was it was interestingthat they use the term
anti-deluvian.
Yeah.
Which means before the flood.
Then I go into the aliennovelization, and there's
another line.

(42:03):
Right after Jacob died, youknow, she's going through his
things, and that's actuallyshown in the movie, but they
don't really, you know, there'sno inner monologue, there's no
narration of what's being shownor whatever.
In the novelization, it goesnearby rested Jacob's prized
collection of antideluvian vinylrecords and their lovingly
restored player.
It's parts cannibalized over theyears from half a dozen similar

(42:25):
devices.
And that's another use ofantideluvian in another book.
You know, so like what is AlanDean Foster trying to tell us?
Was there some sort of cataclysmor flood or something in the
recent future, like end of the21st century, that changed the
way human dynamics work?

(42:46):
And there's there's one morething.

SPEAKER_01 (42:49):
I feel like it would make sense if they're trying to
find other places, you know,like I know that in this like
universe that the earth isoverpopulated and that the
resources are scarce, but therecould have been something that
caused, you know, is theentirety of the earth

(43:10):
overpopulated, or is it just theareas that are still available
overpopulated?
And is resources scarce becauseof this cataclysm you're talking
about?

SPEAKER_00 (43:23):
It could be, yeah.
Um in the beginning of theprequel novelization, they do
say, or prequel novel, I keepsaying novelization, but anyway,
uh the prequel novel, they dosay that the Greenland ice sheet
melting has like changed globalwarming for everyone involved.
But there's an interesting quotethat doesn't make it into the
movie, and I wish it did,because it's such an it's a

(43:43):
fascinating use of worldbuilding.
So there's the song, uh, Take MeHome, Country Hodes, to a place
I belong, West Virginia,Mountain Mamas.
Anyway, someone in the novel,they're they keep playing the
song and they're just like, whateven is West Virginia?
And one guy goes, It's anancient tribal demarcation.
There once was a great many ofthem back when that sort of

(44:05):
thing was considered relevant.
The world used to be full ofdozens of minor political
entities, all working atcross-purposes instead of for
the common good of the speciesand the planet.
So it does seem like somethingbig happened, you know, earlier
in this franchise's history, andit's being hinted at in these
novels, but we don't really seethat play out on screen, and I I

(44:27):
wish we got a little bit more ofthat just because it was it's
such a fascinating tidbit tothis lore, and it kind of
explains how Apollo like becausethey they do say that like these
governments no longer exist asas they once did, and we know
that in the future it's prettymuch all run by corporations,
you know.
It's a it's a a corporationtocracy, whatever that is, you

(44:50):
know.
So yeah, no, it says it's it's Ijust I love that.
Sorry, I'm tangent done.
I think I have exhausted what Iwant to say about the covenant
novelization.

SPEAKER_01 (45:00):
I think that that would be an interesting series
though, like if we get theprequel series to the prequel
series, you know?
To the you know, pre prequeling,you know, it's prequeling so
much that it even like surpassesPrometheus.
No, no, you know, but no, justkind of like I want orange the

(45:20):
earth and it's like the earthand its like final days of like
you know how it was and justkind of like why how Whalen
Utani kind of weasel their wayin because like they seem to be
like the it's like a company andthey call it the company in the
earlier films, but it also seemslike a governmental kind of

(45:43):
entity, also.
So I want to know more aboutthat, and I mean I'm pretty sure
that Alien Earth will probablyexplain a little bit more of
that, but you know, now that youtalk about it, it would be cool
to see a little bit more of likewhat happened to the world that
caused them to become like this,you know.

SPEAKER_02 (46:04):
I'm not fallen for that setup, Anthony.
I don't believe that Alien Earthis gonna explain any of those
things because if any have Ilearned anything throughout the
last four or five or six weeksof Alien, is that I can't trust
you guys.
So I no, but uh uh all jokesaside, I do think that it is

(46:25):
kind of 1984-ish, where you havethe big brother that kind of
takes over everything, right?
And and and kind of like I guessin a way streamlines industry
and everything, because if youdo have one governing body over
the entire world, it would makesense.
The antideluvian thing that youbrought up, Dakota, though, is I

(46:47):
think I'm a 12th gradeliterature teacher.
I love the word antideluvian.
I remember when I was doing SATprep, and I would that was one
of the SAT vocabulary words thatI was excited to teach, and now
they've done away with thatsection essentially.
So it is a it's gone the way ofantideluvian, but that is such a

(47:11):
specifically important word interms of cataclysm.
I do think that it's it it doesit doesn't lend itself to the
flood, but I think that it couldbe any kind of cataclysm, I
believe.
Yeah, I think you know, so I amdespite the fact that there's uh
you know uh you guys are see,I'm always about the pulpy

(47:32):
juice, right?
And you guys are interested inthe orange, you know?
But this makes me interested inthe orange.
Like the you know, before it'sthe pulpy juice, like where
where are why did we get topulpy juice?
So what happened to crush thatorange?

SPEAKER_00 (47:46):
Well, we're almost an hour into this podcast.
We've barely even talked aboutthe the new alien species that
we we get in this.
Um, but before we do any ofthat, friends, we have to bring
it back uh because somethingthat was you know lacking from
last week's discussion ofPrometheus was juice,

(48:06):
specifically juicy aliens.
And I think that we got ourshare of juicy aliens and juicy
humans and just juice all aroundwith Alien Covenant.
So uh we're gonna have to goahead and ask you kindly to give
us a five-star juicy review.
Make it extremely ripe, likeover-ripe, where it just, you
know, kind of explodesjuice-wise into the keyboard

(48:30):
that you're typing into, and uhgive us a nice little review.
Yeah, no, um, let's bring itback to the aliens, because like
some crazy body horror happensin this movie, and probably the
worst body horror that's in thisseries.
Maybe I forget if Romulus isthat body horror-centric, but
this one was definitely bodyhorror.

SPEAKER_01 (48:51):
Yeah, it gets a bit crazy, especially with your boy
and um the medical bay on thatlike lander.
Like this man was having spikesshooting out of his back, and
then this thing burst out of hisback.
Like, it was insane, man.
It was such a mess.

SPEAKER_00 (49:09):
My it makes me wonder, like, what is the easier
exit?
Is it the chest?
We always assumed it's been thislike just under the chest, you
know, the ribcage is thesternum, right?
But like the back just goesstraight through the spine.
That that's I'll be straight upwith you guys.

SPEAKER_02 (49:23):
Yeah, look, my I love my wife.
Okay, I do.
Lauren, I know you're notlistening, but if you are, I
love you.
If that's that starts happeningto her, I'm nowhere near her.
Why would you stay near that theway the con No, there's no way.

(49:44):
I don't care who you are, whoyou were, because you are not
that entity anymore.
I am not getting anywhere nearyou.
I am not patting you on theback, I'm not trying to make you
feel better.
Like, one thing is like ifyou're you know sick over the
toilet, right?
But like there's a some sort ofthing protruding out of you.

(50:04):
I don't know if it's because Iwatched these movies, but I'm
getting out of dodge.
Like I'm getting out of thatroom and I'm locking the door.
Like, there's no chance.
No chance.

SPEAKER_00 (50:13):
Yeah.
As soon as Ledward, you know,vomited blood onto a woman's
chest, I was just like, I wouldhave been like, you know what,
I've done all I can.
This is out of my hands.

SPEAKER_02 (50:27):
Look, if when we're when we're at San Diego
Comic-Con next year at ourtable, and you guys come to
visit us, right?
If one of you guys has that kindof blood reaction, I'm assuming
that all three hosts of thispodcast are gonna get up and
leave the table.
We're not gonna sit with you.
Like that is might even leavethe I might have.
I mean, we might have to,honestly, with neomorphs and

(50:50):
xenomorphs going around andblack goo and David.
I don't know, man, but it'sthat's that I did like the body
though.
I did, I really did.

SPEAKER_00 (51:00):
Yeah, no, it was it was uh it was quite unique, and
that's that's what I love aboutthis series as a whole.
It's just it never gives you thesame thing, it's always
different.
There's always a new variant,there's always some new thing to
overcome, and that's that'swhat's really cool about this
series.
Now, Anthony, you asked us aboutlike what we felt about David

(51:21):
specifically about howradicalized he became.
We never answered that question.
He terrifies me.
He is the most terrifying thingof all time.
The idea that this curiouslittle android, this synth,
decided to go to this planet,open up a bay full of pathogen
to destroy a whole populationjust to see what would happen,

(51:44):
is insane.

SPEAKER_01 (51:46):
That kind of reminded me of that scene in uh
DD with the Red Wizards.

SPEAKER_00 (51:51):
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (51:52):
Yeah.
Like they kind of released thatkind of shadowy um Yeah, the Red
Wizards of Thay.

SPEAKER_00 (51:59):
They released the beckoning death.
That's what it was called.
Yeah.
It was definitely it wasbeckoning death.

SPEAKER_01 (52:06):
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, no, it was crazy.
Yeah, it just rained down onthese poor people that were just
living down there, man.

SPEAKER_02 (52:13):
That that was the Chris Pike movie we uh reviewed,
right?
Yeah, no, that was a ripple andgood time.
I think that maybe my definitionof a good time is uh you need a
uh a villain to unleash aterrible disease all over the
masses, and then I'm uh I'm allfor it because uh I David is so

(52:34):
it's interesting, but it's justum well I think of a couple of
things, right?
Just I think of Ultron, I thinkof I think of of course our good
friend Arnold saying it's uhit's a learning computer, it's a
neural net processor.
And I just think that it'salmost the it is the idea that
we kind of come back to, Ithink, in sci-fi, that androids,

(52:55):
robots, ai, whatever it is, getsto the point where it realizes
like, hey, you know what thebest thing for them is, organics
is death, right?
Like get the they'll have nopain if they're dead, right?
And it seems to be so I wasn'tterribly surprised.
Okay, I won't lie to you.
I was surprised in the fact thatI was very confused at first

(53:18):
because we get the creation ofDavid.
I didn't want to admit thisearlier, and hopefully it's
later in the show.
Uh I I I thought I was confusedwhen I saw Walter.
I thought it was David, and thenI thought that he was pretending
to be Walter, and it wasn'tuntil we found David that I then
was like, oh wait, they're twodifferent guys.
I was I was kind of confusedabout that, but it on my second

(53:42):
rewatch, everything made a lotmore sense.
But at first, you know, youknow, I kind of got really
scotted.
I was a little confused aboutwhat was going on here and the
the timeline of events.
But yeah, no, David seems to bethe natural progression of any,
you know, like just watch outwith the Chat GPT guys, because
you know, you upgrade and nextthing you know, it's gonna wipe
you out, you know, it's gonnatake out your Grubhub orders

(54:05):
because it feels like if youdie, you save money.
If you don't get food, you savemoney.
It's budgeting for you, youknow.

SPEAKER_01 (54:11):
We do have uh a Cyberdyne uh adjacent in this
series.
So what was it called again?
It wasn't Cyberdyne, it wassomething Hyperdyne.
Oh, yeah.
So I mean, you know, who knows?
What it what if there that'd bean insane crossover?
Like, you know, you just getlike what what if you get a

(54:32):
movie where it's like alienversus predators and then just
like the Terminator comes out ofnowhere.
That'd be insane.

SPEAKER_02 (54:39):
Like Arnold, just like Arnold versus the Predator
versus the alien?
I can't get to the chopper fastenough to see this movie.

SPEAKER_00 (54:47):
This is why this is why they don't let fans write
this.

SPEAKER_01 (54:52):
Hey man.
It would be cool.
It would be cool.
We we need we we need adeadliest warrior to come back
and do an episode on that.

SPEAKER_02 (55:01):
Could you imagine Schwarzenegger and his xenomorph
just clapping mandibles and justflexing their arms and all the
juice dripping?

SPEAKER_00 (55:10):
I would like to see them arm wrestle.
Like, what would happen?

SPEAKER_02 (55:12):
Arnold wins, Arnold wins every time.
I'm not sure if you know this,but Arnold Schwarzenegger
defeated the devil.
Alright, he called the devil achoir boy.
If you've ever seen End of Days,he fought the devil and said,
What are you, a choir boy?
You're a choir boy compared tome.
Alright?
So we need to get this going,guys.

SPEAKER_00 (55:32):
Alright, so question of the day.
Who was caught off guard byDavid ending up on the covenant?

SPEAKER_02 (55:41):
No, no surprise here.

SPEAKER_01 (55:43):
Yeah, no.
No surprise.
Yeah, I don't think that therewas a a surprise.
Like when it ended up being him,I was just like I was like,
yeah, I I just I feel like itjust it seemed like it would
have happened.
You know what would have beeninsane is if the ship I know
it's not, but it would be insanethat if that if it was the ship

(56:06):
that was the derelict ship inthe first one.
That'd be insane if that was theship.

SPEAKER_00 (56:11):
It would have been insane.
It would have changed a lot,actually.
It would have but that kind ofjust goes to show like how much
more ancient this species is,you know, because there's more
than one of these ships, andthey've perfected this organism
for a while now.
So yeah.
Um what do we think's gonnahappen to these uh the the

(56:32):
people on the covenant ship?

SPEAKER_01 (56:33):
Nothing.
Because is Romulus does it coverthem or is it a different group
of people?
No, it is a different group ofpeople, right?
It's like 30 years later orsomething, right?

SPEAKER_00 (56:43):
It sorry, so it does not it does not cover anything
that has to do with theCovenant.
Um it will tell you that much.
I was hoping Yeah, no, it's it'sa completely different movie.
The vibes are much, much, muchcloser to the original movie.
That is probably the only thingthat I can tell you.
It's probably the closest movieto Alien in terms of feel.

SPEAKER_01 (57:07):
Now that you've seen Covenant, so you've pretty much
seen every Alien movie now.
Where does Romulus sit?
On what ranking system?
No, I'm not saying the MCU.
Oh, come on!

SPEAKER_00 (57:21):
No, no, no, no, no, not today.
We're not we're not doing theMCU.

SPEAKER_01 (57:25):
Dakota, Dakota could do no no, but no, and also in
all seriousness, like isRomulus, do you still like
Romulus more than do you like itmore than Covenant or does it
sit about the same?

SPEAKER_00 (57:38):
I've only seen Romulus once.
And it was last year, so it wasit was in theaters.
I I just remember thinking, wow,that was a brilliant movie.
I wish that I had been watchingthe alien movies leading up to
Romulus, because that would havea better answer for you.
But at the time I felt it wasjust very novel, it was very

(57:58):
fresh, and it felt like a returnto form for the series.
Romulus, that is.

SPEAKER_01 (58:06):
Well, Rom Covenant sits at a 65 on Rotten Omato
Rotten Tomatoes, and Romulus isat 80, so Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (58:18):
It's a pretty interesting place, X7.
It seems like it stays between6-7.
I think I said that earlier, andI didn't even look that
information up.
By the way, Anthony, I was I'mnot gonna lie to you.
I was really open you were goingfor the MCU bit.
I was waiting, like litliterally just You know, some
stuff, you know, it gets old.

SPEAKER_01 (58:37):
You know, you can't do it all the time.
You can't do it every time,except for stuff that I would
say the you know, the rating,the review thing.
That's just something that we'veum you know, we stayed with.
Adopt it into the podcast.
Yeah, yeah.
But um the the you know, someother stuff kind of come and go.

(58:58):
Fair.

SPEAKER_00 (58:59):
But you know what doesn't come enough?
Meat.
And you know, David, David is onthis planet all alone.
He's gotten rid of all of thebio life forms, he's gotten rid
of all of the fauna.
And finally, meat is back on themenu.
And he's so excited.

(59:21):
Like, he's so excited.
You know, he's able to finallylike use uh all of his creations
for once.
But it's kind of like a avicious cycle because he will
use the creations to createthese xenomorph life forms,
alien life forms, and then themeat's gone again.
So I'm kind of happy for him,you know.

(59:42):
Like, I don't I don't want himto be there.
I don't want it to be on thecovenant, but I'm happy for him
that he's got a lot of subjectsto to play with.

SPEAKER_02 (59:49):
Do you think there's any chance that he updates a
song every couple of years?
Like, do you think that like atsome point David starts
broadcasting like Bad Bunny uhbecause he's gonna be playing at
a Super Bowl?
And like it attracts like adifferent generation of Earth
emigrants.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:06):
So the Take Me Home Country Roads in the
novelization, it wasn't Davidsinging it, it was Elizabeth
Shaw.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:14):
Oh.
Oh.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:15):
Yeah.
And I think it is Shaw in themovie, but you can't, it's very
hard to see.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:22):
It it is Elizabeth.
I think I think it might havebeen like an old recording that
he was just kind of likelooping.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:30):
Yeah, it could have been that.
And uh he could have been likebroadcasting that old recording
for whatever reason.
Well, I guess we know it's asiren song to draw people there.
But in that recording, they werelike, why does she sound so sad?
You know, like it's not like ahappy, take me home country
road.
She's like lamenting her lifechoices in that song.

(01:00:51):
And her life choices were tolike put David back together and
basically commit genocide onthis planet.
Uh yeah, no, it's it's a crazy,crazy movie.
Guys, final thoughts on AlienCovenant.
What did we think of the whitealiens?
The new, almost like facelesscreatures.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:11):
They were yeah, they were creepy.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:12):
They're almost like Stranger Thingsy.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:15):
They came from the upside down, man.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:17):
They felt like creeped out.
Like, I won't lie, like I Idon't like horror movies because
I just don't get entertained bythem.
Like, I don't I generally don'tfeel gripped by horror.
The jump scares don't catch meas as much, you know.
But these were decidedly creepy.

(01:01:37):
You know, like you guys know howI felt about the engineers,
right?
But these the the white alienswere they were pretty creepy.
Like, I'm not gonna tell you Ihad nightmares or that they
really scared me, but I will saythat like I'm glad that Anthony
didn't choose to put them as hisbackground this week on the
podcast.
Because like, you know, therethere is some stuff that I just

(01:01:58):
you know I I don't want to lookat.
And those are their and youknow, the way David looks at the
alien, like it's like it's themost beautiful thing he's seen.
Like Fastbender's acting inthat, like whole like wow, how
did you do that, man?
Because he it looks like he's inhe's madly in love.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:18):
Yeah, that whole interaction scene was so crazy.
The the the flute playing, Idon't know how they did that,
but like you know, he's activelyinteracting with his own
counterpart on screen.
It's it's a fantastic scene.
Yeah, they did a really good jobwith that.
I think lore-wise, this was afantastic one.
They don't really explain how itbecame Wayland Utani, because in

(01:02:41):
the last movie it was just theWayland Incorporated, and now
it's the Wayland UtaniCorporation.
Wait, don't we know that?
We know that, but we don't knowhow.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:49):
Wait, Anthony, let me just double check with you.
Is this because of Predator?
That I feel like I know this.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:55):
Oh.
The AVP movies.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:57):
I know that they're not technically part of this,
but Anthony, don't isn't there apart of the AVP movies where
Whalen and Utani kind of uh kindof merge?
Like the the we we meet Utani,essentially.
She's like she's like helpingsearch for the like the you was
it the Yatusha Tech, thePredator tech?
Yaoja.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:17):
Maybe yeah, uh was it I don't I hate to say it this
way.
I think I m that I the that thatpart must have missed me because
I don't I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:27):
I think you're correct.
I do kind of very vaguelyremember that.
In the Covenant Origins prequelnovel, they they do just mention
that recently the merger tookplace and Utani basically it was
a corporate takeover.
And as a conciliatory gesture toevery Wayland employee, they

(01:03:51):
named the company Wayland Utaniinstead of Utani Wayland.
So it was still Wayland firstbecause of all of Peter
Wayland's innovations in techand stuff.
So that's that's how theyexplain the merger in that
prequel novel.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:07):
Alright, sorry for making the podcast even longer,
guys.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:10):
No, I mean that's look, if you guys are listening
and you don't want to read awhole prequel novel, I'm very
happy to exp explain a littlebit of what happens in it.
And it's it's lore, you know,it's it's cool stuff.
But anyway, I think this podcasthas gone on long enough.
Any final thoughts on Covenants?
Anthony.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:28):
You know, for a movie that was called Alien
Covenant, uh, I was pretty upsetthat I did not see Master Chief.
There was no elites or grunts orhunters or anything in it, no
Marines.
I'm like, dude, what is what isthis?
No, no, I I I agree that thiswas pretty good lore-wise.

(01:04:49):
You know, it it's a fun movie,and yeah, I think yeah, the most
compelling part of the movie wasthe whole David dynamic.
He just made it even creepier inthis film.
So he was creepy in Prometheus,he just got even creepier in
this one.
So yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:07):
Good stuff.
Rich.

SPEAKER_02 (01:05:09):
You guys know.
I mean, I wish that this podcastdidn't exist so that you could
go watch Alien Prometheus andthen be furious and then watch
Covenant and feel the joy that Ifelt.
Like, I it's it sounds like I'mexaggerating, but this is such a
watch.
Like, if you've been with us onthis journey, you're doing

(01:05:31):
yourself a major disservice tonot go watch Covenant.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:36):
I agree.
It's it doesn't crack my topfive MCU films, but it it might
make six or seven.
Umes! 41! We're almost done.
Um, all right, guys, thank youso much for listening to us here
for our 136th episode of ProjectEcology.
Next time we cover the final, orat least the most recent, alien

(01:05:59):
film, Alien Romulus, um by FadeAlvarez.
This is gonna be a fun one.
And a personal favorite of minethat our two co-hosts have not
seen.
So this is gonna be fun.
And after that, we cover thefirst season of Alien Earth.
And yeah, after that, nobodyknows.
Might be the end of the podcast,might be the beginning.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:19):
Yeah, yeah, we're just gonna hop into a time
machine and just go back.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:23):
Bor Boris.
Yep.
Oh, nice reference.
Guys, uh, if you want to checkout any of our socials, be sure
to click down into our shownotes down below, and uh you'll
find links to all of our placesonline.
But yeah, thanks guys.
Have a good one.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:41):
Peace.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:42):
And meets back on the menu, boys.