September 24, 2024 • 40 mins
Welcome to Spacing Out With BB and Jason! We’re currently covering the Alien franchise, and this week we’re discussing the 2017 Ridley Scott film, “Alien: Covenant”. Thanks for joining us!
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Find these episodes and more on our main podcast feed, “Spacing Out with BB and Jason”
https://plinkhq.com/i/1529054920?to=page
Feel free to reach out to us with your thoughts; We may use your comments on an upcoming episode.
Email: spacingoutpod@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason, this week
covering the twenty seventeen film Alien Covenant.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to Spacing Out.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm BB and I'm Jason, and we are discussing the
Alien franchise. One movie at the time that the moment
of this recording, Alien Covenant, is available to stream on Hulu.
This podcast episode is being released on two different podcast feeds,
so if you found it through these Spacing Out with
Alien podcasts, then I invite you to check out our
main channel, Spacing Out with Phoebe and Jason, where we've
(00:37):
covered things like Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek Our Flag Means
Death over one hundred episodes, and since we're wrapping up
Alien here, we're going to be moving on to some
other things. So this is the last Alien movie to
date that we are covering. Our coverage of Alien Romulus
is already out, so we won't be spoiling that movie
in case you're watching for the series the first time,
(00:57):
but any talk of Alien Romulus will be kept through
as spoiler section at the end of the podcast. Although
thinking about it right now, I don't really know if
any reason to talk about Romulus.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I can think of some.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Okay, then maybe well we will have a spoiler section,
but all the other films are fair game for us
to discuss. And I also want to mention that the
TV series Alien Earth is set to release sometime in
the first half of twenty twenty five, so we will
plan to cover that when it drops on FX slash Hulu.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
All right.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
There's also a chance that we might pop in with
an episode looking at the web series Alien Isolation. And
there's also some short films that came out over the
last few years that I don't know if we'll look
at those, but I've heard good things about Isolation, so
that might come up in the feed between now and then.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Is that like on YouTube?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I'm not one hundred percent sure where to find it.
I'm sure it is if it's a web series. Yeah. So,
Alien Covenant premiered on May fourth, twenty seventeen, written by
John Logan and Dante Harper, story by Jack Paglan and
Michael Green, and directed by Ridley Scott. In this movie
in twenty one oh four, almost eleven years after the
ill fated expedition in Prometheus, the Deep Space Colonization Vessel USCSS,
(02:09):
Covenant is on course for the remote planet to for
Guy six, Carrying over two thousand colonists in cryogenic hibernation,
they seek to build a new world. Instead, a rogue
transmission entices the crew to a nearby habitable planet that
resembles Earth. But nothing can prepare the ambitious crew for
another disaster and uncharted territory. As the peaceful exploratory operation
(02:30):
turns into a frantic rescue mission. Biological foes beyond human
comprehension threatened the future before it has even begun, and
the depths of space terror reveals its hideous face.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow, how poetic.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Vibe check? Did we like the movie overall? How does
it stend to Test of Time?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I liked it. It was a slow, very slow start,
and it was kind of boring and weird, and then
the James Franco isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And like we just immediately laughed as soon as we
saw Franco, but.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Because he dies, and then they're like, oh that was
James Franco.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He was on fire. Oh okay, uh yeah, rocky start, interesting,
middle good envy, so we're all good.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Uh yeah. I like this one as well. I think
it probably falls somewhere in the middle of the alien movies.
For me, we'll do an actual ranking later in that episode,
so we'll do that. But you know, there's there's aspects
of this that kind of tied to Prometheus I don't
really like. I don't like the story elements about creation
and the creation of the aliens and the creation of
(03:46):
mankind and all that, Like, I don't love that, and
this movie is kind of stuck in that story. And
then there's also this, like I guess I hear it
called de mystification, where like, you know, there's things about
a movie that are mysterious or a character that's mysterious,
and then a prequel comes along and just explains everything
about them, and it kind of ruins all the intrigue
(04:09):
and everything that you had. Like I think the movie
Solo was a good movie, but it explained everything about
Han Solo, so he's not as interesting as a character.
So it's kind of doing that with the Aliens. Yeah,
so that's what I don't like about a lot of prequels,
and this has that all over it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I think there's something to the mystery of this
weird creature, and like, thinking of past movies, I like
the idea of it evolving on its own. I think
the theory of evolution is so powerful, and they like
take it away and it's like this god complex is
(04:49):
inserted and it's so try. Like what's the word trite?
Is that the word.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Something that is overused and lacking originality or freshness?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That's it. Yeah, just I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, and I think that that is also a good
word for some of the movie because it repeats a
lot of plot elements from the previous movies. Yeah, he had,
you know, the aliens on the ship at the end,
the android is a bad guy. There's just like several
things throughout it that are they don't seem to play
as like homages, so they're just like competing the same thing. Yeah,
(05:24):
but despite that, I still think it was good. There
was good tension throughout the movie. Like I was never
very bored. You said the beginning was slow, but I
found it intriguing. The action at the end I thought
was really good. Like the whole third act was like.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, no, the th third act was really good. And
then like Danny wick Bride is in it, Like.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
What so, Yeah, I think it's a huge step up
from Prometheus.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yes, it's better than Prometheus. I like it a lot,
I honestly do.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
It feels way more like an alien movie than that did,
like in terms of the tone and the visuals, like.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It cure itself. Yeah, I feel like the David character.
I don't know, I just I never liked David, and
I wish that they would have kept the other guy,
Matthew or whatever his name was, Walter Walter, Yeah, he
(06:19):
was cool. I liked Walter or the fact that they
like cut to like us not finding out who is
on the ship, like, let us know, show us the
androids having it out.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Okay, well yeah, so we'll dig into that.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And okay, okay, okay, yeah trivia trivia trivia. Yeah, I
like the movie. It was a good movie. I would
watch it again.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Trivia time. What facts could be uncovered for Alien Covenant?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
All right? So, prior to the release of Prometheus in
twenty twelve, director Ridley Scott began hinting at the prospects
of the sequel, as Prometheus has left many questions unanswered,
and early on, Scott stated that the film would feature
Nosenamore says he wanted to focus on David eight, whose
ai was the new Alien life form, but feedback on
Prometheus caused him to change course, so.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
He hinted that there wasn't going to be a monster.
But then he took a note.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I feel like you can see in this movie. In
both these movies, like he really wants to focus on
the androids and not the aliens.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Which is weird because they're so hollow. Yeah, like, I
think today that movie would have been interesting with the
AI technology that we have today.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, it's interesting that he really dialed in on AI
before it became such a hot topic. Yeah, knew me Rapace.
I don't know if I'm saying her name right. That's
who plays Elizabeth Shaw and Prometheus, And she'd spent a
week shooting scenes which do not appear in the film.
I don't know what those are. And I couldn't really
find any information as to why they out cut her
(07:55):
from the film, didn't include her, Like, was it whose
decision that was or anything like it Just it's weird
because I feel like they could have had her in
the movie, even with the same general storyline, Like she
could have been a part of it in some way.
The film was shot in New Zealand, Australia, in the
US and the UK, and the run up to release,
twentieth Century Fox released a number of short prolog films
(08:16):
as part of the marketing for Alien Covenant. There was
a one called prologue Last Supper, which features the crew
of the Covenant having a last meal before they entered
cryo sleep. The second prologue was called The Crossing and
reveals what happened to Elizabeth Shaw and the android David
following the ending of Prometheus. So I guess she does
appear in that short wherever that is. And then another
(08:36):
one was called Meet Walter, which was a fictional advertisement
for the Walter series of androids. The film was novelized
by author Alan Dean Foster, who also wrote a novelization
for the first Alien movie, and he also wrote a
prequel novel to Alien Covenant called Alien Covenant Origins. Budget
was ninety seven million, the box office revenue was two
hundred and forty million.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Holy shit.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
And it was considered a box office disappointment, and it
brought in way less than Prometheus. Prometheus I think was
almost five hundred million.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Wow, And I would call it the superior film.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah, you know, our reception of it, I think is
higher than like what you see on Rotten Tomatoes and
stuff like Prometheus is rated higher by critics and pretentious
fuck yeah, so yeah. Critical reception was mixed, but somewhat positive.
Praise went to the visual style and horror elements, as
well as Michael Faspener's performance. Criticism went towards the script,
(09:31):
the reuse of old plot devices, and the movies attempt
to blend horror with philosophical themes. Ridley Scott originally planned
two sequels to Prometheus, leading into the first Alien film.
He later stated that Covenant would be the first of
three sequels to Prometheus. A script was written during production
of Alien Covenant and was set to go into production
in twenty eighteen, but it faced delays, partly due to
(09:53):
the box office under performance of Alien Covenant. Then, after
Disney purchased twentieth Century Fox, they announced the development of
more Alien films. This led to the production of Alien Romulus,
and it remains unclear if more Bridley Scott's prequels will
be made, so that cliffhanger ending might never be resolved.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Honestly, I don't care. It's just a bunch of colonizers, right.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Deep space dive, Let's break down some of our thoughts
on the film. You can share your thoughts with us
through email or social media. We may use your comments
on an upcoming episode.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What else is Michael Fastbender in Familiar looking as a
as a robot?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
He's in some of the X Men frequels. He's Magneto,
the young Magneto. He also played Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I haven't seen that. If it's not sci fi, it's
not on my radar. But he looks like an like
a fucking robot? What a robot face?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, he did a good job playing those two robits.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He really did. I think he did a great job.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
You know, one thing, it's starting out of order here,
but like one thing that I feel like was a
misstep of him with David cutting his hair so early
in the movie, because that kind of tips you off
that they're going to switch places.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, it would have. It would have been cool if
he would have waited.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
And it also just made it harder to keep track
of who's who because.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
They they looked so the same.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
They were both kind of wearing grayish outfits. I know
they're different. One was a hoodie in one but.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And then like the only difference was Homeboy was missing
a hand, but his hand wasn't in the shout like
eighty percent of the time. Yeah, so I couldn't tell
you which one was which.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So I mean, I didn't care much for that opening
scene in the white room, but jumping past that, what
an awful way to wake up from cryo sleep with
that emergency going off.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, that would suck. I felt like it was really
sudden how we got to the ship and all of
a sudden, everyone's waking up and people are dying, and
I'm like, I don't care. I don't care about any
one of these motherfuckers. I don't know them, I haven't
met them, I don't like them. There's nothing about this
(12:39):
that gives me like feelings, Like all that time they
spent introducing the rule, but they could have built up community.
They could have done that last supper thing.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, that's what I was just thinking, Like that scene
might have done well at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Of the bu especially if you want to pay homage
to the original, Like I feel like the original had
that scene they get out of cryo sleep and they're
all sitting around that white table eating. Yeah, like you
could have done that. But you had to give the
robot a part where he plays the piano, okay, choices,
I don't know. So that was like going from that
(13:16):
sterile white room. The creation of David annoying, and the
fact that he names himself after a fucking statue, like boring.
You don't even know like King David or any of
that shit, Like you're just David because you know Michael Angelo,
(13:39):
and you're like, oh, I think a sculpture is pretty cool,
So I want to be named after this big naked guy.
He's lucky he didn't have like a different painting or sculpture.
He could have been like the thinker.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
What other like things could he have in there? Yeah? Yeah,
So they killed James Franco with whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, we don't even know it's James Franco. It's just
some random dude in a pod that's on fire and
everyone's upset about it. Apparently it was the captain. We
don't care, we don't know him. And then later we
watch videos of him on the side of a mountain
laughing like James Franco and we're like, oh my god,
(14:25):
that's fucking James Franco that died, and like that shot
that they all took, and that in his memory was
lame because we didn't know who he was and like
the second in command had a big chip on his shoulder.
We don't understand that either. Like, none of these relationships
are adding up to me anyway. I just they're not
(14:46):
adding up. They're like, I don't care boohoo, I'm in
charge now and they don't respect my authority. And I
don't want them to mourn the loss of a leader.
What a weirdo. I was happy to see him die, honestly.
I did feel bad for him at one moment when
they were like on the planet. Oh, but I like
the way that they fixed the sale. That was really
(15:07):
cool and epic. Yeah, Danny McBride was out in space
doing his thing.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, someone you didn't expect to be in this movie.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And he didn't really do like comic relief either. I mean,
he was a little eccentric, but yeah, he's like.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
A character actor for sure, but he wasn't like a clown.
It was weird that they had so many couples, right.
I guess it makes sense if you're going to colonize,
you want people to be procreating, But it was weird.
I don't know how many couples you meet at work,
but it's always weird to meet people that work together
and couple. But I guess they're colonizers. It's weird. It's
(15:46):
like they're on a cruise ship that's going to land
and they're going to terraform something.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, that scene at the very end, the shower scene,
I'd like totally forgotten that those who were a couple
like that just seemed to come out of nowhere. Else.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, it's weird because Jesse small Lette is like known
to be queer, so seeing him making out with a
woman and like rubbing her back and stuff is like weird.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
And then this tentacle comes on the scene and.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Then it gets kinky. But it was kind of fun
to see him die because he's done some sketchy stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
That scene felt like more of a classic horror movie
than an alien movie.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
It definitely pandered to the horror audience who loves to
see titties on screen for no reason. Yeah, so yeah,
that one was definitely And it was weird that it
was so late in the film that they did that, yep,
because usually you know, it's like ten minutes in and
there's a nude scene. What's going on? Why so weight?
(16:50):
My pants are already unzipped. What the hell I have
to wait that long?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So they got a distress call or a mysterious signal
like yes from another.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There, they got a radio signal from a singer singing,
John Denver, take me how West Virginia. I would have
been like, turn left, so'll go.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Let's not go there, Let's see what the other planets
are singing.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, that doesn't sound right to me.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
But no, they're like, hey, there might be a party there,
so let's go check that out, which also is like
a page out of the first movie where they go
to investigate a signal and our lead heroin Daniels is
of course saying it's a bad idea and doesn't get
listened to, which also sounds familiar.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah. So, and then when they go out and get sick,
and then they're coming back, nobody knows quarantine procedures. All
of a sudden, we're back to square one. Yep, and
god damn it, in this post pandemic world, I am
tired of seeing people not know what to do in quarantine.
(18:00):
That guy was coughing all over that bitch, and she's like,
let me in, let me in. I'm like, no, we're
staying outside. If somebody gets sick on a foreign planet,
you don't say here, let me get fucking three inches
from your face and help you up. You say, stay here,
(18:20):
let me get the bubble.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, this a movie about a airborne contagion, plays a
little differently post COVID.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
It really does. And I wish we would have explored
the alien form that came from those sporelike vessels, because
that is interesting. That is fucking terrifying. The face hugger
is physical, you can see it, you can shoot at it.
(18:49):
But this like vapor that gets in your ears and
nose and can go into your bloodstream and infect you.
That is scary. I wish they would have explored that more.
They would like there was no like thinking either. They
weren't like, oh my god, it's in the spores. They
never talked about it again. It never came up. It
(19:12):
never like just it was like forgotten, like e raised
from their minds that these two people got stick out
of nowhere, and the robots like, oh you'd know by now, Like, bitch,
I hain't trust in you. I don't know you.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Well, yeah, it kind of moves on to the aliens
that we know, because yeah, yeah, I guess the contagion
was on that Prometheus ship and it exploded out and
they were these humanoid character creatures on the planet.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Those were the creators from Prometheus. They look they had
that funky nosebridge going on, and they thought that it
was like Homeboy coming home after he infected the humans. Maybe,
but then David unleashes the contagion all over them, and
(20:03):
it's I think that could have also been done a
little more like dramatically, like taking their time with it
instead of just like a flash that they showed. Like
I wish we could have seen the evolution of the planet,
like the way it turned into like all these creatures
just running around too, because it could. It caught everything right,
(20:24):
like there's wheat, so there might be cows, there might
be other creatures that got like overrun, and David is
the only one that's not a creature. I don't know.
I just like, if you want to tell the story
like that, like let's see it, it's show, not tell.
That's that's why you make movies. It gave Pompeii vibes, though,
(20:45):
you know, what I mean. So POMPEII was this volcano
that erupted, and it was so quick with the ash
and the that it like froze everybody in time. And
that's that's kind of what it was giving, with all
of the frozen like creature, like the creators frozen in
time of their like chests exploding and shit.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, the one guy, the first one that got infected,
it burst out of his back instead of his chest.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, that was interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And then when that Danny McBride's wife shut them both
in that room, even though she clearly had blood all
over herself. Selfish, selfish, she should have left herself in
that room with them and said we're staying in here
until we figure it out. Rude, messed up. Nobody knows
quarantine rules. And then she's like, just go to the
(21:38):
med bay and don't touch anything on your way out.
They're knocking around, touching every single surface. So if it's like,
I don't know, it's like, obviously not cool. I've seen
movies where it's in the blood and if you like
touch the blood, you'll get sick. And when that guy's
back burst into her face, she would she's a goner.
(21:58):
She's a gonner, and I wish it was like that,
because as she was on fire, it would have been
fucking dope if if a creature burst out of her
just a little just more like gore and blood and tragedy.
If you're gonna go there, go there.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
There were times in the movie that the Aliens had
a CGI looked to them. They're like, they weren't quite
like photo realistic. No, yeah, and just thought that was
interesting because this is pretty recent in twenty seventeen, Like,
I was all surprised that they had that kind of
uncanny look to them at times.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I think the ones that were most like that were
the ones that were more humanoid, especially the little one
that popped up and got up and like copied David,
that one definitely didn't feel.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And it didn't look like it did in the first
Alien movie, right, like no, no.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
But the first Alien movie Alien sucked. You could tell
it was a guy in a black jumpsuit. It was
not good. The best part of that film is the
chest burst and Sigourney like figuring out how to get
rid of this fucker. Like it's all about Sigourney and
the crew trying to survive this one is about the
(23:11):
creation of the creature and how it's going to be
the fall of mankind or something like that. You can
tell that's kind of the broad strokes of it. And
this white woman just happens to be at the center
of it. Again, Like, if there's anything consistent, it's that
(23:32):
there's a white woman in the center.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
So yep, if it ain't broke, I don't know, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Just like I said, it's trite.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, because the end the Prometheus, like we send elizabetha
off and we don't follow up on that story.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
We kill her like we killed Sigourney in that one
movie too, like, oh, well, we're done with you, so
you're gonna die in hyperspace or whatever. You're not gonna
make it or not. So Gourney the little.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Girl, Yeah, Newt.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And the she went the way of Newt. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
And then at the end of this movie where since
it sounds like we're not going to have a sequel
to this or anymore, like release got ones following up
on this, so.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I don't need one. I don't care about this, like
it doesn't. I don't know any of the colonists. They're
just like pods. They're pod people, like I don't feel
any emotion about them, like if they would have built
a world where like they like imagine a scene from
Titanic where you have a bunch of people getting on
(24:36):
the ship, getting in there into their ship, going on
this voyage, but it's obviously like more modern and then
space but like that kind of shit you remember, like
on the Titanic there was like a family with their
little kid, and the rich girl and the poor boy,
and all these people all getting on this one ship
with all their hopes and dreams and shit. Like I
(24:58):
didn't get any of that. I don't care about any
of those pod people. I'm kind of interested to see
what David's gonna do with his little regurgitated words.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah, I wasn't talking about the colonists and talking about
Daniels and Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I mean, he might let them out, but he's
not going to let the captain out. There's going to
be a failure with her pod or something, and he's
probably not going to let her wake up, or by
the time she wakes up it'll be too late, you.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Know, well we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Most likely it's not a big deal. I think Romulus
is a better follow up to this if you take
it in the order, like if I could go without
this film in the franchise and Prometheus, like we could
live without them.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, Like I don't like the I mean, the whole
creation storyline. It's just weird mystery.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah. Well, I like the idea of like this colony
bug like alien creatures developing their own like hive mind
and their own ships, and they're like creating all of
their own things, but still being like driven to kill
if it's not their own kind, Like, oh, I think
(26:12):
that's iconic, and trying to explain it away saying that
some robot created this instead of them like evolving and
creating themselves. It just like discredits the creature so much,
especially with the movies prior to this, when Sigourney finds
out like oh there's a mother and all this shit.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, I don't love that all this is engineered. And
so for me the alien movies, I select ones that
are kind of like cannon for me personally. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, Like I like this movie, but I wouldn't call
it cannon. I think it follows like the classic tropes
and I love a good good time movie with horror elements,
but don't I don't think. I don't think it's a
very strong story, and that's unfortunate because I like the movie,
(27:03):
but it's just like I could take it or leave it,
Like I wish it did more like for the characters,
because I feel like that's where films shine, Like you
can show me the landscape of Greenland or Europe or
whatever all day long, but if the characters are a flop,
the characters are a flop.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, there's no doubt that it's a well made, well
constructed film, like Ridley Scott very clearly knows how to
like make a well produced, well produced, well like visually
styled movie.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Like Yeah, and I feel like some of the direction
was pretty good, but then there were moments where I'm like,
I'm not vibing with it, Like I wish we would
have had more moments where the captain was talking, like
the second captain after James Franco, like gave us more
of a monologue or something that gave us an idea
(27:58):
of how he's feeling emotionally, like with having to all
of a sudden be the captain out right out the
gate and trying to like establish authority in a group
of people that it doesn't seem he knows very well,
like he kind of gave that, but it was like
very poorly. I don't know if it was poorly acted
or directed, but it's very not It's not memorable enough.
(28:22):
And like I'm just tired of the main character being
like a sad white woman.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yeah, like her is like she someone she loves.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, Like she's like not empowered. She's just distraught and
upset and she's like nobody's listening to her and she's
just got to like go along with what the men
are saying, and it's just like, ugh, what a you know.
I liked her at the end where she was more
(28:57):
assertive and she was like, you know, she had a
plan and she's gonna get rid of this fucker and
all this stuff. But where was that person when they
were like landing.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, Like it's just a weird way to develop a character.
I guess like her character should be developed. And then
that story about building a cabin by the lake that
was cute, and I think, like that was so sad
when she finds out that David's not Walter whatever. Yeah,
I like that callback, but she didn't I don't know
(29:31):
it just I don't know. I can't say what it is,
but there's something that's not fitting. But it was okay.
I mean she was like rolling around the top of
the ship on a string and shit shooting a gun
and catching the alien with the claw.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah, that was all great stuff. Yeah. It was better
than Prometheus, where that big round ship is rolling on
the ground and they run in a straight line.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Oh fucking Charlie's throne just gets squished like a bug.
The worst death of my life.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
They had some epic kill shots. Uh when that alien
that stood up like a human person just like chomped
on that girl's head and chomp, chomp. That was crazy.
And then when Jesse Smalllegg got his head just like,
just did it go through his mouth or the top
of his head, because it went through his skull, but
(30:26):
did it come out his mouth or his head?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
But I don't remember. I think it's just his head, Okay.
I thought, just at least for the purposes of like
being able to keep all the characters straight, like, the
crew could have been a little more diverse. And I
thought that the captain looked a little too much like David,
like in his facial structure, that sometimes it was like
dark it's moonlight and I'm trying to like keep track
(30:49):
of these two characters that look very similar to me.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Well, then they had two characters that were exactly the
same guy. Yeah, so it was just like a lot
there was too many white guys.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
I agree. I like that they kept David's like hair
obsession into this movie.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, yeah, with a peroxide In the last one, I'm like,
home boy has been living in this world without peroxide,
but he had scissors the whole time, and he decides
to give himself a chop after that guy gets there suspicious.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah, and again like he should have kept it long.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
And I wish what he would have done. I wish
what he would have done was give himself like a
blowout or like straightened it or made it like fanciful
somehow so that when he was like presented, he's like, oh,
you guys caught me on my off day, but I'm
here now with my hair done. Like the hair is
(31:46):
like slick or like in a you know, like really
slick down, something a little different. To give us a
little differentiation between the David and the Walter unit. Like
it would have been cool to see a little more
van because that Vanity was really interesting and Prometheus, and
it would it would have been just a little more like, Oh,
(32:07):
this robot's vein, that's fucking weird. So it would have
been cool if like he like just slicked his hair
back like a greaser or something, but kept it long
until it was time to like body snatch Walter.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
There was a that scene with the two Michael Fastbenders
playing the flute together that was really just impressive from
a technical standpoint of them interacting with each other in
one single shot with the camera moving and everything.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Like, oh I didn't notice you would have?
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Okay, that's cool. Like I would love to see like
the Breakast film they made that because yeah, I think
it's like passing the flute to himself, holding up to
his mouth and stuff. Yeah, kissing himself.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
That was interesting. I would kiss myself and then shove
a flute through my throat.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Yeah. It's also interesting that the at least the newer
AI models aren't allowed to create art.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
That's all they do now.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, that's something that might have been explored more if
this was made today.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Right, It's like, well, I don't technically create art.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I steal it. Anything else before we I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
For the spoilers. But yeah, so we can. I'm done
with the current.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
All right, we're going to do the astral Queen Award.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Oh wait, one more thing. When he showed the captain
his eggs and he's like, oh yeah, have a look,
we were like, no, he fell for it. What a dumbass.
(33:46):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Part of me wondered if it would be like a
bait and switch thing where there'd be something else in
that egg.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Maybe in the in the blooper reel. It's like a cheeseburger.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It's like I've been growing mc donalds.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Astral queen. Who was the standout character in the movie.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm going to give it to Walter.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Walter was a pretty solid dude, and I like that
he was able to heal himself and come back that
one time.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I'm thinking he might do it again and somehow get
on that, like learn how to drive the ship and
get his ass back and save the world.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Yep, sure, why not? That can be our own head cannon. Yeah, yeah,
I like David who did the most to save the day.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Home girl was running around with a string on her Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Her mcshride sequences are really good. I might as well
give it to Daniels. She was the sigourney of this movie.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah with a pixie.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, so Walter and Daniels will be shipping those awards
in the space. Hey, so we've walked all the movies.
Now should we rank them?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay? My number one is no Alien, the regular every
Day nineteen seventy eight Alien. That one's number one because
she's iconic. She's a little boring, but if you stick
with her, she's worth the weight. And then Romulus because
she's new, she's shiny, she's retro, but she's like everything
(35:24):
fucking creepy. And then this is where it gets harder
for me. I think I'm gonna go with this one
and yeah, and then the one with Wanona and then
the one with the girl in the brown face.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
So you're going Alien, then Romulus and then Covenant.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
No, wait, I want Wanonas to be the third one.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Okay, so Resurrection then Covenant yeah, and then Aliens Yeah,
and then that just leaves Alien three.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, Alien three and then and Prometheus and that's order
that order. Yeah, weird order my order. Okay, you don't
have to like it, and I ain't going to fight
you about it, So.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Mine differs a little, but my first two lest same.
I like Alien the Original, and then Romulus is right
up there.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
It's just so good at the world building. Yeah, the
world building and the character is like you care about them?
So I like that.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
So then I go Aliens. Oh we seem to really
different on that movie. But I think popular opinions on
my side, okay, and like those three movies are like
my my core alien movies. Now yeah, after that, it's like,
well these exist. Yeah, I think Alien Covenant comes next
(36:46):
for me, and then I'd probably go Resurrection, then Prometheus,
and then Alien three is at the bottom for me.
Alien three the prison one, Oh yeah, I didn't like
that one. Yeah, that one is.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
It's just sad they're already in jail. Why are you
throwing fucking Aliens at them? And then they had that
weird cult.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Like if we were hanging out with the group and
for some reason we wanted to watch an alien movie.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Romulus, I'd be on board with Romulus.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Almost all of them, But if we landed on Alien three,
I'd be like, guys, I probably gotta go. If it's Prometheus,
I'd be like, are we smoking first?
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Oh? My god.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Yeah, yeah, okay, so that does it. For the main
part of this episode, we'll do the spoiler section here.
We're going to talk about things related to Alien Romulus.
Next up, as I mentioned, we might come back and
do old Alien Isolation if we feel like it before
we get to TV series Alien Earth, which comes out
(37:52):
sometime next year, early twenty twenty five. But next up
for on our main podcast, spacing out with BB and
Jason not one hundred percent share, but we talked about
doing the show Foundation from Apple TV. You're looking at
me like you have no memory of this discussion. I'm
sure I remember if you remind me. We looked at
a number of things and that was your selection that
(38:13):
we do Alien first and then we're going to do Foundation.
So subject to change, that's the plan for now.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Who has Apple TV?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
A lot of people do, really. I think some people
have it included with their other Apple stuff and then
it's like one of the cheapest of all the streaming services.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Oh, they have Severance, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Yeah, they have a lot of sci fi.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
It's what Steve would have wanted.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Stereo stylist in this group.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Race for Impact. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the
whole film series. Now is the time to say goodbye.
Remember you can contact us at spacingoutcod at gmail dot com,
find us on social media, share your thoughts and be
part of the discussion. Spoilers in five four three two one.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Okay, you can see where they're going. That weird alien
that stood up like a person and Romulus, the one
that David was trying to talk to. Yeah, yeah, that
was like the closest thing to the thing on Romulus,
and it was like creepy. Like if I would have
seen this before I saw Romulus, I would not have
(39:27):
been as freaked out like I would have seen that
there's a progression that that's evolving in the series or
in the the alien like hive mind. Yeah, But because
I didn't have any of this context, I was freaked
the fuck out when I saw that two legged creature
(39:47):
and then when I found out it was a real
guy in that suit. But bring me out. Oh oh man,
they had a tuck his dick back so hard, I bet.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Oh yeah, Romulus definitely like it referenced I think every
single alien movie in some way, shape or form. But
at the same time, it doesn't make like super strong
connections to like over, like you'll have benefit from having
seen the original movie seeing Romulus, but otherwise, like it's
(40:20):
doing its own things.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
You can go blind in Romulus, you don't have to
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
The four legged one from Alien three or whatever.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Some freaky hybrid shit happening though, with that pregnant woman.
Holy shit. Yeah, so I feel like, fuck David Man,
it's Alien is its own thing. Alien never needed David.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
No, all right, So I think that's it.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, Yeah, that's it. Good night Alien.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Thank you for spacing out with us. And remember in
Space no One Can Hear You scream?
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Is that their tagline?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
That's a tagline for the first movie.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Oh that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
I just thought i'd bring it back to that.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, I like that. Good Night.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Thank you for spacing out with BV and Jason. You
can help us out by subscribing and leaving a positive
rating or review. We hope you will join us as
we continue to cover other films and TV series
Welcome to Spacing Out with BB and Jason, this week
covering the twenty seventeen film Alien Covenant.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to Spacing Out.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm BB and I'm Jason, and we are discussing the
Alien franchise. One movie at the time that the moment
of this recording, Alien Covenant, is available to stream on Hulu.
This podcast episode is being released on two different podcast feeds,
so if you found it through these Spacing Out with
Alien podcasts, then I invite you to check out our
main channel, Spacing Out with Phoebe and Jason, where we've
(00:37):
covered things like Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek Our Flag Means
Death over one hundred episodes, and since we're wrapping up
Alien here, we're going to be moving on to some
other things. So this is the last Alien movie to
date that we are covering. Our coverage of Alien Romulus
is already out, so we won't be spoiling that movie
in case you're watching for the series the first time,
(00:57):
but any talk of Alien Romulus will be kept through
as spoiler section at the end of the podcast. Although
thinking about it right now, I don't really know if
any reason to talk about Romulus.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I can think of some.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Okay, then maybe well we will have a spoiler section,
but all the other films are fair game for us
to discuss. And I also want to mention that the
TV series Alien Earth is set to release sometime in
the first half of twenty twenty five, so we will
plan to cover that when it drops on FX slash Hulu.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
All right.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
There's also a chance that we might pop in with
an episode looking at the web series Alien Isolation. And
there's also some short films that came out over the
last few years that I don't know if we'll look
at those, but I've heard good things about Isolation, so
that might come up in the feed between now and then.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Is that like on YouTube?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
I'm not one hundred percent sure where to find it.
I'm sure it is if it's a web series. Yeah. So,
Alien Covenant premiered on May fourth, twenty seventeen, written by
John Logan and Dante Harper, story by Jack Paglan and
Michael Green, and directed by Ridley Scott. In this movie
in twenty one oh four, almost eleven years after the
ill fated expedition in Prometheus, the Deep Space Colonization Vessel USCSS,
(02:09):
Covenant is on course for the remote planet to for
Guy six, Carrying over two thousand colonists in cryogenic hibernation,
they seek to build a new world. Instead, a rogue
transmission entices the crew to a nearby habitable planet that
resembles Earth. But nothing can prepare the ambitious crew for
another disaster and uncharted territory. As the peaceful exploratory operation
(02:30):
turns into a frantic rescue mission. Biological foes beyond human
comprehension threatened the future before it has even begun, and
the depths of space terror reveals its hideous face.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow, how poetic.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Vibe check? Did we like the movie overall? How does
it stend to Test of Time?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I liked it. It was a slow, very slow start,
and it was kind of boring and weird, and then
the James Franco isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And like we just immediately laughed as soon as we
saw Franco, but.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Because he dies, and then they're like, oh that was
James Franco.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He was on fire. Oh okay, uh yeah, rocky start, interesting,
middle good envy, so we're all good.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Uh yeah. I like this one as well. I think
it probably falls somewhere in the middle of the alien movies.
For me, we'll do an actual ranking later in that episode,
so we'll do that. But you know, there's there's aspects
of this that kind of tied to Prometheus I don't
really like. I don't like the story elements about creation
and the creation of the aliens and the creation of
(03:46):
mankind and all that, Like, I don't love that, and
this movie is kind of stuck in that story. And
then there's also this, like I guess I hear it
called de mystification, where like, you know, there's things about
a movie that are mysterious or a character that's mysterious,
and then a prequel comes along and just explains everything
about them, and it kind of ruins all the intrigue
(04:09):
and everything that you had. Like I think the movie
Solo was a good movie, but it explained everything about
Han Solo, so he's not as interesting as a character.
So it's kind of doing that with the Aliens. Yeah,
so that's what I don't like about a lot of prequels,
and this has that all over it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I think there's something to the mystery of this
weird creature, and like, thinking of past movies, I like
the idea of it evolving on its own. I think
the theory of evolution is so powerful, and they like
take it away and it's like this god complex is
(04:49):
inserted and it's so try. Like what's the word trite?
Is that the word.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Something that is overused and lacking originality or freshness?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
That's it. Yeah, just I don't like it.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, and I think that that is also a good
word for some of the movie because it repeats a
lot of plot elements from the previous movies. Yeah, he had,
you know, the aliens on the ship at the end,
the android is a bad guy. There's just like several
things throughout it that are they don't seem to play
as like homages, so they're just like competing the same thing. Yeah,
(05:24):
but despite that, I still think it was good. There
was good tension throughout the movie. Like I was never
very bored. You said the beginning was slow, but I
found it intriguing. The action at the end I thought
was really good. Like the whole third act was like.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, no, the th third act was really good. And
then like Danny wick Bride is in it, Like.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
What so, Yeah, I think it's a huge step up
from Prometheus.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yes, it's better than Prometheus. I like it a lot,
I honestly do.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
It feels way more like an alien movie than that did,
like in terms of the tone and the visuals, like.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It cure itself. Yeah, I feel like the David character.
I don't know, I just I never liked David, and
I wish that they would have kept the other guy,
Matthew or whatever his name was, Walter Walter, Yeah, he
(06:19):
was cool. I liked Walter or the fact that they
like cut to like us not finding out who is
on the ship, like, let us know, show us the
androids having it out.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Okay, well yeah, so we'll dig into that.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And okay, okay, okay, yeah trivia trivia trivia. Yeah, I
like the movie. It was a good movie. I would
watch it again.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Trivia time. What facts could be uncovered for Alien Covenant?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
All right? So, prior to the release of Prometheus in
twenty twelve, director Ridley Scott began hinting at the prospects
of the sequel, as Prometheus has left many questions unanswered,
and early on, Scott stated that the film would feature
Nosenamore says he wanted to focus on David eight, whose
ai was the new Alien life form, but feedback on
Prometheus caused him to change course, so.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
He hinted that there wasn't going to be a monster.
But then he took a note.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I feel like you can see in this movie. In
both these movies, like he really wants to focus on
the androids and not the aliens.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Which is weird because they're so hollow. Yeah, like, I
think today that movie would have been interesting with the
AI technology that we have today.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, it's interesting that he really dialed in on AI
before it became such a hot topic. Yeah, knew me Rapace.
I don't know if I'm saying her name right. That's
who plays Elizabeth Shaw and Prometheus, And she'd spent a
week shooting scenes which do not appear in the film.
I don't know what those are. And I couldn't really
find any information as to why they out cut her
(07:55):
from the film, didn't include her, Like, was it whose
decision that was or anything like it Just it's weird
because I feel like they could have had her in
the movie, even with the same general storyline, Like she
could have been a part of it in some way.
The film was shot in New Zealand, Australia, in the
US and the UK, and the run up to release,
twentieth Century Fox released a number of short prolog films
(08:16):
as part of the marketing for Alien Covenant. There was
a one called prologue Last Supper, which features the crew
of the Covenant having a last meal before they entered
cryo sleep. The second prologue was called The Crossing and
reveals what happened to Elizabeth Shaw and the android David
following the ending of Prometheus. So I guess she does
appear in that short wherever that is. And then another
(08:36):
one was called Meet Walter, which was a fictional advertisement
for the Walter series of androids. The film was novelized
by author Alan Dean Foster, who also wrote a novelization
for the first Alien movie, and he also wrote a
prequel novel to Alien Covenant called Alien Covenant Origins. Budget
was ninety seven million, the box office revenue was two
hundred and forty million.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Holy shit.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
And it was considered a box office disappointment, and it
brought in way less than Prometheus. Prometheus I think was
almost five hundred million.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Wow, And I would call it the superior film.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah, you know, our reception of it, I think is
higher than like what you see on Rotten Tomatoes and
stuff like Prometheus is rated higher by critics and pretentious
fuck yeah, so yeah. Critical reception was mixed, but somewhat positive.
Praise went to the visual style and horror elements, as
well as Michael Faspener's performance. Criticism went towards the script,
(09:31):
the reuse of old plot devices, and the movies attempt
to blend horror with philosophical themes. Ridley Scott originally planned
two sequels to Prometheus, leading into the first Alien film.
He later stated that Covenant would be the first of
three sequels to Prometheus. A script was written during production
of Alien Covenant and was set to go into production
in twenty eighteen, but it faced delays, partly due to
(09:53):
the box office under performance of Alien Covenant. Then, after
Disney purchased twentieth Century Fox, they announced the development of
more Alien films. This led to the production of Alien Romulus,
and it remains unclear if more Bridley Scott's prequels will
be made, so that cliffhanger ending might never be resolved.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Honestly, I don't care. It's just a bunch of colonizers, right.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Deep space dive, Let's break down some of our thoughts
on the film. You can share your thoughts with us
through email or social media. We may use your comments
on an upcoming episode.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
What else is Michael Fastbender in Familiar looking as a
as a robot?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
He's in some of the X Men frequels. He's Magneto,
the young Magneto. He also played Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I haven't seen that. If it's not sci fi, it's
not on my radar. But he looks like an like
a fucking robot? What a robot face?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, he did a good job playing those two robits.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
He really did. I think he did a great job.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
You know, one thing, it's starting out of order here,
but like one thing that I feel like was a
misstep of him with David cutting his hair so early
in the movie, because that kind of tips you off
that they're going to switch places.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, it would have. It would have been cool if
he would have waited.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
And it also just made it harder to keep track
of who's who because.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
They they looked so the same.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
They were both kind of wearing grayish outfits. I know
they're different. One was a hoodie in one but.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And then like the only difference was Homeboy was missing
a hand, but his hand wasn't in the shout like
eighty percent of the time. Yeah, so I couldn't tell
you which one was which.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So I mean, I didn't care much for that opening
scene in the white room, but jumping past that, what
an awful way to wake up from cryo sleep with
that emergency going off.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, that would suck. I felt like it was really
sudden how we got to the ship and all of
a sudden, everyone's waking up and people are dying, and
I'm like, I don't care. I don't care about any
one of these motherfuckers. I don't know them, I haven't
met them, I don't like them. There's nothing about this
(12:39):
that gives me like feelings, Like all that time they
spent introducing the rule, but they could have built up community.
They could have done that last supper thing.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, that's what I was just thinking, Like that scene
might have done well at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Of the bu especially if you want to pay homage
to the original, Like I feel like the original had
that scene they get out of cryo sleep and they're
all sitting around that white table eating. Yeah, like you
could have done that. But you had to give the
robot a part where he plays the piano, okay, choices,
I don't know. So that was like going from that
(13:16):
sterile white room. The creation of David annoying, and the
fact that he names himself after a fucking statue, like boring.
You don't even know like King David or any of
that shit, Like you're just David because you know Michael Angelo,
(13:39):
and you're like, oh, I think a sculpture is pretty cool,
So I want to be named after this big naked guy.
He's lucky he didn't have like a different painting or sculpture.
He could have been like the thinker.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
What other like things could he have in there? Yeah? Yeah,
So they killed James Franco with whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, we don't even know it's James Franco. It's just
some random dude in a pod that's on fire and
everyone's upset about it. Apparently it was the captain. We
don't care, we don't know him. And then later we
watch videos of him on the side of a mountain
laughing like James Franco and we're like, oh my god,
(14:25):
that's fucking James Franco that died, and like that shot
that they all took, and that in his memory was
lame because we didn't know who he was and like
the second in command had a big chip on his shoulder.
We don't understand that either. Like, none of these relationships
are adding up to me anyway. I just they're not
(14:46):
adding up. They're like, I don't care boohoo, I'm in
charge now and they don't respect my authority. And I
don't want them to mourn the loss of a leader.
What a weirdo. I was happy to see him die, honestly.
I did feel bad for him at one moment when
they were like on the planet. Oh, but I like
the way that they fixed the sale. That was really
(15:07):
cool and epic. Yeah, Danny McBride was out in space
doing his thing.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, someone you didn't expect to be in this movie.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And he didn't really do like comic relief either. I mean,
he was a little eccentric, but yeah, he's like.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
A character actor for sure, but he wasn't like a clown.
It was weird that they had so many couples, right.
I guess it makes sense if you're going to colonize,
you want people to be procreating, But it was weird.
I don't know how many couples you meet at work,
but it's always weird to meet people that work together
and couple. But I guess they're colonizers. It's weird. It's
(15:46):
like they're on a cruise ship that's going to land
and they're going to terraform something.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yeah, that scene at the very end, the shower scene,
I'd like totally forgotten that those who were a couple
like that just seemed to come out of nowhere. Else.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Well, it's weird because Jesse small Lette is like known
to be queer, so seeing him making out with a
woman and like rubbing her back and stuff is like weird.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
And then this tentacle comes on the scene and.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Then it gets kinky. But it was kind of fun
to see him die because he's done some sketchy stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
That scene felt like more of a classic horror movie
than an alien movie.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
It definitely pandered to the horror audience who loves to
see titties on screen for no reason. Yeah, so yeah,
that one was definitely And it was weird that it
was so late in the film that they did that, yep,
because usually you know, it's like ten minutes in and
there's a nude scene. What's going on? Why so weight?
(16:50):
My pants are already unzipped. What the hell I have
to wait that long?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So they got a distress call or a mysterious signal
like yes from another.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There, they got a radio signal from a singer singing,
John Denver, take me how West Virginia. I would have
been like, turn left, so'll go.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Let's not go there, Let's see what the other planets
are singing.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, that doesn't sound right to me.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
But no, they're like, hey, there might be a party there,
so let's go check that out, which also is like
a page out of the first movie where they go
to investigate a signal and our lead heroin Daniels is
of course saying it's a bad idea and doesn't get
listened to, which also sounds familiar.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah. So, and then when they go out and get sick,
and then they're coming back, nobody knows quarantine procedures. All
of a sudden, we're back to square one. Yep, and
god damn it, in this post pandemic world, I am
tired of seeing people not know what to do in quarantine.
(18:00):
That guy was coughing all over that bitch, and she's like,
let me in, let me in. I'm like, no, we're
staying outside. If somebody gets sick on a foreign planet,
you don't say here, let me get fucking three inches
from your face and help you up. You say, stay here,
(18:20):
let me get the bubble.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, this a movie about a airborne contagion, plays a
little differently post COVID.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
It really does. And I wish we would have explored
the alien form that came from those sporelike vessels, because
that is interesting. That is fucking terrifying. The face hugger
is physical, you can see it, you can shoot at it.
(18:49):
But this like vapor that gets in your ears and
nose and can go into your bloodstream and infect you.
That is scary. I wish they would have explored that more.
They would like there was no like thinking either. They
weren't like, oh my god, it's in the spores. They
never talked about it again. It never came up. It
(19:12):
never like just it was like forgotten, like e raised
from their minds that these two people got stick out
of nowhere, and the robots like, oh you'd know by now, Like, bitch,
I hain't trust in you. I don't know you.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Well, yeah, it kind of moves on to the aliens
that we know, because yeah, yeah, I guess the contagion
was on that Prometheus ship and it exploded out and
they were these humanoid character creatures on the planet.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Those were the creators from Prometheus. They look they had
that funky nosebridge going on, and they thought that it
was like Homeboy coming home after he infected the humans. Maybe,
but then David unleashes the contagion all over them, and
(20:03):
it's I think that could have also been done a
little more like dramatically, like taking their time with it
instead of just like a flash that they showed. Like
I wish we could have seen the evolution of the planet,
like the way it turned into like all these creatures
just running around too, because it could. It caught everything right,
(20:24):
like there's wheat, so there might be cows, there might
be other creatures that got like overrun, and David is
the only one that's not a creature. I don't know.
I just like, if you want to tell the story
like that, like let's see it, it's show, not tell.
That's that's why you make movies. It gave Pompeii vibes, though,
(20:45):
you know, what I mean. So POMPEII was this volcano
that erupted, and it was so quick with the ash
and the that it like froze everybody in time. And
that's that's kind of what it was giving, with all
of the frozen like creature, like the creators frozen in
time of their like chests exploding and shit.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, the one guy, the first one that got infected,
it burst out of his back instead of his chest.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, that was interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And then when that Danny McBride's wife shut them both
in that room, even though she clearly had blood all
over herself. Selfish, selfish, she should have left herself in
that room with them and said we're staying in here
until we figure it out. Rude, messed up. Nobody knows
quarantine rules. And then she's like, just go to the
(21:38):
med bay and don't touch anything on your way out.
They're knocking around, touching every single surface. So if it's like,
I don't know, it's like, obviously not cool. I've seen
movies where it's in the blood and if you like
touch the blood, you'll get sick. And when that guy's
back burst into her face, she would she's a goner.
(21:58):
She's a gonner, and I wish it was like that,
because as she was on fire, it would have been
fucking dope if if a creature burst out of her
just a little just more like gore and blood and tragedy.
If you're gonna go there, go there.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
There were times in the movie that the Aliens had
a CGI looked to them. They're like, they weren't quite
like photo realistic. No, yeah, and just thought that was
interesting because this is pretty recent in twenty seventeen, Like,
I was all surprised that they had that kind of
uncanny look to them at times.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I think the ones that were most like that were
the ones that were more humanoid, especially the little one
that popped up and got up and like copied David,
that one definitely didn't feel.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And it didn't look like it did in the first
Alien movie, right, like no, no.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
But the first Alien movie Alien sucked. You could tell
it was a guy in a black jumpsuit. It was
not good. The best part of that film is the
chest burst and Sigourney like figuring out how to get
rid of this fucker. Like it's all about Sigourney and
the crew trying to survive this one is about the
(23:11):
creation of the creature and how it's going to be
the fall of mankind or something like that. You can
tell that's kind of the broad strokes of it. And
this white woman just happens to be at the center
of it. Again, Like, if there's anything consistent, it's that
(23:32):
there's a white woman in the center.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
So yep, if it ain't broke, I don't know, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Just like I said, it's trite.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, because the end the Prometheus, like we send elizabetha
off and we don't follow up on that story.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
We kill her like we killed Sigourney in that one
movie too, like, oh, well, we're done with you, so
you're gonna die in hyperspace or whatever. You're not gonna
make it or not. So Gourney the little.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Girl, Yeah, Newt.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And the she went the way of Newt. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
And then at the end of this movie where since
it sounds like we're not going to have a sequel
to this or anymore, like release got ones following up
on this, so.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I don't need one. I don't care about this, like
it doesn't. I don't know any of the colonists. They're
just like pods. They're pod people, like I don't feel
any emotion about them, like if they would have built
a world where like they like imagine a scene from
Titanic where you have a bunch of people getting on
(24:36):
the ship, getting in there into their ship, going on
this voyage, but it's obviously like more modern and then
space but like that kind of shit you remember, like
on the Titanic there was like a family with their
little kid, and the rich girl and the poor boy,
and all these people all getting on this one ship
with all their hopes and dreams and shit. Like I
(24:58):
didn't get any of that. I don't care about any
of those pod people. I'm kind of interested to see
what David's gonna do with his little regurgitated words.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah, I wasn't talking about the colonists and talking about
Daniels and Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I mean, he might let them out, but he's
not going to let the captain out. There's going to
be a failure with her pod or something, and he's
probably not going to let her wake up, or by
the time she wakes up it'll be too late, you.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Know, well we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Most likely it's not a big deal. I think Romulus
is a better follow up to this if you take
it in the order, like if I could go without
this film in the franchise and Prometheus, like we could
live without them.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, Like I don't like the I mean, the whole
creation storyline. It's just weird mystery.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah. Well, I like the idea of like this colony
bug like alien creatures developing their own like hive mind
and their own ships, and they're like creating all of
their own things, but still being like driven to kill
if it's not their own kind, Like, oh, I think
(26:12):
that's iconic, and trying to explain it away saying that
some robot created this instead of them like evolving and
creating themselves. It just like discredits the creature so much,
especially with the movies prior to this, when Sigourney finds
out like oh there's a mother and all this shit.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, I don't love that all this is engineered. And
so for me the alien movies, I select ones that
are kind of like cannon for me personally. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, Like I like this movie, but I wouldn't call
it cannon. I think it follows like the classic tropes
and I love a good good time movie with horror elements,
but don't I don't think. I don't think it's a
very strong story, and that's unfortunate because I like the movie,
(27:03):
but it's just like I could take it or leave it,
Like I wish it did more like for the characters,
because I feel like that's where films shine, Like you
can show me the landscape of Greenland or Europe or
whatever all day long, but if the characters are a flop,
the characters are a flop.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, there's no doubt that it's a well made, well
constructed film, like Ridley Scott very clearly knows how to
like make a well produced, well produced, well like visually
styled movie.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Like Yeah, and I feel like some of the direction
was pretty good, but then there were moments where I'm like,
I'm not vibing with it, Like I wish we would
have had more moments where the captain was talking, like
the second captain after James Franco, like gave us more
of a monologue or something that gave us an idea
(27:58):
of how he's feeling emotionally, like with having to all
of a sudden be the captain out right out the
gate and trying to like establish authority in a group
of people that it doesn't seem he knows very well,
like he kind of gave that, but it was like
very poorly. I don't know if it was poorly acted
or directed, but it's very not It's not memorable enough.
(28:22):
And like I'm just tired of the main character being
like a sad white woman.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yeah, like her is like she someone she loves.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, Like she's like not empowered. She's just distraught and
upset and she's like nobody's listening to her and she's
just got to like go along with what the men
are saying, and it's just like, ugh, what a you know.
I liked her at the end where she was more
(28:57):
assertive and she was like, you know, she had a
plan and she's gonna get rid of this fucker and
all this stuff. But where was that person when they
were like landing.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, Like it's just a weird way to develop a character.
I guess like her character should be developed. And then
that story about building a cabin by the lake that
was cute, and I think, like that was so sad
when she finds out that David's not Walter whatever. Yeah,
I like that callback, but she didn't I don't know
(29:31):
it just I don't know. I can't say what it is,
but there's something that's not fitting. But it was okay.
I mean she was like rolling around the top of
the ship on a string and shit shooting a gun
and catching the alien with the claw.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah, that was all great stuff. Yeah. It was better
than Prometheus, where that big round ship is rolling on
the ground and they run in a straight line.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Oh fucking Charlie's throne just gets squished like a bug.
The worst death of my life.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
They had some epic kill shots. Uh when that alien
that stood up like a human person just like chomped
on that girl's head and chomp, chomp. That was crazy.
And then when Jesse Smalllegg got his head just like,
just did it go through his mouth or the top
of his head, because it went through his skull, but
(30:26):
did it come out his mouth or his head?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
But I don't remember. I think it's just his head, Okay.
I thought, just at least for the purposes of like
being able to keep all the characters straight, like, the
crew could have been a little more diverse. And I
thought that the captain looked a little too much like David,
like in his facial structure, that sometimes it was like
dark it's moonlight and I'm trying to like keep track
(30:49):
of these two characters that look very similar to me.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Well, then they had two characters that were exactly the
same guy. Yeah, so it was just like a lot
there was too many white guys.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
I agree. I like that they kept David's like hair
obsession into this movie.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, yeah, with a peroxide In the last one, I'm like,
home boy has been living in this world without peroxide,
but he had scissors the whole time, and he decides
to give himself a chop after that guy gets there suspicious.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah, and again like he should have kept it long.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
And I wish what he would have done. I wish
what he would have done was give himself like a
blowout or like straightened it or made it like fanciful
somehow so that when he was like presented, he's like, oh,
you guys caught me on my off day, but I'm
here now with my hair done. Like the hair is
(31:46):
like slick or like in a you know, like really
slick down, something a little different. To give us a
little differentiation between the David and the Walter unit. Like
it would have been cool to see a little more
van because that Vanity was really interesting and Prometheus, and
it would it would have been just a little more like, Oh,
(32:07):
this robot's vein, that's fucking weird. So it would have
been cool if like he like just slicked his hair
back like a greaser or something, but kept it long
until it was time to like body snatch Walter.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
There was a that scene with the two Michael Fastbenders
playing the flute together that was really just impressive from
a technical standpoint of them interacting with each other in
one single shot with the camera moving and everything.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Like, oh I didn't notice you would have?
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Okay, that's cool. Like I would love to see like
the Breakast film they made that because yeah, I think
it's like passing the flute to himself, holding up to
his mouth and stuff. Yeah, kissing himself.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
That was interesting. I would kiss myself and then shove
a flute through my throat.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Yeah. It's also interesting that the at least the newer
AI models aren't allowed to create art.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
That's all they do now.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, that's something that might have been explored more if
this was made today.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Right, It's like, well, I don't technically create art.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I steal it. Anything else before we I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
For the spoilers. But yeah, so we can. I'm done
with the current.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
All right, we're going to do the astral Queen Award.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Oh wait, one more thing. When he showed the captain
his eggs and he's like, oh yeah, have a look,
we were like, no, he fell for it. What a dumbass.
(33:46):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Part of me wondered if it would be like a
bait and switch thing where there'd be something else in
that egg.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Maybe in the in the blooper reel. It's like a cheeseburger.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It's like I've been growing mc donalds.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Astral queen. Who was the standout character in the movie.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm going to give it to Walter.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Walter was a pretty solid dude, and I like that
he was able to heal himself and come back that
one time.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I'm thinking he might do it again and somehow get
on that, like learn how to drive the ship and
get his ass back and save the world.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Yep, sure, why not? That can be our own head cannon. Yeah, yeah,
I like David who did the most to save the day.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Home girl was running around with a string on her Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Her mcshride sequences are really good. I might as well
give it to Daniels. She was the sigourney of this movie.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah with a pixie.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, so Walter and Daniels will be shipping those awards
in the space. Hey, so we've walked all the movies.
Now should we rank them?
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Okay? My number one is no Alien, the regular every
Day nineteen seventy eight Alien. That one's number one because
she's iconic. She's a little boring, but if you stick
with her, she's worth the weight. And then Romulus because
she's new, she's shiny, she's retro, but she's like everything
(35:24):
fucking creepy. And then this is where it gets harder
for me. I think I'm gonna go with this one
and yeah, and then the one with Wanona and then
the one with the girl in the brown face.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
So you're going Alien, then Romulus and then Covenant.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
No, wait, I want Wanonas to be the third one.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Okay, so Resurrection then Covenant yeah, and then Aliens Yeah,
and then that just leaves Alien three.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah, Alien three and then and Prometheus and that's order
that order. Yeah, weird order my order. Okay, you don't
have to like it, and I ain't going to fight
you about it, So.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Mine differs a little, but my first two lest same.
I like Alien the Original, and then Romulus is right
up there.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
It's just so good at the world building. Yeah, the
world building and the character is like you care about them?
So I like that.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
So then I go Aliens. Oh we seem to really
different on that movie. But I think popular opinions on
my side, okay, and like those three movies are like
my my core alien movies. Now yeah, after that, it's like,
well these exist. Yeah, I think Alien Covenant comes next
(36:46):
for me, and then I'd probably go Resurrection, then Prometheus,
and then Alien three is at the bottom for me.
Alien three the prison one, Oh yeah, I didn't like
that one. Yeah, that one is.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
It's just sad they're already in jail. Why are you
throwing fucking Aliens at them? And then they had that
weird cult.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Like if we were hanging out with the group and
for some reason we wanted to watch an alien movie.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Romulus, I'd be on board with Romulus.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Almost all of them, But if we landed on Alien three,
I'd be like, guys, I probably gotta go. If it's Prometheus,
I'd be like, are we smoking first?
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Oh? My god.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Yeah, yeah, okay, so that does it. For the main
part of this episode, we'll do the spoiler section here.
We're going to talk about things related to Alien Romulus.
Next up, as I mentioned, we might come back and
do old Alien Isolation if we feel like it before
we get to TV series Alien Earth, which comes out
(37:52):
sometime next year, early twenty twenty five. But next up
for on our main podcast, spacing out with BB and
Jason not one hundred percent share, but we talked about
doing the show Foundation from Apple TV. You're looking at
me like you have no memory of this discussion. I'm
sure I remember if you remind me. We looked at
a number of things and that was your selection that
(38:13):
we do Alien first and then we're going to do Foundation.
So subject to change, that's the plan for now.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Who has Apple TV?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
A lot of people do, really. I think some people
have it included with their other Apple stuff and then
it's like one of the cheapest of all the streaming services.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Oh, they have Severance, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Yeah, they have a lot of sci fi.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
It's what Steve would have wanted.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Stereo stylist in this group.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Race for Impact. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the
whole film series. Now is the time to say goodbye.
Remember you can contact us at spacingoutcod at gmail dot com,
find us on social media, share your thoughts and be
part of the discussion. Spoilers in five four three two one.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Okay, you can see where they're going. That weird alien
that stood up like a person and Romulus, the one
that David was trying to talk to. Yeah, yeah, that
was like the closest thing to the thing on Romulus,
and it was like creepy. Like if I would have
seen this before I saw Romulus, I would not have
(39:27):
been as freaked out like I would have seen that
there's a progression that that's evolving in the series or
in the the alien like hive mind. Yeah, But because
I didn't have any of this context, I was freaked
the fuck out when I saw that two legged creature
(39:47):
and then when I found out it was a real
guy in that suit. But bring me out. Oh oh man,
they had a tuck his dick back so hard, I bet.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Oh yeah, Romulus definitely like it referenced I think every
single alien movie in some way, shape or form. But
at the same time, it doesn't make like super strong
connections to like over, like you'll have benefit from having
seen the original movie seeing Romulus, but otherwise, like it's
(40:20):
doing its own things.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
You can go blind in Romulus, you don't have to
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
The four legged one from Alien three or whatever.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Some freaky hybrid shit happening though, with that pregnant woman.
Holy shit. Yeah, so I feel like, fuck David Man,
it's Alien is its own thing. Alien never needed David.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
No, all right, So I think that's it.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, Yeah, that's it. Good night Alien.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Thank you for spacing out with us. And remember in
Space no One Can Hear You scream?
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Is that their tagline?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
That's a tagline for the first movie.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Oh that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
I just thought i'd bring it back to that.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah, I like that. Good Night.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Thank you for spacing out with BV and Jason. You
can help us out by subscribing and leaving a positive
rating or review. We hope you will join us as
we continue to cover other films and TV series
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