Alien: Covenant gets a lot less love than Ridley Scott’s other Alien movies, but it delivered one of the sci-fi genre’s most jaw-dropping plot twists in its final moments. Scott’s original Alien film from 1979 is rightly regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made — a chillingly atmospheric slasher set in the haunting isolation of the cosmos — but his subsequent entries in the franchise have been met with a more mixed response. Prometheus has been reappraised, but Alien: Covenant remains an underappreciated gem.
After Prometheus was criticized for not really feeling like an Alien movie, switching out the claustrophobic terror for Biblical allegories and existentialist musings, Scott made Alien: Covenant as a return to the series’ roots. It follows another crew of astronauts who arrive on another uncharted planet and encounter another ᴅᴇᴀᴅly otherworldly organism. Alien: Covenant was criticized for its cheap jump scares and excessive gore, but it ends on one of the most unsettling twists in the Alien franchise, and in the entire sci-fi genre.
Alien: Covenant’s David Twist Is One Of The Greatest Rug-Pulls In Sci-Fi
The Evil Android Snuck Onto The Ship
It’s a long-standing Alien movie tradition that, just when the survivors think their nightmare is finally over, some other horrifying thing comes along to disturb their peace. In the first movie, the xenomorph sneaks aboard Ripley’s escape pod. In Alien: Romulus, after Rain, Andy, and Kay depart from the station, the Offspring is born. Alien: Covenant is no different, and it’s a doozy of a rug-pull. After Daniels vanquishes the xenomorph that got onboard and killed her crew, the benevolent android Walter puts her to sleep in her stasis pod.
As Daniels loses consciousness, David coughs up two facehugger embryos and gazes upon the sleeping colonists, suggesting he’s planning to use them in his diabolical experiments.
However, as she watches Walter give her a frightening smile, Daniels realizes it’s not Walter at all; it’s David, the evil android, and it’s too late to do anything about it. As Daniels loses consciousness, David coughs up two facehugger embryos and gazes upon the sleeping colonists, suggesting he’s planning to use them in his diabolical experiments. The best horror movie endings leave viewers feeling deeply disturbed as they leave the theater, and Alien: Covenant’s ending did just that as it undid the resolution of the plot and brought back a sinister villain who was thought to have been defeated.
Alien: Covenant Needs A Sequel To Properly Pay Off Its Big David Twist
Alien: Covenant Set Up A Terrifying Story That Never Got Told
Alien: Covenant was the second installment in Scott’s planned Alien prequel trilogy. But after it underperformed at the box office and the studio was sold, the trilogy was never completed and the standalone movie Alien: Romulus was made instead. While Alien: Romulus was great, it’s a shame the shocking David twist never got paid off. It set up a terrifying story that never got to be told. Now that Scott is developing a new Alien movie separate from the Romulus sequel, it could finally follow up on Alien: Covenant’s twist ending.
