Alien: Covenant Explained – Here Are 10 Things You Need To Know

Quick Facts

Ever since the increased demand for science-themed movies in the 1950s, bolstered by the emergence of atomic and nuclear weapons in World War II, science fiction has slowly but steadily risen to become a major genre as far as Hollywood movies are concerned. In recent years, sci-fi movies have become one of the highest-grossing movies in history with hits like Avengers, Avatar and Star Wars leading such charge. Another sci-fi movie, even though not grossing as much as the aforementioned three is 2017’s Alien: Covenant.

What Alien: Covenant lacks in terms of figures, it makes up for it in the beautiful screenplay; mind compelling storyline and inch-perfect graphic effects added together to give viewers a surreal experience of sci-fi, horror, as well as the thriller genre. The movie, which happens to be a sequel to the 2012 film Prometheus, is the second installment in the Alien prequel series and the sixth in the Alien film series, the other five being: Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection( 1997) and Prometheus (2012).

Alien: Covenant Explained

Before going into full details of what Alien: Covenant is all about, it’s best to start with a tiny summary of the prequel. Prometheus is a sci-fi movie based on the adventures of a space team aboard a vessel on a mission to find answers as regards the origin of mankind. They come across a structure on a distant moon, but things get sour fast as they find the corpse of a humanoid and a black liquid capable of destroying all of humanity. Feeling uncomfortable, they decide to return back to the ship but get lost in the process thus marking the start of a horrific experience with an instant realization – monstrous creatures are lurking around, hence their immediate battle for survival while trying to figure out why anyone would want to destroy the human race.

Like its Prequel, Alien: Covenant proved to be an every trickier and more confusing tale as it failed to explain a lot of things, leaving the fans to assume what might have occurred in such scenarios. The major plot of the movie is about the USCSS Covenant – a space ship with 2000 humans and thousands of embryos aboard, with the intent to colonize a new planet and establish a better society in the world. Enroute their destination, the ship intercepts a scrambled message of a John Denver song thus, suggesting the existence of human life. As such, a decision is made to explore the planet, diverting from the original mission. It pans out bad in an instant as the ship gets attacked by aliens. As with other Alien movies, you expect science to save the day after a few squabbles but this isn’t the case as it portrays scientist, pilots, captains, and medics as naïve folks in a battle against biological creatures (neomorphs, xenomorph, and face-huggers) with odds stacked against their favor.

Although Alien: Covenant was heavily criticized for too much coincidence (all board members being married) as well as the dumbness of the characters by Vanity Fair, it was reviewed positively by lots of movie analysts.

Here Are 10 Things You Need to Know About Alien: Covenant

Below are 10 facts must know to keep to mind about Alien: Covenant

1. In the movie, the events of Alien: Covenant occurred ten years after Prometheus, but the covenant crew is oblivious of what happened to the Prometheus crew.

2. Prior to the movie, a film researcher was employed to come up with a 10-page document as regards the alien world.

3. Principal photography of the movie was in New Zealand.

4. The movie which was directed by Ridley Scott starred popular Hollywood stars like , , and Billy Crudup.

5. After working on a budget of $111 million it earned $240.9 million at the box office.

6. The film was expected to be released on October 6, 2017, but was moved up to August 4 and was eventually released on May 10, 2017.

7. Alien: Covenant was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film at the 44th edition of the annual Saturn Awards but lost to Blade Runner 2049.

8. The story was written by none other than the famous Jack Paglen and Michael Green.

9. 40 percent of the film was shot on location, the remaining 60 was shot on sound stages.

10. It was marketed and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

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