Comments (Page 524)

The Engineer suits are badass looking.

Nice contributions/observations Dark Nebula!

Love the Engineers chair, a thing of beauty.

The video confirms that LV-426 and LV-223 orbit the same gas giant, Calpamos.

chli - A previous topic trying to find the answers:

Carvings in the Prologue 'The Crossing' – Petra Connection?

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/44395

daliens - Yes! And there are small eggs next to the burster on the table as well - BigDave highlighted the similarity here:

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/46099

Fun thread! My list: 

Alien - CHESTBURSTER

Aliens - Burke getting what he deserved

Alien 3 - Ripley

Alien: Resurrection - Perez. That was the general, correct? I'm talking about the dude who gets it in the back of the head and then tkaes a chunk out and looks at it!

Prometheus - Charlie. Pretty crazy sequence!

Alien: Covenant -  Oram. One of my favorite scenes from the franchise!

Well, it's a tough issue. On one hand, there is literally always demand for more from a franchise. No matter how many complaints, or, "Where's the oroginiality in Hollywood?"'s you hear, there is plenty of demand. People want to see more from their favorite film or franchise.

Now as it's been said before, people don't necessarily want that. They see something that they enjoy and think is really good and they want to see another thing they enjoy and think is really good. Still, the money is usually in known commodities, so the Hollywood machine relies on that. I mean, there is probably plenty of original film/ideas (or, at least, new spins on stuff) that Hollywood releases. Not too many people really pay attention to them though. 

So, yes, it is annoying that the studios insist on beating our favorite franchises into the ground. ONLY because the results aren't A+ amazing everytime. Turth be told, I love franchises and trying to continue storyines or going for offshoots, but the money-making climate and just how Hollywood works, usually prevents a lot of risks from being taken. There isn't too much room for new ground. 

@Ingeniero - I wish we had an 'Alien data bank' to reference like Star Wars did before Disney messed it up?

@chli - Maybe the tombs of the undead?

@Ingeniero - I also imagined the Engineers on LV-223 were in there suits because they were under attack & were scrambling their fighter pilots to engage a yet-to-be-seen enemy?

Great post again!!

Nice enhancements on the Giger Engineer image Dark Nebula. Great shading. The interview details from 2004 are good too. Nice to read Giger explaining his intent associated with the drawings. 

I understand Ati. I can't say I like way the helmet looks but I sure like how it sits ready to wrap the pilot's head. 

I think Hollywood lost steam long ago- back in the 90s they were going for the nostalgia dollar with Little Rascals, Flinstones etc...

I could agree that it is milking the Alien, POTA, Terminator etc teets dry and would be fine if they let those movies die with some dignity.

Milburn, Prometheus.  Arm broken in two...then has the giant snake (hammerpeade) slide in his suit and eventually slithers in his mouth! aargh!

Also would like to know what happened to the Milburn's corpse....did it reanimate like Fifield? 

I'd like to visit LV223 and see if his body is still there!.....visit as in: watching a video feed from a remote camera drone while i drink coffee on the flight deck of  my starship 1 lightyear away.....

A lot of unused, original materials came to light in Prometheus and Covenant to illustrate the evolution of the alien. 

I wonder if he will use Giger’s early design of the egg silo in the next film.

Any resemblance between the two images below?

David's lab

Giger’s first abortive attempt at the chestburster, inspired by Francis Bacon.

@TheXenoneoprotomorph

Thumbs up to me for paying attention, Lol. Sorry about that. At least my previous reply can serve as a small note for others. 

Didn't use the English grammar structure 

I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my hat- what do you think about that? lol!

Interesting, but I would think the very first hugger the SJ moved would have face hugged him? I still think the pyramid idea was best, but we all know why that didn't happen. I like the idea that we the eggs would have remained a mystery. Still, here we are and David has a hand in it.

The second video gives info about an old idea that I like very much: the alien eggs were not created by the Engineers, but they had found them on LV-426 and... (watch the video)

I Moon Girl Maybe not right now, but I think it would be interesting to recapture in the future the same sense of claustrophobia on a cosmic horror canvas. Maybe follow the example of Blade Runner: 2049. Same feel, similar setting, but with different characters. And I don't really thing the Alien saga will be forgotten, fut some entries in the franchise will be kinda "brushed under the carpet". Even critically well regarded movies like "Star Trek Into Darkness" receive delayed and protracted backlash from a fanbase, so the audience has the last word and time will tell.

Ingeniero - Great details again!

I know I am the only one but I don't like this elephant head helmet. :/

Ingeniero - The head! Awesome:

I Moon Girl - I think the David-Walter kiss is not a gay kiss, that scene is not a gay scene, and Covenant is not a gay movie, however, it is possible that the majority of the viewers thought they saw gay androids in the film and it resulted in a negative impact on the box office numbers.

'What kiss in Bladerunner?  In the new Bladerunner or the old Bladerunner?'

In Blade Runner (1982). The replicant kisses Tyrell, the creator - right before killing him. In Covenant we see something similar.

I used the expression 'good-bye kiss' in this sense: 'You will die, good-bye!'

'it goes against what it means to be a 'perfect' man.'

Nobody is perfect.

As for the official LGBT numbers you provide, sorry, it's a little bit funny. Several other factors should be taken into consideration when you want to jump to a conclusion based on similar sources. But these are not important here! I do not believe that the David-Walter kiss is a gay kiss.

'So, just to be clear, you're basing this statement off of Bladerunner logic or Alien universe logic?'

Those lines are about the Alien universe. As far as I know, there are replicants in the BR universe, and there are androids in the Alien universe.

But who knows what the future holds?

@joylitt

That brings up the topic of remaking the original Alien.

Could it even be done?  After all, we already know what a facehugger does and we've seen the Xeno tons by now.  Still, after all the prequels are done, do you think someone is going to remake the original Alien to bring everything full circle?  Or maybe the original Alien will be remade 50 or 100 years from now after the Alien franchise has been forgotten?

Lawrence of Arabia And how many times the Terminator, the Predator, Godzilla, King Kong, Frankenstein and Dracula have died? Monsters die and are reborn. Origin stories and prequels are forgotten or become bad memories. Therefore, one day, I think, the xenomorph, the fear of the unknown and HR Giger in all its glorious weirdness will come back with a vengeance, and the excitement will return to the Alien franchise.

@dk "Technically that can't be gay kiss or anything else since neither David nor Walter is human."

I guess that's the cold truth, really.  Still, try telling that to David.  I think David really wants to love someone, yet he wants to be perfect more, which ends up destroying his relationships.  Love is secondary to his real agenda.  So, he's left with playing symphonies to his dear Elizabeth all alone.  Hmmmm.... but, at the same time, I just cannot trust David.

@Ingeniero

"David was designed to "show" emotions"  That's what I believe to but I have no clue where I believe that from.  Still, I don't think David was designed to show every emotion a human can feel.

"That was a nice surprise to find out in the book that there isn't an assembly line of androids and that there were very few in 2104."

Yea, throughout the book I don't recall there ever being a mentioned of androids.  Earth seems not have any as far as to what we have been shown.  I was surprised, now that I think about it, that there wasn't some android doing something in the dense city of London or Tokyo.  I do remember (from somewhere) that David's were recalled?  So, maybe that's why there aren't a lot of androids around because apparently the David model was supposed to be THE android, yet they were recalled and the Walter model was still being worked on which would replace them?  Of course, I wonder if anyone could afford an android?  The Walter model promotional material let the fans pick a Walter android and there were many to pick from.  Maybe the Walter model will be the first widespread, widely used android?

AdamPD, problem is that the pilot wave theory (De-Broglie-Bohm-Theory) isn't as established as modern quantum mechanics. Einstein never liked modern QM with its fluctuating states (Einstein: "God doesn't play dice..."), see Schroedinger's Cat . 

From what i gather the De-Broglie-Bohm-Theory provides the same results but without the fluctuating quantum states modern quantum mechanic postulates. 

It seems the problem with the EM-Drive is rather a "fight" between different views than a question of feasibility.

As for the Alcubierre drive, Eagleworks apparently did some testing and created a "micro warp bubble" (duration ~ 20 seconds) wich was said to be fast enough to reach Alpha Centauri in two week. Take that with a grain of salt. ;) However the end results were inconclusive. Another question is how much power does it need? Waaayyy too much id wager. 

@Ati 

'why is David kissing Walter in Alien: Covenant?'

David kissed Walter liked he loved him.  He did the same with Daniels and even made a comment which, I think, confirms he is trying to kiss like a lover, and not a friend.  Of course, it isn't very customary to kiss on the lips, especially for that long.  I think David is kissing like that because he got the idea from watching movies about love between two human beings who care for each other more than anyone else.  David shouldn't have been programmed to love someone in that way.  As far as I know, that is NOT what David was designed for.  He wasn't designed for another being to fall in love with him, yet he tries to show that he can love another human being, like in a legit relationship and not in a general sense.  So, he tries to feel what that kind of love would feel like because he wasn't programmed to feel like that, yet he is way off in his 'expressions of love' execution.  In the end of A:C, all we can come to conclude is that all David loves is himself.  Maybe not though, there is a chance he might develop an emotion that he was never programmed to feel in Awakening, that's if the writers want it to be so.  Still, maybe Weyland's David is special.

"The kiss in BR is a gay kiss? No." What kiss in Bladerunner?  In the new Bladerunner or the old Bladerunner?

"The Covenant kiss can be a 'good-bye kiss', or they say it is a 'kiss of death', etc."

I see it as a way of David trying to express emotions that he wasn't programmed to experience.  Being alone a lot, he isn't offered many opportunities to express those kind of things.  He may not really love Walter or Daniels 100%, but he does in his own way.  People are known to kiss one another very affectionately when they are saying goodbye.  So, yes, it could be a kiss goodbye which is David's way of saying "I love you," while the main reason being is to explore those unprogrammed emotions.

"You say David thinks that he is gay? Sorry, it is new for me."  What I'm asking is why would David think he is gay or bisexual when a small percentage of the population is.  Plus, it goes against what it means to be a 'perfect' man.  Still, he's kissing all kinds of genders in Alien: Covenant like he loves them.  These ARE NOT just some random kisses.

"In Germany it is over 20%" Sorry, my resources say 7.4% considered LGBT in Germany and they are the highest in Europe.  The lowest in in Hungary @ 1.5% (https://www.thelocal.de/20161021/more-germans-identify-as-lgbt-than-in-rest-of-europe)  Other sources are similar.  In America, it's 3.8%. (http://news.gallup.com/poll/183383/americans-greatly-overestimate-percent-gay-lesbian.aspx)

These are by no means top notch sources, but that is all the research I'm willing to do right now.

"I think he does not think about sexuality and homosexuality when he kisses Walter!"  I think he does, yet we really don't actually KNOW what David is thinking.  If he wasn't thinking about it during 'the moment', I think he thought about it before.  David, to me, seems to be very romantic-like.

"As for the androids, they have info about everything, they are programmed - they do not get artificial memories, but after their birth they start to collect pieces of info about the world, they live, they experience, they become older, so after a while they will have memories as well, I mean real/acquired memories."

So, just to be clear, you're basing this statement off of Bladerunner logic or Alien universe logic?

Featured this, it's an interesting post. 

As for the needing humans to make a dramatic and emotional connection to the next film I disagree with that because David is first Generation and has not only technology flaws but has some human moxie through being developed by and for Weyland plus I’ve said this before time and time again everyone is assuming the Engineers are emotionless or to dark to have compassion or to connect with on a emotional level the Engineers will be more interesting if they have more personalities and are emotional and there for if we have limited or no humans in the next film they will make up for it and possibly be more entertaining because it will be the first that we truly spectate the there species on a bigger level and scale

The problem here is that fans and audiences want to much to soon. Everyone complained about Prometheus because they wanted the opposite now people complain about AC because it is the opposite of Prometheus add David. People want answers to Prometheus and Alien but they don’t want David in AC. Covenant is not a bad movie if it was just a action/horror and was set a few years after Prometheus trilogy and Alien and had no David in the movie directly but had evidence in the film showing possible connection of him being there and the threat that the crew ran into was the aftermath of Davids or even the Engineers experiments on that planet Xeno breeds left behind trying to survive and or evolve but for it to be a sequel to one film and a prequel to another it has to have David and be somewhat David heavy in material considering he is the only remaining crew member of  a film that is a prequel to Alien you can’t have AC be a action/horror film with direct relation to Prometheus and Alien without David but is what I am getting from everyone who has complaints is that that’s what they want and that makes no sense RS and Fox should have stuck there plans with Prometheus they should have stuck to there guns and not let people with no experience making movies dictate what they do next we should of trusted in Scott and had faith instead 95% of people complained complained and complained some more about how neither film was what they expected well if you expect it then it’s no fun as far as I’m concerned the issue here isn’t did you like AC or not or if you disappointed or not the real problem is if you even liked Prometheus or not and those who did looked forward to the next step and reserved there opinions and those who didn’t let it all out and made it know how upset they were that the film was not a Alien film and because of that we got AC Prometheus was not just a prequel series but supposed to be a launching point , foundation and blueprint for turning Alien into a universe and not just a series of films and thanks to entitlement and inpatients this is in jeopardy 

@Tiwaz.

 I agree, although there has been more news on the EM Drive of late

http://bigthink.com/robby-berman/is-this-the-secret-behind-the-mysterious-em-drive

Something about pilot wave theory (Beyond my understanding though!)

But the drive does seem to work, whether it works in space though and can be made to provide a lot more thrust remains to be seen.

Wasn't Nasa supposed to be looking into the theories behind the alcubierre drive?

I know this may appear at first to be a little off topic, but one thing I have noticed with Sci-fi movies is that ideas and themes tend to cross over and influence the production of future movies and explore questions of “what if”, and whilst Awakening is still to be made, given the release of this movie (Replicas), I wonder if BR and Covenant have contributed to it in a large way and could the expansion of the ideas in Replicas emerge in Awakening. The whole basis for me pointing this out is that Replicas would appear to hit some sort of middle ground when it comes to emotions, and the creation of AI and /or the transference of human personality/identity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYoypeZmjHE

If we visit a planet somewhat similar to Earth, there is a very good chance that you would find life that isn't wildly dissimilar to our own. Scientists have recently done analysis on many unconnected evolutionary lines from all over our planet and there seems to be good evidence that life adapts to form particular niches - and perhaps the number of niches is rather limited.

Of course, there are many other potential habitats completely unlike our own, so you would expect to see some wildly different niches.

One interesting observation is that most biomass on our planet isn't in the soil or atmosphere. It's in the rocks deep beneath our feet. The universe has plenty of rocks.

Boo hoo. I swear, some are getting over dramatic af. I understand the allure of the mystery but it was gonna come out at some point after 35 years and the David origin fits the dark, sexual, predatory nature of the creature that Giger envisioned as it is now firmly a biomechanical monster as opposed to some space animal. I get not wanting to know but this origin fits. Also, how many times has the H.R.Gigers monster died now? Alien 3? Resurrection? Both AvP films? Stop crying and have some fun because this is it.

This is very disappointing :( I've got the David 8 Neca and Xenomorph from Covenant with plans on picking up the Neomorph and Accessory pack. I don't understand not making more as it seems like these products are hot sellers.

As far as i know the EM-Drive is highly disputed. Reminds me of the warp drive news or the tunneling experiments, couple of yrs ago. Possible in theory yet impossible to build or use.

As for what we may find out there I think it won't be what the "prophets" predict but rather something in between. Neither really good nor bad. The same goes for AIs. It's always been like that.

Some scientists say "... they will be hostile..." others are like "... they'll help us..." and so on. How can we possibly say what an alien race will be like if we met them? We can't. Our predictions are based on what we are or what we would do, our nature as a species. Our nature in turn is defined by our world, the way we evolved and even the way we reproduce. All things that likely would be quite different when it comes to an alien race. For all we know hominids might not even be the first "sentient" beings on earth given our worlds age of roughly 4 billion years. 

Ps.: 

- Oldest found Hominid ~ 7 million yrs

- Oldest found Homo Sapiens ~ 200k - 300k yrs

You're welcome Ingeniero. I forgot to mention this;

In the first alien film there was supposed to be a mural with the alien lifecycle that also depicted SJ victims. The mural was never used because they couldn't find a place for it in the derelict and because Ridley thought it would show too much (which I agree with him). There were 2 murals (both made by Giger himself) featuring victims having different "helmets" like the previous examples I showed.

In 2004 in an interview with Dixieme Planete, someone asked Giger why are there 2 murals and he said;

Q: One last question: why are two versions of the mural representing the cycle of the Alien?

GIGER: In fact, I modified the appearance of the victims because they resembled the extraterrestrial ones too much having a head of Alien. I wanted to make them more human so that there is no confusion! My work on Alien is far, now, but I m happy to have contributed to create a perfectly credible monster, in spite of the constraints imposed by the cinema.

Btw, while I was searching through my files I found some of photo manipulated images I recreated a year ago from Giger's concepts. Here they are: