My Crazy COVENANT Theory--Possible Spoilers
Raido
MemberFacehuggerApril 29, 2017Perhaps because I'm a bit hopped up on sugar, caffeine, maple cookies, and pizza grease, I've been formulating a potentially spoiler-ish theory about Covenant.
I started thinking to myself, what if all these spoiler-y reveals in the preview footage and trailers aren't so much spoilers but deliberate misdirection?
We're being shown that David is the evil mastermind behind everything, and led to believe that he's just another Hollywood robot gone berserk (although many of ua aren't falling for it). However, there are some clues that may indicate there is more going on than it seems.
First off, I've seen David's role being described as that of an "anti-villain." Now, the simplest way to describe such a character, in my opinion, would be to say that he/she is an individual whose actions can be interpreted as evil, but whose motivations are good or noble. (By contrast, an anti-hero is an individual whose actions can be seen as good, but whose methods are, shall we say, less-than-heroic). Thus, David's apparent [re?]creation of the xenomorph may not be the workings of a mad android hell-bent on destroying humanity, but instead the results of an individual who is working for a noble goal via evil methods.
Which leads me to wonder, what would that goal be?
Perhaps there is a double meaning to the Covenant title. Perhaps it's not only referring to the name of the ship, but also to a covenant existing between characters in the film. Perhaps there is a covenant between David and another character.
Big Dave (at least, I think it was he) said that his Source claims there is a higher race of beings above the Engineers we saw in Prometheus. Perhaps they are the ones who send him to destroy the inhabitants of Paradise. Or, perhaps there is a covenant between he and the Paradise beings themselves, and after they break their part of the pact, he wreaks his horrible vengeance upon them. Perhaps his creation (or, in my opinion more likely, re-creation) of the xenomorph and neomorphs aren't the abominations produced by a mad scientist so much as the results of David holding up his end of the bargain. Remember, Ridley has long said that the Derelict on LV-426 was a warship, and the eggs were its payload. With that craft lost/compromised, what better way to regain that weapon that have it redesigned by one who is not biologically living, and thus immune to and unaffected by its inherent danger?
Now, we know David was looked upon by Weyland as a son of sorts--in a brief clip in one of the trailers for Covenant, David calls Weyland "Father." Presumably, Weyland would have relayed to David much of the information about and goings-on of his Company. With that in mind, how long has the Covenant project been in development? Were plans being laid before the Prometheus launched? Certainly Weyland would have had a hand in them, even if only their preliminary development. Covenant takes place ten years after Prometheus, but how long have the colonists been in hypersleep before being diverted to Paradise?
And speaking of the signal that diverted them; what if that signal was not a distress call but a lure? If David has a covenant with the Engineers or Higher Beings or whatever, and his end of the bargain is developing a perfect weapon, certainly it would need testing and refinement. We know the Engineers wanted to destroy humanity but were unsuccessful; what if they still wish to destroy the human race? A test run would be logical before sending a massive ship across space carrying a fantastically dangerous payload. And if David had some foreknowledge of the Covenant mission's destination, he'd know that sooner or later a ship full of unsuspecting humans would be passing by.
Now, what would be the other party's end of the bargain? Presumably, it would involve Shaw. This could take multiple forms. Perhaps they're holding her prisoner and the way to gain her release is by doing their bidding. Perhaps she's ailing and they will cure her if David succeeds.
In this way, David would truly be an anti-villain; his development of the perfect organism/weapon and the resulting death and destruction are a terrible means to a noble end--saving Shaw.
And another thought--what if the Weyland-Yutani Company is after the specimens on LV-426 because they know why they were developed, and by whom? What if the Company intends to use them against the Engineers or Higher Beings or whoever before the xenomorphs can be deployed against humanity? What if Ripley and co actually harmed humanity more than saved it by thwarting the Company's plans?
Just some thoughts. I've had way too much caffeine--hence the mad yammering above. What do you think? Caffeine craziness or interesting ideas?
joylitt, I'm sure Ridley is familiar with Asimov's Three Laws, but it seems that his films don't hold AI characters accountable to them. Roy Batty and Co did, after all, butcher 23 people in their escape from bondage offworld, and then go on to wound Holden, nearly freeze (or successfully freeze?) the Eye Maker, and flat-out kill Tyrell and JF Sebastian.
The wonderful thing, to me at least, about the Replicants is their moral ambiguity. We empathize with Roy's desire for more life and quest for freedom, but he's still a villain. He's still the bad guy that Deckard needs to stop. Sure, Roy's desire to gain more life for himself and his companions is noble, but his methods are not.
Interestingly, Deckard, in my opinion, is more of an anti-hero than a hero. He "retires" Replicants even though he wants to be done with the business, and his casual killing of them is more horrifying to the audience than the knowledge and witnessing of the cruelties carried out by Roy and his companions.
I think David will be similarly portrayed. As alienjunkyard noted, "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions." We know David brings death to the Paradise inhabitants, and his experiments with the Accelerant will cause further horrific death and suffering to the unlucky Covenant crew. Destroying untold thousands of Paradise inhabitants and probably most (if not all) of the Covenant's crew just to save ONE person is, to a rational human being, as irrational as it is horrible.
However, David is not human, and indeed what DOES motivate an android? Especially one who is developing his own emotional responses? David may well have convinced himself that saving Shaw, the one being who has ever been kind to him, is something that must be done at all costs. Perhaps this won't even bode well for Shaw in the long run--what if in order to save her, she has to be modified by the Accelerant? I'm pretty sure that's not what she'd want, but David is an android, and again, how does an android with emotions or proto-emotions think?
Sure, David the bad guy that needs to be stopped. But I have a feeling Ridley will make us think twice about writing him off as simply evil. Just a hunch.
Grinning & Dropping Linen, I've been thinking along those lines as well. She looks sickly in the "Crossing" clip, and Ridley did give us this particularly disgusting sequence in the Medpod scene:
Note there is a particularly blatant shot of the trilobite's amniotic fluid splashing back into Shaw's open wound.
I'm personally hoping AWAKENING is a prequel to COVENANT instead of a sequel, sherris, as Ridley has hinted it would be; I'd rather see a movie about David and Shaw than another xenomorph film, but that's just me. I'm really just looking forward to seeing what Ridley's got in store for us fans.
Eh. The trilobite is not human, and who knows what the Accelerant is capable of doing. Amniotic fluid contains an embryo's DNA, and that is precisely what the Accelerant works on. Since the Accelerant is so virulent, it could still be potentially hazardous even in diluted or modified form in the trilobite's DNA. Perhaps since it's already affected the trilobite's DNA, the effects of the Accelerant on Shaw won't be so pronounced or immediate as they were other victims. The Accelerant seems to work differently on different hosts. Fifield was mutating into an alien. Holloway looked like he was going to start disintegrating as the Sacrificial Engineer had. (I recall encountering a theory that suggested that one's mindset is what causes the Accelerant to have a certain effect on its victim--selflessness causes disintegration/renewal, selfishness creates monstrosity). Accelerant in spore form creates neomorphs. Presumably, if eggmorphing is canon, the process is derived from the Accelerant's mutagenic properties, perhaps retained in the xenomorph's own DNA as a means of reproduction. And it appears that David's bombardment of the Paradise inhabitants petrifies their bodies, perhaps from overloading their systems/modifying their DNA so much that it becomes unusable in terms of mutation or reconstruction.
HorrorMan77. It's a popular theory, indeed. I don't think she'll end up a queen per se, but she may well end up...more than human, whether by David's actions or those of another. There was a report of a piece of concept art, seen during a reporter's set visit, of Shaw's face being connected to tubes and machinery, like something HR Giger would have created in his artwork. Of course, that could be a red herring, but as a Giger fan I'll admit that I'll be a little bummed if she didn't reach such a fate (even if that also means I'm admitting to being a sick, twisted b*stard). As I mentioned above, perhaps saving Shaw means altering her in some way? Even if those alterations are not something she'd find desirable. David is an android, and his sense of morality is almost certainly different from ours, if he's even developed one. I'd be okay with a mutated Shaw-Alien, as long as it's done well and with the appropriate amount of horror/philosophical brain-picking.
