David and the burst a 10 yr plan

kethol, what shield?

In the script the Engineers had a planetary shield set up to prevent things entering or leaving their planet, run by two satellites orbiting the poles. Sort of a quarantine barrier. The Covenant crew think it is just an extremely strong ionosphere, but when they fly through it it kills the ships power temporarily and they find it messes up communication to and from the planet. It may also be what hid the planet from the Weyland Yutani when they were searching for a habitable planet to colonize.

It also drains the power to the Covenant, causing the orbit to decay. When activated, once you get to the planet, you can never leave, which is why David was trapped there and needed to lure a passing ship for help. Presumably it was activated when the Engineers were bombed by David.

They had to destroy a satellite to take out the shield and restore communication and power to the Covenant. If you watch the movie, there are still little bits of this plot line left in there, but all the shield and satellite stuff was removed to make the whole storm and communication blackout cause vague.

whats ur source? I haven't got the blu ray so haven't seen any of the extras so if there is something there I genuinely am not aware but if there is material that states it is indeed a shield then makes things even more interesting about the planet

The John Logan script that I mentioned above. It was posted over on the AVP forum and here several days ago.

ah, I did say on that thread that I am only on while at work and my company have blocked sites that come up under 'gaming' which for aome reason the AVPG site falls under, I don't know why. but I am unable to read it from that link. do u know of another link that I can read it from? im not sure how much of this though has been keep in the actual film thus canon. it may be another piece of concept which has not made it into the film. just because its in an early draft doesn't make it so.

on the idea of having these satellites in orbit is something id def like to have included and would have been good to have seen or at least have mentioned in the film. there is not concrete evidence in the film that suggests them though, from what I gathered from the film, it is just a storm. and we don't know the ecosystem or weather patterns of planet 4 before david arrives so it could be a case of the effects of the pathogen david deploys, which many have stated could start to change/ terraform a planet.

Do you mean the shield and satellites being canon? Not canon at all, since it was all cut. The movie basically made all that out to be a really bad storm.

so, it has been cut from the film, then there is no shield. so ur point on it is mute??

You asked about it, so I explained what it was.

If you did not get the reason I mentioned it in my first post, no big deal.

I read it, I get what you are saying. David was trapped on the planet, sent out garbled messages in hopes of one day luring a passing ship, and when one turned up he could not help showing his excitement when he found he hit the jackpot!

All those things basically shoot holes in the idea that David orchestrated the shockwave and all the events the led them to paradise. Interesting 10 year plan theory though. I kind of wish they had gone that direction, with all the pieces coming together at the end of the movie for a big reveal.

Or, is David a good actor who just couldn't hold his excitement since he is so close to completing his plan.  He knows he's got it, but he's just got to finish it.  So, he's not the perfect lair, but he is a lair.  That is obvious in both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. 

Hopefully the new Alien: Covenant Origins book will give some insight into the idea that David organized attacking the Covenant in some way.  If it doesn't, then maybe we wont see till Alien: Awakening.  Still, I think there should be something, even if it's almost nothing, in Alien: Covenant Origins novel.  Still, the book doesn't seem to be about David, but about the crew trying to get off of Earth without being killed.  I wonder why it is so negative for the Covenant to colonize another planet?  Maybe somebody knows something they shouldn't?

The thing is, the passing ship was a ship full of hypersleeping colonists.  That is a perfect shipment for David!  Is he really that lucky?  Hopefully we find out soon!

yes I asked about it kethol and I do think the idea was good and should have made it into the film. but ur posts gave me the impression u were adding something that does not exist into the movie to add weight to ur argument.

@I Moon Girl, no apologies for your long posts please. They are most interesting.

You appear to have constructed some of your argument from the book, which talks about gravitational distortion precluding earlier detection of the energy event (the movie does not). In fact, the book actually contradicts the movie by having Mother declare that she detected an energy burst of heavy particles (no mention of neutrinos at all). Which is somewhat annoying.

In respect of supernovae, they really can be discounted as a source because they are very rare events indeed. In our galaxy of 200 billion stars, it's confirmed they only happen at the rate of about once or twice a century. They are so powerful, that we would see them on Earth when they happen anywhere in our galaxy. Novae, on the other hand, which are known to yield neutrino bursts, are a weekly occurrence.

You might want to check out Ask Science on reddit. There are plenty of knowledgable science professionals there who will tell you what is needed to produce a neutrino.

@Ali81 - David was surprised when he found out it was a colony ship in both the movie and the script.

In the movie it is never said David was trapped on the planet or that he sent the message to lure a ship, but we can presume both from the evidence. Since both of those were made were written in the script, isn't it safe to assume that was the intent?

thombach, u r correct and I agree completely, what im actually replying to is yogis' post about there being satellites in orbit which are in the early draft john logan script. there is no mention or hint of them in the movie so just because their in that early draft doesn't mean they exist

@Thomback - Yes, it is.

I'll throw out another quote, this one from screenplay writer Dante Harper.

"In my drafts of the screenplay — and I'm sure drafts that came along later — even if you're keeping things shrouded in mystery, I think you actually have to know what happened, because people can tell when they see a tip of an iceberg but there's no real iceberg underneath it and you really haven't done the math, you haven't figured out what happened. I think I could write a small book about all the things that happened, because we had to figure all that out. So the question became, "How much are we going to learn?" One of the things that was interesting about the final cut of the film is we actually ended up learning a lot less than was possible given the drafts that we had. That was always the question with every draft, "How much can we reveal, how much can we not?" At the end of the day, I think a lot of those decisions got made in the editing room. You can tell the information is there. I think they pulled back in places."

Ridley does not like to spoon feed answers - I know, understatement of the century! - but, he wants us to be doing exactly what we are doing now.

sorry I have made a mistake, it wasn't yogi who commented on the satellites, u have to forgive me im not 100% at the races yet today lol was a long shift last night. kethol kindly mentioned the satellites

"You could say it was a good job oram was captain as the original captain would not entertain that idea. Well you never know someone at WY may or may not have had a hand in that. oooh conspiracy before the Covenant take off !! Fancy that. oh gosh there is a ADF prequel novel surrounding something similar or connected maybe ??"

Great angle sherris. Yes this does help big time with the excitement of the prequel novel coming out next month, thank you so much. There are many areas to assume "ill intentions" in the release of the prequel synopsis.

Awesome details from the Logan script Kethol. I assumed that the Engineers were able to mask their location and David 8 put that to use with the storm to hobble the Covenant crew. It is so interesting to read the script and ponder the thinking that went into developing the concepts that made it into Alien: Covenant.

"That is a perfect shipment for David!  Is he really that lucky?  Hopefully we find out soon!"

That is a great way to put it I Moon Girl. I too think that the Covenant ship may have been a "clinical trial" with David 8 running it for corporate far away from the frontier. And, I agree, David 8 is a weaponized liar.

Many Thanks Ingenerio - Also to everyone who contributed ali91,Kethol,Lawrece of Arabia,i moon girl,hox,Thrombach and anyone i missed great debate !!

Still wondering about David causing some event, regardless of name that lead into a set of motions. Or with super tech he diverted it through sectors maybe remotely with some on world ecgineer tech.

Maybe the novel gives us a bone or 2 !!

Many Thanks

Kethol - u many be right. RS does want us doing this. but personally i want it in movie, not spoon fed but subtle hints then debate on here. one film then alien is very worrying btw. Just think of the miles from the need planets.

Sherris, blame Stanley Kubrick :) That's where Ridley got that habit. At least he is not as bad as David Lynch!