Alien Covenant – 20 Things from Ridley Scott’s Audio Commentary
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MemberPraetorianOctober 24, 20177331 Views17 Replies20 things from Ridley Scott’s audio commentary:
Ridley says David wasn’t an A.I. that was an embryo and grew up—when we see him in the prologue, he’s freshly “born.”
Scott says that David’s choice to pour the tea immediately, with no reaction, shows that he’s political, and therefore dangerous. He’s biding his time and choosing his actions wisely.
Scott says the nail necklace represents the idea of the cabin on the lake that Katherine Waterston and James Franco’s character’s planned to build.
There’s no random choice in the crew members—they all had to earn their spots on the ship.
In the original script, Shaw’s transmission was a prayer. But Scott felt it was corny and instead changed it to the John Denver song because of its purity and focus on loneliness, despite not actually being a big John Denver fan himself.
Scott says this Planet 4, has two moons and is roughly the size of Earth.
Scott confirms the planet we saw in Prometheus was a military research outpost, which he based on what he learned about Anthrax Island where they developed anthrax during World War II.
The neomorph literally grows as he’s running after Amy Seimetz’s character.
Scott says on the commentary that Covenant is the middle chapter for this new series of Alien films: “There’s a platform for what we’re doing right now. It’ll be Prometheus, Covenant 1, and Covenant 2, then we’ll probably come in the back end of Alien 1, and that’s already kind of been worked out. Covenant 2’s already being written by John Logan.”
The big statues inside David’s stronghold are probably the six elders of the entire civilization: “The intellects, the artists, the wise men.”Scott says he thinks the Engineers have a lifespan of around 150 years.
The flashback that shows what happened to the dead Engineers wasn’t in the original script. Scott insisted they needed to show who killed all of them and why.
Scott has answers for all your David body hair questions: “Does the hair of an A.I. grow? If David’s a super A.I., they’ll want his hair to grow.
Scott says the entire film boils down to issues of A.I. and creator/creation: “The subtext of this whole story is the evolution of an A.I. will eventually demonstrate his superiority to their human intellect, and if we invent a perfect A.I. and the next thing you do is have that A.I. create or invent an equal A.I., from that moment we’re in trouble, unless we can control it.”
Scott says there were about 2 million Engineers in the plaza when David released the biological weapon.
The weapon can kill a planet entirely in months, flora and fauna, then the planet will take years to rebuild.
Visually Scott originally wanted Alien: Covenant to be like Black Hawk Down, but once they dug into it he felt Black Hawk didn’t look “cosmetic” enough for what he needed, so they found a middle ground between that look and Prometheus.
Scott defends Billy Crudup’s character’s decision to touch and look in the eggs noting that John Hurt’s character did it in the first Alien.
Scott says David’s love for Elizabeth is real.
There was debate over whether to keep the scene in which Daniels flips through David’s drawings, which Scott thinks gives us insight into how David’s mind works.
David sneaking the embryos onto the ship in his stomach was inspired by research Scott had done for a film called Cartel, where he learned that girls were swallowing drugs and carrying them across the border.
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Source: https://muthur9000.tumblr.com/post/166663517130/wwprice1-the-xenomorph-by-michael-walsh
Alien poster: https://muthur9000.tumblr.com/post/166721247565/bdisgusting-check-out-this-incredible-poster-from
some interesting things here... off course sometimes RS commentaries do contradict things that are shown, but we have to go with it being what he is thinking Post Shooting, and so they are his ideas for future.
Few conflicts though.... one being Planet 4, RS may say it had TWO moons and was the size of Earth. This Image and there was another more clear i cant find that indicate 7 Moons... yet it also says a Diameter of 2350KM which is like 5.4X Smaller than Earth and thus could not sustain 7 Moons.
However i guess this read out from the Computer we can pass by and go more with what RS was saying.
The Source i had a few years back regarding the Prometheus 2 sequel by Green/Paglen claimed Paradise was about 2.5-3X size of Earth and it had 3 Moons
Regarding the other comments i will get back to them as there are some interesting ones... The Engineers Life-span for one... the 150 years is actually much less than how the Original idea was regarding when Jon Spaights introduced the Engineers in Alien: Engineers.
Thus a 150 year Life Span, and looking at the various sizes puts these Planet 4 Engineers as actually being much more closer to Mankind than those we saw in Prometheus.
As far as the Dr Shaw Prayer, we really cant read much into that, but if we was then we have to ask at what point and why would Dr Shaw had been making a Prayer... the only Logical reason would be while she was operating or attempting to... the Ships control Panel.
Why would she be praying? It could be to get this ship to leave and get away from Planet 4, it could be to prevent Davids Actions, or it could even be from as she was attempting to depart LV-223
The Fact it was changed to John Denver Take me home, means she was humming to this to help calm her nerves... and the choice of song must thus mean Dr Shaw was attempting to either leave Planet 4 or leave LV-223 when this recording was made.
As for David he would have chosen this recording to then send on loop to Lure in any Human Ships.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
"As for David he would have chosen this recording to then send on loop to Lure in any Human Ships."
I think you nailed it with comment that above BigDave.
In the Alien: Covenant novelization, Dr. Shaw does make it down to the surface because she has a room in the temple with her things (if I remember correctly). Odds are if Dr. Shaw made it to the temple then she didn't last long. David most likely hit fast forward to the end of her life to have his way with her body.
