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New Alien: Covenant images from Empire
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![r/movies - Saw Prometheus and made a timeline of the Aliens / Predator movie saga. Does this look about right? (Spoilers)[13428x432]](http://web.archive.org./web/20240906003924im_/https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/NEmUkZyZHFYkbwb2GHC2unU-SzBpphTuwnrFzUAdYGA.jpg)
What do you think is going on in image 3?
Bunch of alien babies about to wipe out the forerunner/architect folk?
David bombing a bunch of engineers with ampules of the black goo from Prometheus.
man David is a dick
While I agree, don't forget: the engineers were going to wipe out life on earth before their facility in Prometheus fell to ruin.
Working theory is that there are two factions: Engineers & Destroyers.
They may be enemies, or allies. The Engineers started life on Earth by having one sacrifice himself, drinking some of the black goo, and breaking down into the basic components that reformed into life. That sacrifice began the process of evolution. This is the opening sequence of Prometheus.
The Destroyers seem to have been creating a similar black goo. However, theirs seems to have the effect of making life that consumes it begin mutating, and turning into something else, instead of breaking down. You can see an example of this in the Alien-like snakes that formed from small grubs on the planet in Prometheus. Charlie Holloway, the partner of Promethius' main character (Elizabeth Shaw), was likewise led to consume the black goo, and he also began mutating into something else.
It's possible this "black goo" is all the same thing, and simply reacts differently to Engineers, killing them instead of mutating them. However, this would mean that the Destroyers are somehow different than them, because the Destroyers in Prometheus were shown to be mutating into something new after coming into contact with the goo. It's also possible that enough of that substance kills you, while a little mutates you, but the amount that the grubs got should have been enough to kill them then, not turn them into snakes.
The other option is that there are two kinds of "black goo", one being the weapon, the other being the tool of seeing life on planets. Although if that's the case, it makes no sense that the Engineers that David is dumping the goo on simply turn into black statues/burn victims (as shown in the existing Covenant trailers, they are frozen in place and blackened, in the trailer, frozen as they are shown below the ship in picture 3 of this post).
Honestly I can't think of an answer without continuity errors, self-contradictions, or extremely convoluted reasoning, so this movie will either blow my mind or be horribly lacking.
I was thinking that maybe its a natural disaster or the civilization destroys itself to prevent the black goo from contacting them? Maybe a sacrifice made by the leaders? Just some random thoughts....
Thanks!
I'm pretty sure that Scott has said that that sequence isn't Earth, but instead is just a general life-seeding moment from the Engineers. We're meant to interpret it in the context of the overall film as evidence that they did so on Earth as well, but we're not shown that activity directly.
The goo struck me as something that's just some form of evolutionary accelerator, that is highly sensitive to conditions of when it starts to react with something. Volume, temperature, manner of interaction (e.g. external vs internal), genetic complexity of the entity interacting with it, etc. all having the potential to change the outcome dramatically.
Great interpretation.
But that theory is clearly contradicted by the movie itself.
When the Engineer sacrifices himself there is already a breathable atmosphere on earth, which means there would already have to be life that produces enough oxygen.
"But what if Engineers don't need to breath the same air composition as humans do?"
Well, that leads us to point two; it is clearly stated in the movie that Engineers and humans are genetically identical. So humans and engineers are technically one species. That also means humans did not come to be solely through normal evolution since that would be pretty much impossible.
To be honest that is my biggest peeve with Prometheus. Had they just said something like “very similar” to humans instead of identical, that would have opened up some interesting ideas about how a similar environment might cause life to evolve in very a similar fashion. Instead they chose to go with 'identical' and shit all over the theory of evolution.
edit With that said, the new images look amazing and I can't wait to see the movie. :)
are we looking at the same picture? picture 3 to me looks like the pods are being dropped on earth-like city, i dont see any frozen figures
I've always had the thought that the black goo reacts differently based off the state of mind of the person ingesting it. The engineer at the beginning of Prometheus created life because he was at peace and willing to make the sacrifice. And in humans...well greed and selfishness causes an opposite effect. Doesn't really solve the problem of how David dropping the goo on the engineers in this picture would kill them though.
I finally know what was that scene about!
Prometheus in a nutshell.
It also seems unlikely to imagine the entire population of the planet/outpost would happen to be in that one area.
Good on him for getting his head reattached though.
I thought I heard that wasn't David, but a separate android.
There's both. The new one is Walter, with an American accent.
he is the right kind of dick though.
Can't argue there
The city doesn't look alien to me, more like something on earth.
It's not. The next pic (not shown here for some reason) shows a bunch of Engineers looking up at the sky with various expressions of wtf on their faces, with those buildings in the background.
Oh i see. Can you link it?
Voila
Looks like David is giving them a big old "Fuck You" moment.
In a way. He's experimenting on them to create something. Guess what :P
i can't imagine the engineers making this black goo that fucks everything up and not having any defenses against it though
What's David got smokin in that pipe?
Gave up drinking android milk for the chronic
Moonajuana for sure
black goo
Those don't look like engineers. They look like another race that grew from the Engineers seeding the planet, as they did earth.
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Sure, why not.
And how does that pic demonstrate that this world isn't alien? The engineers are aliens.
I didn't say it wasn't alien. I said it was, and filled with engineers. The guy above me thought it was earth.
It mentions in the empire article that it is the engineers homeworld.
It looks more like Detroit than I was expecting.
The other image linked by u/bipolar_sky_fairy leaves no room for ambiguity. And it looks very alien and kind of cool in that image.
Alien / District 9 crossover confirmed!!
I'm wondering if this confirms that the eggs were designed to be a biological weapon, assuming the ability to carpet bomb an area with them was built into the ship and not something he rigged up himself.
From memory the characters suggest that in Prometheus and it has been suggested in the other films, but I think there's some arguments to be made to the contrary. I always liked the interpretation that the aliens aren't a weapon at all, but rather the fact that people assume so speaks to human nature more than the nature of the Engineers.
Except that's pretty much how it's going to go from everything I've heard and seen. The xeno universe gets "Darth Vader built C3PO" smaller this time out.
So are the people who are boarding a planet in the trailers, boarding this planet that David apparently destroyed by killing all the Engineers?
From what I know, they're on their way to colonize a planet but receive a distress call from the planet David was bombing and divert as it's on the way... sound familiar..
You know, that does sound familiar. It is just like Sunshine!
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The black goo was the shit that turned one of the crewmembers from Prometheus into a mutant.
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Weyland looked 300 years old.
It took 12 years to make!
In the making of book it looks amazing, but it was lit blue originally. They digitally re-graded the color to orange and yellow later which fucked up all the delicate paint work on it.
The captain of the Prometheus ship, Janek (Idris Elba) theorised that the black goo was a weapon of mass-destruction created by the Engineers on the uninhabited planet featured in Prometheus.
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I think Holloway and Shaw having sex was more of a educated presumption. The real test though was just infecting Holloway. Shaw's impregnation was just an added bonus (for David).
David did get Holloway drunk, right?
Also, they were the only "couple" on board so it's safe to say that everyone assumed that Holloway and Shaw were gonna have a sexy time after a journey that took two fucking years!
Did he have a malfunction in his robot brain?
Is David a secret asshole?
One of the symptoms of the black goo is sexual arousal https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/avp/images/f/f9/Hm4SP.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20121119150120
I think David had a different agenda than everyone else, he would go secretly talk to dying Peter Wayland and also lie to him, he would watch movies and act them out in the mirror to seem more "human", he would speak in vague sentences, never telling you something direct. He was almost spiteful of everyone being human and he just wanted to see them all die. Even when he saw the alien in Shaw, he almost had excitement, like he was saying, "Good for you. Congratulations."
[David wiping out The Engineers on their home planet.] (http://cdn.bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/alien-covenant-engineers.jpg)
The dome in both pictures seem identical.
The movie synopsis leaked on 4chan in January from someone who claimed that they had seen a test screening in December and I was skeptical until these pictures. One of them basically confirms the spoilers
Do you have a link?
No, because 20th Century Fox asked them to take it down
Link?
Wild guess, but maybe it's a flashback to David and Shaw (or just David), having managed to reach the Engineer homeworld and ended up bombing the shit out of it with the black goo stores they had, with the crew of the Covenant then arriving on the world long after the Engineers have died (and that's why it's infested with xenos and such)
That would mean that said planet should be rampant with beings mutated by the black goo like the maggots from Prometheus. But in the trailer, Katherine Waterson's character remarks how silent the planet is.
Remember how long it took them to find anything in Aleins. Not like the Xenomorphs were throwing a party or anything. So if the Xenos ate every other creature on the planet it would probably be silent. Also the Xenos generally like dark tight places so they'd probably be underground until they realized there was something to hunt.
No party but they were having a god damn town meeting
We have no idea how much later Waterson and crew arrive or even if it's the same planet (I'm assuming it is though). My guess is that David wipes out the Engineers for one reason or another, either to further his own research and agenda or with Shaw as payback for trying to wipe out humanity in an effort to make sure they don't try again. There is some sort of collapse of that civilization, or mutually assured destruction enacted by the Engineers once the Xenos get loose. Engineers get wiped out. The Xenos die out or go into hibernation or some sort of long term stasis. Fast forward hundreds of years and now Waterson and company arrive on the planet to colonize it maybe made aware of it's presence because of a becon sent by David, so that David can now take hundreds of years of research on the Xenos back to Earth and Weyland Corp.
Can't be too much time passed, cause isn't ALIEN not supposed to be all that much later?
correct, the timeline between Prometheus and the first alien is mere decades. Prometheus happens in 2093, Alien in 2124.
The reports from the screened footage insinuated that it's the same planet after the devastation (and that's why there was no life). The only thing I'm confused by is why nobody would have seen the ruins of a massive city when they arrived in orbit.
How do we know they didn't? Or it could all be overgrown? I'm mean it's a bit silly to try to poke holes in the story based on a trailer. We don't even have the information we need yet.
Maybe it's a different planet?
Or a dream sequence.
What I find interesting is the bombs are being dropped on what appears to be some sort of arena.
Yeah it looks weird. Some barren circle with some strange ship type thing above it and davids stolen one up much higher. Looks interesting.
I looked at it closer and the arena is full of the engineers.
Looks like david is bombing a planet architecture looks earthly as does the Trees weve seen the robots do cray shit before he impregnated ole girl in the last film. I dont see this been real though i think david is seeing some plan the engineers had for earth but never happened.
I'd be surprised if they move between planets on this movie. This could be a flashback, dream, or vision of some sort.
Looks like he's dropping the black liquid from Prometheus onto that world. This explains that scene with all those bodies.
We've seen the aftermath, lots of bodies. I bet this is the place and what happened.
That looks like the urns which contained the mutating liquid in Prometheus.
David gone mad/hacked and brings back tons of aliens to earth.
I imagine this will form a prologue sequence similar to the start of Prometheus where we were given a hint of what the black goo does. A form of destruction being a form of creation but on a mass scale and less of a sacrificial act and more an act of old testament God.
Looks like Earth to me.
Either way, it's pretty significant spoilers.
Oh that's blood and guts. alright...Also, if this is CGI, that's some damn good CGI. And I feel bad for the victim. That viscous skin texture is on point. Disgusting.
Ridley's an effects wizard. Can always count on his films looking gorgeous and technically proficient. One of the few directors who has a flawless output with his SFX/VFX.
I just looks at this Prometheus VFX real again and...Damn movie looks like it came out next week...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdJYlKfyjg8
I still maintain that movie is visually the best I've seen, second only to Fury Road. The plot may be a mess, but it's just so beautifully made.
Fury Road hardly comes close to Prometheus. I have no idea why people hold Fury Road to such a high degree when talking about CGI. Prometheus is much more grandeur and complex in CGI, Fury Road uses some but not in the scale of Prometheus.
Actually that's the point of Fury Road's CGI. It is that subtle that you can't really tell what's real and what's not.
I'm not talking about CGI. I'm just saying that Fury Road was (IMO) a better looking movie, albeit only slightly. I don't really care about which movie uses which style of effects best, I'm not a filmmaker, all I care about is which one looked the best overall. In fact, as far as I'm aware, most of Fury Road's effects were practical, and CGI was just used to enhance the explosions and other effects.
I think we all can agree that It's how you use the CGI.
Both did a good job.
Someone clearly didn't see Exodus.
When they make everything look digital it blends a lot easier.
That thing is horrifying.
That first shot is so unsettling. What a terrible way to die that would be. The things people can imagine....
What increases the disturbing nature of the monster is its lack of face, yet it's clearly "looking" toward the viewer.
Pretty sure he is looking downward at the kill/maybe eating. I'm so lost if you are referring to the same picture I'm looking at.
Hmmm, the crest on the back of its head looks like it's sweeping back and to the right, implying that. My mind might be playing optical illusions on me!
Like it's sorta looking over its shoulder? I can definitely see that.
i see what he's saying, as the head is tilted towards the camera slightly. also, there have been shots of this type of xeno's face in the marketing and it is essentially featureless except for a circular mouth. in this picture it would be behind one of its legs. i do agree though that its focus is not towards the camera at all, and is definitely on the person it is eating lol.
So David (and possibly Shaw) ends up carpet bombing the Engineers with black goo?
That looks like a human city.
It looks like an important plot-spoiler...
I literally cannot get any more hyped for this movie. Also, so happy to see Peter Weyland making a return!
Peter weyland as in Guy Pearce's character from prometheus?
Yep!
Now how does that work since he died? Does part of this movie take place before prometheus?
Yep. This particular scene shows the 'birth' of David.
yeah he is the guy in the second picture
Oh wow, I thought that was another david robot
Less than a month, son!
I'm cautious after the disappointment of Prometheus
I hated it the first time I watched it. But a few years later, I watched it again and I loved it for some reason. Now I'm a big fan. To each their own I guess!
Honestly, the mythology is excellent and really works well with the Xeno canon we already had, in my opinion. If people could look past character decisions they'd probably enjoy it.
I joke about them being the worst (and possibly least interested or qualified) scientists ever, but it was really scary in a lot of scenes and it expanded the awesome mythology in such a great way. Plus David is such an interesting and provocative character, he makes it all super memorable for me.
To look past character decisions is to look past a good chunk of the plot though. It's hard to immerse yourself in a story when it doesn't suspend your disbelief.
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I'm still not a fan of how they handled the origins of the Xenomorphs, but I think that's just because I prefer the idea of them just being these random, terrifying creatures with a mysterious past
I was undeniably disappointed the first time I saw Prometheus. I felt like I had to read this essay to understand what was really going on or at least what I hope is going on.
http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html
It could be that Sir Ridley has just got a much bigger story to tell. I certainly hope so, don't think it'll change Prometheus from being a flawed movie.
I can't get anymore hyped either. That is to say, I'm as hyped as I'm possibly going to get and that isn't very hyped.
This movie doesn't look all that great to me. Besides the fact that these photos, and the trailer, spoil the shit out of the movie, what I've seen so far doesn't impress me.
I'm super hyped for this, big fan of the franchise. But I am concerned they're going to try to do too much. Adding too many types of aliens. Apparently an engineer-filled city. I'm guessing we'll see some sort of Alien vs Engineer war. The initial survival-horror aspect with the main crew. Tying in characters from Prometheus.
I guess we won't know til we actually see the movie.
We already have Alien and Aliens. I don't think anything will ever come close to topping those. At this point, I'm all for expanding the back story of the Engineers. Scott has probably had these ideas cooking in his head ever since we got a glimpse of it in the original Alien.
I share your concerns, plus this: I feel like they’re showing way too much of the xenomorph(s). What made the original movies (and Alien: Isolation) so great is the tense atmosphere. The trailer / shots don’t have that tone.
That said, I’m gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and hope Ridley Scott brings that vibe back and it’s a genuinely good Sci-Fi Horror movie.
Aliens showed quite a lot of the xenos if I remember correctly and that was pretty great. We've only seen a few moments from the footage and some stills so hopefully it's great!
The fucker dropping the extra-terrestrial WMD on the engineer's home planet, is he supposed to be David or Walter?
David
David doesn't have a body anymore, though.
He's all head.
Mew? Mewtwo?...Majin Buu?
Eww, just as I was eating lunch too!
That first image is disturbing..I love it.
From Empire: http://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/three-exclusive-new-alien-covenant-images-revealed/
The Neomorphs looks sort of... deformed? Like they're clearly a failed experiment, or an unstable mutation.
Forgot about Guy Pearce, great cast
That is very like the Deacon from Prometheus
Holy media saturation with this movie. Could it be any more over marketed?
Oh, so we're back to this again.
Oh.
/Plinkett
I'm looking forward to Alien: Covenant, but I'm really looking forward to hear RLM talk about it.
is that thing in the first pic eating? I thought these creatures never ate.
I'm guessing that creature is the guy from the trailers with the things bursting from his spine. So I'm guessing that's why it's tearing someone apart and probably eating them.
Yes they do, although it wasn't explicitly shown in movie until Alien 3.
Damn, studios spoil the fuck out of movies today.
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First image is creepy.
is that neomorph wearing its previous host as a skinsuit?
SO hyped for this movie. Only 1 month away!!
At some point, I started thinking that Ridley Scott was too old to make relevant movies, but... he's not.
Well the movie hasn't come out yet. It might be terrible and only prove he is old and senile, or be good and prove he's still got it. Trailers are always so deceiving/ and different from the actual movie. I really hope it will be a good movie.
You just know that it's about 8 or nine foot tall as well
I am super excited for more origins on my favorite little evil dudes. Please dont suck! please.
What is this arena area? Why is he dropping the black goo on the arena area and not the house.
Image 3 is fucking incredible!
Is there a consensus on whether this can be seen as a standalone film or if one should watch Prometheus/Alien before seeing this movie? I loved both Alien and Prometheus but my boyfriend has never seen any of the movies, I'm wondering if I should get him to watch at least Prometheus before I drag him to Alien: Covenant. My one fear is a lot of people seemed to not like Prometheus even though I loved it, I don't want it to turn him off the whole series.
Might be good to watch prometheus at least as it's a direct sequel to that. Then again, it's not the best film.
If you haven't seen alien 1 and 2 then what have you been doing?!!
Its probably going to be s smoldering piece of poo that is more style over substance based on the last movie which lacked atmosphere and was a predictable cliche ridden mess, even if it looked pretty/
It begins
um, either i'm crazy or that's guy pearce in the 2nd pic...
i seriously can't wait for this movie.
It definitely is! Probably a hologram, flashback or something.
Well well well. If it isn't Mr John "
career destroyerThe Rock correspondent" Nugent.Bangily-bang!
how much more is going on in that movie? one of my most anticipated of the year! cant fucking wait.
I bet that pale semi-human xenomorph is Shaw.
Probably just the guy with the things bursting from his spine from the trailers. That xenomorph seems to have something similar on its spine.
Yeah, you're probably right. Although I'm positive something equally horrific happened to her. She's got to still be around in some altered state.
Looks like Gollum.
I'm betting that David incapacitated Shaw when they got to that planet and experimented on her with the black goo. I'll bet my house (not really) that thing is Shaw.
but wasnt he just a disembodied head at the end of prometheus? did they have replacement bodies on board the wreckage?
the weapon is being used as intended
a last fuck you to any threatening race.
I can't wait for this movie. I love the aliens and love the series, the only thing that worries me is the runtime. Do anyone knows how long is it? My local cinema puts it at 100 min, but there's no synopsis or anything so I don't know if it's the real one.
That last image makes it look like a sequel to Arrival lol
But in all seriousness, that image of the Neomorph looks incredible.
No thank you.
It's Majin Buu
Nope.
Poor zombie of a series.
The first image looks like something from r/ImaginaryHorrors
As someone that has seen the film, the third image WAS NOT in the cut I saw but I know where it can fit, and if I am correct, I am glad they added it.
All 3 images look like either huge spoilers or dream sequences/simulations.
Oh fuck yes
Damn. These look darn impressive.
that's gross and great and all but it reminds me more of pan's labyrinth than aliens. and i've read a lot of the extended universe novels and comics, so i know there's many different varieties of aliens, but they're all in that same basic mold. with the spines and the chitinous look. this thing looks like a pale human with a weird head.
I'm extremely hyped for this movie, I've been watching the Alien movies since I was little
Now play Alien Isolation.
I'm a massive alien fan and love the comics and books and even have a massive xenomorph tattoo but that game scared the shit out of me I couldn't even finish it.
Well that first one looks mildly disgusting.