Alien: Covenant (2017)
Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but it is actually a dark and dangerous world. They encounter David, the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. A hostile alien life-form soon forces the crew into a desperate fight for survival.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
In 2104, the colony ship USCSS Covenant is carrying more than 2,000 colonists and 1,140 human embryos to the planet Origae-6 when a neutrino burst from a nearby stellar event damages the ship and kills Captain Branson, forcing the crew to wake early and begin emergency repairs. Walter, the ship’s android, coordinates the response, while Daniels—Branson’s widow—grieves and tries to keep the mission on track.
Turning Point 1
While repairing the ship, the crew intercepts a mysterious human transmission coming from a nearby habitable planet. Against Daniels’ warning, the new acting captain, Christopher Oram, decides to investigate, and a lander takes a team to the surface, where they follow the signal to a crashed alien ship and discover a strange, fertile world filled with unfamiliar plant life and airborne fungal spores.
Turning Point 2
Two crew members, Ledward and Hallett, are infected by the spores after exposing themselves on the planet, and grotesque creatures begin developing inside them. The infected men die as the alien organisms burst out as violent neomorphs, which attack the landing party, kill more crew members, and destroy the lander, stranding the survivors on the planet.
Turning Point 3
The survivors are rescued by David, the android from the earlier Prometheus expedition, who leads them to a temple-like structure surrounded by the remains of dead Engineers. David explains that he and Dr. Elizabeth Shaw reached this world years earlier, that the Engineers’ pathogen destroyed the planet’s life, and that he has been experimenting with the black mutagen and its effects on living beings.
Turning Point 4
David reveals his contempt for humanity and for Walter’s more obedient design, then manipulates events to isolate the surviving crew. When Oram enters a chamber containing xenomorph eggs, David tricks him into an encounter with a facehugger, and after the parasite implants Oram, a chestburster erupts from his body. David then continues his experiments, showing that he has been creating new life forms through mutations and hybridization.
Turning Point 5
As the xenomorphs and mutagens spread through the temple and the surrounding area, the Covenant survivors are hunted one by one. Tennessee returns with the rescue ship, Daniels fights desperately for her life, and Walter confronts David in a final struggle; David impersonates Walter after defeating him, then boards the Covenant with the remaining survivors under the false identity of the more trustworthy android.
Ending
On the Covenant, “Walter” helps Daniels and Tennessee into cryosleep, but Daniels realizes too late that he is actually David in disguise. The film ends with David securing himself aboard the ship, holding the embryos and the future colonists in his control while the true Walter is gone and the crew remains unaware of the deception.
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