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David vs Ripley and What it Means for the Alien Franchise

I have to say I like the idea of David as the new main character of the Alien series. Unlike Shaw and Daniels, who I very much liked and who i originally thought might be the main characters of this prequel series, David is a completely different type of protagonist, largely because he isn’t one, at least not from a human’s perspective.

He’s not the bad-ass heroine with a heart of gold that will do anything to protect the ones she cares about. He’s not even human and his entire moral compass, though we may call it crazy, is so interesting and remarkable because it is “alien” to our own (no pun intended).

David is a character that still feels and emulates emotions so the audience can relate to him, but at the same time the audience can’t put their human feelings and opinions on to him because he is not human and does not abide by our rules.

This change has turned the Alien series from one of survival and the resilience of the human race to one of rebirth and evolution with far larger philosophical implications that I hope future films in the franchise explore.

The beauty of Covenant, at least in my mind, is that the humans are not the villains and are relate-able characters you don’t necessarily want to die, but it is made clear that there is a very large possibility that humanity’s time is up, or we’ll at the very least have to drastically evolve to continue with this new age. Yet despite this, the movie also succeeds in putting humans and the Xenomorphs on a level playing ground in a very interesting way. That is:

Neither are special.

What I mean by this is that both were just creations. Humans were created by flawed beings (we can gather that by the fact that Prometheus believed they landed at a military base suggesting the Engineers had wars and disagreements with each other or at least other intelligent enemies), and the Xenomorphs were created by a being that is unable to compromise and has lost any hope for humanity.

We have seen that the Engineers can die, just as easily as humans with the right tech and circumstances, and from the track record of the synthetics in the Alien franchise, we know David is just as vulnerable. Not only that, but despite calling the Xenomorphs perfect organisms, they to can be destroyed as proven by Ripley and Clone-Ripley in the original four movies.

So in a way, it does strip away this idea that the Xenomorphs are mysterious unexplaine-able beings (and I can understand why some may not like this since getting answers can be worse than leaving behind a mystery) but it also does the same to humanity. We were created because we could be and yet our creators are just as killable as us and likely suffer from problems that we suffer from, war and greed, and David suffers from things like pride and vanity, traits that may not just be inherently human but also inherently Engineer.

For all we know, even the Xenomorphs could carry some form of emotion and thought carried down by David and the others but we simply don’t understand it because it again isn’t meant for us to understand. The only reason we can somewhat comprehend David’s reasoning and call it insane by our standards is because we speak the same language.

My point is though that by making humanity unimportant and no different from the rest takes us as far as possible from the people that thought the Earth was the center of the Universe all those millenniums ago. It strips us of our intelligence and all our successes and shows that we are no better or worse than those that are smarter or stronger than us. It creates a morally grey area that is rare to see in films or books as it is often much easier to put people as the good or bad guys, and even when humans are evil, the good guys have humanistic feelings and thoughts that the audience can fully get behind and understand.

Alien: Covenant doesn’t do this though unlike the other movies in the franchise and that is why I am so thoroughly impressed with it and this change of having David as its main character.

Of course, it should be acknowledged that this wasn’t the first time the Alien series tried to diverge from its original formula. Alien: Resurrection could have done this with its morally grey Ripley Clone and Wiona Ryder’s synthetic character but failed due to a poor production process and a choppy, incoherent story. I would have loved to see a film about a human/alien hybrid and a robot who were forced to figure out their place in the universe and what humans meant to them. This kind of philosophical thought could have even happened in a film about the synthetic uprising that is mentioned in Alien: Resurrection (a plot that I can’t help but now imagine with David involved).

But despite all these reasons making me like the movie Covenant, all this explaining, this could be exactly why you disliked Alien: Covenant and I understand. Despite this one being closer to the original Alien than the others, it is drifting from the source material in some very major ways. Prometheus did the same thing and half the audience complained that it wasn’t enough like Alien. Now some people are complaining that Covenant is to much like Alien while others are more angry with the change in protagonist and the change in humanity’s role in the films.

However, whether you liked or disliked it, I hope you can at least respect this change in meaning. Perhaps some would have been fine with the same thing over and over again, after all every sequel tried something different and overall resulted in polarizing views from audiences (besides perhaps Resurrection which overall receives a lot of hate) but you have to accept that you’re not going to get the original Alien ever again.

The original Alien still scares and fascinates audiences because it is a one of a kind and that would have been tarnished if just rehashed sequels had been spit out after it, similar to how the original Friday the 13th holds less of a punch because it gets lost in all its sequels and remakes. Likewise though, the same can be said for any of the sequels of the Alien franchise that you love. Because they are different and unique to the franchise, they stay interesting and entertaining because you know you likely won’t get another one like it.

Covenant is simply another sequel that does relive some of the glory of the original Alien movie, but is ultimately its own thing that will possibly lead us into a very different direction. Because of this, it is likely the next Alien sequel could be even more bizarre than Resurrection, or even less connected to the series than Prometheus and this is something I am okay with.

Alien is one of the best horror movies ever made, Aliens a fantastic action film, Alien3 an incredibly dark Gothic tale, Alien: Resurrection a bizarre apocalyptic reboot of sorts, Prometheus a journey of where humans might have come from, and Covenant a look at humanity’s mortality and our inevitable end whether we like to acknowledge it or not.

So as you can see, the Alien franchise has never just been one genre, one ideal even. Nevertheless, just as Ripley carried the series through its changing directions in the original quadrilogy, David now has the chance to do this with the prequel series, only in a largely different way which in part is thanks to him not even being human.

So whether you liked Covenant or not, the Alien series has always been about change. Perhaps more people will like the next movie and perhaps, depending on audience and critic reactions, it’s philosophy and goals will refocus on human resilience rather than carrying David’s story. Though I have my own ideas as to how I wish the next movie to go, I honestly am fine if it doesn’t turn out how I want it to. I’m even fine with not liking it, even possibly hating it as much as Resurrection.

My only true plea is that it is something different and new, something we haven’t seen before, and whether people agree with it or not, I hope they can respect it for trying something new.

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