Alien: Covenant - What Does The Ending Really Mean?

Want answers? You're probably looking in the wrong place.

By Simon Gallagher /

20th Century Fox

After the mind-bending trip that was Prometheus, it was widely hoped that sequel and mooted Alien-prequel would peel back some of the confusing mythology of Ridley Scott's demystifying sci-fi and tie some of those strands with the original Alien movies. Obviously, it was equally hoped that the film would prove to be entertaining in its own right, as well as as scary as the trailers suggested.

Advertisement

It's not all entirely successful, regardless of how many fans the film will have. Sure, it's gorgeous and atmospheric and the story is excellent, but some of the specific story-telling decisions are odd and every character is basically an idiot. There's also nothing like the horror spirit that was initially promised, despite how great that would have been.

It's entertaining, but as with Prometheus there are some significant problems with its mythology that aren't helped by the agenda to replace the terrifying, visceral impact the aliens once packed with pseudo-religious philosophy and - at times - dangerously impenetrable lore.

Advertisement

There are more answers here than there were in Prometheus - that's for damn sure - but the end of Covenant still leaves a lot of space open for interpretation, not only of what we saw but also what could follow.

So what does it all mean?

Advertisement