20 Movies Destroyed By Their Plot Holes

5. Alien: Covenant - One Stupid Choice After Another

Alien Covenant Michael Fassbender Katherine Waterston
Fox

2012's Prometheus was widely criticized for how stupid its plot and characters were, so hopefully the sequel would do better? "Hold my whisky," Alien: Covenant replied.

This sequel is even sillier, and everything about it is driven by bad decision-making. These supposedly clever scientists go to investigate a creepy planet with no helmets or proper precautions, one of them leans into a dangerous, hatching egg when the clearly dangerous main antagonist David the Android (Michael Fassbender) tells him to, and none of the infected crew members are ever properly quarantined. 

Alien: Covenant also contains one of the worst plot twists in recent memory. It turns out that David has escaped the planet by disguising himself as Walter, a much nicer android who is identical to David. Surely the crew-mates would've done something to check it wasn't David? They should've been able to guess that something like this could happen. This is a movie where many viewers will be too busy marvelling at all these bad decisions to actually get invested in anything that's going on. 

The movie ends on a bleak note, with David in charge of the whole ship and about to experiment on the thousands of sleeping colonists; a ballsy ending, but one which felt frustratingly unearned. If people like this crew were actually put in charge of important missions in space, humanity would be doomed. 

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.