Last Saturday, we looked at what happened in Alien: Covenant (2017) when the Covenant‘s crew came across a transmission from Dr. Shaw. Because the Covenant is carrying a crew of colonists and their destination is still a great distance from their current location, some of the crew members wish to explore this new planet in the hopes of starting their new life a little sooner than expected. And here is yet another example of the way inconsistent and lazy writing holds the plot together.

Why does Daniels suddenly oppose exploration?

Oram, the crew’s captain, decides to explore the planet, but Daniels, his second in command, doesn’t agree. She asks to speak with him in private, and an argument begins. Daniels reasonably fears that exploration might jeopardize the colonists, but the problem is that there’s no good reason for her to be so angry over Oram’s decision. Her husband, the former captain of the ship, was just killed by a random accident that took place at the start of the film. Oram rightly points out that the crew is terrified to return to their cryobeds after such a disaster, and frankly, Daniels has more cause than anyone to be afraid. However, her fear is not addressed. She doesn’t respond to Oram’s argument at all. The only reason she gives for being so opposed to this new mission is that it seems too good to be true. That’s not an argument an officer should be making. It’s an unjustified intuition that runs counter to what she’s just gone through, and no cause for it is suggested.

The hero at all costs?

There’s another problem too. Oram also points out that they have a duty to investigate the signal. This is consistent with the first Alien movie. The crew in that film was forced to track a distress signal because that was company policy. Presumably, the Weyland Corporation is also financing this colonization mission because Walter, the crew’s robot, was created by the Corporation.

So, Oram is stating an established rule, and Daniels, as his second, would know this. But, she argues, they have a duty to protect the colonists. However, at this point, they have no reason to think that the planet is dangerous, and their ship was badly damaged by an accident earlier in the film. So arguably it could be more dangerous to rely on the Covenant for an extended period of time. Exploring the planet could be the safest option.

The simple truth is that the writers want Daniels to come off as the hero, so she must be the one to give the prophetic warning. Fair enough, but this particular warning is not justified by the story.

Oram decides to visit the planet

Now here comes the next inconsistency. We’ve just seen Daniels show tremendous concern over the safety of this unknown environment. Her intuition is shown to be somewhat justified when the crew arrives at their new destination and finds that a very severe storm covers a large portion of the atmosphere. This storm is going to monkey around with the crews’ communications on the planet. But even this problem feels like a contrivance because the signal between Covenant and the crew seems to hold or fail conveniently whenever the writers need it to.

But despite Daniels’ previous protestations, when the crew lands on this planet, they take no precautions to protect themselves against the environment. They bring guns, sure, but let’s think about this for a moment. If someone were traveling to a completely new environment, which could have all kinds of unfamiliar vegetation, what would be the first thing to worry about? Contagions! In Prometheus (2012), this issue was addressed when Dr. Shaw begged her husband not to take off his helmet, even though their instruments said the air was breathable. The obvious reason for this was because there could be some kind of airborne pathogen. But no thought is given to this likely possibility, even by Daniels, who has just made a big fuss about the potential dangers of this unexpected exploration.

Everybody trudges onto the planet in what amounts to hunting gear and they begin looking for Shaw’s ship…

Then the obvious thing happens. Two crew members — Oram’s wife and (as we will call him) Needless Casualty Number One — break off from the group. He steps on something that shoots out a bunch of spores.

He’s infected by one of these spores, of course, and it turns out this deadly plant life is made of the infamous black goo from the prior film.

While needless casualty number one is about to earn his name, the rest of the crew continues their search for Dr. Shaw. They find the Prometheus and evidence that Dr. Shaw had been aboard the vessel, but there’s no body.

Bad idea compounded

Then Oram’s wife radios the crew, telling them that her partner is sick and she’s taking him back to the shuttle. The crew suddenly realizes exploring a foreign planet without protective gear is a bad idea and start heading for the shuttle as well, but then one of them collapses because it turns out he’s infected too. Shocker. As for Oram’s wife, she takes her partner back to the shuttle, but the pilot panics and locks her in the medbay with her infected friend.

Before long, a strange variant of the xenomorph bursts out of the man, and Oram’s wife is killed. It’s more accurate to say that she dies of profound stupidity.

First of all, she had plenty of time to crush the thing while it was still wrapped in some kind of afterbirth. The creature was tiny, but it quickly grows—the aliens’ growth rate seems to become faster and faster with each movie, even though the blasted creatures never eat anything first. When Oram’s wife is finished gawking at the monstrosity, she grabs a knife, but when the alien attacks her, she doesn’t use it. She falls on the ground for no apparent reason, and instead of trying to stand, like any normal thinking person would, she just lies there and points the knife at it, like the stupid thing is going to know what a blade is. Then, once it pounces on her, she waves the knife around but doesn’t try to stab the alien. I mean, not one, single thrust! I know she’s in pain and all, but she can’t even manage a tiny jab?

Anyway, the pilot shows even less common sense. After going to the trouble of locking Oram’s wife in the medbay, she opens the door after the alien has already burst out of Needless Casualty Number One. She meant to try and save her friend, which was the right thing to do, but the damage was already done. The alien chases after her, and she goes behind a random bunch of netting to try and shoot the thing when it tries to pounce. Not a bad idea, but when the alien jumps on the netting, she mostly misses, and then she keeps firing at it when it jumps in front of a bunch of gas tanks.

Guess what happens? She blows up the shuttle! The pilot’s killed, Oram’s wife is killed—if she wasn’t dead already—but for some inexplicable reason, the alien escapes without a scratch!

Futile prophecy

So, yeah, the mission’s a bust. And all of it could’ve been prevented if the crew had just put on protective masks. What’s the point of Daniels being the screenwriters’ prophet if the character isn’t going to even try to take any sort of action to prevent a disaster? Despite all of her ire, in the end, when Oram decides to explore the planet, Daniels just says she’s filing an official complaint. Because that’s going to solve anything! She could’ve said, “Okay, Oram. We’ll go. But I want to take all the necessary precautions, protective gear, the works.” But no! Daniels basically says, “I’m telling!” Our hero, folks. That’s why I’ve dubbed Daniels the pedantic prophet. We’ll cover what happens after this next Saturday. 

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Here’s the first part of my review from last Saturday: Alien: Covenant (2017): A story driven by stupidity, coincidence. Nothing seems to happen as the natural result of a character’s choices, consistent with personality and motive. It’s exciting but the audience will likely notice the hands of the writers moving the pieces where they want them to go.