Ejogo takes the sick man into the infirmary bay while a clearly unnerved Seimetz goes back and forth between communicating with the crew and checking in on the status of the medical area. As the intense scene escalates — the music acting like a racing pulse — the man sickens, bleeds from the eyes and dies. A tiny nemorph bursts out of his back to the horror of both crew members. Where it gets really fucked is when the distressed Seimetz goes into full-blown panic mode and closes the medical bay doors, stranding Ejogo’s character inside with this tiny, but deadly new creature.
Outside and on their way to the ship is Daniels (Waterston) and the crew of military men lead by Crudup. They too have a sick crew member and they’re not sure how he’s become terminally ill. Fascinatingly, “Alien: Covenant” seems to feature airborne virus as its type of contagion. During this scene with the crew racing towards the ship, one of the soldiers steps on some kind of small pod and a black dust shoots into the air, making the grunt cough and sputter, but clearly infecting him too.
The two scenes then cross-cut with alarming tension, Seimetz inside witnessing what soon turns out to be a horrific bloodbath and the other crew attempting to get their dying soldier to safety. It crescendos with visceral intensity; a terrified Seimetz eventually trying to kill and destroy the escaped and agile little neomorph with one of the rifles on the ship and the private outside the ship also meeting his doom when the other neomorph explodes out of his body. Chaos reigns. Inside Seimetz is a sweaty mess of blood and anxiety while she destroys the ship to save her own skin in abject terror while the men outside are also in confused disarray when their crewmember dies in agony and in the dark, no one knows what the hell is going on. Seimetz’s gunfire eventually hits the wrong component and the ship lights up like fireworks with flames bursting to the heavens. The shocked crew — hoping to get on board and get the hell out of their as soon as possible — recoil in dread as they now know they are stranded and outside with whatever it is just killed their friend.
It’s important to point out just how gory and stressful this sequence is. The medical bay scene tops the cesarean section sequence in “Prometheus” by a mile. Scott seems to have found an affinity for the Go-Pro-like cameras that were attached everywhere on the ship on “The Martian,” and thus the footage inside is raw, claustrophobic and traumatic as all get out. ‘Covenant’ is taking no prisoners at this point; the scenes are horrifying, gross and even revolting. The dread of sweat is palpable and heartbeats are rising from the characters and the audience.
This is hard-R stuff that’s gripping and unsettling and should terrify more than just fans. Whatever the reason, again, perhaps the mixed reception, but Ridley Scott is going for broke here and it to say it all works is a colossal understatement.
Diversity on screen has been a welcome conversation that’s consumed media for the better part of two years. And ‘Covenant’ continues the tradition of a female heroine as the lead character. “People are talking a lot these days about the progress we’re making [on screen and in] storytelling, with great roles for women. But, I mean, maybe Ridley’s not getting enough credit. He’s been doing it for a very long time, she said. “I think his attitude about it is very similar to my own. It just seems obvious. There are a lot of cool, complicated women out there, and it’s — it’s not rocket science. “
Waterston was coy about describing her character, but eventually opened up. “She has really good instincts, and she has a concern, about, you know, where they are going on that ship,” she vaguely explained before finally adding later.
“You always wonder, what kind of person you would be in an extreme crisis. ‘Will you be a coward, or will you be courageous?’ And I think she’s just one of those people, who, if her kids were in a car that was on fire, she’d be able to lift up the car. “
Finally, the trailer was shown and this too increased the alarm and terror (the audience of mostly jaded journalists squealed and howled in “holy shit!” applause when it was over).
One of the most shocking moments in the trailer — which you’ll probably see simultaneously when this piece runs or shortly thereafter — is a shower scene with a couple making love and a razor sharp xenomorph tail surreptitiously sneaking up under them. The scene promises wet bodies, blood and holy fright. There’s probably little use parsing the whole trailer because it’ll be online momentarily, we’re sure, but suffice to say there’s a facehugger in the trailer (huge gasps and applause), and like Katherine Waterston, you might want to watch what you have for lunch before you get all queasy with the horrors in “Alien Covenant.”
Scott’s latest, which also features, James Franco, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Jussie Smollett and Guy Pearce, opens in theaters May 19, 2017. We encourage you to watch the trailer in theaters, on the big screen, as soon as possible.