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Theorycraft: 'Alien: Covenant' Just Proved that David Has Orchestrated the Entire Franchise

After the events of 'Alien: Covenant', it's hard to wonder about what David was doing and what he had planned for the 'Alien' universe.

By Dustin MurphyPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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(Credits: 20th Century Fox)

When Alien launched in 1979, there'd been curiosity surrounding the who, the what, the why, and the how behind the origins of the oily black skinned creature, which dripped blood for acid. Questions would even began to arise behind the origins of the massive creature in the suit upon the ship Ellen Ripley and her team discovered when they landed upon the mysterious planet LV-426.

After the events of Alien: Covenant, it's hard to wonder about what David was doing and what he had planned for the Alien universe. Because of this, it's hard not to speculate what Michael Fassbender's character is up to and will be up to in future films.

Because of his findings, as well as his scientific discoveries, we can only begin to speculate exactly what David is up to. Since his devious nature was well represented towards the end of Prometheus, and Covenant, it's not hard to begin wondering about what he is doing and why his experiments matter so much to the entirety of the franchise.

How it Starts in 'Prometheus'

[Credit: 20th Century Fox]

During Prometheus, we were given a quick glimpse at the origin of David's hates, learning, and ultimate goals. In the movie David was one to show his curiosity regarding the Engineer's, the technology behind their ships, and their ultimate goals for the universe. Ultimately, David's findings would inevitably lead him to the discovery of an oily black substance that the Engineer's would hide in both vials and urns. Discovering this matter to be a biological entity, David would begin to research its complete capabilities. Doing so would require future investigation within the Engineer ship.

Much of it was due to David studying the way of the Engineer, where he would begin to hate them just as he would humans. Upon finding out what this substance is, he would begin to infect Shaw's partner with some of the substance he discovered upon the Engineer ship. With the fluid being a biological matter, the fluid's true identity begins to show when Charlie Holloway ends up impregnating Shaw with a Trilobite that formed based upon the DNA of its host, but also the alien DNA that the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 hosted.

Later in the movie, it's revealed that the chemical is what killed Charlie and caused Shaw to give birth via c-section to a creature that would grow quickly and show habits resembling that of a Facehugger. At the end of the movie, it is revealed that David's test worked, and that he discovered what the truth behind the biological material is as the creature Shaw gave birth to would impregnate an Engineer with its own variant of the Xenomorph.

David's Wrath on the Engineer Home World and His Testing in Elizabeth Shaw in 'Alien: Covenant'

In Alien: Covenant it's revealed that David 2.0 has managed to survive the attack upon the Engineer home world. Having succeeded with his mission, David began to study the organic material known as the "Black Goo" or Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15. It's revealed through his studies that the "Black Goo" isn't just a biological weapon. Instead it's revealed that the material is actually the DNA of an alien creature, one that could quite possibly have been engineered by the Engineer's or even pre-dated them, but instead would become a weapon utilized by them.

'Walter' [Credit: 20th Century Fox]

Upon his success, David 2.0 became stranded upon the Engineer home world in the year 2103. With 10 years of being stranded upon the planet, David began to test the organic material in the vials known as Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 or "Black Goo" upon living creatures there. Finding that it would use suitable hosts to gestate, it is reasonable to believe that he would eventually turn on Elizabeth Shaw in order to begin weaponizing, and even perfecting his new biological weapon.

[Credit: 20th Century Fox]

Discovering his tests succeeded, it's quickly easy to assume that David used Shaw to create an early stage of a Trilobite known as a Ovomorph. The theory, if Reddit is right, is that if left undisturbed, a Trilobite would fold in on itself. as it does, it could quickly harden into an Egg.

Doing so would allow a Facehugger to become existent. If this is true, it would easily be assumed that Dr. Shaw was his first, and only test subject. Due to the success, it could be easily assumed that David used her as his first genetic host, or, even more sickeningly, took unfertilized egg samples from her by dissecting her body piece by piece.

If he did, here's no limit to how many Xenomorph egg's David could have harvested as many as he needed upon her body before testing a Facehugger to see where the success comes from. If you recall, this is evident as Shaw's chest had been burst open by a Xenomorph, and ultimately used as a test subject.

Now, here's where it gets tricky with 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. David has everything to do with the events of future films.

'Alien (1979)' [Credit: 20th Century Fox]

As you may know Alien takes place only 30 years after the events of Covenant. However, this is where things do get a bit trickier since we know that David 2.0 isn't done yet. Having hijacked the Covenant and even stowed away a few Facehugger samples into the embryo containers. Since he does have control of the ship, we can only assume that David is heading for a planet known as "Acheron"; a planet we can would eventually call LV-426 and the place where his pet project will truly begin.

Ripley: A transmission? Out here?Lambert: What kind of a transmission?Dallas: Acoustical beacon. It, uh... repeats at intervals of twelve seconds.

However, that leads to an even bigger question: How does this all tie into the 1979 film Alien featuring Sigourney Weaver and John Hurt? This one is a bit far-fetched, but take this how you will. One of the easiest assumptions we can have is that the Space Jockey was one o the Engineer's that got out free of David's biological attack on their home world. Because of this, it's easy to assume that this is the case. Because of this, it leads to the assumption that David didn't get all of them and even missed one or two. With the derelict ship being there, we can assume that when the Covenant made it to LV-426, that he began to do what he needed in order to continue his testing.

'Alien (1979)' [Credit: 20th Century Fox]

With 2,000 colonists at hand, David 2.0 has free reign as much genetic material as he needed. This includes men, women, children, and embryo's. Because of the landing on LV-426, David would discover a crashed Engineer ship where its pilot has since become deceased. With more of the "Black Goo" aboard, it's easily now assumable that David now has as much genetic material he needed in order to continue his studies. It can also be assumed that David dispatched information in his transmission back to Weyland-Yutani. This would include information about his new weapon, something they would want control of, a weapon that they could easily market as extremely volatile. It would work due to a single quote from the 1979 film.

Ripley: What was your special order?Ash: You read it. I thought it was clear.Ripley: What was it?Ash: Bring back life form. Priority One. All other priorities rescinded.Parker: The damn company. What about our lives, you son of a bitch?Ash: I repeat, all other priorities are rescinded.Ripley: How do we kill it, Ash? There's gotta be a way of killing it. How? How do we do it?Ash: You can't.Parker: That's bullshit.Ash: You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.

With a perfect room to hide his studies, David would begin using the Engineer ship to hide his studies from the few colonists he may have awakened, if he awoke any. Because of the amount of eggs he could have created using the colonists, one could easily assume that David has orchestrated all of the events that we've seen unfold. We can also assume that it was David who set off the mysterious signal that the Nostromo would receive after his ship crashed upon LV-426. While the planet is certainly not the one they were looking for, LV-426 would offer David a perfect place to continue his testing.

However, due to an unknown fate, we can assume that something went drastically wrong with David's testing as he is no where to be seen in later films. Due to this, we can assume that the Aliens began to attack both living and synthetic life as it could have been deemed a danger to their survival, giving them a overall survival-like instinct. This change or "evolution" would prove that David's plan of creating the perfect weapon had come to fruition and succeeded as he had hoped.

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About the Creator

Dustin Murphy

A video games journalist and Content Creator. He has been featured on sites such as AppTrigger and MoviePilot. He's the president and editor-in-chief of the independent news publisher Blast Away the Game Review.

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