Alien: Covenant Trailer Analysis - David's Engineer Cloak

Interesting ideas Chris! I find your analysis to be quite thorough, and the concept that "David has become an Engineer" really got my head spinning ; )

But there is something interesting:

"However, the scene was cut and so canonically, we can only assert that the cloak was specific to the Sacrificial Engineer."

Elders were mentioned...so....????????????

Love the post Chris, upvoted!!!

I wonder did he made the cloak by himself or he found it somewhere in the engineer temples.Well I suppose he made it.

I mean if he found it why would he wear a cloak made for a 10ft giant.

Maybe he's wearing it to hide his identity,to fool the crew into thinking that its Walter idk. Or he's wearing it because he wanted to play God,be the engineer idk. 

Long before the trailer came out on some topic I mentioned how I envisioned some banner for AC that had David wearing a cloak,standing on a hill and watching a human ship landing in far distance.

Coincidence?I think not.

Does this possibly point towards Shaw giving birth to an alien queen? The egg came from somewhere. And with David playing mad scientist...

For me, he's just wearing his coat so he will not be recognized, there's nothing too much else. But for a moment I thought, and if David, after seeing his resemblance to Walter, would he kidnap him in order to take his place on board Covenant, thus giving birth to Proto or even Xeno?

He's holding a flare gun hence why the light goes out and he's reloading 

If the planet is not the homeworld of the Engineers but the planet where one of them made sacrifice to create new life as we saw in the begining of Prometheus, and if David is wearing the robes to make Engineers feel more comfortable around him because he is working with them as he wearing clothes around humans as the post mentioned and he said in the movie.

David and Shaw in the end of Prometheus targeted the Paradise where the Engineers came from. What if they reached and after David came to the planet where he met whit the Covenant's crew. What if the crew landed on the planet couple of them got infected, one person impregnated with an alien embryo, things gone wrong and after they went back to the Covenant with David and in the end he talk about Paradise and Shaw and they headed to that planet.

If there will be anoter movie(s) after Covenant as Ridley said, i think he doesn't show it to us yet because on Paradise are all the answers in my opininon. And why he changed the name of the movie?

What do you think? Or maybe David and Shaw just not reached Paradise after all and crashed on this Planet, or this is that planet?

god damm bulshit! the xeno was created long before david! ridly scott fakine the all story!

Eggs aliens existed millions of years ago And you can see it in the first film, Ridley Scott just faking

In my point of view David use Shaw as a host to mix black goo and human dna. Finally she gave birth an alien queen which laid the eggs we saw. David probably became an engineer using the covenant crew to experiment. 

This planet is not the homeworld of the engineers.. 

I don't believe this is David. 

@ido lam 

dude, Ridley DIRECTED the ORIGINAL film. It's his baby and he can do whatever he wants with it. People like you who think you can do better are the reason we get bad films. And the eggs LOOKED old. We never got confirmation on HOW old. Also, David may not be creating them for the first time. He may just be RE-creating them

At the end of prometheus Shaw asked David to take her to the homeland.. so whether they have crash landed here or this is the homeland we won't know till May. 

Ridley said in an intervie that this movie would answer all the questions from prometheus that people were baffled by and it would show how these aliens would be formed (clearly by the dna manipulating black goo) 

It may only be flashbacks of Shaw in this movie but apparently David has been on this planet experimenting with the goo... and it is he who coaxes the captain in to see the eggs, to which he gets face hugged. * defo think it's David and not Walter in that scene* 

I believe the engineers are going from planet to planet creating organisms and using the goo to either change dna or wipe the species out. And when you see the dead engineers in prometheus with the holes in their chests then obviously  it doesn't always go to plan.. they were clearly running from some type of xeno in that scene.  Maybe the snake alien that killed the biologist was a transformation of the small worms we seen when they first discovered the jars of goo

So this planet is possibly the same and that's why the environs are dangerous i.e the spores into his ear. 

All the planets have been different from the one in aliens to the one in prometheus and now this one. The engineers are clearly just using them as test areas and when they go badly wrong they do a runner.

That's my thoughts anyway. Can't wait until May

 See this film interesting triangle: engineers, xenomorf and humans And the connections between them. Since humans are inferior, I love the idea that engineers have created them,But xenomorf should be another step of human and race That was not created by engineers.What is similar between engineers and xenomorph ? Engineers are the most intelligent race in the universe and Hzinomorf are physically perfect race in the universe, hence it can be assumed that engineers do a merger between their intelligence amazing physical abilities of xenomorph. that is the story ridly need to do

And make no mistake:This is not the star of the engineers but engineers managed just as they were planning to bomb the Earth.Ultimately this idea quite poor dumb race like xenomorph destroy the engineers.

A L I E N 4 2 6 You do not  got any balls

 and you do not even require consistency from the director, very Lamo

Chris, I am resolutely avoiding spoilers as I wish to be genuinely surprised by the over arching story and the banner moments which are included in the trailer as they happen in the movie but the cloak is I believe an important part of the jigsaw and one worth extrapolating over. 

For those who do not know of my posts here I have no connections with anyone involved with the films so my observations are merely observations. 

The cloak is highly symbolic because it tells us two things :-

1) David views himself as an Engineer with all that implies rather than quasi man kind that will shape his thinking toward his decision to bait the Covenant and what his intensions are on  arrival. It perfectly positions who he has become. 

2) The thought that he is now a lone engineer rather than the lone "synthetic" of the early synopsis (which has disappeared) plays into my views on the disaster of Paradise. I always held a 20% view he was responsible as opposed to an 80% chance of the hierarchy bringing down punishment. I believe now he triggered the disaster on Paradise as I described it earlier in the summer "a synthetic with issues". Why ?

1) Janek was right LV223 was a separate and dangerous military establishment. David left there bringing hell, the goo, which has airborne potential in a heathy atmosphere (David knew in a poor atmosphere it was neutralised, in a terraformed environment lead to the disaster on LV223, with the head room acting as a bunker. After all they were not taking thousands of vials to earth just to pop them in the water supply). 

2) The Engineers in there death throes look up at the Juggernaut dissembling death, which David later lands, and of course the goo has all sorts other outcomes. During this period we know Shaw is largely incapacitated but then her narrative can shoot off in several directions not least being at the mercy of David's re creation agenda with her own black goo issues.

3)David has baited the Covenant and he can feel confident that they will not discover the catastrophic death scene having burnt the corpses leaving only impressions and residue which will only be discovered on much closer inspection by Daniels. In the same way the corrupted eco system will only become apparent with close contact.

4) David is in control has had ten years to understand the tools and knowledge of both the benign and the fallen Engineers. He will have watched the effect of the Black Goo on the eco system, considered the evolving creature and given thought on witnessing the Covenant as to what more can be achieved. 

This arrangement draws Prometheus into the narrative, explains the deaths of the Engineers on LV223, and leaves the question of the hierarchy and Space Jockey still to come though on the latter all the parts are in place to deal with that through the Covenant narrative.  

David will have a fascinating interaction with Walter whom I see as the victim of David's ambitious for Bio Mechanical outcomes and may even try Bishop strategy's from A 3 when cornered by Daniels who herself is a terraforming engineer - a space gardener as it were - kindred spirits.

Thrilled with the reaction to the trailer it is having exactly the effect discussed and anticipated "Its an Alien movie stupid" to coin a phrase of the successful Clinton.       

The thoughts of this photo is that David comes to the rescue of the crew that remain after their shuttle is destroyed, thus this being his introduction to the crew and to us watching the film. He helps in assisting the when they are sighting the two Neomorphs who are around the area (seen in the 15 minute footage shown to the reporters). I believe david will then take them back to the cave as we see in the Trailer, from there Cudrup is infected by the face hugger by David or by Walter not reacting but some how Crudup gets back to ship and thus gives birth to the Protomorph, the Alien we see in the shower at the end of trailer. Also note that the Covenant has a total crew of 200 colonist and it would be ideal for David to take over this ship for his agenda but as of now, the whole plot is under wraps and maybe in a month or so another trailer will come out that gives us more insight to the plot of the film and maybe more of david's evolution and intentions in this film. 

s were in a spaceship in the first movie came out xenomorph which existed long before David made them, Ridley Scott falsifies the facts

Thanks for the upvote Facehuggers!

And I'm pretty sure this is in fact David. The trailer didn't shy away from showing Walter but David's appearances were all shadowed and secretive. 

@namtraz, a flare gun makes sense. He could be using it to alert the Covenant of his presence as they're landing, perhaps?

Good post Chris :)

I'd say he found the cloak either on the ship or in the temples/his 'cave'; but it does make quite an obvious visual parallel to what he is doing/has been doing and what the engineers were doing, I think . . .  It's a cool image, no doubt!

I have no fixed theory on this, Chris, for a few reasons but I do feel that David's actions may surprise us in this film.  We expect all bad but there may be a twist where he is concerned.   Likewise with Walter, who could turn out to be less altruistic than we may at first imagine.

I think it's very probable that one of the above will impersonate the other at some point.  Also, quite a popular idea but the theory that David will use Walter in his plans somehow is one I also buy into . . .

Really can't wait to see Fassbender's performances in this film and what has happened/is happening to Shaw . . .

This just occurred to me:

Could this imply that David himself set fire to the Covenant?

I sure do! He wanted to keep them so he blew up their spacecraft

If im not mistaken...

According to the footage description.It was some woman who was trying to shoot the neomorph but she accidentally shot the tank and blew up the ship.

I suppose the trailer was edited to look like it was David.

Could be FH but on the trailer it looks like the woman shooting at the neomorph hits something that blows up?  Could that be the start of a chain reaction that blows the ship up?

I like the idea above of David coming to 'rescue' the crew when the ship has gone . . . 'come to my safe lair muah ha ha ' ;) 

In the next chapter we will probably go to Engineers worls

This is probably the same scene where David shows up. They are on the defensive after the two Neomorphs are roaming around out there...David is coming toward the lights.  

David admires the engineers. When he entered the juggernaut and walked up the stairs he said: 'A superior species. No duobt'. And 'Mortal after all.' Maybe he wants be like an engineer, but better... stronger and more powerful. He had 10 years to study them... If it is the homeplanet of the engineers... then why is it such a lethal environment?? Doesn't make sense right? Maybe David had really something to do with the death of the engineers... and changed the planets ecosystem extremely... What if the David wakes up all engineers that are in cryo sleep on the planet and unleash them upon Daniels? On the leaked pictures, we've seen Daniels and another character in front of an temple (without engineer corpses). What if David manipulates/programs the engineers to kill Daniels and the other survivor because they are destroying his plan? However the engineers tried to enter the temple, but lot of them are dead...  

Another question... What is inside the temple? We've just seen the stairs and the gate...Whats inside? A more superior being? Davids palace? More biological weapons?? What do you think?

What if the engineers are synthetic and don't really have a homeplanet? What if they are created by something divine? Who created them? And why?

David is probably naturally burnette, since he has no hair dye now, i think it will play a big part in the audience and the crew's confusion of who we think david or walter really is..

https://youtu.be/1RY78Yt3U9c

What if David, finds the details to the xenomorphs, in one of the temples, perhaps they are the pinnacle that the engineers had achieved with the black goo.

This would explain why the alien eggs in the derelict juggernaut on LV426 are so old.

Maybe David is just trying to recreate the Xenomorphs, otherwise how would he know what the end result he is trying to achieve?

Ridley Scott said he was making "two" other films,  (2) sequels to this film. He stated that the answer for why the Space Jockey was there and why he got an alien inside him will be answered in the next two films. So, in this film we will start to see that evolution in the story arc and well, this film will end in a cliff hanger fashion as Prometheus did. 

I think the cloaks are/were common...

if you watch the hologram recording in the juggernaut that David starts you can see what looks like the main engineer in the group getting ready for cryosleep looks as if he is taking off a cloak/cape of some kind 

also, in the topic pic it looks like a grenade launcher is what he is holding and about to load.

maybe he is the one who destroys the lander

just an FYI 

I think we will see David there in that cloak about 40 minutes in, and we won't see Shaw til toward the end of the movie, but when we do, she will be attached to a biomachine in a wall somewhere similar to this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GHKxfu66_Bs/VebbJ7YkcvI/AAAAAAAAU8w/bKr53BgRqAE/s1600/stillbirth%2Bmachine%2B313.jpg

i think she will have been kept alive by David to keep producing his "children"

@tpbiv

I don't think my parents will let me watch the movie with imagery like that XD

"The character is David, the maniacal android from Prometheus who escaped LV-223..."

Pretty sure I wouldn't describe David as "maniacal."  Actually his actions were in complete accordance with his mission.

Well first Happy Holidays.... 2nd the Trailer proves a lot of the one leak was not true, but the Spores on was, and also one on 4chan is accurate the other that most on other sites think is accurate is not...

First i will quickly tackle @ido lam 

welcome aboard, and indeed the Derelict looked ancient, but there is no shred of proof to how long it had been there....  Prometheus is the only clue.... (Chest Busted Cryo-Engineers from over 2000 years ago) so was this coincidence?

Ridley had prior to Prometheus and after mentioned the Space Jockey was a event from thousands of years ago.  So indeed you have a right to argue against a Xeno creation after Prometheus..... but we dont know where they are taking us now...   but i would not be too concerned... as... Noonespecial mentioned and welcome aboard to them too.

"Maybe David is just trying to recreate the Xenomorphs, otherwise how would he know what the end result he is trying to achieve"

Very possible.....

There is a lot to back up the Ancient Xenomorph event, but Ridley did Tag the one Prop of the Hand as were it all begins... but then he also said they are coming into Alien from the read end/back door....  Maybe we need consider Star Wars that was never Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi..  we had EP 4-6 then 1-3... and so that means the Space Jockey event could be covered as a past movie/flash back.

@Dark Nebula good point

The Robe is near enough the same as the Engineers apart from the size...

This has 3 possible implications.

1) Its a oversight we are not meant to notice... (another Ridley Scale Mess up).  And it is a Engineer Cloak.

2) The Engineers at the start or Prometheus and those in the scene of disaster are not as tall as the Space Jockey/LV-223 Engineers...

Space Jockey maybe more Ancient? Engineers maybe similar to Genesis 6:4

3) David manages to  make a smaller cloak from a Engineers.

@Michelle

Indeed nice to see in part you are on the same level of thinking as I...

There has to be a meaning to the cloak...

It could just be a sneaky way the Production can hide that David is different to Walter without having to shoot Fassbender with Blonde and Brown Hair Scenes.

or it could have symbolic implications...

The Sacrificial Engineers has these robes, but so did the Elders, it must have been a Ritual Dress of the Ancient Engineers and does not have to imply David is going to play to play or has played a Sacrifice.. at least not as far as him being the Sacrifice.

The Robe is a Relic, a artifact from a Ancient Race who seeded worlds many Millions if not longer years ago... a deed of great importance before any Fall of their Kind or Rebellion...

Its symbol of the Original would be Elders and Ancient Engineer Culture prior to the LV-223 Engineer days...

David has arrived at their home world... maybe all he finds is the remnants of a long gone culture, maybe he finds a few survivors or unlikely he finds hundreds of them...

I think he finds a ancient derelict culture, but from this he can gain clues from their Hieroglyphs and other means he can learn what the causes of their downfall was..

NOW... David is alone.. he has the Knowledge and Tools that made these beings GODS...

Regardless of this theory.. or if he wiped them out when he arrived...   THE CLOAK IS A SYMBOL...

That David is now the God.... and Superior being.

If your theory is correct, it will be interesting seeing how it plays out

"The Engineers in there death throes look up at the Juggernaut dissembling death, which David later lands"

Im not so sure about this Michelle, you was right as far as this looking like a Pompeii like disaster where they are petrified as stone look.

I was drawn to more of a Sodom and Gomorrah kind of Massacre.

The Trailer gives clues to the fate of the Juggernaught if we assume thats what we see.... the later shot of the internals looks like the Juggernaught.  The shape is more the C shape of a Juggernaught than the U of the Derelict but it looks more like the Juggernaught in the Prometheus Trailers and not movie.

If the Juggernaught delivered death to the Engineers, we have to ask why and how did it crash... as the AC Trailer shows the ship did not land, not as far as a smooth landing goes.

Why would David set it down in a Forrest unless forced to do so?

This is a big question... this is no straight forwards landing, that the ship surely can make as it can make a vertical smooth take off.

Why couldn't David manipulate/control his dismembered body to cause harm to Shaw while in flight/hyper-sleep and thus the crash landing? I mean he is a robot after all, still able to talk while decapitated.

You have nothing to compare this characters size to... this could easily be an engineer.  

David was doing everything in Prometheus because Peter told him to... simple as that. That said... I don't believe he is accurately described as maniacal in the final cut of Prometheus. In Jon Spaihts script,  David was a major douche canoe...Read it....its great! 

Anyhow... I'm gonna continue  to believe this is an engineer until I see otherwise.  Either way I cannot wait to see this movie!