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Crew of the Covenant
Captain
Branson
Captain Jacob "Jake" Branson
Portrayed By: James Franco Other Languages
The captain of the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- The Captain: Of the Covenant.
- Dead Star Walking: From interviews to press releases, it's been made clear by everyone that Branson does not survive very long into the film.
- Death by Cameo: Branson is the first to die when the Covenant is waylaid by the neutrino burst, burning to death inside his own cryosleep pod.
- A Father to His Men: Implied by the crew's devastated reactions to his death.
- Foreshadowing: In the Last Supper prologue clip, he retires to his cryopod early, claiming that he's "burning up" (has a fever). When the film begins proper, he ends up burning anyway when the neutrino burst hits the ship and his pod malfunctions.
- Kill It with Fire: His pod malfunctions and he burns alive in his sleep.
- Plot-Triggering Death: His death sets the events of the film in motion.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies without saying a word (not counting the prologue clip and a video Daniels watches of him after his death).
Oram
Captain Christopher "Chris" Oram (former First Mate)
Portrayed By: Billy Crudup Other Languages
The executive officer aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: He believes that the Company believes this, which is why he was not selected to captain the Covenant. He also believes the crew believes it, which is why they don't respect his leadership and decisions. But the only person who brings up his faith is himself, leading to the conclusion that he was passed over because of general incompetence, not because of anything related to his faith. And while he is genuinely and generally incompetent, that's more inherent in his character and not because of his religion.
- Blood from the Mouth: As is typical of chestburster victims.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A given considering his death is by a Chestburster — an unusual one at that, as this Chestburster is almost fully developed, having arms and legs already.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He tells David that he "saw the devil at a very young age."
- Establishing Character Moment: On becoming captain, Oram immediately expresses his concern that the crew and the Company don't think he's up to the job because of his religious beliefs. The Company's view is unknown, but while the crew clearly don't think much of his command ability, they never express any anti-religious prejudice towards Oram, implying that his concerns are more due to a lack of confidence.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: Oram has the distinction of being the first 'mother' of the Alien species. Or at least of the ones featured in the film, since it is still ambiguous whether these Xenomorphs are the precursors, or just a version David created by copying what the space jockeys already did.
- Field Promotion: He becomes captain after Branson's death.
- Grew a Spine: He finally nuts up and blows a Neomorph to all high hell while it's distracted with David. Too bad he decides to trust a subsequently pissed off David and gets himself facehugged in the process, triggering a series of events that dooms 2000+ people.
- Idiot Ball: Seconds after discovering David has affection for the Neomorphs, Oram decides that following him into an unknown area alone without telling any of his crew members is a good idea. He also feels David is 100% trustworthy when he says the Xenomorph eggs are safe. A deleted scene and the novelization reveal that David drugged him with a narcotic ointment.
- The Lancer: Presumably was this to Branson before the latter's death.
- My God, What Have I Done?: His decision to redirect the mission results in a variety of messy, violent deaths, including his own wife. He feels very responsible.
- Mythology Gag: Ridley Scott acknowledged that Oram looking into the Ovomorph was a stupid thing to do, but that it was a nod to what Kane did in the first movie.
- Nice Guy: Oram has a good heart, though it leads to him not being very well-equipped for a job that requires a tough and pragmatic mindset.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: See My God, What Have I Done?.
- Real Men Love Jesus: He's shown to be a religious man. Unfortunately he lives in a time when people with religious faith are regarded with suspicion. This doesn't help his confidence.
- Token Religious Teammate: He is a man of faith and he thinks that the colonization mission is guided by divine destiny. He also claims to have "met the devil" as a child. The other members of the crew do not mention their respective religious beliefs.
- Too Dumb to Live: He kills a Neomorph while David is bonding with it. David is obviously pissed about this. Oram follows David into a dark room and sticks his face over an Ovomorph because David tells him to. Three guesses what happens next.
- You Are in Command Now: When Branson dies, Oram becomes the acting captain — a role he's clearly not prepared for, though he tries his best.
Pilots
Tennessee
Tennessee
Portrayed By: Danny McBride
The chief pilot of the Covenant. Married to Faris.
- And I Must Scream: He's at the mercy of David by the end of the movie, though unlike Daniels he's fortunately asleep and is unaware of his situation.
- Always Save the Girl: Puts the colony ship at risk to save his wife, not knowing she's already dead.
- Good Ol' Boy: Cowboy Hat? Check. Southern Fried Accent? Check. Loves Country Music? Double Check. Chivalrous Gentleman with old-fashioned values? Triple Check. The tie-in book The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant even describes him as such.
- Nice Guy: One of the most brave and virtuous crew members.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He decides to fly in and save his crew despite warnings that the storm could do damage to the ship.
- Southern-Fried Genius: A cowboy who is educated enough in mathematics and (astro) physics to be the chief pilot of an interstellar spaceship? You're darned tootin' straight this southern-boy's a genius.
- Space Cowboy: Alien: Covenant is partially a Space Western in the sense its about pioneering settlers setting out to explore new frontiers; Tennesee takes this genre-tribut literally right down to his southern-drawl, love of country music and ever-present cowboy hat. He would not be out of place at all in an episode of Cowboy Bebop.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Faris.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The "Last Supper" prologue shows that he has a playful, snarky relationship with most of his crewmates but still cares deeply about them.
Faris
Faris
Portrayed By: Amy Seimetz Other Languages
Another pilot aboard the Covenant. Married to Tennessee.
- Asshole Victim: A non-villainous version. More or less, you'd probably feel a lot more sorry for Tennessee than Farris since it's his wife, but considering that she locks Karine in the medbay with the Neomorph, which directly leads to her death, and unintentionally blows up the shuttle due to her cowardice and stupidity, which indirectly leads to dooming the entire crew and more deaths later on as the film progresses.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Being burned to death in a gas explosion is not a pretty way to go.
- Dirty Coward: Locks Karine in the medbay with the Neomorph despite more than enough time to get her out, while weakly claiming that she doesn't want to risk spreading any infection. This ensures Karine's death as she is attacked by the Neomorph that emerged out of Ledward's back.
- Freak Out: She completely loses it when something starts poking out of Ledward's back. This is regarded as O.O.C. Is Serious Business by Tennesse, and quite rightly.
- Lethal Klutz: Let's see: slipping over on your friend's blood trying to run away from a newborn Alien, crushing your left ankle because you deployed the infirmary's emergency slam-lock BEFORE pulling your foot through the door, trying to shoot a lightning-fast Alien Baby in a room full of exposed blasting explosives when you can't even shoot fish in a barrel. How did someone as clumsy as you become a freaking starship-pilot in the first place, lady?
- Hypocrite: Faris locks Karine in with Ledward, who is about to give birth to a Neomorph, out of fear of a potential infection spreading across the area. She also conveniently ignores that Ledward's blood made contact withher own face first, making her the most liable to spread any potential infection around, and yet she quickly leaves the room to lock a relatively clean Karine inside.
- Too Dumb to Live: Trying to shoot a lightning fast baby Alien in a hangar filled with munition lockers clearly labeled "DANGER: EXPLOSIVE" with a SHOTGUN is already a lethally stupid idea; made suicidally stupid if you can't even hit the broad side of a barn like this poor lady.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Tennessee.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: None of the whole issue would've happen, if she hadn't unintentionally blown up the shuttle, had she gotten out of there for safety and found some way wait for the crew in time, they would've helped dealt with the situation at hand rather then take one of the most idiotic route. See Too Dumb to Live above.
Security Team
Lope
Sergeant Lope
Portrayed By: Demián Bichir
Head of the security unit aboard the Covenant. Married to Hallett.
- Battle Couple: With Hallett.
- The Big Guy: As the leader of the security unit, he's the big guy among big guys.
- Cigar Chomper: He can be seen smoking a big cigar several times throughout the film.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Most unusual given that the face-hugger is only on his face for a few seconds before being pulled off. He is not unconscious either, so it "seems" that the process didn't even begin but it did...somehow.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: He ends up becoming host to the Xenomorph that attacks the Covenant. The circumstances of his infection however, has caused criticism amongst fans, see Headscratchers for details.
- Facial Horror: Gets a hole burned in his face by acid blood.
- Killed Offscreen: He's already died due to a chestburster by the time Daniels gets to him.
- Straight Gay: He's openly homosexual and married to a Hallet, while also lacking any stereotypically "gay" mannerisms. This presence of a homosexual character in the Alien franchise actually harks all the way back to the first film, when Ridley Scott entertained the idea that same-sex relationships would no longer face any prejudice or stigma in an advanced future.
- Surrounded by Idiots: The incompetence of his security team is revealed in a tie-in novel to be entirely the result of his design by avoiding the best and brightest candidates, to avoid having competition for the job of Planetary Head of Security when the colony is established.
Hallett
Sergeant Hallett
Portrayed By: Nathaniel Dean
Part of the security team aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant. Married to Sergeant Lope.
- Battle Couple: With Lope.
- Body Horror: Ends up getting his neck torn open as the Neomorph rips its way out his body.
- Blood from the Mouth: He vomits copious amounts of blood right as he gives birth to the Neomorph
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets infected with a Neomorph pathogen and dies when it bursts out of his neck.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: He toys around a bunch of egg sacs, which eventually leads to his death via Neomorph birth.
- Failed a Spot Check: Fails to notice the Neomorph pathogen in the air.
Rosenthal
Rosenthal
Portrayed By: Tess Haubrich
Part of the security team aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- Action Girl: She's a member of the security team.
- Asshole Victim: Considering she's cheating on her partner, even though he's in cryosleep, she kinda falls into this when she dies.
- Informed Judaism: As evidenced by the Star of David she wears, and arguably by the last name Rosenthal. May also be a Bad Ass Israeli.
- He's Dead, Jim: She tells Sergeant Lope that Hallett is dead after he gave birth to a Neomorph.
- Mauve Shirt: Gets the most screentime out of the minor characters until her death halfway through.
- Never Split the Party: Goes off alone to clean herself up and suffers the inevitable fate of the genre blind.
- Off with His Head!: Her head is ripped off by the Neomorph and left floating in a pool of water.
Ledward
Ledward
Portrayed By: Benjamin Rigby
Part of the security team aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- Body Horror: The Neomorph graphically rips its way out of Ledward's back, leaving his spine hanging out of the gaping wound that results.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The gestation and eventual eruption of the Neomorph Bloodburster from his back is arguably the most intense sequence in the entire film, and almost certainly the goriest in the entire series. It's no wonder that Faris freaked out.
- The Danza: The novelization gives him the same first name as his actor: Ben.
- Failed a Spot Check: Fails to notice the Neomorph pathogen in the air.
- Genre Blind: Going off on your own to smoke is a bad idea in any horror movie. Naturally, it leads to his infection and later death.
- Mauve Shirt: He doesn't make it past the first act.
- My Nayme Is: Edward with an L at the start.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The first casualty of the Neomorphs.
- Torso with a View: Again, the hole in his back.
Cole
Cole
Portrayed By: Uli Latukefu
Part of the security team aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- Death by Looking Up: He looks up in time for Oram's Xenomorph to jump down and maul him to death, giving him the dubious honor of being the first person killed by a full-grown Xenomorph.
- Mauve Shirt: Lasts a little longer than his compatriots but ends up being the first victim of the Xenomorph.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His decision to save Lope from the facehugger gets him killed by a Xenomorph.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Even Worse, he ends up saving Lope's life, who was revealed to having a Xenomorph gestating inside of him. This specimen ends up killing Ricks and Upworth, besides Lope himself
Ankor
Ankor
Portrayed By: Alexander England
Part of the security team aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A Neomorph tears his throat and lower jaw right off in a single strike.
- Facial Horror: His aforementioned death features the lower half of his face getting sliced off by a Neomorph.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Played with. He dies instantly from a wound that, while admittedly horrifying and traumatic, would hardly be a fatal blow by itself in real life; he would only believably die from it by bleeding out if left completely untreated, and it would take a relatively long time. This was fixed in the novelization of the film, where he gets instead the top of his skull pierced, a much more credible and realistic fast death.
- Red Shirt: Gets zero characterization before being killed.
Other Crewmembers
Daniels
Daniels
Portrayed By: Katherine Waterston Other Languages
A terraforming expert aboard the Covenant who is married to the ship's original captain, Jacob Branson.
- Action Girl: She continues the trend set by Ripley and Shaw from the previous films. She's also the first character in the entire Alien franchise to kill a Xenomorph.
- Action Survivor: Daniels is a terraforming expert, not a soldier. She does pretty well with a gun, though.
- And I Must Scream: In the few seconds before being put into stasis, she realizes that David has replaced Walter. She screams in rage and terror, realizing that he'll be continuing his brutal experiments on the approximate two thousand colonists aboard the Covenant.
- The Bait: She uses herself as bait for the alien in the final confrontation of the film.
- Boyish Short Hair: Her hair is cut shorter then Ripley's was in Aliens...just not as short as in Alien³.
- Fate Worse than Death: The short Advent strongly indicates that David intends to use her to create the first Xenomorph Queen.
- Nice Girl: In general Daniels is a very pleasant person.
- Number Two: Once Oram becomes captain she becomes Number Two. By the end of the movie she's the captain.
- Only Sane Man: Daniels is one of the more sensible characters; she's the only person to forcefully argue that diverting from their original course is a drastically bad idea.
- The Protagonist: She's the main character of Covenant.
- Replacement Goldfish: David says he'll give her the same treatment he gave Shaw. In fact, he'll make her his Queen.
- Took a Level in Badass: She went from the ship's terraforming engineer to a Xenomorph-killing badass that Ripley would be proud of.
- Wrench Wench: Her role on the ship isn't made entirely clear in the film, but she spends a good amount of time after the initial disaster running damage control.
- You Are in Command Now: First to Number Two, and then to the captain by the end of the film after Oram dies.
Karine
Karine
Portrayed By: Carmen Ejogo
A crewmember aboard the colonization spacecraft USCSS Covenant.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Viciously mauled to death by a Neomorph.
- Defiant to the End: When the Neomorph that's just burst out of Ledward's back attacks her, she brandishes a knife and kicks it away. Not that it does her much good...
- The Heart: She is the most kindhearted member of the team, making her early death more tragic.
- Nice Girl: She's a very sweet person, even going so far as to comfort Ledward, pretty much a complete stranger, in his final moments despite her total panic.
Ricks
Ricks
Portrayed By: Jussie Smollett
Crew member of the Covenant and Upworth's boyfriend.
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted. He's the second to last to die.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: He and Upworth engage in this once the Covenant has managed to escape. Unfortunately, it leads to them no longer being alive.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Through the mouth!
- Mr. Fanservice: Gets a naked shower sex scene with Upworth which turns to Fan Disservice when the alien appears to kill the two of them.
- Out with a Bang: Becomes the first person along with Upworth to get killed by a Xenomorph during a love scene.
- The Spock: Like Upworth, he's concerned with following procedure even if it means risking his crewmember's lives.
- The Stoic: Doesn't emote much.
- Those Two Guys: Always seen with Upworth.
- Token Minority: He's one of only two African-American crew members.
Upworth
Upworth
Portrayed By: Callie Hernandez
Head of communications aboard the Covenant and girlfriend of Ricks.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: She and Ricks engage in this once the Covenant has managed to escape. Unfortunately, it leads to them no longer being alive.
- Ms. Fanservice: Very attractive and gets a naked love scene in a shower with Ricks. Quickly turns into Fan Disservice when the Xenomorph appears and butchers the both of them.
- Nice Girl: In the Last Supper prologue clip, she thanks Walter for helping her when she was choking during the party.
- The Spock: She disagrees with Tennessee's decision to help the crew, claiming the risk of damage to the ship is too great.
- Those Two Guys: Always seen with Ricks.
- Where da White Women At?: She's a white Latina and in a relationship with Ricks, a black man.
Walter
Walter
Portrayed By: Michael Fassbender
The Covenant's android.
- An Arm and a Leg: Loses a hand while saving Daniels from an alien. David later cuts off his own hand to impersonate him.
- Badass Bookworm: Oddly enough for what is ostensibly created to be loyal servant to humans, Walter is programmed with advanced Martial Arts subroutines that can potentially allow him to slaughter multiple humans singlehandedly if he ever felt inclined to do so.
- Big Damn Heroes: When David is telling Daniels that she will replace Shaw, has her pinned down and forcefully kisses her, Walter shows up in the nick of time to violently throw David into the wall, allowing Daniels to escape.
- The Cavalry: In the prologue, he saves Upworth from choking to death. In the film, he saves Daniels twice.
- Expy: He's essentially the Bishop to David's Ash.
- Foil: To David. The physical similarities are obvious, and they both form a strong connection with their respective films' female lead (Shaw for David, Daniels for Walter). Where they differ is that David resents and sees himself as superior to humans, while Walter is content with his position. David is an arrogant Satanic Archetype while Walter is humble and heroic. David is duplicitous, while Walter is earnest. David embodies A.I. Is a Crapshoot, while Walter handily averts it. Even their interest in the female leads are opposites: David developed a truly creepy crush on Shaw and eventually killed her despite or because of that; Walter takes an interest in Daniels out of duty, protecting her because its his job and trying to comfort her over the loss of her husband because she needs someone to talk to and the rest of the crew have their own tasks to be about.
- Glass Cannon: Like David, he's got superhuman strength and reflexes, but (other than not having to worry about things like pain, shock, blood loss, or organ damage) doesn't seem to be much tougher than a human being, as seen when he tries to fight a Neomorph in hand-to-hand and ends up instantly losing his hand.
- Handicapped Badass: Losing a hand doesn't stop him from handing David his own ass.
- Healing Factor: David is surprised when Walter turns out to be Not Quite Dead after being stabbed in the neck, but the injury is shown immediately repairing itself, an upgrade that David is unaware of. Whether this means he survived David's Kill and Replace is unknown.
- Killed Offscreen: Heavily implied to have been killed by David.
- Ship Tease: When David suggests to Walter that he is in love with Daniels. At the end of the film, as she's going back into cryo-sleep, she asks him if he'll help her realise her husband's dream of building a log cabin. Which quickly leads into horror when 'Walter' has no idea what she's talking about...
- Ridiculously Human Robots: It's an Alien film so this is a given, though he seems to talk in a more monotone fashion than Ash or David. He tells his predecessor David that later models were made less emotional, because David's emotions tended to disturb them.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Walter effectively takes the wind out of David's sails when he points out that Percy Bysshe Shelly, not Lord Byron (as David believed) wrote "Ozymandias", shutting down David's megalomaniacal ranting by showing that he isn't as perfect as he likes to think.
- Taking the Bullet: He intercepts a Neomorph in mid-pounce just before it's about to land on Daniels and eat her face. He then tries to punch it, and gets his hand bitten off for his trouble.
- Theme Naming: Subverted for once in the series. You would expect that the next android after Ash, Bishop, Call, and David would be an E related name, then we meet... Walter.
- Three Laws-Compliant: Averted. Even though unlike David he is loyal to humanity, he is still programmed with high-level expertise of Martial Arts skills that can easily kill multiple human opponents, and he puts these skills to spectacular use in his battle against David. However, he's never shown harming humans or disobeying their orders, and making every effort to protect them from harm, indicating that he is at least somewhat compliant. . .
- Uncertain Doom: Last seen in combat with David, who later departs. Walter's fate is unknown, especially since he had previously demonstrated a Healing Factor.
- Undying Loyalty: He's described as being loyal to the crew of the ship.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: His ultimate whereabouts after the fight with David is unknown, as the latter pretended to be him and left the planet with Daniels, Tennessee and the rest of the colonists.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: David suggests that he is in love with Daniels, after he sacrificed his hand to save her. He denies it, saying it was only his duty. As Walter's model is programmed to be less emotional, he may genuinely be Oblivious to Love on his own part.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: While David has a posh upper-class English accent, to match Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, Walter's voice is lower, gruffer, and... kind of Midwestern American? He's supposed to be less emotional and more monotone, so possibly this is intentional.
Other Characters
Elizabeth
Dr. Elizabeth 'Ellie' M. Shaw
See her entry on the Prometheus page.
David
David 8
See his entry on the Prometheus page.
Neomorphs
Neomorphs
Portrayed By: Andrew Crawford & Goran D. Kleut
An endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species encountered by the crew of the USCSS Covenant, the result of the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen being unleashed on the Engineer homeworld. While it shares some characteristics with the Xenomorph XX121, most notably its process of gestating inside a living host organism and its elongated head, it is otherwise quite different.
- Alien Blood: Their blood is yellow.
- Ax-Crazy: Deliberately moreso than the Xenomorphs. They are even explained to be more animal-like in behavior, with the same hyper-aggression that the original creature had, but absolutely none of the subtlety or cleverness.
- The Berserker: The Neomorphs, unlike their Xenomorph cousins, are little more than wild animals that savagely attack any biological organism in sight. Shortly after being born, the Neomorph born from Ledward tears into Karine and soon after attacks Faris with equal ferocity. In Advent, David notes that Neomorphs spawned from humans are specially aggressive and savage.
- Body Horror: Its lighter skin and lack of an exoskeleton make the Neomorph far more visually off-putting than its Xenomorph counterpart, looking quite similar to a tall, severely emaciated human. Its face and jaws are also more outright gross, with its closed mouth being based of a human sphincter, with their extended jaws looking more like they burst through their faces than simply being stored inside their mouth.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: They reproduce through fungus-like egg sacs, which dispense their genetic material through airborne motes, something more akin to plants than anything found on Earth. Then they rapidly gestate within their hosts, being born fully mobile and extremely aggressive, then maturing to adult size within a few hours at most.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: They have barbed stingers on their tails.
- Bioweapon Beast: According to David in the novelization, Neomorphs are a product of the A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen gestating endoparasitic predators inside host species, with their appearance depending on the host that spawned them. The Engineers would carpet-bomb planets with the pathogen to gestate a horde of Neomorphs to consume the native life, wiping the slate clean. David spends years experimenting on hybridizing various Neomorph strains to create the Praetomorph variant of Xenomorphs—in the novelization in an attempt to replicate the Engineer-made XX121, and in the film as an intermediary step between the base Neomorphs and the completed XX121 Xenomorphs.
- The Blank: Unlike the bio-mechanical, more intricate design of their cousin, the adult Neomorphs have such a smooth appearance that, before they open their mouths, it would be hard to tell if they even had a face.
- Chest Burster: Like the Xenomorphs, they gestate inside a host and violently emerge as a "Bloodburster", though in the Neomorphs' case it's not always through the chest.
- Composite Character:
- The pale skin and soft body, coupled with their status as a prototype for the Xenomorph, pegs them as an evolution of the "Beluga Xenomorph" concept from Alien: Engineers.
- To the Newborn from Resurrection, being different evolution that forgoes the typical Dark Is Evil look of the Xenomorph and has a smoother, more humanoid body instead of an exoskeleton, to being even more aggressive to a point that's a bit much compared to a Xenomorph, down to its name meaning being along the lines of 'new form'.
- The Neomorph also takes after elements of the Deacon, another counterpart to the Xenomorph, seen in Prometheus.
- Dead Guy on Display: David's laboratory contains several immature and embryonic Neomorph specimens, the failures of his experiments to create the first Xenomorphs.
- Extreme Omnivore: One of the Neomorphs isn't too picky about chowing down on Walter's arm when he gets in its way.
- Festering Fungus: Their egg sacs resemble fungal growths, and they are spawned through parasitic spores that infect a host.
- Fragile Speedster: Especially when compared to the Xenomorph. The Neomorph is insanely fast and explosive in all its stages, possibly even more than the average Xenomorph, though is much less tough overall in its adult form due to the lack of a chitin armor.
- Half-Human Hybrid: They are parasites that infect and gestate inside a host. The Neomorphs shown in the film are the human variants, but David's sketches show variants spawned from the planet's other species as well.
- It Can Think: Somewhat implied as it approaches and clearly acknowledges David's actions, with no clear intent in harming him before Oram kills it.
- Light Is Not Good: In contrast to the Xenomorphs' black exoskeletons, the Neomorphs have pale skin.
- Lightning Bruiser: The Bloodbusters are frighteningly fast, can take quite a few blasts to the face, and can easily maul a person to death if they aren't careful. However, as they get older, it seems they degrade into more of a Fragile Speedster.
- LEGO Genetics: In the novelization, David states that Neomorphs — and creatures spawned from the A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen in general —are endoparasites that inherit traits and attributes based on their hosts, a process referred to as the DNA Reflex in Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report. This process is detailed further in the Advent short film; and David's sketches show Neomorphs spawned from non-human species, and his experiments on them to engineer the first Xenomorphs.
- Living Weapon: They are spawned from the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen, which was created by the Engineers with the intent of eradicating all undesirable non-botanical lifeforms.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: When fully mature, they have large mouths that they can extrude - similarly to a goblin shark - lined with razor-sharp fangs.
- Nested Mouths: A series staple that applies here too. The Neomorphs' outer mouth is a puckered anus-like hole, and they have extendable jaws like those of a goblin shark, similar to the Deacon from the end of Prometheus.
- Primal Stance: In their immature state they mainly move on all fours.
- Psycho Prototype: They are a precursor to the Xenomorphs and are far more animalistic, lacking the cunning of their successor bioweapon.
- Retcon: The explanation that David gives of how the pathogen functions indicates that the Hammerpedes and Trilobite/Deacon from Prometheus were Neomorph variants. This also applies to the Xenomorphs, which were engineered by hybridizing different Neomorph strains.
- Spikes of Villainy: Neomorphs have pointed head-crests and large dorsal spikes that they use to rip out of their hosts.
- Starfish Alien: Rather than eggs, they spawn from spores released by pods formed from the A0-3959X.91 – 15 mutagen, gestate inside a host, and grow into pale-skinned monsters with a striking resemblance to Xenomorphs.
- To Serve Man: They are voracious predators, and even as infants will attempt to devour whatever nearby organisms attract their attention. Immediately after being born, the Neomorph spawned from Ledward started chowing down on Karine while she was still alive, immediately went after Faris, and later ate Walter's arm trying to get at Daniels; the Neomorph spawned from Hallett bit Rosenthal's head off and was discovered feeding on her corpse.
- Super Prototype: Zig-zagged, but ultimately subverted. As a precursor to the Xenomorph, the Neomorph actually features some unique advantages over it, namely a stealthier impregnation/incubation process and a larval stage that is insanely strong and agile in contrast to the defenseless Chestbursters, as well as possibly a superior athleticism in its adult stage. However, the Neomorph is less intelligent, its blood is not acidic and its flesh is softer and lacks an exoskeleton, those being critical traits that make it considerably more fragile and easier to kill than the Xenomorph, not to mention that its incubation loses its stealth factor as their hosts health rapidly declines, making it clear that something's wrong, meaning a much higher risk of the host being quarantined, and both the host and the infant Neomorph being terminated.
- The Virus: They are spawned from the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen via the "DNA Reflex" process, wherein the pathogen infects the host's cells and gestates a tumor that grows into a Neomorph that inherits traits from its host. In the Advent short film it's shown that mixing tissues from multiple species with the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 will result in a Neomorph with combined traits from those species, which is ultimately how David created his Xenomorphs.
- Wall Crawl: They can cling to surfaces with their hands and feet, enabling them to easily climb vertical surfaces.
- We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: The surviving adult is on the receiving end of this from Oram whilst David tries to comfort it, which enrages David.David: It trusted me!
Xenomorphs (Covenant)
Xenomorphs (Covenant)/Praetomorphs
Portrayed By: Javier Botet
An endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species created by David 8's experiments using the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen. In the novelization and early versions of the script, they are David's attempt to replicate the Engineer-made Xenomorph XX121; while in the final version of the film, David created them through hybridizing Neomorphs and they are the precursors of the classic Xenomorphs. They are similar in appearance to the "Big Chap" Xenomorph specimen, but with some remarkable differences — namely, they are completely organic and lack biomechanical features.
Alien: The Roleplaying Game called this variant the "Praetomorph" after the fan-name "Protomorph" and established it as the immature form of the "Stalker" caste, in much the same way as the Drone caste is the immature form of the Warrior caste.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In a weird way, this trope applies as this Xenomorph deviates extremely from the sexually-influenced biomechanical aesthetic the creatures are known for. Overall it looks cleaned up, as its more organic look gives it a more clearly-defined, athletic appearance. Which makes sense, since it's derived from the Neomorph, which is decidedly more organic itself.
- Adaptational Badass: Their growth is multitudes faster than regular Aliens, they are born with functional limbs and are faster, stronger and tougher than the original Xenomorphs.
- Adaptational Wimp: That said, they are a lot less intelligent and are both worse at stealth and easier to trick into a trap.
- Adaptation Deviation: In the novelization, based on an early draft of the script, this variant of Xenomorph was created by David in an effort to replicate the Engineers' own, and had a biomechanical exoskeleton. Ridley Scott stated that originally this was going to be the case in the films, but late into production he revised things so that David was the sole creator and had the biomechanical features deliberately removed.
- Adaptational Dumbass: While smarter than the Neomorphs, they seem to somewhat lack the subtlety of their more famous brethren are known for, attacking it's prey like a blunt instrument.
- Ax-Crazy: Less so than the Neomorphs but still highly aggressive, willing to slam its own skull into reinforced glass to reach its targets.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: They have sharp stingers on their tails, similar to the Big Chap from the original Alien.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: They were created by hybridizing different Neomorph strains, particularly one spawned from a parasitic wasp-like insect. The novel goes into more detail regarding this process, but is of dubious canonicity due to several significant differences.
- Bioweapon Beast: The "Praetomorph" variant of Xenomorphs were created by David-8 through the hybridization of different Neomorph specimens, and were intended by Ridley Scott to represent an intermediary stage between the Neomorphs and the biomechanical Xenomorphs from the rest of the series. In the Advent short film, David declares his intent to perfect his "wolves" using the crew and colonists of the Covenant, and use Daniels in particular to create the first Xenomorph Queen.
- Body Horror: Lacking the exoskeleton of traditional Xenos, their bodies are more akin to a severely emaciated, or even skinless human body, being more flat-out disgusting than their brethren.
- Chest Burster: Of course, though this version is — like the Neomorph Bloodburster — born looking a lot closer to adult Xenomorphs, with fully formed limbs and a larger size.
- Duplicate Divergence: While initially intended to be the traditional Xenomorphs with David as their creator, they were later renamed to "Praetomorphs", explained to be David's attempt to reverse-engineer the famous monsters using specimens and data he found on Planet 4. In later works, the differences between the two species is more pronounced, with Praetomorphs being much quicker to develop, but also much less intelligent. Praetomorphs also don't have the ability to reproduce on their own like Xenomorphs because David didn't get to make a proper Queen, and only had a small amount of eggs at his disposal. Newer material also imply that Xenomorphs and Praetomorphs respond violently to one another.
- Dead Guy on Display: In the novelization, David has several dead Xenomorphs of his own creation mounted on display, as well as a dead Engineer-created Ovomorph and Facehugger.
- Effective Knockoff: Alien: The Roleplaying Game disregards Ridley Scott's statement that the Planet-4 Xenomorphs are the precursor of the Xenomorphs from the main series and that the Xenomorphs were created by David, going with what is stated in the novelization and early drafts of the script — that the Engineers created the Xenomorphs and that David created the "Praetomorphs" attempting to replicate their work.
- Evil Is Bigger: This version comes from a bigger egg, the facehugger is bigger and the chestburster is born larger and with functional limbs.
- Eviler than Thou: Given its behavior in purposefully attacking the camera that "Walter" was using to track it, it's clear that unlike the Neomorph, the Xenomorph (or at least the Lope-spawned one) doesn't care or is the least bit interested in David or his plans and would probably have attempted to kill him all the same had he been present.
- Healing Factor: In the commentary of Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott reveals the Xenomorphs — or at least this variant of them — can regrow limbs and regenerate, making them virtually indestructible.
- Heinz Hybrid: The Xenomorphs were created through David's experiments on Neomorphs, the local fauna, Engineers, and humans using the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Xenomorph spawned from Lope was impaled on a terraforming machine's prongs. It was still alive and trying to free itself, but the machine was dropped into Planet 4's upper atmosphere.
- It Can Think: The Xenomorph specimen spawned from Lope deliberately attacks the camera that "Walter" is using to track it.
- Lightning Bruiser: As always with the Xenomorphs. And, unlike the Neomorph, they can easily shrug off gunfire as an adult and, as a result, requires more creative ways to kill them.
- Living Weapon: The Xenomorph was artificially created to be the Ultimate Life Form and bring about humanity's extinction.
- Made of Iron: It ignores being briefly set on fire by the blast from the ship's engines, and while bullets do make it bleed, multiple glancing limb shots don't seem to seriously harm it at all and it moves way too fast for Daniels to get good sustained fire on its center mass.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The Chestburster's mouth is lined with sharp fangs, but in its adult form the teeth look more humanoid.
- Nested Mouths: Unlike the Neomorphs, they possess the iconic inner jaw, which can be used to headbite prey.
- Psycho Prototype: They represent an intermediary step between the Neomorphs and the mainline Xenomorphs, and are decidedly more savage than the latter, though less so than the Neomorphs. In the novel, they are David's attempt to replicate an Engineer-created Facehugger specimen he discovered.
- According to the role-playing game, they are considered this by the Xenomorphs themselves, with any interaction between a Praetomorph and a traditional Xenomorph resulting in a vicious frenzy.
- Sculpted Physique: Is a lot less biomechanical than the classical Xenomorphs, with practically no Gigeresque features, though it instead appears to have black metal muscles.
- Spikes of Villainy: Comes with the territory. This Xenomorph, like its successors, has tube-like spikes protruding from its back, although it lacks the bladed tail of the version from Aliens.
- Starfish Alien: They are the result of David splicing tissue samples harvested from different Neomorph variants, deceased Engineers, and a human using the Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen.
- Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: In the novelization — based on an early version of the script — the Xenomorph is attacked by the Neomorph spawned from Hallett. The armored Xenomorph shreds the unarmored Neomorph after a brief fight.
- According to Alien: The Roleplaying Game, this would happen should they ever come face to face with a normal Xenomorph, with any interaction likely to result in a vicious battle to the death.
- The Virus: Like the Neomorphs, they are spawned from the A0-3959X.91 – 15 pathogen via the "DNA Reflex" process, wherein the pathogen infects the host's cells and gestates a tumor that grows into a Xenomorph that inherits traits from its host.
- Wall Crawl: Like Neomorphs, they can cling to surfaces with their hands and feet, using this to greatly boost their maneuverability.
