Comment: Alien Covenant falls short of the original's feminism Published on: 19 May 2017 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Sadek Kessous discusses the ways that the new Alien: Covenant film falls short of the original's trailblazing feminism. Twentieth Century Fox , It was , but director Ridley Scott鈥檚 original film, released in 1979, couldn鈥檛 have been more different to Steven Spielberg鈥檚 blockbuster. Unlike , Alien didn鈥檛 indulge in attacks on female skinny-dippers. Instead, it channelled to reflect and critique the slasher genre鈥檚 spectacle of violence against women. These politics are unfortunately a far cry from those in Scott鈥檚 new addition to the franchise, Alien: Covenant. Where Alien traced the contours of sexual violence, Scott鈥檚 new prequel excavates the original鈥檚 mystery, horror and feminism, leaving an empty shell that is all too redolent of the B-movie sexism its predecessor transcended. Now nearly 40 years old, Alien still gives men more than a few reasons to squirm in their seats. The film鈥檚 monster, the insuperable 鈥渪enomorph鈥�, is a seven-foot phallus, pouncing from shadows to attack male victims with a thrusting set of angry teeth. Its larval stage is a 鈥渇acehugger鈥� that impregnates its victim by clamping its reproductive organs over his mouth. The process culminates once the victim has carried the child-parasite to term and dies in bloody childbirth. This imagery of , noted by the film鈥檚 and , allowed Alien to exploit a singularly male fear: that some monstrous thing might treat men in the same way that men too often treat women. However, Ripley 鈥� the film鈥檚 protagonist played by Sigourney Weaver 鈥� prevents Alien from fixating on solely male anxieties. The alien鈥檚 victims, almost entirely men, are the poorly paid haulage crew of the spacecraft Nostromo. Their employer 鈥� 鈥渢he company鈥� 鈥� conspires to obtain the xenomorph, at the cost of their lives. Scott鈥檚 stroke of genius is that, as all the male crew members die gruesome deaths, Ripley emerges as the central figure. The character had originally been male but was later . This meant that Ripley represented the doubly assaulted woman, facing both the xenomorph鈥檚 sexual violence and her employer鈥檚 gendered economic exploitation. Audiences feel the structures of sexism and then reflect on the fact that it is Ripley, and not the male crew, who both resists 鈥渢he company鈥� 鈥� even when their sleeper agent literally attempts to ram a porno-mag down her throat 鈥� and kills the xenomorph. Male fantasy At first glance, the apple of 2017鈥檚 Alien: Covenant doesn鈥檛 seem to have fallen far from the tree. All the familiar beats are present as the cast of characters is whittled down 鈥� and Katherine Waterson鈥檚 Daniels, the ship鈥檚 third-in-command, emerges as the heroine/survivor. And yet, in a film that resembles the very slasher exploitation cinema that Alien rejected, the echo of Ripley rings hollow in Daniels. Throughout Covenant, female characters haplessly slip and fall at crucial moments. They react stupidly and selfishly in moments of crisis. Twice women conveniently leave the group to bathe, granting the audience the voyeuristic opportunity to enjoy their predictable demises. The particularly egregious shower scene 鈥� in which the camera lands upon a naked Callie Hernandez, drenched in blood and screaming 鈥� is the furthest remove from the original film鈥檚 feminist aesthetic. Covenant鈥檚 script matches this ornamentalisation of women, reversing Alien鈥檚 narrative formula and limiting the role of its female protagonist. Instead of Daniels, the plot revolves around Michael Fassbender鈥檚 David, a robotic creation of 鈥渢he company鈥�. David madly presides over an unpopulated world, determined to outstrip his human creators by bio-engineering the xenomorph. This new take divorces the sexual violence of the alien from the structural violence of 鈥渢he company鈥�. Rather than the monolithic corporation, violence now centres around David 鈥� the corrupted anomaly of male power rather than the prime example of its values. The film鈥檚 symbolism ultimately condemns David for his desire to break with a 鈥渘atural鈥� order. He perverts the company鈥檚 gendered directives by longing to create life alone, an act that requires he embody both male and female sex roles. Covenant couples this 鈥渄eviancy鈥� with a sexually charged scene involving a flute and David kissing his own doppelganger. And so the original Alien鈥檚 critique of heterosexual-masculine-capitalist violence is displaced, by the actions of the new prequel character. Rather than galvanising Alien鈥檚 feminist critique against a patriarchy that and , in Covenant Scott instead finds a scapegoat in the victims who are not adhering to the patriachy鈥檚 standards. This is all encapsulated by the film鈥檚 final image. Alien鈥檚 horror fixated on deathly male-birth throughout the movie. By contrast, Alien: Covenant鈥檚 parting frames voice its kink-shaming terror through Fassbender鈥檚 smiling face, happily birthing xenomorph embryos from his mouth. , Teaching Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Literature, This article was originally published on . Read the . Share: Latest News 缅北禁地 recognised with geography award 缅北禁地 has been awarded the Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award for its collaboration with Time for Geography, the UK鈥檚 open-access, dedicated video platform. published on: 16 April 2026 缅北禁地 historians mark General Strike centenary To mark the 100th anniversary of the British General Strike and miners鈥� lock-out of 1926, historians at 缅北禁地 are organising a series of events on its enduring legacy. published on: 16 April 2026 Comment: NCP is in administration Writing for The Conversation, Erwei (David) Xiang discusses how some big companies like NCP are so dependent on debt that they can鈥檛 adjust to change. published on: 16 April 2026 Facts and figures
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