Alien: Covenant [4K UHD Blu-ray]

Alien: Covenant Billy Crudup & Danny McBride

In space, no one can hear you scream. After nearly four decades, those words remain synonymous with the sheer, relentless intensity of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece of futuristic horror, Alien. Now, the father of the iconic franchise returns once more to the world he created to explore its darkest corners with ALIEN: COVENANT, a pulse-pounding new adventure that pushes the boundaries of R-rated terror.

Set ten years after the events depicted in Scott’s 2012 hit Prometheus, ALIEN: COVENANT returns to the roots of the director’s groundbreaking saga with a uniquely terrifying tale filled with white-knuckle adventure and monstrous new creatures. With this, the sixth installment in the blockbuster series, the visionary director edges ever closer toward revealing the mysterious origins of the mother of all aliens, the lethal Xenomorph from the original film.

ALIEN: COVENANT stars Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, 12 Years a Slave), Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs, Inherent Vice), Demián Bichir, Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Mission: Impossible III) as second-in-command Christopher Oran and Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Eastbound & Down) as the boisterous pilot, Tennessee. The film is directed by Ridley Scott (The Martian).

Q: What was it like to work with such an iconic filmmaker on his iconic creation?

Crudup: Ridley Scott is an absolute legend. If you make two good movies, you’re going to be one of the great directors, but if you make as many as Ridley, you’re a complete anomaly. To get to work with someone who has that many creative resources and kicks ass and is relentless with his energy, is a one-of-a-kind experience.

McBride: And to work with a guy like that on a franchise like this, where he created this universe to begin with, is unreal.

Q: What did you find compelling about your characters?

McBride: One of the things that I thought was most interesting about the script was the fact that it was a colonization mission. As soon as you start reading the story and you see that these are couples who are on this trip, it just raises the stakes for everyone. It’s not only about your own survival, but also about the survival of your partner as well. It sets the tone in a pretty interesting way.

Crudup: Ridley did that too in the original Alien movie. He sets up the camaraderie and the group dynamics that end up being the most crucial part of why you care about those characters. So you have the incredible alien and the unbelievable effects and the suspense that he uses in his filmmaking, but what you’re really invested in is these characters and he’s done the same thing in this movie.

Q: The first Alien was very much a horror movie, the second was a war film and this seems to combine the best of both of those elements. Do you agree?

Crudup: I think that it not only combines those elements with what has been an extraordinary advancement in CGI and the ability to create not only practically, where he creates these environments with expert effects people, but also in post-production because what he’s able to do with the creation of these aliens is truly terrifying. Not only does it draw from Alien and Aliens, but also from Prometheus where he starts this idea of creation, what it means to be a creator and how we’ve created the mythology for our own gods. He’s weaving that into it as well, so this movie gets a hold of a lot in a little time.

Q: What were the sets like that you got to work on?

Crudup: Well it smelled horrible in the Egg Room, that’s what I remember most. I don’t know if it was the plastics that they were using or the smoke effects.

McBride: No, I apologize, it was such a long walk to the restroom, and that Egg Room was right next to the main location.

Crudup: That’s not hygienic. That’s what I was so curious about when I looked in the egg, I thought what in the world am I smelling in there?

McBride: I didn’t realize that was an egg, I’m sorry. I just thought the toilets in Australia were different than the toilets here.

Crudup: All of those sets are so meticulously crafted that you are kind of in awe at first when you walk in. It’s like you’re walking through a museum and seeing this incredible installation, so your first reaction is just wow, they did all of this with this ingenuity and this craftsmanship. Then it’s not such hard work when you’re playing the scene, because the environment has been created for you.

McBride: The sets, the production design and even the lighting and how Ridley incorporates the lighting into the sets, because he’s always running with four cameras, it is so crazy to see a set that is so thought out. Not only from an artistic standpoint, but even from a production standpoint, that he can fit four cameras into these sets and every one of the shots looks incredible. You’re finding lighting just from the natural lights that they’ve incorporated into the build.

Crudup: Sometimes it’s hard to move around because they’ve created this complete environment. The floor is meant to be this moving feature as well when you’re in that ship, but I was trained as a dancer so it’s very easy for me to navigate that kind of thing, but it was harder for Danny (laughs).