Blood, gore, moody visuals, and a strong female character.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
a lot
Lots of blood and gore. A man burns to death; his charred body is shown. Aliens burst from characters' chests and backs. Face-hugger aliens. Character is beheaded; severed head shown floating in water. Characters are sick, vomiting, spewing blood. Character's face burned by alien acid. Shooting, explosions. Thousands of dead, blackened bodies. Fighting, kicking, stabbing with nail.
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A couple has sex in shower in a somewhat graphic scene; they're interrupted. One naked breast shown. A woman removes her gear to reveal a tank top and starts to wash herself.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
The film is a sequel to Prometheus and part of the Alien franchise; there are references to previous films.
Diverse Representations
some
The crew is diverse in terms of race, gender, and age. Cole is played by Uli Latufeku, who is of Tongan descent; Ricks (Jussie Smollett) and Carine (Carmen Ejogo) are Black; and Lope (Demián Bichir) is Mexican. Women, like Daniels, are portrayed as skilled and powerful. Interracial and LGBTQ+ couples, including two men who are married, are portrayed in a positive light.
Raises questions about why humans would need to populate a new planet (why couldn't they take care of their old one?) and why David would spend so much time and energy experimenting on the alien.
Positive Role Models
a little
While none of the characters is perfect, Daniels is a strong woman who shows bravery and resourcefulness in the face of great danger. David uses reason and logic to solve problems but doesn't always succeed.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Alien: Covenant is the sequel to Prometheus and the sixth overall movie in the Alien series (or eighth, if you count the Alien vs. Predator movies). It's scary and very violent: There's lots of blood and gore, aliens bursting from body cavities, a beheading, and someone being burned alive (charred remains are shown). Faces are burned with acid, characters vomit and spew blood, and there's fighting, kicking, and stabbing, as well as shooting and explosions. Language is also fairly strong, with multiple uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "t-ts," and more. There's one somewhat graphic sex scene, with partial female nudity (a breast). Characters drink and smoke briefly. As has often been the case in the Alien series, one of the central characters is a strong, brave woman (here played by Katherine Waterston). The crew includes people of diverse ethnic backgrounds (Black, White, Tongan, and Mexican). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
This movie is complete garbage. I have been a fan of the alien series for a while. I wish I hadn’t watched this it’s just disappointing. It doesn’t make sense, the characters are bad, bad language, super unnecessarily violent, it literally had a sex scene which is super inappropriate. It’s a huge let down for the finale movie of the franchise. It’s a miss.
What's the Story?
The story of ALIEN: COVENANT picks up after the events of 2012's Prometheus: A crew of 15 travels with hundreds of hibernating colonists, seeking to build a new life on a remote world. Then a sudden shockwave damages the ship, and android Walter (Michael Fassbender) prematurely wakes the crew (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, etc.) from cryosleep. They discover a nearby planet with habitable conditions and decide to check it out. On the surface, one crew member steps in the wrong place and releases weird spores; before long, he's sick, and an alien pops out of his chest cavity. Other crew members die in quick succession, until they're suddenly rescued by David (Fassbender again), the android from Prometheus, who's been stranded on this planet for years. David knows all about the murderous creatures, but can they be stopped?
While the story offers little new -- it seems patched together from Alien,Prometheus, and even Blade Runner -- director Ridley Scott's moody, thoughtful style makes this sequel worth seeing. Alien: Covenant, which is -- counting the two Alien vs. Predator movies -- the eighth in the Alien franchise, starts quite similarly to the original 1979 film. It has an unexpected wake-up call, an investigation, and the discovery of the horrid monster.
But even as Covenant moves into territory already covered by Scott's other sci-fi movies, it proves that Scott knows what he's doing. He creates powerful, striking imagery right out of myth, from a doomed necropolis filled with blackened, statue-like bodies to David's years-old laboratory cave, filled with creepy specimens and papers flapping quietly in the chilling draft. And the slightly faster, noisier way that Scott handles the alien attacks -- they're not as spooky as they were in the original -- is easily forgiven after scenes between David and Walter arguing over the meaning of existence.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Alien: Covenant's violence. Did any of it feel unnecessary or over the top to you, or is it appropriate for the genre or story? How did it affect you? What's the impact of media violence on kids?
Is Daniels a role model? Why, or why not? Does she represent any valuable character strengths? How does she compare to the other female characters of the Alien franchise?
What's the appeal of the Alien movies? How does this one compare to others in the series?
If you arrived on a new planet, how would you interact with the local inhabitants and animal/plant species?
MPAA explanation:
sci-fi violence, bloody images, language and some sexuality/nudity
Last updated:
August 11, 2024
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
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