When you have tough questions that need answering fast, sometimes it's a good idea to go to Mother for the answers. Though in the case of Katherine Waterson's Daniels, her source of information spells that name a little differently, as she consults the ship's computer Muthur for a variety of requests in this new Alien: Covenant clip. Of course, as things tend to do in this series, the scenario dives into harsh and desperate times quite fast...
In the space of a minute, Alien: Covenant's Daniels goes from asking simple innocuous questions involving oatmeal, poker hands, and travel times to requesting bigger pieces of information. You know, like if there's any ammunition on the ship, or where the painkillers happen to be. But perhaps the scariest request of all is the one that closes the video:
Where is this goddamned thing?
Helpful as always, Muthur lets Daniels know that danger's about to drop in from above for a kind of expected visit. The best part about this clip, is the two callbacks it includes from classic Alien films. For starters, Muthur was the ship computer from Alien, so it looks like Alien: Covenant will establish the computer system as a sort of default operating system for all Weyland-Yutani owned spacecraft. When you think about the long view of the series' history with technology, particularly Ash from Alien and David from Prometheus, you can start to see why this would be bad news for us humans.
But the other really cool reference to the legacy of terror the Alien series has provided is that of Daniels trying to track the Xenomorph, only to learn that it's right above her. Folks who prefer Aliens over any other entry in the series will know that this is similar to the moment where Ripley and the Colonial Marines were tracking their respective bugs with personal radar screens, only to learn that they were right on top of them. It's an interesting reference for director Ridley Scott to make, considering that was director James Cameron's doing, but it's still something that helps Alien: Covenant feel all that more close to home.
Callbacks aside, one thing is certain: Alien Covenant is going to be harsh and unforgiving on the crew of its titular ship, and Katherine Waterson's Daniels looks like she's going to be put through the ringer. Let's just hope us fans aren't in a similar situation, when the film opens on May 19th.
