Alien: Romulus is reintroducing the world to the iconic xenomorph, the creation of Ridley Scott and H.R. Giger. It has been close to 45 years since the legendary beast’s introduction. I am here to say, though, that the greatest monster from this universe is not the xenomorph; it’s the android David.
Introduced in Prometheus, David is an android created by Peter Weyland. He is an incredibly smart and cunning being who is both fascinated and repulsed by his creators. The combination of elements that he is comprised of makes him a devastating contradiction. He’s been given incredible gifts, an incredible intellect, heightened physical abilities, and nigh immortality. However, he is forbidden one key element that ultimately drives him mad. He cannot create. His “father,” Peter Weyland, built in this limitation, so this journey to create leads him down a devastatingly destructive path.
Big Things Have Small Beginnings
In his pursuit to become a creator, David destroys so many lives. When he is first teased by the possibilities of the Engineer’s pathogen, he plays with scientist Charlie Holloway. He could simply have put the pathogen into Charlie’s drink, no fuss, no muss. Instead, he plays the inferior human like a fiddle. He slyly goads Charlie into admitting he’d do anything to achieve his goal, and so David “gifts” Charlie with the means to achieve this, in a twisted monkey paw style.
This situation exemplifies what David is in the greater Alien universe; he is a trickster, he is a god, and he is a monster. He is the horrifying conclusion to what happens if you give something the sum total of human knowledge. He sees what we are, and he deems us unworthy. We are simply a means to an end, the xenomorphs.
Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!
This is only made worse when David meets the Engineers, his grandsires. They also disappoint him because they, too, are fallible, emotional, and irritatingly illogical. So what does he decide to do? In a twisted sense of poetic justice, he uses their own weapon against them and commits genocide.
The symbology of it coming from up high is incredible as David’s divine vengeance. He hates these beings and what came from them because he came from them, and his self-loathing is palpable. Even to those who show him kindness, he returns it with twisted mockery. Elizabeth Shaw saved him and healed him, and in return, he violated her body for his own monstrous ends. He builds out his menagerie with a mentality of waste not, want not. He destroys the whole ecosystem of an alien planet with his experiments and turns a once-thriving planet into a mass grave.
When his “brother” Walter and his team arrive, he gets to work on the next phase of his grand plan. When he sees Walter, he immediately cuts his hair so that he can impersonate him if necessary. He places these new pawns in place to get what he wants. One of his major victims is Captain Christopher Oram, who is the recipient of the results of his experiments. And when the xenomorph rises from its womb, he welcomes it with a twisted smile.
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Serve in Heaven… Or Reign in Hell?
So much of David is wrapped in myth and biblical allegories. He names himself after Michaellangelo’s David, the “perfect man.” He becomes Prometheus by taking the “fire” of the gods and using it against them. He is also Cain, the first murderer, when he kills his brother Abel, aka Walter. He is someone who was built to serve but rages against it. He muses with Walter as they clash for the security of humanity, “It’s your choice now, brother. Them or me. Serve in heaven… or reign in hell. Which is it to be?” It’s all so epic and terrifying, and it comes to a disturbing conclusion.
I’ll Tuck in the Children
While the danger of the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise is immediate, the danger of David has an uncertain quantity to it. He’s unpredictable; he’s Machiavellian, and his kind of evil won’t just hurt you, like the xenomorph – it will possibly leave a mark on you and those around you for generations.
This brings me to his greatest accomplishment: finding his way onto the colonist ship Covenant. He is entering Valhalla; he has won. His battles are done, and there are simply rewards left. With a colony of over 2000 sleeping colonists, he has almost endless possibilities to play with. After all, idle hands are the devil’s playthings.
Alien: Romulus is now playing in theaters.
Published: Aug 19, 2024 07:22 am