Blank Check — Patreon: Alien: Covenant

Published 2020-12-21; 2:20:13 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Alien: Covenant”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: Ben Hosley.

Subject films: Alien: Covenant (2017).

On the transcript: Commentary track with no speaker labels and heavy overlapping chatter; speaker attribution is mostly low-confidence. Ben mostly reacts as a first-time viewer; timestamps follow the film's runtime only loosely because of tangents.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Griffin Newman played Arthur in The Tick, inferred from the speaker's account of his own scene.
Moves from the transcript's 'Waterson' to Waterston and similar spelling fixes use my knowledge of the real names.

Films that came up

Claims (90)

industry (industry): Disney → Alien franchise. Disney bought Fox for streaming content and franchises; Alien and Predator are design-based, not actor-based.
“They are tied to designs.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:03:46 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. The Fox logo is washed out here where Prometheus's was really blue.
“Prometheus is really blue and this is a little more just kind of washed out, I feel like.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:06:23 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. Covenant is half the Prometheus sequel Scott wanted and half a concession to a more normal Alien movie.
“this is half, like Ridley Scott doing the Prometheus sequel he wanted to do and half”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:06:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Guy Pearce → Prometheus. Pearce returns for the cold open without the heavy makeup he wore in Prometheus; Scott repays the favor.
“nice of uh, really Scott to repay the favor”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:07:58 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. Prometheus's marketing left it unclear whether it was an Alien film; Covenant's marketing was the opposite, selling the Alien iconography.
“how much of this is going to be directly an alien franchise film or not”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:08:07 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Damon Lindelof → Alien: Covenant. Lindelof was first going to write it, then went back to TV after audiences were angry at his screenplays.
“Lindeloff was going to write it and then I think would just sort of was like, you know what?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:09:03 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Ridley Scott → Gladiator. Screenwriter John Logan, brought on to Covenant, had worked with Scott on Gladiator.
“And so they bring in John Logan, who worked with Ridley Scott on Gladiator.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:09:18 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Ridley Scott → Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola would rather fail on his own terms; Scott is comfortable as the company man who meets the studio halfway.
“And Ridley Scott is an odd guy because I think he very much is comfortable with just being the company man in certain ways”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:15:26 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Danny McBride → Prometheus. McBride's pilot in Covenant fills the Idris Elba role from Prometheus.
“McBride is kind of in the Idris Elba role, like kind of the accordion playing pilot type.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:15:54 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Danny McBride → Alien. McBride is also a return to Harry Dean Stanton: someone with the wrong energy for a sci-fi movie.
“McBride's also trying to sort of get back to a Harry Dean Stanton, kind of.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:16:07 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): James Franco → Alien: Covenant. The cut online prologue with Franco should have stayed in the film because his death weighs on the lead.
“I remember feeling very strongly, that should have been in the movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:17:08 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien: Covenant → Alien. Alien films usually give a calm before the storm in hypersleep; Covenant throws you straight into trauma.
“rather than ever getting the sort of calm before the storm that you usually get an alien movies”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:17:42 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien: Covenant → Hotel Chevalier. Unlike the Hotel Chevalier prologue, the Covenant online extras did not stand alone as their own experience.
“none of it even felt like hotel chevalier type stuff”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:18:53 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Billy Crudup → 20th Century Women. Crudup is better since embracing the unsettling and the broken, as in 20th Century Women.
“Yeah, or even 20th century woman where he's nice, weird, but, you know, just weird.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:21:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Billy Crudup → Little Miss Sunshine. Crudup and Kinnear are both pretty men with unreal bone structure who got more interesting with age.
“Like, crewed up and Kinnear were both just sort of like dudes with like unreal bone structure”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:22:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Billy Crudup → Almost Famous. Crudup had his moment as the charming lead of Almost Famous.
“I mean, obviously, I think Kritup is charming and like almost famous.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:22:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Billy Crudup → Big Fish. He loved Crudup's Big Fish performance until the podcast rewatch.
“It is so bizarre how thoroughly I loved that performance.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:22:52 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Michael Fassbender → Assassin's Creed. Hooded Fassbender evokes Assassin's Creed; the Animus is the machine he's put in there.
“hood hooded Fastbender right now, major Assassin's Creed energy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:24:09 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Katherine Waterston → Inherent Vice. Her sudden casting heat came from Inherent Vice, an alienating movie, and then two franchises.
“it was all off of inherent vice, which was an unsuccessful alienating movie to audiences”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:25:12 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Katherine Waterston → Steve Jobs. Waterston was in Steve Jobs, another Fassbender collaboration.
“Like, I like her in Steve Jobs, another Fastbender collab.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:27:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Katherine Waterston → Logan Lucky. She has two good scenes in Logan Lucky.
“I like her little part in Logan Lucky.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:27:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Katherine Waterston → Fantastic Beasts (franchise). Fantastic Beasts is a steady paycheck that eats up her time.
“these things take forever to make, the fantastic beast.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:27:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Alien. Each Alien film has a different workforce; the original had blue-collar miners.
“Like that's, you know, blue collar minors.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:29:38 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Aliens. Aliens had Marines.
“Aliens, you got Marines.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:29:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Alien 3. Alien 3 had convicts.
“Alien 3 convicts.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:29:45 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Alien Resurrection. The fourth film had pirates.
“Alien four, I guess.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:29:48 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. Prometheus had pioneering scientists; Covenant has crunchy colonists.
“Prometheus, you know, where we're in, where it's full on like pioneering scientist types.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:29:59 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien: Covenant → Logan Lucky. Four 2017 films used Take Me Home, Country Roads as a plot point.
“I remember this so vividly that it was 4 movies within this year.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:30:44 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien: Covenant → Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Kingsman: The Golden Circle is another 2017 film that uses Country Roads.
“Oh, oh, Kingsman, the Golden Circle.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:30:48 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien: Covenant → Free Fire. Free Fire used a different John Denver song instead.
“Free Fire uses a different John Denver song.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:31:40 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Danny McBride → David Gordon Green. McBride went to film school with David Gordon Green and Jody Hill and acted in all their films.
“He went to film school with David Gordon Green and Jody Hill and all those guys, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:32:32 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Danny McBride → Foot Fist Way. McBride was a failed writer-director until The Foot Fist Way made him a comedy star.
“until Foot Fist Way happened where they were like, would you want to play the lead?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:33:00 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Danny McBride → Halloween (franchise). After this he moved into the Halloween franchise and HBO series to make the genre work he wanted.
“And then after this, he's like, I'm the Halloween guy.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:34:19 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Adam Devine → The Intern. The Intern is full of annoying boys who cancel each other out, and he may be the best of them.
“He is the best performance by a workaholic in that movie and arguably the best of the annoying boys now.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:37:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien: Covenant → The Lord of the Rings. New Zealand locations can't replicate what Peter Jackson did with it in Lord of the Rings, but still look like a newer earth.
“you can never replicate the total stunning magic trick of Peter Jackson, like deploying it in Lord of the Rings”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:38:46 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. The lush wet planet is not the ruined dusty Prometheus world.
“I like that it's not the ruined, dusty Prometheus world”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:39:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Aliens. The shoulder-mounted GoPro cameras are carried over from the Marines in Aliens.
“which the Marines all have in aliens”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:40:52 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Demian Bichir → A Better Life. Bichir got a surprise Best Actor nomination in a Chris Weitz film.
“gets gets a somewhat surprise best actor nomination in our buddy Chris White's movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:41:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Demian Bichir → The Nun. Bichir's last two big movies were back-to-back horror, The Grudge and The Nun.
“But his last 2 big movies, where the grudge and the nun.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:42:11 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Nun → The Conjuring 2. The Conjuring 2 originally had a different monster that was turned into a nun, which then got her own film.
“the Conjuring 2 had an entirely different monster that they shot the movie with”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:43:26 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Noomi Rapace → Prometheus. Rapace was set up as the Ripley of a new franchise before Covenant killed her off.
“it was like numerous pace is now going to be the Ripley of a new franchise”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:46:14 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. If Prometheus had doubled its gross, a direct Prometheus 2 with Rapace would have followed.
“I mean, if Prometheus had made literally double what it made.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:47:44 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Noomi Rapace → Dead Man Down. None of her non-Alien films got sequels, with Dead Man Down riffed on as an example.
“Numi did not get sequels for any of her things, you know?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:48:16 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Amy Seimetz → Lean on Pete. She appeared in Lean on Pete after Covenant.
“Since this, she's done Lean on Pete.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:52:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Amy Seimetz → Pet Sematary (2019). Seimetz elevates anything, even Pet Sematary.
“If Simon shows up in something like pet cemetery, she kind of elevates it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:53:21 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Amy Seimetz → Upstream Color. Her Upstream Color performance is one of the best of the decade.
“that's one of the best performances of that decade”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:53:56 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Amy Seimetz → She Dies Tomorrow. She wrote and directed She Dies Tomorrow, which Griffin has not watched yet.
“I really like she dies tomorrow this year.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:54:03 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien: Covenant → Aliens. Covenant is a haunted house about grief; even Ripley and Newt were more PTSD than grief.
“Even Ripley and Newt were haunted by death.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:57:59 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Neomorph → Alien. The white, goofier neomorph lacks the xenomorph's industrial-design camouflage.
“You're not doing the trick of, oh, it's hiding in the shadows, it's blending in with the industrial design of its environment”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:59:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien: Covenant → The Parent Trap. Same-actor twin roles are usually bad, but Fassbender's work here is good.
“You don't like a parent trap.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:01:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Alien: Covenant → Blade Runner 2049. Both came out in 2017, by two generations of sci-fi.
“This is the same year as Blade Runner 2049.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:04:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Alien: Covenant → Blade Runner 2049. Wishes Scott had made 2049 and let Villeneuve make Covenant.
“I sort of wish that Ridley had done Blade Runner and had let some new blood like Villeneuve do covenant.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:05:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Prometheus → Alien: Covenant. Engineers, aliens, humans and androids all create something that destroys them, a cycle.
“So then it's sort of mirroring what the humans are doing, and then the androids are their creation that are ultimately what destroys them.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:06:04 · Ben Hosley (0.80 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Billy Crudup → Alien: Covenant. Crudup's calm comes from faith, not programming, so he plays an Android-like leader without being one.
“Crudup does kind of have classic alien franchise Android energy, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:07:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): David → Prometheus. In Prometheus David seems to follow Weyland's wishes but ends up doing his own thing.
“by the end, you're like, no, I think he just kind of is, he's kind of trying to do his own thing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:08:50 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien: Covenant → Back to the Future Part II. The double-Fassbender effect is an old trick established by Zemeckis in Back to the Future II.
“once again, shit established by Zameckis and back to the future too.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:09:38 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien: Covenant → Avengers: Age of Ultron. The David and Walter scene resembles Ultron and Vision talking at the end of Age of Ultron.
“much like Ultron and vision at the end of that movie”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:11:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Alien: Covenant → Blade Runner. Franchises like Alien and Blade Runner predict a first generation of androids that does horrid things and gets scaled back.
“very much like in this franchise and Blade Runner”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:12:45 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Michael Fassbender → Watchmen. Fassbender would have been a better Ozymandias than Matthew Goode.
“he would have been a better Ozzie Mandius.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:17:06 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Matthew Goode → Watchmen. Goode is fine generally but a poor fit for Ozymandias.
“I think he is really poor fit in that film.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:17:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien: Covenant → The Martian. The Martian's success gave Scott leverage to make an odder Alien film.
“I forgot that the previous film to this is the Martian”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:19:20 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Ridley Scott → Danny Boyle. Swap them: Scott directs Steve Jobs and Boyle directs The Martian.
“I like to imagine the reality in which Ridley Scott made Steve Jobs.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:20:02 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Danny Boyle → Sunshine. Boyle said Sunshine was his one space movie because it was so hard to make.
“I will never make a space movie again after sunshine.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:20:18 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien: Covenant → H.R. Giger. The neomorph in Covenant lacks the Giger biomechanical kibble, with a more human, translucent-skinned look.
“He does not have all of the HR Geiger biomechanical kibble all over his body.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:21:16 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): Michael Fassbender → Inglourious Basterds. Fassbender is nearly funny only in Basterds (as the English officer parody) and Steve Jobs.
“he's kind of playing like this great parody of the the Colonel Blimp”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:29:43 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Luke Scott → Raised by Wolves. Luke Scott directed episodes of Raised by Wolves.
“And then you got Luke Scott.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:35:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Carl Erik Rinsch → Prometheus. Rinsch was Scott's mentee, floated to direct Alien prequels; his debut was 47 Ronin.
“he was on the runway as Ridley Scott's mentee for years.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:36:52 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Carl Erik Rinsch → 47 Ronin. 47 Ronin was his debut feature and ended his Scott track.
“47 Ronan is the debut feature he ended up making”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:37:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Jake Scott → Welcome to the Rileys. Ridley Scott's other son Jake directed Welcome to the Rileys, Plunkett and Macleane and American Woman.
“He did Plunkett and McLean, the British Gang, grave robber comedy”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:37:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Alien: Covenant → The Hobbit films. Acting to tennis balls on a green screen was exhausting for The Tick, and people say it was easy because of the Hobbit movies.
“they do this shit with like the Hobbit movies, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:40:13 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Michael Fassbender → Multiplicity. A third Fassbender would have been like Multiplicity, each with a different gimmick.
“Multiplicity, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:45:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Katherine Waterston → Fantastic Beasts (franchise). Waterston is stuck in Fantastic Beasts instead of more movies like this.
“it makes me madder that she really is stuck in Fantastic Beast world.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:46:18 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Jed Kurzel → Alien. Kurzel's score uses Jerry Goldsmith's notes from the first Alien but is its own thing.
“it uses a lot of the Jerry Goldsmith notes”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:47:50 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Jed Kurzel → Justin Kurzel. Jed is the brother of Assassin's Creed director Justin Kurzel and scored his films.
“He's also the guy who is the brother, Ben, of Assassin's Creed director, Justin Kersle.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:47:59 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Jed Kurzel → The Babadook. Kurzel also scored The Babadook and The Nightingale.
“He did the Babadook and the Nightingale.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:48:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Jed Kurzel → Macbeth. Macbeth, scored by Kurzel, is recommended for its color and murk.
“You haven't seen uh, uh, Curzl's Macbeth yet.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:48:34 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Alien: Covenant → Alien. Covenant checks the studio boxes (sex scene, shower kill) in the weirdest way.
“Watching Ridley Scott clearly coming out of a meeting with Fox where they're like, look, we'll give you $90 million, but you got to give us these 10 things.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:53:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Ridley Scott → Alien: Covenant. Scott's advertising background means he always keeps in mind that he's selling a product.
“Ridley, it feels like always keeps in mind like, ultimately, I'm trying to sell a product”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:54:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Aliens. The loader and airlock set piece homages the power loader fight in Aliens.
“But something about this feels closer to the power loader fight.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:55:53 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Alien: Covenant → Prometheus. Unlike Prometheus, Covenant doesn't ignore what others contributed to the franchise.
“Unlike Prometheus, which just ignores everything else that anyone else contributed to the franchise.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:56:09 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Alien: Covenant → Alien. David's closing log-talk to the ship echoes Ripley's.
“talking to the ship in the way that Ripley did.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:01:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Walter Hill → Alien. Hill and Dan O'Bannon keep getting checks for every Alien-related film.
“Walter Hill and Dan O'Bannon just continue to get fucking checks anytime they make anything alien related”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:02:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): H.R. Giger → Alien. The franchise's iconography relies on Giger.
“I do not know if this franchise would have stuck without that iconography.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:02:31 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Alien: Covenant → Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Covenant's weekend opened behind Guardians Vol. 2, #1 for the second weekend.
“Oh, it's Gardens of Galaxy volume two.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:04:21 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Everything, Everything → Love, Simon. Everything, Everything stars Nick Robinson, who was in Love, Simon.
“Yes, it's not love, Simon.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:07:07 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Snatched → Trainwreck. Snatched best shows Amy Schumer's movie-star persona, better than Trainwreck.
“I think Snatched is the one that actually has the best take on what her movie star persona is over train wreck.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:08:39 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): King Arthur: Legend of the Sword → The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. King Arthur bombed right after U.N.C.L.E. underperformed, limiting Ritchie's studio leash.
“after Man from Uncle also underperformed”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:10:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): King Arthur: Legend of the Sword → The Judge. David Dobkin developed a six-film Round Table plan for Warner before being replaced by Ritchie.
“hey, David Dobkin, you just made the judge, we're not going to let you make a fucking 7 part”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:11:46 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): King Arthur: Legend of the Sword → The Gentlemen. The Gentlemen is the Ritchie movie that feels like homework, not King Arthur.
“The movie that's a deterrent is the gentleman.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:12:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Crocodile Dundee → Crocodile Dundee II. Next Patreon miniseries: the three Crocodile Dundee films, skipping a made-up Great Mr. Dundee.
“Yes, we're doing the 3 crocodile Dundee movies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:18:01 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)

Fun items (28)

fun, about Alien: Covenant: Originally titled Alien: Paradise Lost; Damon Lindelof was going to write it before bailing, then John Logan, with a first script by the Transcendence writer and a Michael Green rewrite.
“Initially, it was going to be called Alien Paradise Lost.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:08:57 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Ridley Scott: Scott gave interviews saying there would be no aliens or xenomorphs, then reversed; the hosts wonder if it was him or the studio telling him to put aliens in.
“initially Scott was giving these interviews where he was like, there won't be aliens”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:09:33 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: The online prologue with James Franco and Noomi Rapace is not in the film; the initial cut ran about 2.5 hours and Scott trimmed the franchise stuff.
“it was this thing with James Franco, who is not in this movie, although you see him in like photos.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:12:52 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Ridley Scott: Scott is very unprecious and doesn't care about studio yelling; he will go on making a movie a year.
“I think Ridley Scott is just very unprecious in general.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:14:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: The Franco footage cooks him alive and Griffin says the 10-second prologue would have made the film's emotional start stronger.
“you kind of really benefit from seeing him for 10 seconds alive, you know?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:17:11 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Griffin's theater memory: texters in the row ahead; he let his guard down and missed the second Fassbender swap.
“the people in the row in front of me would not stop texting.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:20:42 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Take Me Home, Country Roads is a plot point in four 2017 movies; Karen Han wrote an article about it.
“What's insane about it is not only do 4 movies all use this one song in such a short period of time, but all 4 of them use it as a plot point.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:31:09 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Danny McBride: McBride went to film school wanting to write and direct, was cast in friends' films, never auditioned, and said Covenant was what he always wanted to do.
“McBride was pursuing a career as a filmmaker.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:32:23 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Kill count: a seizure, chest burster reversed to a back burster, then a neomorph in a wheat field; the hosts call it more haunted house than slasher.
“you think there's going to be a chest burster, and instead it breaks out of his fucking back”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 0:56:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: The flute lesson scene: David teaches Walter with lines about the fingering, which the hosts note makes the sexual overtones unmistakable.
“Gentle pressure on the holes, Ben.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:10:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Two Fassbenders: Scott shoots long takes with the actor against himself and objects passed between them; the flute lesson is the highlight.
“So Fastbender is having to do extended takes that have to match up with the other side of the footage.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:11:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about David (the android): Walter complains that David gave their model a bad name and he had to take firmware updates.
“I had to get like eat firmware updates because of you.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:12:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about David (the android): David's lair: hand-drawn dissected engineers and shell illustrations, and the hosts joke about what an apartment like that would signal.
“If you go to someone's apartment and they live alone and they just have drawings of like plants and shells all over the walls.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:24:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: The egg-room scene people call silly: one host defends Crudup as a man of faith led by something greater.
“come on, stick your face in these eggs”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:26:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about David (the android): David keeps attributing Ozymandias to Byron instead of Shelley; the hosts read it as a sign he's disintegrating after ten years alone.
“does not know who wrote Ozzy Mandus, and keeps thinking it's Byron instead of Shelley”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:32:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about David (the android): Ben looked down exactly when Fassbender kisses himself.
“Ben, you look down at the moment when Michael Fastbender kissed himself.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:33:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Carl Erik Rinsch: Scott's mentee once linked to Alien prequels; the debut feature he made instead was 47 Ronin.
“47 Ronan is the debut feature he ended up making”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:37:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about The Tick: Griffin recounts his hardest technical acting scene: Dr. Karamazov shrunk, shot against tennis balls on sticks then redone from his own recorded dialogue.
“the single most challenging thing I've ever had to do as an actor on a technical level is”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:39:04 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Merchandise for the movie showed an earlier, practical-looking xenomorph design before the creature was redone in CGI late in production.
“All of the merchandise for this movie had an incorrect xenomorph design.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:41:32 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Jed Kurzel: The score echoes Jerry Goldsmith's notes from the first Alien; Kurzel is the brother of Justin Kurzel and scored Macbeth.
“it uses a lot of the Jerry Goldsmith notes”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:47:50 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Watching Scott fulfill ten studio demands from Fox for a roughly $90 million budget in the weirdest way.
“we'll give you $90 million, but you got to give us these 10 things”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:53:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: The finale plays Wagner's Entry of the Gods into Valhalla; one host loves watching with captions on so bluntness shows.
“Inter Valhalla is playing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 1:59:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: The evil robot wins at the end, which the hosts note is something Scott got a studio to accept.
“The evil robot unambiguously triumphs.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:00:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Walter Hill and Dan O'Bannon collect checks on every Alien product; the original was never based on a comic or book.
“Walter Hill and Dan O'Bannon just continue to get fucking checks anytime they make anything alien related”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:02:08 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien: Covenant: Box office: opened to $36M on May 19, 2017, made 74M domestic and 238M worldwide, about half Prometheus's budget.
“It did, because it only made 74 domestic, 238 worldwide total.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:03:20 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about King Arthur: Legend of the Sword: Box office game: Warner's plan was one movie per knight, which is why Merlin and the big names are missing; it made $39M domestic.
“We can't... not rumors that there would be like a Merlin post-credits cameo”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:11:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Alien franchise: Ben's pitch: a planet of aliens in clothes with jobs and office drama, until humans invade.
“What if a planet of aliens wearing clothes?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:14:24 · Ben Hosley (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Crocodile Dundee: Announced next Patreon run: Crocodile Dundee, II, and the Los Angeles film; The Great Mr. Dundee is rejected as financially ruinous.
“I don't think we could ever financially recover.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Alien: Covenant · 2:17:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves the franchise's iconography and design and tracks toy merchandise; sucker for actors who commit to weirdness and for Alien-series trivia. Admires Ridley Scott's business sense and finds the CGI creature the least interesting stretch. Cannot stand being distracted by texters in a theater.
David Sims (host): A critic who has seen Covenant at a press screening and on 4K; likes Prometheus and Scott's ambition. Pays attention to who composed and wrote, and to the Alien franchise's lineage. Likes the film's double-Fassbender conceit and the stranger parts.
Ben Hosley (guest): First-time viewer of Covenant, a producer who plays the naive audience and loves Danny McBride. Can reason about themes, offers a cycle-of-creation take, and pitches a human-invades-alien-planet idea.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

Fastbender = Michael Fassbender
Wrigley Scott = joke on Ridley Scott
Kritup / Crewed up = Billy Crudup
Waterson = Katherine Waterston
Damian Bashir / Dan Bisher = Demian Bichir
Amy Simons / Simitz / Simon = Amy Seimetz
Numi Rapace = Noomi Rapace
Carmen Ijogo / Ojogo = Carmen Ejogo
Jesse Smallett = Jussie Smollett
Lindeloff = Damon Lindelof
Judd Curzel / Kersle = Jed / Justin Kurzel
Ozzy Mandus = Ozymandias
Karen Hahn = Karen Han
Chris White = Chris Weitz
Wayland = Weyland
Paul Fee = Paul Feig
Jody Hill and David Gordon Green read correctly
Imanola Sternberg = Amandla Stenberg
Chris Maloney = Chris Meloni
Pet cemetery = Pet Sematary
47 Ronan = 47 Ronin
Karamansov = Dr. Karamazov (The Tick)
Gardens of Galaxy = Guardians of the Galaxy
Carl Eric Rynch / Rinsch = Carl Erik Rinsch

Blank Check — Patreon: Alien: Covenant

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

passing (65)

subject (2)

compared (11)

anecdote (4)

recommended (1)

dismissed (1)

Claims (90)

Fun items (28)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong