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SYFY WIRE Alien

Alien: Covenant short returns us to David's haunting Xenomorph workshop

By Josh Weiss
Elizabeth Shaw corpse Alien Covenant

How much does a xenomorph egg weigh? What is it made of? Both of these questions and more are answered in a brand-new Alien: Covenant video meant to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the film's DVD release. Produced by 20th Century Fox (now owned by Disney) and YouTube Space LA, the short finds an unnamed and space-suited member of the Weyland-Yutani corporation exploring a perfect replica of David's twisted mad science laboratory where the unhinged android (played by Michael Fassbender) cooked up the universe's first xenomorph.

As the unnamed man walks around the workshop, observing the haunting sketches and skulls contained within the space, his computer analyzes the composition of a mysterious egg, revealing that it stands at four feet, maintains an external temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit, and weighs almost 60 pounds. When it comes to the object's composition, you'll be interested to know that a facehugger receptacle is made out of a "carbon-based protein matrix" comprised of keratin, filaggrin, proteas enzymes, lipids, and defensins.

Watch the video below:

Presumably taking place after the events of Ridley Scott's Covenant, the video also uses two songs that were heavily utilized by the movie's marketing campaign: Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" and John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." The astronaut's luck runs out at the very end, when the egg opens up and spews forth its contents onto his face. Everything cuts to black, but the squelching and expertly nauseating sound design is enough to let us know that this dude has become the latest victim of David's creation, the perfect organism.

During the events of Alien: Covenant, the audience learns that David created the xenomorphs by experimenting with the Engineers' deadly "black goo" pathogens, as well as the reproductive organs of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace). While the android was clearly insane, he was still able to effectively fool Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and Tennessee (Danny McBride), taking control of their ship packed with hundreds of human colonists he plans to impregnate with chestbursters. In a sequel (titled Awakening) we may never get to see, director Ridley Scott wanted David to be chased by a band of angry Engineers to LV-426, the planet from the 1979 original.