Explaining David's Destructive Decision in 'Alien: Covenant'

Those planning to go to the theaters to see the new Alien: Romulus movie may want a refresher on the stories that have already unfolded throughout the previous Alien movies. The new movie is a spinoff title, meaning viewers won't need to have watched all of the other movies in the franchise to understand it — but die-hard fans of the sci-fi franchise will want some refreshers to see how this new installment measures up to the previous ones.

One piece from Alien: Covenant that continues to trip up fans is why David killed the engineers. As the second prequel movie in the Alien franchise, David is the primary android character the various researchers interact with on the spaceships. But his reasoning for killing the engineers is actually incredibly simple, according to the franchise's creator, Sir Ridley Scott.

Why did David kill the engineers in 'Alien: Covenant'?

By the time David makes this move to wipe out as many engineers as he can, he's become obsessed with the idea of creating life of his own. As an android, he's acutely aware of his near-immortality, even noting to his creator, Peter Weyland, that he will likely outlive him.

Throughout his various ventures on spaceships studying the alien lifeform, he also takes time to study and learn about the engineers, who are essentially the people who created the humans.

Throughout his observance, though, Ridley outlines David's eventual disdain for humans and engineers. This becomes a sticking point for him, which is ultimately what results in his decision to carpet bomb the engineer home world with the mutagen.

In an interview with Empire Online , Ridley breaks down this decision from the android, and his reasoning is actually very simple.

"He hates them. He has no respect for Engineers and no respect for human beings," Ridley states simply.

In the interview, Ridley draws parallels to how the engineers handled their own colonization efforts on other planets, noting that David just implemented a similar method — though David's actions had a catastrophic result.

"If the planet went wrong, they would want to wipe it clean," Ridley said. "But that could take 500 years. When they revisit – because different visitors would come back and see we’re not doing so well – they would look at these human beings that are jerks, that are killing the planet, killing themselves, can’t settle down, they’re like a bunch of children. We should wipe it clean."

As a result of the carpet bombing, Elizabeth Shaw, the other person aboard the ship David was commandeering, died. David then preserved her body, using it to test various iterations of his experiments, still obsessed with creating life.

This is the best explanation we've been given for David's behavior — coming directly from the creator of the Alien franchise himself. David's motives ultimately created plenty of carnage and harm for those he worked with, furthering the alien species.