What Will Paradise Look Like?

The Covenant arrive on an uncharted paradise which turns out to be a dark and dangerous world. I believe the former represents the initial reaction to seeing the breath taking landscapes but the dark and dangerous relate to the plot. 

If you want to dissemble this at a practical level Ridders would not have scouted the Southern Island and filmed there for any of other reason than to create the Paradise Vibe.

On a personal note I spend the winter each year in New Zealand and indeed would have been in Te Anau at the time Sir Ridley was scouting. When the brilliant cinema photography emerges in a years time I know I will take a double hit emotionally having tramped across these Wilderness's and ready to see the unfolding drama. To juxtapose such breath taking awe filled majesty against the curiosity of mankind discovering the effect of a rebellion in Paradise sets up the possibility of his best work at a filmic level and the opening of Prometheus wasn't to shoddy!  

Knowing the two specific locations Eglinton Valley and Milford Sound that they filmed in and that he choppered around Mount Cook and up towards Paradise (the name of a place) at the top of Lake Wakutipu its going to be primordial awe filled spendour.

Yes we cant rule out some parts of the World are Baron and a Scene of Disaster....

But the World on the Whole is in One Piece.. well its far from the destruction that some theorize happened to Mars, Billions of years ago.

The Paradise (well World) the Covenant land on, is indeed a World that is Lush in Flora a true ideal Paradise for Humans wishing to find a new World to Colonize as a Earth MK2

The biggest clues we have to remember are the crew... not the Covenant Crew.. but the Production Crew...

A number of the Concept Artists works are with depicting Jungle Worlds, and Mountainous Worlds... and some also Ancient Buildings and Temples..

Its no coincidence these guys are working on the movie and they chose the sites in New Zealand...  and so Paradise is for all intensive purposes... like the image you posted as your Title..

Again Michelle i notice your post as i was to continue with this one to explain... how can it be a Dark Place?

And you touched upon it exactly the same as i was,  Dark does not have to be a place of Darkness or Baron...

Dark could mean also a place that has a Horrific History, or Horrific Habitat and so Dark would mean the Agenda of what this place was, or that a Dark event (Evil, Malicious, Malevolent)  had happened in the past... or even also present.

Baron could be with regards to Life that was once there.... a Culture that was once there but no more..

Yet the Worlds Topography would be intact....  surely the World has life still... what event would wipe out all Life and leave the Flora intact... Flora needs some Lifeforms to be able to survive and so yes the World would not be void of Life...  surely not.

But it would be void as far as Advanced Life... like Mammals and Humanoids perhaps... 

However as the OP stated..... the beach front to a island could seem like Paradise but wander further in beyond the Valleys and Mountains and you may find the remains of a Society that is now in Ruin...

Back in 2013, I had conversations with a member (who I haven't seen on here since then), HAL9000 about the shooting locations for the next movie and what Paradise would look like.  Anyway, he mentioned Mount Roraima.

I always thought the Engineer homeworld, aka Paradise is something that is typically seen as "paradise" and that may be confirmed by the shooting locations they chose in New Zealand, however, I think as you get closer to the Engineer's structures and habitats (maybe they will even be underground or built into the earth), you will see it is more of a strange place and maybe even like Hell underneath... (last picture is Giger sketch)

@Membrane awesome pic examples

Can we just recheck the use of the word baron I am not seeing it any of the synopsis. Take baron out and I think we have what BD and I are talking about. I am sure the temples and sarcophagus are classic A L I E N S C A P E S   but they will be juxtaposed for the first time with something more familiar and closer to home. 

Had to be some reason for the crew of the Covenant to choose this planet. 

Unless they plan on terra-forming some rock.

If it wasn't 'paradise'...you would think they would move on?

Engineers can terror-form any planet....So this planet might be ideal to the Engineers?

I think Ridders wants to avoid a 'Avatar' style world. Keep it desolate and creepy.

'The Covenant arrive on an uncharted paradise which turns out to be a dark and dangerous world.' 

To MJ - yes you are correct I wasn't sure my choice of words was spot on but was a bit rushed when posting so didn't check . . . doh!  The above is correct, and I agree that 'barren' is perhaps an error of interpretation, and a misleading one, on my part!

So yes, looking at the synopsis as you allude to; it does seem that the crew will find a paradise, as humans would wish, but with the dark and dangerous things possibly coming out of the woodwork, as it were!

I don't like to overuse this word, but I have to say that the visuals for this film could indeed be epic!

If we are assuming then that life, in some form, will be present - it does beg the question how has the black goo, xeno and possible after effects of the 'disaster' we have seen affected this?

The idea of an organic/sentient world being overran by any/all of the above is just mind boggling!

Let’s say that it is a planet that looks like the pictures. What if the planet looks like the pictures above but what the Engineers did and what turned into a disaster is just a part of it (isolated area)? Didn’t Ridley say that “it was a disaster” or something similar? He didn’t say how many percent of the planet that the disaster took place on.

Maybe it is that they crew land on the nice side of the planet and then end up at the disaster place with monsters that they didn’t expect when they landed? There are nice looking places on earth and there can be nasty places. As far as a creature evolving there, there can be deadly snakes in the jungle (monsters in AC) but the environment in itself looks nice but everything isn’t what it seems.

As long as the Flora has Sentience by BlagikalGoo exposure in millennia past & there's a mix of the true Lushness of NewZealand as well as a TRUE Gigerscape deeper under the briny depths of what makes Paradise sustainable & a world drenched in Sin; I will bee truly content with whatever else A:C has to offer come exactly a Year from now ^_^

It'll look like Fiordland.

And if it doesn't, it should.

DEEP SPACE - I have a feeling it will look nightmarish and desolate - with broken landscapes that suggest some past catastrophe! :)

@ DS no worries in general I like to conjecture things its about a conversation to consider whats there rather than an argument.

The Paradise issue has a plot point importance. The Covenant may have not been made for a megalomanic with trillions of dollars but it has the the ability to travel in deep space and must be capable of considering the planets general habitat before "Choosing" it. We have discussed at length the coincidence of the Covenant choosing the one planet David the "Synthetic" is on, there are several ways of making the coincidence but for a crew to turn up to Ayers Rock rather than Fiordland makes no sense ! 

We may never know whether in earlier scripts D & E would arrive at a broken physical world which is dark and dangerous but the "Quarry scene" suggests that this is a world with a broken civilisation probably corrupted from within which has suffered external retribution leaving a seemingly empty paradise.   

@MJ - Totally, and I value yours and all others' replies and feedback!  I wouldn't be on here if I didn't want to immerse myself in this world and discuss any and all things ALIEN :) 

What I love about this site is that everyone seems to be trying, in their own way, to visualise what AC is going to be like.  So some posters seem to focus on the 'factual' side of things, drawing together bits and pieces from scripts, images from sets, insider info. etc.  Whereas others tend be come at it from a more creative and imaginative angle: Personally, I like seeing both kinds of discussions/angles but feel that basing my imaginings on some solid ground is more worthwhile (if that makes any sense?)

So long-winded way of saying, checking/clarifying facts or questioning a point is something I appreciate and find helpful from others :) 

And yes, to my mind I would think that any colony ship would be travelling to a planet they knew something about, hence why they chose it for such purposes.  I'm pretty sure that we can gauge a planet's chemical composition and atmospheric conditions through the tech we have available now e.g. Kepler 452b! Like you say, travelling half way across the galaxy to just rock up to to a random planet makes no sense whatsoever.  It's not a mining ship, after all . . . ;)

@S.M, Something Real & Mizikame - I really hope, and think we will, get some Giger style landscapes mixed in with the natural beauty.  Fiordlands a great shout but I kind of want a more jungle landscape; only because having spent a little time in a jungle (and not particularly a squeamish type) the sheer size and 'wildness' of the life in there can be pretty scary right here on Earth!  I'm imagining a jungle that has been tainted with black goo . . . scary stuff :) 

That said, it could be that the flora and fauna is intact - perhaps the 'xenos'/after effects of disaster long gone by the time Covenant arrive.  Maybe some eggs lay dormant, or perhaps David will unleash more disaster when he contacts his test subjects, er I mean, the crew ;)  

Most of Fiordland could pass for jungle.

Indeed we dont know what te whole surface of a World would look like, it may not all be Jungle.. i mean look how varied Earth is.... and the one Shot of Disaster with what appear to me beings related to the Engineers is in a area that is more arid like a desert or landscapes similar (Canary Islands) but we dont know if this scene is on Paradise yet....  all we do know is a Mountainous, area with Flora and surrounded by Large Lakes or Sea is where the Crew could have landed.

There could be entrances to those Mountains and Caves and maybe the Engineers have underground settlements?

Anything is possible at the moment..

Again the BIGGEST Clues are by looking at the Production Crew and Concept Artists and what they have worked on in the Past.....  and certainly Ancient Civilizations within a Jungle are a common concept a number of Artists have worked on... who are working on the Movie.

There are also set designers who mainly designed grand buildings and temples and ancient looking architecture.

Also i cant remember where or by who.. but someone from Production did mention they managed to re-create unused visions from Alien.  As far as sets that was never created.

To me this could mean we would see at least something Giger Inspired

I would not be surprised if we see something a bit like these.... and they would fit with the room that Ridley was in a interview with Urns behind him... that shot looks like it could be taken from inside or underground some Ancient Building...

BigDave, exactly my thoughts.  My speculation from over 3 years ago still stands, especially considering their shooting locations and pictures of a shoot in Sydney...

The surface is "paradise", ie, lush, beautiful, a place you would want to colonize, but underneath, or as you get closer to where the Engineers lived or maybe practiced their experiments on this paradise, you see a more twisted place like the pictures I put up of the rock formations on Mount Roraima above, especially considering this particular picture taken while they were shooting in Sydney on May 19 of this year.

Maybe if there was some sort of black liquid blast-wave, it could have rode-up over some of the highest point mountain tops and, as a result, it may have protected some of these little inlets, fjords of greenery and bays that allowed vegetation to still continue as the death wave (if indeed, that's what was the cause of the catastrophe there) rode-up over them and dissipated in the atmosphere... (??? We'll soon find out!)

Its like an angler fish...luring the colonists. 

What if the Dav on the Cov. changes where the ship lands while the others are sleeping and deletes/changes all the reports of the more damaged areas. The crew is only allowed at first to see the good parts of the planet.  I have a feeling that the area they colonize is the only area that will be "paradise" and the rest is blasted barren. 

Maybe Prom Dav will pull them into the barren areas with some form of beacon or lure.  One of the members gets a little bored and goes exploring....

This was taken in the bush whilst tramping "the circuit" next to Lake Manapouri and is typical of the dense New Zealand bush. I could easily see them coming across Engineer ruins which appear as if seemingly from nowhere.  

^^^^^

Thats the sort of primordial image I expect to see. 

@HN The Engineers were bequeathed terrifying powers and BD's source has referred to terraforming. You have to believe the scene of destruction in the Quarry represents a terrible and awe filled consequence of such power. That one scene gives me hope that this movie is more than just a Zeno fest and shows the existential nature of the hierarchy's threat as well as the consequence of the Engineers (and David's meddling).