Alien Androids: Every Synthetic in the Franchise

Seven films in the Alien series feature an android, and six main characters carry the role: Ash, Bishop, Call, David, Walter and Andy. A seventh android, Rook, appears in Alien: Romulus (2024) as a damaged science android. The ship computer Mother, voiced by Helen Horton in Alien (1979), is a computer and not an android, so she is not counted here.

The two crossover films, AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007), add no android to the list. Lance Henriksen does appear in the first as Charles Bishop Weyland, but that is a different character from the android Bishop. For the wider cast, see alien cast.

Ash is the android in Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, and he was played by Ian Holm. He serves as the science officer of the Nostromo.

His importance comes from the choices he makes. When Ripley works out that the transmission from the moon was a warning and tries to keep the landing party from boarding, Ash lets them in anyway. Ripley later discovers that the company's secret orders put bringing back the creature ahead of the crew's lives, and that Ash is an android carrying out those orders. He attacks her, and Parker and Lambert disable him.

So, did anyone know Ash was an android? In the film the reveal arrives only when Ripley finds the secret orders, which is what turns his earlier decision into a betrayal. For the character profile, see ash alien.

Bishop is the android attached to the Colonial Marines in Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron, and Lance Henriksen played him. He is the second android in the series, after Ash.

He goes to LV-426 alongside Ripley, Burke and the Marines. By the finale he is badly damaged, yet he still plays a part in saving Newt, and he is one of the four survivors who settle into hypersleep for the trip home. Read more in bishop aliens.

Henriksen comes back in Alien 3 (1992), directed by David Fincher, where the credits read Bishop II. His role there is small but pointed: Ripley revives the wrecked android on Fiorina 161, and he confirms that a facehugger had been aboard the pod that crashed. A man who looks exactly like him then turns up with the company's team and says he is the one who built him, which turns the same face into a corporate tool.

Call is the android in Alien Resurrection (1997), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and she was played by Winona Ryder. She is the only main android in the series introduced as a human mercenary on the ship Betty, alongside Johner and Vriess.

Call recognizes Ripley's name and secretly wants her dead, which gives her an agenda from the start. Dr. Wren reveals that the Auriga's automatic course is Earth, which would let the creatures loose on the planet. The film reveals what Call is only after Wren betrays the group and shoots her. Call then links to the ship's systems and sets it to crash into Earth.

She survives the film. Call escapes in the Betty with Ripley, Vriess and Johner, and the last scene on Earth has her asking Ripley what she will do now. Ripley answers that she does not know, because she is a stranger there too.

David is the android in Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), both directed by Ridley Scott, and he was played by Michael Fassbender. His choices shape the plot of both films.

In Prometheus, David looks after the crew while they sleep through the journey to LV-223. He secretly takes a cylinder of black liquid and later slips a drop into Holloway's drink. At the end Shaw recovers what is left of David, and he helps her take another Engineer ship.

In Covenant, David has survived and is living in a ruined settlement. He reveals that he released a pathogen that wiped out the local population, infects Oram with an alien embryo and attacks Daniels. By the end he poses as Walter on the Covenant, plans to use alien embryos on the sleeping colonists and reports that only Daniels and Tennessee survived. See david prometheus and prometheus movie.

Walter is the second android played by Michael Fassbender, and he appears in Alien: Covenant (2017), where the cast billing reads David / Walter. The film describes him as the ship's identical but more obedient android, a deliberate contrast with David.

The resemblance drives the final act. After the survivors escape to the Covenant, Daniels realizes that the android who saved them is really David and not Walter. She is knocked unconscious and put into stasis. The ending depends on her not knowing who is watching over the ship, so the identical casting works as a plot device. Details of the wider story are on the alien covenant page.

Andy is the android in Alien: Romulus (2024), directed by Fede Álvarez, and he was played by David Jonsson. He is the brother of the lead, Rain, and he is part of the group that plans to board the derelict Renaissance station and take its cryosleep pods. The planet they want bans androids, which weighs on both of them.

The story turns on a change to Andy. Rain installs a chip from the damaged science android Rook to help him open doors, but it changes his priorities and his loyalty shifts toward the company. Later Rain restores his original programming, and Andy kills the Navarro xenomorph. After the hybrid creature damages him, he and Rain head for the new planet and enter cryosleep. Related reading: alien romulus.

Rook is a damaged science android in Alien: Romulus (2024), and the credits split the role in an unusual way. Daniel Betts is credited for the facial and vocal performance, and Ian Holm, who played Ash in Alien (1979), is credited for facial and vocal reference.

Rook's chip is what alters Andy, and Rook also explains that the station's scientists studied the creature from the Nostromo and made a fluid called Z-01 from the facehuggers, which can rewrite human DNA. In plot terms, Rook is a source of information and a trigger for the central conflict, more than a companion.

The best of the alien androids, in my opinion, is David, followed by Ash, Bishop, Andy, Call and Walter. This is an opinion, and the ranking rewards how much each android changes the story over how long they are on screen.

1. David. Perhaps the only android who drives two whole films. He sets the black liquid in motion in Prometheus and then, in Covenant, takes over the ship by passing himself off as Walter. No other android in the series changes the fate of so many people.
2. Ash. The original, and still the template. Letting the crew back aboard while following the company's orders is the film's central betrayal, and it happens in a sealed ship with no escape.
3. Bishop. The answer to Ash. He spends Aliens proving that an android does not have to follow a hidden agenda. Helping to save Newt is the payoff.
4. Andy. David Jonsson gives the Romulus android real warmth, and the chip swap is a smart way to show how fragile loyalty is. He sits below Bishop because the film's focus stays on Rain.
5. Call. A strong idea, since she hides both her nature and her motive, but the reveal arrives late and, in my opinion, the film around her is the weakest of the main saga.
6. Walter. A fine performance, and the identical casting pays off at the end. He is mostly a counterweight to David, which limits how much he can do alone.

If you want the best single android performance for a first watch, start with Alien (1979), and then follow David through the alien movies in order. The full list of films is ranked on alien movies ranked.