Prometheus Thread

[BigSqwert]

"Vial", Marko.

Doh

 

[TaylorStSox]

What year is the 1979 Alien film supposed to take place? I'm assuming that over time the Aliens in Prometheus evolve to the ones we're more familiar with?

30 years later. Alien takes place on planet LV426. The moon Prometheus takes place on isn't the same.

[Milkman delivers]

30 years later. Alien takes place on planet LV426. The moon Prometheus takes place on isn't the same.

 

That's one of the things I felt were left unanswered. It didn't bridge the movies entirely. Plus, as you can see with the arguments recently, I'm not sure exactly what the opening scene was depicting.

[BigSqwert]

That's one of the things I felt were left unanswered. It didn't bridge the movies entirely. Plus, as you can see with the arguments recently, I'm not sure exactly what the opening scene was depicting.

From wikipedia for what it's worth:

In the Distant Past, a Hooded Figure, later revealed to be a Humanoid Alien watches its Ship leave while it consumes a black liquid. His body begins to disintegrate and then he falls into the large river below, where his DNA is left behind.

[Milkman delivers]

From wikipedia for what it's worth:

 

Yeah, I saw that. But posters seem to have differing ideas. At first, I thought it was the outbreak of whatever virus caused the mass extinction of the space jockeys.

[BigSqwert]

That's what happens when Damon Lindelof is one of the writers. Way too much ambiguity.

[BigSqwert]

I must say that this is one of those rare movies that I wouldn't mind seeing in the theaters for a 2nd time.

[Milkman delivers]

I was really looking forward to a conversation with the space jockey in stasis. Instead he just went berserk and left the whole thing infinitely more grey.

[BigSqwert]

I was really looking forward to a conversation with the space jockey in stasis. Instead he just went berserk and left the whole thing infinitely more grey.

Indeed. I'm hoping that conversation takes place on their home planet in the sequel.

[TaylorStSox]

I was really looking forward to a conversation with the space jockey in stasis. Instead he just went berserk and left the whole thing infinitely more grey.

Apparently, Space Jockey's are assholes.

[caulfield12]

But aren't those tall dudes essentially human? They had a 100% DNA match.

 

Higher order primates are something like 98.6% match, right?

 

 

Prometheus notched the best debut for an R-rated picture since Paranormal Activity 3‘s $52.6 million bow in October, but where it goes from here is anyone’s guess. After topping the box office on Friday with $21.4 million, Prometheus sank 22 percent on Saturday — a sure sign of built-in excitement from fanboys and fangirls who rushed to the theater to find out if the film really was an Alien prequel. Discouragingly, Prometheus earned a lukewarm “B” CinemaScore grade, yet it’s sparking more post-release conversation than any title in recent memory, and although much of the chatter is negative (and filled with over-the-top vitriol for scribe Damon Lindelof), all the buzz could work in the film’s favor.

 

Word-of-mouth doesn’t suggest that Prometheus will become this year’s Inception, a thinky thriller-turned-box-office-smash, but its successful debut and ample international receipts (it’s earned $91.5 million after two weekends) should have the suits at Fox pretty happy.

 

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/06/10/box-...r-3-prometheus/

Edited June 11, 2012 by caulfield12

[BigSqwert]

Higher order primates are something like 98.6% match, right?

From what I understand, yes.

[Steve9347]

What year is the 1979 Alien film supposed to take place? I'm assuming that over time the Aliens in Prometheus evolve to the ones we're more familiar with?

Alien is 30 years or so later, and Aliens is 87 years later than Prometheus if we go on the timeline that Ripley was in hypersleep for 57 years following the first film. The alien birthed from the space jockey at the very end - if you stayed past the screen going black - was definitely the alien with which we are more familiar, and it might have even been the queen that Ripley jettisons in Aliens.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Steve9347

[Steve9347]

I adored Prometheus. So much so I am going to see it again in the theater. However, there are some questions and oddities that were a bit much.

 

Ugh, hate spoiler tags, maybe we need a "Prometheus Discussion" thread.

 

- Space Jockey goes after Elizabeth without his mask? I know they explained that a human(oid) can survive in the highly toxic CO2 environment for around 2 minutes, so I guess he ran fast and knew where he was going.

- Guy Pearce - why?? Just get an old guy. There's really zero reason to have Pearce as Weyland. You can still use a younger person for the promos. The makeup looked stupid, worse than Johnny Knoxville made up as an old man in the Jackass movies.

- David clearly had some idea of the events to unfold, but how? It didn't really tie together, unless he was simply programmed as a tester. 'Let's see what getting this black liquid inside this guy will do, and then I have to assume he will immediately go bang Elizabeth and create a disgusting alien baby!'

- Why did the lifeform scanners not pick up the worms (the ones that were enveloped in the black liquid and turned into those insane arm breaking worms).

- Why does an insane arm-breaking giant worm going into a human body turn it into an all-powerful zombie?

 

Anyway, questions are always fun, and the movie rocked.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Steve9347

[Balta1701]

I can split a Prometheus thread if you'd like but some of us who won't see this film for a while do appreciate the spoiler tags anyway.

[Steve9347]

Interesting that this site is coming to the same conclusions I am.

 

1. What the hell was that pre-title sequence all about?

 

That was one of the Engineers on Earth, jump-starting the creation of man. (In case you didn't know, the Greek mythological figure Prometheus didn't just steal fire and get a harsh punishment from Zeus, he also CREATED mankind, for which, oddly, he doesn't get as much credit.)

 

2. Wait, so did the giant blue man make those cave etchings with the stars? The ones future scientists will be able to chart to LV-223?

 

There is absolutely no evidence to support this in the text, but I believe the Engineers imprinted these images on early man – kinda like how the people in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" all felt compelled to design images of Devil's Tower.

 

3. How can an android, even one as technologically advanced as David, read dreams?

 

Fox

You gotta just accept that one. Maybe dreams give off electrical discharges that, in future years, will be reconstructable? But this is a question like "if 'Prometheus' is set before 'Alien,' why does it look more modern than 'Alien'?" It's not a real question.

 

4. Why did those awesome roving spheres that make the 3-D map, that are ostensibly looking for life forms, not pickup on those earthworms?

 

That's annoying, ain't it? I can only guess that the spheres don't recognize life forms that small, or that the indigenous life on LV-223 consists of properties Human tech isn't hip to. (Like silicon-based life as opposed to carbon-based, c.f. Star Trek, "The Devil in the Dark," 1967.)

 

However, the spheres were able to pick up on the giant snake that the worms turned into once the evil black goo mixed with them. That means the spheres would recognize the goo-derived aspects of the snake. This makes sense, because the goo came from the Engineers' world and the Engineers, as we later discover, have the same DNA as us.

 

Still, you'd think the black goo alone would have biological elements of a recognizable nature that the spheres could detect, but I'm not an expert in black goo. Maybe it only becomes "alive" when it mixes with other living matter.

 

5. Where did the snake come from?

 

I just answered that. David started messing with the canisters of black goo and it mixed with the earthworms to become giant snake monsters not dissimilar to the Dionaga from "Episode IV."

 

6. Why did David grab the canister of goo?

 

I believe that Peter Weyland told David on the down low that, listen, we're not just here to talk to our Gods and try and stave off death. We've also got an obligation to our investors to grab anything that can be of scientific or technological interest.

 

I don't think, however, Weyland knew specifically about the goo in advance, or knew what it could do.

 

7. Why did David poison Charlie with the goo?

 

One of the principal themes of "Prometheus" is creation. Most (but not all) humans feel compelled to procreate. Peter Weyland designed David to have as many human characteristics as possible. He wants to be a real boy, like Pinocchio or Lt. Commander Data. However, he is unable to create life. He even discusses his wonder at creating life with Charlie. He knows that if he poisons Charlie and if Charlie is intimate with Elizabeth Shaw, he will impregnate her with a lifeform based partly on his design. This will also be seen as a "take that, Dad!" to his father, whom he feels the need, in some ways, to impress or "one-up."

 

8. Okay, so HOW did David know that he could do all this with a drop of goo in Charlie's drink?

 

No frickin' clue. It's a big problem with "Prometheus." The only answer I can give is that David, like Data, is smart. He figured it out. I have a hunch that this is something being "saved for the sequel," which, again, is a cop-out. You shouldn't have questions like this saved for a sequel.

 

9. How did Idris Elba know that LV-223 was a testing ground for Engineer WMD?

 

Again, no idea. I was right there with him and I didn't put that together. Hell, I actually saw MORE of the story, through the power of cross-cutting, and I didn't put that together. My hunch is that Elba's character knew this through the power of the almighty "Studio Note." Somebody read Lindelof's script and said, "you need someone to come in and explain this point."

 

10. How did David know how to find the Engineer's ships?

 

He's got sensors.

 

11. How did David know how to manipulate the ship?

 

He's Data! He's really smart. How many times do I have to tell you?

 

12. Why cast Guy Pearce and put him in awful makeup? There are no 90 year-old actors out there? Is Guy Pearce such a box office draw?

 

No, he isn't, but having him involved meant they could make that cool viral video of him as a young businessman. That's the only excuse I can think of for that bad makeup.

 

13. Why did the Engineer go batty and start killing people? Was it something David said?

 

I think David was on the level and said whatever it was that Peter wanted to say to him. The Engineer, however, has been asleep for a thousand years. He's grumpy. But he knew that he had to kill humans. What does he see? Humans! So he starts killing.

 

14. This is LV-223 and "Alien" takes place on LV-426. What's the deal?

 

Well, there are some missing pieces between the end of "Prometheus" and the beginning of "Alien."

 

LV-223 is left with dead engineers, a derelict ship and a room full of black goo canisters. LV-426 has dead engineers (or at least one), a derelict ship (or at least one) and a room not full of canisters but of Xenomorph eggs. It's a different place. (Or an altered place that is coincidentally timed with a change in stellar cartography – so not bloody likely.)

 

This means that somehow some sort of similar event is happening on LV-426. Maybe it was a second WND testing site?

 

Also, as is evident solely in "Alien," someone needed to have communicated back to Weyland-Yutani the potential of the Xenomorph on LV-426 to make it of interest to them. That means either the surviving characters of "Prometheus" do it or other characters we haven't met yet do it. This is not a direct prequel.

 

15. Wait, so, about the Xenomorphs. The aliens from "Alien" that we know and love. We don't see them until the very end of the movie, when we see (and take a deep breath here) the biological by-product of a half-Engineer and a black goo inseminated human fetus. But if they all have the same DNA, why does this create a Xenomorph when the other critters in "Prometheus" are clearly not Xenomorphs?

 

I could be a jerk and say things like "it needs to be second-generation" or it was the fact that Shaw's creature was ripped out before its full term, but the real answer is this: the fans.

 

If there wasn't a Xenomorph in the movie, everyone would go nuts. So why not throw it in there in the very last frame? It'll make people happy, they'll leave the theater with a smile, tell their friends to go see it, cause the film to make money, inspire a sequel and, well, by then someone will have thought up a good answer.

 

16. Why do the Engineers create us just to kill us?

 

That's not for this movie to answer. That's between you and your God.

 

17. Okay, why does Idris Elba listen to Stephen Stills so far into the future?

The classics stay classic.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Steve9347

[Steve9347]

I also like this.

 

Q: Why did David (Michael Fassbender) poison Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green)?

A: David doesn't have emotions, but he's very curious and is constantly doing research for Weyland. He wanted to see what the black goo would do to Holloway, but still only placed it in his drink after he got Holloway's permission to do so. For those who don't remember, David asked him if he would be willing to do anything to get the information he's after.

[TaylorStSox]

I think they cast Pearce because they want Prometheus to be a separate franchise. By casting him they can have some kind of flashbacks. It had to be for a reason. It wasn't just random.

[whitesoxfan99]

I guess I am in the minority in not really caring for Prometheus. I wanted to like it and it had some interesting concepts but I felt like it completely failed to deliver on its promise. The movie had too many plot holes for me to get past and the characters were woefully underdeveloped, particularly David. I am fine with a movie not spelling everything out for the audience but Lindelof's writing style of answering basically nothing annoys the hell out of me.

 

 

[TaylorStSox]

Interesting Take

 

Fix that image in your mind, please: the giver of life, with his abdomen torn open. We'll be coming back to it many times in the course of this article.

 

The ethos of the titan Prometheus is one of willing and necessary sacrifice for life's sake. That's a pattern we see replicated throughout the ancient world. J G Frazer wrote his lengthy anthropological study, The Golden Bough, around the idea of the Dying God - a lifegiver who voluntarily dies for the sake of the people. It was incumbent upon the King to die at the right and proper time, because that was what heaven demanded, and fertility would not ensue if he did not do his royal duty of dying.

Edited June 11, 2012 by TaylorStSox

[CrimsonWeltall]

Interesting Take

 

Uh, how does this guy have his abdomen "torn open"? I see a crack in the ceiling

http://dejanno.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/prometheus.jpg

[TaylorStSox]

Uh, how does this guy have his abdomen "torn open"? I see a crack in the ceiling

http://dejanno.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/prometheus.jpg

There's a follow up to the article in which somebody asks the same question. The author has a link for pre production art with that shows the crack/rip being more prominent. Obviously, some of the explanations are farfetched, but Scott's films tend to explore creation with some subtle hints and some not so subtle.

[BigSqwert]

Interesting Take

Fascinating read. Thanks for sharing.

[whitesoxfan99]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c....etheus_nutshell

[Steve9347]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c....etheus_nutshell

Hey, whitesoxfan99, have you actually seen the movie?