Prometheus Spoiler Thread

[samurainoir]

Just so we can chat and share our interpretations about the history of "the engineers" and the development of the Aliens, and how the scifi Alien biology works.

Particularly in the opening scene where The Engineer drank that stuff, fell into the water as his DNA was torn apart... then we see the material recombining into what we assume is the genetic material for the Aliens.

I thought that was to show that the Engineers were seeking immortality of some kind and embracing the transformation into a more powerful genetic creature... the Aliens. That was why we humans, as their "failed" progeny were such an abomination to them.

Although in the movie, the captain saw it as WMD's... devastating designer biological weapons.

Either way, the "Prometheus" allegory is spelled out loud and clear. Whether it's the nectar of the gods or a bio weapon. The mythical Prometheus stealing Fire was both a blessing and a curse, since it provides warmth, but fire also destroys... or does it cleanse in order clear the way to rebuild?

[Dr. Phibes]

I saw it last Saturday and may not remember small details but... I think Prometheus arrived in orbit on Dec 21 in the future, but isn't 12-21(-12) supposed to be the onset of some catastrophe on Earth according to the Maya- and aren't some of the ancient pictures Shaw finds from meso-america? perhaps a coincidence? The engineers in the movie all looked identicle to me so I took that to mean they were bio engineered themselves... maybe that explains the 1st one's overly muscular body, they had a somewhat Sontaran/ dr who look to their heads as well. The way some of the goo cylinders were stacked looked like cannon shells stacked for battle, and there is the Possibility the ship in Alien was a war ship. The engineer suits resembled armor to me and had the same exoskeleton look the Alien's body does.

I think the engineers were some bioengineered warriors who use the goo as a weapon and somehow it blows up in their face and they are running from whatever it mutated into(Alien) and that's why some of them were noted to have had something burst out of them when the crew finds the bodies stacked up. Prometheus found a military base not unlike an ancient Roman outpost.

The Alien is the evolving biproduct(weapon) of the infected engineers . David could then be "Prometheus" who stole fire (goo) from the gods(engineer) and gave it to man(infected doctor).

Many things can be read into this movie, I think there are going to be a lot of different interprtations.

[samurainoir]

Obviously, this ship is not the one we saw in he first Alien movie. As they said at the end, there are many ships. The eggs in the first film were definitely not these cylinders I'm guessing. So this alien hatched from the engineer is not the first Alien.

If we want to look at the expanded universe, predators have been hunting Aliens long before (plus the last AvP took place in contemporary times).

[Bruce Banner]

Prometheus finally offers up the most fitting origin for the Alien species, and the one I'd secretly suspected and hoped for all along: that they're a devastating bio-weapon engineered by an advanced non-terrestrial race, who in true Lovecraftian (and Kirbyesque) fashion have been tampering with the DNA of primitive species and manipulating evolution on who knows how many worlds for countless millennia.

And an interesting observation about the Space Jockeys/Engineers which was inferred to some degree in the finished film, but which was originally much more blatant:

Movies.com: We had heard it was scripted that the Engineers were targeting our planet for destruction because we had crucified one of their representatives, and that Jesus Christ might have been an alien. Was that ever considered?

Ridley Scott: We definitely did, and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there” scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, "Let's send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it." Guess what? They crucified him.

[Dr. Phibes]

The Alien is already a known presence to the engineers as the one at the end looks like the one on the wall carving that appears to be in crucifix pose (both have pointy triangular heads too). If you look at the Jesus as an engineer angle, why is he so different in appearance than the engineers? There are a lot of Biblical themes that can be read into this movie.

In the Sistine Chapel looking murals the crew finds on the planet, the engineer looks to be in a comforting position over an Alien (maybe close in some ways to Michelangelo's God touching fingers with man kind of), and the in the carving the alien in crucifix pose looks to be placed in a position of revery.

I tend to agree that the Alien is some form of bio weapon, but I also think the same way for the engineers...Based on Scott's reference to Romans, I think the engineers were on an outpost fort and they were soldiers of some fashion for someone/something else. They may also have absorbed and fitted other aspects of non engineer life into their own just as the Romans did in the spread of their empire.

[samurainoir]

Images Reveal Aliens From The Prometheus Cutting Room Floor, Videos Give Us An FX How-To | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

[Sideshow Spock]

I rented this recently, and made the mistake of watching it late at nite when I was exhausted..

So the beginning scene with the sacrificial engineer was not him spreading the building blocks into Earth's waters, which would then become us?

Since the new DNA was all black and scary, it was actually Alien life taking hold?

There was a lot to like about the movie, but all in all it left me sorta flat. I'd give it a solid B.

[Nostalgiabuff]

i thought the opening scene was the engineer creating life on earth. that was human DNA developining in the water. remember, we are believed to come out of the water at some point in our eveolution. the aliens were somethign else they were messing with is how I interpreted it

[Toysyouhad.com]

B is about it for me, had some good stuff but a few holes as well. There was talk of a sequel at one point.

[Hector]

I personally loved Prometheus...it ties nicely with the Alien franchise...I myself will purchase the Blue-ray (I hope it has lots of extras).

Oh...I really can't add much to the discussion...you guys seem to be hitting all points nicely...good stuff, guys.

[Nostalgiabuff]

Hec, there are some good extras but I have not watched them all yet. i liked the movie a lot too. it's one of those movies you have to watch a few times to grasp what it all means

[Hector]

Exactly...well said.

[Bruce Banner]

Yeah, some really good extras on the Blu ray.

The Furious Gods documentary is great. And there are lots of enhancement pods like on the Alien anthology set.

The Peter Weyland Files are enlightening, adding to the overall story... little touches like Dr. Shaw apparently originally working for the Yutani corporation before being hired by Weyland Corp.
And text entries showing that Weyland knew about LV-426 as well as LV-223.
And a cool crossover text entry in which Peter Weyland clearly discusses Dr. Eldon Tyrell and his work on genetic replication from Blade Runner.

The official Fox press release for the Blu ray describes it as the "theatrical cut"... which kind of infers that there might be a director's cut available at some point in the future, too...


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