Ridley Scott’s “return to the Alien universe” in Prometheus has been the subject of unimaginable speculation ever since the film was revealed to tell a related story – as opposed to serving as an outright prequel. For months cinephiles have poured over Prometheus trailers and set images hoping for a clear picture of where, exactly, the highly-anticipated film would fit into the iconic story of the xenomorphs. Fortunately, the Prometheus marketing has been (for the most part) pretty subtle – flashing a variety of mysterious and tense shots entirely out of context – leaving speculators with little information to analyze.
Now that Prometheus (read our review) has officially been released, information about the secretive production has come flooding in – and we have a much clearer picture of how Prometheus is connected to Alien (and the larger Alien universe). To help steer discussion we’ve put together a lengthy analysis of Prometheus and explained a few of the plot points that might have been confusing to some moviegoers. Does our Prometheus explanation match your theory? Find out!
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A lot of names aren’t original in this movie. One example is the name “David”, the small robotic kid in A.I.-Artificial Intelligence.
It’s a nice name to hear, but seriously, lack of creativity.
David defeated Goliath when no man would stand and fight him. It is allegory for how mankind will defeat the engineers in a direct fight with them. It is also why the engineer freaked out and ripped his head off since if we can understand their language we can use their technology against them.
Big events have small beginings
Like many I have my own personal ideas but in my next post would also like to present a list of observable facts from the movies and specific question they arouse and possible answers to those questions.
The Engineers or Space Jockeys (here on in referred to as SJ) have been around for a long time and have had advanced technology for thousands of years . This is for certain. I would propose that it most likely they designed xenomorphs as a biological weapon for and intergalactic war,or possibly civil war amongst themselves or even just a means of eradicating life on other planets for before they occupied and/or terraformed them. I like to entertain the connections between the SJ and Predators just because their fun so in my mind the SJ long ago dropped off their bioweapon on the whatever the home planet of the predators was and left expecting the xenomorphs to wipe out the planet. The predators being as bad ass as they are were not overthrown but in turn killed all of the xenomorphs on their planet and when the a SJ ship returned to what they anticipated being a clean slate encountered the predators who in turn killed the SJ they encountered and took over their technology which would give them a huge leg up and a giant leap in technological advancement. This would explain why predators seemed primal but still posses advanced technology. This admittedly has little to do with prometheus directly but is a fun a side note that I have thought about long before the movie came out and this film does not contradict any said theories and I’m curious if anyone else agrees. More to come in the future about a break down of Prometheus, fact by fact!
I remember reading a story where the initial design for the xenos was to impregnate you, chest burst you and then die off after dropping them off on the targeted planet. They never died off but evolved and behaved like ants or bees and deelop hives. Maybe there is some ant or Bee DNA involved with the Xenos. You have the queen effect, and hive effect, except for thankfully these things cant fly like bees but they do swarm like bees when they attack. their natural movement are like ants though when they head towards their target.
As far as the Predators, and I love these Space bad asses. One has to assume that because of their appearance, that they werent always the organized, intellectual group of lizards that we see them as, and some elite alien race taught them to be this way, perhaps the Space jOckeys arch enemies, and by teaching the predators technology and organizing them and maybe implenting that honor system the predatos, they trained the predators and after the space jockeys defeated that race the predators took revenge and the spae jockeys never saw it coming. So as the predators desire the ultimate hunt, they find that the xenos are a superior hunt, they continue to hunt humans simply because although humans are not the physical match the xenos are, they can be treacherous and cunning as well.
this seams plausible, isn’t there a “space Jockey” in the movie “predators” ?
@JImmy – Personally I like your theories, as they are fun, but not sure if that’s what most fans would like since most people seemed to not enjoy the AvP movies (though I still did). Maybe it should be an aside in a Prometheus sequel that the bioweapon that are the Aliens are used upon the Predator race…or that the technology is known to the Predator race..but I wish there to still be some loose connection without totally disavowing the AvP or other Alien films!
The part about the Predators is genius! I would love to see a movie like that.
I agree with Ur scenario of the Predator tech acquierment since it is well know that all of their tech is stolen. The SJ connection up 2 a point it sounds very good. But I tend to think of the PREDATORS as another weapons project maybe a foot soldier solution for the ALIEN problem gone wrong. If they were to have killed SJ´s the SJ would have been their prized trophies on the soft fleshed dept. The SJ being much smarter than us. They R also TELEPATHIC and many times physically stronger than Humans. that being said their skulls would have been a grad prize and #1 in their exhibits. Thats what I believe that they had a truce or some sort of alliance???.
If you want information about the xeno species I recommend to real Alien Steel Egg. It predates prometheous and it fully explains the aliens, engineers, and the reason and how the aliens were created. The movies shows many sences that are written in the book, so i believe the director may have read steel egg and poof, prometheous is made. I loved the movie cant wait to see the sequel.
I read the novel best one I’ve read before reading the female war, and earth hive or harvest and that other book in that series
at the same time, after reading steel egg, had he gone along with some of what wasin that novel, there would have been a much better movie. I dont think this movie was anything like the novel
“This would indicate that xenomorphs pre-date the Prometheus event…”
Er…now THIS has already been established by the AvP movies. Whether you like them or not. They are part of the legacy. The Xenomorphs definitely predate 2083… They’ve been on Earth for millennia, hunted by adolescent Predators. Nuff said…
Haha. This wouldn’t be the first movie to indicate a prior “sequel” wasn’t in continuity.
Thought they disavowed the AVP movies, well mostly Ridley vs Cameron, but aren’t they to be considered not canon?
I think at this point it’s really hard to decide what is and isn’t canon because not the idea evolved over decades with many different people along the way adding pieces of the story. Even the original writers of Alien were just trying to make one sci-fi horror film and collaborated with others along the way so there was never a master plan or story teller like George Lucas and his Star Wars universe. The same with Predator- the ideas evolved until eventually they converged in comics and video games and ultimately movies. In the end each movie is self contained and I think a lot of the issues arising now are how does Prometheus even make sense in it’s own message. I still plan on doing a fact by fact break down in order the movie presents them, perhaps one post at a time. Lets start with the opening scene in prometheus:
1. A robed figure approaches the waters edge with a space vessel retreating into the sky. The figured de-robes revealing a SJ who opens a metal container revealing a black liquid that can only be described as if it had live worms in it thrashing about. He drinks said liquid and he violently dissolves whilst falling into the raging water where upon with intense magnification you can see his DNA (later on in the movie revealed to be an a exact match to our DNA) also dissolving and then reforming with other DNA and then forming cells which split and multiply. Enter opening title “PROMETHEUS”
First off did I leave anything pertinent out?
Questions that arise from this sequence alone:
Was the SJ on Earth?
When in Earth time did this occur?
Why did he seemingly voluntarily commit suicide?
Was the retreating ship occupied by other SJ?
What was the black liquid?
Why was in necessary for him to fall into water?
What other DNA did his DNA recombine with?
What was the final product, i.e, the splitting cells?
If the SJ DNA and our own are an exact match wouldn’t it recombining with outside DNA in the water negate this fact?
Please feel free to address any or all of these questions and I will continue my posts also.
I think I can answer your questions:
Was the SJ on Earth?
–YES, this is earth in it’s early terraformation.
When in Earth time did this occur?
–See above answer.
Why did he seemingly voluntarily commit suicide?
–In order to create, you have to destroy. His DNA mixes with water and creates what eventually becomes OUR DNA.
Was the retreating ship occupied by other SJ?
–Yes, the ship dropped him off in order to populate the earth. Thinking biblically, we are created from the earth and formed from the clay and the dust. SJ’s DNA had to be mixed with the earth in order to create the new species that would become us, a water-based life form.
What was the black liquid?
–The black liquid was the catalyst… again, one must destroy in order to create.
Why was in necessary for him to fall into water?
–SJ’s DNA had to be mixed with the earth in order to create the new species that would become us, a water-based life form.
What other DNA did his DNA recombine with?
–Looking at the movie shows that every life form that was created looked a little different from the next. So, it is likely that his DNA created the animals of the land, sea and air, which obviously includes Human life.
What was the final product, i.e, the splitting cells?
–There is no final product, as evolution is infinite.
If the SJ DNA and our own are an exact match wouldn’t it recombining with outside DNA in the water negate this fact?
–Remember, the SJ DNA was broken down into smaller parts while suspended in the water, and split into many other parts… a strand of SJ DNA matched ours, not the entire composition.
There is a great link here http://thewertzone.blogspot.in/2012/06/filling-blanks-tying-prometheus-to.html which is used by the official Prometheus movie site to explain timeline and events.
The postulation that the Engineer on LV426 originated from LV 223 troubles me. On the one hand it seems like a nice fit, but then you have to consider the fossilization of this Engineer. If he is from the same timeline as LV 223 why aren’t the dead Engineers there fossilized?
It seems a sad comment about the SJ’s that on both moons, they created the xenomorphs as a weapon and they got out of control and killed all the Engineers. That’s two for two that we know of. So much for advanced civilizations with Level 5 quarantine procedures.
Everybody is hung up on the fossilization of the LV426 SJ.
Isn’t the atmosphere on LV426 much different than LV223?
Maybe that played into the conditions of the corpse?
If we’re so worried about the fossil why aren’t we concerned about the much bigger size of the ’79 Jockey?
in Alien they *thought* it was fossilized. they didn’t know they were looking at what’s essentially a space suit, as we found out in Prometheus. so forget about fossilized anything, for all we know there’s a squishy engineer in that suit in whatever state of decay…
or…OR!
it’s stitched-together David who was piloting the ship, and the xenomorphs found some way to impregnate him which is WHY THEY TOOK ON SUCH BIOMECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN ALIEN(S/3/ETC).
BOOM.
Now THAT is some good stuff!!
I’m with you on the David impregnation!
Lets combine that with my idea that Shaw is the one who makes Nostromo go to LV426 and cracking on some scripts!!
What if the events that occurred between xenomorphs/eggs and the Engineer on LV-426 happened eons before the events of Prometheus/Alien?
So, why do the 35,000 year old cave paintings in Scotland and elsewhere direct early humans to a bioweapons lab on LV223 that would not be operational until ~33,000 years into the future?
That is a good point. I think there were multiple worlds indicated in the various paintings/cartouches/carvings, and maybe LV223 was the closest to earth. Seems very convenient though, doesn’t it?
Let me introduce the idea that perhaps LV223 was not a bioweapons facility until more recently, maybe circa 2000 years ago, and that maybe it was intended to be something else before? Perhaps the Prometheus-Engineer, initially dressed up as a monk, is a part of a faction that believes in an ideology of spreading life, while within their race they are warring amongst their own people, another sect that seeks out to destroy. The destroyers usurped the moon base (or at the minimum the location the humans landed to investigate, they didn’t investigate any other portions of the planet mind you). Notice the Prometheus-Engineer’s dress and ship were different, even if it was eons ago. The destructive engineers hate anything that has to do with the creations of the other group. Just a thought that they may not all be united in idealogy, and that the moon base may actually have been some kind of welcoming station. If not that, then a warning by the benevolent creation engineers.
I think that we may be looking at the “bioweapon” the wrong way, and we are being served a red herring. Think of it this way: a sperm and an egg can TECHNICALLY be considered bioweapons. That terraform may not have been anything more than an ovary or an incubator; a uterus. After all, SJ had to combine himself with the “black liquid” in the beginning of the film in order to create human life, again, alluding to the thought of having to destroy in order to create. Perhaps, they were really using that planet as a hatching ground for new species in order to populate new worlds. As for the violent nature of it all, remember the comment in the beginning of the film, the trick is not to mind the pain.
Maybe the early humans asked the SJ’s “Where are we from?” and the SJ’s showed them a star map to the black goo then the early humans just drew it on the wall. Maybe there are warehouse chambers that contain the human black goo and we did not see it in the movie.
I think there are at least two different types of Engineer and the one at the beginning is like a religious engineer and the one in the cryotube is just a like an aggro army type of guy who wakes up and finds himself surrounded by enemies.
It seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy that David would make the comment, “Don’t all children want to kill their parents?” The Engineers create a bioweapon to wipe out life on Earth; Earthlings finally get there after being directed to come, and the Earthlings win and decide to send one of their ships back to the home planet to kill all the “parents” who created them. I would think that a civilization that advanced would be more evolved morally and not consider wiping out whole civilizations on a whim.
We’ve been more advanced during the last 100 years than at any time in our past, and we have used it for malicious combinations of hate and violence. These things are human, and despite how much we would all like to believe star trek, we don’t ever seem to grow less violent.
After reading these comments and doing some research on what the original Prometheus entailed I (among many others) have formulated my own theory which I present to everybody. Prometheus had many versions but a common thread was that Prometheus was a god that created man or gave man sacred knowledge against the rest of the gods wishes and was punished for his actions. Applied to the movie, I believe that the Engineer in the opening sequence WAS Prometheus. This seems glaring in my opinion seeing how the “Prometheus Engineer” was alone and the title PROMETHEUS followed directly after the scene. The engineers created the xenos as biological weapons, perhaps even in a civil war against other Engineers, and may have created humans as the hosts or test subjects for their weapons. The “Prometheus Engineer” traveled to Earth and either created humans in fear of his own species destroying itself and wanting their genes to live on or traveled to Earth to warn these human test subjects out of pity or a feeling of equality and gave them information about where they came from so that they could one day do something about it. Either way there was only one Engineer that told the many cultures of the earth over many years the same story and gave them all the star map so that one day they could travel there and confront their makers. The “Prometheus Engineer” was found out by the rest of the Engineers and was punished for his actions- making him drink the black goo. This would explain why the Engineer at the end of the movie was not happy to see humans- there weren’t suppose to know about their purpose or weren’t suppose to even exist in the first place. And this would explain why the Engineer cargo ship was heading back to Earth for the destruction of humans by xenos- either to put them to their ultimate purpose our destroy them because they weren’t suppose to exist in the first place.
Things obviously went wrong on LV-223 a long time ago. Either through mishandling of their own creations or perhaps by sabotage by an unclarified source.
As far as the giant squid like face hugger, I would merely suggest that the xeno that bursts from the Engineers chest is a juvenile queen alien. Large face hugger, large xeno and large output of more xenos. This makes sense to me as I was never clear myself about the ultimate source of queen xenos. And my thoughts as far as from an Engineer stand point- why make one xeno at a time? Engineer one queen and the rest takes care of itself. Anyway thats my thoughts for now, feedback welcome.
@JImmy dude I like your theory a lot that really is an interesting way to look at the human/engineer relationship and that would explain why he showed the humans the constellation
Watch David explain all the plot holes of Prometheus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrRGRSLI-0w
whilst I hate the “the whole planet is one big city” exposition in films, if you need to write a page to “explain” the film then the film is a failure!!
Ridley, sack the two writers and get new guys.
I think Del Toro’s Pacific Rim will be a much better movie!!
I’m guessing that the xenomorph at the end of Prometheus is not related to the xenomorph from the Alien series and if a sequel to Prometheus is made will further distance itself from it. Perhaps the egg>facehugger>xenomorph>queen from the Alien series is the result of a merger between the Engineers and another spacefaring race other than humans that occurred much further back in time?
Ok so my question is simple (apologies if it has been asked and answered already)
The premise of the film is that due to multiple archaeological discoveries a common “star chart” is uncovered. This star chart spans thousands of years of human history. The star chart is an “invitation” (hopefully to meet our makers)
It is noted that the ONLY star system we can see from earth that matches the uncovered star map is L233. The Captain of the Prometheus calls the planet a bio weapons facility. So my question is this why would the race that created us bother to travel back to earth and educate our ancestors about weapons facility? Surely they would leave us directions to their home world?
This piece of the plot makes NO sense
any thoughts?
Exactly! It ISN’T a bioweapons facility… our warmongering race is not thinking clearly and the director is serving us a red herring. Think of it this way: since a sperm and an egg can TECHNICALLY be considered bioweapons, that terraform may not have been anything more than an ovary or an incubator; a uterus, so to speak. There are several clues to this; SJ had to combine himself with the “black liquid” in the beginning of the film in order to create human life, again, alluding to the thought of having to destroy in order to create; when even a drop of the black liquid was consumed by a human, the transformation of a new species began once again. It is a sperm, the canisters are testicles and the SJs are the matrons of the universe…
Just noticed this article now. Good stuff here.
Can someone explain something to me? How come the engineer doesn’t wake up at any point before this event? Do they need someone to wake them or release them from the sleeping chamber?
Regarding Shaw’s squid-baby/proto-facehugger/bodyhugger/calamari indigestion – Shaw was the Queen, and queens lay eggs. this creature was in an embryonic sac (or egg) before breaking through. I can only say exposure, and reproducing exposure, to the black goo has certain effects that at first glance seem unpredictable compared to the final, more stable life cycle we see in the xenomorphs of the alien movies.
I don’t know if you have seen this or not, but I love it!
http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/prometheus_species_origin_explained
Probably the biggest questions left unanswered is why the Engineers created life on Earth and why were they going to wipe it out. This is how I see it:
Life was created on Earth for one purpose … weapons development. There is a clue pointing to Xenomorphs existing before the one in the end of Prometheus. There is a shrine/statue of one in the sealed room with the leaky “black goo” canisters (http://www.meh.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/meh.ro9566.jpg). The Engineers created life on Earth, checked in from time to time, and then were going to release the black goo resulting in the creation of massive amounts of Xenomorphs. The cave painting pointing to LV-223 ties in to the meaning of life on Earth. Test subjects for goo on LV-223. The black goo infected males, who had sex with females, which produced face huggers, which will result in Xenomorphs. There obviously is still room for speculation:
1. Engineers didn’t have a queen and this is the only way they could make Xenomorphs
2. This was a new weapon they wanted to test
Option 1 seems more reasonable due to the thousands of years needed to carry this out. If they simply wanted to destroy life on Earth they could just use some toxin to kill everyone, but they were going to use a substance that creates Xenomorphs.
This could potentially lead to an explanation to the events on LV-426 in Alien. Ridley Scott says “That ship [in Alien] happened to be a brother to the ship that you see that comes out of the ground at the end [of Prometheus]” ( http://collider.com/ridley-scott-prometheus-2-sequel-interview/170207/#more-170207). The Xenomorph at the end of Prometheus being of Human face hugger and Engineer incubation could have created a Xenomorph capable of laying eggs. The Engineers at some point come back to LV-223 (maybe after David and Shaw visit their planet) and collect eggs on a ship. That ship then crashes on LV-426.
The problem here and with Ridley Scott’s last movie, Robin Hood, is this two part business, what made the original Alien a hit was the fact is had a story that raised questions and not answer everything in between lets us use our imaginations and conceive those possibilities!
This film had the chance to provide some of those answers instead we get this two part system and this just shows its no longer about movie making and telling a story its just simply make as much money with this franchise and this is why this film isn’t great with the storyline, its flawed even though it plays on those unanswered questions raised by the first film.
What I find difficult to understand why such great directors who made such great films such as Alien and Blade Runner end up ruining it, its as if two different people wrote the created two separate films i.e. Star Wars originals were smart and brilliant and the later generation were just hallow and pointless?!
Well, look at it this way, Ridley Scott used Prometheus to raise more questions about the series from the film itself, after going to see Prometheus I sat down with my dad and we both watched all of the Aliens… Prometheus was made to present more questions and answer a few of them.
This may have already been mentioned elsewhere but of the PROMETHEUS articles here and referenced here (like the “Prometheus Explained: Unraveling The Unanswered Questions” listed in this pages AROUND-THE-WEB area) none have IMHO been as logically dead on as the below one from The Video ETA website explaining the setup or first scene with the Engineer who drinks the black goo and is the spark that starts life on Earth for Humans. This persons take is that this was an accident, that the engineers did not plan on starting human life on this planet and that in turn provides a more logical explanation for the rest of the actions in the film.
You can read the full explanation at http://videoeta.com/news.html?id=3466&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_name=2012-06-15&utm_content=news-feature
The “Engineers” might not have done any of it on purpose, they may have found that stuff and it got out of control. The idea of them creating humans, being god-like beings, and possessing all this intelligence comes from speculation by the characters in the movie.
I agree, great stuff here.
I raise another fundamental question: fertilisation happens when sperm and egg meets. Entering the gastrointestinal tract will not fertilise anyone !With an open (and sick) mind you can say that your belly can be a comfy place for some alien fetus to mature and grow, but the DNA informations will not combine between the unfortunate host and the invader, there can not be a new life-form generated this way.
Also, many of you (and probably the screenwriters as well) assume that the Engineer race has been consistently working on a grand plan for hundred (even thousand ?) years (either it was the creation or using us as guinea-pigs for their bioweapons). But if we look at ourselves we have to draw the conclusion that civilazations who have the capabilities to advance are inevitably diverse and they are very unlikely to be able to stick to a general, grand plan for hundreds (thousands ?) of years.
(Or am I just being a bit cynic about ourselves here …?)
No. Just shut up. No.
Your fundamental question is non-sequitor as it belies the fact that what was going on had nothing at all to do with copulation and everything to do with the invasion of a foreign, parasitic, organism into a host.
test
Trying to get a link to this from emails….sorry
I found something interesting which was a post about 5 years ago regarding the origin of Xenomorphs and space jockeys with Ripley having commentary from Alien
“Ridley Scott in his director’s commentary for the first Alien DVD, said that Space Jockeys created Xenomorphs as biogenic weapons to fight an ancient war and According to the book “Giger’s Alien,” the eggs were originally meant to be housed in a completely separate architectural structure, shaped in the form of a massive pyramid. This would imply the previous existence of a native civilization, wiped out by their reverence for the creatures.”
And 5 years later we have Prometheus so I think this would really help aid the theories
I can dig that!
Maybe the engineers found the original alien species and caught one and experimented with its DNA. Hence creating a living biological weapon. It also ties in that xenomorphs pre date the events 8n Prometheus.
Maybe the engineers found the original alien species and caught one and experimented with its DNA. Hence creating a living biological weapon. It also ties in that xenomorphs pre date the events in Prometheus.
Why the engingeers wanted to kill us.
If you allow for AvP: Between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago, Predators arrived on earth and taught us engineering, agriculture, and how to become cool little xenomorphs for them to hunt.
The engineers might not have liked this for several reasons:
1. This could lead to us become a threat to their existence (children killing parents)
2. Engineer DNA infected by xenomorphs could be considered an abomination
3. We could be considered corrupted by the Predators arrival(violent tendencies and such)
4. We may have been a genetic Wildlife preserve to be protected from xenomorph/Predator involvement. When contaminated, we would need to be destroyed.
Given the timelines, this is plausible I believe. Any thoughts?
There is a general consensus that AVP has no bearing on this film, or any of the other Alien movies at this point. Assuming David wasn’t lying about them wanting to go to earth to kill all human life (I think we can say his word is about 50/50), they may have had some reason to do so two-thousand years ago or the pilot who they woke up could have just decided to do so on his own.
You have to figure cave drawings or not, if he was knocked out for 2000 years he was not expecting to see humans on that planet when he woke up. Considering something else killed a bunch of them on that planet, he may have just freaked out and thought the humans were coming to finish the job.