Pondering Prometheus

UPDATE: comingsoon.net have just released an interesting group of photos showing the 'synthetic' engineers in more detail, some information from Scott himself which proves some of my predictions to be correct and a photo from a scene cut from the movie which is quite intriguing, Enjoy!:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=91563

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So I went to see Prometheus recently and I do have to say that I very much enjoyed it. It's a deep, philosophical look into the ideas of creation and religion. But most of all it's a journey further into the universe Ridley Scott created over 30 years ago.

If you know nothing at all about this movie then here is a trailer for you:

Many people however have not been as impressed by the film as I was. They feel it has not held up to the promises made by Scott prior to its release. Scott told us quite clearly that this film was set in the universe within which the original Alien series was set, but it would not be as closely linked to the film for it to be considered to be a prequel in the way most prequels are.

I think this movie is everything Scott suggested it to be, and with a little bit of gap filling, it is quite clearly a whole lot more. It explains events leading up to the alien films and opens up a mass of new areas within which we can speculate where they plan to develop the universe in the future. This excites me very much.

I intend, in this post, to attempt to create a full 'potential' explanation for the film and will outline a few ways in which plot points, considered to be plot holes or events left unexplained, can be pieced together to form a logical explanation.

It is important to remember that this movie was written by Damon Lindelof, one of the minds behind the many mind boggling seasons of Lost. Therefore it is not unforeseeable that this movie may well be as mind boggling as Lost was at times.

Ok, as I previously stated some points I will discuss may only be 'potential' explanations for this film (I am in no way suggesting that this is 100% definitely correct as I have at no point conversed with Scott and Lindelof to check this all out). This explanation seems the most logical to me, but feel free to make your own conclusions as I may be entirely wrong.

This will quite likely be a lengthy post so it may be a good idea to grab yourself a big mug of tea/coffee/beer/wine and a pack of biscuits/crisps if you wish to continue...


Ok, are you settled and ready? Lets begin...

WARNING! SERIOUS SPOILERS LIE AHEAD! DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN PROMETHEUS AND THE ORIGINAL ALIEN FILMS!

You have been warned!


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Sorry about the lack of decent pictures, as its only just been released these were the best ones I could find.


Explaining Engineers

The first spanner I'm going to throw into the works is that I believe that we have observed more than one type of Engineer within this film. The Engineer we see in the opening scene, takes off his cloak to reveal himself to look fairly similar to us, completely skin.

'Original' Engineer

Whereas the other Engineers observed throughout the rest of the film are somewhat mechanical or synthetic, their appearance is less pristine and they appear to have a number of tubes or pipes embedded underneath their skin. I believe that these are the Engineers equivalent of our robots (like David). I would suggest that, like us, the Engineers began to experiment with the creation of life. Originally developing synthetic or robotic versions of themselves before developing a method for the true creation of life. However these 'synthetic' Engineer's are significantly more advanced than our robots. They are both organic and synthetic, and have their own DNA and potentially their own method for reproduction.

'Synthetic' Engineer

At the start of the film we see an 'Original' Engineer drinking some kind of metallic liquid, causing him to disintegrate and fall over the edge of a massive waterfall. We then see sections of his DNA being ripped apart and then new sections of DNA being formed from the components within the water. 

DNA reforming within the water.

What I would suggest we are seeing here is an event set millions of years ago on Earth. The Engineers, having developed a method for the true creation of life, have travelled to a distant planet (Earth) and are beginning the process by way of a ritualistic sacrifice. This method requires the sacrifice of one of the beings to supply the planet with the building blocks (DNA) from which life can evolve. The ship (as seen in the image below), on which they have travelled to the planet, then leaves the planet behind to give the process time to take hold and for new life forms to develop.

The 'Original' Engineer's Spaceship.

The 'original' Engineer's then, over thousands of years, return at various points to Earth to check up on us through our development and the development of the life which they created through the sacrifice of one of their own. During these times, they meet with small groups of ancient civilisations and communicate with them, informing them where they came from thus leading to the series of cave paintings being drawn over thousands of years.

Synthetic Rebellion

During this time, the 'synthetic' Engineer's rebel against their creators and break away from them to make it on their own as a species. This may be due to a large number of reasons however I think this may be down to some sort of jealousy over us taking their place. This could be backed up by the fact that later on in the film David turns to Shaw and suggests that all children want their parents to die.

With this in mind the 'synthetic' Engineer's travel to a different planet (The one on which the events in the film take place) and decide to develop a method to create their own life. They attempted to develop this based on the method used by their creators. They develop a substance similar to the metallic liquid consumed by the 'original' Engineer during the films opening sequence, however this substance fails to have the desired effect and does not create life, but mutates the life it comes into contact with into new, violent and destructive species based on the DNA of the organism with which the substance came into contact with.

This links in quite nicely with the myth associated with Prometheus in that Prometheus tried to steal fire from the gods, but instead ended up being punished by the gods and burning mankind with the fire he stole. The 'synthetic' engineers attempted to steal the process of creating life from their creators but instead, accidentally create something way more destructive.

Now here's where it gets a tad complex. As I already said above, the substance they created mutates the DNA of the organism it comes into contact with and creates something based on the sequences and types of DNA it comes into contact with. Therefore as the DNA of the 'synthetic' Engineer's is identical to our DNA (which is stated in the film), it is not illogical to assume that it would have identical effects on the 'synthetic' Engineer's as it does on us. So this would lead us to believe that the Pre-Alien or devolved Alien we see at the end of the film is not the first of its kind. But another occurrence of a mutated species which has come about due to the destructive substance in the past. (Feel free to read that bit again)

This would give us an explanation of why we saw a sculpture of our devolved Alien on the wall in the room with the big head and the vases of the destructive substance.

Pre-Alien sculpture from the 'tomb'

And would also explain how a Pre-Alien would have been able to evolve into the Xenomorph we know and love, in time to be implanted within an Engineer's (Space Jockey's) chest located on the ship discovered in the original Alien film. And then have time to fully 'fossilise' which is what is stated during the original Alien film. As there are only 30 years between the events of Prometheus and the first Alien film (definitely not enough time for fossilisation to occur) this would not be enough time for all this to happen if the Alien we see at the end of the movie is the first one.

Space Jockey from Alien

The 'synthetic' Engineer's become enraged due to the fact that they have not been able to create life like their creators and decide that they will use their destructive creation to destroy the human race. But before they are able to, something goes horribly wrong and their creation is leaked out into their population and a large number of their kind become impregnated with Pre-Aliens. This would explain the large number of Engineers piled up outside that door with gaping holes in their chests. The species remains quiet for thousands of years with at least one of their kind in hyper-sleep on the planet inside their ship.

Fast Forward to Now

Over these thousands of years we fully develop, create effective space travel and begin our expedition through space. We also discover the cave paintings drawn by the many civilisations before us and using our star-mapping technology, discover the system which they showed us and then mistake this for an invitation to come seek them out.

We then travel to the planet, enter the pyramid and open up the chamber disturbing the destructive substance, releasing it into the room. Again, as previously stated, the substance mutates the DNA of the organism it comes into contact with and the first organism it contacts are the 'earth worms'. These mutate into a completely new species which is a snake like creature which kills people by inserting themselves into peoples throats (not exactly a pleasant way to die really), goodbye Millburn.

Weird, mutated worm thing.

During this process, Fifield's helmet becomes sprayed with acid from the mutated worms blood and he falls face first into the destructive substance, goodbye Fifield.

David has collected a sample of the black goo in one of the vases and contaminates Dr. Holloway's drink with it. However, as it is in a small quantity it does not have an immediate effect but it slowly begins to irreversibly mutate his cells from the inside out.

Here again lies a complex connection between science fact and science fiction. In reality we have millions of micro-organisms living inside us at all times and have done ever since we were born. Each of these micro-organisms also has their own DNA and could also, quite easily be mutated by this substance. I propose that this is initially what happens to Dr. Holloway. During the first few hours of infection the micro-organisms inside his body begin to mutate and this is what we see crawling out of his eyeball. The substance has already taken hold of him and mutated a large number of his cells (including his sperm cells) by this time anyway, but we see the first manifestations of his contamination via the mutated organisms now growing inside him.

By this time, Dr. Holloway has impregnated Elizabeth Shaw and the giant face hugger is starting to grow inside her. Dr. Holloway's infection then becomes too severe and Meredith Vickers acquaints him with a flamethrower, goodbye Dr. Holloway.

All Hell Breaks Loose

Shaw then goes through the whole 'birthing' ordeal, which I think was more horrific than the chest-bursting scene from the original alien film. The giant face hugger then begins to grow inside the lab.

We then re-encounter Fifield. Fifield was killed by the acid burning through his suit, however the micro-organisms living inside him were still alive to be mutated. The micro-organisms work as a hive-mind not unlike the Rabies virus and the Ophiocordyceps fungus to enable them to survive, taking control of his body and causing him to go on a mad killing spree, killing a large percentage of the crew of the Prometheus.

By this point, David has discovered the 'synthetic' Engineer in hyper-sleep and wakes him up with Weyland and Shaw present. The newly awakened synthetic 'Engineer' becomes further enraged due to the fact that we have been able to create intelligent life when they weren't able to and proceeds to kill pretty much everyone else. He then sets about continuing the mission to wipe out the Human race and sets a course for Earth. Shaw convinces the captain to fly the Prometheus into the 'synthetic' Engineer's ship (which I may add is horse-shoe in shape, completely different to the 'original' Engineer's ship seen at the beginning of the film, further proof that they are different species) causing it to fall from the sky.

Vickers and Shaw run for their lives (in the most illogical of directions.. RUN TO THE SIDE!!!) and Shaw narrowly escapes with her life. She returns to the life-boat/escape-pod to find that the giant face hugger she gave birth to is now looking for a face to hug. The 'synthetic' Engineer hunts her down but ends up getting all cuddly with the giant face hugger and becomes impregnated with a Pre-Alien (but NOT the first one!)

Shaw and David leave the planet on board one of the 'synthetic' engineers spaceships in search of answers. Little do they know that the Engineer's they are in search of are not their true creators.

We then see the devolved Alien being born.

Awww, isn't he cute!

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Ok, so that is the end of my wild speculations. These are based on some science facts and some information gathered from the film and a few online forums and such. But let me know what you think, if you have any alternative suggestions feel free to post them! I'm open to input from anyone as it is possible that any number of my theories may be incorrect.