They're Remaking 'Alien' -- the 'Prometheus' thread

the last scene of prometheus really just plays like fan fiction, doesn't it? it doesn't really make any sense in the context of the movie beyond just saying SEE??

x-post

Well, I guess I never read it that way. The whole thing looks to me as though the company knew exactly what they were sending them to get and it wasn't a random incident. I could be wrong, but seeing Ash's defence of the thing every single step of the way, including letting it in and stopping Dr. Kananga from killing it, which is all odd if they're just following company policy to investigate an anomaly.

However, if this is the case, the company/computer quickly figure out that it is important they keep the alien (see what mother says), so important that killing the crew is less important. This being the case, it still seems weird that once everyone dies (to all intents and purposes) the company then loses interest until 57 years later when Ripley turns up.

how do we know they lost interest? how do we know they knew any of what had happened?

the movie makes it very clear that they were on another job, and that there is a sort of priority override (unknown to the human crew) that kicks in whenever one of the company's ships runs into signs of alien life.

But they didn't lose interest at all. They didn't find out about it until they found Ripley and heard her report, and once she told them, it was a matter of days before all hell had broken loose down on the planet.

Nostromo coming home>>distress signal/wake up>> crew member impregnated/alien hatches>> computer changes mission to bring back alien at all costs>>>everyone dies, Ripley blows up ship, floats off>>>>>

57 years pass

company finds Ripley, learn she found an alien on this planet, blew everything up>>company tells colonists on planet to investigate alleged alien/eggs, they all die/birth aliens>>>Ripley and marines go to planet to "rescue" colonists but really to get the company an alien.

So I can see this if we assume that Ash/Mother are acting completely autonomously from the company... The whole 'crew expendible' thing is something that Mother decides on its own and Ash carries out based on that? My assumption is that instructions are being received from the company.

x-post okay I see that's what you think. Still a bit odd that they would let the computer act autonomously.

I assumed there were standing orders from the company. Like, do your job, but if you find an alien, your mission has changed.

PS Don't tell the crew, because they are expendable.

Yes maybe. I'll give up after this, but it's still a bit odd that the computer wouldn't inform Earth and if they were really interested, why not send something better equipped along to check it out. They indicate in Aliens that it's possible to communicate with far away places in reasonable time (i.e. they've lost contact with the colony).

Oh dear, something very very film dorky suggested itself to me just now.

So David8 really loves Lawrence of Arabia and presumably thinks David Lean is all right for a human director and etc.

David Lean's final film project, which was just about set to film before he died, was an adaptation of...Nostromo.

Hehe, that is film dorky!

Yes maybe. I'll give up after this, but it's still a bit odd that the computer wouldn't inform Earth and if they were really interested, why not send something better equipped along to check it out. They indicate in Aliens that it's possible to communicate with far away places in reasonable time (i.e. they've lost contact with the colony).

But Ripley's not on earth in "Aliens," they're somewhere out in space, presumably not far from the colony. As far as I remember, in the first, second and this new one, no one ever contacts or talks to earth.

xpost whoa

SUPER dorky

^^^OTM

crew of nostromo/Mother are not in contact with earth

xxp

Just wandered next door to check:

special order 937

science officer only

nostromo rerouted

to new co-ordinates

investigate lifeform. Gather specimen

priority one

insure return of organism

for analysis

all other considerations secondary

crew expendable

What else did Mother tell you?

Also I hope you didn't turn your back on Ripley this time.

KILL ASH

Which I didn't remember - like the rest of y'all I thought everything happened in response to finding an alien at a random distress call.

I did think it was Earth in Aliens right enough, though it's never stated. I guess the point is the company rather than Earth though xxxp.

Also, thanks Andrew, I knew there was some sort of conspiracy in there. Shakey, you are entirely right about (certainly my) shit memory. I only watched it last night!

Alien was far more 70s anti-corporate than anti-govt, tho I always got the vibe that by that point in the future there was probably little difference.

By Alien Resurrection the tide's shifted and Weyland had been bought by Wal-Mart

really

For all I remember of that piece of crap, that may be right!

Which I didn't remember - like the rest of y'all I thought everything happened in response to finding an alien at a random distress call.

― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, June 12, 2012 6:00 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it DID! but special order 937 is a standing order that applies to just that situation

Some sound design talk:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/06/sound-of-prometheus/

i wish that url just lead to an mp3 of a bronx cheer

Prometheus: The SmellOVision Experience

lol s1ocki

the movie makes it very clear that they were on another job, and that there is a sort of priority override (unknown to the human crew) that kicks in whenever one of the company's ships runs into signs of alien life.

Yeah, except … it's established in dialogue that Dallas had previously run five missions with another science officer, who was replaced two days before the Nostromo took off by Ash. The Company at least anticipated something was up, or they would not have hastily arranged for Ash to be on the mission.

I'm also pretty sure that the establishing shot of the space station where Ripley wakes up in Aliens implies that it's orbiting Earth.

Morbz were the Charlie Chan films a franchise y/n?

I assumed there were standing orders from the company. Like, do your job, but if you find an alien, your mission has changed.

One of my favorite throw-away lines in Aliens is the reference to previous "bug-hunts" - the Marines get called in to mop up the blowback from previous Special Order 937s.

HUDSON: Is this going to be a stand-up fight, Sir, or another bug-hunt?

GORMAN: All we know is that there's still no contact with the colony and that a xenomorph may be involved.

WIERZBOWSKI: A what?

HICKS (to Wierzbowski; low): It's a bug-hunt.

I prefer the cloudy conspiracy - The Company knows about this evil weapon alien and sends nostromo towards it (we don't know how The Company knows, or its exact financial reasoning, & we don't know if the purported, completed mining mission is just flim-flam) - to the algorithm explanation - 'in any circumstances in which a ship locates possible alien life, send the crew towards it, get the alien and sacrifice the crew if necessary.'

But it's slightly undecidable, right? & that faint incoherence and mystery is nr the heart of How Alien Works.

It is why I love Alien, the mystery.

I haven't seen P yet, I know it is going to break my fucking heart.

(xps, yes - Ash-replacement implies conspiracy too)

The Mother message reroutes the spaceship and says to collect the organism. How did it know there was an organism? All that was visible was a 'distress' call.

it says that BEFORE they find the organism? really?

pretty sure it doesnt!

No it doesn't.

sounds like plot holes don't jump out at you so much when the movie doesn't suck

Pretty sure a distress call implies another lifeform.

Mother receives the original distress signal and wakes up the crew and sends them down to the planet. Distress signal contained a "warning", as revealed afterwards and discovered by Ripley. So Mother deciphers the warning, determines an alien is involved, re-routes ship according to standing order and wakes up crew

xps

alien does not have plot holes it has constructive zones of indeterminacy

zones of constructive indeterminacy

Also, when Ash 'dies', he seems to know all about the Alien, despite never having actually seen it, except when they're all eating noodles.

Though why a badass Engineer would send a warning call when he crashed is anyone's guess. Maybe he also took off from the "Prometheus" planet, with alien cooties, then activated the distress signal when he had a hunch a giant monster was about to burst from his belly? And he realized it was so bad he needed to warn everyone not to come close? Except the stupid humans he created and guided to this part of space in the first place?

(This movie messes everything up)

pretty sure that counts as seeing it xp

the thing about the replacement of Ash is an odd detail, but it doesn't necessarily prove an a priori conspiracy (which raises more questions than it answers - if the company knew where the alien was, why bother with the distress signal pretext etc.)

xp

ya that doesnt really prove anything

I prefer the cloudy conspiracy - The Company knows about this evil weapon alien and sends nostromo towards it (we don't know how The Company knows, or its exact financial reasoning, & we don't know if the purported, completed mining mission is just flim-flam) - to the algorithm explanation - 'in any circumstances in which a ship locates possible alien life, send the crew towards it, get the alien and sacrifice the crew if necessary

I think the mining mission is legit, but my takeaway is that The Company knew what route the Nostromo was taking and took advantage of it to place Company Man/Robot Ash onboard. From the shooting script...

RIPLEY: What is Special Order 937.

ASH: You know I can't tell you that.

RIPLEY: Then there's no point in talking to you. Pull the plug.

ASH: Special Order 937 in essence asked me to direct the ship to the planet, investigate a life form, possibly hostile and bring it back for observation. With discretion, of course.

RIPLEY: Why? Why not tell us.

ASH: Would you have gone.

PARKER: It wasn't in the contract.

ASH: My very point.

RIPLEY: They wanted to investigate the Alien. No matter what happened to us.

ASH: That's unfair. Actually, you weren't mentioned in the order.

LAMBERT: Those bastards.

ASH: See it from their point of view. They didn't know what the Alien is.

Dudes, no. A standing order is "in the following situation, take the following action". A special order is "do this now". The special order says reroute to following co-ordinates -> either they know about the planet (ash put on board for this reason) or this special order comes about after the message is decoded. They were definitely sent there for the alien.