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

andrew otm. after puzzling over clues through my first couple viewings, i eventually decided that the company probably knew in advance about the distress beacon and intentionally set up the nostromo to "accidentally" discover it (i assume that no one knew what sent it or what they might find on the planetoid). the last-minute addition of ash to the crew roster is the biggest indication that they don't just happen to stumble into their fate. and special order 937 reads more like a specific mission than something that just kicks in under certain circumstances, imo. agree that it's all pretty vague, though.

important questions to be answered in prometheus sequel

1) are there space jockey women

2) do they have hair

I really liked this! I guess the general consensus is not positive--but I got a kick out of the double edged sword of the "promethean" urge to know (even David's curiosity). I like that it sets up all these big epic questions only to answer with "there is only death here."

Somewhere there's an 1979ish interview with Ridley where he mentions (muses?) that the Company has sent out multiple crews to investigate multiple finds in the hopes of bringing something

I should that the bait-and-switch of the set up and delivery (my dad immediately commented "that didn't answer anything!") def seemed deliberate and kinda perversely satisfying. About as much as I could hope for from a high concept sci fi thriller.

Certainly this show's Ridley's had a pretty consistent idea of where he wanted to go with it:

http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/831

I'm totally OK with the GRAND SCHEME being mysterious and unexplained or even corny, but the small, scene to scene details like the idiotic, entirely unbelievable behavior of the crew and clumsy revelations are what really killed this for me.

I am going to wait for on-demand at home for this. I think the idea of a space jockey prequel is just something that was way too sexy in my head to be satisfied by anything real - had I my druthers, this would be a giant flop of epic proportions (John Carter!!!! Speed Racer!!!! Blade Runner!!!! ok and I guess it would also have just been called Space Jockey!!!! because all my fave flops share dactyl titles that I can add many bang bangs to the end of) wherein the space jockeys are the main characters and the plot would probably go along the lines of Project X with a dash of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, except xenomorphs in place of simians. So it's not that, obviously, and so, with lowered expectations, I will wait.

I did enjoy the long bad review by the archeologist guy whose name I forgot. Discussing his point re: holographic spaceship interfaces that get replaced with 1979 technology in the future gave me a chance to bring up the antikythera mechanism in conversation the other day.

I totally googled antikythera mechanism. That's cool!

so I have a t-shirt with big cooper black letters that says "Language is just math that's hard for engineers to do" - if I got another one that said "science fiction wishes it came up with the antikythera mechanism," which t-shirt would be the best

I love the idea in Dune of computers once ruining humanity, so machines from then on had to be simple and purely mechanical.

In Alien I feel like the shittiness of the tech makes "Mother" seem more intimidating; like there's a huge, powerful computer but we can only tap into it in limited ways.

xp - i dunno, probably that "clowns will eat me" one

I'm totally OK with the GRAND SCHEME being mysterious and unexplained or even corny, but the small, scene to scene details like the idiotic, entirely unbelievable behavior of the crew and clumsy revelations are what really killed this for me.

― circa1916, Tuesday, June 12, 2012 8:23 PM (36 minutes ago)

oatey emm

like there's a huge, powerful computer but we can only tap into it in limited ways w/ a trs-80

I totally googled antikythera mechanism. That's cool!

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, June 12, 2012 8:28 PM (38 minutes ago)

Yeah, have heard about that thing a few times but had forgotten the name. A great find.

it's cool but also pretty hard to believe. not saying i don't believe it, just in a "truth is stranger than fiction" sort of way. and in a "i wonder what other crazy inventions are lost to the sands of time" sort of way too.

The Great Big Grondologer

Slightly more seriously, my other favorite thing along those lines is the Baghdad Battery:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery

Both it and the Antikythera Mechanism I learned about from this so thanks Arthur C Clarke:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke%27s_Mysterious_World

i was searching for the baghdad battery just now! i forgot what it was called!

i think i learned about it from the book of that show. did it have a crystal skull on the cover?

The very same. I think I have it around somewhere still.

oh right, here it is

http://sireadair.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/mystworldcoverskull350w.jpg

This may be the first movie that I've totally agreed with every criticism entirely, yet enjoyed the picture 100%.

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

― a dense custard of infinity (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:30 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is the message Shaw sends at the end of Prometheus intended to tie in with this message Mother picks up? Think I'd probably prefer if it wasn't.

Nope, different planet.

Yeah I thought they were probably different planets or at least not necessarily the same one. Wonder how widespread the alien bio-engineered killing machine usage was supposed to be?
Though of course once you have a mating pair they can perpetuate indefinitely. Or at least I'm assuming a queen needs an inseminator or whatever.

Haven't read this thread, so someone else might have said this already but... did anyone else notice that the alien ships were exactly the same crescent shape as the design on the ELIZABETH SHAW mint crisp box? Spooky!

http://www.yourhamper.com/uploads/images/large/ezshdarmi175_g.jpg

Also, why is David called David? Considering the all the other heavy-handed allusions in this thing, why did they choose that one name? Was he supposed to be jewish?

Maybe Peter Weyland is Saul.

This is why he took the crucifix away right?

http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/images/symbols/crescent-200.gif

^ Crescent-shaped spacecraft descending from the stars, engineers = muslims?

Ash/Bishop/Call/David

it crossed my mind that "David" might be a reference to
http://spielbergfanclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Osment-in-Ai-with-bear.jpg

probably not though

http://www.christusrex.org/www2/art/images/carav13.jpg

The other thing is that David originally decapitated Goliath, but in Prometheus, Goliath decapitates David

There's also a David Bowie, Man Who Fell To Earth thing going on I guess.

Or then again, maybe Ridley just wanted to reference 80s biker-noise band the Head of David at the end?

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_14.81.1.jpg

One thing I did enjoy was the very Blakean mass of the engineers

Fassbender:

The inspir­a­tion we used was David Bowie and The Man Who Fell to Earth, and for films there were the rep­lic­ants in Blade Run­ner. Greg Lou­ganis, in terms of phys­ic­al­ity. Lawrence of Ara­bia of course, and Peter O’Toole as Lawrence, and Dirk Bog­arde. They were the ingredients.

Aha - thanks!

all my fave flops share dactyl titles that I can add many bang bangs to the end of

Many xp but this is an amazing

I thought of a few fixes that would have maintained the wonkiness of the film but probably resulted in something more satisfying or maybe interesting:

1) More David at the beginning, developing his character, programming, motivation, perhaps hinting at his malfunction and or development into an intellectually curious being.
2) Reveal more clearly that Charlize Theron is an android, too, and that she and David are in a sense competing for the affections of their "father" (parallels human search for creators as well)
3) End the film similarly, but kill every human and leave David and Theron stranded on the planet forever, as eternal Adam and Eves stuck on an inhospitable to everyone but them Eden (ironic, given they are among the first non-humans).
4) Have the Engineer successfully ship take off but crash land on the planet from "Alien," leaving that the sole explicit connection to the series.

For a movie about finding your creators, it makes sense that it should focus on the androids at least as much as the stupid people. And by leaving any overt connection to the "Alien" franchise until the end, people would have been all, huh, wow! Instead of, man, come on.

Is there supposed to be an unclear reveal that Charlize Theron is an android? Idris Elba's character, for one, would probably be interested to hear that.

They never reveal it, but it is strongly hinted. Besides, Scott has a thing for androids who don't know they're androids.

It can't be a coincidence that Fassbinder and Theron in this film look like siblings: skinny, fit, perfect, blonde, he the more curious one, she the colder one. Confirming Theron was an android, too, would have been a much better reveal than her "father" speech.

or Weyland could have based the David design on what his son would have looked like

Why would an android do push-ups?

Well, why would an android eat food?

Do androids dream of electric sheep? Why does David play basketball? Why does he dye his hair?

xpost Sure. There are any number of avenues not explored in this film. It actually surprises me, given that Fassbinder and Theron are the only two actual movie stars in this thing, that they were not the clear stars and focus of the film, especially curious considering Theron is used so poorly/pointlessly and dispatched so quickly.

They never show Theron sick after waking up, do they? Noomi is barfing up a lung, the rest are instructed to drink a lot of fluids. But Theron is up, immediately doing push-ups...

I just thought that implied that she'd been through the process before