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

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

There's a lot "implied" in this film. One could say, too much implied.

They should have called it "...Prometheus ..."

I am amused you think the push-ups strengthens your case! Vickers is far more likely to have done space travel before though.

only actual stars aside from Guy Pearce and Idris Elba?

Noomi is on the ascent to being a big name.

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIII.

There was a v good documentary about the Antikythera mechanism on BBC4 a week ago or so, might still be on iPlayer.

xpost Guy Pearce and Idris Elba aren't movie stars, dude. You should really take a glance at their filmographies some time. Noomi is barely a rising star. The other losers in this film ... nice knowing you. Fassbender and Theron are miles above the rest in status and appeal.

I wasn't making a case that Theron was an android, just that there are plenty of hints that she could be, not least Idris asking her "are you an android?" a question she does not directly answer.

Okay you are actually crazy, Guy Pearce's star >>> anyone else involved in this.

Honestly, how do you figure?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Pearce#Filmography

Did you see Lockout three months ago? Did anyone?

Well I grant it's nothing on the scale of Jonah Hex / Jane Eyre / Shame...

I'd just like to know what you think makes Pearce a star. Fassbender may eventually meet the same fate, of course - this could be his LA Confidential, Memento streak - but Pearce is pretty much just a character actor these days.

fassbender's obv more of a star right now but he only got to this level in the last year or so, right?

theron's android/not-android status seems to be another thing they wussed out of

Fassbender's big break was ... Hunger? Fish Tank? That was maybe four years ago. Then Inglorious Basterds helped break him out, and X-Men introduced him to a wider audience.

Fassbender is famous but not A-list, same with Guy Pierce. Theron is so clearly the A-list movie star in this movie! so it was kind of funny that she didn't do all kinds of fancy acrobatic moves followed by luminous close-ups of her face

Ah, I was genuinely wondering if you were unaware of Memento / LA Confidential. Due to them, he is a star - that is non-revokable. If you mean some sort of hotness then maaybe, but I think that's more that a few Fassbender films have been released in a rush than anything else.

Did you see Lockout three months ago? Did anyone?

More people than saw Shame! Tho not as much as Haywire, admittedly.

xp no dude, after Basterds he's still pissing about in Jane Hex / Jonah Ayre / Centurion.

i love him and he's def famous, but Fassbender has a creepy chameleon (actor!) thing going on in a lot of the films he's in, whether he's wearing face-altering make-up or not, that keeps his stardom more low-key imo

He has not stopped reminding me of Ewan McGregor, is my problem with him.