Prometheus SPOILER thread

[Orang Utan]

So, lots of questions.
Just exactly how did the Engineer in the beginning kickstart life on earth? He drinks the black potion and his body breaks up into nothing but DNA. Eh? I don't know much about science, but I know that's BAD SCIENCE. DNA doesn't exist on its own.
Just what did the black goo do? I thought at first that it sped up evolution but that would contradict the beginning of the film.
Do the worms evolve superquickly into the graboid snakes on contact with the goo? That would account for the otherwise unexplainable growth of the stomach monster earlier.
But the goo did different things - it just made Holloway sick with an ebola type disease, but it turned Fifield into a superhuman monster.
And why do basically all of the characters behave as they do?
Why does biologist Millburn instanly freak out at the biological discovery that he's spent two years asleep to make, only to instantly chill out and start trying to pet the graboid snakes as if they were Jones the ship cat, not totally unknown space monsters.
And why did they take their helmets off and have such an inconsistent approach to both quarantine and basic health & safety?
And why do they send so few people for such an enormously expensive mission?
What was the bet the two co-pilots made?
Why did the Captain change personalities so abruptly?
What was the point of the Vickers/Weyland subplot? Why is it important that he is her dad? Why is he even there? Why did he keep out of sight at first?
I have a lot more questions but that'll do for now

 

[mrs quoad]

But the goo did different things - it just made Holloway sick with an ebola type disease, but it turned Fifield into a superhuman monster.

Sounds a bit like bath salts, tbf.

 

[magneze]

Good idea. The other thread was littered with spoiler code.

 

[Reno]

So, lots of questions.
Just exactly how did the Engineer in the beginning kickstart life on earth? He drinks the black potion and his body breaks up into nothing but DNA. Eh? I don't know much about science, but I know that's BAD SCIENCE. DNA doesn't exist on its own.
Just what did the black goo do? I thought at first that it sped up evolution but that would contradict the beginning of the film.
Do the worms evolve superquickly into the graboid snakes on contact with the goo? That would account for the otherwise unexplainable growth of the stomach monster earlier.
But the goo did different things - it just made Holloway sick with an ebola type disease, but it turned Fifield into a superhuman monster.

As to the goo: it's the same sci-fi deus ex machina magic goo from District 9, which just does anything that is convenient for the plot.

 

[Orang Utan]

I thought the attempts to deepen Shaw's character were especially cack-handed. She's infertile, both parents are dead, dad died of ebola, she's a Christian. Bang, that'll do.

 

[Reno]

And why did they take their helmets off and have such an inconsistent approach to both quarantine and basic health & safety?

As not to mess up their hair ? How many times have I seen sci-fi films where the dumb asses rip off their helmets asap on an alien planet just so the actors don't have to wear them. There could be alien plant spores and all types of shit flying around.

I've read several times on forums that people seem to think Ripley is a bitch for following right Hazmat procedure in Alien, trying to get her shipmates quarantined after alien infection. At least that film made an attempt at having its character act like professionals and not like a bunch of complete idiots.

 

[Orang Utan]

As to the goo: it's the same sci-fi deus ex machina magic goo from District 9, which just does anything that is convenient for the plot.

I remember a load of guff about black goo in the X-Files too

 

[Orang Utan]

And why did they not land on an alien planet with no guns just cos some daft archeologist said so?

 

[magneze]

>Just exactly how did the Engineer in the beginning kickstart life on earth? He drinks the black potion and his body breaks up into nothing but DNA. Eh? I don't know much about science, but I know that's BAD SCIENCE. DNA doesn't exist on its own.
Was that meant to be the start of life on earth? Didn't get that at all. In the end I thought he topped himself because he'd been infected by the squid things and didn't want one to burst out of his stomach.

>Just what did the black goo do? I thought at first that it sped up evolution but that would contradict the beginning of the film.
Containment fluid for the squids I thought.

>Do the worms evolve superquickly into the graboid snakes on contact with the goo? That would account for the otherwise unexplainable growth of the stomach monster earlier. But the goo did different things - it just made Holloway sick with an ebola type disease, but it turned Fifield into a superhuman monster.
Now you point it out that seems a bit odd. Fifield was offscreen for so long that it's a bit unclear what the hell happens to him. That the goo does one thing to aliens and basically kills humans isn't particularly surprising.

>And why did they take their helmets off and have such an inconsistent approach to both quarantine and basic health & safety?
Yes, helmets off was strange. Once that had been bridged I guess there seemed little point in having the severed head in quarantine. That felt wrong, but you just have to kinda suspend disbelief a bit.

>What was the point of the Vickers/Weyland subplot? Why is it important that he is her dad? Why is he even there? Why did he keep out of sight at first?
It's why she's so pissed off. She is his heir and he wants to live longer. He is the point of the whole mission - the scientists wouldn't go if they were to keep a rich man in jollies for a bit longer.

 

[Orang Utan]

As not to mess up their hair ? How many times have I seen sci-fi films where the dumb asses rip off their helmets asap.

yeah, I noticed how perfect Fassbender's hair was at one point when he takes his helmet off. It never seems to move either. When I comb my hair that carefully it only lasts like that for a few minutes!

 

[magneze]

As not to mess up their hair ? How many times have I seen sci-fi films where the dumb asses rip off their helmets asap on an alien planet just so the actors don't have to wear them. There could be alien plant spores and all types of shit flying around.

I've read several many on forums that people seem to think Ripley is a bitch for following right Hazmat procedure in Alien, trying to get her shipmates quarantined after alien infection. At least that film made an attempt at having its character act like professionals and not a bunch of complete idiots.

Whereas Vickers does actually do this by killing Holloway. She does let a severed alien head on board though which is "contained" in a rucksack. Hmm ... maybe they thought it was fossilized? But, no they said it was preserved in the cave. Oops

 

[Orang Utan]

And I have a whole load of questions about David's motivations and his status as android/honorary human. Is the film telling us that he is essentially human? That would contradict the film's essentially Christian premise.

 

[magneze]

David is just following orders. All the way through. His motivation is to the company. Actually very similar to the robot in Alien. If he gets the chance, can he get a creature back to Earth for the company to exploit?

In the end the old man made me think of Richard Branson. Just what's HIS space programme about eh?

 

[Reno]

And I have a whole load of questions about David's motivations and his status as android/honorary human. Is the film telling us that he is essentially human? That would contradict the film's essentially Christian premise.

I don't think he is supposed to be human. He is just another sci-fi cliche, the robot that wants to be human. A.I., Star Trek TNG, Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner properly deal with this and make it central to the plot. Here we just have to take it for granted because the film doesn't get into any of the characters properly.

David acts to the command of Weyland (getting Charlie infected) till Weyland dies and then he can make his own decisions.

I don't think the film has a Christian premise, it just has a representative of the Christian faith considering the film is about meeting your maker/god.

 

[magneze]

It's just been pointed out to me that the Engineer at the beginning of the film ingests the black goo. Hadn't noticed this.

Need to watch it again really.

 

[Orang Utan]

Hmm, more to ponder. Maybe I'm just adding my own ideas. He's human to me. He works for the company, does what he's told like a good employee. At one point, he gets told he isn't human cos he doesn't have a soul. To me, if that's the only difference then he is a human cos neither do we. He behaves like a human and questions his existence in the same way we do.

 

[Orang Utan]

It's just been pointed out to me that the Engineer at the beginning of the film ingests the black goo. Hadn't noticed this.

Need to watch it again really.

What did you think he was drinking?

 

[magneze]

What did you think he was drinking?

Didn't matter - something that killed him, which he expected. As I said before I saw it more as suicide than an act of creation.

 

[Reno]

As I said before I saw it more as suicide than an act of creation.

That's ignoring the whole premise of the film. Alien travels gazillions of miles to top himself. End of story.

 

[Orang Utan]

What was with the flute controlled spaceship and the squidgy buttons? And what was the guff with Stephen Stills' squeezebox?

 

[magneze]

That's ignoring the whole premise of the film. Alien travels gazillions of miles to top himself. End of story.

Well, the film still made sense to me without thinking that it was an act of creation. It also makes sense as a suicide if the alien knows that soon some horrible squid is going to burst out of it's stomach.

 

[Reno]

And what was the guff with Stephen Stills' squeezebox?

The writers thought that qualifies as characterisation for Elba's character. It's a shame his role was so underwitten. As an effect his self-sacrifice comes out of nowhere and carries no emotional resonance.

 

[Orang Utan]

But the amazing DNA sequence after the suicide wouldn't make any sense then, would it? Not that making any sense seems to be a priority here.

One might charitably assume that many of the questions that film throws up are deliberate, to make us hungry for sequels (well it was co-written by a Lost scribe), but I think it's just lazy incompetent writing

 

[Reno]

Well, the film still made sense to me without thinking that it was an act of creation. It also makes sense as a suicide if the alien knows that soon some horrible squid is going to burst out of it's stomach.

There wouldn't have been a squid bursting out of his stomach. The idea was that this event takes place in prehistoric times. The engineers/space jokeys don't start tampering with xenomorph DNA till many millennia later. What the crew witnesses and falls prey to in 2093 is rough early versions of the creatures we come to know and love in the later Alien films.

 

[Orang Utan]

There's another thing that makes no sense. Where does the xenomorph come from at the end? Has it evolved superquick from the worms in the chamber? Or has it been deliberately engineered? Does the evolution sequence go like this: worm-squid-massive squid-xenomorph? Or is that just an engineered life cycle?

 

[CyberRose]

I enjoyed the film as I said on the other thread but there's loads that could have improved it, if only minor adjustments.

I do think the Milburn/Fifield scene could've been done differently. Someone pointed out why they were going the opposite direction to the life form reading yet when come face to face with the snake Milburn thinks it's cute and wants to pet it (inevitably leading to it violently killing him). It would've been much better had they both absolutely shited themselves all over their suites and we could have had a proper horror scene akin to Alien while the snakes stalk and kill them both (obviously this would have had to be dealt with in the later scene when the rest of the crew go back to the room). This could then have allowed Holloway to be the one transformed into a super strength monster, rather than Fifield, which would have got rid of the question why the black goo affects humans differently.

 

[poului]

"I've just had to pull a weird alien thing out of my tummy and left it in the medical chamber but I haven't thought to mention it to anyone...."

 

[CyberRose]

There's another thing that makes no sense. Where does the xenomorph come from at the end? Has it evolved superquick from the worms in the chamber? Or has it been deliberately engineered? Does the evolution sequence go like this: worm-squid-massive squid-xenomorph? Or is that just an engineered life cycle?

The sequence was the black goo went inside Holloway, Holloway went inside Shaw (creating the mutant facehugger fetus), the facehugger went inside the engineer (creating the mutant xeno fetus) and viola!

 

[CyberRose]

What was the bet the two co-pilots made?

The bet was that they were on a terraforming survey mission

 

[girasol]

It's just been pointed out to me that the Engineer at the beginning of the film ingests the black goo. Hadn't noticed this.

Need to watch it again really.

erm, he takes it by the waterfalls, the sort of explodes and falls in the water? (and his DNA spreads everywhere)