re: The Prometheus (Major Spoiler) Discussion Thread

Wait a minute, was the alien just being an a-hole because he was infected? Like the zombie crew member?

I don't think I've seen that posted.

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"children misbehaving"

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Instead of strictly viewing that as the persecution of Christians, could it be somewhat related to the increasing expansion of the Roman Empire and the threat of it to erase the diversity of culture/religions?

I don't think the engineer was infected. He clearly had a moment of solace before he went rampaging on the group in the guidance room. I thought it was quite odd that he petted David before ripping his head off.

There's a lot to pick at as bad in the film but there are some things people don't seem to have mentioned and are probably at least worth discussing.

I think it is a mistake to try and make sense of the film using conventional logic when the film pretty much completely falls apart when you try. Man has been on Earth for something like 190,000 years and life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years - our relationships with other creatures on Earth and the length of our existence just don't match the story - so that tells us to just stop trying to apply that logic IMO.

In a couple other scenes the scientists dating things (presumably using radioisotopes to date them) never do so in a logical way. A minute or two after arriving the female lead announces with confidence the age of the cave paintings she has found in remote Great Britain... and despite knowing nothing about the isotope history of their new "planet" they feel comfortable pretty much just eyeballing a site and dating how long a body or whatever has been sitting there. You can be upset by this stuff as stupidly wrong and sign off on the movie if this bothers you or you can enjoy the show.

If I were to nerd rage on anything in particular it might be the film's timelines for space travel. Unless I missed something like a new found ability to travel through black holes a trillion dollar ship was constructed and sailed 35 light years across a galaxy in the span of only four years? I'm just saying, if you really discovered wormhole transportation or even warp speed transit that would seem like a technological innovation worth a mention.

1) Prometheus the Space Jockey:

When considering the Space Jockeys the audience is intended to consider the meaning of this name in the film. In light of the film's title, their massive human/god appearance, and the Prometheus myth I think we should view the "Space Jockeys" as a race of Titans from Greek Mythology. Many people seem to have heard the portion of the myth in which the Titan Prometheus gave fire to man... but it does not seem to be common knowledge that other myths credited Prometheus with creating the species of man from clay and arming man with other tools.

We should not necessarily look for consistency in motivations between the founder Titan (Prometheus) who gave rise to man and the other Titans because the Titan that gave rise to man was a probably guilty of defying the will of the other Titans and/or Gods. It could probably be argued that the Titans not in on Prometheus' plan would regard their human visitors as favorably as Zeus would have regarded a mortal climbing Mount Olympus. If we look at things in this light then we can rationalize the immediate instinct of the Titans (other than Prometheus) to kill man on sight (because they have tread upon Mount Olympus)

2) Epimetheus:

No, this is not a character name you missed - but it is a myth that seems relevant. The Titan Prometheus had a sibling named Epimetheus - while Prometheus crafted clay figures into the shape of man and he (or Athena) breathed life into them... Epimetheus crafted clay figures in the shape of beasts and he (or Athena) breathed life into those. Prometheus' creation man responded by honoring the Gods whereas the beasts Epimetheus created attacked him. Is this a accidental? Probably not - Scott seemed to be interested in doing a film that allowed him to deal with the issue of human origins and the Prometheus myth (when paired with Epimetheus) allows you to combine the elements of man, space jockey, and alien monsters.

2) David

David is an easy pick for the best character in the film (esp since the Guy Pearce speech was not in the theater release). A good part of that is probably just Fassbender's charisma but I found myself interested in the reveal of his inner desires that never came (tho he was referred to as soulless it seemed clear that he did have emotions and those motivated some of his behaviors).

Exactly what he hoped to learn or gain from intentionally infecting a Charlie with the black goo seemed hard to rationalize... especially when it was prefaced by a conversation in which he questioned Charlie on what his moral limits were in the pursuit of knowledge. I think that is just another example of where the film fell apart for the sake of moving forward the space horror tale. You can choose to view David as the spirit of thoughtless creation punishing a man who knows no limits or ethics or as another creator destroyed by his creation story (much like the Greek Gods overthrew the Titans and the Aliens could kill the space jockeys)... but I think that might credit the writer with more meaning than he deserves.

Alternatively, we could view David as Pandora. Pandora famously opened the box that held the horrors of disease, death, pestilence etc and released them upon the world because of her boundless curiosity. David could then have infected Charlie, opened doors, and aggressively talked with the Titanic Space Jockey because he was less concerned with his safety (or the safety of others) than he was with the quest for new information


Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron):

This is just an aside consideration but in light of a couple things it is worth considering if she was a robot similar to David.

Evidence against:
1) her transit in suspended animation like the other humans in the film
2) her denial to the captain (sleeping with him to prove the point)
3) her being referred to as Weyland's daughter

Evidence for:
1) her appearance, she resembles no character more than David
2) her strength, although David is much stronger than the other humans on board she man-handles him in the hallway when they are alone and she wants to threaten him
3) Weyland referring to her as a daughter? Weyland may well have craved biological children but been infertile. A man of his means would certainly have been able to have a son if he could have a daughter. The technology for that sort of thing already exists. If Weyland were outright infertile then Theron being his robot "daughter" makes sense.
4) The surgical pod in her room: It was only set to recognize and treat men - if it was not for Vickers because she was a robot and would have no need of it then it was for Weyland.
5) She and David were effective tools (refer to the myth again - much to the chagrin of Zeus Prometheus gave fire and tools to man) against the Titans and Aliens. Vickers brings home this possibility by using fire itself to dispose of a crewmember being converted into an Alien.


20k posts - thought about doing something different but decided against a best actress babe thread thread or something along those lines.

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Instead of strictly viewing that as the persecution of Christians, could it be somewhat related to the increasing expansion of the Roman Empire and the threat of it to erase the diversity of culture/religions?

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Yes, this seems to have been what Ridley Scott initially had in mind but then left vague.

Do you think the way she mentioned a possible power struggle for control of the Weyland Company as an indicator that Vickers was not human? If she was Weyland's sole heir, why would there be any question about her right to take over his company, unless of course she was not human.

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But the "Prometheus" engineer died as soon as he drank the black goo, like millions, perhaps a billion years ago.

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wasn't that event identified as 35,000 years ago?

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Do you think the way she mentioned a possible power struggle for control of the Weyland Company as an indicator that Vickers was not human? If she was Weyland's sole heir, why would there be any question about her right to take over his company, unless of course she was not human.

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I think if you are inclined to believe she was a robot (as I probably am) then that works as ancillary evidence

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event identified as 35,000 years ago

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I could be wrong but I think the event 35k years prior was one of the paintings that depicted the 5 orbs. They were discussing the range of all of them.

shite, you're right. I forgot the viral ad where he's crying.