Prometheus - Spoilery thread of Spoilers

If the black goo and the goo at the beginning of the film are the same thing, that's a pretty extraordinary longevity. Presumably, there was no animal life on earth prior to the seeding by the Engineers, so we are looking at far longer than millions of years.

Sure, but it still just seems more likely that an object that appears twice in the same narrative is likely to be the same thing, or at least batches of the same thing. We're assuming the Engineer at the beginning of the movie is somehow connected to the Engineers in the bulk of the movie despite the (presumably) millions of years of separation there, too.

I agree that it's probably a similar type of goo, that should definitely be accepted. But I disagree that it's the exact same thing we see later on.

Huh. I didn't even realize that was supposed to be Primordeal Earth-- what indication was given that that is true? Because I interpreted that scene as a dying planet (the grey palette gave me a "Cormak McCarthy's The Road" impression), and the robed Engie was committing suicide as the last ship left. Granted, I can't think of a reason, story-wise, that would tie such an event into the rest of the narrative, however. I just took it as "the demise of this alien race, and humans will be back millions of years later to find the end result."

WipEout wrote:

Huh. I didn't even realize that was supposed to be Primordeal Earth-- what indication was given that that is true? Because I interpreted that scene as a dying planet (the grey palette gave me a "Cormak McCarthy's The Road" impression), and the robed Engie was committing suicide as the last ship left. Granted, I can't think of a reason, story-wise, that would tie such an event into the rest of the narrative, however. I just took it as "the demise of this alien race, and humans will be back millions of years later to find the end result."

The end of that scene shows the Engineer's DNA fragments recombining into new life. Also, Ridley Scott has confirmed in interviews that the scene depicts an Engineer seeding a planet with life. It's not necessarily Earth though.

WipEout wrote:

Huh. I didn't even realize that was supposed to be Primordeal Earth-- what indication was given that that is true? Because I interpreted that scene as a dying planet (the grey palette gave me a "Cormak McCarthy's The Road" impression), and the robed Engie was committing suicide as the last ship left. Granted, I can't think of a reason, story-wise, that would tie such an event into the rest of the narrative, however. I just took it as "the demise of this alien race, and humans will be back millions of years later to find the end result."

I totally got that impression right at the start of the movie too but changed my mind when I learned more about the engineers. I switched to thinking that scene at the beginning is a Primordeal Earth. The only issue with that is you sorta have to go out on a limb and assume that the engineers haven't really evolved over millions of years for some crazy reason.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The only issue with that is you sorta have to go out on a limb and assume that the engineers haven't really evolved over millions of years for some crazy reason.

Eh, they're experts at genetic engineering. They probably found a form they liked and stuck with it.

You guys saw Holloway as turning into a zombie? I figured he was crumbling up like the guy at the start of the film right before Theron went ahead and burnt him up. That gives me the theory that the black goo, when ingested, uses the "host" to seed a new planet with life. When made physical contact, it mutates (the c*ck worms and zombie man).

muttonchop wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

The only issue with that is you sorta have to go out on a limb and assume that the engineers haven't really evolved over millions of years for some crazy reason.

Eh, they're experts at genetic engineering. They probably found a form they liked and stuck with it.

That's what I'm thinking. Plus, millions of years aren't necessarily all that many in the big scheme of things.

ccesarano wrote:

You guys saw Holloway as turning into a zombie? I figured he was crumbling up like the guy at the start of the film right before Theron went ahead and burnt him up. That gives me the theory that the black goo, when ingested, uses the "host" to seed a new planet with life. When made physical contact, it mutates (the c*ck worms and zombie man).

Na, I mistakenly was thinking that the Zombie was Holloway. It's the geologist that turns into the zombie. Sorry if I added confusion with my earlier post.

I think the implication is quite strong that it is Earth.

I wonder if the core problem with the movie (besides some bad dialogue, which felt like studio notes..."Father.") is that we might have just seen the first act of a trilogy. It could explain a lot. I know that when they took off in the ship in the end (David and Shaw), I was ready for another two hours of story. It really felt like the best pilot episode ever made. I was hooked, it was beautiful to behold, and I really wanted to follow Shaw and David in that ship and find more answers and mysteries. It all feels unresolved (except for the origin of the "original" Xenomorph) and even though I enjoyed every second in the theater, I am know intrigued and deep into the questions, "what are these other worlds and aliens like and what is going to happen to these two new characters?" Plus, there are still so many plot questions unanswered about the bio-weapon, David's intentions, the corporation's intentions, the origin of humanity, etc., etc.

I have never had such a schizophrenic response to a movie. I see the flaws people are pointing out...nearly all of them, but the movie still works for me so well. I want more movies like this, but usually a movie with loose ends and unresolved character conflicts fall flat. I feel satiated by the movie, but I want to gorge myself even more.

I don't know what I am saying. This movie is making me crazy in all the right ways. I love it, but I am not sure how to justify it, because nearly all modern movies are tied up in a neat little bow by the end and all of my favorite movies have a sense of closure at the end. This movie reminds of the first season of LOST.

So I am guessing that this film completely disregards the existence of the AvP movies? The timeline presented in those, regarding xenomorphs, does not jive with Shaw's baby being the first face hugger.

Heretk wrote:

So I am guessing that this film completely disregards the existence of the AvP movies? The timeline presented in those, regarding xenomorphs, does not jive with Shaw's baby being the first face hugger.

It's better that way.

That, and I see the AvP movies as "what if" comic book movies, since they were only ever derived from the AvP comics that were arguably "what if" one-off stories to begin with.

Although Predator 2's nod to the Aliens was pretty awesome.

So what was the result of the chest bursters in the Engineers? Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought they had been hosts, no?

So GOO contact will mutate, and that mutant can reproduce, in this case delivering the proto-face hugger?

Sufficient GOO ingestion will break the body down for redistribution (seeding of life) provided the right environment?

HedgeWizard wrote:

So what was the result of the chest bursters in the Engineers? Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought they had been hosts, no?

You're referring to the ones in the heap in the corridor, yes? I'd wondered about this myself. There were holes, but they were way smaller. The proto-xeno tore the engineer at the end in half.

ianunderhill wrote:
HedgeWizard wrote:

So what was the result of the chest bursters in the Engineers? Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought they had been hosts, no?

You're referring to the ones in the heap in the corridor, yes? I'd wondered about this myself. There were holes, but they were way smaller. The proto-xeno tore the engineer at the end in half.

yeah - the pile o' bodies. I thought there was a comment in the movie that something tore its way out of the chest, or similar. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't think so.

If so, what about the xenos from that experience? I would have thought that was the source of the movement detected.

I'm pretty sure the Engineers in the pile o' bodies suffered from the same head-explosion thing that affected the severed head. They zoomed in on one of the bodies and it showed a big hole blown in the side of its organic helmet thing. I don't think they ever explained what caused it, I assumed it was just another experiment gone wrong.

muttonchop wrote:

I'm pretty sure the Engineers in the pile o' bodies suffered from the same head-explosion thing that affected the severed head. They zoomed in on one of the bodies and it showed a big hole blown in the side of its organic helmet thing. I don't think they ever explained what caused it, I assumed it was just another experiment gone wrong.

At one point in the movie, Someone said something about they were going to launch for earth with the weaponized goo, but others had a change of heart. At face value, I would assume the pile-o-engies was a result of captured traitors.

WipEout wrote:
muttonchop wrote:

I'm pretty sure the Engineers in the pile o' bodies suffered from the same head-explosion thing that affected the severed head. They zoomed in on one of the bodies and it showed a big hole blown in the side of its organic helmet thing. I don't think they ever explained what caused it, I assumed it was just another experiment gone wrong.

At one point in the movie, Someone said something about they were going to launch for earth with the weaponized goo, but others had a change of heart. At face value, I would assume the pile-o-engies was a result of captured traitors.

To be fair, that was coming from David, who's an unreliable agent as a translator.

A lot of good discussion here. Put me on the side of those who believe the writers bit off more than they could chew. Not a coincidence that, like Lost, the script was filled with generic, bad dialogue, "mysteries" that are nothing more than withheld info, and which are revealed in on-the-nose explanations.

That said, it's a GORGEOUS movie with a lot going for it. Still, it's not what it could have been, with better writers.

A friend of mine sent me a link to this summary of the movie.

That was a good read. Some nice phrases and humor in there.

heavyfeul wrote:

It really felt like the best pilot episode ever made.

Oooh! Is it a buddy-cop movie staring Shaw and David's Head?

She's a widowed anthropologist itching for a fight. He's an android head with no body. Together they travel the galaxy solving crime and committing genocide.

Every episode ends with them leaving the planet and David's head has put in motion some scheme to kill all life on the planet with Shaw completely oblivious.

kaostheory wrote:
heavyfeul wrote:

It really felt like the best pilot episode ever made.

Oooh! Is it a buddy-cop movie staring Shaw and David's Head?

She's a widowed anthropologist itching for a fight. He's an android head with no body. Together they travel the galaxy solving crime and committing genocide.

Every episode ends with them leaving the planet and David's head has put in motion some scheme to kill all life on the planet with Shaw completely oblivious.

Oh god. That. Would. Be. Awesome.

I'm counting on you to put together a fan fic.

Hypatian wrote:

A friend of mine sent me a link to this summary of the movie.

That was pretty great. I'm definitely going to start measuring my boredom in terms of millidavids now.

Questions about Prometheus:

They so clocky.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
NSMike wrote:

I disagree with that chart. We have no evidence that the goo at the beginning of the movie was the same as the goo on the horseshoe ship later in the movie.

There's also no direct evidence to suggest that the containers in the cargo hold of the ship actually have black goo in them, that it's the same black goo as what the crew has encountered to that point, or even that the black goo in the containers in that one room is all the same kind of black goo. But usually movies make certain assumptions about continuity for the sake of a smooth narrative, so while no one ever says "this same goo was used millions of years ago!" it seems safe to think it's the same stuff.

I'm going with the fact that the biological agent, black goo, has an unpredictable effect on a person's DNA, recombining it as if a mad scientist were in charge, leading to variety. The biologist then, is right, that the fittest of the foreign creatures to erupt from the viral goo do survive. This would be an explanation for the variety of life on earth, after the goo has 'infected' and stabilized within the DNA of the carrier creatures. This does not, however, explain how humans and engineers have the exact DNA match, which would be unfeasible at any rate, given the evolutionary divergence of the two races unless the engineers had visited our planet more recently than what was shown in the beginning. (Even if that isn't earth, I'm going to presume that the engineers performed some similar ceremony here).

Technically, the goo isn't a weapon, but it is a life promoter. Unfortunately, nothing in sci-fi movies ever seem to sprout happy docile little creatures that are hell bent on being pacifistic to the human race.

And the one huge thing that just drives me nuts is that I would have turned around and headed back to the ship the minute the 'doctor' proclaimed that Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere was poisonous and likened it to 'sucking on an exhaust pipe. Err.. no. Carbon Dioxide is a simple aphyxiant, only replacing Oxygen, but doing no other harm to your body (You can try this fun experiment at home -- stick your head under your bed covers and breath the 'stale' air). Maybe she meant Carbon Monoxide, which actually binds to the hemoglobin in your blood, which will cause health issues even after removed from such an environment. I've never seen a more incompetent group of scientists in my life. I'm pretty sure a bunch of cub scouts trying to earn badges would have been more thorough and better informed.