Prometheus Preview

May 23, 2012
By J.D. Cook
 
Ever since the original film Alien, people have wondered as to the origin of the aforementioned creatures. Fan fictions and tie in comic books have attempted to explain their origin, but those sorts of things only ever truly appease a very select crowd. The rest of us are left unfulfilled by these half explanations that are never considered canon to the true Aliens tale. Although just because a film is made doesn’t necessarily mean its story should be considered canon…I’m looking at you Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, and Alien Vs Predator. Now what makes people wonder so much about the Xenomorph’s origins? (Xenomoroph is the technical name for the creatures in the Aliens franchise). Well for those of you who have not seen the original Alien film there is a fairly juicy scene that gives rise to peoples speculation on the subject.

Alien truly starts when the crew of the space tow truck called the Nostromo (Yeah it can really be considered a space tow truck) find a derelict alien spaceship. Inside they find a large dead creature and a whole lot of eggs. Since one of the eggs hatches the crew high tales it trying to save one of their crew who then has an alien creature on his face while the large dead creature is left as a complete mystery. From that proverbial plot egg comes Prometheus! Those of you who are familiar with Greek Mythology know Prometheus is a Titan who gave fire to mankind. He was then bound to a rock by Zeus while an Eagle ate his liver for all eternity. The title alone can tell you a lot about a film so keep that in mind while we discuss the film further.

What makes Prometheus so interesting? First, Ridley Scott is returning for this Alien prequel. Next the cast includes Michael Fassbender as an android. He debuted the character stunningly in a great bit of viral marketing which was a faux ad for David 8; his android’s model.

Next there is the always fantastic Guy Pierce in what will probably be a small role as Peter Weyland; the man responsible for the corporation that essentially controls the dark future of the Alien universe. He also revealed his character in an awesome bit of viral marketing in a faux TED talk.

Rounding out the well known cast is the beauty that looks better with age Charlize Theron, and Noomi Rapace who starred as the girl with the dragon tattoo in the Swedish version of the film and their sequels. Strange how it happens that I was at the premiere of the American version directed by David Fincher who made his directorial debut with Alien 3…six degrees of separation or some such nonsense, but what I wanted to get at was you can read about that experience here. Back to Prometheus; did I forget to mention that one of the Lost scribes Damon Lindelof helped write the script of this film? On that note…what the hell does the plot look like?

Well if you haven’t seen any of the previews you probably could assume the Prometheus story I mentioned comes into the basic plot somehow. It definitely does. Here’s my full speculation on what the plot will be; some of this is made clear by the preview and some of it is my wild speculation! Essentially a couple of archeologist types discover a similar hieroglyph spread among different cultures in the world. They determine it’s an invitation from a higher species to come and have a pow wow. Peter Weyland funds the whole thing because he sees the potential in learning about a new species that may or may not have started life on earth; of course he will have his own nefarious reasons as well. To this end he will send Theron’s character on the mission to keep an eye on the archeologists and promote Weyland’s evil objectives. After a few minutes hanging around the alien’s ship all of the crew of the space ship called the Prometheus will realize they’ve unleashed something terrible by accepting the alien’s invitation. My guess is that the creatures see the humans as a potential threat since they could figure out the hieroglyph’s meaning. This would fit with the Prometheus theme since the humans would arrive aboard the Prometheus seeking to bring the secrets of these aliens back to earth only to be punished. Of course the crew then has to stop this madness and since civilization is still around for the film Alien we know they do. My guess is the film will end with everyone dead having sacrificed themselves to stop the creatures from reaching Earth. A Weyland cover up will erase the incident and he will either be smart enough not to investigate or will not be able to. The real mystery is how the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise will come into the story. My best guess is that the humans release them to stop the alien ship from reaching earth. The result of which is the crashed ship that the crew of the Nostromo find in the original Alien. This would mean the distress beacon they answer comes from the dead crew of the Prometheus. Any thoughts on if I’m right? Anyone want to argue for a different interpretation of what the plot might be?

All of this said I am really excited for this film. There are some deep philosophical questions about the meaning of humanities existence in the absence a pure evolution on Earth. For instance if humanity was created by this alien race what does that say about God or the purpose of humanities existence? Will Michael Fassbender’s android be the foil for humanity since he was created directly by mankind and must have no ideas of contrary creation like humans? I love that the previews and viral advertising have been so good for this film that I am already so jazzed up for it! Future films should take a page from this films marketing strategy. On that note I look forward to this film as a huge fan of Science Fiction and Horror although it could definitely be disappointing if it too closely mirrors any of the previous Aliens franchise. Only a viewing on June 8^th 2012 will put my mind to rest, see you in theaters then!

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