The meaning of the film "Prometheus" (2012). Creators - Engineers - Space Jockeys

In anticipation of the release of Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant, I suggest you refresh your memory of the contents of the film Prometheus and look for hidden meanings there.

To formulate the main idea that Ridley Scott expressed in Prometheus is quite simple, it will sound something like this:

“There are no gods who once created man. There is no Heaven as a place of bliss where the souls of the dead go. Humanity is the result of a biological experiment by another civilization. Our creators are not at all kind human point point of view, they do not have similar moral principles, and they are not going to answer our questions. Those whom people revered as gods are mortals like us. And Paradise is the planet from which they came.”

In his film, R. Scott painted a rather pessimistic and gloomy picture, in which there is no place for our usual cultural values ​​- the uniqueness of the individual, the priority of creativity over destruction. In the Prometheus universe, everything exists exactly the opposite.

“This is a civilization, but it is based on completely uncivilized practices.”

Any culture and civilization has a certain collective attitude of consciousness, which is dominant. Other, alternative attitudes are repressed, forming a collective Shadow. The film "Prometheus" is nothing more than an expression shadows our culture. A culture that has absorbed the heritage of antiquity and Christianity.

The central idea of ​​our worldview is the uniqueness and value of the human person.

Accordingly, the reverse, shadow side of this idea will be the idea of ​​an individual as something non-valuable, as a consumable material. The scene of the Engineer’s self-sacrifice speaks precisely of this: in the Engineer civilization, an individual is a biomaterial for future living organisms.

The film contains a reference to the image of the crucified Christ, significant for our culture. In the civilization of Engineers, he is contrasted with the image of a crucified alien. Although the meaning of this picture remains unclear, a definite association emerges: if people worship Christ as the embodiment of good, then the Engineers probably worship the alien, who, from our point of view, is the embodiment of evil.

There are a lot of such allusions to inverted cultural stereotypes in the film.

According to biblical legend, Eve was created from Adam's rib. According to the authors of Prometheus, the DNA of Maridith Vickers was used to create David.

The ship arrives on the planet on Christmas Day, and the captain decorates a Christmas tree - a symbol of the Tree of Life. But in this shadow world, the celebration of life turns into a celebration of death.

“I want to open gifts” 26:43

They wanted to open Christmas presents, but they opened Pandora's box (with all human misfortunes). 26:43

Creativity in the Prometheus universe is associated with the need for destruction.

“To create something, you must first destroy it” 1:37:45

This can be regarded as a contrast to the biblical idea of ​​​​creating the world out of nothing.

Process of creation fantastic work– it’s not just activation creative imagination, but also immersion in the unconscious. If the director is faced with the task of shocking or frightening the viewer, then he must look for motives that are unusual for the dominant mindset of our culture. Consequently, he must dive into our cultural unconscious, into the shadows, and bring out from there the contents that we repress and which therefore frighten us or at least cause us discomfort.

"I want to scare you"

Motives for meeting with the creators

The main focus of the characters’ actions is expressed in the first part of the film’s slogan: “They were looking for the cradle of humanity...”

Let's find out the motives why the characters go on a journey to meet the creators.

What is the point of searching for the cradle of humanity? Why do you need to meet with the creators?

"Find out why they created us"

This answer is too superficial and indicates simple curiosity.

In fact, the characters in the film have more compelling motivations. In the film we find four options:

1. Infantile desire to return to the mother's womb. Moving away from struggle and suffering into a world of peace. The desire to receive ready answers to all questions.
2. The victorious return of a warrior or hunter to his home. Return with enrichment.
3. The intention is to discover the restrictions and regulations set in childhood in order to understand and correct them.
4. The intention to kill his creators in order to free himself from their oppression.

The first option - infantile striving - we find in Elizabeth Shaw. She cannot accept such phenomena of our world as illness, untimely death of parents. She believes that she deserves the love of her creators and expects them to accept her for who she is. She is sure that Paradise is a wonderful place and wants to receive ready-made all the explanations about the world and life.

At the end of the film, her intention changes. After the suffering she has experienced, she is no longer looking for peace, but wants to meet with the Engineers to understand their attitude towards people. She wants to assert her dignity and restore justice. For this she is ready to kill the creators.

Weiland. I am sure that he has borne fruit in this life - he has the second option of motivation. He has collected enormous resources in his hands and is going to multiply them. But his growth is hampered by cultural and biological limitations, and he wants his creators to free him from them. Therefore, he also has a third option of motivation - liberation from restrictions and regulations.

As a result, he himself becomes a victim of what he wanted: he dies from a force that is not restrained by the boundaries of morality.

Holloway

"overthrow all religions."

This is a real militant attitude. It can be formulated as a desire for the symbolic murder of the creators. He is somehow depressed and worried that there are people in the world who believe in gods, and he wants to free himself from this painful feeling.

David. Although this android only fulfills what Weyland intended for it, it also has its own secret motive for meeting its creators. He wants to look at the immortals, because... considers himself similar to them. But the Engineers disappoint him.

"After all, mortals"

The remaining crew members are flying either out of purely scientific interest or for selfish reasons.

Creators

The creators, or engineers, with their appearance and functions reminiscent of ancient Greek gods.

The hierarchy of “black sludge - god of engineers - engineers - people” resembles a fragment of Greek theology, in which everything begins with primeval chaos, and then differentiates into various forces of nature.

Engineers create new forms of life from the “black slurry” and, in essence, like the gods, are the design principles that bring order to the primordial chaos. Their difference from the gods lies only in their mortality.

WITH psychological point point of view, they symbolize the pagan religious worldview, which was supplanted by Christian culture.

Main conflict

If the world of Engineers represents our cultural shadow, then the events shown in the film can be interpreted as an attempt by our collective consciousness to go beyond the boundaries of cultural stereotypes, followed by an inevitable meeting with shadow. Accordingly, we can see the possible result of this meeting, given in symbolic form.

It is important to take into account that, unlike those science fiction films where aliens are the first to invade our space, i.e. the unconscious breaks into consciousness, in Prometheus the opposite happens: cultural consciousness deliberately awakens the “ancient evil” for its own personal interests and provokes the contamination of conscious functions with the contents of the unconscious.

The main characters - Weyland, David and Elizabeth Shaw - personify the main collective attitudes of consciousness.

Weiland

Peter Weiland is a masculine dominant attitude. He has all the resources in his hands, which he directs where he sees fit. The ship was created at the expense of his corporation, which means that it is this principle of consciousness that provides vital energy to achieve the goal.

Weyland's lack of a wife, as well as the fact that he does not love his daughter Meridith and does not want to transfer his power to her, indicates that the feminine principle is suppressed in this culture. And the very type of Meridith Vickers indicates suppressed femininity, its capture by the male principle.

The aging Weyland wants immortality; this means that this cultural attitude has already lost its former power, but is still trying to fight for its dominant position.

David

Represents pure intellect, reason, and rationality. In theory, the mind should serve to preserve human life, which means it should turn off in time, giving priority to the life instinct, but an android is a mind that has become detached from its carrier, it is an alienated mind, it is a technique that has been set free.

When a person loses contact with any function of consciousness, this function plunges into the shadows, into the unconscious, and begins to behave in a completely unexpected way. This is why in the film David behaves ambiguously and puts people's lives in danger.

By the way, the very idea of ​​the uprising of machines appears in our cultural consciousness precisely because of the alienation of the rational function and endowing it with shadow features.

David's loss of his body after meeting the Engineer means that he loses his independence and again submits to the dominant conscious principle, which has now become Elizabeth Shaw.

Show

Elizabeth Shaw personifies the feminine principle. And an attitude of consciousness based on irrational functions, faith and intuition. At first, this attitude is undeveloped and obeys the masculine and rational principle, but eventually becomes dominant.

At the end of the film, Shaw and David's head fly away on the Engineers' ship. That is, the feminine principle prevailed, became dominant and subjugated the rationale. And he now receives his life energy from the deep shadow layers of the psyche, which are symbolized by the Engineers’ ship.

Metamorphoses

Thus, the content of the film “Prometheus” can be interpreted as a possible scenario for the development of our culture, based on the principles of patriarchy and rationalism, and in which religious consciousness is present mainly in the form of unclear intuitions.

The dominant cultural attitude, for the sake of self-preservation, undertakes the risky enterprise of violating traditional prohibitions and tries to integrate with the shadow. Reason and science are given unlimited powers in this enterprise.

The result of integration is ugly and aggressive monsters, which consciousness, at the very least, copes with with the help of a subordinate function.

Ultimately, the feminine principle wins, intuition becomes the dominant function of consciousness, thinking becomes the subordinate, and vital energy is drawn from sources that were once suppressed.

Alien

Origin of Aliens. It is believed that Aliens were a type of biological weapon that was developed and used by its creators. A version was also put forward that the alien is an organism that for millennia inhabited some unknown distant planets of the same Zeta Grid.

Stages of development: The Alien goes through several stages in its development.

I. Face grabber.

So named because it attaches to the face of the future host and deposits the embryo (larva) of the future alien into it. In the carrier (the role of carriers are: people, animals, creators) vital activity is maintained until the facehugger lays a larva. Once the embryo is inside, the facehugger detaches and dies.

Facehugger

II. Chestbreaker. It's clear from the name. This is an alien, albeit a very small one. The chestbreaker develops within 24 hours, after which it breaks the host’s chest and climbs out. The carrier dies. The grudolom is practically unprotected, so it usually hides for some time.

Chestbreaker A fully formed alien. Reaching a height of approximately 2 meters. A stranger passes into it in a few hours. After which it begins an active search for food.

Adult

Deacon

Deacon.

The creature is from the film "Prometheus", although its connection with aliens is not clearly shown in the film. However, as we see the main similarities are obvious. The Deacon received its name because of its head, which is similar in shape to the miter of a priest. It is believed that Deacon is also a subspecies of an alien, but one that evolved from the creator and borrowed part of his DNA. It also has humanoid limbs and walks on two legs.

Facts: The creators of the film "Prometheus" considered several options for what the Deacon should look like. In the image below we see Deacon looking even more like a variant of the Space Jockey mutation. Then this once again confirms that it is unknown what the alien initially looks like. Here we see the characteristic skin color, physique (even if it is more frail) inherent in the creator.

Space Jockeys Space Jockeys (Creators, Malaaki, Engineers) - creators of life on the planets. According to some theories, it was they who created man on Earth (copying their appearance). The planet where Jockeys live is called Paradise. The level of their technology is very high, they have been developed over thousands of years. The lifespan of a Jockey is unknown, however, they are mortal and subject to aging. Jockeys have their own ancient language
, which is practically impossible for the common man to understand.

Facts: The creators, for some reason, wanted to destroy man, or rather replace the form of life on planet Earth, using biological weapons. Perhaps these very weapons were aliens. Also, the Jockeys have some kind of religion, or rather, if self-worship can be called this concept.

Fifield mutation

What exactly did the Engineer (Space Jockey) do at the very beginning of the film?

Film Anatomy Lesson from EMPIRE: A Public Dissection of the Prometheus Mythology

“This is self-sacrifice,” confirmed Ridley Scott, commenting on the version according to which the Engineer drank a black liquid that destroyed him from the inside and “seeded” his DNA to start the process of the origin of life. The Engineer's act, according to Scott, is "equal, in essence, to an act of creation."
Yes. And no. In Prometheus: The Art of Film, screenwriter Damon Lindelof asks the question: “What if aliens were involved in the origin of life on Earth?” Scott himself does not hide the fact that he was inspired by the theories of Erich von Däniken. However, Scott recently noted: “It could have been any planet. The engineer simply acts as a gardener in space."

So, Engineers have visited our planet more than once throughout Earth's history?
According to Scott, after the initial sowing, “emissaries” visited Earth several times. In the book “Prometheus: The Art of Film,” production designer Arthur Max writes that the Engineers, worshiping the giant head, worshiped themselves: “Playing the role of God in the universe, they flew to Earth many times and carried out a genetic update of people - like our physiology , and our intellect."

Why would Engineers leave hints on Earth about how to get to a distant temple, or a “weapon depot”?
This is not clear. But 2000 years have passed since the last visit of the emissaries, and during this time the place intended for receiving guests Entertainment Center could very well turn into a vast temple of death.

It turns out that the “invitation” was cancelled?
This is if we assume that people were invited somewhere; Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is not too inclined to believe her findings. According to another theory, the maps left on Earth are a kind of warning system for Engineers that humanity has reached the stage of interstellar travel. Kind of like in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

What's on David's mind? Is he just a servant of Wayland or does he have his own motives?
Lindelof suggests that David is mainly Weyland's puppet, but there may be something like a soul inside this machine, as hinted at by Michael Fassbender's performance. That's why David is the most interesting hero film.

Is it David who chooses Earth as the target of a punitive expedition by placing its hologram on the control panel?
Hardly, although there is a painful ambiguity in the remark “sometimes in order to create, you must destroy.” Scott made it clear that the Engineers themselves decided to destroy the Earth. We considered it necessary...

If Shaw is an archaeologist, how does she know so much about the autopsy (in the scene examining the Engineer's head)?
She is not a simple archaeologist, but a cosmic one. From the future.

If the Engineers gave birth to us, why did they decide to kill us? And what exactly influenced their decision 2000 years ago, even before we began to destroy our planet?
In one version of the script, they wanted to tell us that Jesus Christ was the Engineer, the last emissary sent to limit the expansion of the Roman Empire. “And you know what? - says Scott. “They crucified him.” It turns out that the desire to destroy the Earth is, um, retribution for the crucifixion.

What is the significance of a fresco that depicts an Alien-like creature and an Engineer who appears to be giving birth?
We assume that the appearance of the Alien on the mural is just “a tribute to Giger and his images of Aliens, without which the film would not exist. The characters look at the fresco and briefly discuss it. But what is depicted on it is unclear.” A theory that appeared on the Internet (authored by LiveJournal user Cavalorn) states that the mural depicts the creative (the Engineer “gives birth” to the world) and destructive (Alien) sides of black slime technology.

What are these worms that are shown to us when people enter the hall with vessels?
Perhaps this is all that remains of the creatures that destroyed the Engineers twenty centuries ago? And when the Prometheus crew awakened the slime again, the worms turned into “hammerpeds,” nasty white snakes.

Why did David put black goo in poor Holloway's (Logan Marshall-Green) drink?
By order of Weyland, Lindelof reports. “I would bet,” he tells MTV.com, “that during the conversation with Wayland, he gave some order that caused David to mix black goo into Holloway’s champagne. And it was a certainty that Holloway would have sex with Shaw shortly thereafter.”

Why does Holloway see a small worm in his eye?
It is possible that this is the first stage of mutation, like the large worms in the hall with the vessels. They could just be the eye worms of the Engineers, because they were larger than earthlings.

How does black slime work? With its help, the First Engineer gave birth to life, it turned Fifield (Sean Harris) into a zombie, Holloway got sick from it, his body began to deform, through Holloway the mucus penetrated into Shaw, and a squid-like monster grew inside it...
It's not a fact that all the black goo in the film functions the same. According to the already mentioned Cavalorn theory, mucus affects the body differently depending on the mental and emotional state of the “owner.” The engineer, being an impassive “gardener,” had power over the mucus and forced it to create. Well, we, unenlightened people, driven by destruction. It is interesting that in early drafts the slime turned Fifield into something much more like an Alien. In other words, the ultimate goal of the black substance in its destructive mode is the creation of Aliens from subsequent films (Perhaps Fifield's "mohawk" is a subtle hint. on the long head of the Alien?)

Why does the hologram that David turns on show the Engineers running down the corridor in a panic? Where did what scared them go?
It can be assumed that the Engineers were fleeing from the mutated black slime, which went into destructive mode in some of them (see above). And then... strangely disappeared.

Why, when people run away from the pyramid to escape the storm, do they see that the truck has already left? Who's driving this truck?
The book “Prometheus: the Art of Film” teaches us that the “all-terrain vehicle” will not go by itself - it needs someone to drive it. We can only assume that the driver was one of the guards whom Shaw told not to take weapons. Or maybe it's space magic.

Why is the automatic medical camera designed for men if it is installed in the rescue module owned by Vickers (Charlize Theron), a woman?
Because in fact, this medical cell is not for her, but for Peter Weiland. Don't be stupid.

Is it true that Vickers is an android (capable of having sex)? She looks a lot like David.
No, but she and David have something in common. “There’s a mysterious, subtle connection between her and this character,” Theron told us on set. "It's all about the DNA, the Vickers genes were used to create David." Lindelof notes that the physical resemblance between Vickers and David is not a coincidence. “What better way to humiliate a daughter than to create her male counterpart?”

Why did Peter Wayland go to another planet? To find the source there eternal youth? Or meet “God”?
Neither one nor the other. Or both. And since Wayland chose to keep his presence on the ship a secret, it's clear that he loves surprises.

Why cast Guy Pearce as a hundred-year-old man if there are no scenes in which he is young?
This is a mystery to us. Is it just because a much younger Wayland appears in a promotional video for TED 2023? It may well be that deleted scenes with a more recognizable Guy Pearce will appear in the upcoming director's cut.

If the creature in the finale is an Alien, why is it not very similar to the Aliens from planet LV-426 in other films in the series?
Because it's not Alien. On set, he was called the Priest because his head was shaped like a miter. It is believed that this is the predecessor of the Alien, a creature that will give birth to Aliens in the future. The creature's DNA combines the genes of a human, an Engineer, and a giant "trilobite" with tentacles. In the sketches for the film, we see how it maliciously heads towards the crashed ship...

When I watched the movie “Prometheus” the day before yesterday, at first, like many viewers, I was somewhat puzzled by the number of inconsistencies and simply incomprehensible places in the plot. However, having thought about what I saw, I find that many moments in the film that seem to be blunders are quite logical - with assumptions regarding science fiction, Certainly. And since there are lively discussions on the plot of the film and the scenes shown in it on blogs and forums, I decided to list the main questions of discussion and give answers to them from my point of view.

1. What was the white alien doing at the beginning of the film? I drank some liquid and fell into pieces. Did people come from his DNA? But isn’t DNA in the water enough for an organism to appear?

An alien (this race in science fiction is usually called Space Jokeys, so from now on I will call representatives of this species “jockeys”) drank a liquid that his body used to create new life forms: they show how the jockey’s DNA first breaks down, then new DNA is assembled and created cells. A similar principle was behind the action of black liquid from vases on planet LV-233, where the Prometheus ship arrived: it caused a mutation in the body and transformed it into a new creature. That is, not just DNA got into the water on Earth, but parts of the jockey’s body, which were transformed into new organisms. Who exactly appeared as a result of this - only people or also other creatures - is not directly stated in the film. Judging by the fact that the DNA of insects, mammals and humans is more than 90% identical, it is possible that the jockey gave rise to all living creatures on the planet.

2. If jockeys, as can be seen from ancient drawings and paintings, communicated with people and showed them where the planet LV-233 was located, to which Prometheus eventually went, then why did LV-233 turn out to be a military facility, and the jockeys were going to destroy humanity ?

This is not directly stated in the film, so all that remains is to analyze and make assumptions.

At first I thought - why is the film called "Prometheus"? There must be some meaning to this. A film that raises such important issues as the search for God, the meaning of life, faith, etc. cannot be named after an ordinary spacecraft. Even a simple science-fiction thriller (I'm thinking of 1979's Alien) would be ridiculous to call it Nostromo. Prometheus is mentioned in passing by Weyland in welcome speech, but this seems too insufficient for choosing a title for the film.

Who is Prometheus? Weyland was not entirely right when he said in his welcoming speech that Prometheus wanted people to become equal to the gods and paid for it. Prometheus, titan from ancient greek mythology, is actually famous for two things: 1) he created people; 2) he loved people and, contrary to the will of the gods, gave them fire, for which he was punished. Despite the fact that he did not die and was eventually forgiven, Prometheus popular culture is a symbol of self-sacrifice for the sake of people.

Doesn't remind you of anything? Of course, the lone jockey at the beginning of the film is Prometheus, who sacrificed himself for the sake of humanity. Then the title of the film immediately makes sense. And what is important here is that the earthly Prometheus, from mythology, was in opposition to the gods. Since myths are an echo of people's communication with jockeys - "gods", from this we can conclude that the jockey at the beginning of the film did his job contrary to the opinion of the other jockeys and their supreme power.

Perhaps he was a dissident or a criminal left on Earth as punishment (if this had been a special experiment, then there would have been observer jockeys nearby; and he looked very mournful). His like-minded people or relatives learned about what had been done and took “patronage” over humanity, which is reflected in ancient drawings. However, 2000 years ago (interestingly, the time of the coming of Jesus Christ was chosen for day X) the rest of the jockeys found out about this. The “gods” were forbidden to appear on Earth (note that all found images of people communicating with jockeys are ancient, BC, there are no later ones), and the jockeys decided to destroy people as a result of illegal actions.

Thus, the situation depicted in the pictures has changed. The planet that the “good” jockeys pointed to was turned into a military base and punitive expeditions began to be prepared on it.

However, whether it was a military base, as the captain of the Prometheus suggested, is another question. After all, after the disaster of the first ship, the jockeys are shown how Shaw and David quite quickly, without any incidents, take off on another ship. This means that there was nothing dangerous there. Maybe it's just a cosmodrome, a transit point.

3. Is Vickers (Charlize Theron’s character) a robot?

The question is raised due to the fact that there is no direct answer to the question “Are you a robot?” which the captain asks Vickers is not given in the film. The fact that Vickers calls Weyland father can be interpreted in different ways: since Weyland was the head of the corporation that made androids, the android can call Weyland father.

I think Vickers is the man. The fact is that one of the key plot lines of the film is the Weyland-David-Vickers triangle. Weyland has a daughter (Vickers), but does not love her, and his favorite child is David, whom he envies because of David's immortality. Vickers, and this is obvious, is jealous of her father for David (what a look she has when at the beginning Weyland calls David almost a son!). This explains why she sometimes behaves like a robot - in order to be like David.

If Vickers were an android, then this triangle would make no sense. Moreover, it becomes unclear why there were two androids on the ship at all, and why Vickers’ presence was hidden from Weyland.

There are other signals: Vickers was a member of the board of directors of the Weyland Corporation (inconceivable for an android), at the beginning of the film Vickers, either in sweat or in some kind of mucus, does push-ups from the floor to restore shape after sleeping in a cryochamber - the android clearly did not sleep in a cell, as seen in David's example.

4. How did the earthly android David so easily understand alien signs, codes for opening doors, and controlling the ship?

Due to the influence of jockeys on the ancient human civilizations part of the jockeys' culture is reflected in the culture of these civilizations. Considering the power of David's artificial intelligence (the degree of development of which, under the influence of Moore's law over 70 years, we are simply unable to imagine), which analyzed all the data available to him and the data received at the time of exploration of the alien ship, it is not surprising that David's brain found solutions instantly.

5. Why does David essentially engage in sabotage by letting the scientist, Holoway, drink liquid from an alien vase?

David, despite his independence and fights with Holoway, was not independent - he obeyed Weilnad, who was in the cryochamber and gave instructions to David from there (see the episode when Vickers pinches David and demands to tell him what Weyland said). Weyland was interested in one thing - the continuation of his life. The liquid from the “gods” found in the vases could be rejuvenating. It’s clear that in the face of such prospects, no moral standards could stop Weyland. Since Holoway, in fact, was no longer needed, the liquid was tested on him, like on a laboratory rat.

It is possible that David’s curiosity and inquisitive mind also had an influence here. For example, Weyland ordered the liquid to be tested on someone, and David chose Holoway - asking him the question “What lengths are you willing to go to get answers?”

Later, the attitude towards crew members as consumables for experiments was demonstrated by Shaw, who became pregnant with an alien organism.

6. What kind of idiotic behavior of scientists (!) on an alien planet? They take off their helmets, reach out with their hands to the obviously aggressive alien snakes...

Indeed, taking off a helmet on an alien planet looks strange - when even on Earth a European who goes to Asia risks stretching his legs from some kind of infection or insect bite. In fairness, it should be noted that the lack of a helmet did not harm anyone, and the helmets did not save them - when the lost geologist and biologist were attacked by a snake, they were wearing helmets.

As for the biologist who climbed up to the snake... Yes, it looks wild. But we must take into account that, as they say at the very beginning, fanatics were recruited onto the ship. And the biologist was also a fanatic. It’s a common thing for someone like this to meddle with all sorts of creatures. Here, for example, about his colleague, the famous Australian animal show host Steve Irwin:

"In East Timor, he was rescuing a crocodile that had gotten caught in a concrete pipe and there was no way to get it out. So Irwin dove in with the animal. The crocodile had a death grip on him, which resulted in the same hand being ripped open again, this time The tendon was torn."

And this is just one episode of many cases of injury from all sorts of aggressive animals. As a result, Steve Irwin died, receiving a fatal blow to the heart from a stingray.

So the biologist in the film is not a blunder, they really are like that.

7. Why did the geologist bitten by snakes not carry an Alien or another organism, but came to the ship and attacked the crew?

The geologist was not bitten by a snake. When he cut her, her blood burned through the helmet, the geologist fell face first into the black liquid, which caused him to mutate.

8. Why is there such a variety of monsters from one source - liquid from vases? Either snakes, or squids, or zombies? Why in one case does reproduction occur through the laying of an embryo inside through the mouth, in another case through sexual intercourse?

Perhaps it is connected with the “source material”: one effect on worms, another on humans. But in general, the black liquid, as we are told in the film, is a biological weapon. For biological weapons, the stability of the result is not important, i.e. so that the effect is strictly the same. The main thing is that it incapacitates the enemy and the infection is transmitted further - and this black liquid does this perfectly.

9. How is Shaw, after having her stomach cut open and stitched back up, running around the ship calmly?

It is clearly not worth judging the medicine of 2093 by today's criteria. For example, if people who lived 70 years ago would have seen things that are simple for today's medicine - the same antibiotics - they would also have said that this is unrealistic. So it is quite possible that after 70 years we have very effective healing and restorative drugs - this is probably what Shaw injected into his shoulder during the operation and into his leg after it. And Shaw didn’t run very calmly - she was constantly cringing in pain.

10. Why did the surviving and awakened jockey attack the earthlings who arrived to him and kill them? I could talk to them, explain... They are, after all, the children of jockeys, so to speak!

Firstly, if the jockeys decided to destroy humanity, then the fact that the jockeys will not be happy with the people who appear practically at their home is a completely natural result. Who knows what their policy was there? If the Nazis in the Second world war cultivated the destruction of people without any talk, then the same can be expected from alien creatures.
Secondly, the jockey did not attack them right away. He watched them quarrel for some time, obviously appraisingly. He only became angry after David said something to him. And even then, at first he even seemed to gently pat David on the head, as if to say, “You turned out good, assholes.” Maybe the jockey finally realized that these worms wanted to use him, and decided to quickly get rid of them in order to begin his mission.
Thirdly, one should not idealize the attitude of jockeys towards people. Even if I am wrong when I spoke at the beginning of the post about the Prometheus jockey and the “illegal” creation of people, then jockeys are not at all obliged to treat people as their children. People, for example, breed cows, but how many of us want to be friends with cows? On the contrary, we mostly love cows exclusively in the form of cutlets and steaks. Jockeys, of course, did not eat people, but a contemptuous attitude towards people is quite likely.

11. Why did they recruit some idiots for such an important expedition, why is there no discipline, subordination, why do they not have a plan, security, control of things carried, etc.?

Weyland was a fanatic of his cause and the same fanatics were recruited onto the ship. If this were a classic investment project - specific money from specific individuals was invested, here is a business plan, here are measures to control its implementation, here is such and such a planned profitability - of course everything would be different. But this was Weyland's personal adventure, so he organized it all accordingly.

Fanatics despise bureaucracy (including all sorts of safety instructions), this goes to the point of bravado (one biologist in a discussion of the film wrote that they consider it a scam to work with material with gloves).
They value improvisation, as a result of which things are born that would otherwise be difficult to achieve in the usual way.
In addition, Weyland was living in his last days and therefore it was necessary to force events. For example, the same test of black liquid: how much time would they spend on research and testing in the usual way? And then they added Kholoveya - and it was done.

Questions I don't have answers to:

1. The purpose of the room with a huge humanoid head where the vases stood. For some reason this issue is not discussed in discussions. In the film they say, “This is a grave.” But these words are more like emotions; there are no real signs of a grave, except perhaps a head that vaguely resembles a monument. Laboratory for experiments? But why then does it have an earthen, non-sterile floor? Why did jockeys run there in times of danger? Is this some kind of rescue room? The liquid begins to flow out when a humanoid creature appears nearby, that is, it is enough to get there even if you are wounded and lose consciousness - the liquid will reach the body. However, the fact that the liquid acts on jockeys as " living water", that is, completely different from people, it looks unrealistic, because genetically people and jockeys are almost the same.

2. Rapid growth squid without any food (an often discussed blunder). Inside Shaw, in a few hours he grew to a couple of kilograms, that is, he should have taken the appropriate amount of nutrients from her, but she did not feel it. After the operation, he was left alone in the medical unit and, without any food, grew to 3 meters in height.

Update 06/08/2012: In the comments they gave a link to an interview with Ridley Scott, where he talks about one of the scenarios in which the jockeys decided to destroy people 2000 years ago because they were disappointed in their “children” - people took up aggressive wars (Roman Empire). The creators gave people another chance - they sent their emissary to them, but people crucified him (this is how the story of Jesus Christ appeared). After this, the final decision was made to destroy humanity.

The editors of Rewind, indulging their holiday mood, decided to review the main Christmas film of last year - Prometheus by Ridley Scott - and answer its most important questions . Why, for example, does God not like nasty old people and robots?

If “Prometheus” is a celebration and a celebration, then it is a celebration of shedding blood, plot innuendos, angry spectators, grandiose scenery, as well as intentional and not entirely religious allusions. The film does feature a crucified xenomorph, Prometheus takes place on Christmas Day and features an impossible conception, and Ridley Scott had in mind that in his universe Christ - most likely the Engineer who arrived to observe humanity.

I only had enough strength to get to the second viewing now, but with acid in my blood, two commentary tracks - one with Scott's voice, the other with the screenwriters' excuses - and several hours additional materials, no less impressive than the abortion scene with a squid crawling out of the womb. Due to its twisted plot, the mystery created by editing, the general lack of ideality and ambition, Prometheus is almost the only blockbuster recent years who wants to conduct a solemn, detailed autopsy.

The director’s next film is a biblical epic about Moses, and it’s around him, and not the vegetarian and eco-terrorist “Noah” by Aronofsky, as reviews of the script claim, that the main Internet battles will unfold.

Who is guilty?

Cinema is a collective creation, but the bulk of the blame always falls on the director and producers. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts came to an interview at Scott Free not yet expecting that he would be offered to write a story for a prequel to one of the most famous space cinematic universes. Ridley Scott, who was finishing work on Robin Hood, was not able to attend the meeting, but he was very impressed by Speights’ unfilmed works - for example, the script for the ambitious sci-fi Passengers, which Keanu Reeves seemed to be aiming for.

At that time, neither the film company 20th Century Fox nor Ridley Scott knew what they could film about. New film about xenomorphs after five sequels of 1 “Alien” with the concepts of the different levels savagery. It was Spates who came up with the entire framework of the plot with the search for God in the directions given by Scott; within a few weeks after the start of work, the director presented drafts of the script at the Fox office and received full approval. At the same time, Scott sat down with two groups of designers, under his total control, who came up with the visual shell of “Prometheus”, from retro spacesuits with helmets full review to the appearance of the Engineers, who look like ancient bodybuilders rolled in flour. When the studio finally deigned to invite the author of the original xenomorphs, Hans Giger, to work on the picture, Ridley Scott didn’t even find where to put his painful drawings and simply showed the artist new approaches to his classic image. This, apparently, is almost the only work of Giger included in the film:

1 The AvP series is something to be reckoned with, although you don’t want to

At some point, the producers felt that the script for “The Untitled Alien Prequel” should be brought to life by an experienced and stellar author, from which point Damon Lindelof, who was subsequently hounded by the public, joined the project. And it really comes from a more or less smooth and thoughtful script with the help of Elizabeth Shaw's ax ( Noomi Rapace) made a bloody mess, but again, who called him out of the Lost smoke and for what purposes is a question for the studio production engineers; he did his job of erasing a number of Spates’ findings. Scott wanted to remove traces of aliens from the plot and make the film scarier, because Speights’ text included a full zoo of xenomorphs, but it read more like a very large-scale God-fighting sci-fi. Even too large-scale: Speights did not limit himself at all, sending heroes to Martian bases or entire terramorphized valleys with one stroke. In addition, the director was suited to Lindelof’s inexplicable love for secrets and understatement; he, as will be seen in “The Counselor,” was tired of saying everything and decided to focus on what exactly the audience would not see in the film. To top it off with what Ridley Scott fearlessly fought, but never got over, Lindelof deliberately rewrote Prometheus from a science fiction film into a teenage slasher film with curable genre tumors - a scientist smokes marijuana through a spacesuit respirator and immediately dies, unprotected sex under the influence of alcohol leads to even more terrible consequences than pregnancy or STDs.

Ridley Scott himself, who has a rich and unpleasant history of relations with the Fox company, this time received carte blanche and for some reason, he believes, tried to please the young viewer - by including home-grown 3D, loved by living classics, and an unhealthy desire to overfed with action scenes. Some ailments could have been cured by the trademark bloated editing of the director’s cut, but even before the premiere, Scott said that these two hours, coming out soon, are the most complete film, you can delve into the deleted scenes and concept art yourself. The second part he was burning for a whole year and even in the comments to the film he confirms that he will return to Noomi Rapace with an almost Pekinpoe head in her bag. We wouldn't mind a remake of Black Hawk Down, in which an army of perhydrol Michael Fassbenders with rifles and flamethrowers at the ready burns down the self-proclaimed Paradise of lovers of genetic experiments. True, then Ridley gladly spent money on Cormac McCarthy’s script, got to the Bible, planned a couple more epics, but he is already 76 years old and nature has not yet learned how to make men of steel.

What to do?

Wait until next time someone has enough eggs to make big movie cosmic horror, or at least sci-fi, in which there will be no images of naive natives and evil colonists.

Why Prometheus?

In the comments, Lindelof, who is expecting an imminent lynching, overacts a bit with the deliberate destruction of his person, but, we hope, seriously claims that it was he who came up with the final and really cool title for the film. Everything is clear without any tedious clues: the name of the ship, ancient greek myth, and a completely chewing moment - filmed within advertising campaign Wayland's speech ( Guy Pearce) for pseudoTED, in which he just mentions titanium and fire. Other options that each subscribed to new edition scenarios: Paradise, Tomb of the Gods, Alien: Engineers, LV-426, Alien 01: Genesis. Scott argued with Lindelof at first, believing Prometheustoo pretentious and difficult to pronounce, but in the end he gave in.

Is this Earth?

No. For the prologue, Scott carefully chose locations and had the art team erase all the lush vegetation from the frame, mute the tones and paste in a menacing skyline. All these manipulations were needed to create the image of the primordial planet. The dress and ceremony with which the Engineer loses his own life to create a completely new one suggests that the entire race is deeply religious and, probably, is in search of its creator (or has already found it).

In Lindelof's filming script, the prologue was longer - firstly, the sacrificing Engineer is seen off by other, probably more influential members of the group, and, secondly, they speak to each other in a proto-language. Ridley Scott also filmed the full version, but for some reason there are no dialogues in the deleted scene found on Blu-ray and you can find them by digging around in the giant film about the film Furious Gods: The Making of Prometheus.

In the versions that Speights wrote, instead of drinking the black slurry, the Engineer was awaited by insects who ate him alive, which then bit primitive people and thus made changes to the DNA. That is, the mysterious higher race did not create life on the planets, but changed and accelerated the development of an existing one as part of a gigantic experiment. Which is somewhat more logical for the subsequent events of the film and the experimental liquid that the Engineers were supposed to send as the first ambulance to Earth to destroy it, but they were prevented by plot innuendos.

Why did Wayland agree to finance the expedition?

Of course, the dying head of a giant corporation was ready to give anything to get the secret eternal life. And the superior race that supposedly created humans could answer his questions. Moreover, Weyland put himself on the same level as the Engineers (see. why did the Engineer attack David?).

2 Depending on the version of the script, the meeting took place in Amsterdam of the future, on a terraformable Mars, or on the Weyland space station

HOW IS LV-426 DIFFERENT FROM LV-223?

Spates wrote the direct backstory of Alien, so the events of his script unfold on the planetoid LV-426, where Ellen Ripley will arrive many years later. LV-223 was invented by Lindelof, who was faced with the task of getting as far as possible from the legacy of the famous franchise, and in the comments he answers that there is a difference between the two celestial bodiesonly in numbers. But, firstly, these numbers are not random - LV-223, as fans have long dug up, refers to the third book of the Torah, Leviticus 22:3:

Tell them: If anyone from all your descendants throughout your generations, having uncleanness on him, approaches the holy things that the children of Israel dedicate to the Lord, then that soul will be cut off from before Me. I am the Lord.

Secondly, on LV-426 an alien ship with dangerous cargo crashed, while on LV-223 a whole network of pyramids was built, which are probably used for terraforming. The pyramids were not invented specifically for “Prometheus”, but were taken from those ideas of Giger that were killed during the filming of “Alien” for financial reasons. One of the endings invented by Speights is that all the buildings on LV-223 begin to emit a light signal, a dark screen, and credits.

Why does David watch other people's dreams?

Dreams occupied a significant part of Lindelof's script and he, for example, unsuccessfully suggested that Ridley Scott, bypassing shots of space and a flying ship, make a direct transition from successful excavations in the cave to Shaw's visions of his father (one day of shooting Patrick Wilson), to further blur the boundaries of the real in the film. David ( Michael Fassbender) with artificial intelligence built into it curiosity of a raccoon he spied on the dreams of other crew members, but more importantly, he monitored the condition of Weyland on board. In one version of the scenario, there was a special virtual reality system for communicating with the “frozen” owner.

Ridley Scott, in his comments, demonstrates his trademark preoccupation with little things that no one cares about. He explains the technology of suspended animation in Prometheus through the development of knowledge about the physics of low temperatures and the functioning of the brain, which, like muscles, requires constant training. In this case, the exercise is a dream, the images for which are selected long before the trip.

"Lawrence of Arabia"?

Scott and Lindelof love David Lean's film, they passed this love on to Weyland (see TED), and through Weyland it was passed on through the technological inheritance to David. Scott also explains that the robot butler on board the long voyage had a million hours of free time, during which he independently studied the cultural achievements of the civilization and chose what he liked best. Lindelof compares David's passion to resemble Peter O'Toole with wayward iPods - internally, all robot models are the same, the colors of the cases and cases change.

A dark-skinned captain named Janek?

Or Janek. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts imagined Janek as a fair-haired, bearded Slav, but Ridley Scott sea ​​dog wearing a cap, he introduced himself to Idris Elba, whom he saw in the TV series “The Wire” and immediately invited to appear in his “American Gangster.” They didn’t come up with a new name, that’s all.

A rather interesting deleted scene is associated with Janek, in which the captain comes with a mug of rum into the cabin of Vickers, dressed in only a robe, and says that he used to serve in the army and saw how the military had to wipe out chemical laboratory, in which experiments were carried out and biological weapons were created. Accidental infection, an epidemic, a box with a gray button and an outbreak with a blast wave for many kilometers. After the episode with Holloway, he suggests that Vickers do the same on LV-223, blowing away the Engineers’ ship along with all these pyramids with a nuclear strike. Gray button, with a considerable tear. Almost like the story about the little engine from Major Payne. Somewhere in the same scene hides the soldier’s heroism of Janek, who takes 3 Engineer’s croissant to the ram.

3 To the engineers' ship the names bagel or horseshoe stuck, but according to Scott, it’s a croissant

Why does GUY PEARCE need old make-up?

In the original versions and even the filming script there was at least one big stage with young Wayland, but all that remains of these ideas is the already mentioned fake TED conference. That is, Weyland’s image was created based on age contrast, and as a result, the nerd area of ​​the Internet twisted its finger at its temple.

Why didn’t the team know where and why they were flying?

In an extended dialogue between Janek and Vickers, the ship's captain expresses his complete disinterest in the purpose of the expedition. He is paid - he does not ask unnecessary questions, the same, obviously, applies to other crew members. Both writers remain silent in the comments, but the exposition before the landing on LV-223 materialized only because the conversation scene between Shaw, Holloway and Wayland was previously removed from the script. That is, the explanation of the introductory and pseudo-scientific part of the plot was not destroyed, but simply moved, getting rid of additional scenery and adding florid Lindelof logic to the film.

Why did they take off their helmets inside the pyramid?

The moment is no less strange than the Engineers' flute or the giant head in the ceremony hall, which Scott invented shortly before filming. In all scenarios and even in the preview of the entire film, the expedition members did not violate safety precautions, no matter what high performance neither did the equipment inside the pyramids. A small but unpleasant liberty, most likely, grew out of the terrible inconvenience of working in helmets ( see bonus track).

For Lindelof, this is quoting a scene from Steven Spielberg's Contact of the Third Degree, where Richard Dreyfuss's character takes off his gas mask, not being completely sure that he is right and safe. Holloway does it because he believes, and Ridley Scott wanted to make him a daredevil from the X-games.

Why are Fifield and Milburn so BRAINLESS?

Fifield's Monstrous Degradation ( Sean Harris) and Milburn ( Rafe Spall) grew with each new version of the script, and it is strange that these characters even have names, but Father Shaw, for example, does not. Initially, they were not scientists (like almost the entire crew) and were lost in the pyramid due to various reasons were left without mapping equipment. Then they accidentally missed the right turn due to their arguing. And now these are the most hopelessly stupid scientists, even by the low standards of blockbusters that don’t go into detail.

The infamous attack by the mutated snake was preceded by a deleted scene in which a childishly delighted Milburn, in front of the expedition, discovered the first extraterrestrial organism more complex than a bacterium - a worm. Spates also explained the biologist's carelessness by his belief in the impenetrability and protection of the spacesuit, which was not designed for exposure to unstudied concentrated acids. Fifield became a victim of Lindelof's screenwriting talents, who turned a cowardly punk scientist into a teenage slasher hero who commits the main genre sin - he smokes weed. Spates and Scott, however, were pleased with this humorous sketch.

Why did David infect Holloway?

In the scenes anticipating the infection, Lindelof began to sigh heavily, and this is understandable. At the time of recording the comments, the film had not yet been released, and the screenwriter already guessed why he would be rude to everyone on Twitter. The scene in which he travels through the dream-subconscious of Weyland, who is still cryogenically frozen, was supposed to slightly explain David’s behavior. The hot beach sand, David meets a stranger and goes with her on a jet ski to Weyland’s giant yacht, where he looks like a tanned Guy Pearce without old makeup and during the conversation demands that his artificial “son” do everything in his power. Anything that will stop his quick and inexorable death. Having no knowledge about the properties of the black liquid found in the pyramid, David decides to try the find on laboratory rats - crew members.

David is not ingrained in Asimov's laws of robotics or RoboCop's strict directives; he does not accept people, with the exception of the Creator, as his equals and initially sees the disastrous and pointless nature of the expedition. The Happy Birthday David commercial also states that David is willing to perform tasks that are considered immoral by hypocritical people. That is, he could infect anyone, but for an experiment in living conditions It was Holloway who got caught after, when asked about his personal boundaries of what was permitted, he replied that he would do anything to achieve his goal. Besides, both screenwriters don't put much emphasis on robophobia, aggressively demonstrated by Holloway and Vickers towards David, but for the Blade Runner director it is very important point, and in his eyes, David is obviously not so indifferent to what is happening around him and the attitude of people.

Why did Wayland keep his presence a secret?

If it weren't for the relentless rush to complete the film's two-hour running time, Weyland's presence aboard the Prometheus would not have been a secret, at least not to the viewer. After waking up from cryosleep, Vickers asks the robot if everyone survived the flight, meaning, of course, his father, and in two deleted scenes, David and Vickers ( Charlize Theron) talk about what needs to be woken up old man. For him, a medical pod designed exclusively for men was installed.

According to Lindelof's logic, the team could agree to a long-term mission without even knowing its goals, so why would they know about someone's presence on the ship, and why would Weyland attract unnecessary attention to themselves?

How did Fifield get to Prometheus?

The return of the mutated Fifield is explained by the offensive need of the screenwriters and Ridley Scott to pump up the film with action, although a couple of seconds before the attack of the zombie punk in the film there was one of the most terrible and intense scenes of the last year - a robotic infirmary opened the stomach of Elizabeth Shaw, pulled out an alien squid and sewed up the laser-opened flesh with a construction stapler (in Furious Gods Scott just chooses a hard, mechanical sound for the staples). Much more. The interesting thing here is that Ridley, as with many special effects scenes, shot two versions of the scene: one with makeup and the second with a completely computer-generated Fifield, whose head was swollen from the mutation in Alien fashion. Scott chose the first option.

FLUTE?!

One of the strangest and beautiful moments film - the activation of the internal systems of the Engineers' ship using a flute - is not traced in the scripts, is not spoken about in special stages, Ridley Scott is silent about it in his comments. This scene slightly confused Speights, and even Dr. Anil Biltu, who was responsible for the language of the Engineers in the film, did not see any mention of the flute in the filmed script, with Scott's edits.

why did the engineer attack David?

It was enough that the dangerous cargo was already intended for earthlings; there was no point in local mercy. In the comments, Ridley Scott explains that the awakened Engineer saw worthless creatures who sent a robot, a cheap copy of a copy, to negotiate with Him. In extended scene the meetings between the Engineer and Wayland are completely different, more impressive intonations: instead of an attempt at dialogue and tearing off one’s head, there is a full-fledged dialogue, well, without tearing off anywhere. Ueland, without the help of David's translation talents, explains why he needs immortality:

“Do you see this man? (points to the robot) My company created it from nothing. I created him in my image so that he would be perfect and never fail. I deserve it because you and I, we stand above. We are creators. We are gods. But gods don’t die.”

And only then comes a clear demonstration of who God is here. Why did Ridley Scott cut this scene and many others involving the Engineer(s)? Contrary to the logic of the film, where the superior race is presented not as divine, but rather as biotechnological, he wanted to create an ominous and poorly analyzable image. Where even Lindelof was not enough, the correct tight editing helped.

In Spates's texts, the Engineer, already infected and escaping in cryosleep, takes revenge on the people because they, and not the rescue group, woke him up and thereby doomed him to death from the black liquid.

Why do engineers want to destroy humanity?

Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof promise to answer this question in a sequel, which neither of them is currently working on. Among the popular versions are that the Engineers set up a new experiment, tested chemical weapons (slow and unsuccessful), and carried out the will of their own creators. And it is this question, unlike the worthless mystery of the space jockey from the first “Alien,” that firmly holds the entire film by both xenomorph jaws exactly until it is answered in the sequel.

BONUS TRACK

Noomi Rapace talks about how great it is to play with a big helmet:

Lindelof says that as a child he thought of Blade Runner as a sequel to Alien, and that Scott at one point really wanted to incorporate his sci-fi heritage into Prometheus. Alternatively, the robotic commander of Weyland’s guard could be given the face of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer). Many ideas and entire books of concept art didn’t fit into the film, but truly Scott's army of designers was upset when the director changed his mind about Hauer.