Prometheus
Mar. 23rd, 2012 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pathology_docI am excited for this film.
For weeks, we've had very little except a few short teasers or trailers, but these have been enough to make it very exciting. Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't have a formal, easy-to-find presence on Livejournal yet, because the last couple of days have seen an explosion in the amount of trailer material available - more than enough to start making reasonable assumptions, or at least craft reasonable hypotheses, about the plot.
What we know (or can reasonably deduce) from the trailer material so far:
* It definitely takes place in the Alien Universe, (30 years) before the events of the original film. To this extent, it can be regarded as a prequel.
* It features the "Space Jockey" aliens and ships originally seen at the beginning of Alien, thus strengthening the above premise.
* There are plot elements regarding humanity's origins having something to do with these creatures, and the trailers directly impute interactions with multiple human cultures. The scuttlebutt is that it relates directly to the origins of humanity. The truth... will become apparent in early June, or perhaps before that if significant details are leaked in the trailers. For now, we have two idealistic archaeologists (at least one of whom has a doctorate) uncovering these facts and interpreting them as a peaceful invitation. The words "We were so wrong" are uttered by one of them. In fact the distorted words "...were so wrong... I'm so sorry..." are used to open the first substantive trailer. So it looks as if, much like the first film, a "come and find me" message turns out later to be something very different.
* There is a strong element of body horror.
Evidence: a human form cocooned in some sort of white casing is seen thrashing about; Noomi Rapace's character spends a significant amount of trailer time wearing not much and looking rather unwell; another character is seen clutching his space helmet while his face appears to be boiling off or on fire; at least one character (possibly Rapace's also) is seen screaming while being held down; the audio in one trailer contains what appear to be the words "Cut it off!" screamed in a panic; another voice (female) screams "Please!" in a panicked, begging tone. We see something crawling out of, or moving at the top of, a long, thin canopic-jar-like structure. At least one brief cut features a tentacle of some kind. Viscous slime is identified. A character is seen examining one of his own eyes in the mirror, in close-up, in a manner suggesting he is checking for some sort of alteration.
The significance of this is unclear. This may be due to the actions of a parasite or some other infectious agent. It would appear to involve the transformation of humans into something else, although a fatal disease may also be a possibility. Unconfirmed rumour suggests that the Alien of the first film is a product of human and "Space Jockey", but we have nothing further to go on that is definite.
* There are parallels with the egg chamber in the original Alien and a large chamber containing an Easter Island-like head of human form and containing numerous examples of the canopic jar-like structures discussed above. We are immediately meant to feel uneasy here - we know what happened in the egg chamber of the Space Jockey ship in Alien, and also the events of Aliens in the Queen's egg chamber, and neither was a safe place to be
* The interests of the humans and the Space Jockeys appear at the present time to be diametrically opposed: we see a brief clip of the Prometheus being rammed into the side of a Space Jockey ship, with an explosion occurring at the point of contact. A separate clip shows an out-of-control Space Jockey ship descending from the sky and a third shows a similar ship piling into the ground or toppling over (with a human trying frantically to outrun the wreckage). A fourth clip shows humans climbing into cells or pods which are not their hibernation chambers (these have already been shown), so presumably the Prometheus undertakes a suicide ramming mission from which some of her crew eject. One of the characters utters the words "If we don't stop it, there won't be a home to go back to", making the stakes clear.
* The interests of all of the humans may not coincide. There is a brief clip which appears to show a human figure leaping at another human engaged in a task, and another which shows several humans firing hand weapons. The muzzles are roughly level, implying they are shooting at objects or persons/creatures of approximately the same height as themselves, whereas a separate clip implies that the Space Jockeys are much taller. This may coincide with what has been said about body horror above, e.g. that altered humans escape their confines and are pursued (successfully or otherwise) by some of the remainder.
* The tale of whatever happens either never makes it back to Earth or is quietly suppressed. Proof: if what happened was widely known, the crew of the Nostromo would have found reference to it, known the nature of the ship they had found, and known to stay well away. Given that they set down under orders, this would imply that the facts as established in Prometheus do somehow get back to Earth. Charlize Theron's character is allegedly a Weyland Corporation representative and allegedly survives to the end of the film. I suspect we can put two and two together here.
That's about all I can reasonably surmise. Questions exist - is this the film in which "the Company" somehow learns of the xenomorph (eventually), leading them to send the Nostromo (Ripley's original ship) to pick it up in the future? Is David, the android, in the mould of Ash (traitor to his crew), Bishop (neutral trending towards friendly), or somewhere in between? Do we see anything/is anything hinted of the xenomorphs at all? Stay tuned.
For weeks, we've had very little except a few short teasers or trailers, but these have been enough to make it very exciting. Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't have a formal, easy-to-find presence on Livejournal yet, because the last couple of days have seen an explosion in the amount of trailer material available - more than enough to start making reasonable assumptions, or at least craft reasonable hypotheses, about the plot.
What we know (or can reasonably deduce) from the trailer material so far:
* It definitely takes place in the Alien Universe, (30 years) before the events of the original film. To this extent, it can be regarded as a prequel.
* It features the "Space Jockey" aliens and ships originally seen at the beginning of Alien, thus strengthening the above premise.
* There are plot elements regarding humanity's origins having something to do with these creatures, and the trailers directly impute interactions with multiple human cultures. The scuttlebutt is that it relates directly to the origins of humanity. The truth... will become apparent in early June, or perhaps before that if significant details are leaked in the trailers. For now, we have two idealistic archaeologists (at least one of whom has a doctorate) uncovering these facts and interpreting them as a peaceful invitation. The words "We were so wrong" are uttered by one of them. In fact the distorted words "...were so wrong... I'm so sorry..." are used to open the first substantive trailer. So it looks as if, much like the first film, a "come and find me" message turns out later to be something very different.
* There is a strong element of body horror.
Evidence: a human form cocooned in some sort of white casing is seen thrashing about; Noomi Rapace's character spends a significant amount of trailer time wearing not much and looking rather unwell; another character is seen clutching his space helmet while his face appears to be boiling off or on fire; at least one character (possibly Rapace's also) is seen screaming while being held down; the audio in one trailer contains what appear to be the words "Cut it off!" screamed in a panic; another voice (female) screams "Please!" in a panicked, begging tone. We see something crawling out of, or moving at the top of, a long, thin canopic-jar-like structure. At least one brief cut features a tentacle of some kind. Viscous slime is identified. A character is seen examining one of his own eyes in the mirror, in close-up, in a manner suggesting he is checking for some sort of alteration.
The significance of this is unclear. This may be due to the actions of a parasite or some other infectious agent. It would appear to involve the transformation of humans into something else, although a fatal disease may also be a possibility. Unconfirmed rumour suggests that the Alien of the first film is a product of human and "Space Jockey", but we have nothing further to go on that is definite.
* There are parallels with the egg chamber in the original Alien and a large chamber containing an Easter Island-like head of human form and containing numerous examples of the canopic jar-like structures discussed above. We are immediately meant to feel uneasy here - we know what happened in the egg chamber of the Space Jockey ship in Alien, and also the events of Aliens in the Queen's egg chamber, and neither was a safe place to be
* The interests of the humans and the Space Jockeys appear at the present time to be diametrically opposed: we see a brief clip of the Prometheus being rammed into the side of a Space Jockey ship, with an explosion occurring at the point of contact. A separate clip shows an out-of-control Space Jockey ship descending from the sky and a third shows a similar ship piling into the ground or toppling over (with a human trying frantically to outrun the wreckage). A fourth clip shows humans climbing into cells or pods which are not their hibernation chambers (these have already been shown), so presumably the Prometheus undertakes a suicide ramming mission from which some of her crew eject. One of the characters utters the words "If we don't stop it, there won't be a home to go back to", making the stakes clear.
* The interests of all of the humans may not coincide. There is a brief clip which appears to show a human figure leaping at another human engaged in a task, and another which shows several humans firing hand weapons. The muzzles are roughly level, implying they are shooting at objects or persons/creatures of approximately the same height as themselves, whereas a separate clip implies that the Space Jockeys are much taller. This may coincide with what has been said about body horror above, e.g. that altered humans escape their confines and are pursued (successfully or otherwise) by some of the remainder.
* The tale of whatever happens either never makes it back to Earth or is quietly suppressed. Proof: if what happened was widely known, the crew of the Nostromo would have found reference to it, known the nature of the ship they had found, and known to stay well away. Given that they set down under orders, this would imply that the facts as established in Prometheus do somehow get back to Earth. Charlize Theron's character is allegedly a Weyland Corporation representative and allegedly survives to the end of the film. I suspect we can put two and two together here.
That's about all I can reasonably surmise. Questions exist - is this the film in which "the Company" somehow learns of the xenomorph (eventually), leading them to send the Nostromo (Ripley's original ship) to pick it up in the future? Is David, the android, in the mould of Ash (traitor to his crew), Bishop (neutral trending towards friendly), or somewhere in between? Do we see anything/is anything hinted of the xenomorphs at all? Stay tuned.