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pathology_docI wrote a post on this film some time ago, and I thought it was time to come back and make notes on where I'd guessed right or guessed wrong.
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.
True, but the only clue we get is the nature of the alien ship.
* It features the "Space Jockey" aliens and ships originally seen at the beginning of Alien, thus strengthening the above premise.
Again true. However, the elephantine nature of the creature and its 'blending into' the technology turned out to be a function of how the technology looked, not how the creatures looked.
* 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.
It's very different. Oh, so very different. It certainly relates to the origins of humanity because the Space Jockeys' DNA is a "perfect match" to ours. Exactly how it relates is still something of an open question.
* There is a strong element of body horror.
Evidence: a human form cocooned in some sort of white casing is seen thrashing about;
We do not see this in the film, though I haven't watched the deleted scenes yet.
Noomi Rapace's character spends a significant amount of trailer time wearing not much and looking rather unwell;
She's just had a robot-performed awake Caesarean to remove an alien entity.
another character is seen clutching his space helmet while his face appears to be boiling off or on fire;
Good old acid blood splashing on the visor, though the creature is different.
at least one character (possibly Rapace's also) is seen screaming while being held down;
This again seems to have vanished into the deleted scenes.
the audio in one trailer contains what appear to be the words "Cut it off!" screamed in a panic;
See "Good old acid blood..." above. Much good that did him...
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.
The thing which was removed in the procedure. It grew. A lot.
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.
Not infectious, but deliberately introduced. Not by him, alas.
It would appear to involve the transformation of humans into something else,
Yes.
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.
Remains unconfirmed. Something resembling our well-known alien comes out of a Space Jockey after it is impregnated by the creature which comes out of Rapace's character, which was put there when her infected boyfriend (see above) had sex with her.
* 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
This isn't either, but the precise nature of the threat is different.
* 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).
Same alien ship in all three clips. Same crash sequence.
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.
Correct. One crew-member ejects; the others choose to stay to the end.
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.
This is all correct, but the interests of one particular human are not shown in the trailer at all, and that constitutes the film's only real surprise. The last sentence in the para is mostly correct; the humans firing guns are doing so at an altered human.
* 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.
It turns out the planet they're on is not LV426, and this ship is not the one Ripley's crew found. Theron's character is Weyland's daughter, is effectively CEO, but does not survive. If anyone suppresses the knowledge, it isn't her. The message Rapace's character transmits at the end may or may not have been received.
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?
No.
Is David, the android, in the mould of Ash (traitor to his crew), Bishop (neutral trending towards friendly), or somewhere in between?
Incredibly traitorous, but very covertly and passively so, until the people giving him his orders are killed. Then he becomes very Bishop-like.
Do we see anything/is anything hinted of the xenomorphs at all?
It is clear that the creatures the black goo in the canopic jars gives rise to evolve and reproduce along very familiar lines, but their forms are somewhat different. Ridley Scott was quite correct when he said we would recognise "strands of Alien's DNA." It is not by any means a direct prequel, but one is left able to theorise how it might all have come about.
Stay tuned.
Bring on the sequel, Ridley. Quickly, while you're still around to make sure it's done right.
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.
True, but the only clue we get is the nature of the alien ship.
* It features the "Space Jockey" aliens and ships originally seen at the beginning of Alien, thus strengthening the above premise.
Again true. However, the elephantine nature of the creature and its 'blending into' the technology turned out to be a function of how the technology looked, not how the creatures looked.
* 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.
It's very different. Oh, so very different. It certainly relates to the origins of humanity because the Space Jockeys' DNA is a "perfect match" to ours. Exactly how it relates is still something of an open question.
* There is a strong element of body horror.
Evidence: a human form cocooned in some sort of white casing is seen thrashing about;
We do not see this in the film, though I haven't watched the deleted scenes yet.
Noomi Rapace's character spends a significant amount of trailer time wearing not much and looking rather unwell;
She's just had a robot-performed awake Caesarean to remove an alien entity.
another character is seen clutching his space helmet while his face appears to be boiling off or on fire;
Good old acid blood splashing on the visor, though the creature is different.
at least one character (possibly Rapace's also) is seen screaming while being held down;
This again seems to have vanished into the deleted scenes.
the audio in one trailer contains what appear to be the words "Cut it off!" screamed in a panic;
See "Good old acid blood..." above. Much good that did him...
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.
The thing which was removed in the procedure. It grew. A lot.
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.
Not infectious, but deliberately introduced. Not by him, alas.
It would appear to involve the transformation of humans into something else,
Yes.
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.
Remains unconfirmed. Something resembling our well-known alien comes out of a Space Jockey after it is impregnated by the creature which comes out of Rapace's character, which was put there when her infected boyfriend (see above) had sex with her.
* 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
This isn't either, but the precise nature of the threat is different.
* 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).
Same alien ship in all three clips. Same crash sequence.
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.
Correct. One crew-member ejects; the others choose to stay to the end.
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.
This is all correct, but the interests of one particular human are not shown in the trailer at all, and that constitutes the film's only real surprise. The last sentence in the para is mostly correct; the humans firing guns are doing so at an altered human.
* 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.
It turns out the planet they're on is not LV426, and this ship is not the one Ripley's crew found. Theron's character is Weyland's daughter, is effectively CEO, but does not survive. If anyone suppresses the knowledge, it isn't her. The message Rapace's character transmits at the end may or may not have been received.
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?
No.
Is David, the android, in the mould of Ash (traitor to his crew), Bishop (neutral trending towards friendly), or somewhere in between?
Incredibly traitorous, but very covertly and passively so, until the people giving him his orders are killed. Then he becomes very Bishop-like.
Do we see anything/is anything hinted of the xenomorphs at all?
It is clear that the creatures the black goo in the canopic jars gives rise to evolve and reproduce along very familiar lines, but their forms are somewhat different. Ridley Scott was quite correct when he said we would recognise "strands of Alien's DNA." It is not by any means a direct prequel, but one is left able to theorise how it might all have come about.
Stay tuned.
Bring on the sequel, Ridley. Quickly, while you're still around to make sure it's done right.