Christian’s Grade: B+
Ever since watching Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic Alien (1979), there’s been one burning question in my mind. What was the backstory for the “space jockey”? For those relatively new to the franchise, the space jockey was the term used to describe the giant humanoid corpse with the hole in its chest aboard the derelict spacecraft found on LV-426 that was transporting the alien eggs. The image of this huge being seated in some kind of alien contraption, obviously killed when one of the eggs hatched and turned on him, was seared into my creative brain.
I couldn’t help but wonder, did the crew of this vessel find those eggs on LV-426? Did they come from the same world or a different one? Were they breeding these aliens? Did they know how dangerous their cargo was? But foremost on my mind was, who was this space jockey, and where did he come from? With each progressive movie in the franchise, I waited for someone to address these questions, and each time there was nothing. Until 2012 when Ridley Scott returned to the franchise he started and gave us Prometheus.
Scott was assisted by writers Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, and while fans of the franchise were expecting a story explaining the origin of the space jockey, what we got was something much deeper. Prometheus was Ridley Scott’s effort to expand the Aliens’ mythos and tell the story of the origins of life in the universe, both the alien xenomorphs and our own. This film not only delves into some heavy philosophical questions but also hits on some very religious themes. All of which are appropriate when telling a story about man’s search for his creator.
Taking place 33 years before the events of Alien, Prometheus follows archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her partner, Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), as they lead an expeditionary mission to the moon LV-223 in search of the alien beings they call the Engineers. Their research led them to ancient historical references to a far-off constellation described by beings that resembled humans but seemed to be much more. Believing these beings to be the creators of the human race, Shaw and Holloway secure funding from the Weyland Corporation and join an assembled team aboard the space-exploration ship Prometheus to journey to this far-off moon and meet these engineers.
Key among the team members is David, filling the role of the token android present in all the entries of this franchise (except for the Alien vs. Predator movies, which may or may not even be canon). David acts as a representative of Weyland Corp. aboard the ship but also seems to have his own agenda. He monitors the ship’s functions and the sleeping crew as they make the journey. Approaching LV-223, they wake from hypersleep to prepare for the mission, and it’s clear that the crew of the Prometheus don’t quite know what to make of David yet. Holloway and another company rep, Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), seem to take noticeable pleasure in giving David a hard time, sometimes treating him with obvious contempt.
Upon arrival on LV-223, the team finds a large structure and clear evidence of intelligent life, but the entire installation appears to be deserted. As the team explores deeper into the structure, they find what seems to be a cargo hold filled with canisters. Their presence seems to have an effect on the cargo as a black liquid begins to seep out.
The pace of the movie picks up from here as Shaw deals with the disappointment of finding no living engineers, and David takes one of these canisters to examine. He decides to see what this black liquid can do and exposes Holloway to it by contaminating his drink. Immediately after this, Holloway and Shaw discuss their disappointment, have sex, and it’s revealed that Shaw has issues with infertility.
By this time, Holloway is clearly feeling some effects from exposure to the black liquid, and he doesn’t look good. But everybody suits up and heads back to the structure. We see that the black liquid mutated what seemed to be earthworms into deadly snakelike creatures which killed two team members. Holloway takes a turn for the worse, and the team rushes back to the ship to get him some help. Vickers refuses to let him back on the ship per their safety protocol, and knowing he’s going to die, Holloway tells Vickers to kill him by burning his body.
Shaw breaks down from this loss and finds herself in the med bay being examined by David, who reveals she is pregnant, but obviously not with a human child, as evidenced by the rapid growth. Shaw insists the embryo be removed immediately, but David wants to see this play out and sedates her. Shaw later wakes up and makes a mad dash to a robotic medical pod. What follows is a horrifying scene where Shaw undergoes surgery to remove the alien embryo before it kills her, all while awake and only locally anesthetized. She stumbles across Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), David’s creator and the ancient-looking benefactor of the mission, who was secretly stowed away onboard the ship in order to make the trip and hopefully find a way to beat death through engineer technology.
While this was going on, David found evidence that the beings in this installation were planning a trip to Earth with the deadly cargo, and one surviving engineer is in a hypersleep chamber within the structure. David believes he can revive him, and with that, the remaining team goes back to the structure. They revive the sleeping engineer and realize he is not a benevolent being, as he immediately attacks and kills most of the team. Shaw escapes to warn the crew of the Prometheus that a ship is launching and it cannot be allowed to leave; otherwise, the Earth is doomed. The Prometheus does a kamikaze run into the engineer ship, bringing it down. Shaw and David are the only ones left, and together, they commandeer another engineer ship with the intention of going to the engineer home world to ask them why they created humanity only to try and destroy them?
I know that’s a lot to pack into a two-hour run time, but the complexity of the story runs deeper than that. The theme of ancient alien astronauts seeding life throughout the universe and judging the species based on their development draws on a lot of ideas and traditions from religion. And that’s where my focus is drawn to with this film. Prometheus garnered a lot of mixed criticism, but while it wasn’t what I expected, it gave me what I believe to be a much deeper story and laid the groundwork for a greater understanding of the established Alien universe.
I can go on and on with the biblical analogies within this movie. But instead, I’ll hit them quickly. There’s Shaw and Holloway’s discovery of the ancient references to the distant constellation presented to the mission crew, like the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. The engineer installation structure that looked a lot like a temple and seemed to draw heavily on an Egyptian aesthetic. The canisters in the cargo hold resembling a stone garden containing nothing but death from the forbidden fruit. Shaw, who was barren, yet miraculously becomes pregnant by the seed of a god. Holloway being sacrificed as a burnt offering so the rest of the team might be saved from the punishment of the gods. The Cane and Abel parallel between Vickers and David, both of whom call Peter Weyland their father. Weyland’s journey across the universe in search of eternal life. David being the first of his kind, first trying to please and be more like his creators, then becoming disillusioned and rebelling against them. The engineers judging humanity and unleashing a deadly apocalyptic plague upon the earth.
While this film doesn’t directly lead to the same ship and planet we’re introduced to in Alien, it does provide fans like me with some of the answers we were looking for. We’re shown who the engineers were and how their methods and technology seemed largely based on biotechnology. We see how the xenomorphs fit into the bioweapons arsenal of the engineers and further proof that the development of their weapons focus on turning existing life against itself, this time more through mutation rather than gestation. The adaptable nature of their weapons also suggests the existence of endless other civilizations throughout the universe, as seen by how the resulting mutations, and the xenomorphs themselves, change their appearance depending on the biology of their host. This idea was well established in the Alien movie franchise but was reiterated in some clever ways in Prometheus.
One has to remember that Ridley Scott is a world-builder. So, it makes a lot of sense that when he came back to the Alien franchise, he did it with the intention of building out that world in new directions. Scott has never been a director to make a standard sequel or to simply follow the continuing adventures of a character he’s already fleshed out. Such is the case with Prometheus. We see Shaw presented as the clear heroine here, but David serves as an equal counterbalance in the story. While they both seek to understand their creators, Shaw’s faith in the engineers drives her research which is a search for meaning and purpose as part of a preordained destiny.
David takes a more scientific approach. The creation of life and what it means to be alive seems to be his primary interest. He is simply looking to acquire knowledge from those capable of creating life. When David feels they have nothing left to teach him, a disappointment manifests. As we can see in his treatment by and toward humans, he has no faith in them, so there is no loyalty, and he readily moves on to the engineers as his next teachers. For those who have already seen Alien: Covenant (2017), you know how David’s interactions and subsequent disappointment with humans and then the engineers drives him to destroy his gods, steal their technology, and try to create life himself. Vaguely reminiscent of the Greek myth of Prometheus.
Overall, I really liked Prometheus. There were a couple of issues relating to David’s ability to bridge the gap of understanding the engineers, their language, and technology. It was a bit of a logical leap, but it didn’t keep me from enjoying the story. I’m a big fan of Ridley Scott, and I’m pleased with his return to this franchise. It was a lofty undertaking to tackle this subject matter and give it a sci-fi twist, but I felt it was handled with the kind of skill and attention to detail that he brings to most of his projects. There’s still a lot more story to tell. Even after the follow-up, Alien: Covenant, there are still more questions about the engineers, David, and the final connection to the original Alien film. But the greatness in the storytelling and the intriguing nature of the creatures continues to bury its hooks into its fan base, and I truly hope there’s more to come.
One last thing I’ll mention is something I noticed upon seeing this movie again recently. With the character of Vickers, the director, and writers essentially took Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from Alien and showed us what she would have been like if she were a corporate climber in the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Vickers exhibits the same strength, assertiveness, and even the same decisions in situations like when the exploration team attempts to bring the infected Holloway back to the ship. That scene was very reminiscent of the crew of the Nostromo attempting to bring Kane (John Hurt) back to the ship with the face hugger attached. But in this movie, Vickers is portrayed not as an antagonist exactly but one more person with a secret agenda rather than the hero we get in Ripley.
Prometheus is an honest attempt to bring a level of depth to the Alien franchise that it has never had before. It is the starting point for showing an interconnectivity throughout the entire universe these stories inhabit. And it all stems from the engineers and the opening scene in this movie, where we witness their grand plan of life, death, sacrifice, rebirth, and, as we see in many grand mythologies, a coming apocalypse.