Prometheus’ (2012) release was the jolt needed to revive the enthusiasm in the Alien franchise after fifteen years of waiting after Alien 4 (1997) and a less-than-delightful Alien vs. Predator (2004). This fifth installment was co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott. Both Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof wrote the screenplay. It also has several notable cast members such as Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, and Idris Elba. It had a budget of roughly 130 million and made 403 million.  

We’re going to be entering the spoiler zone so take heed. 

We start the film with a humanoid figure standing about a waterfall. It then ingests this odd black liquid, disintegrates, and falls down the waterfall. This was supposed to be the catalyst to some sort of genetic chain reaction. 

Quite a bit of time passed and we finally met our protagonist, Elizabeth Shaw, and her partner Charlie Holloway in 2089. They’re both partners in life and archeology. They discovered ancient star maps that seem to point to a solar system. The pair see this as an invitation. I wouldn’t willingly go to a star system of unknown nature, but hey that’s just me. 

The lovely Wayland corporation CEO, Peter Weyland, finances the journey and the research vessel, Prometheus. The crew, including Shaw and Holloway, remain in stasis while they head to their destination overseen by an android named David. They arrived in 2093 on a moon named LV-223. 

The main mission is to find humanities creators, the Engineers. They find a temple-like structure, finding several interesting things such as vials of a strange dark liquid. Due to wacky sci-fi antics, several crew members are picked off, including Holloway. However before Holloway was killed, David roofied his drink with the dark liquid. Also, David discovers an engineer in one room currently being held in stasis along with a fun star map that has Earth on it. That’s always good. Nothing can go wrong with that.

Holloway and Shaw partake in adult activities before his death and Shaw finds out she’s pregnant. Which is a shock because Shaw’s sterile. She uses an automated surgery table to abort it from her body because it’s not human and developing pretty fast. This scene genuinely caused me discomfort. 

Surprise Peter Weyland is there because Weyland Corporation can never have ulterior motives for their actions. He wants to use the Engineers to prolong his life because he’s old. More shenanigans happen and they decide to wake the Engineer up. David, who learned the Engineer’s language, translates the conversations and it goes pretty poorly. The engineer rips off David’s head and kills a lot of people. 

Shaw manages to bounce and the Engineer starts up the ship (which was the temple this whole time!). It’s going to earth to toast off humanity. Janek, the captain of the Prometheus, sees this and in a heroic action crashes the Prometheus into the ship. 

As a testament to the durability of the engineer, it survives the crash and tries to attack Shaw. Remember that alien Shaw yanked out of her? It’s a big baby now. Quite literally a huge monster. Shaw unlocks the creature from the room and it takes down the Engineer. 

Shaw still wants to find out why the Engineers created humanity and why they want to destroy us. She does this by pairing up with David, despite the daddy-issue android being the reason why most of this went to shit. The unlikely duo finds another ship and heads out to find the Engineer’s homeworld. While this is happening something funky bursts out of the Engineer. 

Movies

I have been a lifelong fan of the Alien franchise ever since I watched Alien at a young age. Sigourney Weaver played a powerful female character that I did look up to. It had an unsettling atmosphere and a terrifying foe, the Xenomorph. It checked off all the right boxes for me. 

So imagine my excitement being thirteen and getting told that I was going to go see the new Alien film that was coming out. I was hyped. Movies were a rarer treat growing up due to the price so it was always a fun time when we went. My parents would stop by the dollar store and smuggle in cheap candy. We got to play at the arcade which had this fun Alien arcade game called Alien Extermination.

(Granted, the rarity of going hasn’t changed because it was about thirty-five bucks for two people the last time I went to the movies. We only got drinks and popcorn too.)

I remember sitting down and watching the movie only to be left with a sense of disappointment afterwards. My dad and brother enjoyed it. Being thirteen made it hard to verbalize why I wasn’t fond of the film. Being older and having rewatched the film, I began to put together why I didn’t quite enjoy it. 

I don’t hate Prometheus. It’s not the worst film in the franchise. Alien vs Predator 1 and 2 take that place simultaneously after Alien 4. The gripe I have is that Prometheus is a very visually appealing dish. All the food looks well prepared and delicious. The arrangement is appealing. Only for you to find that it’s bland when you bite into it. There’s no spice to it. No flavor. It just needs a little something that I believe comes in the form of removed content. 

Now, not all content that was removed was truly needed. Some of it was fluff such as arguments between Shaw and Holloway. What was needed was the deleted and extended scenes that provided context to what we saw on screen. It was stated that Ridley Scott did not want an extended director cut with these scenes included. I’ll be pulling information from clips, interviews, and even some of the earlier film screenplays by Jon Spaihts. It wouldn’t be about all missing scenes, just one in particular that stood out to me.

The Engineer speaks

The main scene that I want to discuss is the scene when David awakens the Engineer in stasis. The short attack after an attempt to communicate is hostile and felt shoehorned in. At least for me I have a hard time buying a sentient race attacking us outright for very little reason. From reading through an earlier screenplay we get more context to the hostility that helps to paint a better picture.

We get a grand monologue from the Engineer that’s even described as “almost Shakespearean”:

“Hate? We gave you this emotion. We gave you all emotion We had expected not of your evolution. We took care of you, gave you fire, built your structures. We gave you Eden. You worshiped us. We praised our creation from above. We watched you time and time again kill each other, start wars. We came back and saved your souls but we left you to make your own fate. But your kind is a barbaric violent species. We tried once more to save you. We took a mothers child back to Paradise and educated him, taught him the meaning of life and creation. We put him back into Eden to educate your kind. But your kind decided to punish him. We gave you the fruits of life and you repay us by leaving it to rot. You talk of me of hate? Prepare for rapture!” (The Engineer)

There’s a lot to unpack here. Biblical imagery is a common theme throughout Prometheus. We see this in Shaw and Weyland’s faith. Shaw’s cross is a constantly occurring element. Finding who made us is stated in the film quite often. We know the Engineer’s homeworld is paradise and what they gave humanity is the Garden of Eden. 

What made me do a double take was when the Engineer spoke of their kind taking a human, returning them, and only for us to kill him. That sounds like Jesus to me. The Engineers took Jesus, taught him what made Jesus Jesus, and then he was crucified. 

Aliens gave us Jesus according to the script. Space Jesus. Jesus in Space.

The tone of the monologue is venomous, dripping with disdain. The similarity to a parent who is abusive and regrets having their kids. It’s mildly narcissistic. Look what “we” did.  How dare you think of us in that way! It chooses to focus on humanity’s worst traits and ignore all the wonderful things that make us human. Yeah, humans can be nasty and gnarly but we can also be compassionate and caring. 

Peter Weyland is a greedy man that did not help the tension. He rants about what he deserved because he made David so that means he deserves the life of the Engineers. A childish “Look what I did!” tone. His tone and flaunting reminds me of the classical Alien themes of corporate greed. What’s a good Alien film without Weyland messing up?

“Do you -? Do you see this man? My company – my followers built him from nothing. I made him. And I made him in my own image, so that he would be perfect. So that he would never fail. I deserve this. Because you – you and I, we are superior. We are creators. We are gods! And gods never die.”

This cut scene would have explained why the Engineer showed such aggression. Here it sees a race that is chaotic now demanding things like elongated life and answers. That makes sense to have such a reaction rather than an explosion of violence. 

There’s an additional scene after this that adds a nifty little characterization to the Engineer in the film. It’s an extension of the fight scene between the Engineer and Shaw. It’s chasing her and pauses to look at sheet music and books on the floor. Almost like a spark of curiosity before resuming the fight.

I honestly think if there were different circumstances then maybe the circumstances wouldn’t be as violent. I don’t think the Engineer would’ve let them go but maybe it would be different.

Bonus Scene: Peter Weyland Ted Talk

I love this clip. Guy Pearce plays a suave, self-centered, white-collared Peter Weyland. The comments about becoming gods fit him so well because that’s all he wants. Immortality and power. Pinnacle Weyland. Plus the fact that this is a TED talk is a cherry on top.

Comics and Novel

There’s also Prometheus comics as well! It expands into the Predator franchise as well. I love the comics. The engineers are terrifying! The plots are solid and go into detail about the black goo. Just a great read!

• Prometheus: Fire and Stone 
• Prometheus: Life and Death

Each has four issues but you can buy them together.

The novelization, however, was only released in Japan so I haven’t read it yet. I’m hoping one day they translate it. I do own most, if not all, of the Alien novels. They’re pretty great so I’d give those a recommendation as well.

Screenplays and Videos

Here are two drafts of the screenplays that I found during my research if you would like to read them:

The first one (click here) is vastly different than the original film and I like the directions it took. The second one (click here) is just as great but more like the main film.

If you want to learn more about the Engineers then check out this channel! I love the content they put out. It covers a lot of Alien news and topics.

I’m excited to see the future of the franchise with the newer film coming out later this year. Alien: Romulus is the newest edition. I’m not sure how it’ll connect to Prometheus or be its own thing.

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