Response to Guardian.co.uk questions from Prometheus.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sJ7LgChgevj9CktbR6AcaqQ/view.m?id=15&gid=film%2F2012%2Fjun%2F08%2Fprometheus-ten-key-questions&cat=film
1. What's going on in the prologue? That's an alien creating life on earth, right?
That's the way I saw it. Whitey drew the short straw and took one for the team. His DNA along with the goo allowed the creation of life on Earth and later, mankind.
2. How did the constellation get onto all those ancient cave paintings and artifacts? And why would the engineers provide a map anyway?
My thought here is that the moon base that the humans visit in the movie was an observation station. My theory is that groups of Engineers are allowed create life and study it as it evolves. The Engineers we see traveled back to Earth when they saw that we had developed speech, thought, and civilization.
I also think that at that time we were probably given an ultimatum and a set of rules to adhere to. They told us of their outpost where they would be watching.
3. Why would a crew of off-the-street technicians and world-renowned scientists take a years-long trip into deep space without knowing what they were getting themselves into?
I thought they made this fairly clear in the movie. Some did know beforehand, those with the knowledge already. The others were hired hands who were probably paid very well for their troubles.
3a. Why wouldn't the crew check out the alien landscape before exploring unarmed?
I questioned this as well. Also, why not scout around a bit before landing instead of landing at the first positive sign?
3b. Why would they remove their helmets in an alien atmosphere?
I didn't mind this. They were picking up clean air with nothing out of the ordinary from their computers. This was an odd question as it didn't really ever affect anything.
3c. Why would they plunge their fingers in alien goo or try to pet an alien snake monster?
I think only David ended up doing the finger in the good routine as he also did with the green goo covering the letters earlier. Trying to pet the alien snake monster was pretty dump, especially after it showed a snake-like defense mechanism.
3d. Why wouldn't you run sideways when a wheel-shaped spaceship is rolling towards on you?
This had me shaking my head as well. Not only this, but of the two, only seems to realize it and reacts accordingly, making the other seem even more ridiculous. Then, the person who has figured out lateral movement seems to forget it at the next moment. Oh, then a rock is able to save her from death when the office building sized spaceship finally fully crashes down.
Sillytown USA
4. Why does the black goo affect different people in different ways?
We discussed this after the film. I think that it is a very fun open-ended question that I'm hoping we have a follow-up film to address. Not only does the goo affect people differently, but interaction or impregnation of others also alters it. I find this unknown piece very interesting.
5. Why cast 44-year-old Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland, a man at least twice his age?
Why not? It does leave things open to see why he became so interested. I thought that it was done very well and had no problems with it.
6. Why is Weyland so cagey about revealing himself?
I think that he wants to give everyone the illusion that he had left for them that they were coming for science and humanity while he was truly searching for the fountain of youth in a way. Also, why open the possibility that one of the crew would get upset with something that happened on the planet and decided that he was responsible when you don't have to.
7. Why did David drop the goo into Holloway's drink?
I thought that we got some hints that David had evolved to the point to where he could understand feelings. I don't think that he or Weyland ever really wanted Holloway there to begin with, but he was a package deal with Elizabeth. Since he was such an ass to everyone, especially David, choosing Holloway as a test subject for the effects of the good seemed like a good one.
8. How was Elizabeth running around minutes after a self-administered emergency Cesarean?
The film absolutely reached a point where it stopped thinking and pondering the answers and lost it's mind... this was the moment. I liked the workaround of the machine, leading you to believe that it was strictly brought for Weyland. I followed it all until it just hit her with staples to close up the wound. He grimaced and stumbled a few times, but really? Why not just have some sort of advanced laser closing function that put her back together?
9. Why did the engineers change their minds and decide to destroy life on earth?
I have no idea if I am anywhere close on this one, but when they stated that the dead bodies had been 2000 years old and it being close to 2100AD it made me wonder if there is some link to religion involved. This could open up a whole other bag of questions and thoughts that I think could be really interesting. Again, this is one of those questions that I am glad was left open, but would like to find out more about.
10. Isn't it all a bit X-Files-y?
I never once had that thought. I didn't see a ton of X-Files, but I thought that the ideas in place here at points were bit more grand and lofty than something I would have expected from X-Files.
Well, there you go. I think that there is allot more here to discuss and would love for others to let me know their thoughts and any questions they had at the end of the film. Here are a couple of mine.
S1 - How did the giant octopus thing grow so large so quickly without an abundant food supply in the room that was ever shown.
S2 - What was the movement to the West? Was it supposed to be the snakes?
S3 - What creature(s) killed the Engineers and where did they go?
S4 - In the goo chamber there was a wall where there appeared to be a shape similar to the large aliens from the other Alien movies. Was I seeing things?
S5 - Did the crew somehow activate the mega-storm that stranded two of the members in the structure?
S6 - Is there no other life on the planet besides the worms before the humans come and why only worms? Did the Engineers goo the planet before setting up shop there?
S7 - Why did the woken Engineer rampage on everyone around him and immediately try to take off? Also, how sure are we that he was actually headed to Earth at that point anyway? If so, we must have done something terrible indeed.
S8 - Seriously with the pot smoking apparatus in the space suit? Is this why he became a zombie?
