Prometheus (2012 film)
Prometheus is a 2012 science fiction horror film co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, with the screenplay co-written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. It is the fifth installment in the Alien franchise. The film features an ensemble cast including Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron. Set in the late 21st century, the film centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as it follows a star map discovered among the artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, the crew arrives on a distant world and discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human species.
Prometheus
- David Giler
- Walter Hill
- Ridley Scott
- April 11, 2012 (Paris)
- June 1, 2012 (United Kingdom)
- June 8, 2012 (United States)
124 minutes[1]
- United Kingdom
- United States
English
$120–130 million[2]
$403.4 million[3]
Scott and director James Cameron developed ideas for a film that would serve as a prequel to Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien. In 2002, the development of Alien vs. Predator took precedence, and the project remained dormant until 2009 when Scott again showed interest. Spaihts wrote a script for a prequel to the events of the Alien films, but Scott opted for a different direction to avoid repeating cues from those films. In late 2010, Lindelof joined the project to rewrite Spaihts's script, and he and Scott developed a story that precedes the story of Alien but is not directly connected to the original series. According to Scott, although the film shares "strands of Alien's DNA," and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus explores its own mythology and ideas.
Prometheus entered production in April 2010, with extensive design phases during which the technology and creatures that the film required were developed. Principal photography began in March 2011, with an estimated $120–130 million budget. The film was shot using 3D cameras throughout, almost entirely on practical sets, and on location in England, Iceland, Scotland, Jordan and Spain. It was promoted with a marketing campaign that included viral activities on the web. Three videos featuring the film's leading actors in character, which expanded on elements of the fictional universe, were released and met with a generally positive reception and awards.
Prometheus was released on June 1, 2012, in the United Kingdom and on June 8, 2012, in North America. The film earned generally positive reviews, receiving praise for the designs, production values and cast performances, but was criticized for its uneven script and unresolved plot points. The film grossed over $403 million worldwide. A sequel, Alien: Covenant, was released in May 2017, fully tying the film to the Alien franchise.
Plot[edit]
As a spacecraft departs a planet, a humanoid alien drinks a black liquid, causing its body to dissolve. Its remains cascade into a waterfall and the alien's DNA falls apart and recombines into a new one.
In 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in Scotland that matches others from several unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the "Engineers". Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation, funds an expedition, aboard the scientific vessel Prometheus, to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223. The ship's crew travels in suspended animation while the android David monitors their voyage. They arrive in December 2093.
The Prometheus lands on the barren, mountainous surface near a large, artificial structure, which the team explores. Inside, they find stone cylinders, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a large alien, thought to be an Engineer; Shaw recovers its head. The crew finds other bodies, leading them to surmise that the species is extinct. Crew members Millburn and Fifield grow uncomfortable with the discoveries and attempt to return to Prometheus, but get lost in the structure. The expedition is cut short when a storm forces the crew to return to the ship. David secretly takes a cylinder vase with him, while the remaining ones begin leaking black liquid, mutating the indigenous worm creatures. In the ship's lab, the Engineer's DNA is found to match that of humans. David investigates the cylinder and the liquid inside. He intentionally taints a drink with the liquid and gives it to the unsuspecting Holloway, who had stated he would do anything for answers. Shortly after, Shaw and Holloway have sex.
Inside the structure, a snake-like creature kills Millburn and sprays a corrosive fluid that melts Fifield's helmet. Fifield falls face first into a puddle of dark liquid. When the crew returns, they find Millburn's corpse. David separately discovers a control room containing a surviving Engineer in stasis and a holographic star map highlighting coordinates to Earth. Meanwhile, Holloway sickens rapidly. He is rushed back to Prometheus, but mission director Meredith Vickers refuses to let him aboard. At his urging, she burns him to death with a flamethrower. Later, a medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being previously infertile, is now in advanced pregnancy. Fearing the worst, she uses an automated surgery table to extract a squid-like creature from her abdomen. Shaw then discovers that Weyland, Vicker's father, has been in stasis aboard Prometheus. He explains that he wants to ask the Engineers how not to die from old age.
A monstrous, mutated Fifield returns to the Prometheus and attacks, killing several crewmen before being killed by the captain of Prometheus, Janek. He speculates to Shaw that the structure was actually an Engineer military base that lost control of a virulent biological weapon, the black liquid. The structure also houses a spacecraft. Weyland and the team return to the structure, accompanied by Shaw. David wakes the Engineer from stasis and speaks to him in Proto-Indo-European[4] to try to explain what Weyland wants. The Engineer responds by decapitating David and killing Weyland and his team, before reactivating the spacecraft. Shaw flees and warns Janek that the Engineer is planning to release the liquid on Earth to exterminate all life forms, convincing him to stop the spacecraft. Janek and the remaining crew sacrifice themselves by ramming the Prometheus into the alien craft, ejecting the lifeboat in the process. The Engineer's disabled spacecraft crashes onto the ground, causing the death of Vickers.
Shaw goes to the lifeboat and finds her alien offspring is alive and has grown to gigantic size. The Engineer forces open the lifeboat's airlock and attacks Shaw, who releases her alien offspring onto him. It thrusts an ovipositor down the Engineer's throat, subduing him. Shaw recovers David's remains and intends to reach the Engineers' homeworld in an attempt to understand why they wanted to destroy humanity. With David's help, she launches another Engineer spacecraft and departs from LV-223.
In the lifeboat left on the planet, an alien creature bursts out of the dead Engineer's chest.
Other cast members include Kate Dickie as the ship's medic, Ford;[46] Emun Elliott and Benedict Wong as, respectively, ship pilots Chance and Ravel;[48][49] and Patrick Wilson as Shaw's father.[50] Ian Whyte and Daniel James portray Engineers.[51]
Themes[edit]
The central theme in Prometheus concerns the eponymous Titan of Greek mythology who defies the gods and gives humanity the gift of fire, for which he is subjected to eternal punishment.[20] The gods want to limit their creations in case they attempt to usurp the gods.[52] The film deals with humanity's relationship with the gods—their creators—and the consequence of defying them. A human expedition intends to find them and receive knowledge about belief, immortality and death. They find superior beings who appear god-like in comparison to humanity, and the Prometheus crew suffer consequences for their pursuit.[20] Shaw is directly responsible for the events of the plot because she wants her religious beliefs affirmed,[53] and believes she is entitled to answers from her god; her questions remain unanswered and she is punished for her hubris.[54][55] The film offers similar resolution, providing items of information but leaving the connections and conclusions to the audience, potentially leaving the question unanswered.[55] Further religious allusions are implied by the Engineers' decision to punish humanity with destruction 2,000 years before the events of the film. Scott suggested that an Engineer was sent to Earth to stop humanity's increasing aggression, but was crucified, implying it was Jesus Christ.[54][56][57] However, Scott felt that an explicit connection in the film would be "a little too on the nose."[54]
Artificial intelligence, a unifying theme throughout Scott's career as a director, is particularly evident in Prometheus, primarily through the android David.[58] David is like humans but does not want to be like them, eschewing a common theme in "robotic storytelling" such as in Blade Runner. David is created in the image of humanity, and while the human crew of the Prometheus ship searches for their creators expecting answers, David exists among his human creators yet is unimpressed; he questions his creators about why they are seeking their own.[55][59] Lindelof described the ship as a prison for David.[55] At the conclusion of the film, David's creator (Weyland) is dead and his fundamental programming will end without someone to serve. Lindelof explained that David's programming becomes unclear and that he could be programmed by Shaw or his own sense of curiosity. Following Weyland's death, David is left with Shaw, and is sincere and interested in following her, partly out of survival and partly out of curiosity.[60]
Another theme is creation and the question of "Who Am I? Who Made Me? Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?"[56][61] Development of the in-universe mythology explored the Judeo-Christian creation of humanity, but Scott was interested in Greco-Roman and Aztec creation myths about gods who create humans in their own image by sacrificing a piece of themselves. This creation is shown in the film's opening in which an Engineer sacrifices itself after consuming the dark liquid, acting as a "gardener in space" to bring life to a world.[57] One of their expeditions creates humanity, who create artificial life (David) in their own image. David then introduces the dark liquid to Holloway who impregnates a sterile Shaw, and the resulting child impregnates an Engineer, creating the child of all three generations.[56] Scott likened the Engineers to the fallen angels of John Milton's Paradise Lost,[54] and said that humanity was their offspring and not God's.[62]
Shaw is the only religious believer in the crew and openly displays her religious belief with a necklace of a Christian cross. Lindelof said that with her scientific knowledge, her beliefs felt outdated in 2093. Shaw is excited when she learns that she was created by the Engineers and not a supernatural deity, but rather than cause her to lose her faith, it reinforces it. Lindelof said that asking questions and searching for meaning is the point of being alive, and so the audience is left to question whether Shaw was protected by God because of her faith. Scott wanted the film to end with Shaw's declaration that she is still searching for definitive answers.[56] In addition to the religious themes, Lindelof said that Prometheus is pro-science and explores whether scientific knowledge and faith in God can co-exist.[63]
Beside drawing several influences from Paradise Lost, The Atlantic's Govindini Murty noted further influences, and wrote that "[t]he striking images Ridley Scott devises for Prometheus reference everything from Stanley Kubrick's 2001 to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires. Scott also expands on the original Alien universe by creating a distinctly English mythology informed by Milton's Paradise Lost and the symbolic drawings of William Blake."[64]
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Development on a fifth film in the Alien franchise was in progress by 2002. Scott considered returning to the series he created with his 1979 science fiction horror film Alien, to pursue a sequel that would explore the engineered origins of the series' Alien creatures,[65] and the "space jockey"—the extraterrestrial being, who briefly appears in Alien, as the deceased pilot of a derelict spaceship.[66] Alien star Sigourney Weaver also expressed interest in returning to the series.[67] Aliens director James Cameron discussed the potential for a sequel with Scott, and began working with another writer on a story for the film. It was then that 20th Century Fox approached Cameron with a script for a crossover film that would pit the series's monsters against the title characters of the Predator films; this project became the 2004 science fiction film Alien vs. Predator.[68] After Fox confirmed that it would pursue the crossover, Cameron stopped working on his own project, believing the crossover would "kill the validity of the franchise."[69] In 2006, Cameron confirmed that he would not return to the Alien sequel project, believing that the series was Fox's asset, and he was unwilling to deal with the studio's attempts to influence the potential sequel.[68]
In May 2009, Fox said that the project was a "reboot"[70] of the Alien franchise, and soon afterwards was reported as an untitled prequel to Alien.[71][72] Development stopped in June 2009 when Fox clashed with Scott over his selection of former television advertisement director Carl Erik Rinsch as director. Fox was only interested in pursuing the project if Scott directed.[73] By July 2009, Scott was contracted to direct the film, and screenwriter Jon Spaihts was hired to write the script based on his pitched idea for a direct Alien prequel.[30][74] With the director and writer in place, and pleased with Spaihts's pitch, Fox scheduled a release date for December 2011, but this was eventually canceled.[75] In June 2010, Scott announced that the script was complete and that pre-production would begin, and a filming date was set for January 2011.[76] Fox eventually pushed to develop the project into an original work, and by July 2010, Lindelof had been hired to redevelop Spaihts's screenplay.[77][78][79] In October 2010, Lindelof submitted his rewritten screenplay to Fox. Scott had initially requested a $250 million budget and an adult oriented project, but Fox was reluctant to invest this amount of money, and wanted to ensure the film would receive a lower age-rating to broaden the potential audience.[70][80]
In December 2010, it was reported that the film would be called Paradise,[17] named after John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, but Scott considered that this would convey too much information about the film. Fox CEO Thomas Rothman suggested Prometheus, which was confirmed as the title in January 2011.[54][81] A release date was scheduled for March 9, 2012, but weeks later the release was postponed until June 8, 2012.[81][82] With the name confirmed, the production team began to publicly distance the film from its Alien origins, and were deliberately vague about the connection between the films, believing it would build audience anticipation for Prometheus.[78] Scott stated that "while Alien was indeed the jumping-off point for this project, out of the creative process evolved a new, grand mythology and universe in which this original story takes place. The keen fan will recognize strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, large and provocative."[83] In June 2011, Scott and Lindelof confirmed that Prometheus takes place in the same universe as the events of the Alien series.[84][85] In July 2011, Scott stated that "by the end of the third act you start to realize there's a DNA of the very first Alien, but none of the subsequent [films]."[72]
Sequels[edit]
Scott discussed a continuation of the series in March 2012, saying that Prometheus leaves many questions unanswered and that these could be answered in a sequel.[22][94] In June 2012, Lindelof said that while plot elements were deliberately left unresolved so that they could be answered in a sequel, he and Scott had thoroughly discussed what should be resolved so that Prometheus could stand alone, as a sequel was not guaranteed.[251] By August 2012, a sequel was announced to be in development for release no earlier than 2014.[252] Lindelof chose not to work on the new film, citing other commitments.[253]
Titled Alien: Covenant,[254] the sequel premiered in London, England on May 4, 2017,[255] and was released in the United States on May 19, 2017.[256] Set eleven years after the events of Prometheus,[257] Alien: Covenant's story follows the crew of the Covenant space ship who land on an uncharted and seemingly uninhabited planet. The film stars Katherine Waterston,[258] Danny McBride,[259] Demián Bichir,[260] Jussie Smollett, Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo, Callie Hernandez, Alex England and Billy Crudup.[261][262][263] On release, Alien: Covenant earned a worldwide box office gross of $240.7 million (compared to Prometheus' $403.4 million),[264][3] and received generally favorable reviews.[265][266] In 2013, a comic book series was announced by Dark Horse Comics that serves as a spin-off to Prometheus. The series, titled Fire and Stone, is an Alien vs. Predator crossover featuring content exclusive to Prometheus. The first issue of Fire and Stone was released on September 10, 2014.[267]
