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Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" is a magnificent science-fiction film, all the more intriguing because it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers. It's in the classic tradition of golden age sci-fi, echoing Scott's " Alien " (1979), but creating a world of its own. I'm a pushover for material like this; it's a seamless blend of story, special effects and pitch-perfect casting, filmed in sane, effective 3-D that doesn't distract.

A scene at the outset shows a world with apparently only one animal being, a pale humanoid who stalks a high ridge surrounded by spectacular scenery. This person eats something that causes painful vomiting and rapid body decay. The vomit is followed into flowing water, where it seems to morph into living cellular structures. Where is this place? Is it Earth? Who is the being, and why is it alone and naked? Is the scene a visualization of the theory that life first arrived on Earth from outer space?

Cut to a human spaceship in the year 2093, qualifying "Prometheus" for a flash-forward spanning more years than the opening of "2001." The trillion-dollar ship Prometheus is en route to a distant world, which seems pointed to in prehistoric cave paintings. There's reason to believe human life may have originated there. It's an Earth-sized moon orbiting a giant planet, and at first it seems a disappointment: no growing things, unbreathable atmosphere. But the crew notices straight lines on the surface, and as we all know, nature makes no straight lines.

The lines lead to a vast dome or pyramid, and the film will mostly take place inside the dome and the Prometheus. But let's put the plot on hold and introduce two of the crew members: Elizabeth Shaw ( Noomi Rapace ) wears a cross around her neck and believes life ultimately had a divine origin. Her boyfriend, Charlie Holloway ( Logan Marshall-Green ), accuses her, a scientist, of dismissing centuries of Darwinism. What they find in the pyramid leaves the question open. Alien humanoids, in suspended animation, incredibly have DNA that's a perfect match for our own. So they could somehow have brought life to Earth — but why? And from this moon where they slumber inside their pyramid, or from another planet around a distant star? Why did they stop here? What are they waiting for?

The film then develops horror scenes comparable to "Alien," although it depends more on action and weaponry than that film's use of shadows and silence. For me, the most spellbinding scenes involve the crew members exploring the passages and caverns inside the pyramid, obviously unvisited in aeons, and their experiences with some of the hibernating alien beings. One of the key members of this crew is David ( Michael Fassbender ), an android, who knows or can figure out more or less everything, even alien languages, and is sort of a walking, talking, utterly fearless HAL 9000.

The alien race in "Prometheus" shares a body characteristic that reminds me of "Alien" and countless films since: Elements can detach from them and enter into other bodies as hostile parasites. This leads to an astonishing sequence in which Elizabeth, alone on the ship, discovers she is pregnant with an alien Something and somehow finds the will to control a robot surgery device that removes it. Her later showdown with a waning oxygen supply shows equal resourcefulness; Noomi Rapace (" The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ," 2009) continues here the tradition of awesome feminine strength begun by Sigourney Weaver in "Alien."

Another strong woman is on board, Meredith Vickers ( Charlize Theron ), a representative of the corporation that privately financed the Prometheus. She treats the others like her employees, which they are, and believes she always speaks for the company's wishes. The ship's captain, Janek ( Idris Elba ), makes no pretensions of scientific expertise like the others but is a no-nonsense working pilot. Janek has the most interesting evolution, from the irreverent hipster in his first scenes into a man with the ability to intuit the truth about what he's seeing.

The most tantalizing element is how it plays with the role of these DNA twins. Did they create life on Earth? The possibility of two identical DNAs as a coincidence is unthinkable. Charlie digs at Elizabeth, suggesting their existence disproves her beliefs. Her obvious response: Where did they come from? This puzzle is embedded in an adventure film that has staggering visuals, expert horror, mind-challenging ideas and enough unanswered questions to prime the inevitable sequel.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Prometheus (2012)

Rated R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language

124 minutes

Idris Elba as Janek

Michael Fassbender as David

Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth

Charlize Theron as Meredith

Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie

• Jon Spaihts
• Damon Lindelof

Directed by

• Ridley Scott

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The Best ‘Prometheus’ Analyses So Far

Matt singer.

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The following post, along with every single link it contains, includes SPOILERS for “Prometheus.” Like here’s one right here: SPOILER — alien gods from the ancient past have amazing abs. But they’re as stingy with their dieting secrets as they are with the origins of life in the universe.

Despite the best efforts of the Worst Theater Ever , I finally saw “Prometheus” this weekend. I didn’t repeatedly try to catch this movie because I’m a huge Ridley Scott fan (I’m not) or because I loved screenwriter Damon Lindelof’s TV series “Lost” (I didn’t) or even because I’m obsessed with “Alien” (more of an “Aliens” man, myself). No, I was finally stirred to see “Prometheus” after months of skepticism when it became clear that its cinematic merits were irrelevant; good or bad, the film was provoking some very good writing and even better conversations, and I wanted to read all of them. So, yes, I basically paid $17.50 in order to read several dozen articles online for free. This is why my wife manages the family bank account.

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My own thoughts on the film can come later, probably in the form of the review-slash-thinkpiece that’s bubbling away in my brain like so much black goo. In the meantime, though, let’s enjoy some the best “Prometheus” analysis posted online so far — and I say so far because I imagine this movie will be provoking debate for a long time to come. Perhaps centuries or even millennia from now, some ancient race will discover these words, penned on a cave wall or like an 8-inch floppy, and use it as an invitation to come find us, presumably still in a movie theater lobby debating how the hell the squid baby got so big in a matter of hours with no food supply. Until then, here are:

The Best “Prometheus” Analyses So Far (With Lots of SPOILERS)

1. Adrian Bott on “Prometheus”‘ Mythological Motifs

“We know something about the Engineers, a founding principle laid down in the very first scene: acceptance of death, up to and including self-sacrifice, is right and proper in the creation of life. Prometheus, Osiris, John Barleycorn, and of course the Jesus of Christianity are all supposed to embody this same principle. It is held up as one of the most enduring human concepts of what it means to be ‘good.’  Seen in this light, the perplexing obscurity of the rest of the film yields to an examination of the interwoven themes of sacrifice, creation, and preservation of life.”

2. Jon Korn on the Film’s Literary Ancestry  

“Examining Lovecraft and Clarke’s own takes on ancient astronauts also allows us to see where, in macro terms, ‘Prometheus”s narrative stumbles. Both the older authors succeed by limiting our contact with the superior races they describe, rendering them fittingly unknowable. In contrast, ‘Prometheus’ tries have it both ways, giving the Engineers a lot of screen time while keeping their intentions frustratingly opaque. It becomes hard to parse their reasoning for initiating life on Earth, then returning often to the planet during early human development, and ultimately wanting to destroy the same beings they created. While it probably would have run counterintuitive to the studio notes, I think the film’s plot would be vastly improved by an injection of the same mystery that Lovecraft and Clarke so artfully deploy. (And it would lead more organically to the sequel so artlessly implied.)”

3. Drew McWeeny on What Does and Doesn’t Work About “Prometheus”

“Ultimately, my biggest question about the film is ‘Why didn’t Ridley just make the ‘Blade Runner’ sequel instead?’ It’s obvious watching the film that David is the character he’s most interested in, and the questions he explores with David would work just as well in the ‘Blade Runner’ world.  If Ridley wanted to play the game with a character who might or might not be a Replicant, as it appears he’s doing with Vickers, then why not do that in the actual ‘Blade Runner’ world as well?”

4. Steven James Snyder Decodes “Prometheus”‘ Mysteries

“This is why David extracts, analyzes and manipulates the metallic orbs found in the cargo holds, why he drops a bit of the black goo into Charlie’s drink. David is trying to do anything — everything — to these precious alien artifacts to resurrect mankind’s ancestors. It is here where David utters the memorable line “big things have small beginnings,” and indeed the entire ‘Alien’ universe as we know it can be traced back to this single decision — the mingling of this exotic DNA with human DNA.”

5. Jen Yamato on the Film’s Biggest Unanswered Question

“Consider the legacy of the man at the center of David’s favorite film, as seen in ‘Prometheus”s sublime opening sequence. T.E. Lawrence was born in 1888, helped upset order in the Arab world in 1916, was immortalized on celluloid in 1962’s ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ and then, years later in the world of ‘Prometheus,’ inspired an android to not only imitate his blond coif but instigate the beginnings of the ‘Alien’ universe in 2093. Lawrence is really the key to understanding David; in helping Weyland achieve his immortality by way of launching the destruction of humanity, David is immortalizing himself, and a part of me thinks that a part of him yearns to express this measure of often foolhardy human emotion. Or maybe he’s just designed to be a close, but not close enough, imitation of the humans who built him?”

6. Jim Emerson on the Sci-Fi Movie Origins of “ Prometheus”‘ DNA

“A few years later, in 2093, a ship, the Prometheus, is sent deep into space to find out who visited Earth all those years ago, and what they wanted. The archaeologists refer to them (the large white humanoids) as ‘the engineers’ because it is theorized that they engineered humanity. Are they the gods who created us? And is any of this sounding familiar? Because it’s meant to. It’s the outline for Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968), inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s 1948 short story, ‘ The Sentinel ,’ in which humans discovered a beacon on the moon that had been left by voyagers from another planet long before homo sapiens had evolved. ‘Prometheus’ quite consciously piggy-backs on images and motifs from ‘2001.’”

7. Dana Stevens and Adam Kempenaar Debate Some “Prometheus” Spoilers

“The Engineers have somehow decided to destroy Earth; they’re going to destroy the life that they created… I think that’s one of the interesting thematic tie-ins back to Shaw. She can’t have a baby, and she’s upset about that. But then she finally gets to create life and she’s not happy with the life that she created and she wants to destroy it — just like the Engineers.”

8. Brad Brevet’s Extensive Annotations Based on Filmmaker Interviews and Production Notes

“Talking with T3, Lindelof says, ‘The movie demonstrates what [the black goo] does in certain circumstances. So, here’s what it does if it gets on worms; here’s what it does if it gets on your face; here’s what it does if someone just puts a little bit of it in your drink. Now we see that lots of this is headed to Earth. Now, you used the word ‘weapon’ — you’re extrapolating that based on the theory Janek [Idris Elba] has, because it looks like a payload to him; all these ships are loaded with this stuff, and they’re headed for Earth. The intent has to be to wipe us out, or is it to evolve us, or is it for something else?'”

9. Frank Swain on the (Dicey) Science of “Prometheus”

“The alien DNA is a ‘100% match’ to our own. I’m not sure what this means. That we’re them, obviously. But 100%? I share 99% of my DNA with a chimp. Does that mean they made chimps too? But if they’re a 100% match for us, where did they get the extra 1% DNA we don’t share with chimps? Do they use some other DNA that they manufactured? Does that mean the Engineers made all life on Earth or just kick it off and let it evolve? If the latter, why did they let chimps evolve but make us out of a mould? Doesn’t that mean, at the end of the day, that chimps have a better reason to meet the Engineers, as they clawed their way up from a protist to resemble their gods? This movie probably would have worked better if it had come out in the 1950, before Hershey and Chase published their ideas. Or maybe 1850.”

10. Julian Sanchez on What’s Wrong With “Prometheus”

“The movie opens with an alien ‘Engineer’ preparing to seed a primordial planet — presumably Earth — with life. He accomplishes this by drinking a black goop which causes him to die in agony, disintegrating at the cellular level. It looks cool, but forces you to wonder: Is this really the best means available for this incredibly advanced species to introduce genetic material to a planet? It’s a little like finding out that Prometheus brought fire to humanity by setting himself on fire despite the ready availability of kindling. As with many, many other bizarre moments in this movie, this makes sense at a thematic and allegorical level, but fails at the level of elementary plot logic. This is why doing allegory well is hard: Your story actually has to work at a second level without shattering the viewer’s suspension of disbelief on the first level.”

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The Fall Guy's Box Office Confirms A Harsh Reality After $2.4 Billion Phenomenon

Top gun 3's potential cyclone return gets confident response from jon hamm (with 1 caveat), i’m sad rey’s new star wars movie cannot continue the very best idea from the rise of skywalker, regardless of the connections to the alien universe, ridley scott's prometheus is a welcome return to form for the director..

For months cinephiles and die-hard Alien fans have been trying to work out the connections between Prometheus and Ridley Scott's original Alien film. Meanwhile, the filmmakers have spent just as long attempting to put distance between the movie and the notion that it's nothing more than an  Alien prequel, so as not to limit Prometheus ' potential appeal. Given the state of the Alien franchise (after the underwhelming Alien vs. Predator installments, as well as Alien: Resurrection ), it's no wonder that 20th Century Fox is interested in attracting both the casual moviegoer as well as the die-hard xenomorph faithful.

Unsurprisingly, the movie does offer plenty of tie-ins to the 1979 franchise starter - but does Prometheus find the right balance between loving nods to Alien while also working as an intelligent and captivating standalone sci-fi drama?

Fortunately, the answer is yes - most of the time. While  Prometheus delivers a sci-fi experience and story that is nearly unmatched in a modern movie theater experience, its connection to the Alien films is, from time to time, a bit heavy-handed or awkwardly handled - and worst of all, far less compelling than the new storyline unfolding in this film. As a result, Prometheus is going to offer a different experience depending on who is watching it. Both casual audiences and  Alien fans should enjoy the core narrative (and breathtaking visuals); however regular moviegoers will likely be confused by some of the time spent addressing  Alien universe mythos, and conversely, hardcore fans may be at times equally befuddled by some of the answers provided.

Ignoring any pre-conceived notions about xenomorphs, the Prometheus story follows a pair of archaeologists, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her partner Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), who discover a series of ancient cave drawings (from different cultures, separated by thousands of years) that point to a single location in space: a distant moon, LV-223. Shaw and Holloway believe that LV-223 is home to an ancient truth about humanity's origins - a belief that is also championed by billionaire Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), CEO of the Weyland Corporation. After hearing their findings, Weyland agrees to send the pair - along with a fifteen-person crew - to LV-223 aboard the spacecraft Prometheus. However, when the team arrives on LV-223, it quickly becomes clear that Shaw and Holloway underestimated the implications of their expedition, as age-old questions are answered and new horrors are brought to light - horrors with Earth-shattering consequences for humanity.

Moviegoers who have been underwhelmed by Ridley Scott's non-sci-fi efforts (most recently  Robin Hood , Body of Lies , and A Good Year ) will be glad to know that the director slips effortlessly back into the genre that he helped define over thirty years ago. Not only does Prometheus feature one of the most captivating and carefully-paced opening acts in recent memory, it also offers a masterful visual aesthetic that easily raises the bar for onscreen sci-fi imagery in modern cinema. In a time when sci-fi/action films snag astronomical box office money ( Transformers: Dark of the Moon ), it's easy for studios to rely on a recognizable brand, or visual spectacle, over core filmmaking components - such as competent world building (not just "cool" CGI characters) as well as intelligent scene composition (in favor of non-stop explosions). No doubt some moviegoers don't want to think about the actual process of filmmaking, but for those who do care, Prometheus should serve as a breath of fresh air (and a welcome reminder) that inspired directing can make a real difference in the onscreen experience.

Similarly, co-writer Damon Lindelof (along with Jon Spaihts) succeeds at delivering a prequel movie that isn't undermined by later installments and, instead, tells an all-new sci-fi story that (as mentioned before) is much larger and significantly more interesting than its core "source" material. Prometheus provides answers that many Alien fans will certainly appreciate, but at the same time raises much larger (and significantly more relatable) questions about the wonders - and horrors - of creation, and humanity's place in the cosmos. As a result, the actual connections to the  Alien  universe are unnecessary to the success of the new story - and could, for less-interested moviegoers, come across as tacked-on.

All of the major players (Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green) deliver enjoyable, or at the very least believable, performances. However, despite solid work from everyone involved, both Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender offer especially memorable turns as Dr. Shaw and David, respectively. Fassbender's David is easily one of the most fascinating (and disturbing) characters of 2012 - and Rapace holds nothing back in a number of especially challenging scenes (not to mention one especially brutal one). As an ensemble fueled by heavy-hitting talent, there is a definite purpose for each of the characters' screen time, and few of the players are wasted. That said, a couple of them are short-changed by the end - which doesn't detract from the overall success of the film, but in a few cases can be somewhat underwhelming in the moment.

Prometheus was shot entirely using 3D cameras, and much like Avatar and Hugo before it, the film once again proves that in the hands of a smart filmmaker, the format can enhance the moviegoing experience. Plenty of detractors will surely assert that seeing any movie in 3D is a waste of money - and plays into the hands of greedy studio executives. However, Prometheus is well-worth the upgraded ticket. The format isn't distracting and successfully highlights details in the alien landscape as well as internal (yet massive) environments - not "pop out of the screen" jump scares. Scott's use of the added dimension throws fuel on the argument that instead of decrying every 3D film, we should be sending studios a message about what type of 3D experiences we'll support, boycotting tacked-on 3D ( Men in Black 3 ) and poorly implemented post-conversions ( Clash of the Titans ). To make the experience even more potent, go the full distance with a 3D IMAX viewing.

Regardless of the connections to the Alien universe, Ridley Scott's Prometheus is a welcome return to form for the director - delivering a fascinating sci-fi storyline, gorgeous 3D visuals, and competent filmmaking choices that - especially for summer blockbuster fare - are sorely missing at the box office these days. While less-informed moviegoers might be a little confused about some of the Alien tie-ins, Prometheus finds a healthy fan-service balance that doesn't detract from Lindelof's rich (and horrifying) new franchise storyline.  In space no one can hear you scream , but 20th Century Fox is going to have no trouble finding moviegoers who, after seeing  Prometheus , are eager to scream for more Scott-helmed projects in the Alien universe.

If you’ve seen the movie and want to discuss details about the film without worrying about spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it, please head over to our  Prometheus  Spoilers Discussion !

Still wondering about how - exactly - Prometheus  connects to Alien ? Read our ' Prometheus - Alien  Connection Explained' Article .

For an in-depth discussion of the film by the Screen Rant team check out our  Prometheus  episode of the SR Underground podcast .

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Let us know what you thought of the film in the comment section below.

Follow me on Twitter @ benkendrick  for future reviews, as well as movie, TV, and gaming news.

Prometheus is Rated R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language. Now playing in theaters.

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Prometheus: film review.

Although Ridley Scott’s 3D visual feast is no classic, the oozing alien tentacles hit all the right sci-fi horror notes.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Fassbender plays David, a robot that's programmed to help his human counterparts explore the new planets where the Prometheus lands.

Be careful what you wish for, especially if it involves figuring out who invented humankind.

That’s the warning at the heart of  Prometheus ,  a visual feast of a 3D sci-fi movie that has trouble combining its high-minded notions about the origins of the species and its      Alien     – based obligation to deliver oozy gross-out moments. Ridley Scott ‘s third venture into science fiction, after      Alien       in 1979 and  Blade Runner  in 1982, won’t become a genre benchmark like those classics despite its equivalent seriousness and ambition, but it does supply enough visual spectacle, tense action and sticky, slithery monster attacks to hit the spot with thrill-seeking audiences worldwide.

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The Greek titan Prometheus got in trouble for stealing fire from Zeus and putting man on the same level as the gods. Presuming that humans won’t rest until we discover where we came from and how we got here,  Prometheus  proposes that not very long from now, in 2093 to be precise, a plausible source of human life will not only be found but reached by space explorers backed, not surprisingly, by private, not government, interests.

EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Never-Seen Photos From ‘Prometheus’

The striking opening sequence (shot in Iceland) reveals scientist Elizabeth Shaw ( Noomi Rapace , the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) discovering ancient cave paintings indicating the likely arrival on Earth of extraterrestrials many thousands of years ago. Such evidence points to the source as a moon in a small solar system a vast distance away, but not out of reach of a trillion-dollar spacecraft built by Weyland Industries.

The buildup and arrival are the best part of the film, suggesting a sense of inquiry and genuine sort of thoughtfulness that promise a truly weighty slice of speculative fiction. Not that this territory hasn’t been amply mined in the past: In fact, the particulars of the ship’s interior design, visual projections, hibernating crew members, sports workout routines and Michael Fassbender ‘s robot character as a sort of ambulatory HAL with an obsession to look and speak like Peter O’Toole in  Lawrence of Arabia , which he likes to watch, are unavoidably reminiscent of  2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Little by little, however, elements of other, less philosophical films come into play, including  Fantastic Voyage, Rosemary’s Baby  and, inevitably,  Alien.  Arriving on the rugged, outwardly lifeless moon, the 17 crew members notice pyramid-like structures that were clearly not fashioned by nature. Inside, the elaborate tunnels and chambers possess moisture, elaborate writing, a large statue of a human head and, more alarming, countless small cylinders that produce a sticky mud-like substance, and an apparent human head.

It doesn’t take long for the crew’s number to be reduced by untoward circumstances, nor for doubt to set in about the true agenda not only of Fassbender’s David, who can be quietly amusing, but of Charlize Theron ‘s Meredith Vickers, the chilly Weyland executive on board who condescendingly treats everyone else, including the ship’s captain ( Idris Elba ), as vastly inferior employees.

PHOTOS: Ridley Scott’s Life and Work

Elizabeth and her scientist boyfriend Charlie ( Logan Marshall-Green ) continue to spar about the potential momentousness of their journey — she, who wears a cross, hopes to find confirmation of her religious beliefs that will point to the existence of a traditional creator, while he is convinced that what they discover will merely prove once and for all that Darwin was right. But such rarefied considerations are thrown overboard when aliens start materializing, shooting their tentacles where you definitely don’t want them, getting someone pregnant and otherwise causing the same sort of mayhem they always have in outer-space monster films.

A s the survivors are pared down to a precious few, the grisliness and gross-out quotient increases; a self-inflicted cesarian section may be a screen first (certainly the result of it is), while Fassbender’s fate is similarly imaginative and far funnier. This project started life as an intended prequel to  Alien  but morphed into something else. Unfortunately, the closer it comes to a climax, the more you feel the elements being lined up to set the stage for a sequel to this film, most of all in a coda that feels like a craven teaser trailer for the next installment.

THR COVER STORY: Secrets of Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus’

Scott doubles his  Alien  pleasure with not just one but two strong female roles here. Rapace credibly expresses her character’s combined scientific and religious convictions — ”It’s what I choose to believe,” she insists — and is more than up to the physical requirements of some very intense scenes. Theron is in ice goddess mode here, with the emphasis on ice (and this just as her turn in  Snow White and the Huntsman  is about to open) but perfect for the role all the same.

Blonded up, perfect of diction and elegant of body, Fassbender seems almost alarmingly neutered at first as the ship’s all-purpose valet but excels as he’s allowed to begin injecting droll comedy into his performance. As the captain, Elba has a few strong moments standing up to his “boss,” Theron, while the other actors are mostly cannon fodder, save for an unrecognizable Guy Pearce in a late-on role.

T echnically,  Prometheus  is magnificent. Shot in 3D but without the director taking the process into account in his conceptions or execution, the film absorbs and uses the process seamlessly. There is nary a false or phony note in the effects supervised by Richard Stammers , which build upon the outstanding production design by Arthur Max . Dariusz Wolski ‘s graceful and vivid cinematography synthesizes all the elements beautifully in a film that caters too much to imagined audience expectations when a little more adventurous thought might have taken it to some excitingly unsuspected destinations.

Opens: June 8 (20th  Century Fox) Production: Scott Free, Brandywine Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall Director: Ridley Scott Screenwriters: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof, based on elements created by Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett Producers: Ridley Scott, David Giler, Walter Hill Executive producers: Michael Costigan, Mark Huffman, Michael Ellenberg, Damon Lindelof Director of photography: Dariusz Wolski Production designer: Arthur Max Costume designer: Janty Yates Editor: Pietro Scalia Music: Marc Streitenfeld Visual effects supervisor: Richard Stammers Rated R, 124 minutes

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New Alien movie has strong themes, violence.

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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie asks all kinds of big questions. Who cre

Most of the characters are deeply flawed -- thinki

Gory monster violence, with blood and dead humans.

No nudity, but a man and a woman are shown beginni

"F--k" is used once, as well as several

One character gets very drunk as a response to bad

Parents need to know that Prometheus is a science fiction/horror movie that's somewhat related to director Ridley Scott's original Alien ; it's not as creepy as that film, but it often feels more harrowing and intense. There's some intense monster violence -- mainly attacks, with…

Positive Messages

The movie asks all kinds of big questions. Who created us? Who created the creator? What's the difference between creating and destroying? Some of the answers are rather cynical, but others illustrate the general hope, empathy, sacrifice, and goodwill of human beings.

Positive Role Models

Most of the characters are deeply flawed -- thinking selfishly, drinking, or engaging in casual sex. They seem rather short-sighted at times, failing to consider long-term consequences. But many of them are also strong, brave, and smart, and some of the strongest characters are the women.

Violence & Scariness

Gory monster violence, with blood and dead humans. In the most harrowing sequence, a woman finds that she has an alien fetus inside her, and she climbs into a medical chamber for emergency surgery. The bloody "baby" alien is removed from her via a very bloody C-section, and she's stitched back up again. In another sequence, characters are brutally attacked by an alien that eventually crawls inside one's body. Otherwise, an alien head explodes, an infected human is set on fire (alien bodies are also burned), a creature breaks a man's arm, and there's general fighting and chaos, including guns/shooting, and flamethrowers. Also, a little girl talks about death with her father. Aliens' bodies mutate and dissolve in a somewhat graphic fashion when they drink a particular substance.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

No nudity, but a man and a woman are shown beginning to have sex in their quarters. They kiss and start to remove their clothing. Later, a man and a woman agree to have sex, but it's not shown. A female character is shown to be pregnant with an alien and is seen running around in just underwear.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k" is used once, as well as several uses of "s--t." Other words include "bastard," "piss," "hell," "damn," "son of a bitch," "laid," "bugger," and "goddamn," plus "oh my God" and "Jesus Christ."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

One character gets very drunk as a response to bad news. Many of the characters are shown drinking hard liquor (vodka, whisky, etc.) socially at some point. One character smokes a cigar; in another scene, a character smokes an unidentified substance that makes him loopy/happy. Another takes necessary injections of painkillers.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Prometheus is a science fiction/horror movie that's somewhat related to director Ridley Scott 's original Alien ; it's not as creepy as that film, but it often feels more harrowing and intense. There's some intense monster violence -- mainly attacks, with humans getting torn open or burned. There's also blood and many dead bodies, plus guns, shooting, and flamethrowers. Characters are shown in the beginning stages of sex, and other characters talk about sex. Language is fairly strong, including one use of "f--k," several "s--t"s, and other words. Adult characters are shown drinking socially (or smoking cigars), and one is shown drinking too much. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (23)
• Kids say (95)

Based on 23 parent reviews

It’s definitely a watch for me!

Excellent film, what's the story.

PROMETHEUS begins in Scotland in the future, where two scientists ( Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green ) discover a celestial pattern in a cave drawing and match it to similar patterns from all over the world. After pinpointing the pattern's deep space source, a discovery mission is launched in the year 2093 to find it. A crew of 17 is on board, including laid-back captain Janek ( Idris Elba ) and icy, nasty Meredith Vickers ( Charlize Theron ), whose company funded the mission. Also on board is an android, David ( Michael Fassbender ), who may know more about the mission than he lets on. The scientists hope to meet the aliens that they believe "created" the human race, but unfortunately, a more sinister discovery awaits.

Is It Any Good?

This an intense, fairly riveting story. Director Ridley Scott has made many high-profile movies, including an Oscar-winner ( Gladiator ), but he's still best loved for his two sci-fi classics, Alien and Blade Runner . They had a kind of patience and a way with atmosphere that his later films lack. With Prometheus , Scott returns to sci-fi and to that same kind of thoughtful filmmaking -- at least for the first three-quarters of the movie.

For a long time, Scott uses impressive visuals to wrestle with big themes like creation and destruction. He draws parallels between characters and situations, creates emotional responses to big ideas, and does all the things a great movie is supposed to do. But as Prometheus approaches its final stretch, Scott appears to abandon all this stuff in favor of defining and labeling the film for the fans. This lack of trust and lack of care ultimately betrays an otherwise almost-great movie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Prometheus ' violence . How does it relate to the creating/destroying themes? Is any of the violence gratuitous, or is it necessary to the story?

Is the movie scary ? Are the actions scarier than the ideas? Is the movie scarier or less scary than the previous Alien movies?

How strong is our impulse to create? Is it stronger than our impulse to destroy?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 8, 2012
• On DVD or streaming : October 9, 2012
• Cast : Charlize Theron , Michael Fassbender , Noomi Rapace
• Director : Ridley Scott
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Space and Aliens
• Run time : 124 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : sci-fi violence including intense images, and brief language
• Last updated : March 26, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Prometheus Reviews

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 8, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jun 8, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 8, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 8, 2012

'Prometheus' Review: Does it Match the 'Alien' Prequel Hype?

When "Prometheus" was introduced by 20th Century Fox CEO Tom Rothman at the film's London premiere, he called Ridley Scott's terrifying science-fiction adventure a project "33 years in the making." And while that's a hefty amount of hype to live up to, it fits right in with the rest of the buzz leading up to this weekend's U.S. premiere of the film, which is being heralded as a landmark moment in cinema history.

A pseudo-prequel to Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror classic "Alien," " Prometheus " is neither a traditional reboot nor the typical prologue chapter to an existing franchise, and the true nature of its place in the greater "Alien" universe is just one of the closely guarded secrets that helped build anticipation for the film. The involvement of "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof and an all-star cast that includes man-of-the-hour Michael Fassbender, original "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace, and many, many other notables has only added to the ridiculously high level of buzz surrounding the project .

Of course, with that much hype, the question of whether the movie is a success often plays second-fiddle to the question of whether it lives up to the hype – a scenario that definitely applies to "Prometheus," which is an excellent film, but not quite the genre-redefining, mind-blowing, life-changing experience much of the hype suggests. [ Photos: Scenes from "Prometheus" ]

In "Prometheus," Rapace plays scientist Elizabeth Shaw, who discovers – along with her colleague and lover Charlie Holloway, played by Logan Marshall-Green – a set of universal coordinates repeated throughout history on cave walls and in ancient tombs that point to a mysterious moon located in deep space.

Thanks to funding from the Weyland mega-corporation, Shaw and Holloway set off on an outer-space expedition to the moon, and are joined on the space ship Prometheus by the movie-watching, basketball-playing android David (Fassbender), cold-as-ice corporate rep Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), and a host of other crew mates. After waking from a four-year sleep in suspended animation, the team sets off to explore the moon and potentially meet the “engineers” of human civilization, only to discover a dangerous truth about our origins and the ultimate fate of humanity.

From start to finish, "Prometheus" is a fantastic treat for nearly every sense you use as a member of the audience. The visual effects are just as epic as the previews suggest, and Scott has made excellent use of both the 3-D aspects of the film and the advantages an IMAX presentation can provide. Every moment truly fills the screen and “pops” with the sort of detail only a master filmmaker can provide, and Scott extends that expert touch to the film's sound effects and score, too. Whether it's a quiet scene brimming with tension or a massive, deafening explosion, you feel the world Scott has created just as much as you observe it.

And just as he's done in the past, Scott succeeds in bringing the best out of his cast – a feat that's certainly assisted by the tremendous talent of actors like Rapace, Fassbender, and Theron, and supplemented by a supporting cast (including "Luther" star Idris Elba) that elevates the entire film.

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As the team's android caretaker, Fassbender continues the franchise tradition of making the film's robot character one of the most fascinating, memorable roles. His take on David is a tricky balance of android logic and humanity as interpreted by an outsider, and like Ian Holm ("Alien") and Lance Henriksen ("Aliens") before him, Fassbender shows why it takes a great actor to play a great robot.

And though Fassbender shines in "Prometheus," he never quite outshines Rapace (though he comes very, very close to doing so). Once again, Scott has created a strong, female lead in Elizabeth Shaw, who's cut from similar cloth as Sigourney Weaver's iconic space-trucker-turned-alien-fighter Ellen Ripley.

Nevertheless, Rapace truly makes Shaw her own over the course of the film, and gives the audience a heroine who's more inclined to out-think her enemies than out-gun them, and approaches danger with the mind of a quick-thinking scientist rather than a grease-stained cargo jockey. Her grasp of how to play the horror elements is especially obvious in a particular scene (that I won't spoil here) combining claustrophobia, xenophobia, and whatever the fear of self-surgery is called, all in one nightmare-inducing sequence.

Still, the long list of existential questions Scott clearly intended to pose with "Prometheus" manage to provide both the best and worst qualities of the film. Much like Christopher Nolan's infinitely layered 2010 thriller " Inception ," "Prometheus" is the sort of film that demands post-screening discussion from its audience and leaves many questions unanswered when the credits finally roll. And like "Inception" – and better yet, Scott's own 1982 sci-fi classic " Blade Runner " – those questions are part of the experience, and supplement your enjoyment of the film rather than leaving its audience unsatisfied.

However, in the push to ask these questions and offer only the most ambiguous of answers, "Prometheus" occasionally suffers from holes in its plot that distract from the greater discussion points. [ Top 10 Scary Sci-Fi Series ]

Certain characters' motivations for key actions are never fully explained, for example, and the absence of these and a few other fundamental story points seems less like a thought-provoking storytelling decision and more like something the writers mistakenly assumed would be clear. At times, it feels like the question being asked of the audience is missing an important word, and you're left wondering what the question actually is before you can ponder its answer.

It's important to note, though, that even these flaws are minor when you look at "Prometheus" as a complete package, and how much you notice these particular problems will probably depend on how much of the hype surrounding the film that you've absorbed. While the movie offers a great blend of speculative sci-fi and scream-inducing outer-space horror, it's wise not to enter the theater expecting "Prometheus" to be the supreme culmination of an entire cinematic universe and all of the questions anyone has ever asked about that universe and our own.

Instead, you should expect "Prometheus" to be a tremendous sci-fi film by one of the greatest filmmakers of that genre, and the sort of movie that you'll be thinking about – and likely discussing with everyone else who sees it – for a long time after you leave the theater.

Because that's exactly what it is.

  This story was provided by SPACE.com's sister site  Newsarama . Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom . We're also on Facebook  and Google+.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

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Prometheus movie review – A mixture of pure brilliance and idiocy

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Yesterday wasn’t just any given day. No, because it was the Alien day . So I ( Robin Ek, TGG ) thought for myself that it could be a good idea for me to review Ridley Scott’s sci-fi/adventure/horror movie “Prometheus”. Especially since “ Alien: Covenant ” is less than one month away from release now. Anyways, I’m most likely one of the few people on this planet that hasn’t watched “Prometheus” before. So, yes, you guessed it. This was the first time that I’ve ever watched the movie .

Even though “Prometheus” has quite a few actors on the set, it’s with no doubt (whatsoever) Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) and David (played by Michael Fassbender) that stole the show (they did a very good job!).

So, straight off the bat. I had a very open mind about “Prometheus” before I actually watched the movie myself. In other words, there was no hype nor any super-high expectations on my behalf. Even so, I knew more than well that Ridley Scott had directed this movie (whom I am a huge fan of). So it was pretty hard for me to hold down my expectations throughout the whole movie. Nevertheless, I had one hell of an emotional ride with “Prometheus”. As the movie went from pure brilliance to flat down idiocy in just a couple of minutes.

Sadly enough “Prometheus” offers plenty of unlogic and stupid moments. I mean, just take Sean Harris character “Fifield” (as seen in the picture). The guy just keeps on making the most unlogic decisions humanly possible.

So in my opinion, Ridley Scott fumbled with the ball on the goal line . Thus, he missed his chance to create a timeless, ageless and immortal sci-fi/horror movie. Instead, we got a movie that could have been so much more, and that fact will forever torment my mind. Now, don’t get me wrong, “Prometheus” is very watchable with no doub t. However, it’s nowhere near as epic as “Alien” or “Aliens”. So don’t expect any epicness of that kind, because then you’re just going to get disappointed.

Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) has just had the unfortunate pleasure to stumble up on a very hostile and pissed-off engineer.

I mean, just the plot itself for “Prometheus” makes absolutely no sense at all from my point of view. As there are way too many things that I found to be both unlogic and stupid , things like:

– You do NOT pay one billion USD for a ship + crew and have crappy weapons and an unarmed ship that’s going to travel to an unexplored part of the universe. – It’s not a smart move to send out both the daughter and the founder of a big mega corporation into the jaws of death (bye-bye bloodline). – Pretty much everyone on the Prometheus crew are naive to the max (like little children who have just found the keys to the local fairy ground). – I had a really hard time buying into the “this is the best crew that money could buy” aspect of the movie. As most of them were dumb as hell. More so, everyone one was rude as hell to each other throughout the whole movie as well (I had zero feelings for anyone but Shaw)…And even the most stupid of morons would have realized that “we’re in this shit together, so I better play nice in-order to get out of this mission alive”, but nope. – It makes zero sense whatsoever to remove your helmet when you’re on a planet that you know very little about. Furthermore, the crews space suits are absolutely worthless. – How can the engineers be so superior to the us (the human race) and still be so very stupid? (let’s just say that the engineers doesn’t seem to know all that much about “safety precautions” when it comes to handling biological weapons *cough cough*).

I think it’s safe to say that this scene is THE most gross scene in the whole movie.

Simply put, there were just too many moments like this in the movie, and that ruined the credibility of the movie for me . As the script and most of the characters felt dumbed down to the extreme. I actually have a golden rule when it comes to scripts and plots. You see, if I can come up with a better script/plot and dialogs in five minutes. Then it’s not very well done . In the matter of fact, I’ve been reading the Aliens comics for about a month now, and most of the really old comics from the 80s and early 90s (I have only read that far) beats “Prometheus” with ease.

So I truly hope that “Alien Covenant” won’t make the same mistakes as “Prometheus” made ( like lazy script writing, for example ). As for “Prometheus”, it’s worth watching at least one time. As I believe that the movie has enough memorable scenes to make up for the bad ones (in my oppinion, it’s Marc Streitenfeld and Noomi Rapace that make the movie worth watching).

Pros: + Nice special effects + Marc Streitenfeld’s movie epic soundtrack + Marc Streitenfeld and Noomi Rapace saved Prometheus from becoming an absolute disaster of a movie

Cons: – You don’t really get to know the crew all that well, and I had zero feelings for most of them – Plenty of unlogic moments – The plot is anything but well made – Very predictable outcomes in most cases

Actors: 3/5 Story: 3/5 Sound/music:  4/5 Effects: 4/5 Viewing value: 3/5

Verdict: 3.5/5 Don’t expect any “Alien” or “Aliens” epicness out of “Prometheus”, because you won’t get it. Nor should you expect to experience anything near as good as the “Aliens” comics, because you won’t. Nevertheless, “Prometheus” is still a very watchable movie. As it has a handful of golden moments that makes up for the not so awesome moments. So buckle up, because you’re just about to become space cannon fodder!

Title: Prometheus Genre: Adventure/Sci-Fi/Horror Format: Blu-Ray Producer:  Ridley Scott, David Giler and Walter Hill Director: Ridley Scott Release date: 2012-06-08 Average grade internationally: 7/10 imdb.com PEGI age rating:  15+

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‘Prometheus’, Explained

Where do we come from ? Where are we going ? Are we alone in the universe? What’s the meaning of our existence?

These are some of the most fundamental questions that human beings have asked themselves from time immemorial. Science, to the best of its ability, have been trying to explain the beginning of everything but there are certain pieces to the puzzle, that remain unsolved. In 1976, when Ridley Scott came up with his epic sci-fi horror ‘Alien’, its premise was based on a group of astronauts facing an alien creature in space. Over the years, ‘Alien’ become a cult film, spawning many sequels which were basically a rehash of the first film – man vs alien. It also did a crossover with the ‘Predator’ series, thus creating a lineage of Alien Vs Predator.   According to the director Ridley Scott, the fans of the original film were still not satisfied. Wherever he went, the questions kept following him – Who were these aliens? Who created them? How they got into that spaceship ? ‘Prometheus’ was the first step to the answer of all these questions. Sadly, its box office performance will always overshadow the genius of the film and it will remain as one of the most misunderstood films of all time. Through this article, we shall try to explain the movie and its myth that connects it to ‘Alien’.

In an unknown time, a spacecraft leaves a planet that eerily looks like Earth. On the top of a waterfall, a large humanoid removes his cloak and drinks up a black gooey liquid. The liquid makes his body disintegrate and he falls into the water. The subsequent chain of scenes shows his body getting completely disintegrated, at cellular levels. It rapidly gives rise to the formation of new strand of DNA – the human DNA.

The movie begins in 2089, with a group of archeologists discovering a prehistoric cave painting where a huge man is pointing towards a constellation of stars while being worshipped by many smaller beings. Similar images have been found at many places where civilisations had begun. The archeologist-scientists couple Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway interpret this as beginning of mankind’s evolution and denote this huge man as ‘Engineer’. Weyland corp, led by now dead Peter Weyland funds a mission to a planet LV 223 where the Engineers have been traced to, through the same constellation of stars. The group travels to the planet in stasis, while the spacecraft ‘Prometheus’ is being looked after by an android David. (Fans of ‘Alien’ will remember the android science officer ‘Ash’. ) David spends his time by learning more about humans and mankind by reading books and watching movies, such as ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’. To his android brain, the fickleness of human brain is something that he fails to comprehend. This in fact, later becomes a key point while deciding David’s actions.

Prometheus lands on the LV 223 where an expedition team sets out to investigate a huge structure that resembles   a gigantic mountain, with a humanoid face on the top of it. The team moves in and starts finding the remnants of the Engineers. David, starts exploring the ship and in the process sets out some mechanism that starts projecting a holographic image. The image shows a group of Engineers running scared from something and eventually falling in front of a chamber. The group moves into the chamber which features a huge human face on the wall and finds many cylinders containing a black gooey substance. As the group moves into the chamber, there seems to be some environmental changes triggering the black gooey substance to start leaking from the cylinders. A silica storm forces the group to return to the ship, leaving two of the group remain in the chamber.

Elizabeth returns to the ship with the decapitated head of an Engineer, on which she intends to run tests. The results reveal that its DNA matches with that of the humans, thus making the Engineers the creators of the mankind. Further tests make the head go unstable and it bursts. In the chamber, the two members meet a unique snake-like creature. The creature kills one member while the other member falls into the black gooey substance, now spread all around. At Prometheus, David seems to be working on something secretive as he’s seen communicating with a person, who’s not shown on-screen. Having smuggled a cylinder earlier, David mixes a drop of the black substance in Charlie’s drink, during a conversation. The next morning the team again moves look for their stranded members.

The team finds the dead team member and David finds a separate chamber that resembles a control room and an Engineer-in-stasis mode on driving seat with a route course charted for Earth. Outside, Charlie who was earlier infected with the black substance, falls sick and the team decides to return to the mother ship. But the team lead Vickers refuses to allow Charlie inside the ship and on his insistence, is burnt to death as he continues to decay. During a medical check, Elizabeth finds herself to be three months pregnant despite her being sterile and having physical relationship with Charlie the night before. Sensing danger, she undergoes a self surgery in a med-pod which reveals her offspring – a squid shaped creature. Horrified, she dumps the creature inside the room and leaves to warn the others. She finds the unknown person with whom David is seen communicating earlier – An ageing Peter Weyland! Weyland reveals his true purpose behind the expedition and that’s to prevent his death by using the advanced technology from the Engineers.

Weyland and his team return to the planet and David wakes up the Engineer. The Engineer, upon knowing their actual purpose, kills Weyland and decapitates David. As he goes to driving seat and restarts the mechanism, Elizabeth realises that the structure is actually a gigantic spaceship and the Engineer plans to release the black substance on Earth. She warns rest of her team about the Engineer’s plan while trying to get out of the ship. Her team sacrifice themselves by colliding Prometheus with the Engineer’s ship, thus bringing it down.   Elizabeth, upon finding the Engineer alive forces it into a room in a pod where her offspring, now grown into a huge creature attacks it. As Elizabeth leaves the planet, with the help of David’s head to find the Engineer’s world, we see the last scene, a baby alien bursting out from the dead Engineer’s chest !

Now the burning questions:

Who were these Engineers and why they wanted to destroy Earth?

The Engineers come from an advanced planet where they have created a black substance which’s capable of altering DNAs. As evident from the first scene, an Engineer’s DNA was deconstructed to create the human DNA. In a way, it is the beginning of life on Earth. But as the saying goes, to create something new, the old has to be destroyed. The Engineers perhaps wanted to create something new, perhaps a land of evolved creatures. Hence they wanted to destroy Earth by unleashing the black gooey substance.

How the images appear at different places on earth? Does this mean the Engineers often visited Earth?

It seems so. Being the creators, perhaps the Engineers returned to their creation from time to time. They perhaps also helped the human beings in creating some of the marvels. Conspiracy theorists still say that Pyramids, Stonehenge, Nazca lines they are all created by aliens. Coincidence? Who knows! On the other hands, it could be a warning sign from the prehistoric men about the Engineers, perhaps about their ultimate purpose – to destroy humanity and thus the prehistoric men wanted the future generation to remain alert of these Engineers.

Who or what killed the Engineers on their ship?

It looks like on their way to Earth, some of the black substance got mixed with some type of organism which probably created a creature which killed these Engineers. The holographic images reveal doesn’t reveal from what the Engineers were running from. Whatever it was, it ensured the Engineers remain on LV 223.

Why David mixed the black substance into Charlie’s drink?

The straight forward reason is David was working under Peter Weyland’s instructions. As the black substance altered DNA based on the direct contact, the creatures or human beings were always mutated. David wanted to create a progeny through normal birth and thus he infected Charlie who then proceeded to impregnate Elizabeth.

A different school of thought points towards David’s growing resentment towards the humans. Throughout the movie, David is ridiculed by the other members for being an android, devoid of any sentiments. At one point, Charlie remarks that David was created by humans because they could. One can argue that probably it was David who started the chain of events that eventually ended with ‘Alien’

How this is linked to the original ‘Alien’ ?

In a way, ‘Prometheus’ serves as the prequel to ‘Alien’, as it searches the root of the creature. Elizabeth’s offspring alien resembles a star fish type of creature. Earlier when a worm gets in contact with the black gooey stuff, its DNA gets mutated to resemble a snake-like creature. So the black substance alters different DNA into different creatures. In all probabilities. The last scene reveals a baby alien bursting from the chest of a dead Engineer, which has the same long head as the original alien. So in all probability, it is the same alien that featured in the original film.

Why Elizabeth went to look for the other Engineers at the end?

Elizabeth Shaw was part of the team that had found the connection between the Engineers and mankind. Her search for the creator of mankind ended in devastation as she found the Engineers wanted to destroy the Earth. She found it inexplicable as why the Engineers wanted to destroy their own creation. In order to get the answers, she went to look for the Engineers. She took David’s head with her, so that she could fix him and in return, David could help her look for the answers she wanted so badly.

The mysterious as well as fascinating tale of ‘Prometheus’ continues through its sequel – ‘Alien : Covenant’.

Read More: The Babadook, Explained

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Prometheus Explained: Unraveling The Unanswered Questions

If you're reading this post, you've clearly seen Prometheus by now and-- wait, you haven't seen Prometheus yet? No seriously-- do not read this post until you have seen Prometheus . This post intends to break down all of the lingering questions about the movie, most of which come late in the film and all of which are much more fun to think about yourself as you watch the movie than to let yahoos like us tell you what to think.

MAJOR PROMETHEUS SPOILERS WITHIN. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So, anyway, if you're reading this post, you've clearly seen Prometheus by now, and if you're anything like us you've spent hours debating the many questions brought up by the movie, trying to figure out how many unanswered questions were screenwriter Damon Lindelof trying to drive you crazy, and how many questions were supposed to be figured out. Prometheus is the kind of movie you can start to like better the more you think and talk about it, and we've had a blast debating the many mysteries of the film, and trying to piece together just what those pesky Engineers were trying to tell us all along.

So we've brought the conversation to you, not just a rundown of all the questions we think still aren't answered, but our theories on how we might answer them. We're not truly "explaining" Prometheus , of course-- only Lindelof and Ridley Scott can do that, and they probably never will. We're just giving it our best shot, digging through what the movie tells us and seeing if we cant inure out what it means. Check out our suggestions and questions below, and join us in the comments for a conversation that's hopefully as fun as the ones we've been having in real-life.

What is going on in the beginning when the Engineer drinks the black goo?

The opening of the movie is stunning in its visuals, but pretty incomprehensible without any context. It's hard to tell why exactly the Engineer-- that's the blue muscle-bound alien creature standing by the waterfall-- has opted to drink the black goo, where is he, or really what's going on in general, and it's never explained in the rest of the movie, just simply left for viewer interpretation.

Our Theory: What we are seeing in the beginning is the creation of Earth. The giant ship (which is different from the ring-shaped one we see later in the film, weirdly) has landed on Earth to drop off the Engineer so that he can terraform the planet and make it sustainable for life. We think he drinks the black goo to break down his own structure and spread life on Earth through his own DNA, but that doesn't really explain his surprise while he's disintegrating (and if the Engineers do have the same DNA as us, it's hard to say why the Engineers had to be broken down in order to create humanity).

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_What does the black goo do? Why does it affect different people differently? _

Prometheus is covered from beginning to end in a mysterious black goo, but while it seems to play a very important part in the story it's never really explained what it is (other than a weapon of some sort that the Engineers plan to use against Earth). Whenever the different characters are exposed to it is seems to have different reactions, be it with the aforementioned Holloway or Fifield, who gets a face full of it in the Big Head room.

Our Theory: The black goo is the earliest evolutionary stage of what we've come to know as the xenomorph. It is theorized that even the first living things on Earth began as single-cell organisms that evolved and adapted with the environment to become more complex. This is presumably what happens with the black goo. As for why it has a different effect on different people is yet another mystery.

What are those ghost-like apparition/memory/shadow creatures that show them what happened in the past?

So much of what we discover about these alien caves comes from these kind of pixellated shadows that reveal the past, from the hordes of alien creatures running away from something terrifying to the Engineers on the bridge of the ship that David witnesses targeting their ship toward Earth. A lot of what Shaw later assumes about these aliens-- including that the Engineers created a weapon that killed their own people-- comes from these shadow images. But what on earth are they, and why can we see them?

Our Theory: This is one of those sci-fi things we honestly like better unexplained. Things are just different in space, and especially if you consider that the shadows aren't memories exactly, but simply a glimpse into an earlier part of the timeline, these shadows seem like a fun spin on actual outer-space science. A lot of these unanswered questions are frustrating, but for this one, we'll keep the mystery.

Why does David poison Holloway?

David doesn't have the capacity to be evil - he lacks the ability to feel emotions and simply follows directives. So why would he take the opportunity to poison Holloway with the black goo for seemingly no purpose? By the end of the film there is no explanation given as to why the android would kill one of his co-workers.

Our Theory: While the rest of the crew on-board the Prometheus was looking for the origins of life on Earth and our creator, David had a very specific side mission: to find a way for Weyland to live forever. Therefore, it's possible that David decided to dose Holloway because he wanted to experiment and see if the black goo they found would be the key for Weyland. It's also possible he saw the black goo as the potential to create alien weapon creatures, which a company like Weyland could exploit-- though he might not have counted on that weapon attacking his crew so soon.

How does Janek know that the moon is full of "weapons of mass destruction" and is just a stopover moon for them to build weapons?

Janek, the pilot of the Prometheus played by Idris Elba , largely stays out of the fray, watching from a safe distance from the comfort of his ship. But as missions members continue to disappear, Janek suits up and explores LV-223 with the surviving crew. He's tasked with explaining what he thinks they've stumbled onto, explaining it as a weapons factory that's wisely built away from wherever it is the Engineers actually live ... in case things happen to go wrong with the weapons.

Our Theory: This bit of descriptive dialogue is necessary to solidify the plot, and it's best that Elba's character delivers it. But it's more of a theory than concrete fact. From the beginning, he is written as a world-weary ship captain who has kind of "seen it all," a cagey veteran who's around for guidance as much as he's around because he's good at piloting a craft. Not that he has run into many alien weapons factories (for lack of a better term), but he's experienced enough to know when a hostile opponent is crafting a weapon for retaliation, and we think that's what he witnesses on the distant moon of LV-223.

If the moon visited by the Prometheus isn't the Engineers home and it was an accident that led them to be stuck there, why did they have the cave drawings lead there?

The cave drawings are discovered by doctors Shaw and Holloway in key locations around our planet. But are they invitations, or warnings? No clear cut answer is given in Prometheus. They certainly point Dr. Shaw to the distant galaxy, where she finds the Engineers. But since the moon is a weapons factory (basically), that seems to suggest that they were warnings. This isn't the end of Shaw's quest, though. It's possible the answer lies in the film's sequel (if Ridley Scott is able to make it, that is).

Our Theory: The cave drawings are additional proof that the Engineers have been to our planet multiple times over the years. As the opening scenes of Prometheus show us, the Engineers spread their DNA all over the galaxy, creating life on various planets. We happen to be an offshoot of that DNA. Scott has said the Engineers often check in on their creations ... and are disappointed in what they see. The cave drawings, first and foremost, are ways to show that individuals, over the course of many centuries, encountered Engineers. But they suggest that Earth's citizens learned something about the weapons being designed to annihilate us, and were saying, "Stay away from this area!" Or then again, maybe not.

Why does Weyland have to hide that he's on the ship?

From the moment the crew of the Prometheus wakes up out of hypersleep, we're aware of just how little this group of roughnecks knows about the assignment. Shaw and Holloway are there to try to contact the Engineers, of course, and Meredith Vickers knows all about their plans, but everyone else on board seems happy to take the paycheck-- which is why we still don't understand why Peter Weyland would have to hide that he's on board. When he finally is revealed late in the film, it turns out he's looking for essentially the same thing as Shaw-- so why couldn't they have just been working together the entire time?

Our Theory: Weyland seems like the kind of guy who likes to keep things close to the vest, letting his android David do his bidding and staying asleep, or doing whatever he's doing, in his own secret chambers. We could argue all day that the movie would be more interesting if he were part of it from the beginning, but we guess the eccentric trillionaire has his reasons for keeping his distance.

_Why cast Guy Pearce as an ancient old man? _

There are plenty of mysteries and questions concerning the plot and events of Prometheus , but one of the strangest concerns the casting of Guy Pearce as the ancient Peter Weyland. Given the amazing cast that Ridley Scott was able to bring together for this project, it's hard to believe that he would have had a hard time bringing in someone like Anthony Hopkins , Christopher Plummer , or Max von Sydow-- or even, in a nice connection to the Lawrence of Arabia references, Peter O'Toole.

Our Theory: The casting of Guy Pearce was a move motivated by franchise building. Ridley Scott is hoping to create a series out of Prometheus and by casting Pearce he gives himself the ability to travel back in time to show Weyland as a young man. This was already sort of done when the viral campaign first began and the young Peter Weyland was shown giving a futuristic TED Talk .

Why did the Engineers suddenly decide to destroy the Earth?

When the Engineer is awoken from his cryo-stasis, he embarks on an intense mission to board the nearest ship and take off. His destination? Our planet, which has been targeted for destruction. Hence, Shaw (Rapace) convincing Elba to ram the exiting spaceship to stop him from ever reaching our planet.

Our Theory: "Suddenly" might be the wrong word. It's basically implied that the Engineers have been angry with us for some time, they being the "parents" who once created us. Scott has said there were sequences in the film that were going to explain why we'd angered the "gods" known as the Engineers. In one instance, it was going to be posited that Jesus was an emissary of the Engineers, sent to see how we were doing. And what did we do? We crucified him. So the Engineers have been upset with us for some time. But something happened while they were creating the aliens to force the Engineers into hibernation. This, also, falls under the category of "Things probably better explained in a potential sequel," which is disappointing for Prometheus , but there you have it.

_What did David say to the "Space Jockey" to make him so angry? _

As the Space Jockey emerges from this cryo-stasis pod, Weyland (Guy Pearce) orders his android, David (Fassbender) to "tell him what I told you to tell him," to paraphrase the quote. David says something to the Engineer in his native, alien language. And he gets his head knocked off in response.

Our Theory: It doesn't matter what David said. And by that, we mean Michael Fassbender actually talked to us about this very question, and he said he knows the line, because they had translators come in an break the line down for him. But that's not the point of the scene. The point of the scene is to show how angry the Engineer is that he's being woken up out of cryo-stasis by these insignificant beings, and all he wants is for this android to stop talking. So he tears his head off, like you would the wings of an insect, an insignificant fly.

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You need to watch the most underrated sci-fi prequel before it leaves HBO Max this week

This 2011 sci-fi movie is much better than its reputation.

The most unfairly maligned sci-fi movie of the 21st century is none other than this Ridley Scott film.

For every single complaint critics and fans have about this prequel to Alien , something brilliant and daring is overlooked.

Now, to be clear, Prometheus is a deeply flawed science fiction movie. As a film that illuminates the Alien canon , it is also somewhat muddled. But, of all of his films, this is Ridley Scott’s biggest swing. And, when you can take a breath and not focus on the nitty-gritty details between this film and Alien , what you’ll find is a wonderfully dynamic sci-fi flick that plays out like a next-level horror film.

Here's why Prometheus deserves a look on HBO Max before it leaves the streaming service on August 31. Mild spoilers for Prometheus ahead.

Don’t think about Alien

Notably, when Prometheus was released in 2011, it did not carry the word “Alien” anywhere in its title, despite being promoted as a prequel to the 1979 sci-fi horror classic .

From a visual world-building point of view, the film runs into similar problems that the Star Wars prequels faced: The technology and look of the prequel feel slicker than its sequel.

In theory, this could be explained away through economics. In Alien , the Nostromo (2122) is a mining ship with limited resources. While in Prometheus (2093), the titular spacecraft looks very shinny and tricked-out, probably because it was directly funded by tech mogul Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). This would be like saying that a hypothetical SpaceX ship designed as a personal yacht for Elon Musk might be more advanced than an equally hypothetical knock-off created several decades later.

The point is, all of this is kind of a distraction, and if you think about the nitty-gritty prequel stuff too much, you’ll miss the cool thing about the movie.

Why Prometheus works

The imagery is familiar, but the movies are pretty different.

Without spoiling the movie, Prometheus is an interesting science fiction blockbuster because it asserts panspermia as its central premise from the first scene . While Alien fans would tell you this film is just a long and winding road to the birth of the Xenomorphs, it’s actually pretty clear that Ridley Scott is interested in retelling a much older science fiction story-trope. What if aliens kickstarted evolution on Earth?

From the opening moments of Prometheus , this premise becomes the real thrust of the film. Human beings have created intelligent near-perfect human robots in this future, which means some kind of similar event may have occurred in our distant past. In actual science, panspermia is mostly a wild theory. Still, as a speculative device within a huge science fiction movie, it allows for all sorts of philosophical questions to run through what, at a glance, appears to be a horror film.

Generally speaking, this kind of ruminative style of science fiction rarely pairs well with outright action horror. In other words, the original Alien works because it’s mostly just a survival story, with a small conspiracy story embedded within it. Prometheus is far more complex and bold with its structure.

The plot is only superficially about killer creatures and a conspiracy to create them. The second more meaningful story is about how creation myths can overlap with scientific discovery. Again, the real-world applications here are dubious, and it feels unlikely that a planet of “Engineers” is just out there somewhere, full of uncomfortable truths about the purpose of human evolution. But as a pure metaphor, this concept is fascinating and profound.

Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw

And best of all, the film owns the premise on every level. Front-and-center in the story is archaeologist Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace.) Smartly, Scott makes Shaw a scientist who also believes in God. Again, this might seem silly in the real world, but in the highly charged metaphorical realm of Prometheus , it works perfectly.

Elizabeth Shaw is like Indiana Jones’ father, Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) but slightly more progressive and certainly more accepting of change. The similarity between Prometheus and The Last Crusade is telling: An archaeologist reconciles objective facts with religious history in both films. Within an Indiana Jones film, this takes place on Earth.

But what makes Prometheus so damn interesting is that Ridley Scott tried to do the same thing, only he set the story in space. If you’re looking for hard science fiction that makes sense, Prometheus won’t make you happy. But, if you can suspend your disbelief and dig into the philosophical questions, then what you’ll find is a sci-fi movie that is truly one of a kind.

Prometheus is streaming on HBO Max through August 31, 2021.

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