We know how it crashes, but how does a Derelict land?!

Starbeast

MemberOvomorphJanuary 17, 20121999 Views24 Replies

Okay so I don't think anyone here has yet argued that the Derelict in both Alien and Prometheus does [i]not[/i] crash land. Afterall, in Alien and Aliens it looks like it's toppled over and also ruptured, and in Prometheus it descents after an explosion caused by a possible collision mid-air. But suddenly I just thought, "wait a minute, what if in one of the two films, the Derelict is in fact landed in the correct position?" For me, in the Prometheus 'crash', surely it is far more difficult for the ship to crash upright as it were than it is to come down, wobble around, and fall flat on its face? We can all try it with any coin in your pocket - I bet none come to rest edge on... Right? I'm now more leaning towards the ship doing an emergency landing which also happens to be the correct landing position, hence the not too much damage to the ship (debris is from the collided impacter) - now ok we don't see any landing gear or equivalent but maybe that's just alien technology for you. However... Although this theory pleases and satisfies me, ironically it's the Derelict in Alien which provide a counter argument: the end state of the Alien Derelict is not edge on but more slanted like its fallen on its back. It looks crashed to the human eye but perhaps this one is not crashed but landed as best it could. And the reason I raise this is because of the cockpit/SJ room and the eggs chamber. You'll notice that both are flat against the surface of the planetoid, which would lead you too assume landing with correct orientation. Moreover, the eggs are in pristine condition - none have tilted or toppled over or look as if they've shifted due to... oh I dunno, a ship crashing down!? So what [i]is[/i] the normal way a Derelict would normally land? - because it could be that one of the two 'crashes' is actually a textbook landing.

walterhiller
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January 17, 2012

it could land in any position, really. even with the tongs facing the ground. in prometheus, it's possible that the upright position is in fact the right position due to the space jokey(s) trying to correct the descent path for it into a soft landing. though i have a strange feeling the front of the ship is the "head" of the compass. and that it flies while dragging the two tails behind it.

Starbeast
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January 17, 2012

That's an interesting point-of-view but perhaps landing/crashing head first (with the head where you say it is) is the best manoeuvre to quickly and easily disembark from the ship. But then as I found, this kinda contradicts the other Derelict in Alien whic has the eggs and cockpit parallel to the planetoid surface.

CBT1979
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January 17, 2012

Nice idea, and i now also think that the SJ vessel is designed for such hard impact Landing. Any other human vessel would desintegrate to millions of pieces. But this one is strong enough. it also has to be mentioned, that the derelict is a gigantic vessel, maybe the size of 10 Nimitz class carriers. And we dont know what else it transported besides the eggs.

bigbirdjimmy
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January 17, 2012

So how about this: The Derelict ship in Alien shows no damage of a mid air collision like in the trailer for Prometheus. That leads me to believe there might be a second ship. Also as far as landing/crash landing or whatever, what if the sj ship takes off a planet like we acctually do on earth. Like the real space shuttle, the astronauts face up into the sky. As they level off or land on earth, everything is right side up where its supposed to be. So maybe the alien ship is ready for take off. So what do you all think?

danrald
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January 18, 2012

@bigbirdjimmy, Thanks! I've been saying all along there are 2+ Derelict ships. There is another trailer out there that BioMechanic has.. and if you watch that, you will notice that there is a second explosion in addition to the one that we see in the released trailer!

EGR101
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January 18, 2012

Do you guys ever consider the fact that maybe the Egg chamber and the ship are two separate things? The pilot chamber has that Xenomorph biomechanics styling, just like the egg chamber, doesn't mean it is one and the same. The ship may crash on top of the egg chamber (Kane discovers a hole or an opening, rather than a door), and the Xeno may have biologically "infect" the whole ship with its "slime" or "goo." Do you see the deleted cocoon scene of ALIEN? That particular section of Nostromo has Xenomorph/Giger biomechanic styling on the side of wall where the alien cocoon is. Ship crashes into Xenomorph temple Xenomorph awakened by impact Xenomorph crawls out of its hole Xenomorphs cocoon the whole ship Space Jockey turned into a host Nostromo walked into the whole monstrosity Repeat cycle

Game Over Man!
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January 18, 2012

@Engr101 That is an interesting theory. But that all seems to random. That means you had one shitty day. Something goes wrong with your ship, darn. Then you crash your ship, god damn. You crash into a Xeno temple, holy shit. You get facehugged, wtf. Then a xeno burst out of your chest, son of a bitch! :) But who knows you cant ever discount anything.

Starbeast
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January 18, 2012

Well, in another thread it was argued and shown that if you consider the dimensions of the egg chamber and the overall dimensions of the derelict then, strictly speaking, the two are incompatible, which gives credence to the opinion that we are dealing with separate bodies. However, this is probably a continuity error rather than a deliberate and conscious effort by Ridley to convey two separate bodies - which is a pity because it would, for my theory, go some way in allowing the Alien Derelict to indeed be crashed. However, the SJ cockpit is still orientated parallel to the ground. So unless the SJ cockpit is usually at right-angle (or some acute angle) to the ground in normal landed position (of course trailer refutes this) then my theory (or desire really) for the Prometheus Derelict to be landing is still blown out of the water.

Juxtapose
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January 18, 2012

@ Game Over Man "That means you had one shitty day. Something goes wrong with your ship, darn. Then you crash your ship, god damn. You crash into a Xeno temple, holy shit. You get facehugged, wtf. Then a xeno burst out of your chest, son of a bitch!" Very funny....Lol

EGR101
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January 18, 2012

@Game Over Man There is an early treatment of the script for ALIEN which has that ship sitting on top of an ancient temple. There is a theory that the ship & the temple is one organic whole (very interesting idea) to draw people for some "crazy-ass shit", and then there is the other theory where the ship is somehow drawn towards the temple by the use of coordinates which the Ancient Terraformers left behind for humans to find. Not random.

kiddo
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January 18, 2012

i have a fantastic book called gigers alien by titan books london.it charts the entire design of alien as seen through the eyes of giger himself.its full of early sketches of all aspects of the derelict as seen in alien.ive just read through it again and although it never states that the ship has crashed it does show that the designs for its orientation with the surface of lv426 are that of a ship that has merely landed normally.the astronauts climb in through an opening at the foot of the huge vessel at ground level,make their way through a spiralling corridor like the inside of a snail shell and end up in the cockpit which is topped with a large glass dome through which the pilots telescope is pointing.the pilot is 8m(26 ft) tall and they then used children as stated earlier to give the feeling of scale.directly below the pilot through a loose floorboard? is the shaft leading to the eggsilo.also looking at the sketches it is clear that gigers designs for the ship had the hammer heads at the front of the ship and not trailing behind as you might first think.

Apollo
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January 18, 2012

Does anyone think for a moment that possibly the giant disk we see in the trailer over the waterfall is in fact maybe a landing pad that may be in close proximity, say ... behind the temple. People keep thinking it is another ship or something but i think it is a landing pad. Like a helicopter pad. Like this from Dubai. [img]http://www.mytripolog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/helipad-and-helicopter-on-burj-al-arab-dubai.jpg[/img] Interesting to see what people think. Apollo out

Apollo
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January 18, 2012

@ WalterHiller "it could land in any position, really. even with the tongs facing the ground. in prometheus, it's possible that the upright position is in fact the right position due to the space jokey(s) trying to correct the descent path for it into a soft landing. though i have a strange feeling the front of the ship is the "head" of the compass. and that it flies while dragging the two tails behind it." I liek your thinking, that would mean that in the trailer we see it crashing, so it must have been leaving the surface, probably with bad intention rather than incoming to the surface.

Herk Mondo
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January 18, 2012

@danrald and bigbirdjimmy, Hold on mo guys, not I'm not saying anybody is right or wrong here, I just want to put a thought into your minds; Now, whilest they could be [i]two different 'derelicts'[/i], looking at the mid-air explosion/collision (as again, we don't know for [i]definate[/i] what has happened there, it still looks to me as if it has happened to the far side of the far prong - a side none of us have seen in any picture or scene yet. So we do not know the extent of any possible damage from the mid-air incident, yet along at what point in the movie's time line it occurs. My point is seen as how we haven't seen derelict from that side or angle yet, it's anyone's guess and the vessel in Alien could still be the same one in Prometheus, or it might not be. Isn't speculation fun? Just remember to keep you're minds open to any possibility gang and try not to turn things into arguements. Or, an oppertunity to put someone down - I'll name no names.

Apollo
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January 18, 2012

@ Herk Mondo "Isn't speculation fun? Just remember to keep you're minds open to any possibility gang and try not to turn things into arguements. Or, an oppertunity to put someone down - I'll name no names." Here Here, some people just dont get it. All ideas welcome. Well said

Apollo
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January 18, 2012

I am telling you , it is a landing pad, does nobody agree?

Starbeast
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January 18, 2012

@Apollo, have to disagree about the landing pad theory for 2 reasons: 1. The landing pad seems to be moving in the trailer - what purpose does a moving landing pad have? Furthermore, where is [i]it[/i] going to land? 2. Usually landing pads satisfy some neccesity to land in a given spot. So the pic you supplied is a pad on top of a building, which is fair. But why would there be a neccesity to land on top of a waterfall? What's wrong with the firm ground a few feet away from the perillous drop? In any case, I like your thinking out-of-the-box, keep it coming.

bigbirdjimmy
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January 18, 2012

@ Herk Mondo & Apollo If my post seems like I was arguementive, then I failed in relaying my opion. Trust me, I know this is all in fun. Why else would I be here. I have posted on many different topics and have always had fun doing it. We ALL are having fun here and telling our opinions. We All cant wait for this movie!

bigbirdjimmy
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January 18, 2012

As far as a temple for the xeno's, I just keep thinking of AvP movie. I am not saying its wrong or anything but thats what I keep going back to.

danrald
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January 18, 2012

@Herk Mondo, Yes it is just a hypothesis to fill in a hole and explain the sequence of events. And it is fun! lol. But someone else is right about the ship landing on top of some "egg production" plant. The egg chamber under the derelict looks to big to be in the ship..