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OrganicLife
MemberOvomorphMar-07-2012 10:34 AMI've heard a lot of talk about the fact that there may be 2 androids in Prometheus, David being one and perhaps Vickers being one as well and hiding her true identity, but I've become convinced that this won't be the case. What really got me thinking about this is the following quote from Charlize Theron I read [url=http://io9.com/5823610/first-footage-from-ridley-scotts-prometheus-made-our-space-helmets-explode]here[/url]. It's really old, I know, but I think how she describes her character is significant:
[quote]She's very different from anything I've done. She's a suit, essentially. She's kind of the machine that runs the machine, that takes this mission into space. At first, she comes across like a suit, very cold and frigid, it seems that it's all about the economics for her — she doesn't really come from one side or the other, she's not a scientist or a believer.[/quote]
It occurred to me when reading this that having Vickers also be an android would squander a golden opportunity to do something that Ridley was so obsessed with doing in the first film: exploring the lines dividing the human from the mechanical (or artificial), and especially where those lines blur.
We already know that Vickers is something of an antagonist, and that David may very well be a crucial protagonist in the story. I speculate then, that David's actions and decisions (when the sh*t hits the proverbial fan) will stand in stark contrast to Vickers' actions in the same scenarios. David, the android, will appear to be the far more sympathetic and "human" character, transcending his artificial nature and making choices that benefit the crew and humanity at large. Vickers, on the other hand, will be the cold, calculating, company tool. She will consider her fellow humans expendable in the service of the company's interests, and may likely end up sacrificing one or more of them to further this end.
In this way Ridley will (again) pose to us the question: how do we define ourselves as human?
Pure speculation of course, but I hope we get to see something like this in the film.
3 Replies
aintnozeno
MemberOvomorphMar-07-2012 10:50 AMShe also says in the third act you "strip her of her skin and see what her bones are about", which is entirely too odd to dismiss when Ridley is at the helm.
Good speculation though. We'll know soon enough I guess.
Fan
MemberOvomorphMar-07-2012 12:06 PMAfter reading this thread, an idea came to me...granted, a silly one perhaps.
Between the introduction of ash, bishop in the first two movies and the obvious center on android tech in this upcoming movie(or the whole wayland speech), I can't help but wonder if there is a connection between the android and the biomechanical aspect to the aliens. Did weylands androids have a finger in why the aliens are mechanical in nature?
Sorry to move off topic, but the question of vickars humanity brought this to light for me.
ALL generalizations are WRONG!
OrganicLife
MemberOvomorphMar-07-2012 1:26 PMIt's actually not off topic at all Nrlfetmefan, I think your question is central to what I'm getting at.
Yes, from what I know, the biomechanic aspect of the creature is not a coincidence. In fact it's one of the things that attracted Ridley to Giger's work in the first place, in the respect that Ridley was confident that Giger could create a creature that blurred the lines between the organic and the mechanical.
ALIEN was, at it's core, a horror movie. But I think that most fans can agree that this theme was on Ridley's mind when he made it. In fact, he liked it so much that he created another movie focusing entirely on this idea and the questions it presents...and we know that movie as Bladerunner, of course.
The Space Jockeys represent a species whose technology has advanced to the point where the mechanical and the biological are nearly indistinguishable. For example; if the xenomorphs really are created by the Space Jockeys, then they are, for all intents and purposes, "robots", albeit somewhat different from how we define the term. They would simply represent an extension of Space Jockey technology, little different from the derelict ship or any other tech they might use.
Whether or not there is any direct connection between Bladerunner and Prometheus is a discussion I will leave to other threads, but suffice it to say that I'm sort of expecting hints of the ideas in Bladerunner to appear in this film. It would not surprise me if the David/Vickers comparison were used to do this.
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