Ramming or trying to Escape

A few reasons for the assumption: Janek's face while flying towards the Derelict looks like the face of a fighter, not one trying to run away. I think one can see in one of the trailers or stills that two co-pilots also stay on board for the ramming. Vickers we already have on record in trailers stating "take us home" and "if you go down there, you will die" i.e. she wants to live, no matter what. Now if Janek decides to ignore her orders together with the remaining crew and ram the Derelict (they do not expect to survive), what would be the logical thing for Vickers to do next, before impact? Run like hell for the escape pod, maybe (as seen in the trailers).

Here is why... [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/LT.HIGHTIMES/A1aaims.png[/img]

looks to me like Promo is Speeding at the Derelict !!! Deliberately !!!

Well we know that Promo definatley drops "something" before impact....this is how Vickers and Shaw end up running away from the impacted and now rolling SJ ship.

The Prometheus is definitely giving chase, but the good capt. looks rather more surprised than determined, in the shot just before impact. Maybe the SJ ship just keeps right on coming, instead of taking evasive measures.

@Mark Cawley I thought Shaw was already on the planet and not in the escape pod - when the hangar opens to let the Derelict out, she seems to be right there, trying to jump across between two moving segments of the opening Derelict hangar.

I didnt say she was in the escape pod.....i just included her in the running away thing. Why couldnt they just step sideways anyway? Why run away in the direction of a rolling huge ship that could flatten them.........its the stuff of cartoons lol

.....as is the fact that the gigantic SJ ship doesn't crumple up like an aluminum can when it impacts the ground.

@artyoh The good captain knows he will likely die in the impact, so no wonder some surprise mixes with the determination. In WW2, kamikaze bombers often called out for Mom and suchlike before impact.

Janek's facial expression is one of pants shitting terror, not bravery, fighting spirit, or determination. Looks like he's seeing something of unspeakable horror for the first time.

@Mark Cawley Agree for the scene when Shaw and Vickers are fleeing the crashing Derelict; been wondering myself how they end up running together (given it is suggested Shaw is at the hangar and Vickers in the escape pod). Ditto for your observation on why don't they step sideways. Running away is a bad idea even with trains (the "car on the tracks" scenario), as it puts you right into the way of the debris from the impact, and it is safer to go a little sideways and then TOWARDS the train. With the Derelict rolling, it would have to be sideways because its weird shape makes its rolling trajectory unpredictable. But I guess then it wouldn't look as frighteningly cool as seeing the two running away....

Janek's face appears to be screaming in a "scared to death" and "let's do this" way.-(to me anyway). The possible decision to ram the alien ship to stop it coupled with the thought of " this is it, i'm going to die right now.)

Ive never seen the point of giving your life to save others.........i mean whats in it for Janek?

@TKfanboy421 - My point exactly. @Biehn-Bandit - Don't think that brave people are never scared shitless, especially when they are asked to show nearly superhuman bravery. I have a friend who fought in an actual war for several years during the 1990s, and is nothing if not brave (he took down an airplane from a hand-held launcher at one point, now how's that?). And yet, guess what his favorite scene is in all war movies put together? Apocalypse now, when the choppers land and one kid soldier freaks out with fear and keeps repeating "I'm not going! I'm not going! I'm not going!"

@Mark "Either I die or the Earth does" sounds like some pretty strong motivation. And if there is no Earth (or humans on Earth), what would Janek do then? Fly around the galaxy till the fuel runs out? Go back to one of the temple structures with a breathable atmosphere and sit on his haunches hoping something positive happens (provided the atmosphere there is still breathable, and with the possiblity of some more ugly SJ inventions lurking there? It's all a matter of perspective. I believe I would never have the balls for something like that, and would generally vote for self-preservation if anyway possible, but I've never been in such a situation ( and I hope I never will.

@Wirm My point with saying that is, it may not be the scene where he's crashing the ship. It may be a scene of him seeing some monster or someone getting destroyed in some horrifying manner.

@Biehn-Bandit It's possible, and it is almost certain that trailers deliberately play with continuity at least some of the time in order to make us keep guessing. To me, it still seems like just the right kind of expression for someone making a desperate suicide attack on the Derelict (for anyone who does not believe that martyrs get virgins in the afterlife or some such nonsense, fear would creep in for sure - and Janek does not seem a nonsense kind of guy.) Could it not be "someone is getting destroyed in a horrifying manner in a few seconds, and it's ME!" You could still be right though.

@Wirrn: Brilliant observation. That is one main discrepancy that isn't explained and keeps bothering me: Vickers stands next to Janek in the scene where he becomes determined to ram, we presume she runs down the hall, rips off her suit in prep for putting on space-suit? Next she's desparately getting into escape shuttle chamber? Next, shuttle is dropped off. Seconds later, it looks like Prometheus rams derelict. Explosion Derelict begins to descend. And Shaw AND (????) Vickers suddenly on the ground running together? How can that be? If Vickers joined her, at least you'd think she'd scoop up Shaw from off the ground with the shuttle...not go for a jog next to her under the falling derelict...

For all the threads that have mentioned this sequence, I'm only wondering why it seems to be the given understanding that the alien ship is headed to Earth and with cruel intentions. This seems to parallel an equal assumption by the Prometheus crew (or at least Shaw), but isn't it possible that this is a big mistake? Just one of many things they are terribly wrong about? I'd guess that as a possibility, but mostly because I think hubris/assumption, and tragedy all seem to dovetail one another. Not sure about this guess, but maybe this act of seeming heroism happens very early in the film, and sets the stage for everything that comes after. (It would certainly explain some of why they put it right out there in the trailer, yeah?)

The red lights tell a story. What kind of circumstance would trigger them to go off? Self-destruct? Yes. Proximity warning? Yes. Forced ramming? Uh...hmm. Maybe. But I've never seen that before. And it looks as though Janek hasn't either! I don't know what to make of that scene. [quote]Janek's facial expression is one of pants shitting terror[/quote] Good description! LOL

ye mark crawleys right i think the somthing that u c dropped is the escape pods and thats how they end up running from the crashing derrelict and hello everyone im new cant beleive the buzz about this film ridley either makes world beaters or the complete opposite in terms of films ive just got a feelin that this films gonna b talked about for a long time cant wait

One thing that is not clear about the pod sequence is whether they are ejected separately from the ship or whether the pod simply something the bridge crew jump into that is then secured INSIDE THAT SHUTTLE/EEV? that is seen leaving the Prometheus? Lots of misdirection in these jump-cut trailers. 3/4 of all of "assumptions" are going to turn out to be completely false in 2 months.

well if you look at the spoiler on IMDB, it says that a crew of scientists are stranded on a alien planet looking for clues about the orgins of mankind on Earth. Now whether the Prometheus runs into derelict or vice versa....we just know at this point that they collide and the derelict crashes. Prometheus appears to explode in the sky. I am inclined to think judging by the Capt's face that he is intentionally guiding the Prometheus to intersect the derelict. I am also thinking that this happens closer to beginning of the fim than the end - maybe somewhere in the middle? So it appears as if there is some sort of colony is already established on the moon/planetoid/planet by the Weyland Corp in which the derelict crashes and is not found again until Nostromo founders on it years from this point. So, begs the question, did Weyland's company clean up or destroy the remnants of the colony and the Prometheus since Nostromo does not recognize LV426? If that were the case, why wouldn't they have salvaged what was in the derelict before Nostromo got there? If Ridley is staying true to the storylines, why didn't any of the crew pick up that this was an established planet that had gone through terraforming or had been visited previously by the company? Why no one had picked up on any wreckage of the Prometheus? Perehaps these are questions that will be answered in the sequel to Prometheus and the prequel to Alien.

it may be my OCD but i dont think the captains "close up" and the ramming of the ships (be it on purpose or not) are in the same scene. if they are, there is a major change in lighting, mood, backdrop, so on. it isnt just his reaction that seems out of place to me, but the picture of him standing in the cockpit as opposed to his open mouthed picture with all of the lighting and other subtle changes seems off to me to be the same scene. i know in movies now a-days they take huge breaks in between scenes and even film scenes out of order so obvious changes in a single scene are pretty common, it is very hard to try and get everything the way it was the last time they were filming. if it ISNT one of those simple filming mistakes i would say the captains reaction shot and the standing picture with the space jockey ship in the sky are very different scenes in the movie.

funny thing about the person (Sparticus) who posted the image of the Prometheus speeding toward the derelict....I thought the derelict was flying in the upright position - not flat in the sky...which would exlain then that when it falls from the sky, it begins rolling on the ground. Is this an actual screen grab? Never saw that image before. Where'd you get it?

Ive never seen the point of giving your life to save others.........i mean whats in it for Janek? Well according to Shaw, if he doesn't do something rash, then there will not be a Earth to go back to. Make perfect sense! And he isn't saving a few lives, it is suggested by otheres here that he is in fact saving Earth by sacrificing not only himself, but the rest of the team since there will be no way off the planet without the Prometheus. Hell if it were me, I'd program the Prometheus to interesect the derelect then jump into an escape pod myself!... that is if I had time to program the Prometheus.

Could be Humans flying both ships ... or even 'an' Android in the Derelict ...

finster, i know this exposes me as a huge ass for saying so but i would not sacrifice myself to save earth. its not a matter of self importance, but the fact that i am a pessimist and would have a hard time being convinced our planet would be worth saving. maybe i am a synthetic after all ^_^

I think, am pretty sure actually that a ship like The Prometheus can be set up for "ramming", while at the same time in a way that this adaptation protects rather than endangers the life of the crew!!! Just sayin'. Yes Alien happened 33+ years ago but it took place in a universe set around 200 years into our future.

sparty, u mean like decent police cars? in better funded areas i have lived in we had some kick ass police cars that had a nice grill that was made for a specific ramming move that stopped other vehicles in high speed chases. the cop cars werent anything outstanding themselves but the proper legal modifications and pure technique made an old ass car a police officer battering ram deathrace2000 combatant!

about trailer continuity: what about the crew lands on the planet, finds the temple and signs that the SJs are hostile and prepare to eradicate earth. the prometheus is being crashed into the ship to prevent that, so the crew goes back to the now stranded derelict ship, hoping to restore it for flight. david in the navigation room, messing around with the technology (hence the dead SJs on the floor, died during the crash – david reactivating the ship and takes place of the beings). the others inspect the ship meanwhile, come across some organism that infects holloway etc – david's reactivation goes wrong, the ship moves but due to lack of integrity / energy it kinda rolls down the hill, ms vickers and a now pregnant shaw flee from it. david remains in the ship, others are maybe back in the prometheus wreck to figure out what to do and the whole movie goes to hell with shaw giving birth, holloway transforming bla bla… I KNOW this outline has several problems in it, especially when it comes to the scenes aboard the prometheus, but what I want to express is that the trailer story could be a clever re-write of the true timeline to obscure the plot. because, if you take the trailer for real, you'd get a pretty nice plot already which I think is not the goal of the scott and the lindelof. ;-)

To assume that the SJ space that takes off, the SJ ships that has an explosion near it, and SJ ship hitting the ground, and the SJ ship that Promo rams are all the same may not be correct from the trailers. Seems sort of odd that Promo is sent by the Weyland Corp across space to possibly a hostile world without advanced defenses (or offensive weapons) such as air-to-air missiles and has to resort to ramming. Maybe Promo does fire weapons and takes out or damages a few SJ ships, but needs to ram one remaining ship?

@enceladus_is_alive I believe wou're way into Cameron territory by now. Remember this is a Scott movie.

I bought the new issue of EMPIRE magazine; awesome holographic cover and great coverage of Prometheus. The cast give their perspective on the movie and Sir Ridley Scott answers all the questions you could ever ask! Definitely worth the cash: http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/