The mysteries of Prometheus

For once, being a brit paid off with Prometheus release on 1st June, having had a few days to digest the film sharing my thoughts on it First up, I've been v interested in Prometheus, yes as its Ridley, yes cos its semi-prequal to Alien, but mostly because of the aincient astronaut premise. Its great to see this explored in a big budget film. I'm a bit of a thinker, the role of myth in society is very interesting to me, both the past and myth in modern society. Myth is very powerful. For example, Government, Money and Countries are all myths. They exist only because we believe they do and those with the biggest stake in those myths use violence to force their acceptance on everyone else. But those myths define our very reality There can be no doubt, at all, that myths of extra-terrestials visiting earth and shaping man are spread right across the planet. Not a single culture does not have them in some form. They are a root myth of human consciousness. Probably their most accesable form is the Nephilim of the Hebrew bible... the angels from heaven who lie with the daughters of man and have offspring. Modern translations of the bible down play them, but if you look at genesis, everytime "god" speaks in plural, its the Nephilim. God does not so much "make" man in "his image" as "RE-make man in OUR image". So i'm very interested to see these ideas brought into a film by a master film-maker of our age Is Prometheus the film a masterpeices of cinema? well its probably a 4/5 if your really into it, a 3/5 if your a casual viewer. Im not too bothered about that. I do reckon there is a fair bit on the cutting room floor to get the run time down. That's film-making. I dont think its major plot stuff tho, more character investment/reaction One of the most important scenes is right at the beginning, with the "sacrifical engineer" drinking the black liquid and his body breaking apart and falling into the ocean on Earth, thus adding his DNA to the gene pool. We are given a big clue about the engineers right there: the massive size of the ship overhead. The "u" shaped ship from Alien is cleary able to travel easily between solar systems in our galaxy. What then is this giant ship? I would suggest it is an intergalatic vessel designed to cross the voids between galaxies. Therefore, the engineers are not native to this galaxy Why then would they be here? Well let us assume they have evolved to the pinnacle of their potential in their native galaxy They would then need to look outside their own galaxy to further develop the potential of their DNA Through a process of adding their DNA to a native ecosystem, letting it develop, then bringing it back to "primordial soup" and evolving it again, and again, they would create more and more complex DNA able to potentially stimulate further growth in their own All the planets seen on the bridge of the "U" shaped ship later in the film would be planets they are engineering in this way This would also take a vast amount of time, so the engineers are clearly in stasis most of the time and rarely active: but when they are, they weild god-like power of creation and destruction Some people think the opening scene takes place before the start of life on earth: that's possible, but i dont think thats most likely: if the engineering of DNA is the prime motive for the engineers, they would want some novel characteristics to come from the process: they are not just seeding these planets to be what already exists: they are interested in creation. So these planets probably already have some life, perhaps even complex life, to justify the engineers investment in them Another question is: where does the star pattern come from in the earth cave paintings? given they are in multiple locations from differing times, this could indicate frequent visits by the engineers. But there is another possible explanation: genetic memory, coming out through the trance and fugue states of shamans and visionaries. The creation of the map, and even the mythological basis for awareness of the engineers, may actually be completely accidental random occurances. If engineers did visit, at least so humans knew about it and not just observe from orbit, it would be to see if their experiment was sufficiently complex yet to be ready for another DNA dissolution: not as some sort of father figures for children, giving us culture and knowledge. The finding later in the film that the engineers were planning a return to earth 2000 years ago would indicate they saw early civilisation, Rome etc as evidence the experiment was ready to go back to the "soup" stage. This would explain the engineers fury when confonted by Weyland etc upon his awakening on the bridge: they are experimental subjects out of confinement, that was never supposed to happen, and in addition to that are weak inferior pygmy like perversions of the engineers own form. He is literally racially revolted by the human prescence. So what happened on the engineer base that wiped them (almost) out 200 years before prometheus arrives That is was a disaster was obvious, a disaster without which humanity would already be extinct. The engineers lost control of their own technology, that turned against them. The infinate complexity of life defeated their power of control Well let us assume that the sealed chamber with the urns was 1 chamber of many on the base. Its the one the prometheus crew opened by virture of chance and curiosity about the half body cut in two by the door closing We have seen the black liquid dissolves the enginner into earths eco system when he drinks it. But this isnt the only thing it could do If a life form from another eco-system was dissolved in the liquid, the result would be a liquid containing the potential of that eco systems genetic development Therefore, what is actually in the urns in that chamber? and why the pictoral representation of the geno-morph form on the wall? I believe the urns in this chamber represent samples from the eco-system on which the geno-morphs first evolved as a response to the engineers experiments. They are stored lab samples and base-lines for an ongoing experiment... and that many other chambers represent the same for many other lifeforms from many other planets What then happened? What was the accident? I believe the geno-morph liquid retained self-awareness, and was able to pass through the atomic structure of the urns and breach the engineers containment... they bred a life form so devestating, driven with such a pure survival instinct, that its raw essence was able to (almost completely) destroy them. And of course, it also seals the fate of the Prometheus I hope you enjoy these thoughts:)