Let's Pretend That The Crew of the Prometheus Was Competent

funkopotamus

MemberOvomorphJune 11, 20121959 Views16 Replies

Having seen the film and having read (and agreed here and there) with reviews which identified one of the film's weaknesses (among many strengths) as the inexplicably incompetent behavior of its crew and passengers, how do you think the film could have been advanced if the crew of the a trillion dollar flagship scientific vessel and its passengers (presumably the most accomplished individuals in their fields equipped with the best educations and technology that the Earth of 2093 could provide) were actually doing their jobs. This includes Vickers, of course, whose job, by her own description, was to insure that other people were doing their jobs...or whatever. One of my favorite parts of Alien was the suggestion that the crew of the Nostromos were, largely, blue collar guys who knew their shit and used whatever tools they could scrounge to fight a far superior enemy. I mean to say, they came off as competent professionals way out of their depths, not rollicking fucktards making every possible mistake. Assumption: These Guys Know What They Are Supposed to Know. Let's assume that our android isn't going around opening doors without any sort of preliminary scanning and that our archaeologists (being familiar with tomb excavations) are aware of the dangers of disrupting an enclosed environment. Let's assume that our xeno-geologist has actually worked underground and is not easily frightened or spatially disoriented. Let's assume that our biologist (xeno-biologist, i assume) is not ever, ever, ever going to walk away from the first extraterrestrial remains ever discovered or attempt to hand-feed an unknown life-form. Let's assume that Holloway isn't going to be so depressed at the discovery of a thousand lifetimes that he decides to get depressingly drunk. Hell, let's assume that our android isn't going to unleash an unknown pathogen into the crew. In short, let's just assume that they know their fields of expertise and are, due to pre-screening or (in the case of david) pre-programming, the most psychologically well-balanced individuals in their respective fields encountering the most important discovery in the history of human exploration with the best equipment that humanity has to offer. How would the film be improved? Changed?

BH
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June 11, 2012

Those are AWESOME points. Despite the idiocracy of the human crew, at least David's motives could be described as driven by hidden corporate agendas to which we were never properly exposed. Also, wouldnt they have better weapons 90 something years from now? How many shots should it have taken to kill the mutated crewman? Maybe in addition, they are also horrible marksmen.

aliceayers
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June 11, 2012

I don’t think this is a question of crew incompetence, with perhaps the exception of the one you left out: Vickers inexplicably having sex with the Captain and leaving no one to monitor the two geologists they’ve left behind. ??? whaaaat? Your issues are mostly just script issues. David was not malfunctioning or incompetent. Holloway being drunk really had no effect on anything. David wanted to test the black goo organism on a crew member that had been exposed already. There could be a million different ways to write that in the script. In other words: the fact that Holloway was drunk did not directly and exclusively lead to him being infected. The two left behind: yeah it was a little silly to have them wander away because they didn’t want to mess with the dead alien, but it’s certainly not unheard of (see: every other Alien film) and again, it was just a device to have them stranded alone in the cave overnight.

grub
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June 11, 2012

If the crew of the Prometheus was competent, we'd be confusing them with the crew of the Nostromo. :)

spacyfreak
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June 11, 2012

Well, i think weyland industries LEARNED a lot about that diletant behavior of the "specialists" on prometheus, and as we saw in ALIEN, they delivered, as the ALIEN crew was much more competent/routine, and (whats the main aspect) the Alien Crew was AUTHENTIC. You feeled like you are one of them sitting around the breakfast table and doing some jokes... So if you want to see a better crew, watch ALIEN again. Haha.

spacyfreak
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June 11, 2012

By the way... some words on this MEDI-DOCTOR Crewmember (this woman, i did even forget her name, but i dont need to know it again...Toyota..Mercedes...BMW... FORD??? FORD!!!). When Shaw smashed her lying on medicine station, and then shaw went to medi-pot to cut that baby out, what did this actress medi-doc do? We dont know. But some minutes later, she joint the lil diner-walk to the engineer and was 1. not injured by the hit (with some metal tool) from shaw 2. she had no problem with shaw, who some minutes before did hit her had Really dumb point AT DAMN ALL!

PickleGuy
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June 11, 2012

All of your points are valid - but unfortunately, we don't have time to document 15,000 hours of painstaking archaelological process. It's a movie - meant for the masses - which, again unfortunately, generally have below-average intelligence and zero patience. So yeah.... it's a movie dude......

funkopotamus
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June 11, 2012

bullshit. all the people in Alien were competent. All the people in Bladerunner were competent. It could have happened here, too. So... Day One: Crew arrives. There are six hours of daylight remaining. Crew accepts Captains reccommendation to wait until morning of the next day to disembark, using that time to conduct long-range scans on the surrounding area. Day Two: Crew prepares initial expedition, discovers that, somehow, there is a minor infestation of worms in the area of the cargo-hold, near the away suits. This area is thereafter decontaminated. Day Three: First Expedition. A Breach is discovered in the temple exterior. No lights or activity are visible within. Geologist releases his puppies. Away team returns to the Prometheus as a comprehensive 3-D map of the temple begins to take shape. Day Seven: Having carefully examined the map of the interior, the scientists now know that the temple complex is surprisingly vast and contains, partially, an earth-like atmosphere. one puppy is pinging intermittent detection of a lifeform. It is determined that a full-expedition should proceed to this area. Security personnel, noting the odd absence of communication, recommend that an armed compliment accompany the away team. This recommendation is carefully vetted and approved. Day 8: Upon entering the temple, they proceed to the targetted area. Although there appears to be an earth-type atmosphere, all members are required to use breathing aparatus. En route, they discover several panels with what appears to be identifying markings. The archaeologists are overjoyed to have their first look at an Alien language. These panels are carefully imaged for later examination. Suddenly, David inexplicably presses a button on one panel. He is immediately deactivated and returned to the prometheus for diagnostic review and repair.

funkopotamus
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June 11, 2012

Aliceayers, I see what you're saying, but I think it's wrong. Let's pretend that the script actually wants us to believe that Holloway is one of our planets premier archaeologists/anthropologists/whatever. What would you expect him to be doing on the night after he first explores the most extraordinary archaeological/anthropological find in human history? A. Furiously studying the linquistic cues, architectural elements, images and other bits of that find and rejoicing in the scientific process. or B. Getting drunk because he couldn't talk to his "maker" and tossing pool balls around the table before boning his research assistant. And, yeah, you're right, it IS a script thing. Holloway could have just as easily become infected by being freaking smart and inquisitive...competent...as he could have by being a sentimental jerk. And it would have been consistent with the description of his character. The point is that, instead of just flinging characters around the room in order to drive the plot, a decent writer could have actually used characters to form the story and not the other way around. Think about another Prometheus...Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus". Frankenstein didn't screw himself up by being passive and sad and horny. He basically grabbed the god concept by the ears and face-raped it into utter catastrophe!!! That's what this film COULD HAVE BEEN.

artyoh
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June 11, 2012

Someone please tell me everything you know, about the backstories/ motivations of the crew of the Nostromo........that is, [i]everyone, but Ripley[/i]. *cue Jeopardy music*

turc1656
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June 11, 2012

@PickleGuy [i]"It's a movie - meant for the masses - which, again unfortunately, generally have below-average intelligence and zero patience."[/i] actually...the masses, by definition, have average intelligence. you can't have your entire data set being generally below the average. just saying...LOL.

tuvok
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June 11, 2012

"I don’t think this is a question of crew incompetence, with perhaps the exception of the one you left out: Vickers inexplicably having sex with the Captain and leaving no one to monitor the two geologists they’ve left behind. ??? whaaaat? Your issues are mostly just script issues." That's true, I was really pleased as I thought that she was a villain and she did that on purpose to sabotage the expediction

Hadley's Hope
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June 11, 2012

[u]"Day Two: Crew prepares initial expedition, discovers that, somehow, there is a minor infestation of worms in the area of the cargo-hold, near the away suits. This area is thereafter decontaminated."[/u] Do you think that the worms in the temple were EARTHworms, rather than actually being dormant in the gravel of the temple floor, until somebody opens the door, thus rousing / reviving them from their long sleep? Is that why their heads look like the Weyland corporate logo, cos they came from Weylands ship?

Hadley's Hope
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June 11, 2012

[u]Let's assume that our biologist (xeno-biologist, i assume) is not ever, ever, ever going to walk away from the first extraterrestrial remains ever discovered or attempt to hand-feed an unknown life-form.[/u] This is not supposed to be incompetence. This is meant to be the surface narrative being screwed with by the spooky mythology layer of the story. Milburn was [size=200]doomed.[/size] Kind of like that office in The Overlook Hotel, that from the inside has a window to the outside world, but viewed from the lobby it can't possibly be at the edge of the building.

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June 11, 2012

The most important fact about this movie has been discussed; the lack of a true character driven story.

Mellyrel
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June 16, 2012

Damon Lindelof said that it was a sure bet that Holloway would go and shag his GF after getting drunk and therefore impregnating her. A sure bet that his plot required the characters to act OUT of character. It makes no sense that Holloway would get drunk. why is it a sure bet they would have sex? Shaw was not having the best day and might not have felt like it. it seems a major part of the plot was heavily dependent on 2 characters doing something just because the plot required it. that is lame Lindelhof also admits he stole lines from laurence of arabia because he is too lazy to write his own dialogue. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1687022/prometheus-secrets-damon-lindelof.jhtml

Mellyrel
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June 16, 2012

the expedition crew walking into the pyramid structure without using the scanning tool first is the equivalent of Ripley in Aliens not only asking for the blueprints of the structures on LV-426 but then saying 'ok so we have a map but lets ignore it' Having the tools to map the structure and not using them prior to entering a MASSIVE structure ON FOOT is ridiculous. By the way the antechamber containing the vessels where they discovered the alien head was not part of the ship, it was part of the structure on the planet for storing the 'virus'. when the geologist and biologist (ie. cheech and chong) were wandering around aimlessly they discovered another door with piled up engineers-I think this was the door to the ship which they were trying to enter to get away from whatever it was they created.