why its NOT a prequel

Prometheus Forum Topic

notaprequel

MemberOvomorphJun 13, 20122086 Views17 Replies

I had to do it. its been driving me nuts the past week trying to wrap my brain around this movie. First off; the planet prometheus lands on (LV223) and the planet the Nostromo lands on (LV426) are two completely different planets. On top of that, each crew discovers a completely different ship, independent of each other in all ways besides appearances, thats why theres no human bodies in the ship in Alien or sign of the wrecked prometheus. Prometheus is not a prequel in the sense that just because there's imagery of xeno's, doesnt instantly tie the two together. you wouldnt say Predator 2 is a prequel/sequel to aliens just because you see an alien and engineers head mounted in the back ground. You should be able to recognize that while they share similar themes, one does not lead to the other. In all reality, there is nothing, besides the Weylend corporation, that connects the two movies. The xeno morph at the end of Prometheus has nothing to do with the rest of the series if we actually think about how it would travel to LV 426, and the fact that the engineer on the Derelict was supposed to be fossilized for thousands of years, so unless this new xeno, dubbed the Deacon, is capable of traveling time and space (my god), it serves no purpose to show us the viewer the birthing period. to me, it was like watching Bladerunner with the harrison ford dubbing; its completely useless if you're paying attention to what happens, but also misguides the viewer into not grasping the beauty of RS's story telling. More logical conclusion would be that there was a mass outbreak among many Engineer outposts/ships that led to collapse of their civilization, to which if theres a prometheus sequel, thats what RS will surely touch on

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BigDave
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BigDaveJune 13, 2012

You make good point with Predator.... because as far as story continuation Predator 2 is not a sequel to Predator as such.... different Predator and not connected to orginal event..... Yes Promethus is set in universe and at a earlier timeline and the events of Prometheus do not directly link to Alien, we do not know 100% for sure if the Decon Xeno leads to Alien Xenos, we would assume its not the case but then its left open as a posibility however very unlikely. We do not know if a Prometheus 2 would lead directly or cover more clues to Alien or if Promethues 3 would. So while yes its a prequel it is not a direct one... not as how Alien links to Aliens which links to Alien 3.

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kcjudo
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kcjudoJune 13, 2012

Well, If you watch the original Alien, the mission of the space marines was to locate the lost ship prometheus. The captain in this movie (prometheus)stated that the people who were there were developing a weapon of mass destruction. At the beginning of the movie you saw one of the "engineers" eat some of that stuff. It destroyed/altered his dna. In the original alien, ripley found out the real reason for the mission was so the corporation could profit from the "biological weapon" that prometheus had found. I am going to watch the original alien tonight because it has been a while, but i am pretty sure that info is correct.

notaprequel
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notaprequelJune 13, 2012

I found it did link with the others timeline wise, its only 30 years before the events of Alien and doesnt do anything that drastically strays from the rest. I feel like the Decon misleads people into thinking the original concept has changed - on the contrary, the creatures and the process, whether its through being impregnated or attacked by facehugger, were shown some more light, and the adaptability of the xeno morphs to survive. Notice in Alien 3, because the facehugger gets a dog, the xeno doesnt appear to be the same as previous ones, but it still resembles the other xenos, therefore, this change in xeno style in the alien franchise has already happened, so people should stop making a big deal out of the xeno's in Prometheus, and instead ask more questions about the engineers. I found there was too much need to fall back on the xeno's rather then explaining some things that we really want to know, like the opening scene or why all our civilizations have similar imagery, or who were the xeno's meant to kill?

Legendary Xenomorph
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Legendary Xenomorph June 13, 2012

Prometheus (too me) is a prequel as it shows the beginning of creation and origins. Prequels can be made into sequels example Star Wars Prequel trilogy. They do not set the events from the original yet but they start of by showing what was it like before the events and how it all began. The Phantom Menace tells the story about theirs was tax and trade crises, jedi council and a boy doing pod racing. It shows what was it like before the Evil Empire, before Darth Vader and before the Clone Wars events. Attack of the Clones tells the event of the beginning clone wars and Revenge of the Sith tells about DV and the Evil Empire. Prometheus tells the story of Origins of Man, The Space Jockeys and the Creation of the Xenomorph. Then we will have the sequels that tells about the events from Alien. It always need to start of how it all began. "Big Things have Small Beginnings"

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CypherJune 13, 2012

kcjudo, what the heck are you talking about? In Alien they were re-routed to check out the "distress" signal the original Derelict was putting out, which turned out to be a warning. NO mention at all of the Prometheus mission. In Aliens, the Marines were sent back to LV-426 to check on the colonists that were there when The Company lost contact with them. Where is everyone getting their smoke from nowadays? Seriously...........

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notaprequel
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notaprequelJune 13, 2012

@Kcjundo; you got your plots, characters and movies mixed up. in Alien, the crew of the mining vessel Nostromo, are awakened to a distress call from LV 426 (though, prometheus never picked that up, i like to think that it was a signal programmed into MOTHER) to which they are just on a search and rescue, with orders to return with a sample. In Aliens Ripley and a bunch of marines return to the planet LV 426 because they lost contact with the colony, because they had been attacked by the xenos when they searched the wreckage of the Derelict after receiving company orders to. They mention anything on Prometheus, although, i assume that if you spend a bunch of money on a research vessel that contains the founder of your corporation, most likely, they would end up sending a reconnaissance mission to find out what happened. PLUS like i stated, the ship the crew of the prometheus finds IS NOT the same ship Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo finds.

notaprequel
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notaprequelJune 13, 2012

@Legendary Xenomorph; .......WHAT? i dont know if you remember, but that boy in the pod racer is Darth Vader!! clearly, duh, THAT was a prequel! if you're actually reading what i wrote, its clear that none of the characters, neither the humans, engineers, ships, or even xeno morphs, are ever alluded to or shown in any of the other alien movies, and just because they share similar elements, much like with the predatory series, it doesnt make it a prequel/sequel, unless they make another prometheus.

notaprequel
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notaprequelJune 13, 2012

JesperJotun
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JesperJotunJune 13, 2012

@ notaprequel, I would completely agree with you based on your definition of a prequel. PROMETHEUS is not a direct sequel, nor was it ever advertised as one lol. Scott said as much in nearly every single interview he made, so he himself did not misrepresent his own film. The trailers did that unfortunately. The original trailer is almost shot for shot a recreation of the original ALIEN trailer. Therefore people MADE those connections because we had similar enough set pieces and allusions to already established ALIEN canon that people made the following assumptions: - The ship is the one from LV426 - The movie would link back to ALIEN at the end - The Space Jockey in the pilot's seat was the one from LV426 - Weyland Corp is the company behind the mission I went in knowing that it wasn't a direct prequel, but was surprised at how many similarities and connections to ALIEN it contained, and came away feeling that it's CONNECTED but not directly linked lol. For which there's enough evidence to write a book on. But seeing as how it takes place before ALIEN, it can be considered as such, but it is a different viewpoint on a different part of the mythos. Predator 2 is a good example, it's a sequel, but its only connection is the Predator creature, but it's still a part of the same universe and we all accept that. Whether its a good movie is a WHOLE 'nother discussion haha.

Legendary Xenomorph
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Legendary Xenomorph June 13, 2012

Prequels are set in the same universe but set years before the events from the original. That makes a prequel because of the timeline but also they take the elements from the original (the chair, space jockey and xenomorphs) because they play as a important role for the prequel to connect to the original. Example: The Thing 1982 it shows a dog chased by a helicopter, burned corpse and the destroyed base. These are elements that were never explained or what or how it happened. The Thing 2011 it shows the helicopter, the corpse, the base and then at the end the dog. These are to show you how it happened days before the original and that shows how these elements help the prequel to connect with original. Without them it would still be a prequel but with a different story example Star Wars: The Old Republic Yes I know the boy is Darth Vader I just didn't think people get exaggerated when they know who he is.

notaprequel
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notaprequelJune 14, 2012

@jesperJotun; i 100% agree, and thanks! i went in with a few preconceived notions, to which when i went back to the other series, and realized i was making a lot of assumptions that i couldnt back up. @legendary; but its not a prequel in that sense, like kotor, its a story line of its own that deserves to be seen as separate from the other series. ive been trying desperately to think of a word to describe it, as coinciding within a similar time period of events, but not actually relating in any form to the other events. as JesperJotun points out, it has nothing to do with the actual alien series, so lumping it altogether doesnt pay Prometheus the respect it deserves as a stand alone beautiful piece of science fiction art, nor does it pay any respect to Ridley Scott.

takka_takka_takka
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takka_takka_takkaJune 14, 2012

You're right and most of us knew this way before the movie came out.

dfr867
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dfr867June 14, 2012

I stumbled across this link and had to chime in.... My wife and I saw the movie and began a conversation about how this could link to Alien. Here's something we came up with... Prometheus lands on Planet LV 223. This in fact is not the same planet that the crew of the Nostromo lands on (LB426). Two facts that happen in the movie made us contemplate where the "series" could go or what might fill in the blanks...first of all the first attack shows the Hammerpede entering Milburns mouth and the other is burned by acid. When the crew goes out to search for the two missing men, they only find the one that was burned. They never found the other (hence what happened to that metamorphosis and was it still on the ship or on the planet?). Second, at the end of the movie Elizabeth Shaw decides she wants to go find the "creators"...that ship leaves for another planet...(LB426?) She then reaches her destination and the planet is devastated by this toxin which, as we see in the last scene of the movie, the product of the "toxin" and the creator is the Alien that we have all come to see through the original movies. There are a hundred ways this could go. I only wonder if this is going to be the only other movie ever linked to the original sci fi Alien series.

Axrix
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AxrixOctober 23, 2012

I know im late to the party having just seen the Movie.But has anyone considered if the creators had made us they made others? It seems likely that they would could have already done the whole create and then destroy to create something else thing before. Maybe the Space Jockey ship on LB-426 was an destroyed ship on a planet that had already been wiped out. Also the deacon Xeno, could have been made from an different batch of the Mutagen that created the xenomorphs. OR even more likely due to the mutagen first infecting Chris and then being "injected" into Shaw caused a serious change in the Life cycle and evolution of the Xeno strain. These are just my thoughts on how it could still be a prequel In Space no one can hear you scream

Pier75
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Pier75October 28, 2012

i'm reading the booklet included in the Alien Anthology dated 2010, and it's RS himself in his introduction "a letter from RS" who states : "...as i prepare to re-enter this world with my upcoming Alien prequel..." . This should clear all doubts.

Visionary Alpha
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Visionary AlphaOctober 28, 2012

In the sense that Prometheus shows what some humans in the same universe and timeline as Alien did before Ripley and the Nostromo, it is a prequel. "An earlier contact with aliens like that", even though the xenos aren't directly in the movie. The story is what takes place that affects us all, that Prometheus is telling.

joeyjoe
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joeyjoeOctober 28, 2012

the whole "prequel" issue is really just a semantic debate. the definition of prequel appears to be somewhat subjective. Clearly, Prometheus takes place in the same fictional universe (in the literary sense) as Alien. Obviously prometheus is not a traditional prequel. However, the events that occurred on LV 223 approximately 2000 years prior to shaw's (et al) adventures on said planetoid (the outbreak etc) DIRECTLY impact the movie Alien. The derelict juggernaut sitting on LV 426 is there precisely because of the outbreak that ran through the engineer facility on LV 223 (again...2000 yrs prior to the exploits of shaw, david, etc.)

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