Boardroom

Prometheus mission was an old man's last resort for longer life. I believe there will be no rescue team at all. Yutani will try to join Weyland Industries as soon as they can, and I'm guessing that's just what will happen. Money talks. Plus, no Vickers on Earth to run daddy's companie. So we pretty much know what comes next in the storyline: "Industrial merger"

This brings to mind a comment I made many, many months ago, now - oh, those pre-release days of bright-eyed and innocent anticipation..... What I said, then, may have a significant bearing on your principal assumption, here: Who's to say that the Board have any idea, at all? It's a secret mission and, furthermore, it's Peter Weyland's [i]personal[/i] secret mission - [Peter Weyland being at the head of the most significant and powerful Corporate enterprise Planet Earth has ever known]? I would have thought it quite easy for a man like that to hide and/or bury just about anything he pleases from the visibility of his own Board - and it strikes me that one of the best ways to make sure a secret stays secret is to tell as close as it's possible to come to, "no-one". The burying of things is hardly ever absolute, nor is it very often absolutely permanent but, with the initial effort well enough made and with significant enough resources at his disposal, I'd imagine a man like Peter Weyland could quite well find a way to maintain the secret of a mission and its complete failure, regardless of the cost, even from his own Company - maybe with an effectiveness that could last as much as nearly 40 years. That might even be the [i]easy[/i] part - and it would account for the fact that, [in Story terms], what they actually appear to do for the nearly 40 years between the events of Prometheus and the events of Alien: is absolutely not one thing... In that light, I have in my mind that, for about 40 years, they have not a clue in their heads - and when they do get an idea, it's really only splintered fragments.

I've discussed before that this SPECIAL WEYLAND COVERT PROJECT might have been organised after the decade-ago announcement of Weyland's (for tax purposes?) [b]death[/b]... this is a Corporate Universe still wide open. No? Maybe [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/9186]Paradise is already in the can[/url]?

What?

As the mission was funded according to the Weyland Website with monies from private Investors, the government, and Weyland Industries. It would be difficult to keep it a secret. You have contractors, recruitment video's, suppliers, and an ever expanding circle of contributers that donate time, labor, and intel to a mission of this stature. If the viral campaign is indeed canon associated with Prometheus then this PROMETHEUS PROJECT was so highly publicized it stands to reason that not only would the people of the expanded population of terran colonists be interested, so would rival corporation Yutani as well as the press. However considering what little the crew of the Nostromo knew about the Zeta Ret system, I'd say the historical significance of Prometheus was lost somewhere in the commerse of the 23rd century. That's an even bigger mystery than anything presented in Prometheus.

@Ghost Solitare Hm. This is exactly why I didn't refer to any of that stuff. To be quite honest, it sickens me. I think it might be mistaken to confuse all this supporting Marketing folderol with the actual Story, [or even[i] an[/i] actual Story...] - although I can understand how and why that could be done, because this stuff, in its conceit, tremendously confuses the issue and the distinction between what is the actual Story and what is some slick associated Marketing for a film - and I'm not even sure whoever produced it is exactly clear themselves. Not one bit of it is actually in the Story as filmed, of itself - I think it obvious that, for the large part, it is clearly just Marketing: but, it also clearly relates to the Story as filmed and may or may not be drawn from, or based on, or directly inform the Story, as filmed. Or does it?... That aside, I just don't think it scans that a mission of this nature, organised by a man of this nature would be in any way, "highly publicized", and if that was the interpretation they want to convey to us, then what fools they are. However, from what I can remember, I don't think it is. I think you've misinterpreted it a little - the, loosely-defined [i]Project[/i] may be public, but I the actual [i]Mission[/i] and it's specifics, are Classified. [i]Government[/i] investment? Are you sure about that? As for Private Investors: they need not be given a clear or exact idea, or even an actually true idea of what they are actually investing in, nor where, exactly, the money is going - and they may not even care. Weyland could be as good as a guarantee - what the Hell do they care what it's for? All they may well care about is being in at the ground floor, certain they'll get a return, based on Weyland's historic performance. And it's very, very easy to keep a secret if you have the resources, that rival Nations, and the need or desire to make it so... One day in 1988, the words, "Stealth Bomber", entered the public vocabulary - but it had actually existed, being conceived, designed, manufactured, flown and deployed, in secret: over the decades, previously. The reasons for thousands of people involved in such an endeavour keeping their mouths shut and often not being completely clear on what they are actually contributing to making would be slightly different for Prometheus, but the principles involved remain the same.