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godofgsxr
MemberOvomorphSep-25-2012 10:59 PMThis is surely not a new thought but something that struck me as incredibly odd about Prometheus (although I love the film overall) is as follows:
So they spend gobs of money to visit LV-223 & as far as I can tell, landed randomly at one single point of interest, thanks to bootleg Tom Hardy's 6th senses about God not building in straight lines, and yada yada.
Now they proceed to inspect ONE structure, where they indeed find evidence of intelligence and ONE dead engineer (they did not see the corpse pile until later, right?).
And here comes my problem:
If they came to a planet (on an invitation) from our creators; would they not assume the planet is indeed their home? And like earth would have multiple spots of civilization, structures, or at least some intelligent life? (After all the captain later in the film says "this ain't there home" which means they assumed that initially)
And you are telling me after only one day in one specific location they came upon [u]by chance[/u], they all deduce that perhaps all the engineers are dead & at one point Shaw even says "what killed them?"
Which makes me wonder why they did not at least ponder the thought that there could be a plethora of life/structures ELSEWHERE on the planet. Because discovering one corpse in one building on an entire planet and thinking “they are all dead, mission failed, so sad” seems to me just like the famous comparison of scooping up an empty cup of water from the beach & concluding there is no fish in the sea.
I know for theatrical purposes it was meant to be a big revelation when David knew about “many other” ships...but wouldn’t the entire crew assume that on this planet there must be other installations or intelligent life forms to discover?
At one point I think Vickers even says “how much longer will this take” as if they came all that way to check one damn cave & go home with all the answers. Not to mention that if even one engineer was found & talked to, he could still simply be a grunt who doesn’t know shit.
But overall it seems outright insane to think a trillion dollar voyage/crew would not have already assumed they would be searching out several locations on the planet for their answers (especially David or Wayland who only had a few days of life to spare). I may be too hard on this because it is after all fantasy, but the fact there was no crewmember who even brought up the idea that there were thousands of these structures or maybe cities elsewhere, blew me away.
I like rocks I LOVE, ROCKS.
10 Replies
Voidhawk
MemberOvomorphSep-25-2012 11:15 PMAh but it was somewhat addressed in other threads.
Actually David was trying to comunicate with any intelligent culture while on their way, so they did tried to contact them, maybe thinking they were going to meet someone there, but then again it was a Moon...possibly small, and surelly barren, but any planetary body with a living culture would be bristling with energy and signs of intelligence....unless something like in Gurren Lagann series hapened, then every major civilization would be underground...
Whe they arrived they spent some time flying around (not specified how long in the movie) andf they were detecting metal on the surface...
When Holloway saw the road he immediatelly asked for them to fly nearer the spot he saw the road going in and then found the structures (there are 2) so they found it while scouting the moon.
But you know, the most terrible argument here is the star map itself. It is no star map in any sense, just a depiction of 5 celestial bodies in a certain configuration...and with only that they were able to identify their destination??? Absurd!
Have they started the movie with Holloway finding a sunken city (as stated in another thread with the ideas from the original script) with some working data storage, or some kind of plaza in this city with a comemorative monumetnt with actual coordinates they could decipher and follow all right, but the paintings plot trick is really preposterous...
[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/VoidHawk555/CORE-Copy.png[/IMG]
robin50n
MemberOvomorphSep-26-2012 3:10 AMFor me i found it most odd that they 'happened upon' the structures when previous scans showed no life - nothing, but in less than a few mins they had discovered the temples (domes).
I guess it would be a dull movie if the first two hours were just them searching the moon for any clues...
zzplural
MemberOvomorphSep-26-2012 3:41 AMYou're right, robin50n, it would be very dull indeed if they spent an age in the movie scouting for clues.
One of the pilots mentioned that there were "a couple of hard spots - could be metal". The computers identified and indicated the landing site, using edge detection - this was indicated on one of the monitors before Holloway spoke.
@Voidhawk:
I'd give Weyland Corporation the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not it's possible to come up with a list of candidate systems given an assortment of star configurations. Apparently, a lot of money was spent on finding the system in the first place (as intimated by Vickers when she dresses down Shaw and Holloway in her apartment).
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
BigDave
MemberDeaconSep-26-2012 7:19 AM@Voidhawk
Good point and while not the best Astronomer, i could not find a configuration of Stars in Zeta Reticuli or its closest neighbors that matched or came close to the 6 Star Pattern.
The 34 Light Years also does not lead to Zeta Reticuli which is 39 light years away.
Only Stars that are about 34 Light years are.
Beta Geminorum (Gl 286)
HR857 (Gl 117)
Iota Persei (Gl 124)
And looking at the map of those and constellation near them they do not arrange in the same configuration either.
There are other stars around the same distance but they are too small and not powerful/bright enough.
Unless as in the movie they mean they found a Galactic System that matched those Paintings etc... so by that they mean it depicts either 6 planets or a Sun and 5?
For them to match a configuration of planets 34 Light Years away is some needle in a haystack but then planets move around the Sun and so they would only be in that configuration at certain points in time which could be every few thousand years or so etc.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
zzplural
MemberOvomorphSep-26-2012 7:57 AMI'm really keen to get the BluRay or digital download because it was plain as day to me at the cinema that the the starmap on the Prometheus showed LV-223 in the constellation Gemini, completely the opposite side of the sky to Reticulum. Can someone with a digital download please confirm this. I've asked a few times, but nobody seems bothered to actually check.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
BigDave
MemberDeaconSep-26-2012 8:57 AMI dont see Gemini i mean if we separate the way the stars on the Star Map Paintings go or the Hologram when Holloway is talking about the Star Map then if we was to move the distances apart we could match it near enough to a number of star constellations especially if we also rotate it.
Gemini is also half the distance they traveled.
Now it does match closest with Libra but thats again only near 20 Light Years away, it does contain 6 stars though in a configuration when rotated matches the Star Map in Prometheus.
And 3 of them have planets.
[img]http://www.astrologyweekly.com/zodiac-pictures/constellation/libra20.jpg[/img]
If rotated would be similar to.
[img]http://www.geeksofdoom.com/GoD/img/2012/06/12-06-12-prometheus_cave_painting.jpg[/img]
But again not a exact match.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
zzplural
MemberOvomorphSep-26-2012 10:17 AMNo. When Holloway shows the starmap in the briefing room, it shows a close-up of the system, then it zooms out to a very wide angle field. At this point, Orion is (according to my brief look at the cinema) very visible at the bottom-right of the screen. It's one of the most easily recognised constellations in the sky.
The system itself is north west of that, somewhere near Gemini.
Please, someone post a screenshot of that zoomed-out star map.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent
Voidhawk
MemberOvomorphSep-26-2012 10:42 AMLets wait such stills to be posted, but anyway, the thing is there is stellar drift, and surelly they would not mean they were seeing a given solar system for planets move and to show a given static configuration would make it impossible to find them (so no invitation there, just an artist view of their system)
If you want to make it an invitation it must depict the position of Suns or Stellar groups in relation to what they would look as seeing from Earth. That could make it possible to find, but as I am a man of details, those for me are the soul of any creation, if you put them so near Earth the stellar drift could account for a significant change in relative position over time.
Granted they could have used extrapolation algorithms to place the best candidates to what they look like 35.000 years ago in the sky. But then all their paintings should have come to that period or give or take 5000 years timespan, but that is not addressed.
Were they with real, understandable coordinates (they could have been written in cuneiform, sanscrit, whatever!) then ok...but the paintings...poor choice.
The sunken cities and the original ideas where more interesting. And again, someone as Weyland would need a bit more of proof than paintings on Stone Age caves...a deal more of proof...
[IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/VoidHawk555/CORE-Copy.png[/IMG]
Cerulean Blue
MemberFacehuggerSep-26-2012 10:42 AMMy understanding was this movie takes place 80 years from now, and Weyland was already teraforming & mining on other planets? I thought it would be possible we may know more in 80 years about the universe than we do now. If not, we will have bigger problems.
Indy John
MemberOvomorphJan-22-2013 2:28 PM"..may know more in 80 years about the universe than we do now.."
Just reading the space exploration news in today's world doesn't come close to the Weyland accomplishments detailed before our story begins on the Prometheus.
Yes there is Rover on Mars but there has been no hint of mining perations starting up and terra forming activities for human settlements.
So maybe what is needed now is a quickie from the Engineers to get our butts in gear and kick start solar and inter stellar space travel.
Maybe then real humans can catch up to the fictional Weyland timeline.
Be choicelessly aware as you move through life
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