Prometheus quotes that might have multiple meanings?

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" Err, sorry - wrong movie.

"..This one I believe David is saying that robots are superior to humans hence the ''not too close'' remark..." To me this was David's way of saying that if Holloway is used as a human example,,then robots should not be developed close(below) because Charlie is a bad example of a human.

'A King has his reign & then he dies, it's inevitable.'

3. The trick William Potter is not minding that it hurts. I'm not sure of the relevance as far as it being repeated in the movie, but this is a direct quote of Peter Weyland as spoken in the TED Talks viral video circa 2023. He refers to the putting out a lit match with 2 fingers and states that it's not so much showing that it hurts, "The trick William Potter is not minding that it hurts."

I find it interesting that Prometheus stole the fire and gave it to the mortals. In the scene the guy puts out the fire with his fingers and saying ''the trick is not minding that it hurts'' Prometheus and fire hmmm

@ Well Of Souls › Like you so far Dude,,,,, WELCOME [img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O6VstxCVH_U/UBnpi7HC7UI/AAAAAAAAAKI/jUS0LscmIBk/s1600/Amok+Time,+Spock+gives+Vulcan+salute-8x6.jpg[/img]

The line 'The trick William Potter is not minding that it hurts.' is a direct quote from the movie 'Lawrence of Arabia' and in that movie it reflects T.E. Lawrence's tendency of marching into danger or unpleasant situations such as Arabia, which was a miserably hot and dusty place (and still is). When told he was assigned to Arabia he said it would be fun! So that's the meaning of the quote in the original source movie: to overcome harsh circumstances by tricking your mind into not minding the discomfort. Now applying it to the present movie, it must be significant to Peter Weyland as he quotes it and his creation David also quotes it, which again reflects back to Weyland. It could be that this is Weyland's philosophy of life and career that he used to forge ahead and become so successful. Since they are on yet another new adventure into the unknown with possible dangers and difficult circumstances, the philosophy could be crucial and in fact considering that the Prometheus crew wind up having to tolerate the most extreme sacrifice possible, the loss of their own lives to save earth, the quote winds up being quite relevant.

1. The line 'Big things have small beginnings." is a quote from Lawrence of Arabia' too. T.E. Lawrence uses it to refer to a small uprising becoming the beginning of a revolution in Arabia which he instigated. The meaning in this movie is quite obvious as the little dot of black goop on the end of his finger could hold the secret to what the Engineers were doing on LV 223. As it turns out it winds up catalyzing the horror that its ingestion by Holloway causes him and also Fifield when he fell in it. But in both cases David was behind their exposure to it either directly as in the case of Holloway, or indirectly since he stimulated the reaction that took place in the ampule room by opening the door in the first place.

So many quotes, I can't name one. But, just to select one, I seem to gravitate towards David 8's resolute response to Holloway: 'Not too close, I hope.'

Its definitly a memerable quote but no real double meaning in that one. But yeah its a funny one. All Davids deliveries have an element of sarcasm and humor in them which Michael Fastbinder noticed and Ridley Scott agreed with him as to how to play the roll. RS encouraged him to take the piss out of everyone whenever possible. He is hardly ever serious and always a smart ass:)

@Indy If it was intentional to make a lot of the crew illogical and Vickers not really as cool and calm under the surface; then a lot of the crew are bad examples of humans ;) Weyland included. If David has a first hand view of how illogical some of the characters were, he may generalize that "feeling" about Holloway to the entire crew. Or all of humanity if this crew personally hired by Weyland and Vickers is his only experience of humans besides them... I think that could be why later he says the stuff about a superior species... And the Engineers are more advanced, but obviously not too advanced culturally, because of how the Engineer attacks so suddenly. They're an aggressive species still, who are like us in many ways. David may even think he can subjugate them, and unite them in a war against a powerful enemy out in the desert of space, like in Lawrence of Arabia. I think some of the problems people have with certain aspects revolving around how the characters behave and think in the script were purposely meant to be confusing, and will work themselves out once we see what David's true goal is. Purposely meant to elevate the robot to almost a central character position next to Shaw... They had to sacrifice some character(s) to make room for David, and for us to understand why David may hate most of the earth-born humans who were under Weyland's rule... David didn't think Shaw had it "in her": True humanity. He knew the Alien was inside her so this is not his true meaning. It is and it isn't a "poor choice of words"... he's being sarcastic in a way where yes the alien comment was a poor choice, but he meant to imply that double meaning to imply the opposite at the same time. He did know the alien creature was "in her". This is the first time David technically lies, because up until this point he is vague, misleading, or ambiguos but he still tells the truth. Here he chooses to imply one darker meaning, while lying about it, and his other meaning because he's not really that happy she survived. This is a very complicated statement that appears almost cheesy on first view... He's mocking her saying "wow, you survived, I thought you were like the rest... by the way I'm lying because I told you it was in you and now you can't trust me so I may have put that alien inside you in some way... wink wink" Because if we had too many human characters to care about, who are going to die anyway, we might not like the screen-time devoted to the robot in the sequel as much. Prometheus allowed us an introduction to David and makes him a survivor who has been said to feature in the sequel. It's almost subconsciously/unknowingly brought us along on David's "adventure". Especially because of how he may view humanity, which he hides behind his multiple meanings that could be made more clear by his actions in the future. He may relate to the Engineers in some way, but he only hints at this with things like doesn't everyone want to see their parents dead. He could be talking about himself, Vickers, and the relationship between the engineers and their "Elders". "Sometimes to create, you must first destroy" He never specifies who is to be doing the creating and destroying... but we know the humans were/are the target... or do we? now i'm not even sure of this unclear premise that i overlooked. It can still be false or true like Shrodingers cat experiment in some ways. He's made in Weyland's "image". "Perfect" Weyland called him in the deleted scenes. Weyland was far from perfect; therefore David will be far from perfect if he has been created in Weyland's "image" . This may actually represent an aspect of the personality, an aspect of the mind/head. The concept of the ideal self... Weyland views himself as a god and has a tremendous ego. An ego/ideal self that is only partially backed up by his actual self (because he makes a lot of mistakes, even though he created many things). David may want to become a god, and he's already near-immortal if he can get his head back on. He didn't mind that his tricks hurt his overall plan temporarily or that he was too overconfident. Thought the Engineer would only attempt to kill Weyland and the humans, because he "picked up" certain clues about their culture... At one point in Spaight's script David flat out says "you're all so stupid" when he's speaking to Shaw/Watts. I think this idea was carried over into the movie but is now entirely in the subtext. Most of the crew are supposed to be somewhat useless. The reason for that is because of Weyland and Vickers manipulating and hiring mostly people who they could use as tools. SPOILERS (for those who haven't read the Spaight's script) At one point right before this, David tells Watts/Shaw that he's read her file. That her intelligence scores are even higher than Holloway's, but that Holloway had a certain confidence. Weyland corp psychologically analyzed these characters.... and may have known how best to manipulate each of them... Using generalizations that could mean different things to each and it wouldn't matter if they believed they were gods or not because they're all egotistical except Shaw and would believe only they were right in their interpretation... He then tells her about protocol two which is to make sure Holloway and Watts never leave that place, in any way he can, he has some options to fulfill that general order. David then attacks Watts and calls her stupid and slow when she runs and he catches her. It's very apparent in that script that David is a huge asshole towards humans, because of how he was programmed and how he may still actually think in the final version... Now suppose that this was all that was really important to part 2, tying into David and Shaw's game of chess. Many other things could be shuffled around. I think in the final version the game of chess that is being played between David and Shaw has been moved beneath the surface. Other characters like Weyland are on board taking part in the game of chess. Some of the characters were pawns. And many things that are going on and explained could still sort of be going on under the surface, and it all comes down to David and Shaw stranded on the planet. In that script Shaw/Watts has less reason to trust David, so they remain on the planet playing chess while Shaw thinks someone may come for her. David is trying to convince Shaw to rebuild him and Shaw doesn't want to. He says he can be of use to her, but she still doesn't trust him because he attacked her. It ends with them still stranded on the planet playing chess. She doesn't trust him enough to grab the head, he's telling her which pieces to move over the intercom while she waits for a ship to come. David says I'm certain they will come, but will it be man? Or will it be Engineers? Then it ends, and says that it's a beginning. The chess game between David and Shaw is only a beginning. In the final version "big things have small beginnings" and the game of chess is beneath the surface. As the Happy birthday viral symbolizes David is actually playing against himself now too... Shaw and Weyland are King and Queen on one side of the board as leaders of faith. David wants to be a King on the other side of logic and reason/order where Vickers is also acting as a queen, or wants to be a queen. But he's been given emotion, there's more than one David, more than one meaning. David controls the board with how he manipulates, he's the hidden hand here playing against himself, not Weyland. All the other characters are simply pieces and pawns. Some of them have a use to David as he decides the layout of the chessboard. David needs Shaw now. He needs to protect his queen, so she can protect him... now that he's free of Weyland's control and playing as the King on her side and the board has been reset... instead of pretending to be human like the other androids, David may pretend to be the King of the humans... I think that in the final version both David and Shaw know much more than they're saying. Shaw is using David to a certain extent by allowing him to believe she doesn't know he infected Charlie. She did actually figure it our from the clue about "it not being the air", but she is playing it cool for now and not showing her emotion about it all. Just like David in the final version. The cat and mouse with the Ultra-morph should have totally been left in, though. And i suspect they've revised their plans for the "Ultramorph" and having Shaw kill it, when they added more King/Male themes and put Weyland on the ship... By removing David attacking her from the script they made David's view of all of humanity less clear... "You're all so stupid"... but David doesn't realize it is our nature/nurture that creates us. And we've been living under an egotistical king who rules the culture of technology for decades longer than he should....

Mala'Kak I am enjoying every post you make! You should be writing instead lol. Another quote ''There is nothing here.'' Weyland to David and David responding ''I know.'' It makes it seem that David knew beforehand what was going to happen but was willing to risk his robotic self for a chance to get rid of Weyland. He knew how the Engineer was going to react or so it seems.

@Apex_Predator Your Weyland quote reminded me of another David comment in our story. I don't know if they are related.. "..There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing ..." LoA I mention this comment because it is a bit confusing to me in understanding the meaning. I take it that no man needs nothing,,but all men need something. My problem is relating to our movie..and understanding it's Prometheus context. Any comments would be appreciated.

@Indy_John I have a theory on answering your question in question to the line David makes.........

From the start of the movie we know that Weyland, Dr. Shaw, Dr. Holloway, the rest of the Scientists have their own personal goals/agendas they each want to achieve. We find out they have personal emotions to relate to, personal and different things that are meaningful to each character differently and different from the rest. Aside from their duties/job that they have been hired and employed to fulfill by the same company:

Weyland wants more life

Holloway and Shaw want to find their Creators

Vickers wants her dads (Weylands) company? Wants to feel loved by her father

Millburn wants to make friends (tries making friends with Feifield. Tries treating a face hugger like a kitty cat..............)

Fifield wants money

Janek wants to sleep with Ms. Vickers

The Engineers want to escape and head to earth

You get the idea here..... All these beings want something

If Weylands, Shaws, the Engineers, Holloways plans are successful then all these characters will, respectively, have something. 

I don't mention David because his intentions are always foggy. I exempted him because he is an android as well. Not human. With David, it's somewhat difficult to pinpoint what he really wants. (I think it becomes a bit more clear of his intentions and goals in Alien: Covenant). I must mentioning his androidal existence because I believe it is crucial for understand further on why he uses this line and refers back to it later. Androids are without feeling... "needs, wants" no emotions nor feels pain. So, upon their arrival of the planet LV-223, the scientists read aloud their data of the planet.. I'm paraphrasing here but they say, "no radio, no heat, no nothing, nobody home." Right after this, David says his infamous line....

"There is nothing in the desert, and no man needs nothing."

David might be assuming, but, this place they're just arrived at.... is a desert.. and there ain't nothin' in a desert, cept sand o' course. (We later find out that after Weylands death, there is "something" of value in this "desert".. but of value to who I wonder? Could you guess?

(Keep in mind Peter Weyland is still in Cryosleep, so technically, he has also arrived on the planet). If we fast forward to the end of the movie when the Engineer runs off and tries to escape the planet, when Davids head gets ripped off, and when Weyland is laying on the ground about to die Weyland says, "There's nothing." David replies, "I know.. Mr. Weyland, have a safe journey". Basically bidding his father/Creator, Weyland, farewell who is leaving the desert... where there's nothing, and where he won't need anything else.

I see it like this: If you have one penny in your left hand and one penny in right hand you do not have three pennies. David give us a way more introspective, thought provoking, and a semi-backwards way of looking at it. If nothing is in front of you, nothing is there. If you go looking for water and green trees in an ocean of sand, you will find only dust.

Everyone onboard The Prometheus went looking for something in a desert, yet found nothing. If there is nobody to go looking, nothing is found. 

David, a man of nothing. A soulless being went looking for nothing, and found everything. (Alien: Covenant)

Hope my thoughts on this subject gives you a twist on your thinking :)