Spaiths on Prometheus

God, I'm so happy that movie never came to be! So many reasons: The David character was terrible. The whole 'spectrum' thing and using Engineer lenses to see is just laughable. Also, it was just another Alien film, lacking ALL of the mystery and depth added in rewrites. So, in conclusion, thanks for the med-pod scene, and that's about all!! (You should watch with writer commentary and see how bitter the guy is!!! Seriously, every scene he starts off with "in my original draft...")

Well I would be a bit pissed off if some took parts the made sense like not taking helmets off and turn it into one of the biggest turds of a scene ever seen in film history lol. I agree it wasn't amazing his script but at least everything pretty much made sense unlike the final result. But yer prefered the engineer route but that was already in there just not enough of it.

Well, actually, Holloway takes his helmet off in the original draft and stupidly falls down a shaft, exposing himself to a waiting facehugger; so you can thank Spaights for the helmet removal as well.

Thanks for posting the link to the interview. It is clear from what spaihts says that it was NOT ridley's intention to move away from the xeno. That came from the studio . Might it be that lindeloff 's inclusion was the studio's idea and not ridley's ? Fascinating because this might indicate that prometheus wasn't exactly what ridley wanted. Thanks for posting.

Erm no flesh Holloway falls down a shaft which breaks his helmet - massive difference. Ones believable the others not. I seem to remember something about lindelof flipping it from 30 70 xeno to the other way round and I'm pretty sure ridley said he loved the idea. But I may be wrong.

Could be. But coming from spaihts that's pretty tight for me. He is not into ambiguity . That's lindeloff . I for one believe spaihts. But as you said I could be wrongh also . But somehow I feel spaihts is telling the truth . This in terms of the xeno . As for the sj ....

Why do people give a flying F to why Holloway takes his helmet on and off who cares its just a scene showing that the pyramid has an atmosphere intact. People are just criticizing something that a human being will do we do stupid things okay no matter if its a movie or real scientific expeditions. Spaihts draft sucked OKay end of story he lacked anything about an Engineers movie b/c thats what its about not about dumb xenomorphs running around like chickens with their heads cut off killing everything. His draft made too much sense come on people do you want mystery or everything fed to you. BTW Hollloways character persona was that of a brash young not thinking about consequences and such, thats who he was, he did dumb things for shock value.

It bit him in the butt this time thats all. He liked to show off to people then again so did Milburne he tried to show off for Fifield who didnt like him from the beginning but they ended up in a very effed up situation with the Hammerpedes.

The argument is the stupidity of actually choosing to take your helmet off on an Alien planet at all. Its unbelievable, just like smoking pot in a pressure suit. I like the idea of an accidental broken helmet, however it shouldnt matter as a face hugger can break through a helmet as we saw in Alien. I just wish the actual creatures looked more Gigeresque and less fleshy (and believable size. They were too removed from the beautiful dark biomechanical creations which we have come to love.

Anuk I think people love mysteries and a touch of ambiguity (such as we saw in alien) they just don't like nonsense. Its all about suspension of belief - the moment its broken the film loses all its power and that was a big breaker. Even if you were able to look past it which I haven't met many that can (not in this forum) then why would all the others follow him lol! Its bloody obvious what it was all about: Ridley wanted the helmets off - it adds tension it also better for shots - ie seeing emotions - getting up close n personal etc. he asked lindelof to devise a way of doing this but sacrificed believable story telling to get to it. This sort of thing constantly happens in films the good ones do what they want and get the story to be believable the bad ones mess it up like this. Let me just add another thought that allot of people seem to skip that like this scene : they say "its ok they scanned the air so they knew it was safe" well they didnt pick the black goo up on the scanners - I'd call that a bit dangerous no?! Or the sparkly goo on the control pannel which looked preetty biological!! Or the engineer in his pod! So basically they knew a bit about what was in that particalar room and even then not much - they had no idea hat was round the corner etc. its not just stupid taking the helmets off - it just would never happen full stop and if you believe it would your probably allot like holloway :D Lol...hmm maybe that is it. The fifield n millhouse stuff was more believable too - they mentioned they thought the suits were indestructible that was why they were not scared of the hammerpeade. The film version just sucked balls - the suits looked like they were made from paper and no explanation for why they wanted to play with a 8ft long evil looking alien they had no idea what it could do siiigh...

"Why do people give a flying F to why Holloway takes his helmet on and off who cares its just a scene showing that the pyramid has an atmosphere intact" Agreed, its pretty sure the Engineers was using the temple to produce a breathable atmosphere for Humans. Other scenes conflict the need for such clean air for the Engineers well not scenes but screen shots from scenes not shown... i.e Engineer running across LV 223 no Helmet to get to the Lifeboat... And we have to remember that the sensors and David had confirmed it had a atmosphere.. Its not like Holloway went outside and went oh lets take my helmet off.... You see they build the Character of Holloway as a bit of gambler and risk taker, a man who lives on the edge.... Hence his reply to David to how far he would go to get his answers.... and Holloway says Anything and Everything... As far as the movie goes i feel that the Plot about the Engineers being Space Jockeys and creating us is a very good plot and that more should been done to explore the Space Jockey than the Origin of the Eggs... Spaights draft was too Xeno for me, and Lindeloff added some new ideas well evolved Spaights and his draft was not that bad, it was ambiguous but not riddled with plot holes and errors... These mainly came about from last changes and how the movie was cut together and parts rearranged and deleted.

I really liked Spaights screenplay, but it wasn't ambiguous enough, where as Lindelofs version was too ambiguous. I just wish that there would have been more of a balance! The aliens in Prometheus were the opposite to biomechanical, they were more organic, which didn't work for me. They should have struck a balance there aswell! Biomechanical, but not too biomechanical. More like the original facehugger, but not too much like the original facehugger. They failed to deliver on that score. Whenever I watch Prometheus, I can only watch upto the part with Shaw in the medpod, giving birth to the squid, after that I have to turn it off because it gets so cheesy! Even the part where David comes across the engineer in cryosleep is a eye rolling moment for me. Everything upto that point is excellent though.

Dave its nothing to do with the atmosphere being breathable that was pretty much all they knew. It was viruses microbes bacteria shit we never seen before -booby traps etc. Etc. Black goo maybe? Lol! Stuff just round the corner - they clearly did not know what was around the corner! Did u not read my last post. And the most basic frigging rule when finding a place like this is don't contaminate it! Once u have done that you fek up most scientific studies on it after that even the public know this! You wouldn't be able to tell what was there already or came from us. I just thought it was just like iraq except the opposite there really were wmds :p .

lol oh yeah that was on little gripe, that yes you can never know what foreign viruses or other contaminants could be around... Again though i think Holloway was a risk taker and would done so anyway... But yes i guess we have to wonder why no others aired caution even after Holloway took his Helmet off, instead we just here them call him a Crazy B£$%"£ and they then take theirs off...

Djame, You're right about Holloway. Still, i am not the hugest fan of the draft. Re: Holloway, Millburn, and other "stupid" behaviour: It's a little silly when watching a movie to say we can swallow Ancient Ripped Greek God Aliens, Mutant Hammerpede Worms, Xenomorphs, human creation by means of disintegrated said Aliens, just to name a few; but we can't accept that one or two people- in the craziest, most adrenaline-fueled moment of their lives- might make a bad call. Stupid behaviour doesn't mean stupid writing. It's no coincidence the guy who happens to bring up Darwinism dies an obvious 'Natural Selection' death. Holloway removing his helmet; dumb? Sure. But sort of Brave and could be viewed as simply daring, or thrill-seeking. Personally, i thought it was sort of beautiful, even inspiring. Obviously the other characters did too.

"It's a little silly when watching a movie to say we can swallow Ancient Ripped Greek God Aliens, Mutant Hammerpede Worms, Xenomorphs, human creation by means of disintegrated said Aliens, just to name a few; but we can't accept that one or two people- in the craziest, most adrenaline-fueled moment of their lives- might make a bad call." The problem is that we know what people are like because we are them :P and this is set in our future in our universe so this is why it gets analysed in so much detail. We don't know anything about engineers of course in real life so that's why that side of things doesn't get quiet so picked upon although of course they do have to follow the rules of a realistic film set in our universe of course still. And it wasn't just that one event that was them acting stupid lets face it it was all the way through which makes me think it was bad film making decisions. And yes of course I know it was meant to be thrill seeking it just still did not seem realistic especially with all of them doing it so easily. These guys are clearly not retarded and I can only think that you would have to have to be immensely stupid (like handicap level) and have zero knowledge of archaeology or science to even come close to doing that which is basically the opposite of who they were supposed to be! "Holloway removing his helmet; dumb? Sure. But sort of Brave and could be viewed as simply daring, or thrill-seeking. Personally, i thought it was sort of beautiful, even inspiring." You find it beautiful that Holloway just contaminated to greatest find in human history and if it was a real situation probably would of died in a few minutes and got the whole crew killed or near to it? Whoa. But of course the film would be over then so they had to keep it going thus plunging into even more unrealism... :( Anyway I know some people will never change there minds on all this but for me its like looking a a Christian that thinks the earth is 10000 years old when I know full well from scientists its much much more arghhhh! You just wanna shake em :D !

What a condescending comparison. Do you think you're really the first Genius to pass on this wisdom. "Taking your helmet off is dumb!" Ya, we know guy. I happen to be a person as well, and i can tell you that people are stupid and act accordingly most of the time.

Anyway, Prometheus is a masterpiece, and maybe you're right. I would look the other way on one or two things because this movie is an epic experience, and for me; a modern, dark fairytale... It should be taken as such, in my humble, shake-worthy opinion.

Yes its good if you can enjoy it. And I do enjoy some bad films using the let it go type argument. But prometheus was an amazing idea that I had been waiting for for ages made by my all time favourite director. Its not about it being a dumb thing to do its about making it believable that he and the others would do such a thing - there is a difference! And the other thing is one or two things like this and it is easier to let go but there were tons of them. Anyway yes most of its been talked about. Just saying my piece. And I do still hold hope for the next one but if it's more of the same I fear it may fizzle out. Anyway with new writers I think it'll be different. ..oh yer and all the dumb ones are dead now. Just hope they don't add more in later!

*All the dumb ones are dead now* Very true. But I get the feeling that there are more to come. There are lots of different kinds of dumb, and human fallibility seems a pretty strong theme here. Brace yourself.