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nPrometheus was one of the most anticipated films of the yearnfor me and many film lovers. A Ridley Scott film, in my opinion is always anmajor event, he is after all one of the most important filmmakers of hisngeneration. As you might have gathered from my review for Prometheus, I lovenRidley Scott films for many, many reasons, still, I have no problems innpointing out a disappointing one if I ever see one. For example, the lastnRidley Scott film to underwhelm me was Robin Hood (2010). I enjoyed it, butnwasn’t floored by it. Though well made, I found it boring. I wasn’t a big fannof G.I. Jane (1997) either. Point is I don’t blindly love Scott’s films. Nonfilmmaker is free of making a dud or two; but Prometheus wasn’t andisappointment in my book. I recognize that it isn’t perfect film though. Somencharacters do pretty stupid things when they should be acting morenprofessionally; like that guy who starts playing with a potentially dangerousnalien life form like it was a cute little teddy bear or something? The idiot! Butncan that scene really be considered a major flaw? Not in my book, there are anlot of idiots out there, that guy happened to be one of them.
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nThe interesting thing about a lot of Ridley Scott’s mostnrecognized films is that at first they weren’t big hits with the masses. Twongood examples are Blade Runner (1982) and Legend (1985); both huge flops whennthey first premiered in theaters. Yet right now they are both considered somenof the best films within their genre. Now here comes Prometheus, again, a filmnthat a lot of people have felt disappointed by. It was not a flop in theaters,nor a failure in the true sense of the word (it’s still making money around thenworld) the problem with it was that even though there was a huge hypensurrounding the film, it didn’t make as much money as expected. I think peoplenwere expecting another film like Alien and Prometheus was anything but that.nAlien was a straight forward horror film, Prometheus isn’t. Ridley Scott’snAlien (1979) was a far simpler film than Prometheus. Alien simply wanted tonscare, while Prometheus aspires to explore deeper themes about life and thenuniverse we live in; we can’t blame a filmmaker for wanting to go in a deepernand more cerebral direction with his new films. But this shift in tone was notnreceived well by the masses. The masses wanted people running from Aliens andnshooting guns, what they got was a film that wanted to explain the origins ofnhumanity. The result was a smaller intake at the box office then expected.nStill, that’s fine by me; I don’t consider Prometheus to be a film forneveryone. It doesn’t have mass appeal. The masses love stupid films, Prometheusnwas not.
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nThe following article aspires to analyze Ridley Scott’snPrometheus. If you haven’t seen the film, then please don’t read this articlenbecause I’ll be analyzing major plot points and themes. If on the other handnyou have seen it, and want to read my thoughts on the films themes, thenncontinue reading my friend!
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nORIGINS OF MAN – WHO MADE US?
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nThe questions of who made us and where do we really comenfrom have always been a major issue for deep thinkers. The thing is that oncenyou eschew the many teachings religion has to offer about the origins of man, then you arenleft with zero answers. The scientific mind will rarely acknowledge anythingnrelated to religion because scientists by nature need proof. That’s whatnscience is all about, making a hypothesis, and then proving it. If you can’tnprove it, then it’s just a hypothesis or a theory. In religion, when somethingncan’t be proven, it’s called faith. For scientists, religious explenations arencloser to fairy tales than anything else, for the philosopher, this holds truenas well. Truth of the matter is we still don’t really know who made us; thenperennial question lingers on.
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nPrometheus is an interesting film because it’s one of thosenfilms that dares to give explanations for the origins of man other than thenexplanations that Christianity teaches. The daring part is that the filmndoesn’t tell us that humanity was created by Christianities ‘God’, the filmntells us that it was other beings known as ‘The Engineers’. The idea that maybenaliens designed us and that we are somehow linked to them is not a new one, fornexample, it had been explored before in films like Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars (2000)nand Alex Proyas’ Knowing (2009). Mission nto Mars actually has many similarities with Prometheus, watch that film againnand you’ll see what I mean. The same themes are touched upon.
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nThe alien beings in Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars (2000)
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nPrometheus starts out with these amazing vistas of PlanetnEarth. We see mountains, waterfalls, cloud formations, basically, planet earthnat it’s most glorious. The idea being that maybe the Planet was here longnbefore any life form came to it. Then, a huge spaceship leaves an albino, bald,nand extremely muscular alien being behind. The alien seems to be wearingnceremonial clothing of some kind, leading us to believe that maybe this wholenevent has a religious connotation for the alien beings. The being takes a sipnof something that begins to degenerate his body, soon, the being falls to thenwater as his body continues to disintegrate in the depths. Then, the camerandoes an extreme close up and focuses on the beings DNA which appears to bendisintegrating and forming itself back again; we are looking at the origins ofnman. “Big things have small beginnings” a character says at some point in thenfilm, this was the small beginning of man.
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nSo this is a brave film, because according to it, we weren’tncreated by the Christian idea of ‘God’, it was beings from some other planet.nBut of course, the question still remains, if they created us, and they aren‘The Engineers’ of humanity, then who created them? There is always somethingnbigger behind everything. Who is that one final being who created everythingnanyways? I love it how the film attempts to answer some questions, but makesneven bigger ones.
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n THE QUESTIONING OF CHRISTIANITY
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nThe films protagonist, a scientist by the name of ElizabethnShaw is a Christian. According to her, Christianity is what she’s chosen tonbelieve in because it’s what her father believed in, and therefore, his beliefsnwhere passed on to her, which is something that happens to a lot of people. Younprobably ended up believing in Jesus because that’s what your parents taughtnyou, but does that mean it is right? Or even real? Maybe, maybe not, but likenElizabeth Shaw, when one is confronted with the validity of their beliefs, thenanswer is sometimes “because it’s what I choose to believe”, not because younhave proof, or because you know what you are believing in is right, but it’snwhat you’ve chosen to help you get through life.
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nThis is another theme that the film addresses, the idea thatnwe got to believe in something even though we might not be entirely sure ifnit’s true or not. For example, my belief system is a bit more grounded innreality. I personally believe that we don’t know the truth about anything, thatnthe universe is the biggest thing out there and that there is a lot we don’tnknow. If it was by me, we would have sent out a spaceship to explore thenuniverse a long ass time ago, Star Trek style. I personally just accept the big mystery untilnthat fateful day when we’ll finally know THE REAL TRUTH.
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nBut Prometheus is a film that questions Christianity a lot.nFor example, when the scientists in the film are finally gearing up to meetnwith the alien beings, Charlie tells Elizabeth that she should throw away herncross, alluding to the idea that maybe Christianity is all fairy tales and thatnwhat they are about to meet out there is the real deal. I found it interestingnhow Elizabeth Shaw never throws away her cross. Maybe it’s because it belongednto her father and it reminds her of him so it has more to do with sentimentalnvalue than beliefs, either way, the cross Elizabeth Shaw wears through out thenwhole film is an important symbol. It means that until she finds some realnanswers, she’s not willing to let go of the beliefs she grew up with. Afternall, that’s exactly what this movie is all about, finding answers to the bignquestions in life and until Elizabeth nfinds them, she’s sticking to Christianity. But I like the fact that her searchnis never ending.
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nElizabeth Shaw never looses her faith
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nAt one point in the film, the character of Peter Weyland saysnthat because of all we have achieved so far as a race “we are the Gods now”. Somebodyncreated us, but we can also create life ourselves, even artificial life. Rightnnow, we can create computers and robots that think for themselves, but how longn before we can create androids like thenones presented in these films? In Prometheus, humanity has reached the pointnwhere they can create androids that live forever (!) and are almostnindistinguishable from man! In the film we are similar to Gods in the sensenthat we can create. According to Biblical and Greek Mythology, the gods don’tnlike it when we are like them. It’s the reason why they punished the godnPrometheus and sent him to Tartarus; a.k.a. HELL. According to the story,nPrometheus shared the secret of fire with man, in this way bringing us closernto Godhood because of it. The idea being that knowledge is power, and ultimatenknowledge has made us Gods. What drives the characters in this film? The searchnfor answers to the biggest questions; its that thirst for god like knowledge.nMans thirst to KNOW, which strangely enough is considered a sin in the bible. Innthe tale of Adam and Eve, when they take a bite from the tree of knowledge, theynwere expelled from paradise! So to the Gods, no matter what religion, knowledgenis not something they want us mere humans to have, knowledge is what makes usnlike them.
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n WHY DO OUR CREATORS WANT TO DESTROY US?
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nIn Prometheus The Engineers of humanity have now turned intonthe would be destroyers of humanity. The big question that arises in the filmnis why? Why do they want to wipe us out? One scene has Elizabeth Shawnconfronting The Engineers, asking them why do they want to destroy us? Thisnidea of Gods destroying their creation is not new at either. If we go back tonthe bible itself, God was once so displeased with humanity that he wiped it allnout, save for eight people he thought were good enough to save. I’m speaking ofncourse of the biblical story of Noah’s Ark nand how he and his family where saved from the worldwide deluge that God sentnhumanities way. This is the idea that we are presented with in Prometheus asnwell. The Engineers have created a deadly life form that they intend onnreleasing upon humanity. When David, the android of the film finally discoversnhow The Engineers computers work, he learns that their final destination wasnearth and that their deadly cargo was destined for us; what they really wantednto do was destroy us. The idea being that our creators are ashamed of us, samenas God was ashamed of having created humanity in the bible.
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nThis idea is an interesting one when we take innconsideration how messed up the world truly is. So many shameful things happennever second of every day on our planet, that if alien beings were watching us, analyzing our behavior,nI wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to wipe us out. Let’s see, nuclearnweapons, child slavery, rapes, violation of human rights, despotic governments,ngreed, murder, war, famine, you name it, if it’s evil, its happening on PlanetnEarth! If there is a God, and he’snwatching what’s going on down here, he HAS to be ashamed. I would have pushednthat restart button a long time ago; as one of the characters in Prometheusnsays: sometimes, in order to create, one has to destroy.
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n ACCEPTANCE OF DEATH “EVERY KING HAS HIS DAY, THEN HE DIES”
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nIt’s interesting that one of the main characters innPrometheus is an android who will live forever, way past the lifespan of itsnown creators because this film is all about humans wanting more life. Same asnthe ‘replicants’ in Ridley Scott’s own Blade Runner (1982), one of the humansnin Prometheus is after more life. I’m talking of course of Peter Weyland, thenowner and founder of The Wayland Corporation, the company in charge of spacenexploration in the Alien universe. You see, in the film Peter Weyland is dying,nbut before he dies he wants to meet The Engineers in order to ask them for morenlife, same as the replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner wanted to meet hisncreator to ask him about: “Something a little more radical…death” If younremember that scene, Batty then picks up Tyrell and tells him “I want more lifenfucker!” I found it interesting that the need that the androids of Blade Runnernhave is now the need that humans have in Prometheus. Basically, we don’t wantnto die. As I said in my review for Prometheus, I think it’s fitting that Scott,nnow 74 is asking these questions. He must feel like Roy Batty or Peter Weylandnhimself; getting close to death, and not wanting that day to arrive.
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nRutger Hauer as replicant Roy Batty in Ridle Scott’s Blade Runner (1982)
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nAll these great things we see and do, they all fade away asnsoon as we die, sometimes forgotten forever. How many lives blink out ofnexistence, never to be thought of ever again? The character of Roy Batty saidnit very poetically in Blade Runner: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’tnbelieve. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-Beamsnglitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost inntime, like tears in the rain…time to die.” Of course, since this is a film thatnaddresses big questions and themes, the theme of death could not be left out.nIt is mans greatest enemy and one of the grandest themes one could address in anfilm, which is why I appreciate a film like Prometheus, it touches upon so manynimportant themes, leaving them there for us to ponder and think about after thenfilm is over. On Prometheus, the final thought on death is mentioned when thencharacter of Meredith Vickers tells her father Peter Weyland: “A King has hisnday and then he dies” That is the truth about death, we have our days on thisnearth, we better make the best of them because then we die, and the ride isnover.
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nTHE SEARCH FOR THE REAL ‘TRUTH’ NEVER ENDS
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nFinally, one of the things I loved the most about Prometheusnwas its ending. When Elizabeth Shaw finds that other ship and takes off towardsnthe planet where ‘The Engineers’ supposedly come from. To be honest, that endingnoffers up so many awesome possibilities for a sequel. What planet willnElizabeth Shaw arrive at? What discovers await for her out there? Will she findnthe true engineers of humanity, or something greater? Whatever Elizabeth Shaw’snout come maybe, I loved the fact that her final words were her signing off andnsaying that her search never ends, that her search for truth continues. This isnmy goal as well, the never ending search for the real truth. Well, my friends, thisnhas been The Film Connoisseur. I should reach the frontier at some point, withna little luck; the network will pick me up. This is Franco, one of many survivorsnon spaceship earth…singing off.
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