Wednesday 30 May 2012

Prometheus Plot Holes

Warning, this post is literally nothing but spoilers for Prometheus. I mentioned in my review that the script had numerous plot holes, and I really need to vent them out, so I’ve listed them below. Do not read this until you’ve watched the film, and if anyone can fill the holes in for me please go ahead. I repeat, do not read this post until you have seen the film.


1.    Why is David riding a bicycle and shooting hoops? Is he trying to impress someone? I understand why he’s developing language skills, as he’s researching things as yet undiscovered, but what’s with the sports? He’s a robot!

2.    When Holloway sees the lines on the planet that prove the alien presence, why does no-one suggest scoping the area out for a while? Even just a little fly around would have been nice.

3.    What exactly are the holograms for? David starts one in the caves and another on the Space Jockey deck, but who are they for? They’re useful for him and us, but who made them? They could be some kind of ship’s log, but if so couldn’t someone have said that in one line of dialogue?

4.    When Shaw, Holloway, David and Ford flee the caves, outside there’s two go-karts and a minibus. Two get on each of the karts, and no-one gets into the bus, yet they all drive off (at the time we assume Fifield and Millburn are in there). Who is driving it? You could argue that there’s a nameless crew member that stayed behind as a driver, and headed off to avoid the storm slightly too early for the others to get in, but there’s no proof of this.

5.    Once David has rescued Shaw and Holloway, Janek mentions they don’t know where Fifield and Millburn are, but there’s a map showing their position! He uses it in the next scene. Plus, Janek seems pretty lackadaisical about two members of the crew being stranded on an alien planet. He practically says LOL. Also, how convenient is it that everyone has a surname beginning with a different letter?

6.    Why does David cave in to Vickers’ threats? He’s a robot, there’s not a lot she could do to him.

7.    Millburn the biologist is supposedly cowardly, as he is easily convinced by Fifield to run away at the site of a decapitated body (understandable), and later when he hears there’s a lifeform somewhere nearby, he says he’s heading in the opposite direction. So why, when he and Fifield go to the vase chamber, does he suddenly want to make friends with the alien there? He can’t even see the entire creature, so for all he knows it’s some giant beasty with a strange proboscis. Why did they even decide to stay in the cave full of weird bubbling vases anyway? It’s the exact room, with the dead decapitated body outside of it, that they ran away from earlier.

8.    Millburn and Fifield die when no-one is watching the monitors, because Vickers and Janek are getting it on in her quarters, right? Firstly, how come Janek didn’t order someone else to watch the monitors, and secondly, even if no-one was there, don’t these guys have TiVo? Just rewind the feed and see what happened. We have it in 2012; I’m guessing it’s still around in 2094.

9.    Why did Janek, the captain and pilot of the ship, go to investigate the disappearance of Millburn and Fifield? Surely he’s pretty integral to the running of the ship.

10. What exactly was David’s plan with the black goo? He gave some to Holloway in his drink; did he know he would have sex with Shaw and impregnate her with an alien? If so, why did he do that too? Was he curious, or trying to kill Holloway? Why?

11. Why did the infected Fifield come back to the ship to try and kill everyone? He was the one character I really wanted to die, and he’s the only one who came back to life! Typical. I thought Millburn would have come back with a chest-burster in him, seeing as an alien went down his throat and Fifield had his face melted with acid. Also, why did they go out and investigate Fifield’s clearly dead body (the helmet is smashed with a deadly atmosphere, and his legs are bent over his shoulders) seeing as there’s no way he could have just turned up there on his own, being dead and all.

12. Why does David tell Shaw she is pregnant? If he wanted an alien specimen, surely telling her will just make her try and abort it, and if he wanted to kill her, then not telling her will result in the alien bursting through her stomach and killing her that way. Being pregnant with a baby alien was probably the last thing she was expecting, especially seeing as she was barren and had only had sex 10 hours ago and not before for 28 months.

13. After she wakes up from being sedated by David, Shaw finds it pretty easy to escape from the medics and run to Vickers’ quarters with no-one chasing her. No-one comes for the entire time she is in there.

14. After the impromptu caesarean I could have done with a scene of Shaw breaking down from the intensity of what she’d just gone through. In the past few hours she’d lost her husband, found out she was pregnant when she thought she was barren, discovered the ‘child’ was in fact a killer alien, had a caesarean whilst fully awake and watching it, had the cut literally stapled shut and then fought the creature that had just gestated inside her. I’d say that warrants a little exasperation.

15. Did I miss a scene where everyone on board found out about, and was cool with, Peter Weyland being on board the ship? After Shaw’s surgery the rest of the crew seems OK with him being there. It was pretty damn obvious he was going to be onboard too, seeing Guy Pearce was highly billed in the opening credits. Stop doing that kind of thing. And making Vickers his daughter is pointless, unsurprising and ridiculous.

16. Ripping David the android’s head off is a nice nod to Ash’s fate in Alien, but is it possible for a robot to survive one of these films? Please?

17. When Vickers and Shaw are running from the crashing spaceship, why in the name of LV426 do they not run sideways? I hate when films do this. There’s something rolling behind you in a relatively straight line, so instead of getting out of the way you decide to race it. Insane. Shaw only survives because she trips and rolls out the way. I did like that the last two alive were the two main women, just like in Alien, and similarly the blonde dies and the brunette survives.

18. Shaw’s air supply is supposedly running out at the end of the film, yet she’s barely been away from the ship. Earlier, Fifield and Millburn were away for longer, and were expected to survive overnight when they got stranded. Yes, they were in the chambers with breathable atmosphere, but they had to keep their helmets up because it was going to get cold, so they must have had to survive on their own air supplies.

19. The alien that Shaw had aborted grows pretty fucking huge seeing as it’s had no organic matter to feed on other than a little blood Shaw left behind.

20. At the end, Shaw is told that there are other ships. Does she check them all for surviving Engineers, or just leave in the first ship she finds? I’d have much preferred that the final shot be of her silhouette, with an axe in one hand and David decapitated head in the other, heading off to take out the surviving aliens.

Wow, I didn’t realise I had so many problems with the script. Am I being too harsh? Or stupid? Was a lot of this explained? Let me know.


*EDIT* Thanks to everyone for all the comments and page views so far, the response I’ve had from this is phenomenal. It turns out my list of plot holes wasn’t quite complete, and many of you have posed a few more. I’ve tried to give credit where it’s due, but apologies if I’ve left someone off. Also, some of these get a bit science-y, and I’ve not researched any of the theories, so please don’t shout at me if they’re wrong. Sections in brackets are from me.

21.   How exactly did they manage to reanimate a head that’d be dead for several thousand years? I’m pretty sure in 77 years time that technology isn’t going to be available. Also, why did it explode? – Anon

22.   Organic molecules do not form in oxygen-rich running water. - Anon

23.    It’d be nice if they’d clarified at some point why the Hell the Engineers wanted to kill humans, and why did they think that the black goo, which creates a completely different, far more dangerous race, would be the best way to do it? (Personally I think it was for sport.) – J/Michael Shaw

24.   The DNA was a perfect match, yet the Engineers are big, bald and pale. (My personal theory is that had the physical differences are due to environmental differences between Earth and LV-223 in terms of gravity, proximity to the Sun, etc.) - J

25.   If the Engineers created humans, did they also create all the other life on Earth? From what, and how are they all different? Did all the different species evolve from that one Engineer? If so, how are we all different? – J/areanimator

26.   The crew are really very unprofessional and lacking in protocol for such an important and well funded mission. (Perhaps these were the only people willing to sacrifice 5 years of their lives for a wild goose chase.) – Anon

27.   Could they not have detected the oncoming storm, seeing as they just arrived from space? And don’t they have larger versions of Fifield’s ‘puppies’ they could send down to scout out the terrain first? (Hell, can’t they send the ‘puppies’ into the caves from the safety of the ship? There could have been aliens waiting just inside the cave for them.) – Anon

28.   You can't run around after having your body cut open to your uterus, even if the wound was closed with some stitches. Your body goes into complete shock, the stitches cannot make up for the fact tissue was cut and muscles were cut which are essential for your core, and by extension for your body to perform any kind of walking movement. – Anon

29.   The two co-pilots at the end didn’t really need to kill themselves. They say Janek is a bad pilot (really? Weyland paid a fortune for a crappy captain?) but he doesn’t really do a lot of piloting, in fact he even says “Hands off” of the steering to crash into the ship. There’s also apparently a member of Weyland’s security who doesn’t go down to the planet with Weyland and co, who Janek is essentially killing at that point too, but fair enough it’s for the good of humanity. – Anon

30.   Why do the cryo-beds have a function that allows David to see their dreams? (Possibly to see if they’re in distress or suffering some kind of psychological trauma from the cryo-sleep, but that’s a stretch). – Beta Max

31.   Why was the medical machine only male-calibrated? OK, it was probably there to operate on Weyland, but it makes little sense to make machinery just for men or women. – Anon

32.   How did the Engineer survive the toxic LV-223 atmosphere without a helmet when he attacks Shaw at the end? He must have needed the helmet to breathe, yet made it from the crashed ship to Vickers’ crashed pod pretty easily.  – Anon

33.   Why was it a secret that Weyland was on his ship, and why was it pegged as a surprise reveal that Vickers’ was his daughter? (Hollywood tension-generating bullshit.) – Anon

34.   Why did the Engineers point all the ancient civilisations towards a military installation? (My guess: the Engineers thought we might have come back all guns blazing, so sent us to a battle-ready moon/planet instead of their home world.) – Anon

35.   Once they discover that the Engineers have the same DNA as humans, they don’t make the logical connection that what killed the Engineers will probably kill the humans too, and no extra quarantine methods or safety precautions are put in place. – Areanimator

36.   The Engineers were running away from something, yet ran towards a room full of deadly black goo that presumably they manufactured. (The room had the giant stone head in, meaning it could be of religious importance, and they thought prayer was their only option at that point. Alternatively, they may have been running towards the room to trap the black goo inside.) – Areanimator

37.   The hologram of Earth resembles modern Earth, rather than how it looked at the damn of man. –The Movie Waffler

38.   Why did Weyland think he could just rock up to an alien moon, have a nice chat with the Engineers and that they could give him immortality? (He was nearly dead, so was probably grasping at whatever straws he could reach.) – Anon

39.   Apparently the Engineers were trying to leave LV-223 because it had all gone wrong, but how? There was no trace of active aliens on the planet. (They may have been trying to seal off the experiment going wrong into the cave with the vases, but one Engineer tripped and got decapitated by the door?) – Lisa

40.   After decapitation, David’s head manages to stay pretty damn close to his body, even after takeoff, crashing and rolling all over the place. Seems pretty unlikely unless the white ‘blood’ is a damn good glue. – Christophe Abi Akle

Oh, and for those of you looking for a more informed, science-based look at the gaping holes woven together to form the net of this film, check out Stephen Gaskell's post over at Creepy Treehouse.

211 comments:

  1. Nope.. your mostly correct.. but nitpicking on a few places - taht might not be plot holes at all..

    1. bike+hoops = training to be human
    and that - besides his obvious non-human acting tells us he is a robot.. would have loved him beeing more human - and then afterwards we got tol he was a robot.
    2. who cares for scoping - they wanted to open the gifts today :)
    3. hologram problem.. yeah. they are for others.. like a dying echo..
    6. the robots motifs delude even Ridlley Scott.. why why why.. we will never know.. he is a robot.. thats why..
    there's lot of ilogical problems in the movie - but i liked it like a problem child who sometimes do good :)

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    1. 1. I agree it would have been better if we didn't immediately David he was a robot (I thought Charlize Theron was going to turn out to be one) but then we'd have missed out on the amazing promo video.

      2. Yeah I suppose, but it was a bit hasty, having travelled all that way to be eaten by a giant sand worm or something. Then I suppose Holloway is meant to be a look-before-you-leap kind of guy, but what about the rest of teh crew?

      I liked the movie (though my review seems to come off far more negative than I intended) I'd just been hoping for a bit more. Still better than most other films out these days.

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  2. few more to your list:

    1. You cannot stick wires into 2000-yeard-old dead alien head and make it "talk" to you.

    2. why did their heads explode again?

    3. no need to destroy the whole body to put some DNA in the water.

    4. Organic molecules do not form in oxygen-rich running water

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    1. Yes, yes, yes and yes. My lord there were a lot of plot holes in this film! Thanks for the additions.

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    2. Ahm...no...Not all these here are necessarily plot holes.

      1. The technology for this was explained on the website for the movie, but not in detail. That being said, FTL travel has also not been discovered. It's not a plot hole. It's just technology we assume (at least for the movie) to exist in the future. It's certainly possible, as it is VERY possible to reanimate dead nervous tissue with simple current is already possible (here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=739DPi7dAOM).

      2. I could leave it as a simple "Aliens, man." However, you seem to want more than that and are unwilling to participate in the "suspension of disbelief" which is necessary to really enjoy a film. That being said, say it's possible that the alien lifeforms still inside the head (which is what were coming alive near the surface of the skin and were also infecting halloway) have compounds in their blood or internal fluids(which were already observed to be acid in at least some of the native fauna)that could cause exothermic reactions in human tissue. Also possible, maybe these reactions were so rapid and exothermic as to cause explosive results, cesium in water style.

      3. The movie is not clear whether or not the purpose was to distribute DNA. Though, it's likely that this is a possibility. However, in giving the benefit of the doubt to the movie (which, you OUGHT to do since in every movie criticisms can be made like these), it is possible that DNA transformation was far better understood by the advanced human species, and they may have known something about sparking life that we do not.

      4. You know this how? This is not something we cannot say doesn't happen in real life, either. Organic molecules come in many shapes and sizes. Water is a stabilizing and catalyzing agent for an unlimited number of reactions that we are currently aware of and certainly for numerous reactions we have yet to try. Granted DNA does not just form randomly, either. However, this is not and should not be considered a "plot hole" as again, maybe the aliens figured out something we hadn't. Also, simply let go the idea that every piece of technology in science fiction movies needs to be explained by contemporary definitions. That's why it's "science fiction" and not an episode of Modern Marvels.

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  3. Cool post! It is definitely possible to be entertained by a good film and still find so many hilarious holes.

    As you obviously remember the movie so good, would you provide som insights for us on the whole storyline?
    - Why did the engineers want to destroy the human race?
    - Why did the create humans in the first place?
    - If the DNA matched completely, why aren't humans big, bald and pale?
    - If the DNA matched completely how did all the other life on Earth originate?
    - Why did they create aliens (or was that just a nature's coincidence fueled by the black goo?)
    - Being probably technologically massively superior to humans, why woudl they plan an attack using a payload of black goo with unpredictable effects and not just use the equivalent of a Death Star and torch the Earth?

    Can't think of more just now.
    I love films that makes you ponder after watching it but this one almost stretches it to the limits.

    Best,
    J

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    1. Thanks very much! Most of these plot holes came up when me and a friend of mine just started riffing on the film on the journey home from the cinema. We recorded the whole thing, didn't realise there were so many holes before we started though!

      -My cynical answers as to why they want to destroy the human race is because we've developed into a bunch of shits that deserve to be put down for what we do to each other and our planet, but honestly I'm not sure.
      -I think they created humans just because they could. If you were given the power to create life, chances are you'd try it out too. That could be why they wanted to kill us as well. Think about playing the Sims, what more fun is there to kill your creations in interesting and cruel ways?
      -My guess for why the humans aren't big balf and pale is because we have maybe evolved to live on Earth, with a different gravity, atmosphere etc. A higher gravity would make us shorter, closer distance to the sun could account to darker skin etc.
      -Maybe the other life on Earth was already here? I'm just guessing here, but they say in the film that LV223 has a similar ability to support life as Earth, so they could have picked the only other planet we'd have been able to survive on, regardless of the pre-existing wildlife. Kind of flies in the face of evolution though.
      -The aliens could be an experiment gone wrong, or right, depending on what they were trying to do, or as you say just a coincidence.
      -No idea. Maybe they thought this way would be more fun, watching humans being impregnated and eaten rather than a giant laser. For all we know this is some kind of a sport for the Engineers.

      Most of these are just guesses. I like films that make you think too, but I'd have preferred a coherent story with a more open-ended finale, or a few less questions throughout.

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    2. I prefer to think that the variability of human's DNA allows for someone that could look like an Engineer. There are giant men, and there are albinos. There are also people with genetic propensity for having huge muscles (double muscle).

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  4. I'm with all of you on all of these points. A lot of quite obvious plotholes.

    What actually bugged me quite a lot too, wasn't any scene in particular, but just the attitude, professionalism and diversity of the crew making no sense at all throughout the movie. All characters are so one-dimensional and self-contradictory.

    You would expect there to be some sort of protocol. For example, once you get to a NEW PLANET(!?) you don't just land and immediatelly go out with most of the crew to explore an alien building. Saying that they've waited their whole lives for this is too weak of an explanation for professionals to just go out and do things recklessly.

    For example, they could have sent little robot-vehicles with a camera in first. If you have the technology to build an actual robot with extremely advanced artificial intelligence, you can at least build a few vehicles with a camera to scope things out. And that would also satisfy the researchers' thirst for answers. Instead, they go in right away, even though a storm can be detected (they just landed from space) 1 hour away and they know it's gonna be dark in a few hours.

    You would expect some kind of hierarchy and orders. Two crewmembers just saying, we're leaving, just isn't the way a company or military operation works.

    The fact that these two crewmembers get lost doesn't make sense either, as one of them was the expert in pathfinding using his 'puppies'. And, they have direct communication to the captain who has a complete overview of the structure, and at least all the corridors they walked through. You would think Fifield would have some way of reading his puppies' paths, or direct them for guidance, or communicate with the captain, or just check his own video feed to see where they walked, or at least, in 100 years from now, leave a trail of lights or something (24-hour lasting lights weighing nothing already exist costing nothing today) But instead, they wander around, then get back to where they ran from because they were so scared of a dead body, only now they walk past the dead body, into the cave, find an alien and try to pet it! Were they expecting the alien to cuddle Millburn's hand like a kitty? Come on. They went from scared shitless from a 2.000 year old humanoid and running away leaving all the crew, to going back there and petting a living snake-like alien making scary sounds.

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    1. You'd think there'd be something like the 'puppies' already that does the job of scouting out the planet before landing. And I'm surprised Janek the captain wasn't listening to the conversation of Fifield and Millburn, and watching them get lost. He probably just didn't like them and thought it'd be a laugh to see what would happen if they got stranded. There is no possible explanation for why the two of them went back into that cavern though. I'm guessing they couldn't exactly get the best people in the world to go on a wild goose chase, taking 5 years out of their lives (counting the return journey), which would explain how crap a captain Janek is and how incompetent everyone else is.

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  5. The crewmember who then dies and returns to the shit, all fucked up, is greeted by an opening door and a crewmember saying hey what's up? Come on. You can see the video footage showing the two guys dying. They went there, saw the two guys dead. They see on the cameras outside the door that the guy is sitting there with his spine bent in a circle and a zombie face, and they just open the door unarmed?

    Or the fact that a little bit of black alien goo in a human stomach makes your sperm alien sperm which a sterile non-alien human actually can grow just fine. The baby is an octopus. And the octopus's baby apparently is a walking lizard? The fact that these things grow within a few hours, and completely without any food develop hundreds of kilo's of muscles makes no sense.

    You can't run around after having your body cut open to your uterus, even if the wound was closed with some stitches. Your body goes into complete shock, the stitches cannot make up for the fact tissue was cut and muscles were cut which are essential for your core, and by extension for your body to perform any kind of walking movement.

    The robot infecting crewmembers makes no sense, why? The robot is continuously given the appearance of being evil, or feeling emotions or annoyance. But in the end there's no conclusion that his programming was off, or that he did have bad intentions, or that he had a reason for infecting crewmembers. The boyfriend also sees he's infected but ignores it, doesn't report it either. In the end, he just commits suicide really, and the entire crew seems to not really care, including Shaw. Noone says, this is fucked up, a crewmember died, what do we do? What killed him, what infected him, can we even take of our helmets (true hollywood moment where he takes off his helmet, for no reason other than stubborness)

    The suicide scene at the end also makes NO SENSE. Two crewmembers, who we didn't get to know, don't understand, who have no background or interest or passion or struggles or emotions, other than a shallow bet: Choose to stay with the captain when he does kamikaze. Why? Because the pilot, solely chosen from all humans by the richest trillionaire on the planet, to fly the spaceship, is a shitty pilot. And in the next scene, ironically, what unfolds is that the captain presses a few buttons, goes on autopilot, says HANDS OFF, everyone raises their hands, and no piloting is done and they all die, implying the other two didn't have to be there to die at all. They don't even eject an escape pod or anything after the hands off, nothing. The captain just sings his little song in happiness. What the hell!? They're going to DIEEEEE. All they say is, let's keep that bet in heaven. Come on! You don't die like that. There's no, omg im dying, no emotions, not even a cliche i love you man, or screaming, they just keep the bet, sing a song, do a dance and die, two of them (perhaps all three) completely unneccesarily.

    The general attitude of the crew is just weird. Noone seems to care about the insane things that are happening. After finding two crewmembers dead, they don't even have a 5-minute meeting in which they discuss who could possibly have done this, if it's safe, what they should do, communicate with earth, equip people with weapons, set rules, set up a military base next to the ship, send vehicles with cameras, do scans. They don't think about taking much weaponry, apart from a pistol invented 100 years ago, 100 years into the future.

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    1. I'm guessing the two sub-pilots read the rest of the script and just decided to kill themselves there and then, rather than see what the rest of the mess would look like.

      As for David infecting people, I'm guessing this was from some orders from Weyland, but why the orders would be issued is beyond me too.

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    2. I think David is actually the only coherent character in the movie. All his actions can be explained by his curious nature (... or programming). He doesn't need to cryosleep and passes the two-years-time upgrading his language skills (usefull to the story), watching old american movies (like so many other good Hollywood robots) and riding bicycles (!?).

      The bicycle/baseball-over-the-head thing is a clear tip of the hat to Alien 4 where the artificially created Ripley does the exact same thing, underlining their superiority to humans.

      Anyway, as I see it, David infecting Holloway is to explore what the black goo is all about. After all he does seem to examine the canister and the glass viles with a cat-like curiosity ... and we all know what happens to curious cats :)

      Here's another question to ad to your already extensive list: Why does the cryo-beds have a feature that lets David read the sleeping crew members dreams? Other than a script-gimmick to let us know about Shaw's past ...

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    3. I'm not sure I'd have included a reference to Alien Resurrection, as the little I can remember of it is terrible, but yes the basketball/bike ride does hammer home the point that David's a robot and is better than the rest of them at everything.

      And the dream reading shall be added, good point. The only possible use I can see is monitoring if the sleeper is in distress, but that's a bit of a stretch.

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  6. The religion/atheist girlfriend/boyfriend dialogue was extremely weak and virtually nonexistant. Similar to the father/daughter relationship having no impact on the story that they might as well have left it out.

    A lot of things are further left unexplained, which are not necessarily plotholes, but definitely huge dissapointments or even shameless milking of a franchise by creating cliffhangers that aren't cliffhangers, just things left unexplained that might be part of sequals. For example, who are the engineers, why do they want to destroy earth (this was also concluded very quickly by a captain who was not at all keeping up to date with all the information). Why did they build a military base to engineer biological alien weapons to kill earth, when at any point in the past thousand or millions of years they could easily wipe out all life on earth by much simpler methods than creating a new alien species to physically attack and kill all humans. (e.g. contaminating water, throwing a few nuclear bombs, destabilising the climate, just bombing and killing humans ordinarily from space etc). None of it makes any sense. Everything happens absent of explicit reason or motivation, we can only guess.

    Then there's many technical things don't make sense. Like sound in space (space = vacuum) But I usually don't care at all, as long as the plot makes sense.

    Thanks for the blog post!

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    1. I actively cringed when Vickers announced she was Weyland's daughter. It's such a stupid, pointless non-twist that does nothing but leave a bad taste in the mouth.

      As for the obscure chocie of weaponry, I think the Engineers were just fucking around, trying to come up with a way of killing humans that could be entertaining to watch.

      Most of the supposed cliffhangers were probably just for cliffhangers sake. Look at the space jockey in Alien, Ridley Scott fought tooth and nail to keep it in when the studios wanted to cut it, just so he could add an air of mystery to the film. I'm betting he did the same thing here.

      Thanks for reading/writing the most epic comment in history.

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  7. could someone please explain this to me? the engineers are pre-evolved humans because of they're DNA right? or did they create us from they're DNA? and when the space jockey is killed at the end how does he end up in the ship where they find him in the first Alien film? other than these small points i loved the film and find most of the small plot holes pointed out in this article unimportant or interesting to think about the reasons. if someone could explain this point to me i would be extremely grateful :)

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    1. The space jockey in this film isn't the one seen in Alien. He's on a different planet, LV-426, rather than LV-223 in Prometheus, so there must be another space jockey out there somewhere that gets killed later on.

      I think they created mankind from their DNA, but maybe altered it a little bit like Jurassic Park using frog DNA to fill in the gaps, hence why we look a little different to them. That, or us better suiting ourselves to Earth's atmosphere and gravity could have caused the differences in height and skin colour.

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    2. thanks that's been bugging me

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  8. It's a different planet? Then why crash the ship in precisely the same position? And it certainly looks like the same planet/moon.

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    1. They definitely give it a different name in Prometheus than in Alien (LV-223 & LV-426). I'm guessing the crash position was just another parallel between the films? There's no way the same Engineer could make it back to the jockey chair in the state he's in, plus in Alien the jockey only had the after effects from a chest-burster, not a full on Zenomorph tearing through it.

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    2. Actually I was quite disappointed that the planets have two different names because there is no really good reason for it and them being the same planet would actually be more coherent. Two different moons raises a lot of questions about why and how do the aliens suddenly infest a second planet?

      But of course there would be problems explaining why the Nostromo crew did not find the debris of the Prometheus and such....

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    3. I'm guessing they were on different planets to try and keep the plot a little less predictable. If they'd said they were heading to LV-426, everyone would have known exactly where it was heading. If it develops into a franchise, that might be in a future instalment.

      And the Nostromo not discovering the Prometheus wreckage could be explained away by them not spending an awful lot of time down on the planet's surface, plus I doubt there was an awful lot left after the crash and rolling of the Engineer's ship.

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    4. Scott has said this is the first in a trilogy so presumably LV426 will come up later

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    5. Yeah maybe, or it'll always be hinted at.

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  9. I just saw Prometheus this evening and I have a few questions.

    -- What caused the black goo to "activate"? Why did the ampoules start oozing after the humans arrived?

    -- What is the relationship between the snake-type alien in the cavern and the alien that Shaw was carrying (and which eventually gobbled up the Engineer)?

    -- Was the Engineer in hyper sleep to protect itself from the attacking aliens? Or was there an engineer in hyper sleep in each of the spaceships?

    -- What sort of welcome did Shaw think she'd get when she reached the Engineers' home planet? Presumably the Engineers back home would have been aware of the disastrous experiment and would not welcome one of their own biological warships back to their planet?

    -- Can someone please explain to me how they came to find the moon on which the experiment took place? I missed the explanation in the movie. Shaw does explain the relationship between the moon and the five planets depicted in the primitive art on Earth.

    -- Speaking of which, how did all these primitive cultures come to depict those planets? Was it because the Engineers visited them over the years?

    -- I like all the comments above about the crew's behavior and motivations. Really good. Thanks.

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    1. I'll see what I can do.

      - When Shaw etc. entered the cavern, she says they changed the atmosphere in there. Maybe the goo and the worms reacted to a subtle increase in the overall temperature or humidity of the room?

      - It could be like the facehugger -> xenomorph relationship, where one lays eggs and the other grows inside the body, a la John Hurt In Alien. The snake-things don't lay any eggs, but they grew from the small worms in the black goo, and the goo gave Holloway the alien sperm to impregnate Shaw.

      - David says at one point that there's only one surviving Engineer on the planet, so maybe he's the only one, but then he only investigates one ship. I think there's maybe one on each, which is why I could have done with some clarification as to whether Shaw goes around all the ships at the end killing all the surviving Engineers.

      - I think Shaw is just trying to do as much damage as possible. She's been through a lot, and could just be acting out of vengeance. Maybe we'll see if James Cameron makes Prometheuses (Promethei?)

      - The cave paintings showing the planets/moons only matched one solar system in the entire universe. They looked at the positions in relation to one another. I'm not sure how they correlated a 2D cave painting into 3D space, and to say that something so basic only exactly matched one set of planets is a bit of a stretch even for this film.

      - I'm guessing the Engineers visited Earth and either painted the maps themselves or instructed others to do so, maybe with the intent of getting humans to travel to them one day? I'm not sure why. Maybe that would be the end goal of creating life, to aim to have that life advance itself enough to come and find the creatures that made it?

      Thanks for reading, I hope I've helped.

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    2. You have -- thank you! Your original post and all the conversation in this comment thread are great. I'm going to see the movie again. It is really interesting to find a film that was so engrossing and that I want to see again, even though it had so many problems. In Wikipedia I read about how the script was worked on for a long time and by a few people. Hard to believe how it can have ended up so loose. I wonder if the writers have answers for everything?

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    3. I'd like to think they could fill in the blanks, but I hadn't heard it was written by more than Damon Lindelof and the guy who wrote The Darkest Hour. I'm guessing Lindelof didn't have much to do with it, he's usually pretty solid.

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  10. PS All the ladies out there who have had cesarean sections must have found Shaw's post-surgery activity hilarious. Also, what did the male-calibrated operating machine think when it encountered Shaw's uterus?!! It would have had to cut the uterus and then stitch it back up before stitching up all the muscle, etc. I know you have to suspend disbelief for this kind of stuff but that was too much. Why couldn't they just let the machine say "you want a C-section? certainly" -- that wouldn't have affected the plot, other than removing the opportunity for making the audience laugh when the machine declares itself to be for men only.

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    1. Seeing as the machine was in Vickers' quarters too, kind of makes it a bit weird that it's only programmed for men. Shaw was surprisingly active afterwards, I think it'd take more than a few staples and painkillers to do that.

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    2. I think the machine (and quarters) was meant for Weyland and not really Vickers. This would have been clear if we had known Weyland was on the ship from the beginning. Wayland was looking for immortality, so they probably brought the machine in case they needed to do surgery on him.

      It is another plot element that seems strange because the writers decided to give us meaningless surprises.

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    3. Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I don't understand why a machine couldn't be unisex though. Surely it's going to use the same machinery and just require a little more programming?

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  11. On a ligher note... It took a while to get over the initial disappointment that Michael Fassbender was a robot in this movie. I hadn't seen any of the promotional material, and I was looking forward to seeing Fassbender as his fascinating, limber, human self (and I'm not talking about Shame here). Having a robot in flip-flops was a nice touch.

    I didn't understand what David was up to, though -- either in contaminating Holloway or telling Shaw about her alien baby.

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    1. I thought Fassbender was brilliant as the robot, easily the best part of the film. Have you seen the David promo yet? It's incredible.

      David motivations are very unclear. I'm unsure of his end goal, but whatever it is he didn't take the right steps to get there.

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  12. Why did the engineer in the end not wear a helmet? The decapitated one did. They were human so they would need one to breath in the atmosphere. Instead he had to wear one inside the ship, when getting ready for his journey... But inside the ship there was a normal atmosphere. So he risked his life to find Shaw, whom he could not know where was, and for what purpose? Revenge? And how did David know? Did he tell him?

    Why did the engineer just take off? If he had been at sleep for 2000 years shouldn't he check what happened first?

    If it was the same DNA, why were the engineers so disappointed in humans that they wanted to exterminate them? Could it not have been different DNA (please)?

    Why was it a secret that Weyland was on the ship? Why a secret that Vickers was his daughter? It just took up extra frame time.

    Why did the engineers tell all the ancient cultures about a secret military installation?

    Why were the scientists not following some sort of protocol instead of jumping into everything (take off helmets, touch everything, open doors, electrify an old head)?

    Why could Shaw get pregnant with a weird alien, when not with a human? Just to surprise us and explain why they didn't use protection?

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    1. No idea why it didn't wear a helmet at the end, that's a pretty glaring omission from my list, good spot.

      I think he took off because the humans had come back, maybe it was his species' protocol for if that ever happens to flee back to the home planet to report back and initiate all-out war?

      They might not have been disappointed, they could just be sadists who wanted to create something, allow it to become a bit advanced, then hunt it for sport, a bit like Predators.

      The Weyland/Vickers reveals were just silly and unnecessary, meagre attempts to add twists no-one was surprised by and no-one cared about. Having some plot points to spoil allowed the production to hype up how much their script was under wraps. If there's nothing to spoil, there's no hype.

      Again, the military installation could have been used to prevent humans from finding their home planet. If we are hostile, we've been sent to a battle-ready planet, or if they want to kill us, then that's probably the best place to do it from.

      David did all the door opening etc. and he had his own agenda. I've just realised he probably gave Holloway the alien DNA to see if it would give him eternal life, so he could then use it on Weyland. Holloway taking his helmet off, etc. was ust showing his gung-ho attitude, and Hollywood being a dick.

      The not using protection argument is good, I hadn't thought of that. The alien is pretty much the worst kind of STD. Even in space, always wear a condom.

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    2. But if the Engineers didn't want humanity to seek them out, all they had to do was... NOT give us any directions to anything. There are billions of star systems so the odds of us evolving, developing spaceflight and seeking out the Engineers by just randomly sending out ships is miniscule. Why point us to that planet specifically?

      And did the Engineer in the beginning sequence create all life on Earth? Or just human life? If he created all life on Earth, that means the Engineers came back to point to LV-223 to all the fledgling human civilizations. If he only created humans, why is human DNA so similar to the DNA of other primate species? Did the Engineers create them too?

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    3. Also, another plothole (or maybe just a minor annoyance) about the DNA thing: when the expedition enters the pyramid, they quickly find the Engineer's recorded last moments, when they're clearly in panic. But when the crew finds out human DNA matches Engineer DNA, they don't make the obvious conclusion that whatever killed the Engineers (if it's an infection or bio-weapon) would easily infect and kill humans too! They don't take extra quarantine measures, set up safety precautions, analyze the black goo to see what it does...

      Also, I just thought of another thing: if the Engineers were running away from something (presumably a black goo infection or one of the bioweapons they created running amok), why did they run into a chamber containing... lots and lots of bioweapons?

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    4. I understand how David could give the alien DNA to see if it gave eternal life, but how would he test if that was the case? In also doesn't make sense to test it on one of the chief scientists. Why not a less important crew member?... or even start with some simple lab-test with cells. Of course you could argue that he had limited time, but still...

      When I saw that scene, I was hoping that we would get an explanation later, but it just fell into the pit of unexplained elements along with the rest.

      Making such an uncontrolled experiment with a foreign substance doesn't make any sense. Certainly not for an Android. There was no indication that the goo would have that effect. To me it seemed more like David wanted to pay back for all the times Holloway had treated him like a lesser being and then picked him.

      It is obviously a large theme in the movie that David is the most advanced being coming from earth (that's what the scenes with the basketball, lifting the helmet off the Alien, learning languages, fixing probes, using the extraordinary Lawrence of Arabia as role model etc. were about), yet he was treated like a slave throughout. The only one treading him with some respect, was Weyland when he said David was the closest thing to a son -- You would think the daughter would be, but no -- Still Weyland treated him more like a butler than a son... BTW. the father/daughter/substitute-son bit was also a very unexplored, unneeded, useless plot element that seemed attached in the last minute and went nowhere.

      ... but this is an underlying problem in the film. We don't understand the motives of many of the actions; Unnecessary suicides, sex instead of keeping an eye on crew-members in a hostile environment and in the middle of alien storm, supposedly brilliant scientists that suddenly act like schoolboys and below average IQ, alien engineers doing strange things, Androids having their own irrational agenda...

      ... and how did David know there were more ships? Did he read a sign? How could he be sure that they hadn't taken off after all the engineers died?

      It is like the writers decided that the film needed to have a bunch of elements or a bullet list, and whenever they couldn't fit things together easily, they just ignored all the underlying problems, instead of dropping the ideas that didn't make sense and reducing the bullet list to maybe 5 instead of >20 plot-elements.

      The best example of that, was the last unnecessary scene with the alien crawling out of the engineer. The only thing it did was tie the film into the Alien universe, but the last year we have been told it wasn't strictly speaking an Alien prequel, and the alien we see is not really like the previous aliens. It is fully grown and looks more like a lizard. Much less alien than the original alien. It doesn't do anything for the story, we don't go home scared that there is an Alien loose on a foreign lifeless planet where it cannot possibly do any harm. We are not even shocked by a last minute revelation. We are just left with yet another weird cliffhanger thing, that will be hard for the sequels to explain or even include in their story.

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    5. areanimator: Maybe they ran into the room because the giant stone head was there, and it had some sort of religious meaning, or they were running with the intent of wiping out the remaining black goo? And I think the Prometheus crew just jumped in with taking samples etc. from the sheer excitement of this being the right planet. For all we know this is the first enoucnter man has had with an alien species.

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    6. Anonymous: I definitely think that David using the goo on Holloway was revenge for all the insults throughout the film. The final alien not looking like the classic alien could be because it has been influenced by an Engineer rather than a human. That would explain why it looks similar to the xenomorphs we know and love, but not identical, due to the whole same DNA thing. But yeah, there's little to no shocking moments in the film, as there are no characters you care about and the story makes too little sense.

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    7. I think I have an answer for your question above, "how did David know there were more ships?" I have seen the film only once, but I remember noticing that there were a series of the structures visible in the distance as the Prometheus ship approached the first one (guided by the straight lines etched on the ground). At least, I'm pretty sure there were.

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    8. I think I have an answer for your question above -- "how did David know there were more ships?". I've seen the film only once, but I remember noticing that there were several of the temple-like structures visible in the distance behind the one they explored. They were visible in the shot as the Prometheus came in to land, guided by the straight-line etchings on the ground.

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    9. Good point about the presence of other ships and how David knew, but how come there is no mention of this in Aliens when there are terraformers making the planet habitable - wouldn't they have found other ships in their investigation of the planet?

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    10. Anskov: The Moon in Prometheus and the planet in Alien/Aliens are two different planets (liv-426 vs lv-223).

      Regarding the final scene: I thought the alien coming out of the engineer looked a lot like a not fully grown version of the alien queen in Aliens. Could it have been the "birth" of the queen?
      If so: how the h.... Does the queen move to lv-426?

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    11. If it is a young queen, then she might not be the same one that is on LV426 in Aliens, a different alien could grow from a different Engineer to make her. Nice theory though.

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    12. The young alien queen at the end of prometheus probably roams the planet till she finds another ship then lays her eggs.
      The eggs hatch, the face hugger gets one of the engineers. He wakes up oblivious to the fact he's been impregnated and heads for his destination(sitting in his captains chair). The alien bursts out his chest, he crashes on lv426???

      How does that sound?

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    13. Sounds like it could work, the queen could even catch a ride on the ship with the engineer. I'm guessing Scott's going to do something much more unnecessarily complex though, that will leave far more plot strands open.

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  13. The lack of context bugged me. In Aliens there's a bit where a character refers to the mission being "Another bug hunt", which hints that maybe they've had to do battle with other - perhaps, less dangerous - alien life forms before. In Prometheus it's unclear whether or not this is the very first time that humanity has encountered proof of life on other planets. If it is, you'd think they'd actually be a bit more excited about finding any evidence of it at all. "HOLY SHIT - there's a pyramid thing there! And, I know our expert geologist hasn't mentioned this, but part of the top of it seems to be carved into a GIANT freakin' SKULL!"

    I took the opening scene to be a visiting engineer giving up his DNA to create new life on earth, or somewhere similar. But it seemed a bit of an odd way to do it; also his DNA looked so charred and destroyed by the process it looked like he'd have been better off just masturbating into a stream and hoping for the best.

    If the black goo was sent to earth with an engineer to create intelligent life in an act of self-sacrifice, that seems a generous, positive thing to do. So why, when the engineers turn on humanity, do they think "HaHA! We'll... send them some more black goo! That'll destroy them!" Maybe they were just tickled by the irony of using the same stuff that created life to wipe it out, but it seems a bit of an unpredictable substance to use for that ("Erm, captain, you know how we thought this mission to earth would destroy humanity? Well, humanity seems to have given birth to a load of big squid-like monsters that are even more dangerous than us. Except for the random humans that became zombies, for no consistent reason." "Doh!")

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    1. Hahaha.

      I totally agree.

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    2. Agreed, it's an insane plan. The Engineers deserve everything they've had and got coming to them, especially being in this film.

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    3. I wondered if the Engineer's body was destroyed so that he would not be in the fossil record. But even that doesn't make sense.

      Also, after the sizzled DNA is loose in the water, you see cells dividing, as in the early stages of gestation. What were those cells? The beginning of a human? Growing in what? Am I a dope for not understanding this?

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    4. You're not a dope, it's completely unclear. It wasn't until after the film that I had to have it explained to me that the scene at the start was an Engineer creating life on Earth, that didn't come across to me at all. The science in this film is bewildering and non-sensical.

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  14. Forgive me if I am repeating what has been said before, but:
    -how are we supposed to make the leap from stone vases to eggs?
    -how are we supposed to make the leap from a plant-like alien bud that opens like butterfly wings to a face hugger?
    -how (and why) does the engineer who chased Shaw get back into his command seat in the already crashed space ship where he will be found by the crew of the Nostromo years later? The film makes it clear that there was only one engineer still alive. Why have him die in Vicker's escape pod where his body is completely wrecked when the fully formed alien emerges? In Alien, it looks as tho' a chest burster came out of him and he was at the helm when it happened.
    -what was the point of the opening scene with the engineer ingesting the alien DNA?

    I did enjoy the exoskeleton suits for the engineers and many aspects of the film but plot-wise it was pretty dumb. I felt like the fans of the film knew the Aliens movies more than the writer of Prometheus.

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    1. Anskov, Prometheus does not occur on LV426, the planet that the Nostromo arrives at in Alien. So the Jockey killed in his seat there is another pilot of another ship with another story, not the Jockey killed after chasing Shaw down. Confusing? Not anymore. Stupid? Yes.

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    2. Ah! Now I understand. Thanks for the clarification!

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  15. (Apologies if these three points have been made already, I haven't read through all of the comments!)

    1)If the moon/planet was a military instalation (as Janek puts it) why would the Engineers leave cave paintings inviting us to it/pointing the way? Forcing is to go there through our own curiousity didn't seem to be part of the grand, sinister scheme to wipe us all out.

    2) During the "Weyland washing feet" sequence, there is a bodyguard dressed all in black in the background. His fate is never revealed; he doesn't venture out with the others to see the Engineer so I presume he is still aboard the ship when Janek crashes it - funny that, he gave Vickers, Chance and Ravel the option to leave but pretty much signed that guy's death warrant.

    3) During the "beginning of life" sequence, one of these Engineers completely sacrifices himself. Surely these higher beings with huge levels of intelligence could have found away to spread DNA without killing one of their own... unless of course it was some kind of ritual, but that is never confirmed.

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    1. 1. My guess is that the Engineers didn't want to hang around watching us to see how mankind developed, instead they gave us directions to a battle ready planet, so that if we ever arrived and posed a threat they could take us out, although that theory has as many holes in it as the film.

      2. No idea, Janek may not have known his existence if he was with Weyland the whole time.

      3. I'm guessing some kind of religious sacrifice, hence the shedding of the robe etc.

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  16. I have horrible feeling that there is most definitely a directors cut version which will probably give us more answers. If we are to assume the black goo causes evolution (well kind of) presumably the Alien esk version at the end of the film was the primitive version. If there's a sequel it would be good to see Shaw take on the space jockeys. Maybe she discovers other versions of the eggs/vases.

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    1. I have high hopes for a sequel, perhaps it would help fill in some if the blanks from this film, and there is potential for some Engineer ass-kicking.

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  17. How come after the sandstorm there isn't as much as a scratch on their visors?
    Why does the hologram of Earth resemble modern Earth and not how it would have looked at the dawn of man?
    Why do a bunch of supposedly intelligent scientists act so dumb?
    I think the answer is the fact that it was written by the writers of "Cowboys & Aliens" and "The Darkest Hour".

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    1. Visors made from gorilla glass?
      Excellent point about the Earth hologram, maybe they went back to check? The Engineers have only been dead 20,000 years, I don't think the continents have changed that much.
      Because it's Hollywood.
      Yes.

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  18. I thought the original Engineer was playing the role of Prometheus, giving its life to create us. Perhaps it was acting alone against the will of its people?

    The whole plot may be like that of A C Clarkes 3001: the Engineers have monitored us for millennia and since the 20th century was a bloodbath decided to kill a dangerous experiment.

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    1. The killing a dangerous experiment theory is along the lines I was thinking of too. It begs the question of what is mankind going to do in the next 77 years between now and the discovery of the cave paintings to push the Engineers over the edge.

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    2. They can't have been monitoring us because the accident on the alien planet happened 2,000 years ago. Given that the ship already had the coordinates set for earth, if that's what you take the holographic scene David saw to mean, then they had already decided to wipe us out.

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    3. Good point. Hopefully if they make any sequels we'll get some answers then.

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  19. Just another one to add into the mix.... why was Weyland a Hologram at the presentation and saying that he would be long dead and resting in peace etc when David, Vickers and and least the unexplained bodyguard character and feet washers knew he was alive and onboard the Prometheus?

    Also what gave Weyland the idea that he could just rock up to an alien moon, have a nice chat with the Engineers and that they could give him immortality?

    The more I think about it the more annoying this film gets....

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    1. I'm not sure that the feet washers knew he was on board at that point, I'm fairly sure there's a scene somewhere when Shaw was in the operating pod where he showed up to the rest of the crew, we just didn't get to see it. His being a hologram at the start is just the adding in of another twist that didn;t need to be there, didn't add anything and no-one cares about.

      I'm guessing Weyland had gotten so close to death that he'd take such a long shot over certain death-of-old-age.

      After I saw the film I didn't think it was that bad either, but the more plot holes people point out to me the less I like it and the less likely it seems I'm going to ever watch it again.

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  20. Ok after reading all the comments last night here's my take on a few of your points (a few may be what other people have already wrote)

    1) Probably because he can and probably because he is trying to do human activities, although I dont know many people who ride bikes and play basketball at the same time! ha

    2)As said they were really excited about finding the planet, and I'm sure if there were some life forms nearby then it would show up on some sensor in the ship.

    3) This is rather annoying as there's nothing which explains it, I did read that someone said it could be somewhat of a ships log but if that's the case why do they appear to show up now and again and there's no database to see a list of them or anything like that.

    4) I think you can see the drivers arm when they're first getting into the minibus when they're still in the ship

    5) Yes this bit was weird but as mentioned by Janek they couldn't leave because the storm would've killed them, but I'm sure Janek could've directed them to somewhere safe.

    6) Prehaps he does so to make sure no one finds out his true motives.

    7) I'm guessing the reason they went in there was because it looked like the only safe place and it was the only place they'd really explored in the yet undiscovered ship.

    8) This part was rather annoying, there were many crew who were introduced at the start but never expanded on. For example the asian guy and his friend who made bets only really appeared again at the end when they went onto die.

    9) As mentioned earlier there were many other crew who didn't really appear later in the film so I'm guessing they were looking after it whilst he went out.

    10) Again as mentioned by someone else, prehaps he was hoping it would be the key to helping Weyland gain immortality. That or he was annoyed with the constant insluts by Holloway

    11) Yes this didn't make much sense other than I suppose it being the only place he knew, but it wouldn't explain why humans seem to get killed/mutated and the Engineers just dissolve.

    12) A rather confusing part, why if David had a different motive to everyone else would he tell her what would kill her? Or prehaps he wanted the thing out and knew she would try to get it out.

    13) No one else seemed to know about her being pregnant so that's my only guess as to why no one was watching her.

    14) Yeah it would've been good to see her breakdown but her characters rather similar to Ripley and she never brokedown as such.

    15) We only see about 4 people with him at the time, one of which was the ships medic I believe so makes sense as to why she'd know he was on the ship.

    16) Haha yeah but then again it's kind of like black people in tv series, they always seem to get killed off after the first 2 seasons!

    17) Classic hollywood there, I guess if you wanna think about it logically Vickers was too scared to think about what she was actually doing.

    18) Yeah didn't make sense, Fifield and Milburn must've been out there for about 10 hours or so. Can't really think of an explanation for that one.

    19) Yeah weird, goes from being tiny to huge, prehaps if there's a sequel this and many other unanswered questions will be explained. Also how was the Engineer-Xenomoprh so big at birth? Unless that was a queen alien.

    20) Prehaps the same thing which killed all the Engineers in the first ship killed the other Engineers, but really should've been explained.


    I think the biggest dissapointment for me was that the films original question was never answered and it kind of got diverted from the main question. Let's hope for a sequel.


    Also, I did like someone suggesting the Engineer at the start of the film being 'Prometheus' that was a good analogy!

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    1. The last comment about the first engineer being a variant of Prometheus is interesting;

      Assuming one of the engineers stole the ability to create life, then took it to earth, and that is what we see in the beginning, we suddenly understand why the Engineers would want to destroy us again... That would make a bit of sense. We were simply a mistake that should be fixed.

      ... but why did they also want to destroy life on all those other planets then? Hmm...

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    2. 1. I suppose it coulc be like Bishop's knife trick in Aliens, it's a way to impress people maybe? And the reson you don't see many people riding bikes and playing basketball simultaneously is because they can't. If I could, I doubt I'd ever stop :)

      2. Agreed lifeforms would probably show up, I'd have just likes a little more protocol.

      4. I'll take your word for this, but if there was a driver there they should have shown more.

      7. Yes they'd been there before, but this was the very room that caused them to be scared, and has lifeforms they were just trying to get away from in it, so it should be the last place they stay in, and as soon as they see something move they should, immediately after soiling themselves, flee in the direction the lifeforms weren't in.

      9. I still think one of the other nameless characters should have ventured out instead of Janek, it would have made it a bit tenser as they;d have been more likely to die (though we'd have cared less about them). I think Idris Elba just wanted a bit of action, or they wanted to give his character something to do other than stand up at the front of the ship after he's ordered everyone else to sit down as he lands the ship.

      12. I think even if Shaw hadn't wanted to get the alien out, it would have made it's own arrangements!

      14. I had issues with her character trying to be an almost copy of Ripley, a little more humanity could have done wonders for setting them apart.

      17. I'm pretty sure one day I'm going to die by not running sideways from a giant ball coming towards me, and my last moments alive are going to be me realising, when it's too late,and begging forgiveness from all the Hollywood writers for depicting an accurate portrayal of panic.

      I like how the film has come under so much flak (admittedly mainly from myself) yet most people are still clamouring for a sequel!

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  21. What I also want to know is:

    1. They said that the Engineers were about to leave the planet before it all went wrong. How did it all go wrong? If the aliens had killed them then surely the place would already be infested with them rather than the first one being 'born' via the last living Engineer as the ending seems to imply.

    2. I appreciate that Elizabeth couldn't return to earth as that would contradict the Alien story of them not knowing what was happening before responding to the distress signal however it seems a bit bizarre deciding to rock up at the planet where the Engineers, who will probably want to kill her, with just her and a decapitated android.

    3. It also leaves the question that why didn't the crew in Alien know a bit of background about the mission to LV426 or at least were able to do a background check before heading there?

    4. I take it Prometheus is just totally disregarding Alien vs Predator? Because to me, the ending seems to imply that the first Alien was born on New Year's Day in 2094 but in Alien vs Predator there was already an Alien queen deep frozen on earth...!

    Perhaps I'm missing the point on some of these but they seem like major plot holes to me.

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    1. Ignore Question 3! I just realised my own foolishness, it was a diferent planet in Alien!

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    2. 1. No idea, hopefully a sequel will answer this one.

      2. David's body was still working post-decapitation, so he might have been able to repair himself to some extent, so I don't think Shaw is that alone, though whether David, the robot who brought about most of this destruction and caused her to be impregnated with an alien trying to kill her from the inside, can be trusted. As for why she set out to attack the Engineers, I doubt Shaw is thinking terribly clearly, and is probably out for revenge. She may have nothing left on Earth worth going back for, seeing as her parents and partner are dead and the one thing she truly believed in - the Engineers - are a bunch of dicks.

      3. You're not the first to miss the different planet/moon thing, don't worry. They didn't make it that clear in the film, but I think that was more for Alien buff smugness.

      4. I think AVP has been wisely ignored from the saga. Think of it more as fan fiction, like Terminator 3.

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  22. Well one thing that really bugs me, and sorry if I missed this, but in Alien is there not a Space Jockey sitting in the cockpit with a hole in his chest?
    Why did they not put this in the film? The Space jockey that had been impregnated could of woken up, stumbled a bit, struggled to get back to the ship, sat in the char then boom there is your scene. Made me so angry.

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    1. Prometheus is set on a different planet/moon, Alien is set on LV426 whereas Prometheus is on LV223

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    2. ^bs adam k, you know what the original intention was.

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  23. Thanks for your article and the list!
    I had most of them buggering me too since I watched that movie, like you said, it's pretty good, but it makes little sense.

    One question I asked myself :
    - What are the odds for David's head to roll near his body after the ship's crash ?
    Imagine that, take off, maneuvers, Prometheus kicking it in the groin, crashing and rolling (literally) all over the place, BUT the head manages to get close enough to the body and the mic.
    Maybe the white goo is some kind of glue ?

    And again why does the Engineer go look for Shaw ? He should know there are other ships waiting for him to go and eradicate Earth, but no, human hunt became the priority, somehow.

    About the whole David "motives", I personnally think that he only wants to kill everyone. Turned buggy after 2 years being by himself in the Prometheus (who ride a bicycle and play basketball at the same time ?), he "wants to kill his father" like he mentionned at one point in the movie.
    Clicking every button there is in the cave, collecting black goo and feeding it to Holloway, bringing Weyland to meet the Engineer even if he certainly knows they aren't friendly anymore.

    (It helps to try to figure things ouf of this mess, doesn't it ? ^^ )

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    1. My pleasure.

      It's a good point about the head, I'd forgotten it got decapitated before the ship took off, there's no chance it would have stayed by the body, and without a scratch on it (other than the missing body) after going through such turmoil.

      Maybe the Engineer thought Shaw was going to take out the rest of the Engineers? And he seemed pretty eager to kill her earlier, and her causing his ship to crash has probably built up a pretty ravenous hunger for vengeance. Stupid move on his part though.

      David wanting to kill everyone is certainly the most complete theory that explains his motives, it just would have been nice if it'd been cleared up a little.

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  24. Well, 'the movie waffler' 1, 'life vs film' 0. The Earth would have looked different 20-35,000BP. On the hologram you can clearly see the British Isles as a seperate land mass from the rest of Europe, this only happened about 8,000BP after the last ice age. This was just one of several half baked and poorly researched scientific inconsistencies. I really hope they get something a little bit tighter and consistent for the next two installments. X

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    1. I'm not sure I've understood the problem with the Earth looking present-day-ish. For all we know, the starmap could be a real-time-super-scan of the present sky and not some map stored in the old computer.

      Or....
      (maybe I'm wrong) but haven't the Engineers been active on LV-223 until 2-3000 years ago where it all went haywire? If the ship had an auto-update feature that worked until then, the starmaps would be updated with new images of Earth...

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    2. Anon: this isn;t a competition, I'm just speculating me theories, apologies if my knowledge of plate tectonics and continental drift isn't up to scratch.

      J: I like your theories. The map being incorrect is a pretty minor plot hole, so I'm going to assume one of yours as being correct, probably the real-time scan. If they can get to us and create life, they can leave some kind of satellite to monitor what our planet looks like. The real question is, why go to so much trouble?

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  25. Other plot-holes aside, how do you explain Davids ability to read and speak the engineers language? Did the Weyland Company already know about this alien race referred to as the engineers and is that why David was trying to re-create the alien "weapon" by infecting Holloway and preserve the alien fetus in cryostasus i.e. like the Weyland company was tying to do since the first Alien movie?!

    Mark

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    1. David spent the two years travelling to LV-223 studying languages, and he says at one point that he thinks he can talk to them, so I'm guessing from the control panels he looked at he was able to deduce the roots of their language being from another one already discovered within the universe, although this could be the first evidence anyone on Earth has of life in space, so this is just a guess. The Engineers' language may even be similar to an Earth one.

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  26. Just wanted to float the idea that there is no clear evidence that the Engineer at the beginning of the movie actually trying to seed Earth with DNA. All we saw was an Engineer disrobe then drink the black liquid. It could well have been an attempt at suicide for whatever reason. The Engineers know that the black liquid destroys them and their genetic material (as seen again when the severed Engineer's head explodes due to exposure to the black liquid), I think it seemed like a bit of a fluke that any DNA material actually "lived". I know this poses some massive questions like why was this one Engineer killing himself? and why on Earth? It also might answer a few questions, like why do the Engineers want to destroy us? Because we're mistakes that were never meant to happen.

    Just a thought.

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    1. Nice theory, certainly one that hasn't come up here before. It doesn't explain the cave paintings in the various civilisations, but then what does?

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    2. Yeh no answer for that apart from massively speculative theories. Guess will have to wait until the sequel for more answers... argh the suspense.

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  27. 'Ancient civilizations who had no contact with one another' - erm, the Hittites and the Egyptians had plenty of contact with one another.

    The Engineers apparently went to the trouble of visiting multiple ancient human civilizations and telling them where their military outpost was, then promptly decided (around 2000 years ago) that humanity ought to be wiped out.

    It's also kind of hilarious that a single android working alone can reverse-engineer all human languages to the point that he's able to understand the Engineers and communicate with them, but the 'ECIU' system in Alien couldn't understand the Space Jockeys' transmission.

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    1. All good points that I can't explain. Thanks for reading.

      Delete
    2. ooooooo that's a good one from Alien. My only explanation is that the computer on Alien was far more basic and as it was a mining ship, less likely to be programmed for reverse cycling languages. David is left for two years, maybe he had more time than the ECIU. Also David doesn't return to earth so far, obviously he never does to relay that info over.

      Also, in Aliens the reference of "Another bug hunt" could have been because LV226 was infested and other shit got out. Maybe it's the birth place of all these "Bug hunts"

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    3. ...decided (around 2000 years ago) that humanity ought to be wiped out...

      Maybe crucifying Jesus was the last straw.

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    4. decided (around 2000 years ago) that humanity ought to be wiped out.

      Maybe crucifying Jesus was the last straw.

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    5. That's an interesting theory, and would bring a new level of depth to Shaw's religious views. But it might not have been the crucifixion that Engineers had a problem with, it could just as well have been Jesus' birth...

      Delete
  28. Most of these are not even plot holes, what a joke. Are you being paid per plot hole?

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    1. I could have separated them into Plot Holes, Parts That Don't Make Sense and Unexplained Bits, but figured this was easier as they'd all be under one roof. I'm struggling to work out how you'd be offended by that.

      Delete
    2. Because you call them all plot holes, when they are clearly not, that is why. You bring up some great points, but ruin it by the majority not being what the title says.

      How can anyone not be offended by an incorrect title. It distracts from the point at hand.

      I came here to discuss plot holes, not your simple problems with choices that the director made. Who cares about why the android changed its mind, or why a coward became curious. Plot holes on the other hand are something that should be avoided and discussed.

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    3. I agree that the title is a tad too specific for some of the ideas I mentioned, and that plot holes should be avoided, but the two things you discussed could be read as involving plot holes.

      Character motivations are part of the plot, so if they are unclear then that could be considered a plot hole. Millburn and Fifield becoming more curious instead of cowardly is more of an inconsistency, unless there is a scene or line of dialogue missing that explains their actions. For example, there could be more explanation as to why the vase chamber is the only room they decide to stay in - temperature, perhaps?, or why Millburn feels the need to try and pet the alien he discovers, for example it could remind him of a species he has already heard about and recognises as friendly.

      I'm only speculating here, but many of the things I listed could be viewed as plot holes, and indeed several aren't.

      I don't want to get into a big argument over semantics, so I'm going to leave it at what I've said. I collected together the problems that I had with the script and plot, and posted them all under the heading of Plot Holes. If you disagree, then fine.

      Delete
  29. I post about the dodgy science in Prometheus here: http://creepytreehouse.wordpress.com/

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    1. Apologies for the lack of scientific know-how in mine. You've expanded upon some great points. Thanks for the link too.

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  30. I have a few thoughts to add and questions that were raised for me by the film;

    In one of the chambers (maybe the one with the jars oozing the black goo) there was a relief carving of what looked like a fully developed Alien. There was also a weird egg like object that when a light was shone through it appeared a transluscent green. To me it looked like some kind of shrine. Anyone have any thoughts about that?

    Also in the holo-recording playbacks - it looked like the Engineers were fleeing from something and there was the pile of bodies of the Engineers that were found - didn't one of the corpses have their chests burst open and someone commented on it?

    I'm really intrigued by the connection between the Engineers and the Aliens - had it not been for the above two things I would have said that the creation of the Aliens was random chance caused by a chain of events triggered by the arrival of the Prometheus but instead there seems to be a pre-existing relationship between the two.

    Any thoughts on all this would be welcomed.

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    1. I must have missed those moments, sorry, can't suggest anything for them.

      I'd definitely say there's a pre-existing relationship, and I'm looking forward to hopefully finding out more about it should any sequels/DVD extras come around.

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    2. He/she is right... during the scene where they first venture into the "head room" Holloway goes off towards the back of the room.

      He shines his torch through something that appears green and says "this is just another tomb". Whatever this 'thing' is is never explained, nor explored further - it's just another unanswered question in this film, of which there are many.

      I know that doesn't add to explanation, but I thought I'd clear it up for you.

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    3. Thanks for the clarification. Might have to go and see it again and get another look.

      Delete
  31. Massive plot hole is the fact that in the Alien movie they find the space jockey still in his seat and yet in Prometheus he leaves the seat to come after Dr Shaw. This does not add up!

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    1. In Alien they discover the space jockey on the planet of LV-426, whereas Prometheus is set on LV-223, so it's a different space jockey. This wasn't really made very clear in the film, other than a brief mention of the planet name early on.

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    2. Ahh, at least that's one question cleared up for me!

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  32. For number 6, I was convinced David was just telling Vickers what she wanted to hear, rather than the truth.

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  33. Hi there,

    I have a problem with the beginning :

    - We see an Engineer in a sort of robe. I can't imagine Engineers walking in robes in their high-technology saucer, so he's allready on Earth, right ? So he wasn't "dropped" from the saucer, right ?

    - When the saucer leaves, is it because what happenned was an accident ? Or is everything "normal", as it was planned ? What is the point of showing us a saucer if the Engineer wasn't dropped from it ? The saucer was only watching ?

    - What's the point of showing us where is their weapon storage facility ?

    (Sorry for my english, I'm french.)

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    1. Hi Tim,

      Your English is fine, it's actually quite good compared to the rest of the Internet!

      I think the robe was meant to show it was some kind of religious sacrifice. I'm guessing he came from the saucer, the saucer was making sure he carried out his mission to create life on Earth, then went home.

      It's still unclear as to whether creating life was an accident or not. Maybe the engineer in the robe was testing the goo on a deserted planet, with the ship keeping a safe distance. If it wasn't meant to kill him, the engineers in the ship could have flown away in fear of what might happen.

      There's a few theories about why they showed us where their weapons facility was. I think they wanted us to go somewhere that they could kill us from if we posed a threat. If they showed us where their home planet was, they would be at risk if we were dangerous.

      Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  34. I just saw the movie and I agree with this article, the comment about the guy at the start, and I'm sure there are loads more...the movie was good but it wasen't great because of the plot holes.

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    1. It definitely would have been a lot better if they'd given the script a couple more rewrites. Thanks for reading.

      Delete
  35. What did David say to the surviving engineer that pissed him off so much ? He went postal immediately afterwards.

    But seriously, have they deliberately made this version so ropey to allow for some lucrative director's cuts, special editions et al ?

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    1. I think they wanted to leave some questions open for speculation, like Scott did with the space jockey in Alien, but they left a few too many. All beign well we'll get some more answers (and a few less questions) in a sequel.

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  36. Looks like it, maybe in a sequel there could be two queens fighting it out for dominance, that'd be pretty sweet.

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  37. I think the biggest problem is this: if the Alien at the end is made from the union of the child of a human woman who has been impregnated with goo (how would the goo get into the male protagonist's semen?) and the big giants, how come there is an anatomically correct sculpture of an "Alien" in the chamber where the giant head is?

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    1. Are you sure? I don't mean to doubt, but I completely missed that sculpture if it was there. If it is, then that blows most of the theories here out of the water. Perhaps an Engineer has been killed by the black goo before and created an alien (it would look quite similar if it was from the union of the child of an Engineer and an adult Engineer, as they have the same DNA as humans) and the Engineers believe this creation to be some kind of evil spirit or deity that they prayed to?

      Delete
    2. Maybe it was a fossil of an alien, from when they killed the engineers.

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    3. Yeah that sounds like a possibility. I'm going with a statue though, seeing as the Engineer head was perfectly preserved in the vase chamber, so it would make sense that an alien would be too, unless it decomposed somehow to become the weird black goo.

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  38. Engineer goes mental. kills everyone - Shaw runs away up the tunnel. If i'm right in thinking the ship is buried at the deepest point of the cave system then how on gods earth does she get to the surface before the ship has even taken off?! The only explanation I can offer is that the sandy wind that blows up the tunnel as the ship is taking off blows her up a conveniently placed vertical vent!

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    1. Valid point, I'll add it to the list, thanks!

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  39. So the atmosphere outside is deadly but inside it's breathable, with no air-lock or anything. So they all take off their helmets - and leave them somewhere! They don't know the breathable air extends throughout the whole building, they don't know it's permanent, they don't know they won't get lost or come out through a different exit. Just one more spectacularly dumb move by supposedly intelligent people.

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    1. Yep, you travel for 2 years and 4 months, costing billions of dollars, and the first thing one of the leading scientists just takes off his helmet, just to check. It's ludicrous and pure dumb Hollywood BS.

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  40. If the pup scanner thingies were there to pick up signs of life (which they did- one of them could detect the still alive engineers beyond the door inside the alien ship)- why didn't they detect the worms?

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    1. Good point. Maybe they were too small? The pups probably wouldn't pick up bacteria, so they probably have a size cutoff point maybe. There should have been a line of dialogue ("They'll find anything bigger than a womp rat") explaining that if it;s the case.

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  41. Has anyone even mentioned how amazingly fast Noomi (post-op) was, to cover so much distance with only 2 mins of air left... and with 30 sec to spare? Or how CT was so quick getting into her suit after running down corridors, and having boot trouble, again after a 2min warning? Does time pass slower on LV223?

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    1. Well it's more of a surprise that Shaw can walk at all after the operation. Maybe having an alien growing inside gives you super powers of healing and speed.

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  42. The major plot hole for me was: why did the Engineers go around all these ancient civilisations leaving star maps, pointing to a planet that was at that time deserted, which they later decided to turn into a war factory to make a bio-weapon to wipe us all out?
    Shaw dated that Engineer head at 2000 years old, the star maps left on Earth were all much older.
    If they liked us at that point why didn’t they leave a map to their home planet? Or if they intended to wipe us out all along and wanted to trick us into coming to the Planet of Doom, why not build it in our own solar system instead of one “several light years from Earth.”
    Also what was Shaw's actual job? At first she was supposed to be an archaeologist, but as the film progressed she morphed into this all-round super scientist: Reanimating 2000 year old decapitated heads, analysing DNA, operating on herself…

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    1. I think Shaw was a generic scientist, along with Holloway, but you're right she does seem to be fairly adept.

      Delete
  43. although what were the Aliens running from in the holographic recording? Why is it never seen? Where did it's skeleton go? How come there is no evidence of other creatures.

    My theory is, Maybe there was a war between the Aliens. Some were in favour of destroying earth and other places. Some were not. So a battle happened...thus there only being one type of body on the planet.

    Think James Bond film where the villain builds a big base where he fires a missile from only to have the British secret service raid it and blow them all away.

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  44. actually scratch that last comparison, it makes it sound lame. But it is plausible. Humans fight amongst ourselves, why not them too?

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  45. It's very possible that the Engineers could have been fighting amongst themselves. It's been suggested on here that the creation of life on Earth may have been done by a rogue group, and the others may have wanted to kill us, seeing us as an abomination unto whatever it is they believe in.

    Yes, good sci-fi does raise questions, but I think the amount this raises is possibly too many for its own good.

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  46. Saw it last night. One thing that didn't make sense to me was when they entered the planet's atmosphere - how did they just happen upon the pyramids. I mean I don't recall them doing a scan of the planet beforehand and they could have entered the atmosphere from literally anywhere, yet when they came in just around the corner they found them!

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    1. Which begs the questions that are these pyramids dotted all over the planet? Does each one have a black goo vase chamber? Or maybe something worse? Good point.

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  47. Heres one, supposedly this was a precursor to the aliens movies and that the space jockeys somehow are related to the aliens. In the original Alien, the viewer is left wondering what exactly happened to the space jockeys and what their correlation to the creation of aliens are. Apparently, the ending of the film shows that the first alien was created by an embryo implanted in a space jockey. When the alien pops out of the space jockey, it resembles somewhat of a de-evolved form of a xenomorph implying that it was the first xenomorph and ready to evolve into what we know today, this all happening in 2094. However, in the Alien vs Predator series and Predator 2, the same xenomorph form we know have already been existent before this movie. So what was the point of that alien being born if those aliens were already existent more than 2000 years earlier for the predators to hunt? What...the..fuck? As an Alien fan, I am severely disappoint at the many inconsistencies this movie has to offer.

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    1. I think they chose to ignore the existence of the AVP films (as indeed do I), in the same way that Terminator Salvation ignored the ending of Terminator 3.

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  48. Not sure if these has already been posted but...

    In the opening shot, why does the 'engineer' kill himself when he sees the disc emerge? Only for it to fly off before he's even dropped into the waterfall? Who did the disc belong to?

    In the other Alien films (and Alien vs Predator films) the Alien takes on part of the DNA of the host. However in the final shot of the alien bursting out of the 'engineer' it has somehow taken on his suit. It should in fact be a pale white alien.

    To say I'm massively disappointed in the film and still reeling from how bad and predictable is, is an understatement.

    Great blog by the way!

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    1. Thanks, and thanks for reading.

      You make a good point about the saucer at the start (I'd pretty much forgotten it existed, I got so caught up on all the other plot holes).

      As for the alien not looking enough like an Engineer, I think the alien only takes on some of the physical characteristics of its host, for example the one that grew out of John Hurt in Alien didn't look like a human at all, but it was bipedal and had two arms and a distinct head, whereas the weird dog-thing in Alien3 was a quadruped with a longer tail.

      I wasn't as disappointed as you I think, it was still a decent film, it just needed some more work on the script.

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  49. How did they find the alien ships so soon after entering the moons atmosphere? This would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

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    1. Yeah it seems like a bout of good old fashioned Hollywood luck, or there were ships literally covering the surface.

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  50. wtf dude you missed the MAIN plot hole and focused on the most meaningless non-trivial bullshit, granted i didn't read all the points you made but 3/4 of the way through I was fed up wit what you were bringing up.

    So first one alien sacrifices himself for life on earth.

    Then we find out that the facility is for military purposes and that they are developing deadly biological weapons and were intending to test them on humans. (certified by the actions of the woken alien)The girl is aware of this.

    Then she says "lets go to there planet" Now I assumed that was because she was going to use the biological weapons on the aliens. but then she says shes going to ask them why they changed there mind on killing the human race.... WTF they didn't! that's why the alien attempted to do it again.

    that was the main plot hole!

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    1. The Engineers did change their mind, in that they originally created humans, then changed their minds and decided to destroy them. Shaw has been built up throughout the entire film as being a very curious person, and at the end all she has left in the universe is a desire to know more about the origins of humanity. She has no husband or parents left back on Earth, and was willing to travel for 2 1/2 years on a whim, so it's fair to say she wants to know more about the Engineers. If she has nothing left to live for, why not go for more information?

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  51. Small thing but the geologist claims he "effing loves rocks man" and then lands on an alien planet and proceeds to show NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER in the rocks there... in fact everyone who is on the ship seems utterly disinterested in the fact that they have landed on a new planet which might explain the origins of man. They look like people working in a factory waiting for the whistle to blow throughout the whole film... also when the alien boneship crash lands very close to the two women, wouldn't that sort of impact at that close range just turn them into a bloody pile of mush and bone? that whole scene was like an expensive level of an old Crash Bandicoot game. grrrr the more I think about that film, the worse it gets.

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    1. Both good points. I'm guessing they tried to make the characters more relatable to those of us who aren't necessarily excited about our everyday jobs, but this is inexcusable when they should be showing a mixture of boundless excitement, curiosity and apprehension at everything new around them.

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    2. Why did Charles get the same exploding-head virus as the humanoid aliens when he was infected with the black goo, but when he had sex with Shaw, she was impregnated with a Face-Hugger baby instead of becoming infected with the same virus?

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    3. Maybe if the goo is in your blood stream it has a different effect to being just free inside the body? In the blood it cam infect everything, whereas in the womb it's got the right environment to grow? Just guessing.

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  52. Oh Ridley, you could have stolen fire from the gods themselves, yet instead it’s a trip to A&E as you burn your fingers on the frying pan of the hype.

    Let me start by saying that this film is actually not too shabby, and it looks astoundingly good. However, if I wanted to look a something beautiful that has very little in the way of plot, I'd have gone to an art gallery.

    The film wasn’t bad, but it lacked the depth of character that is necessary for a truly great film. I like dark characters, but not everyone on the ship has to act like a massive arsehole, there needs to be some likeable characters to balance it out. Obviously Shaw is a good character, but you can make cases for the entirety of the rest of the crew being people you wouldn’t want to hang around with, examples being:

    The ridiculously negligent captain Janek who basically says "u mad bro?" when two of his crew get trapped in the dome,

    The two co-pilots whose only character development is a bet in which the winner gets a hundred credits to put towards a "striptease fund" for Vickers,

    The aforementioned Vickers being the biggest corporate C.E.O bitch imaginable,

    The geologist Fifield is hugely aggressive and ridiculously cynical (and he's the voice of reason on many occasions!),

    The biologist Milburn, who tries to be friendly, but then acts like a weedy kid hanging around a bully (Fifield) and picking up the bad habits,

    Weyland himself, who is a typical rich live-forever-at-any-cost ruthless bastard,

    David is a crazy android who does whatever it takes to sate his massive curiosity (brilliantly played, excusably and necessarily nasty however),

    and even the boyfriend Holloway who at first comes across as alright, then has to spoil it by being impatient("I wanna open my presents." -___-), fairly smug throughout, and to top it off is unnecessarily hostile towards David (I know David turns out to be morally questionable, but this hostility predates David's more questionable tactics).

    Hardly an advert for humanity. I'm surprised David didn't just kill the whole crew out of embarrassment for his creators.

    Now, obviously I don’t think that all the characters in the film need to be honourable and just, but this amount of unsympathetic characters is bound to (funnily enough) create an unsympathetic audience.

    The other problem with the characters in Prometheus which has been much highlighted in the comments is the contradictory nature of the crew. I don’t normally have a problem with complicated characters, as humans by nature are a complicated bunch, and we tend to act very differently and adapt to different circumstances, disregarding morals for the "greater good" or even personal benefit for example, which is why I liked District 9's Wikus Van Der Merwe so much, but the nature of the crew of the Prometheus is beyond stupid. It’s Lazy. This is what annoys me about the film. They just needed to give the script another two months of work, and they could have made a fantastic piece of cinema.

    Still, it looks gorgeous, and it gives Mr. Scott an opportunity to release a director’s cut to massive critical acclaim and financial success.

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    1. I agree with everything you said, all very well put. I got the feeling that all of the actors sat down and worked out their exact motivations and who their characters would be, without stopping to realise that if they do that, no-one is going to like them and even less people are going to care about them. They also focused too much on the individual character types (bitch, casual, risk-taker) but forgot about what they all did for a living.

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  53. Why did Charles get the same exploding-head virus as the humanoid aliens when he was infected with the black goo, but when he had sex with Shaw, she was impregnated with a Face-Hugger baby instead of becoming infected with the same virus?

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    1. Maybe the goo acts differently depending on the environment it's in? If ingested into the mouth it goes directly to the eyes, and in the womb it... nope, I don't know, I agree with the previous answer.

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  54. When the crew see the first hologram of the Engineers, they run into the room full of Black Goo Vases. The last of the four is a little slower and ends up getting killed by the shutting door. What happened to the other three? They all ran into that room, and the the body of the one killed by the door is nice and preserved, but when the crew enter that room their bodies are nowhere to be found.

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    1. Maybe they became the black goo? Although the severed head remained perfectly preserved, so that's probably not the case. Don't know I'm afraid, I wasn't even sure that they made it into the chamber.

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  55. Your #1 point is quite pathetically weak. Regardless of he being man or machine, not moving would cause a machine to get rusty to to speak, riding around shooting hoops is simply a form of movement to make sure he stays sharp.

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    1. I get that he should move around to stop seizing up, but playing basketball whilst riding a bike seems like overkill to me. Do they not have the issue of the more stuff they take with them, the more expensive the flight will be? A bicycle seems fairly superfluous in space. I thought there might have been a payoff with it later, with a character needing to use it to either escape from an Engineer or to throw in its path, but no.

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    2. And ripely played bball

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  56. To clear up the "why is the Space Jockey able to breathe outside" idea, don't forget as they entered one of the scientists, I believe the biologist, said that they "it would be like breathing in highly polluted air" or something of that nature. Meaning it would suck ass to breathe that, but it's entirely possible (as my neighbors in Los Angeles will tell you...)

    Also, there is no definitive proof that the Space Jockey is flying the ship to Earth - that's entirely speculation. Yes, David finds Earth, and yes it's little hologram is shown but....what of it? That could just be a map, who says it's a navigation chart or a routing map? Perhaps he really misses his family, or wants to find out what happened to his people/etc?

    On an Alien fansite I read that the Space Jockey's had warring factions and that one side created the Aliens to destroy them - but they ultimately failed at controlling what they unleashed. "They were used to end a civil war that was tearing the Pilot civilization apart about ten million years ago, but apparently, it went horribly wrong."

    Source: http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Jockey

    Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the map of Earth seems entirely plausible. If the Engineers were on Earth 2-3 thousand years ago (approximately) they would definitely have a close-to-perfect map of the planet Earth. This is the time frame that the paintings are dated as. The Engineers on the ship died around 2000 years ago (or so) if my memory of the movie serves.

    But yeah, altogether I give the film a B-. So much potential, so many great ideas, but the plot/screenplay/characters/etc just fall short of glory. Indeed, we are left with endless unanswerable questions. Visually stunning, however.

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    1. Oh yeah and stop calling them pyramids, they both look like and are mentioned as "domes" in the film.

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    2. Thank you! I had wondered if I'd missed something when everyone started calling them pyramids, I didn't remember seeing any such thing in the film, but assumed they must have been there and I was still annoyed with something in the script to notice.

      Warring factions of Engineers seems like a popular theory, and one I'm on board with.

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    3. They do call them 'pyramids' in the film. Sorry.

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    4. @Alex - Yeah, wrongly so, but you're right. After watching it again two characters call them pyramids (Janek....and maybe Vickers?), but they are also called domes and actually look like domes. I really have no clue how they get pyramids out of a domed outer structure, and a crescent shaped ship/interior.

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    5. Agree it's not the right name for them at all. :)

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  57. As great as the movie looked, it is hard to enjoy it when there are so many things that make you stop and think "wait, what?"

    Here's a few more things I wondered about.

    1. The worms/bugs that the scientists step over in the room full of vases, aren't those technically aliens? If so, when they all started to look down at the vases, wouldn't one person see one and take a specimen? I think that classifies as a pretty large discovery even with a dead Engineer to study as well. Did the vipers later shown in that room evolve from these worms thanks to the black goo? Or are they a completely separate species from the xenomorphs and the worms?

    2. The mural on the ceiling. It was of humans doing something (too fast for me to make out) then it changes.....to what? Nothing? Makes no sense. Never revisited, never mentioned again. Completely pointless

    3. Why is their a huge head in the vase filled room? If it was for religious purposes, then why did they keep the either body disintegrating or head exploding goo in that room? What is the green translucent egg/gem/totem looking thing there for, and why is there an xenomorph carving on the wall? Didn't the other Engineers, the Engineers that the one who got decapitated was following, run into that room as well? Was there another door leading into that room? So far, it seems the vase filled room became a catch-all for all the plot points. Did they just plain run out of money and had to make all the action take place in the one room?

    4. Why was David eating and drinking while the crew was in stasis, when it was established later that drinking, oxygen, and even his own torso, legs and arms were not necessary for him to continue to function, if at a decreaced capacity. Lazy writing.

    5. How did the squid baby that was in Shaw grow so large? Large enough and powerful enough to overtake an Engineer, who had been shown as completely out classing humans and even David in strength. Conservation of mass does not apply I guess as well. Same for the head of the viper-alien thing, how in the hell did it grow back so quickly? Where did the mass for that growth come from?

    6. The scientist that had a viper alien slide down his throat... did the viper make him come back to the ship and give him super human strength, agility, flexibility (legs wrapped around his shoulders when he is outside the cargo door, though they may just be broken, but with either scenario...why?) and aggressive temperament to go after everyone? Was it the black goo that did so? Why did Holloway not show the same aggressiveness?

    7. The worm thing that was in Holloway's eye... does that imply he is pregnant as well? Was it with a viper or squid alien? Why would ingesting a drop of black goo lead to a small white alien worm in ones eye?

    8. Why do the Engineers need a flute like device to activate their ships, which are above and beyond any human understanding? What makes a 5-6 note melody important to run the huge, faster than light traveling space ship?

    9. If the writers wanted some poetic justice-having the huge squid face-hugger implant an engineer, they did so in the most convoluted way possible. To get to the control room in the Engineer, it was shown repeatedly and mentioned that one must walk through a cargo room full of containers that are similarly shaped as those that hold the black goo. It would have been much easier, more fufilling, and kept the stupid giant face hugger out of the film if a viper alien, which could, given it's unestablished origins, come out of said containers in the ship, after it has been rammed, crashed, rolled and flipped, which would most likely lead to at least one contained being disloged and opened. seeing four or five vipers take out an Engineer would have made the villain in the film easy to identify (not three separate aliens, plus black goo that may cause your head to explode or may body to completely disintegrate) and have served as the same creator killed by creation motif.

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    1. 1. I think the worms evoled into the creatures that attack Millburn and Fifield. My guess is that the humans were too excited over the vases of goo, decapitated alien and giant stone head to notice the worms, another example of their ignoring of any kind of protocol.

      2. Yep, could have done with more time on that, unless it serves no purpose and is just for speculating over.

      3. It seems that way. It does seem to be a temple/safe hafen/experimentation room.

      6. I think they had different levels of exposure. Holloway only had a small amount put in him, whereas Fifield took a payload to the face. Maybe if Holloway had received a greater dose, or had survived longer, then he would have gone raving insane and started killing everyone like Fifield.

      8. Maybe they saw Close Encounters :D

      9. I agree, your ending does have more poetic justice to it, but this gave them the set-up for the birth of a Xenomorph, and a bit more action.

      All good points, thanks very much.

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  58. If Weyland was never going to get his youth back than why didn't they just find an actor in his later years that didn't need any prosthetic crap all over his face... It was a terrible make up job...the oxygen and helmets thing were not cohesive... And during the storm I would have figured their suits would have tears...

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    1. I think they cast Guy Pearce more for the promo video than for his performance in the film, as his big TED speech was pretty damn good, and probably wouldn't have had the same effect if it had been from a no-name actor. I didn't think the prosthetics were that bad, but they were definitely unnecessary.

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  59. what i want to know is if the engineer was killed by the giant squid that came out of Shaw then who the hell is the space jockey in alien with his chest punctured?

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  60. (different planet: LV426=Alien & Aliens, LV223=Prometheus)

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  61. Do we know the first scene of the ancient human is on earth? The film leads us to believe it is but when the ancient human drinks the black alien goo it destroys him and scatters his DNA AND!! the alien DNA so would mean us as modern humans have the black DNA in us which wouldn't make sense!

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    1. Yeah, after watching it for the 2nd time today, more and more I saw similarities between LV223 and the location depicted in the first scene. Both are barren, mountainous, and cloudy/stormy. Both have water (though LV223 seemingly less so?). However, the explanation that we came from them (or something?) is sort of attempting to make us think that it's Earth. Especially the zooming in sequence on the DNA and then the DNA replication that followed. Either way it really makes no sense.

      Also, wouldn't the black goo/dna also be in the water as well then? So confusing...

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  62. i got another plot hole - the giant octopus impregnate the pissed off alien at the end of the movie right? When the alien finally burst out, notice the giant octopus is gone? Maybe it went for a drink after a long night

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  63. Is anyone here a StarCraft fan?
    Space Jockeys = Xel Naga - create life
    Zerg = Aliens / Xenomorphs

    Also.. if the space jockeys created 'man' (humans) .. who created plants/birds/dinosaurs/bacteria/germs/fungi??.. aaarghh.. does that mean for each individual species one of the space jockeys has to sacrifice himself? (or herself.. are there even female versions of them) and 'magically' / fluke out and make a diferrent species. ????

    the most frustrating thing was the complete lack of disdain from every single cast member. i mean.. they basically all signed up for 'a mission'.. they wake up 2 years later.. and THEN get a mission briefing???? whaat??

    How did they come to conclusion that it was a military installaion - plotting for earth? why did they 'have' to sacrifice the ship. that was moronic!

    when david woke up the space jockey, what was said.. why was there not even a little bit of attempted dialogue to understand wtf has happening. i mean.. the humans would be 'aliens' right to the jockey right?

    wouldnt the others ships (??) have black goo + other creepy crawley stuff.. of course they just walked into one and took off! ..
    -how will he doctor live? theres no human food there .. unless space jockeys eat the same food we do and those ships are well stocked. i mean.. come on!

    like kingdom of heaven i think scott will reveal a lot of plot in the directors cut.. which is incredibly frustrating, but given the huge amount of holes in this one im thinking its going to be a longshot...

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    1. Oh yeah definitely, Starcraft is a direct "ripoff" of the Alien franchise in many ways, except for the addition of the Protoss of course. I mean look at Aliens, that's where the Terran unit "dropship" gets all of its speeches from. Also the look of things is similar to Terran too.

      Starship Troopers seemingly borrowed from both as well.

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  64. also.
    engineers dna = human dna = monkey dna

    ie. engineers = monkeys :D

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  65. To adress this one if it hasnt been already
    37. The hologram of Earth resembles modern Earth, rather than how it looked at the damn of man. –The Movie Waffler

    Earth looked very similar to how it does now at the dawn of man. This is the earth 20 million years ago, a good ~15 million years before man evolved http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/20moll.jpg

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    1. And they were on Earth fairly recently in terms of human history if they were influencing our "ancient" civilizations. Easily early enough to have a detailed map of our planet. Hell with their technology they may not have even needed to visit it.

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    2. the starmap scene annoyed me. because from what i remember the starmap was activated by a hologram of the engineers..holograms = not real. how was david able to play with the earth globe.. i mean.. why was the whole starmap even triggered by a hologram? that means a hologram could theoretically press a button and the ship would take off.

      thats not sci fi. thats magic.

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  66. Is it believable that crew and scientists would sign up for a mission into deep space with over 2 years of sleep time, and wait for arrival to be finally briefed on the mission? Were they recruited for a surprise trip?

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    1. Well it could have been that it was considered "Top Secret" or perhaps they were getting paid extravagantly. But yeah, it made the entire idea fairly clunky.

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    2. That annoyed me too. I thought it might have been a re-brief, as they may have forgotten some of the key details during the 2-year cryo, but it was a bit clunky.

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  67. One thing I'd also like to point out in the difference between LV426 (Alien/Aliens) and LV223 (Prometheus).

    In 'Alien', Ash the Android locks in on a distress signal which is the start of the adventure of that film. Some way through the film, as the warning is being 'decrypted', we're told that the distress signal isn't actually a distress signal at all, but a warning.

    In 'Prometheus', there's the escape pod / lifeboat at the end which is no doubt emitting a distress signal (I vaguely remember seeing a red light on an aerial on the pod, but that could be a mistake on my part). Shaw then narrates as she's leaving the planet that she's reconfigured the distress signal as a 'warning' signal, saying 'there's nothing but death here now'.

    Seems like some awfully similar parallels between the two situations.

    Yet, in Alien, the distress signal itself is coming from the derelict space jockey ship, isn't it?

    I was pretty disappointed in this film it has to be said. Way too loose, annoying characters, needless plot points - all things many of you guys above have said.

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  68. As I watched the movie again today I tried to think of an explanation for all of the variations in terms of side effects of the goo. The only thing I could really think of is that either the Engineers were testing or using a multitude of biological weapons or that they affect people in different ways.

    #1 - Opening scene. Engineer ingests an entire cup full of the black good. He does not become impregnated, nor does he gradually go crazy/zombie/rage. Instead he almost immediately begins to...disintegrate. Making it seem as though the black goo can actually break down your cells at extremely rapid rates.

    #2 - The vases are activated when live humans enter the room. Shaw says as much during the film when she looks at the mural and discovers that it is "changing" because they were affecting the air somehow. This is also the scene that we are introduced to the alien worms digging around in the ground (which itself is an amazing discovery btw...). Once exposed to the black goo these worms do NOT disintegrate, but do apparently become infested. They then transform into cobra-esque snake-like creatures that are immensely powerful. They have acid-blood (like the xenomorphs of the other Alien films), but they are also like face-huggers because they want to get inside of your mouth (for reasons unknown however...).

    #3 - After Fiefield cuts off the snake's head he gets sprayed with their blood, which burns off his helmet. He then falls and takes a mouthful of black goo to the face. However, he doesn't simply disintegrate either. He "transforms" much as the worms do into a much more powerful, agile, and dangerous being. It takes multiple shots, plus being ran over and set on fire to destroy him.

    #4 - Charlie Halloway gets exposed to a single drop of the black goo via asshole-robot David. His symptoms manifest somewhat slowly after a day or two. He himself just seems to be slowly dying (or something). Right before Vickers torches him to death he does seem to be exhibiting irrational and rage-filled behavior, but that could just be because he's about to get torched. He does shove someone away, but not really with super-human strength. If Charlie simply would have died/disintegrated or become a super-powered-zombie like Fiefield we will never know.

    #5 - Dr. Shaw was exposed to the black goo via sex with Charlie. I do think that the term "impregnated" may be thrown around loosely in the movie, but I'm not sure. It may not have been semen that caused conception, it may have simply been the swapping of bodily fluids. Or it may have been something else. If it was actually "pregnancy" it is extremely interesting. Because perhaps it reacted to her in an entirely different way because she is a woman. She has the capability to give birth or...provide nutrients for a "fetus" in a way that a man cannot. Thus, the black goo reacted to her physical disposition in a particular way. The results of her exposure did not lead to any of the other symptoms that occurred in the other circumstances and there were no lingering/residual effects either.

    #6 - The Engineers themselves had signs of exposure to both the black goo and the xenomorphs. The head of the Engineer that was taken out of the ship seemingly had those dark/black veins bulging out, as well as ruptures or bumps along his forehead/scalp much like the other victims. Also, when Fiefield and the biologist find the large pile of dead Engineers they notice that some of their chests had burst open. However there is no evidence of xenomorphs anywhere...which could mean an interesting idea in terms of what happened to the Engineers themselves or why they had abandoned that installation for some 2000 years.

    Thus, they were either reacting different to different people or they were an array of biological weapons - or both.

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    1. Correction to #6 - now that I think of it David finds the green slime/goo that is always around when the xenomorphs are, but that scene goes no where (like most of them in this movie haha)

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  69. the starmap scene annoyed me. because from what i remember the starmap was activated by a hologram of the engineers..holograms = not real. how was david able to play with the earth globe.. i mean.. why was the whole starmap even triggered by a hologram? that means a hologram could theoretically press a button and the ship would take off.

    thats not sci fi. thats magic.

    also.. the hologram where the guy played the flute.. had volume!. holograms with volume you guys!. where are the speakers? if i dont have a flute i cant unlock the ship. presumably when they took of in the new ship, they had a flute. >:|

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  70. The entire movie focused on David being the most human person... which was annoying given that he is not.

    Conversely all the human people operated like robots with crappy coding.

    what was the need for weyland hiding? its his company, his money, his employees...bizarre.

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  71. Interesting interview here - Scott states that the ship from the original Alien on LV426 is indeed a 'brother ship' to the one(s) seen in Prometheus, not the same ship.

    So, if the same issues are arising on other planets, it basically means the Engineers lost control of the aliens all over the place. This ties in quite nicely with the original Alien/Xenomorph characters just purely there to survive and exist, however ruthlessly.

    http://screenrant.com/interview-ridley-scott-prometheus-rothc-177916/

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  72. Wow, the engineers lose control of multiple ships at once? They're pretty crappy engineers, aren't they?

    Another thing I noticed: in the opening sequence, there's plant life visible. That means that Earth DNA already existed here, before Stay-Puft disintegrates himself. That means either Earth DNA already matched Engineer DNA to being with, or Stay-Puft's DNA wiped out all existing life on Earth and replaced it with new life based on his DNA.

    Also, my biggest gripe with the film is the lack of common sense. In all the history of human expeditions to unknown civilizations, what's the first thing you pack? Big guns. Big, big guns. What's the one thing Weyland doesn't bring? He can't afford even a grenade launcher? One warship, a la Commodore Matthew Perry, would have solved the whole damn movie.

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  73. Here. I answered all of your retarded complaints. (part one of two)

    1. Would you prefer watching David sitting in a chair doing nothing? He's probably learning to become more human, or has nothing better to do.

    2. They're scientists. Their curiosity in this project is astounding.

    3. The holograms are what we use today as security cameras. "What exactly are the security cameras for?" Having dialogue about these would be expository and a waste of time.

    4. I'll give you this one, I was confused too.

    5. When he says he doesn't know where they are, it doesn't have to LITERALLY mean you don't know where they are. It's just another way of saying "I don't know why they aren't here right now."

    6. She is Wayland's daughter, of course he is going to have respect for practically his sister.

    7. Did you miss that he was smoking pot in the chamber room? Also, based on the movements of the facehugger-like alien, it appears playful. Any biologist knows this. They probably would have returned back there because it was the only place they were familiar with.

    8. Everyone else was probably already asleep, and Janek probably didn't think it would take that long to get it on with Vickers.

    9. Remember, he has two of those pilots handy at all times.

    10. He was curious AND he probably had a bit of spite towards Holloway for making all those defeating robot comments to him. I thought this was very clear... I guess not.

    11. Incase you didn't catch it, the black goo is a living thing that plays off of each character's traits. Because Fifield was a "bad" person, the black goo responded by making him become crazy. The facehugger on Millburn isn't going to evolve into a chestburster or a xenomorth, that snake like creature was what occurred when the worms encountered the black goo. There is no xenomorph DNA in it. They approached Fifield's body in the same way that you would approach a dead friend, lying on the ground in such a peculiar way.

    12. At least this one is a good complaint. But perhaps he thought there was no way possible for her to abort the baby, not taking into account that a female could use the male-designed operating machine? So what would he have to lose by telling her?

    13. They could have chased her but lost her along the way. This is another more reasonable flaw you have, though the answers don't always have to be given to you (which is a key part of Prometheus). You CAN infer, you know.

    14. Good point. I also felt like those things were unaddressed.

    15. I agree, I thought the Weyland part was dealt with in a very matter-of-fact way, as if it were to say, "of course Weyland was here the entire time, are you stupid?" But as for Vickers being his daughter, it does validate her actions and I'd say it does add to her characteristics, especially since Weyland seems to favour his work (David) over his own family.

    16. I would have liked David to survive too, but I think it adds to Weyland's death, how he was BEATEN TO DEATH by his own creation. As if the Engineer was highly critical of Weyland creating artificial life as opposed to ACTUAL life.

    17. I find this incredibly nit-picky and I shouldn't even address it. Let me know how it turns out for you when you're trying to outrun a giant object falling upon you.

    18. She did make a few long trips, and without replacing her oxygen tanks once, this could deplete her oxygen source.

    19. Remember in Alien how quickly the chestburster grows into a xenomorph? Yeah.

    20. "Does she check them all for surviving Engineers, or just leave in the first ship she finds?" What do you think? Whatever it is, you're right.

    21. Well, apparently they do have that technology! This is the Alien universe we're talking here, not our universe. And it exploded because they overloaded it with whatever that stuff they injected it with was.

    22. Okay?

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    1. part two of two

      23. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/board/nest/200177706 Here is a great analysis on the subject. Long story short, as silly as it sounds, 2000 years ago, humans fucked up and made the Engineers mad. How? They killed one of their emissaries named Jesus Christ. Yep, Jesus was an engineer. And for that reason they see that humans are becoming evil and they must be killed. I think the black goo would have had different effects on them, but even if it did make them go crazy, they'd probably all kill each other. We don't ever see what happens in long term effects of the black goo when it gets into the wrong hands. Perhaps it does kill a person after their crazy phase?

      24. Your personal theory sounds correct.

      25. You know how in evolution, first there was mud, and then there was life? In the beginning when Prometheus sacrificed himself, he gives up the very small strands of life. Next came the tiny organisms, then the fish, then the monkeys, and then the humans.

      26. I would agree with this one. My biggest complaint with the movie is the characters. Mostly their motives.

      27. That storm seemed to travel fast. It is possible they couldn't have seen it coming down. And no, they don't have larger versions of the puppies to scout out the terrain first. Are you serious? If they had them, they would have used them.

      28. She does inject herself with space-age medicine. This might counteract everything you described in your post.

      29. I thought the characters staying on board were silly too. Even Janek crashing into the ship was silly, even though he was doing it to save Earth. It seemed like he knew what he was doing, but didn't understand why he was doing it. Same goes for his two co-pilots. They seemed too happy to be an the verge of sudden death.

      30. It could be for the purpose of David coming to understand his shipmates better.

      31. You know how Weyland is very selfish, with evidence of him wanting to survive forever? He intended this machine to be built ONLY for him, including the male-specific feature. Remember, only a few of these have ever been made. It's possible that they haven't been able to combine both male and female technology yet.

      32. "He must have needed the helmet to breathe". Why? Through generations of Engineers, I'm sure that their superior bodies have adapted to the atmosphere of their own planet.

      33. Because he had a hidden agenda for being there. He wanted to find a way to live forever. This would have brought up issues earlier within the crew who are looking for aliens. And like I've said earlier, Vicers being Weyland's daughter does reveal more of her character. Though they should have said she was his daughter near the beginning.

      34. What you have in brackets is a good theory. I also thought that it was a map to the black goo that, if humans remained pure, they would be able to create life on other planets too, similar to what Prometheus did in the beginning of the movie.

      35. I'll give you this one.

      36. "...deadly black goo" But no, it's not deadly in the right hands. In fact it's a very important substance to the Engineers, of course they're going to want to protect it.

      37. ...But they CLEARLY have returned to Earth since the dawn of man. Remember the Egyptian, Mayan, and Scottish drawings of the star map? They visited them WAY after the dawn of man. The most recent trip they took there was around 30AD. ALSO, if these guys have the technology to show the ENTIRE universe, you'd think that they'd have a way to keep it updated. Jesus. This is one of the stupidest complaints on here. They didn't even spell dawn right.

      38. What the brackets said, but also, he still believes that these aliens are inviting humanity up here and will be friendly.

      39. This is where the xenomorphs could be at play. OR, you could actually try to come up with your own theory instead of looking for definite spoonfed answers.

      40. This is just silly. What a note to end on.

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  74. My answers to some of the main questions. Your list is WAY too long to directly correlate to your list.

    1. The beginning sequence is kind of ambiguous. Most of the people here believe that the scene was the "Engineers" creating life on Earth. While this is the theory most commonly used, I hope that the scene is actually the kick off to the destruction of LV-223. Sacrificing himself by drinking the WMD and seeing what it would do to that planet if released in an uncontained environment. Which is why he was making sure the others were safely away.

    2. Why does the black goo effect people differently? Or why did the "engineer" in the beginning disintegrate, Fifield became a zombie, Holloway was dying and had an "infection" in his eye, etc. I could argue that maybe Holloway was disintegrating, but at a much slower rate than the "engineer" in the beginning because his anatomy is different from the "engineer. But my main argument would be that the WMD was a smorgasbord of nasty evolutionary versions of the xenomorph to compensate for differences in anatomy and species. And that's why it has different results. No biological experiment will have the exact same results each time.

    3. If the "engineers" wanted to destroy us, what were the paintings? Were they a warning, invitation or a means to save the "engineers" from a trip to destroy us? Maybe that's the closest point of contact between Earth and their home world, which is obviously NOT LV-223. So, initially, it was a checkpoint and an invitation to see if their creations could even get that far. You know, before they deemed us a failure. I'm also thinking that they expected to be able to control their experiments and that maybe other outposts on LV-223 were used for other purposes.

    Some answers to your minor questions and common problems with many:

    1. Why was Weyland hiding?
    Maybe he honestly thought he would have died by that point. Regardless, does the owner of the company HAVE to announce his presence? I'm not entirely sure if even my CFO and CEO of my company is here. That doesn't mean that they aren't or that they're "hiding" from me.

    2. How did the squidee grow so much?
    Well, there was a lot of blood around. I couldn't really see around the room, but maybe it was eating machinery. Or maybe there's biological equipment that it was eating. Like the cart where Ripley, I mean Shaw, got her injections from. It did bother me for a sec, but they didn't really scan around the room and it's pretty hypercritical.

    3. Most of your other plot holes.
    Do you really want them to break down the science of every single thing they're doing? The movie would not only be 10+ hrs long. YOU would then complain that they're explaining too much about everything.

    For example. The point of the DNA analysis isn't to show how it's done, it's to show a proxy of it being done and the result of it. A DNA test also doesn't show results in 10 seconds. But do you really want the movie to be bogged down by making sure everything is accurate or scientifically possible.

    The only question that kind of boggled or TRULY bugged me was the full "engraving" of a xenomorph. If they technically haven't been "created" yet. The only explanation I can think of, and I'll run it by everyone, is that they didn't "create" the xenomorph. They reverse engineered them to an evolutionary stage so that it would be deliverable as a bio-WMD.

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    1. Oh, I forgot to answer the "why didn't they check on Fifield and the other dude" question. At that point, there was no reason to fear anything. There was no hostile environment and they thought they were safe. Why would you check the recording if you expect them to be there the next morning? Does a security detail rewatch all tape when there hasn't been any interactions or activities to report? At that point, they don't even think there's anything alive other than them.

      This also explains the "why didn't they bring an arsenal with them?" It's a scientific exploration. This is my response to someone on this board also assuming that everything should be executed militarily. They weren't expecting to die. Hell, most people were doubting that the engineers and planet even existed or had anything on it.

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  75. This is not a plot hole but can someone please tell me how a violent windstorm with winds strong enough to hurl ppl through the air,and also spewing thousands of rocks at speeds likely in excess of 125 mph neither injure a single person nor damage the ship in any way? I've been hit with a baseball travelling approx. 88 mph and it hurt like hell. Imagine hundreds or thousands of rocks pelting your entire body for over a minute. You wouldn't walk away from it. Just saying

    Let's say the air is clean. Free of any microbrial bacteria etc etc. What about the rain water that fell all over Holloways face. They never tested the water.

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  76. When Shaw is leaving the crashed alien ship, with David's head and body in tow, she has to rappel down. Presumably she entered the ship the same way. So how’d she get up there?

    At the end, Shaw and David (does he qualify as split personality or bipolar at this point  ), leave in another alien ship. Destination: the aliens’ home.
    Probably a long flight, yes? So we can assume that they figure out how to adapt the alien technology to support Shaw going into suspended animation for however long it takes?

    No worries . . . the prequel/sequel will explain it . . .

    M. Joseph

    mjg2tfa@comcast.net

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  77. Apologies if this has been already question and answered - why did the Engineers put their Killer Black Goo in containers that open by themselves? Surely that's a bad way of storing biohazardous material. And probably what killed them in the first place. Why did the canisters in one room open automatically but not the canisters in another?

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  78. 1 - He could perform system diagnostics some other way, sure. But he's designed to emulate human behaviour, so he can practice his ball/coordination skills and test his systems at the same time.
    16 - Call from Alien Ressurection.
    18 - when the ship lands on her you see sparks, evidently that was her life-support system getting squished (rather than her chest).
    19 - Aliens have always grown much bigger than they should be capable of, without anything to feed on. It's part of the fiction of the Alien universe.
    25 - The first scene shows green on the hills and mountains. The Engineers did NOT seed Earth with its first life.
    37 - Whatever disaster befel the ship happened only 2000 years ago, so the map is fine.

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  79. very, very few of these are "plot holes"... like 2 out of 40? most have perfectly good answers right there in the movie, or don't even require answers. surnames starting with different letters, seriously?

    that's a screenwriting/moviemaking 101 convention.

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    1. Be fair, it's more than 2. I've had this debate with someone else, and most of them can be read as being plot holes, and very few of them were resolved in the script to my knowledge. Plus, the characters having different lettered surnames was more of an aside on another point, and was just something I found amusing, before realising that in fact there was a character called Ford (Kate Dickie) who was in the caves at the same time as Fifield, so it seems Damon Lindelof would have failed Screenwriting 101.

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  80. When they checked the age of the aliens head (or helmet really...)
    You can't use carbon dating on creatures in an alien atmosphere. Carbon dating works on earth due to that sun rays are creating C-14 in the same pace as they are decaying for a certain concentration of C-14. This concentration needs to be known in order to use carbon dating. The atmosphere in the alien ship is totally new to the crew and if no new c-14 is created within this ship its fair to assume that the c-14 would decrease in the air in the same rate as in the dead bodies.
    /Oderion

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