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.
Life Vs Film 
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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….
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.
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.
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.
Good point. Hopefully if they make any sequels we'll get some answers then.
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! ha2)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 ship5) 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 Holloway11) 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!
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.
Ignore Question 3! I just realised my own foolishness, it was a diferent planet in Alien!
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.
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…
Prometheus is set on a different planet/moon, Alien is set on LV426 whereas Prometheus is on LV223
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!
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.
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 …
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.
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 ? ^^ )
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
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…
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
'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.
Most of these are not even plot holes, what a joke. Are you being paid per plot hole?
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?
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.
I post about the dodgy science in Prometheus here: http://creepytreehouse.wordpress.com/
All good points that I can't explain. Thanks for reading.
Apologies for the lack of scientific know-how in mine. You've expanded upon some great points. Thanks for the link too.
Yeh no answer for that apart from massively speculative theories. Guess will have to wait until the sequel for more answers… argh the suspense.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
For number 6, I was convinced David was just telling Vickers what she wanted to hear, rather than the truth.
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.)
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.
facehugger+engineer=queen alien 😉
^bs adam k, you know what the original intention was.