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 
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.
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.
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.
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_JockeyAlso, 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.
Oh yeah and stop calling them pyramids, they both look like and are mentioned as "domes" in the film.
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 pointless3. 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.
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.
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…
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.
And ripely played bball
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.
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.
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 :D9. 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.
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?
(different planet: LV426=Alien & Aliens, LV223=Prometheus)
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!
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
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).
Is anyone here a StarCraft fan? Space Jockeys = Xel Naga – create lifeZerg = Aliens / XenomorphsAlso.. 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…
also.engineers dna = human dna = monkey dna ie. engineers = monkeys 😀
To adress this one if it hasnt been already37. The hologram of Earth resembles modern Earth, rather than how it looked at the damn of man. –The Movie WafflerEarth 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
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?
They do call them 'pyramids' in the film. Sorry.
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.
@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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
Because the writers are fucking morons.
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.
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)
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.
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. >:|
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.
Agree it's not the right name for them at all. 🙂
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/
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.
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?
part two of two23. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Josephmjg2tfa@comcast.net
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.
Good spot, missed that one.
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.
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?
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.
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.