Prometheus

This morning’s movie menu was Prometheus, a 2012 Ridley Scott film. It starred Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron. Prometheus was written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof.

Prometheus takes place in 2093 where space travel to distant planets is an option. Noomi Rapace played Elizabeth Shaw, an archaeologist who believes she has found evidence of where humans come from and it is not on Earth. Logan Marshall-Green played Charlie Holloway, Shaw’s archaeology partner and lover. Guy Pearce was Peter Weyland, the owner of Weyland Enterprises who is funding the project. Michael Fassbender played David, an artificial intelligent being or a robot working for Weyland. Charlize Theron was Meredith Vickers, the lady in charge of the Prometheus and employee of Weyland. And finally the captain of the Prometheus is Janek, played by Idris Elba.

The movie begins with a non-human being that is left on what is Earth in the far distant pass. The being opens a canister and drinks the liquid inside. Within seconds his body begins to deteriorate and he starts falling apart and dives head first into the waterfall he is sitting by. After the credits, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, Dr. Charlie Holloway, and others are exploring the Isle of Skye in Scotland where they find cave painting similair to others found all over the world with the same diagram depicting men pointing to what they believe are planets. Shaw and Holloway believe these cave paintings are an invitation to come find where humans come from and this why the Prometheus expedition is put together.

So the Prometheus sets of for these unknown planets with a crew of seventeen in the winter of 2093. David takes care of the ship and crew while they are on their journey. Since he is an A.I. he does not age and can maintain everything onboard until the crew are woken from their sleeping chambers. David studies old, ancient, and even dead languages while awaiting their arrival at the destination. The group is asleep two years before they arrive at the planet. When the crew wakes up they are all in different disoriented states and after they have been given time to become themselves, they are gathered in a room for a presentation from Peter Weyland. He instructs the group through a hologram where he tells them the purpose of their expedition and introduces Dr. Shaw and Dr. Holloway. The two continue the explanation why everyone has traveled to this foreign planet. They tell of ancient cultures thousands of years and miles apart with no contact with one another. All of these cultures shared one thing, a painting of men pointing to planets. Now Dr. Holloway explains there is only one galaxy with planets matching this diagram and it was so far from Earth that there is no way humans at the time could have painted these. Shaw explains that they call them Engineers and believed they engineered humans. After the presentation, Vickers has David escort the doctors to her chamber, and then she instructs them on procedures and Weyland’s agenda.

As Prometheus enters the atmosphere and the crew prepares to land on the planet. As they come down, Dr. Holloway spots a formation of giant rock structures in a straight line and Janek lands them nearby. With only six hours of daylight left, the survey team mounts up and prepares to explore the structure. Once inside they use robot drones to map the inside of the structure and send information back to Prometheus. Dr. Holloway discovers that inside the structure there is breathable air and confirms with David. He takes his helmet off against Dr. Shaw’s advice and can breathe just fine. The rest of the team removes their helmets and they continue on their expedition. David soon finds writing on the way with a gooey substance inside that seems to act as a control panel. After entering a code, something starts to happen and a 3D hologram runs down the hallway. The group chases after it and finds a decapitated Engineer laying in the hallway. Upon finding the body, some of the scientist turn around and flee the survey team. David is able to open the door and the remaining team finds a room filled with capsules. They recover the Engineer’s head and it is still in a good condition because of the helmet and air-locked room. Once inside they find a giant statue of what appears to be a human head and a beautiful mural on the wall. David takes a capsule without the group knowing. Once a storm pops up on the radar, the team is ordered back to the ship and rushes to make it back in time.

Most of the survey team makes it back in time, except the two who fled when the body was found. Janek informs them that with no safe way to get them, they will have to survive the night. Meanwhile, Dr. Shaw and others observe the head they collected in the structure. The scientist realize they found a helmet with a head inside upon further inspection of it. The head explodes after some testing and the group takes samples. David conducts experiments of his own on the capsule he found. He puts a drop from the liquid he finds in Dr. Holloway’s drink. Holloway and Shaw talk about the day’s discoveries and then have sex. The two scientist make some disturbing discoveries and fatal mistakes through the night.

In the morning, the survey team heads back to the structure to continue the expedition and find the other scientist. David breaks away from the group to find one of the mapping drones that seems to have been malfunctioning and reading a life-form around. What he discovers is a giant what appears to be map and control room. After playing another hologram David is stunned by the visuals and learns how to work the equipment. Meanwhile, the rest of the survey team has found the body of one scientist and Dr. Holloway has started to get sick. They decide to pull out and return to the ship. David finds actual living engineers in their own sleeping chambers. When the team returns to the Prometheus, they are met by Vickers holding a flamethrower. She refuses to let Holloway on the ship. After a tragic incident, Shaw faints and awakens in an examining room. David reveals to her that she is pregnant and it’s not a traditional fetus. They want to put her in a sleep chamber again until they can return to Earth and deal with it. Shaw fakes sleeping and escapes to a medical surgery pod after knocking out the crew members. After having the fetus removed, she wanders the hallways of the ship and stumbles into a room where she finds David with some doctors tending to Weyland, who has been on board the whole time.

With days to live Weyland did not want to waist them until he was certain he could meet his maker. The team including Shaw suits up for a final trip into the structure to wake up the final Engineer at the facility that David found. Janek tries to make reason of the find with Shaw before the trip and explains he thinks that this is a military installment creating weapons. Will the expedition team be able to wake up the Engineer? If they do wake him up, will David be able to communicate and what will he tell them? Is Janek right about the weapons of mass destruction? Does the team have any idea what they are about to do?

Prometheus begins with some of the best landscape shots I have ever scene. For someone like me, who loves history and the story of the creation of man and civilization this is a great movie. It challenges almost every idea that we have believed for centuries, especially Darwinism. I love stories about different theories for how man got on earth and how civilization started. I think this is a good adventure movie. Ridley Scott knows how to capture the science fiction that is space travel and make it feel real. The planet they land on is a living world with storms and mountains. I give this a four out of five stars. The story concept that Ridley Scott brings to life is intriguing and stimulating to the mind. This two hour long movie keeps your attention throughout. All of the cast put on great performances all around and I am looking forward to a sequel that is in the talks. I will not reveal more as I try to keep big spoilers to a minimum.

“Big things have small beginnings.” – David

As always thank y’all for reading.

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