One of the biggest mysteries of Alien was the lore behind the Space Jockey. Just to have Ridley ruin it all by making it nothing but a glorified space suit. One of the biggest reasons I kind of hate this movie.
Prometheus set in 2089-2093 range, Alien set in 2122. Think early 90's and 2020's for example. How far technology has come in that period of time. What most advanced stuff from that era can compare to what we have today.
It doesn't make sense. It's not that Bezo's yacht has tech different from regular tech. Yeah, it may be more fancy. But otherwise I don't think he owns something that regular people can't have.
Except they keep the high tech aesthetic in Covenant which is just a colony ship. It's simply a stylistic choice by Ridley that doesn't make sense in-universe. The Star Wars prequels made the same mistake.
One very key thing you guys did not appear to recognize: if you go back and watch the original Alien, the ship that the crew of the Nostromo finds is one of those Engineer ships, and they even examine a dead Engineer in the movie, which is their first clue about the chestbursting. They also land on a planet that may or may not be nearby, based on the name. In this film, the crew travels to LV-223; in the original Alien, the Nostromo stops on LV-426. Also, not that it's important, but one way the difference in technology between Alien and Prometheus can be easily explained away (for the most part, anyway), is that in Alien, the crew of the Nostromo are essentially space truckers. Much like our real-world truckers still communicate using CB radio (or did; not sure if they still do), it would make sense for the Nostromo, a blue collar working rig, to have much less fancy technology than a scientific expedition financed by (and secretly including) Peter Weyland himself.
Plus and this is really important, both the budget and production quality over the decades between the two movies: Have come a long way. Making a modern expensive movie, look and feel as crappie if not crappier than its decades old forebearer would probably not get past the films financiers nevermind the audience.
I think it's supposed to be the same planet, based on the ship's final position when it lands. They probably forgot what they called it in Alien, or an in-universe explanation is they were using an alternate naming system, which happens in Astronomy even now. Same star or object in the sky might have multiple designations depending on the catalog used.
@@robertcampbell8070 This is because they had 2 for the Space Jockey. (And yes, I will NEVER refer to it as an Engineer). One of the sets was scaled down. The actors you see in the space suits are actually children. If you look close, you'll see that the Space Jockey appears larger in one, and smaller in the other. Prometheus is what happens when you DON'T have Dan O'Bannon writing the script. It is also an example of what happens when people who don't respect the original try to make a prequel. Prometheus is also what happens when you cobble together a script that was cribbed off of several episodes of the History Channel show Ancient Aliens.
25:00 To this day idk why they cut the scene where they talked with the alien and instead just had the 9000 IQ alien go on a Hulk rampage the second he woke up.
I think the idea is supposed to be that humanity is a failed experiment. Whatever they had in mind for them wasn’t what they actually got when their creation is face to face with them. Kind of like the parent who really wants kids but then ends up hating them because the kids didn’t turn out how they wanted. So I think the rage was meant to illustrate the Engineer’s frustration at their hard work and (literal) sacrifice resulting in an inferior lifeform. Given how eugenicist they seem to be with bioengineering new species, I’d imagine they view it as a great tragedy that one of their own died in order to create this species of lesser beings. So his rage-filled barbarism is just an extension of that frustration. At least that’s my interpretation
I think it really pushes the indifference towards his creations, not even trying to communicate with them. To the engineers, we are bad product - that’s all.
@@SceneOnFilm Yes after doing research after watching the movie that much is clear, after watching the deleted scene especially. You know, some context to why he is going on a rampage.
Biologists not wearing respirators in an unknown environment, cartographers not knowing how to read maps and getting lost, xenobiologist attempting to pet the first alien life form he sees.... There are some very dumb characters in this.
That is what truly bothered me about this movie. I'm no scientist but even I know not to expose myself to alien microorganisms or touch obvious "space cobras". Unprepared space truckers dealing with an alien was more believable than the scientific ignorance going on here.
This entire franchise begins with the 1st officer of an interstellar ship sticking his face in a clearly moving alien egg and then the rest of the crew ignoring quarantine protocols.
@@benrobo1134 Nonetheless, the characters in Prometheus are a special breed of stupid despite supposedly being the absolute leaders in each of their fields. Completely takes me out the film. Especially when the film has David to manipulate them in secret. Could've done that instead of making the characters do stupid things.
@blakemeads9225 They were space truckers. These were scientists specially chosen to go on a super secret mission to an unexplored planet to possibly find an alien civilization
That's the one thing I DON'T have a issue with. Have you ever tried to run a football field length? That ships gotta be that size at least in width, and I don't know about you, but running that in a panic of death if you fail sounds really hard. I've always found it dumb that's what people usually point out with this movie filled with so many dumber issues.
@kingcaesar3693 Guess I'll just run for even longer than that and get squished and die. Shaw shouldn't have survived at all realistically. The smartest thing to do would have been to run at like a 45 degree angle so you can give yourself time to get out from the side while avoiding being crushed by it. Either way, I disagree and think they're still stupid for running lengthwise.
Because a 1000mph storm on mars (which has 1% the atmosphere as earth) knocked buildings, items and people flying... Though to excuse that, the book's author Andy Weir used that as a way to initiate the plot even though he knew it was BS.
@@zybch what does any of that have to do with my comment? The fact that the storm was an unrealistic plot device has no bearing on how scientists are portrayed.
@@richieclean It's anti scientific so its objectively relevant you just don't like the fact that you acted smart and someone called you out for your own ignorance.
@@nodruj8681 it's not "anti-scientific". Creationism is "anti-scientific". Climate change denial is "anti-scientific". I wouldn't even consider Prometheus to be "anti-scientific" per se, it's not especially realistic, and it's arguably "anti-logic", but it's no more "anti-scientific" than most other Science Fiction films. The point of my original comment was to contrast the way that *Scientists* (not science itself) are portrayed as idiots in Prometheus, which is very different to how they are portrayed in The Martian (despite some aspects of that film being unrealistic) My comment was intended to be sardonic, and illicit amusement. Nothing more. The fact that you seem to think it's contentious, your inexplicably hostile tone, and the suggestion I'm being "called out" as if I'm some sort of hypocrite suggests to me that you might need to go and touch grass...
The biologist trying to touch the snake alien thing is the stupid decision that made me the maddest in this film. Like who does he think he is, Steve Irwin?! And the thing is CLEARLY doing a threat display when it flares its hood out and he still tries to pet it, such an obviously dumb move!
@@korganrocks3995 do you need years of education in zoology to not go playing with a rattle snake? No lol yet people do it. People do dumb shit all the time. Scientists included. It's really a dumb nitpick of this movie.
@@josephhoffman2992 Sure, Steve Irwin got a lot closer to dangerous creatures than is wise, but he never did so being completely clueless about the potential danger. The zoologist in Prometheus acted like a toddler or kitten encountering a rattle snake, not a professional who took an educated risk. The real problem with that scene is that every viewer has an internal bullshit-meter, and every little thing in a movie that breaks your immersion raises that bullshit-meter, eventually reaching the point of no return where the viewer no longer trusts the filmmakers and finds fault with things they otherwise would let slide. Note that the viewer doesn't necessarily have to be objectively correct, which is why all movies still do the metallic noise when characters pull a sword from a sheath, since having it make the real sound would break the immersion for a lot of viewers who only know the movie-sound. Basically, if you want to keep your audience happy you should avoid things that are both objectively unrealistic and subjectively unrealistic. There might well be a real life case of a highly regarded zoologist who died because he had a brainfart and tried to pet a rattle snake, but it's still counter-intuitive to a movie audience, so it better be the only seemingly dumb thing in your movie, not one of dozens of seemingly dumb things.
The real hero of the movie was the alien worm that killed the incompetent geologist who couldn't orient himself and the incompetent biologist who couldn't identify that the creature had a hostile attitude.
The redhead geologist is me in multiplayer co-op video games. A cautious, risk assessing strategist who's the first to die because I try help someone who is the exact opposite.
George's reaction to taking off the helmet is exactly mine when I saw this in the theater. For a team of super duper experts they are really, really stupid in this movie.
There’s a very important detail in this movie that I feel like most people overlook (and it’s directly hinted at several times at the beginning of the movie), that this expedition was very hastily put together by a superstitious old man with a god complex. And the people he brought along probably wouldn’t be the best and brightest. They would be people who are willing to take the risk for money.
@@calvinallen3424 “It’s what I choose to believe.” I don’t remember that step in the scientific process… And up to that line, I assumed the robot was gonna get everyone killed.
@@blakemeads9225 I feel like they make a specific point that these are supposed to be leaders in their respective fields. To be fair, I haven't watched it in forever so I could definitely be remembering that wrong.
@idiot_city5444 Yeah....the weird horror element in an otherwise magnificent movie about humans sacrificing themselves for mankind. Yeah....slimey sun zombie....so....fun.
"Guy Pearce in crazy old-age makeup." Part of the build up of this film was releasing at least one video vignette before the actual release of the film. The specific piece I'm thinking of was called 'The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023', in which Guy Pearce plays a younger Peter Weyland. There was a similar video released before 'Alien: Covenant' - it might be worthwhile to watch or else you're going to be similarly confused by particular casting decisions in that movie.
Problem with this movie is there are 33 deletes scenes ( 14 minutes total ) that you can find out in the interwebz, there are even fanmade version where the scenes have been put in in the correct places, gives you a lot more clues on what is happening.
It should also be called the "Prometheus school of people not paying attention to the movie screen" otherwise they would have seen that Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron do indeed run sideways from the falling derelict ship at 27:53 in the video above.
facts. i feel like there were alot more ideas surrounded that that never came to fruition. i know they did do some advertising with a young wayland on youtube before this movie came out.
@@CapnLubeHandles Yeah, and Guy Pearce was great in that fake Ted Talk, but they really should have cast some actual old guy with a similar look, because that old man makeup was rough...
When he was cast, the script did have flashback sequences with his character at a younger age. But after some revisions as they got closer to filming, those scenes were cut from the script and they didn’t end up shooting them.
One way I think of the more advanced tech, is that this is a cutting edge exploration ship so has high tech equipment while the original ship was a freight hauler so had more bare bones old tech.
If you think this is dumb, then i should probably let you know that Aliens: Covenant reveals Shaw somehow perfectly repaired David on the alien ship, despite the lack of any obvious tools or parts for the job, and David promptly killed her. These two movies are like a giant Darwin Awards compilation that make no sense.
George's analysis is spot on. This movie had so much potential and really kewl elements but falls apart with baffling characters, decisions and plot directions. Plus Ridley Scott seems to have this burr up his ass about religion/creationism vs science/evolution (which is why the scientists are so dumb). He continues this theme in the next movie.
George describe the intentions well. For many years Ridley Scott talked about wanting to return Alien and explore the origin of the "space jockey" in the chair. He mentioned it in commentary tracks, etc. Everyone went into this expecting one movie and as it ended, it seemed to fall into place (the ship, literally falling into place), but not quite so. Then he starts talking about a trilogy. The second movie barely did well and a third from him is probably on hold indefinitely. Instead, the studio went in the direction of the "Romulus" movie that came out this year.
Oh how the lyrics of Teen Spirit fit this movie… “I feel stupid and contagious” - that sums up all the characters to be fair, some are stupid, some are contagious (well, they are exposed to a contagious pathogen). “Here we are now, entertain us” - sadly, Ridley Scott did not entertain many of us sufficiently.
The first half of the movie showed a lot of promise, but then Scott for some reason thinks it was spicy to reveal her as Weylan's daughter, and Weylan only wanted to ask the Engineer for immortality, and Shaw only wanted to know why the Engineers hate us. It really diminished the movie and seriously lowered the bar. I don't get why he thought we would find those things so interesting. Also, for whatever reason, the "invitation" star pattern lead us to a weapons facility, not their home world.
Honestly I really like the ambiguity of the Engineers' motivations, I get a lot of dread out of the idea that some things are just beyond human comprehension. They could've made the xenomorph for literally any reason, they could've made humanity for literally any reason, and they could've changed their minds about us for literally any reason. The surviving Engineer at the end could be his race's last hope or could be their Thanos, the one at the start could've been their saviour or a prisoner. It's just more stuff to ponder
This movie takes place in a universe where there is no TV, no movies, no fiction. The second the guy took his helmet off without testing for pathogens, I would know I was surrounded by idiots with no self preservation awareness.
"We recruited one really good captain, a few solid workers and then a bunch of people we scraped out of the finest clown colleges in the world to go on this incredibly crazy difficult space expedition." There's some effective imagery and individual moments/performances but yeah the general story and what actually happens is a real mess. The bit where that guys helmet is melting into his face stuck with me for a long time though, gah.
George about the difference in technology between this and Alien, think about what the missions are and who the crew is of each movie. Alien you have the equivalent of no-name space trucks while in this you have the very top of the company and heads of science fields going out to investigate potential life
Apart from the link to the old movies, the studio basically gave Scott free rein, trusting in him being a genius who could revive the franchise or at least make a great film. The "ancient aliens" idea certainly came from Scott.
Alien - Prometheus and Covenant. Two movies that showed us that Ridley Scott needs to retire and take up painting or making model airplanes or something, anything besides making movies. His Napoleon just proved what we already knew.
To be fair, studies have shown that under extreme stress, people do REALLY STUPID things. I can't justify pretty much anything else in this film, but not running sideways is something that doesn't bother me in the slightest.
If it was a second or two, then we'd make allowances for panic, but that running scene seemed to take forever, and I ended up screaming "just turn dammit" at the screen.
Obviously realistically people do stupid things and in that situation your first thought would be to just run away not necessarily off to the side, you also only have your own pov and not larger shots of the scene like the audience does when viewing it in its entirety, however when you watch it the obvious thing to do to survive is to go off to the side and that annoys audiences because they've thought of it and the filmmakers haven't so the death should've been directed in a way that the only way to survive is by running in a straight line if you want her to be crushed by the ship.
Yep. He also makes big scientifically idiotic mistakes like taking his helmet off on an entirely new planet and he antagonizes the android for seemingly no reason. He reads less to me like a doctor and more like a frat boy with daddy's money.
This movie is definitely flawed but it has some INCREDIBLE scenes. The C-section, David watching the alien holograms, the snake thingy attacking…plus the music is amazing.
Which is why it's bizarre that they didn't make sure the script was at least mediocre rather than dogshit. At least in this kind of case you can blame it on a famous writer/director being too stubborn(or surrounded by yes-men) to be told the script needs polishing.
@@ThreadBomb That's the usual response. AvP:R was a Crime. Makers should be restricted from filming. Or put them into the same cell as Game of Thrones makers... :P Some (newbie?)director/producer wanted to turn this great franchise to some B movie crap. One of the best sci-fi/horror was turned into 'I know what you crap last summer'/the blob copy... Prometheus/Covenant/Romulus' greatest achievement to make people forget AvP:R even more slowly...
And that's exactly what it is. It's basically several good setpieces strung together by a paper-thin plot. It's entertaining enough but nowhere near excellent.
Prometheus set in 2089-2093 range, Alien set in 2122. Think early 90's and 2020's for example. How far technology has come in that period of time. What most advanced stuff from that era can compare to what we have today. Can you imagine movie about reachest men set 30 years prior to this day there they will have blu-ray, iPhone analog, modern day pc etc and not call it bullshit or sci-fi.
It's one of the things that doesn't change, thank goodness. The other is the big eyes and shoulder roll by Simone at the end. I have to stay to watch that as George spits out names creatively designed to be as hard as possible to say at speed. Makes my day.
Noomi Rapace who played Dr. Elizabeth Shaw was AMAZING in the original GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO trilogy films. Hopefully you get a chance to react to them one day as well. :)
What annoys me in this game is how stupid all the scientists are. The guy who maps the caves get lost. The biologist is attacked when he tries to touch a clearly aggressive life form. People can only run in straight lines... other than that, I do like the movie.
I have known some very naive biologists that would absolutely touch a new species with a gloved hand. Being a biologist doesn't give you expertise on animal behaviour. That's its own specialization.
Say what you want about the quality/writing whatnot of this movie... Prometheus the ship, is one of the best looking space ships in all of sci-fi, it's one of my favourites
in the deleted scene when they talked to the Engineer, the Engineer talks about the origin story of Jesus and how they created him and was sent to earth to save mankind but in the end we killed Jesus. The Engineers were then enraged and were going to go back to earth and destroy everyone one on the planet which was about a 400 year travel but they had an accident onboard and never got to earth.
The Reason this movie is divided and disappointed many is that it was built as the movie that was going to answer the question of where the space jockey from the first Alien movie came from. However the script had a rewrite with Damon Lindelof (writer from Lost) and we got his classic answering questions with more questions. So at the end of the film you still dont know anything about the space jockey origin and are left with more questions that make the timeline even more confusing. It gets worse in Alien Covenant, cuz its a sequel to this movie, but you can tell they just abandon any plans of answering the questions, they literally wipe the slate clean and it just turns into a slasher film at the end, completely destroying the timeline and yes these are some of the dumbest "scientist" ever captured on film.
To me it took all of the questions around the Space Jockey and answered them with one sentence: "It's just a stupid space suit". Ridley utterly squandered the lore that could have existed around the Jockey. I guess the only question remaining unanswered is who was inside it. Was it an Engineer or someone else?
I was also disappointed in the lack of answers in this film. I waited a long time for some back story and didn't get much. It is possible to guess at some details, though. We have this group of Engineers seeding their DNA on promising lifeless worlds. We can surmise that they were trying to create more advanced life forms. It's unclear what their definition of 'advanced' is, but there is speculation that humans were a failed experiment and this group of Engineers intended to eradicate life on Earth and start over--a mission which the revived Engineer intends to complete (he certainly wasn't fond of human beings). I believe that this group of Engineers were renegades, perhaps a religious cult (the self sacrifice at the beginning seems unnecessary--there should be non-lethal ways to seed a planet--but if this was a cult the suicide makes more sense). I assume this activity was not sanctioned by the majority of the Engineers. As for themes, the main ones seems to be 'playing God' and 'seeking God'. Weyland creates David as the son he never had, thereby playing God (it's worth noting that David does not share the inhibitions that Bishop had, so he appears to be a more human-like design--not a wise move). David also wants to play God by creating a "perfect being." The Engineers were playing God on a planetary scale. Shaw is seeking 'God' (our creators), and Weyland also in an attempt to prolong his life. The mural with the Xenomorph is interesting. I suspect that the Xenomorphs were discovered by the Engineers and they realized the incredible power of their biology: it can fuse with the DNA of any creature to create new life forms. The renegades seem have rendered it for storage as a means to wipe the slate clean when their experiments fail, and a form of it may have been used in the seeding process. Apparently they lost containment on LV-233, luckily for humanity. While I would enjoy a film with Shaw interacting with the non-cult Engineers, it would probably be a lot of talking and not much action. I like talky, philosophical films but apparently they don't sell tickets. Most people consider the Alien franchise to be horror films, so it's no surprise than the studio went the slasher route. It's a lot easier than coming up with a good plot and good dialog.
@@nodak81 TBH, I'd rather Ridley had left the Space Jockey out of the story and not try to explain it at all. I was perfectly fine with leaving it as a mystery of something truly alien and not related to homo sapiens.
It may seem silly that they didn't run against the side of the rolling ring-shaped ship, but remember it is freaking huge, from their perspective, I don't think they would be able to gauge the direction of the rolling or even that it was rolling. Also, probably their first instinct was just to try and run away from it, and once they were giving it the back, they wouldn't even know it was rolling toward them either until it was really late. This is one of the few ocassions where being realistic seems so dumb because we are used to heroes doing unrealistic "right" decisions, but Shaw is just as blinded and dumb as the rest of the crew, sure, she is a badass in several aspects, but she is also really unstable, specially at that time considering she just had an alien c-sectioned, sending basically the only friendly people to die and her whole world view being torned apart.
The tech in this movie looking better than Alien (1979) never bothered me. this is the CEO's ship. of COURSE it's fully kitted out. and the Nostromo is held together by duct tape since it's for the scut workers.
Kinda like in the Star WArs prequels, everything looks lush and detailed and like art and then when the Empire takes over, everything is gray, souless and industrial. What I don't like is when Star Trek has TV shows that take place in the same era as TOS and they don't even bother trying to have any sort of continuity visually or lore wise. Just say it's a reboot.
That's not an excuse. The design language remains the same regardless whether something cheap or expensive. It changes largely with time, not with price. I've had a $100 Chinese smartphone, and yet some people said about it 'wow, it looks so expensive.' I now have a phone that costs 5 times as much. Still, doesn't look or work significantly different. And if I buy a phone that costs 10 times more, it will still look and work largely the same. If we make comparison to phones, in movies it's like everyone uses smartphones, 100 years passes, and then everyone uses only rotary landline phones for some reason.
@HistoritorJimaldus if your talking about Warhammer 40K the humans intentionally regress due to AI going rogue and trying to kill humanity plus the fact that Chaos can use AI.
I think the problem is that Ridley Scott is an excellent director but he isn't a good writer/producer. Alien, Blade runner, Gladiator etc = not written by him. Prometheus, Covenant etc = co-written and produced by him. 🤷
@@rosswhite5975 I'd put it this way; Scott is a Director, period. Not a writer/director like Tarantino or Nolan. And despite being a Great Director he doesn't always pick the best scripts. He'll even start shooting a film with only half a script, as he did on Gladiator, but as that film demonstrates, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be a disaster.
When this movie first entered production is was not meant to be a prequel to Aliens. It was supposed to be a stand-alone film set in the wider Alien universe and only loosely tied to those movies. Ridley Scott actually did several interviews where he was adamant that this was not an Alien movie. However, it seems that he was pressured by the studio to tie it more closely into the Alien franchise, hence the ending, and why the movie feels like it doesn't answer all the questions. Alien: Covenant was made in order to kind of tie the gap between Prometheus and Alien.
I discovered the "Prometheus school of some people not paying attention to the movie screen" at 23:57 (in the video above) when Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron do indeed run sideways from the falling derelict ship.
I know everyone is telling them to run sideways forever. Like it's one of the biggest criticisms of the movie since it came out. But how can they? It's quite close by and we've seen all the terrain to the sides is incredibly rocky. I doubt they'd make more way to those areas than simply running along the flat terrain. ALSO... Humans don't tend to think very logically in extreme situations like this.
Simone and George are the only two reactors I never skip the dialogue before and after. Always interesting witty and funny. Worth SUBSCRIBING to if you haven’t already. Great job you two ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love that Simone recognised that actor from The OC, no other reactor i've watched has mentioned that. He played Trey Atwood, Ryan's trash older brother that Marissa has to shoot to save his life AKA the scene that originated the 'mmmmm whatcha say' meme! he will always be an icon to me lol
The bit that always kills me with this movie is the whole not taking any weapons to a possibly hostile alien world because “we’re doing science” nonsense. I once watched a PBS Nova special about a recent paleontological dig somewhere in the Arctic Circle and they had an actual official policy that EVERY person on the site was to carry a rifle when outside the camp’s buildings because it was Polar Bear territory and dinosaur bones aren’t worth losing your life over. P.S. for my fellow animal lovers, I don’t think they ever even had to use the guys except to scare off occasional bears that got a little too curious.
There’s plenty of stories all throughout history of explorers making dumb decisions out of arrogance and getting themselves and others into dangerous situations, often leading to catastrophe and death. The expedition in this movie was funded and organized by a superstitious old rich man with a god complex. Of course things wouldn’t be done up to code. Lol
I guess it was an hidden order by weyland. You don't wanna anger god in your last moments. He didn't care about safety of the crew. He just wanted to gamble on the last moments of his life for immortality without any kind of misunderstanding. He knew if engineers got angry he's certainly done anyways.
Yeah where Polar Bears are concerned a kilometer is too close for comfort. You need to make sure your personal space is huge and you'll defend it if they get too near.
It should also be named the "Prometheus School of Not Paying Attention" otherwise people would see that Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron do run sideways at 27:53
@@ttanza4004Manoeuvring around obstacles while *_still staying in the path of the rolling spaceship_* isn't the same as running _out from underneath_ it. Spoiler Alert! Vickers _(Charlize Theron)_ still got squashed and Shaw _(Noomi Rapace)_ only survived by plot armour, not intelligence. Both would have survived if they'd *actually* run sideways, which they didn't.
Unfortunately, that is how people do behave. I've watched people do this with avalanches. Head down, in the path of the slip instead of across and out of it. We often see people startled by a moving object which would have missed them, actually jump into its way. Panic is a core emotional response. Emotions aren't rational or logical.
@@AdeboFunkyVoodoo Yup, Safety Training always includes 'flee perpendicular to the wind / smoke plume' - and people are always like 'of course, what else' - but people really don't do it unless they're trained to.
That's certainly the justification used in production, but it doesn't track. Sure, a luxury yacht is going to be far nicer than a cargo ship, but the core systems like navigation and pilot controls would be similar. Aljen was a product of the 70's. The green screen clunky displays and illuminated buttons were a fitting, blue collar space design for the time. But PromCov took the redesign too far. It should have stuck closer to the design of mother's den. Remember that these films are supposedly 20 years before Alien. The way PromCov depicts it, modern cargoships should still be sailing with wooden barrels, sextants and brass fittings.
It amazes me how many people missed the first person's remains creating a double helix at the end of the scene. It can happen but what I definitely consider a wtf moment is what's supposed to be a zoologist looking at something that resembles as snake and it's clearly mimicking the body language of one, and he tries to touch it....
I always imagined that this script started out with a bunch of scientist characters acting like scientists, and someone said 'snarky space truckers were a lot more fun in the first movie, so make them act more like that'.
Thank God, finally someone is not dumb and noticed the xenomorph carving on the wall. Prometheus and Covenant are not direct prequels. Basically they are "the David experiment". David learn about xenomorphs, reading the carving on the wall and understand the black liquid should have something to do with it, and the fact that was the menace the space jockeys were run away from. When he asks the captain how far he would go for the love of science, and got a "a lot", he putted a stain of the black liquid in his glass to see what happens. It's not a direct prequel, xenomorphs already exsist for years. Since people kept on thinking these were prequels, 20th Century Fox forced Scott to not going further and dropped the trilogy. The reason why the engineer kills David and Weyland is because he perceived Weyland as someone who made the same mistake they made with the xenomorphs, creating something without consciousness and ready to kill without regrets if necessary, just because he likes the idea of living forever. So an android is not so different from a xenomorph in the engineer's eyes. There's an entire dialogue between David and the engineer, which was cutted off the release version for this. In this version, where the engineer just looks David after understood Weyland desires, and he kills them both without saying a word, the scene has much more power.
@@ZombieALX I didn't say it's not a prequel, I said it's not A DIRECT prequel. It's an own story, doesn't lead to Alien. Ridley Scott himself told it by saying "they're set before, but they're not direct prequels. It's a paralel story placed in the same universe". The more you keep on saying they're prequels, the less is the probability Fox will release the last movie of the trilogy.
@@lucasdolding6924 I didn't say it's not a prequel, I said it's not A DIRECT prequel. It's an own story, doesn't lead to Alien. Ridley Scott himself told it by saying "they're set before, but they're not direct prequels. It's a paralel story placed in the same universe".
its incredible how many poeple dont remember the big chair guy in the 1st alien movie when it appears in this one
Yep, the Space Jockey.
Only it's a different one in this movie.
One of the biggest mysteries of Alien was the lore behind the Space Jockey. Just to have Ridley ruin it all by making it nothing but a glorified space suit. One of the biggest reasons I kind of hate this movie.
Cause we rather forget that this movie exists and preserve our memories of the 1st one
I was sure they were gonna immediately recognise it from the first Alien! 😂 Still glad to see another Prometheus reaction!
George always says: "I like competent people doing stuff competently." So this movie is basically his nemesis. 😂
Covenant will make his head explode.
The first thing I thought when I saw they were watching this
The visible tech difference makes sense if you think of the Nostromo as an Amazon delivery van and the Prometheus as Jeff Bezos’s personal yacht.
Perfect way of putting it! I’ve been trying to explain this to people. These were explorers, the Nostromo were closer to commercial truck drivers
Prometheus set in 2089-2093 range, Alien set in 2122. Think early 90's and 2020's for example. How far technology has come in that period of time. What most advanced stuff from that era can compare to what we have today.
Still doesn't really work. Ridley messed that up along with tons of other stuff
It doesn't make sense. It's not that Bezo's yacht has tech different from regular tech. Yeah, it may be more fancy. But otherwise I don't think he owns something that regular people can't have.
Except they keep the high tech aesthetic in Covenant which is just a colony ship. It's simply a stylistic choice by Ridley that doesn't make sense in-universe. The Star Wars prequels made the same mistake.
One very key thing you guys did not appear to recognize: if you go back and watch the original Alien, the ship that the crew of the Nostromo finds is one of those Engineer ships, and they even examine a dead Engineer in the movie, which is their first clue about the chestbursting. They also land on a planet that may or may not be nearby, based on the name. In this film, the crew travels to LV-223; in the original Alien, the Nostromo stops on LV-426.
Also, not that it's important, but one way the difference in technology between Alien and Prometheus can be easily explained away (for the most part, anyway), is that in Alien, the crew of the Nostromo are essentially space truckers. Much like our real-world truckers still communicate using CB radio (or did; not sure if they still do), it would make sense for the Nostromo, a blue collar working rig, to have much less fancy technology than a scientific expedition financed by (and secretly including) Peter Weyland himself.
Plus and this is really important, both the budget and production quality over the decades between the two movies: Have come a long way.
Making a modern expensive movie, look and feel as crappie if not crappier than its decades old forebearer would probably not get past the films financiers nevermind the audience.
I think it's supposed to be the same planet, based on the ship's final position when it lands. They probably forgot what they called it in Alien, or an in-universe explanation is they were using an alternate naming system, which happens in Astronomy even now. Same star or object in the sky might have multiple designations depending on the catalog used.
Weyland industries the successor of Tyrell Corp - Ridleys homage to the Blade runner universe.
The only issue is that the Engineer in Alien is clearly a giant, dwarfing the Nostromo crew. Obviously just a simple retcon, but still noticeable.
@@robertcampbell8070 This is because they had 2 for the Space Jockey. (And yes, I will NEVER refer to it as an Engineer). One of the sets was scaled down. The actors you see in the space suits are actually children. If you look close, you'll see that the Space Jockey appears larger in one, and smaller in the other.
Prometheus is what happens when you DON'T have Dan O'Bannon writing the script. It is also an example of what happens when people who don't respect the original try to make a prequel.
Prometheus is also what happens when you cobble together a script that was cribbed off of several episodes of the History Channel show Ancient Aliens.
25:00 To this day idk why they cut the scene where they talked with the alien and instead just had the 9000 IQ alien go on a Hulk rampage the second he woke up.
I think the idea is supposed to be that humanity is a failed experiment. Whatever they had in mind for them wasn’t what they actually got when their creation is face to face with them. Kind of like the parent who really wants kids but then ends up hating them because the kids didn’t turn out how they wanted. So I think the rage was meant to illustrate the Engineer’s frustration at their hard work and (literal) sacrifice resulting in an inferior lifeform. Given how eugenicist they seem to be with bioengineering new species, I’d imagine they view it as a great tragedy that one of their own died in order to create this species of lesser beings. So his rage-filled barbarism is just an extension of that frustration. At least that’s my interpretation
Simple answer: Ridley Scott has lost his mind. How else do you explain Gladiator 2?
@@johnman9386 A 300 million dollar budget to work with?
I think it really pushes the indifference towards his creations, not even trying to communicate with them. To the engineers, we are bad product - that’s all.
@@SceneOnFilm Yes after doing research after watching the movie that much is clear, after watching the deleted scene especially. You know, some context to why he is going on a rampage.
Congratulations Shaw it’s…a squid
I understood that reference.
I'll just get up and run around after major surgery...
Did anything about that seem weird to you?
@@antonycharnock2993Hey, she had…staples. 😝
Squidward Shaw.
George is the "Guy" of this reaction. "IS THERE AIR?! YOU DON'T KNOW!".
Guy! You have a last name. Do I??? Do I???
That was my immediate thought!😂
Biologists not wearing respirators in an unknown environment, cartographers not knowing how to read maps and getting lost, xenobiologist attempting to pet the first alien life form he sees.... There are some very dumb characters in this.
Wouldn't be much of a movie if the were competent.
That is what truly bothered me about this movie. I'm no scientist but even I know not to expose myself to alien microorganisms or touch obvious "space cobras". Unprepared space truckers dealing with an alien was more believable than the scientific ignorance going on here.
That's why the movie falls flat for me. There are some great visuals and heady concepts but the characters needed to be written with way more care.
This entire franchise begins with the 1st officer of an interstellar ship sticking his face in a clearly moving alien egg and then the rest of the crew ignoring quarantine protocols.
@@benrobo1134 Nonetheless, the characters in Prometheus are a special breed of stupid despite supposedly being the absolute leaders in each of their fields. Completely takes me out the film. Especially when the film has David to manipulate them in secret. Could've done that instead of making the characters do stupid things.
This whole movie is anathema to George’s love of “competent people doing things competently”.
I feel like Shaw and David both do fit that description though, with Shaw’s surgery scene and David’s scheming. The rest of the cast though, yeah…
Sci Fi "Dumb and Dumberers"
I mean, the characters in the original movies weren’t exactly MENSA members themselves.
@blakemeads9225 They were space truckers. These were scientists specially chosen to go on a super secret mission to an unexplored planet to possibly find an alien civilization
My favorite aspect of this was the geologist who maps the place gets lost.
Noomi Rapace is the main hero in original "Girl with the dragon tattoo" trilogy.
"I have thoughts about this movie, they are not all good" - George
and he hadn't even gotten to the running away from the rolling spaceship scene 🤣
Everyone says run sideways but nobody notices that they do run sideways at 27:53
You mean the "prometheus school of running away from things"
That's the one thing I DON'T have a issue with. Have you ever tried to run a football field length? That ships gotta be that size at least in width, and I don't know about you, but running that in a panic of death if you fail sounds really hard. I've always found it dumb that's what people usually point out with this movie filled with so many dumber issues.
@kingcaesar3693 Guess I'll just run for even longer than that and get squished and die. Shaw shouldn't have survived at all realistically.
The smartest thing to do would have been to run at like a 45 degree angle so you can give yourself time to get out from the side while avoiding being crushed by it. Either way, I disagree and think they're still stupid for running lengthwise.
@@chuckleshelicopterwigwamjo6305 would you be able to work out 45 while in flight or fight and not having time to look back?
when they run from the ship, everybody says:JUST TURN, but only the viewer can see the entire picture, they can't, look at it from their perspective
This is why you should watch Sunshine. An expertly done Sci-Fi experience.
"I was running like that after Taco Bell" 🤣
I like to think that "The Martian" was Ridley Scott's apology to all Scientists everywhere for how they were portrayed in this film.
Because a 1000mph storm on mars (which has 1% the atmosphere as earth) knocked buildings, items and people flying...
Though to excuse that, the book's author Andy Weir used that as a way to initiate the plot even though he knew it was BS.
@@zybch what does any of that have to do with my comment? The fact that the storm was an unrealistic plot device has no bearing on how scientists are portrayed.
Yes!!
@@richieclean It's anti scientific so its objectively relevant you just don't like the fact that you acted smart and someone called you out for your own ignorance.
@@nodruj8681 it's not "anti-scientific". Creationism is "anti-scientific". Climate change denial is "anti-scientific". I wouldn't even consider Prometheus to be "anti-scientific" per se, it's not especially realistic, and it's arguably "anti-logic", but it's no more "anti-scientific" than most other Science Fiction films.
The point of my original comment was to contrast the way that *Scientists* (not science itself) are portrayed as idiots in Prometheus, which is very different to how they are portrayed in The Martian (despite some aspects of that film being unrealistic)
My comment was intended to be sardonic, and illicit amusement. Nothing more. The fact that you seem to think it's contentious, your inexplicably hostile tone, and the suggestion I'm being "called out" as if I'm some sort of hypocrite suggests to me that you might need to go and touch grass...
“The search for our beginning could lead to our end” was also the tag line for “Human Centipede”...
Thumbs up for the joke, but also 🤮
Bravo
😂😂😂
Ohhhhhh 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
@@paulonius42 Oh God, eeeeuw
The biologist trying to touch the snake alien thing is the stupid decision that made me the maddest in this film. Like who does he think he is, Steve Irwin?! And the thing is CLEARLY doing a threat display when it flares its hood out and he still tries to pet it, such an obviously dumb move!
Especially considering his reaction to the harmless corpse of an alien they encountered right before that.
Kane in the first movie saw eggs and put his face over top and got face hugged same thing.
@@Jokerrules666 At least he wasn't supposed to have years of education in zoology.
@@korganrocks3995 do you need years of education in zoology to not go playing with a rattle snake? No lol yet people do it. People do dumb shit all the time. Scientists included. It's really a dumb nitpick of this movie.
@@josephhoffman2992 Sure, Steve Irwin got a lot closer to dangerous creatures than is wise, but he never did so being completely clueless about the potential danger. The zoologist in Prometheus acted like a toddler or kitten encountering a rattle snake, not a professional who took an educated risk.
The real problem with that scene is that every viewer has an internal bullshit-meter, and every little thing in a movie that breaks your immersion raises that bullshit-meter, eventually reaching the point of no return where the viewer no longer trusts the filmmakers and finds fault with things they otherwise would let slide. Note that the viewer doesn't necessarily have to be objectively correct, which is why all movies still do the metallic noise when characters pull a sword from a sheath, since having it make the real sound would break the immersion for a lot of viewers who only know the movie-sound.
Basically, if you want to keep your audience happy you should avoid things that are both objectively unrealistic and subjectively unrealistic. There might well be a real life case of a highly regarded zoologist who died because he had a brainfart and tried to pet a rattle snake, but it's still counter-intuitive to a movie audience, so it better be the only seemingly dumb thing in your movie, not one of dozens of seemingly dumb things.
“Thats the lady who found the thing in the thing.” Classic Simone lol 😂
The real hero of the movie was the alien worm that killed the incompetent geologist who couldn't orient himself and the incompetent biologist who couldn't identify that the creature had a hostile attitude.
Me: Let's see if they're gonna say the thing
They: RUN SIDEWAYS!!!
Me: There we go 😊
The redhead geologist is me in multiplayer co-op video games. A cautious, risk assessing strategist who's the first to die because I try help someone who is the exact opposite.
George's reaction to taking off the helmet is exactly mine when I saw this in the theater. For a team of super duper experts they are really, really stupid in this movie.
dumbest smart people
It's why I can't like this or Covenant. They are all supposed to be scientists, and all think antithetically to scientific procedures.
There’s a very important detail in this movie that I feel like most people overlook (and it’s directly hinted at several times at the beginning of the movie), that this expedition was very hastily put together by a superstitious old man with a god complex. And the people he brought along probably wouldn’t be the best and brightest. They would be people who are willing to take the risk for money.
@@calvinallen3424 “It’s what I choose to believe.” I don’t remember that step in the scientific process… And up to that line, I assumed the robot was gonna get everyone killed.
@@blakemeads9225 I feel like they make a specific point that these are supposed to be leaders in their respective fields. To be fair, I haven't watched it in forever so I could definitely be remembering that wrong.
Every time I see Benedict Wong in a space-related movie it makes me re-watch Sunshine.
Good choice Sunshine is a favourite of mine.
Easily the most underrated Sci-fi. Incredible film
Love when the crispy scientist is chasing them
@idiot_city5444 Yeah....the weird horror element in an otherwise magnificent movie about humans sacrificing themselves for mankind. Yeah....slimey sun zombie....so....fun.
@peartree8338 it's the best part about it, cope harder
Only wong & idris deserved to live in this movie
"Guy Pearce in crazy old-age makeup." Part of the build up of this film was releasing at least one video vignette before the actual release of the film. The specific piece I'm thinking of was called 'The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023', in which Guy Pearce plays a younger Peter Weyland. There was a similar video released before 'Alien: Covenant' - it might be worthwhile to watch or else you're going to be similarly confused by particular casting decisions in that movie.
It happens. Casting locks them down and the script changes. In "Passengers", Andy Garcia was credited and then only showed up as a one shot cameo.
I wish they had recast him with Christopher Plummer. He even looks more like his "son" David.
he looks like bad grandpa
It's worth looking for the trailer for Covenant called "She won't go quietly". It looks like a different movie.
Truckers in space, Marines in space, Prisoners in space, Scientists in space...and idiots in space.
Now that I think about it, the idiocy on display by these scientists does sync up perfectly with the idiocy of the scientists in Resurrection
The only smart person is Vickers actually with worrying about the biohazards
And Romulus is scrappers in space.
@@danielpeckham5520 But then she is stupid a run in the same direction the ship is falling
the sad thing is that last one can represents Covenant too
Problem with this movie is there are 33 deletes scenes ( 14 minutes total ) that you can find out in the interwebz, there are even fanmade version where the scenes have been put in in the correct places, gives you a lot more clues on what is happening.
Hide your Apples, Simone's comin'
It’s referred to as the Prometheus school of running
...of running away from things.
@@lobachevscki Yeah that's kinda the essential part of that meme lol
It should also be called the "Prometheus school of people not paying attention to the movie screen" otherwise they would have seen that Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron do indeed run sideways from the falling derelict ship at 27:53 in the video above.
Quite right.
A young actor in old man makeup for no reason like some flashback is still the funniest thing in this franchise.
facts. i feel like there were alot more ideas surrounded that that never came to fruition. i know they did do some advertising with a young wayland on youtube before this movie came out.
@@CapnLubeHandles Yeah, and Guy Pearce was great in that fake Ted Talk, but they really should have cast some actual old guy with a similar look, because that old man makeup was rough...
@@korganrocks3995 oh i 100% agree there.
When he was cast, the script did have flashback sequences with his character at a younger age. But after some revisions as they got closer to filming, those scenes were cut from the script and they didn’t end up shooting them.
One way I think of the more advanced tech, is that this is a cutting edge exploration ship so has high tech equipment while the original ship was a freight hauler so had more bare bones old tech.
If you think this is dumb, then i should probably let you know that Aliens: Covenant reveals Shaw somehow perfectly repaired David on the alien ship, despite the lack of any obvious tools or parts for the job, and David promptly killed her. These two movies are like a giant Darwin Awards compilation that make no sense.
They DO RUN SIDEWAYS!
They turn at 27:53 in the video above but the falling derelict then rolls in their direction basically following them.
George's analysis is spot on. This movie had so much potential and really kewl elements but falls apart with baffling characters, decisions and plot directions.
Plus Ridley Scott seems to have this burr up his ass about religion/creationism vs science/evolution (which is why the scientists are so dumb). He continues this theme in the next movie.
"It does bypass surgery, what do you need it for?"
"... bypass surgery."
George describe the intentions well. For many years Ridley Scott talked about wanting to return Alien and explore the origin of the "space jockey" in the chair. He mentioned it in commentary tracks, etc. Everyone went into this expecting one movie and as it ended, it seemed to fall into place (the ship, literally falling into place), but not quite so. Then he starts talking about a trilogy. The second movie barely did well and a third from him is probably on hold indefinitely. Instead, the studio went in the direction of the "Romulus" movie that came out this year.
George: You know what this smells like to me?
Me: Teen spirit?
Oh how the lyrics of Teen Spirit fit this movie…
“I feel stupid and contagious” - that sums up all the characters to be fair, some are stupid, some are contagious (well, they are exposed to a contagious pathogen).
“Here we are now, entertain us” - sadly, Ridley Scott did not entertain many of us sufficiently.
The first half of the movie showed a lot of promise, but then Scott for some reason thinks it was spicy to reveal her as Weylan's daughter, and Weylan only wanted to ask the Engineer for immortality, and Shaw only wanted to know why the Engineers hate us. It really diminished the movie and seriously lowered the bar. I don't get why he thought we would find those things so interesting.
Also, for whatever reason, the "invitation" star pattern lead us to a weapons facility, not their home world.
The start of the term “Prometheus school of running away from things. “
The only time in my life I have thought about getting up and just leaving the cinema in the middle of a movie.
Honestly I really like the ambiguity of the Engineers' motivations, I get a lot of dread out of the idea that some things are just beyond human comprehension. They could've made the xenomorph for literally any reason, they could've made humanity for literally any reason, and they could've changed their minds about us for literally any reason. The surviving Engineer at the end could be his race's last hope or could be their Thanos, the one at the start could've been their saviour or a prisoner. It's just more stuff to ponder
This movie takes place in a universe where there is no TV, no movies, no fiction. The second the guy took his helmet off without testing for pathogens, I would know I was surrounded by idiots with no self preservation awareness.
"We recruited one really good captain, a few solid workers and then a bunch of people we scraped out of the finest clown colleges in the world to go on this incredibly crazy difficult space expedition."
There's some effective imagery and individual moments/performances but yeah the general story and what actually happens is a real mess. The bit where that guys helmet is melting into his face stuck with me for a long time though, gah.
George about the difference in technology between this and Alien, think about what the missions are and who the crew is of each movie. Alien you have the equivalent of no-name space trucks while in this you have the very top of the company and heads of science fields going out to investigate potential life
David: "I want to create a perfect being."
Idris Elba and Charlize Theron knocking boots: "Already working on that."
This was not studio interference. This was ENTIRELY down to Ridley Scott's hubris.
Sort of. The studio forced him to have it linked to the Alien movies. Scott didn't really want to but had to acquiesce to get funding.
@@zybch Sure but, while the Alien connection is very forced, it's not even in the top 10 of the film's biggest problems.
Apart from the link to the old movies, the studio basically gave Scott free rein, trusting in him being a genius who could revive the franchise or at least make a great film. The "ancient aliens" idea certainly came from Scott.
Imagine the studio wanting more Alien in an Alien movie... SMH
Alien - Prometheus and Covenant. Two movies that showed us that Ridley Scott needs to retire and take up painting or making model airplanes or something, anything besides making movies. His Napoleon just proved what we already knew.
“I’m gonna eat all your apples” 😂 that’s my favorite intro
All I'll remember from this movie is what George correctly called "such a stupid death"
To be fair, studies have shown that under extreme stress, people do REALLY STUPID things. I can't justify pretty much anything else in this film, but not running sideways is something that doesn't bother me in the slightest.
There's a difference between survival instinct & common sense.
If it was a second or two, then we'd make allowances for panic, but that running scene seemed to take forever, and I ended up screaming "just turn dammit" at the screen.
Obviously realistically people do stupid things and in that situation your first thought would be to just run away not necessarily off to the side, you also only have your own pov and not larger shots of the scene like the audience does when viewing it in its entirety, however when you watch it the obvious thing to do to survive is to go off to the side and that annoys audiences because they've thought of it and the filmmakers haven't so the death should've been directed in a way that the only way to survive is by running in a straight line if you want her to be crushed by the ship.
@@Temeraire101 Under extreme duress eg. like war common sense is often not adhered to .
People do irrational things during extreme duress.
@@gregorygant4242 Agreed.
I'm never going to be able to get Simone saying "I'm going to eat all your apples" out of my head.
I love the opening scene to this film. The big lad boshes a Jägermeister and falls to bits. Man, I've been there.
This movie had a lot of really interesting ideas, themes, and scenes; but the recklessness of everyone but the cockpit crew was maddening to watch.
The husband character is the most infuriating. He has helped discover a treasure trove of alien technology and he is pouting like a child.
Yep. He also makes big scientifically idiotic mistakes like taking his helmet off on an entirely new planet and he antagonizes the android for seemingly no reason. He reads less to me like a doctor and more like a frat boy with daddy's money.
@@ItsLexy That's actually really good comparison. lol
He was sad that he’s not Tom Hardy
*Thing Exists*
David: "I'm gonna touch it."
This movie is definitely flawed but it has some INCREDIBLE scenes. The C-section, David watching the alien holograms, the snake thingy attacking…plus the music is amazing.
Which is why it's bizarre that they didn't make sure the script was at least mediocre rather than dogshit. At least in this kind of case you can blame it on a famous writer/director being too stubborn(or surrounded by yes-men) to be told the script needs polishing.
The biggest achievement it further wipes the memory of the Real shit show: AvP: Requiem...
@@riveraharper8166 Requiem's big sin was that it was dull. It wasn't actually an exercise in dumbness.
@@ThreadBomb That's the usual response.
AvP:R was a Crime. Makers should be restricted from filming.
Or put them into the same cell as Game of Thrones makers... :P
Some (newbie?)director/producer wanted to turn this great franchise to some B movie crap.
One of the best sci-fi/horror was turned into 'I know what you crap last summer'/the blob copy...
Prometheus/Covenant/Romulus' greatest achievement to make people forget AvP:R even more slowly...
And that's exactly what it is. It's basically several good setpieces strung together by a paper-thin plot. It's entertaining enough but nowhere near excellent.
9:50 Galaxy quest flashback when they just randomly take off helmets for no good reason.
Is there air? You don't know! 😄
@@korganrocks3995Seems fine to me...
Could those be the miners?
Sure, they're like 3 yrs old.
We've got to get out of here before one of those things kills Guy
The technology difference has been explained that rich and powerful have much advanced tech than worker grunts.
Prometheus set in 2089-2093 range, Alien set in 2122. Think early 90's and 2020's for example. How far technology has come in that period of time. What most advanced stuff from that era can compare to what we have today. Can you imagine movie about reachest men set 30 years prior to this day there they will have blu-ray, iPhone analog, modern day pc etc and not call it bullshit or sci-fi.
It's still too advanced
i like that it's been years and George is still just as baffled by Simone's intros
It's one of the things that doesn't change, thank goodness. The other is the big eyes and shoulder roll by Simone at the end. I have to stay to watch that as George spits out names creatively designed to be as hard as possible to say at speed. Makes my day.
Noomi Rapace who played Dr. Elizabeth Shaw was AMAZING in the original GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO trilogy films. Hopefully you get a chance to react to them one day as well. :)
What annoys me in this game is how stupid all the scientists are. The guy who maps the caves get lost. The biologist is attacked when he tries to touch a clearly aggressive life form. People can only run in straight lines... other than that, I do like the movie.
*The guy who maps the caves get lost.*
AND has a map on his wrist. AND has radio contact with the Captain who could have also guided them back.
Game?
To be fair they were pretty dumb in the original alien 😅
I have known some very naive biologists that would absolutely touch a new species with a gloved hand. Being a biologist doesn't give you expertise on animal behaviour. That's its own specialization.
Knowledge in something a scientific field doesn't make you an intelligent person in the ways of everyday life .
And now you've learned lesson #1 from the "Prometheus School of Running Away from Things"
The first guy to die in Alien was the biggest star on the cast at the time.
Quite right.
Was John Hurt a bigger star the Tom Skeritt back then?
Say what you want about the quality/writing whatnot of this movie...
Prometheus the ship, is one of the best looking space ships in all of sci-fi, it's one of my favourites
This works really well as a Dead Space prequel. Including the ship full of Unitologists.
in the deleted scene when they talked to the Engineer, the Engineer talks about the origin story of Jesus and how they created him and was sent to earth to save mankind but in the end we killed Jesus. The Engineers were then enraged and were going to go back to earth and destroy everyone one on the planet which was about a 400 year travel but they had an accident onboard and never got to earth.
The Reason this movie is divided and disappointed many is that it was built as the movie that was going to answer the question of where the space jockey from the first Alien movie came from. However the script had a rewrite with Damon Lindelof (writer from Lost) and we got his classic answering questions with more questions. So at the end of the film you still dont know anything about the space jockey origin and are left with more questions that make the timeline even more confusing. It gets worse in Alien Covenant, cuz its a sequel to this movie, but you can tell they just abandon any plans of answering the questions, they literally wipe the slate clean and it just turns into a slasher film at the end, completely destroying the timeline and yes these are some of the dumbest "scientist" ever captured on film.
To me it took all of the questions around the Space Jockey and answered them with one sentence: "It's just a stupid space suit". Ridley utterly squandered the lore that could have existed around the Jockey. I guess the only question remaining unanswered is who was inside it. Was it an Engineer or someone else?
@@nodak81 Why are you so bent out of shape over it being a space suit? What did you think it was going to be?
I was also disappointed in the lack of answers in this film. I waited a long time for some back story and didn't get much. It is possible to guess at some details, though. We have this group of Engineers seeding their DNA on promising lifeless worlds. We can surmise that they were trying to create more advanced life forms. It's unclear what their definition of 'advanced' is, but there is speculation that humans were a failed experiment and this group of Engineers intended to eradicate life on Earth and start over--a mission which the revived Engineer intends to complete (he certainly wasn't fond of human beings). I believe that this group of Engineers were renegades, perhaps a religious cult (the self sacrifice at the beginning seems unnecessary--there should be non-lethal ways to seed a planet--but if this was a cult the suicide makes more sense). I assume this activity was not sanctioned by the majority of the Engineers.
As for themes, the main ones seems to be 'playing God' and 'seeking God'. Weyland creates David as the son he never had, thereby playing God (it's worth noting that David does not share the inhibitions that Bishop had, so he appears to be a more human-like design--not a wise move). David also wants to play God by creating a "perfect being." The Engineers were playing God on a planetary scale. Shaw is seeking 'God' (our creators), and Weyland also in an attempt to prolong his life.
The mural with the Xenomorph is interesting. I suspect that the Xenomorphs were discovered by the Engineers and they realized the incredible power of their biology: it can fuse with the DNA of any creature to create new life forms. The renegades seem have rendered it for storage as a means to wipe the slate clean when their experiments fail, and a form of it may have been used in the seeding process. Apparently they lost containment on LV-233, luckily for humanity.
While I would enjoy a film with Shaw interacting with the non-cult Engineers, it would probably be a lot of talking and not much action. I like talky, philosophical films but apparently they don't sell tickets. Most people consider the Alien franchise to be horror films, so it's no surprise than the studio went the slasher route. It's a lot easier than coming up with a good plot and good dialog.
@@nodak81 TBH, I'd rather Ridley had left the Space Jockey out of the story and not try to explain it at all. I was perfectly fine with leaving it as a mystery of something truly alien and not related to homo sapiens.
Lindelof is one of the worst people to ever happen to Hollywood
the tech isn't more advanced because of the real world, the tech is more advanced because the ship is owned by a rich guy.
A bunch of extras from Idiocracy have stumbled into an Alien movie.
I usually refer to this movie as "Alien starring the Scooby Gang", but this works too! 😄
It may seem silly that they didn't run against the side of the rolling ring-shaped ship, but remember it is freaking huge, from their perspective, I don't think they would be able to gauge the direction of the rolling or even that it was rolling. Also, probably their first instinct was just to try and run away from it, and once they were giving it the back, they wouldn't even know it was rolling toward them either until it was really late.
This is one of the few ocassions where being realistic seems so dumb because we are used to heroes doing unrealistic "right" decisions, but Shaw is just as blinded and dumb as the rest of the crew, sure, she is a badass in several aspects, but she is also really unstable, specially at that time considering she just had an alien c-sectioned, sending basically the only friendly people to die and her whole world view being torned apart.
Good morning! Welcome to the Prometheus school of running away from things!!
The tech in this movie looking better than Alien (1979) never bothered me. this is the CEO's ship. of COURSE it's fully kitted out. and the Nostromo is held together by duct tape since it's for the scut workers.
Kinda like in the Star WArs prequels, everything looks lush and detailed and like art and then when the Empire takes over, everything is gray, souless and industrial. What I don't like is when Star Trek has TV shows that take place in the same era as TOS and they don't even bother trying to have any sort of continuity visually or lore wise. Just say it's a reboot.
I mean in the year 40,000 they’re using parchment and wax seals and using spaces to stoke the plasma furnaces so….
That's not an excuse. The design language remains the same regardless whether something cheap or expensive. It changes largely with time, not with price.
I've had a $100 Chinese smartphone, and yet some people said about it 'wow, it looks so expensive.' I now have a phone that costs 5 times as much. Still, doesn't look or work significantly different. And if I buy a phone that costs 10 times more, it will still look and work largely the same.
If we make comparison to phones, in movies it's like everyone uses smartphones, 100 years passes, and then everyone uses only rotary landline phones for some reason.
@HistoritorJimaldus if your talking about Warhammer 40K the humans intentionally regress due to AI going rogue and trying to kill humanity plus the fact that Chaos can use AI.
I can understand a certain difference in tech between the two "classes", but this feels too much for comfort.
"We're back to Ridley Scott directing this one."
Yeah... that's not really a good thing anymore.
Yeah, a part of me doesn't want to see Gladiator 2. Because I believe it never needed a sequel. The original is a masterpiece.
@@thegunslinger1363Same. It really looks god awful. Ridley Scott only makes bad movies now.
I think the problem is that Ridley Scott is an excellent director but he isn't a good writer/producer. Alien, Blade runner, Gladiator etc = not written by him. Prometheus, Covenant etc = co-written and produced by him. 🤷
@@rosswhite5975 I'd put it this way; Scott is a Director, period. Not a writer/director like Tarantino or Nolan.
And despite being a Great Director he doesn't always pick the best scripts. He'll even start shooting a film with only half a script, as he did on Gladiator, but as that film demonstrates, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be a disaster.
@@Unpainted_Huffhines if you replaced the word "really" with "necessarily" I would agree with you 100%.
I think of sam Rockwell's character Guy from galaxy quest when they take off their helmets.😂
I saw this in IMAX 3D, and seeing the giant face hugger in 3D definitely gave me a different perspective on what that experience would be like IRL
When this movie first entered production is was not meant to be a prequel to Aliens. It was supposed to be a stand-alone film set in the wider Alien universe and only loosely tied to those movies. Ridley Scott actually did several interviews where he was adamant that this was not an Alien movie. However, it seems that he was pressured by the studio to tie it more closely into the Alien franchise, hence the ending, and why the movie feels like it doesn't answer all the questions. Alien: Covenant was made in order to kind of tie the gap between Prometheus and Alien.
George discovers the Prometheus school of running away from things.
I discovered the "Prometheus school of some people not paying attention to the movie screen" at 23:57 (in the video above) when Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron do indeed run sideways from the falling derelict ship.
I know everyone is telling them to run sideways forever. Like it's one of the biggest criticisms of the movie since it came out. But how can they? It's quite close by and we've seen all the terrain to the sides is incredibly rocky. I doubt they'd make more way to those areas than simply running along the flat terrain. ALSO... Humans don't tend to think very logically in extreme situations like this.
When I saw this it was as though the entire theater muttered "WTF" in unison at then end.
Simone and George are the only two reactors I never skip the dialogue before and after. Always interesting witty and funny. Worth SUBSCRIBING to if you haven’t already. Great job you two ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Run sideways", said everyone.
23:10 " Well, there was Staples. " Simone forgot to say " Other office supplies stores are available... "
If you go by the chronological release of the Alien movies, the androids go in alphabetical order. Ash-bishop-Call-and now David.
And then they skip E and went all the way to W
@@scorp77snake Someone pointed this out to Ridley Scott, and though it was a coincidence, he didn't like it, so he skipped E.
I love that Simone recognised that actor from The OC, no other reactor i've watched has mentioned that. He played Trey Atwood, Ryan's trash older brother that Marissa has to shoot to save his life AKA the scene that originated the 'mmmmm whatcha say' meme! he will always be an icon to me lol
The bit that always kills me with this movie is the whole not taking any weapons to a possibly hostile alien world because “we’re doing science” nonsense. I once watched a PBS Nova special about a recent paleontological dig somewhere in the Arctic Circle and they had an actual official policy that EVERY person on the site was to carry a rifle when outside the camp’s buildings because it was Polar Bear territory and dinosaur bones aren’t worth losing your life over.
P.S. for my fellow animal lovers, I don’t think they ever even had to use the guys except to scare off occasional bears that got a little too curious.
There’s plenty of stories all throughout history of explorers making dumb decisions out of arrogance and getting themselves and others into dangerous situations, often leading to catastrophe and death.
The expedition in this movie was funded and organized by a superstitious old rich man with a god complex. Of course things wouldn’t be done up to code. Lol
I guess it was an hidden order by weyland.
You don't wanna anger god in your last moments. He didn't care about safety of the crew. He just wanted to gamble on the last moments of his life for immortality without any kind of misunderstanding. He knew if engineers got angry he's certainly done anyways.
Yeah where Polar Bears are concerned a kilometer is too close for comfort. You need to make sure your personal space is huge and you'll defend it if they get too near.
What kills this is that Elizabeth Shaw makes the mint chocolates every British household buys at Christmas. 🤣
27:45 Ah yes, the _'Prometheus School of Running Away from Things'_ - DING
Came here to write this 😂
It should also be named the "Prometheus School of Not Paying Attention" otherwise people would see that Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron do run sideways at 27:53
Shaw rolled 10 feet tops and was fine😂
@@ttanza4004Manoeuvring around obstacles while *_still staying in the path of the rolling spaceship_* isn't the same as running _out from underneath_ it.
Spoiler Alert! Vickers _(Charlize Theron)_ still got squashed and Shaw _(Noomi Rapace)_ only survived by plot armour, not intelligence. Both would have survived if they'd *actually* run sideways, which they didn't.
"Sin Count"
Seeing this made me remember the redlettermedia prometeus questions videos, and by God, those videos are still absolutely perfect
Them running from the ship rolling towards them was so dumb that it became a meme.
Unfortunately, that is how people do behave.
I've watched people do this with avalanches. Head down, in the path of the slip instead of across and out of it.
We often see people startled by a moving object which would have missed them, actually jump into its way.
Panic is a core emotional response. Emotions aren't rational or logical.
@@AdeboFunkyVoodoo Yup, Safety Training always includes 'flee perpendicular to the wind / smoke plume' - and people are always like 'of course, what else' - but people really don't do it unless they're trained to.
People are too harsh on that scene, in that moment most people would have done the same thing just running blindly in one direction without thinking.
It's been a trope forever. I doubt that you'll find anyone in films that does anything more than move straight when avoiding a hazard.
I know, but common sense and logical thinking often go out the window in those kinds of situations. I hate to admit it but I'd prob be the same.
This is definitely a gorgeous and entertaining movie. But if you think about any part of it for too long you regret it
The Nostromo was an old tow barge, the Prometheus ship is a cutting edge science vessel. The tech is gonna be better than in Alien
That's certainly the justification used in production, but it doesn't track. Sure, a luxury yacht is going to be far nicer than a cargo ship, but the core systems like navigation and pilot controls would be similar. Aljen was a product of the 70's. The green screen clunky displays and illuminated buttons were a fitting, blue collar space design for the time. But PromCov took the redesign too far. It should have stuck closer to the design of mother's den.
Remember that these films are supposedly 20 years before Alien. The way PromCov depicts it, modern cargoships should still be sailing with wooden barrels, sextants and brass fittings.
@AnonEyeMouse yeah, it doesn't work whatsoever
@@AnonEyeMouse nonsense
I know this film isn't very good but I somehow have a soft spot for it, it's pretty entertaining imo and I like the ideas
12:52 - Oh, poor George. :( In the next film, the characters will land on an unfamiliar planet without helmets. Only in earflaps.
And then, to add insult to injury, one gets infected through the ear!
"...the violation of the human body"
The first Alien movie was the most influential body-horror film ever, just for one scene.
For such a visually arresting film, it's soooo disappointing the flaws it has.
I still like watching it. The performances are very good as you would expect.
It amazes me how many people missed the first person's remains creating a double helix at the end of the scene.
It can happen but what I definitely consider a wtf moment is what's supposed to be a zoologist looking at something that resembles as snake and it's clearly mimicking the body language of one, and he tries to touch it....
I always imagined that this script started out with a bunch of scientist characters acting like scientists, and someone said 'snarky space truckers were a lot more fun in the first movie, so make them act more like that'.
Earlier drafts of the script make a lot more sense!
"The forbidden unagi" omg I died laughing, George. Thanks for the reaction, guys!
20:09
more like the hottest thing about Alien franchise
Thank God, finally someone is not dumb and noticed the xenomorph carving on the wall.
Prometheus and Covenant are not direct prequels. Basically they are "the David experiment". David learn about xenomorphs, reading the carving on the wall and understand the black liquid should have something to do with it, and the fact that was the menace the space jockeys were run away from. When he asks the captain how far he would go for the love of science, and got a "a lot", he putted a stain of the black liquid in his glass to see what happens.
It's not a direct prequel, xenomorphs already exsist for years.
Since people kept on thinking these were prequels, 20th Century Fox forced Scott to not going further and dropped the trilogy.
The reason why the engineer kills David and Weyland is because he perceived Weyland as someone who made the same mistake they made with the xenomorphs, creating something without consciousness and ready to kill without regrets if necessary, just because he likes the idea of living forever. So an android is not so different from a xenomorph in the engineer's eyes.
There's an entire dialogue between David and the engineer, which was cutted off the release version for this. In this version, where the engineer just looks David after understood Weyland desires, and he kills them both without saying a word, the scene has much more power.
They're definitely canon prequels. Watch Romulus
Even if the xenomorphs already existed doesn't mean it's not a prequel, it's set before Alien and is ergo a prequel to that film
@@lucasdolding6924 I didn't say it's not a prequel, I said it's not A DIRECT prequel.
@@ZombieALX I didn't say it's not a prequel, I said it's not A DIRECT prequel. It's an own story, doesn't lead to Alien.
Ridley Scott himself told it by saying "they're set before, but they're not direct prequels. It's a paralel story placed in the same universe".
The more you keep on saying they're prequels, the less is the probability Fox will release the last movie of the trilogy.
@@lucasdolding6924 I didn't say it's not a prequel, I said it's not A DIRECT prequel. It's an own story, doesn't lead to Alien.
Ridley Scott himself told it by saying "they're set before, but they're not direct prequels. It's a paralel story placed in the same universe".
"JUST TURN!" George saying the same thing everyone in the theater I saw it in said.