Ridley Scott Prometheus: NOT the Alien Prequel Details

[Yellowjacket]

Space Jockeys compared.

It may be that the first chair is how it looked before the years of decay. Perhaps all of the softer surface materials eroded away to reveal the chair as we know it in Alien. Speculation aside, I'll reserve my opinions until after the final credits roll.

 

[JD]

I'm not up on all my Alien lore (I had to Google Xenomorph just make sure it was what I thought it was). I've seen the first 3 flicks and I enjoyed them all...

but, the more I see of Prometheus and read this thread the more I like and am really, really looking forward to seeing this...

It's a different type of acticipation than I fee for The Avengers flick... but, in a good way.

 

[Clutch]

This is probably Lv426 and that Noomi chick is Ripley's mom who got impregnated by space jockey.

 

[neosporing]

for the cause
the original SJ

hoping to see the newer interior have these 'giegeresque' features

but not quite seeing it here..

or here

as compared to here

i guess there's lots of room for explanations

 

[Nwerke]

How is it not the same derelict again? We see the gawddang chair!

Uh, we see a different chair. Since the outside of the ship is different, and the inside of the ship is different, I was guessing 'not the same ship'. As confirmed by Carson.

comparing the trailer SJ ship with the original derelict, there are some big differences in shape and details. Likewise with the cockpit chair, though it is pretty close.

Yup. It's metallic rather than biomechanical, for starters.

I would think they would make bigger changes to suggest that. One detail they obviously kept the same is the 3 openings where we saw the Nostromo crew enter.

I rather like that they didn't. OTOH I suspect I am going to be very disappointed in the level of (non)biomechanicalism in this film.

But I've been suspecting that for a couple of years now, or however long it's been since Ridley revealed the "suit" spoiler for the Space Jockey.

That dude is huge or that chair is small

He's huge. And notice that the chair is empty? Also, the design is changed to accommodate this shift to 'suit'. The arms are no longer present and part of the larger body, which itself is now metallic instead of bone-coloured.

There's definite revisionism here; that puts this into a side universe as far as I'm concerned.

Still, I'd be perfectly happy with the differences if it is supposed to be the same ship.

You would? That kind of thing really bugs me: if it HAD been supposed to be the same ship, I'd call that lazy.

The original Derelict is in good hands right now and could surely have been made available for scanning...

 

[Nwerke]

ITs disappointing that they may be humanoid in form but I'm sure they are portrayed amazingly well in the movie, you cant make a film like this and have a Jar Jar binks Disaster, I mean the hole industry leaned from that I think.

:thumbsup Pinning my hopes on that at this stage. Make them behave weirdly enough and I'll forgive it. But *******, I'd started to believe that 'suit' spoiler might have been misdirection. I REALLY wanted to see a living Space Jockey. Not a giant humanoid hiding inside one.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD...

I would hate to see your definition of a major spoiler. :lol

Just kidding; it's all stuff that could be worked out from what's been shown so far.

It may be that the first chair is how it looked before the years of decay. Perhaps all of the softer surface materials eroded away to reveal the chair as we know it in Alien.

No, different design, the original SJ had his arms fused to his sides and his body included a huge 'hump' or 'backpack' that was clearly part of him. The new one lacks arms and the hump/body is clearly mechanism this time. The rotunda disc is completely different. There are other differences.

 

[Noeland]

I'm not looking to get too deep into this, but I think we're looking at a functional pre-xeno jockey/chair/chamber in the new film. In Alien, it's all been covered in "secreted resin" and turned into an egg chamber and nest by the xeno's.

 

[nick daring]

The red piping on the spacesuit made me think of the Proto-Alien flick Planet of the Vampires' space suits.

Shiny butt.

Nick

 

[messfx]

You would? That kind of thing really bugs me: if it HAD been supposed to be the same ship, I'd call that lazy.

The original Derelict is in good hands right now and could surely have been made available for scanning...

Or maybe he simply wanted to rework it a bit. Not lazy at all. He could have easily made it to be identical if he wanted to.

 

[nick daring]

Also Planet of the Vampires has infested spacemen zombies-

 

[Nwerke]

Or maybe he simply wanted to rework it a bit. Not lazy at all. He could have easily made it to be identical if he wanted to.

Ridley's not a lazy director IMO; if he simply wanted to rework it a bit, he'd have worked that into the script, and made it a different ship.

Wait, hang on, I thought we'd agreed that's what he HAS DONE.

I'm getting confused!!! :lol

My point is, 'just wanting to rework things' simply because you can, without lifting a finger to explain WHY they now look different, is a slack approach to filmmaking which wouldn't have passed muster in our grandparent's day. Harrumph, and all.

 

[Krull]

It looks good,maybe think of it as a pre-Alien,takes place in another universe film.

I'll watch it.

 

[CutThumb]

Lots of interesting questions raised. Bearing in mind the principle photography wrapped only a few months ago ,most of what we are seeing looks well advanced. But theres nothing from the Alicante (Spanish part of the shoot) in the underwater tank that I can tell. And it was cheap to shoot in the landscape of Iceland because of the collapse of its economy......... I do wish they hadn't just used a grader to scrape a roadway for the vehicles to drive on though.
The original small planetoid in Alien has a very violent and primative atmosphere and it is unlikely that ANY spacecraft crashing there would survive for any LONG period of time without suffering serious degredation of the hull structure. So the original derelict cannot have been there for thousands of years without being buried or reduced to a heap of dust eroded rubble. The same reasoning applies to the possible derelict in the new film. As there is already flaming debris and running humans scattered around the site as it crashes I guess this is just after the Magellen has smashed into it to prevent it taking off.
Its definitely Holloway thats got the green goo skin forming over his face. Its definitely a SJ skull on the examination table. You have seen the skeleton and the skull in one of the original set of still pictures released about a month ago in the ampule room (some people thought it was an egg, despite the eye sockets)! and he is as large as the original SJ. The first biomorph (facehugger) was described by Ash as being able to "shed cells and replace them with polarized silicon which gives it a prolonged resistance to adverse environmental conditions." It used Kanes body to grow an Alien so that there MUST be a biological connection shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. That the DNA of the film is related to Alien is widely being hinted at by Ridley all the time.
As a minutes worth of trailer compare it with the original one for Alien and then really try to remember just how different that turned out to be in the end.

 

[Jannix Quinn]

Has anyone noticed it looks a lot like Alien?





*flee*

 

[Knightjar]

That is a bit disappointing, Carson. Ever since first seeing ALIEN I had always imagined the Jockey's remains as a skeleton and was hoping o see them in all their bizarre, huge glory in this film.!

This is why I'm half dreading this film. I really don't want the mystery taken out of Alien. The Space Jockey was a huge, majestic unknown and was very definitely alien in the true sense of the word.

This sort of adding to the mythology is what diluted the Star Wars universe. I hope to be able to see this film as a stand-alone piece, taking place in an entirely alternate universe to Alien, thus protecting my interpretation and enjoyment of the original. In the same way that there were only ever three Star Wars movies. And they never came out in Blu-Ray.

I'm actually going to be kind of pissed if I had it wrong all these years.

As I see it, you weren't wrong either way. A decision made for a film that comes 25+ years later shouldn't affect the world of the original.

I don't care what planet you're from, that's gotta hurt.

Man, it was driving me crazy trying to place that quote, but I got there in the end!

 

[SpyderDan]

You would? That kind of thing really bugs me: if it HAD been supposed to be the same ship, I'd call that lazy.

The original Derelict is in good hands right now and could surely have been made available for scanning...

In the same sense that I never had any problem with the differences between the Millenium Falcon models throughout the movies, or the Star Destroyers, or Vader's costume. Likewise for the changes to the alien "warriors" in Aliens (though I disliked the xeno variants in everything since).

I'm actually having a harder time with the "engineer" suit retcon. The only way I can see that working better for me is if what formerly looked like a backpack (and was originally bone colored) somehow grows the ribs that wrap around the "suit" like some sort of harness that integrates it all for the "grown out of the chair" appearance.

I'm certainly not holding my breath for it, but I do think certain things like that could make for a good case for CGI, to add the bio-mechanical elements that are missing.

 

[Howard]

I'm a little late to this party, but I must say that trailer looks incredible.
From what I've read (and obviously the clue's in the movie's title) it looks as though we'll have quite a few questions answered regards the first film.
I've always wondered why facehuggers were exactly the correct size to grip a human head, while placing a seed down the throat.
Could the jockey be a kinda DNA gun, used to project DNA across the universe?
I'm really looking forward to this movie!

 

[Nwerke]

Dan, it's a pretty major change, though. From something that completely looks grown/alive, to something bone-shaped but metallic/mechanical in nature. It's a bit like another YT-1300 freighter turned up in Star Wars, but was covered in scales instead of plating.

 

[phase pistol]

I might have a hard time accepting it if the planet in this film is supposed to be LV-426 and the ship is supposed to be the same derelict as in ALIEN. I'm hoping that there's more to it than that.

K

 

[baron von blondle]

details, schmetails. Perhaps it'll all be explained in the movie or perhaps it won't and the movie will be so good it won't matter.

Yep I'm a blind optimist with regards to Mr. Scott's work.

Respect
P.