Ridley Scott Prometheus: NOT the Alien Prequel Details

[CessnaDriver]

Not life elsewhere, but "a little help" basically saying aliens intentionally seeded our earth or intervened in some fashion.
That's what Scott said NASA said. He immediately goes into that Chariots of the Gods bunk right after the statement. So his meaning is clear there.

The closest to that, that I can recall NASA supporting... would be our planet received biological building blocks from comets or meteorites but that is a natural event. No aliens required.

My point is, Scott is making a stretch there to be kind.

 

[Nwerke]

Chandrasekhar and Hoyle, rather than NASA, wasn't it?

Huge stretch, either way.

 

[Kit Rae]

The "little help along the way" is more of the Von Daniken fluff, and I think Ridley is just mixing the two in that response - but I have never found the full quote in context, just the stuff the Hollywood reporter article says he said. Back in the 70's one of NASA's chief flight directors wrote a book saying something similar.

Not much of that concerns me with the film story however. As a back story for how Weyland Yutani knew the ship was on that moon in Alien, works for me.

 

[Kit Rae]

Here is the full quote I read, so if this is where the Hollywood reporter got what he said, they got it wrong by combining quotes the way they did. Make of it what you will.

"Also, I ring off of… there’s a writer, Erich von Däniken. One of his most famous books was called Chariots of the Gods. Everyone thinks he was out of his mind, you know, for number one, “we are the creation of gods”, if you go back to the 19th century anthropologists, Darwin, and say if you go look at Darwin for the moment and look at the Darwinian idea, the Darwinian thesis, which is seemingly very logical. You know, you’re going from something that gradually comes to two legs and gradually here we are. Then you can go beyond that and you look more mathematically at the feasibility of how we’re able to be sitting here, right now, in this place. I’m talking to you, and I’ve got this thing (he picks up his cellphone) which looks like Star Trek. This is “Beam me up, Scotty”-stuff. You wouldn’t have believed this thing could exist thirty years ago.

Things have changed so dramatically that you can start looking at the idea that all our history can be completely wrong and misguided. Because at some point someone has to put a statement down and have their own thesis, have their own theories. That was then later accepted or later is gradually dissolved and re-drawn or reworked. So now you’ve got the whole changed attitude with NASA, the church and I think even Hawking. Over the last thirty years have gone from “It’s highly unlikely that there’s anyone else in our galaxy, any other force, being in our galaxy,” to now, where they’re conceding that there are probably thousands of different lifeforms in this galaxy. And I think Hawking actually said, “Let’s hope they don’t visit.” And I think the church has conceded as well that it would not be against the word of God if we conceded that there are other lifeforms in this galaxy.

So, if you take that out, then the door is open. To me, it’s entirely logical. It’s entirely ridiculous to believe that we are the only ones here. That’s why my first thought is that for us to be sitting here right now is actually mathematically impossible without a lot of assistance. Who assisted? Who made the right decisions? Who was pushing and pulling to adjust us? That’s a fair question."

 

[Rotwang]

"Also, I ring off of… there’s a writer, Erich von Däniken. One of his most famous books was called Chariots of the Gods. Everyone thinks he was out of his mind, you know, for number one, “we are the creation of gods”, if you go back to the 19th century anthropologists, Darwin, and say if you go look at Darwin for the moment and look at the Darwinian idea, the Darwinian thesis, which is seemingly very logical. You know, you’re going from something that gradually comes to two legs and gradually here we are. Then you can go beyond that and you look more mathematically at the feasibility of how we’re able to be sitting here, right now, in this place.

He's a good filmmaker, but he thinks that blindly accepting every whacky alternative theory is good critical thinking.

And then there is the impossible odds fallacy, which is just fanciful thinking without any proper frame of reference.

 

[Carson Dyle]

He's a good filmmaker, but he thinks that blindly accepting every whacky alternative theory is good critical thinking.

What a marketing-savvy filmmaker says during an interview, and what he actually believes, are often two different things.

 

[Kit Rae]

He was not giving a speech at Harvard. Jeez. This is Ridley loosely explaining his rambling thoughts about the overall premise for the back story of his science fiction movie to a reporter.

SCIENCE FICTION movie. I find this no different than reading Arthur C Clark or Kubrick's thoughts about the premise of 2001, which is the exact same type of back story by the way. Just friendlier

 

[CessnaDriver]

...... That’s why my first thought is that for us to be sitting here right now is actually mathematically impossible without a lot of assistance. Who assisted? Who made the right decisions? Who was pushing and pulling to adjust us? That’s a fair question."

Given near infinate possibilities and as is being proven there are a lot more planets in the green zone than first thought.. all the more supports it's possible without some aliens dabbling on our world.

It's not a question for me, other then there is no evidence for it at all and yet there are nightly shows about the nonsense on formerly respectable channels, who watches this stuff?

In 1968 it was cutting edge sci fi for that kind of idea.
Now it is overused, good grief... TOS Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, Fifth Element, TOS Star Trek even had such an episode with Apollo, just off the top of my head.

Have we had enough stories about ancient astronauts and aliens meddling with us?


It's going to be a fictional movie though, Scott may be trying to promote the film, it crossed my mind. But it deserves a response because NASA has never promoted such a thing.

I have to try as a viewer to look at the aliens as our papa idea freshly though for the sake of this film. It's hard beacuse there is so much mindless pap about it on TV lately that I can't switch the channel fast enough.

His new spin on the idea seems to be that of the common angry parent threat..., we brought you into this world, and we can take you out.

Though I still suspect a we're our own granpa type ending.

 

[modelcitizen]

i took it to mean that "science" and "religion" are more willing to accept the possibility these days

 

[JiminSTLouis]

Is anyone watching TED Talks : Science Channel tonight?

 

[Rotwang]

He was not giving a speech at Harvard. Jeez. This is Ridley loosely explaining his rambling thoughts about the overall premise for the back story of his science fiction movie to a reporter.

SCIENCE FICTION movie. I find this no different than reading Arthur C Clark or Kubrick's thoughts about the premise of 2001, which is the exact same type of back story by the way. Just friendlier

I'm just disappointed that Scott sounds like the know-it-all at the local bar that spouts that kind of nonsense at 1am, trying to appear really deep.

 

[Janderson0719]

Reading this thread gets me more excited for Prometheus.

I'm a fan of the movie, but don't know the background stories or extension stories to the movie ALIEN like some of you.

I hope this movie explains a lot that the other "Alien" movies didn't.

 

[Monster Dave]

I just re-watched the newest trailer - this movie is my most anticipated film of 2012 - far more than Avengers.

 

[cayman shen]

I'm just disappointed that Scott sounds like the know-it-all at the local bar that spouts that kind of nonsense at 1am, trying to appear really deep.

Uh oh, he's not getting "pompous, pretentious director syndrome" I hope. If so, we're in for one looooooooooong movie.

 

[Monster Dave]

At least it won't be like sitting through a Bay movie.

 

[Jathoris]

Does anyone have any screen caps of the suit where it looks like one of the crew is walking down the ramp next to one of the vehicles? Same person/suit is one of the flame thrower guys that we saw in the first trailer. Kind of looks more like the Alien versions or similar to the ones used in Armageddon, but im trying to get some good shots of it. Any would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rotwang]

Uh oh, he's not getting "pompous, pretentious director syndrome" I hope. If so, we're in for one looooooooooong movie.

I think he's more capable than that. But they way he tries to sell the movie is light years away from Clarke and Kubrick's 2001. At least Clarke tried to keep it scientifically plausible and assumed the movie viewer was a person of discerning intelligence. The way Scott sells it, is mostly appealing to the kind of people who scour Youtube for poor quality videos of Obama, and Palin to "prove" they are repotoid aliens, because the low res-pixel distortion makes it look like they have slit eyes in one single frame.

All that aside, I'm very interested in the film, looks good so far.

 

[Nwerke]

It's "Reptilians"...but you knew that...because you're one of THEM, making deliberate typos to feign ignorance. I CAN TELL!!! :lol

Funny, was just telling JBible, Muzza and Jedimaster about Reptilians yesterday over lunch. Some high priest of that movement apparently divorced his wife recently, claiming she was one. Well hey, marry a guy that nuts, expect the worst, I guess...

Anyway, if Scott is engaging in some lowbrow marketing here then fine; wouldn't be any surprise. OTOH that kind of complete crapola can ambush you coming out of the mouths of otherwise intelligent and well-informed people at any second, these days.

 

[Lutso]

Guys, I just gotta say, I went to a movie this evening and saw the trailer for Prometheus on the big screen with big sound, and I nearly pissed maself out of excitement.

 

[Jathoris]

Guys, I just gotta say, I went to a movie this evening and saw the trailer for Prometheus on the big screen with big sound, and I nearly pissed maself out of excitement.

Know exactly what you mean. Just saw it (long trailer) last night in the previews for Hunger Games, and it looked fantastic on the big screen :0) I'll have to watch the trailers again but I can almost swear I saw a couple super quick shots that I had not seen before.