New topic
Printable
Report post to moderator
Scott told Movies.com that he always knew that the film’s ending would organically set Prometheus up for a sequel:
“From the very beginning, I was working from a premise that lent itself to a sequel. I really don’t want to meet God in the first one. I want to leave it open to [Noomi Rapace’s character, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw] saying, ‘I don’t want to go back to where I came from. I want to go where they came from.’ “
The original title of the Alien prequel wasParadise before they settled onPrometheus, but Paradise has been bandied about as the possible title for thePrometheus follow-up. It’s now clear that the “Paradise” title would refer to the home planet of humanity’s makers (ie. heaven). As for what the home planet of the Engineers is like, Scott’s vision doesn’t sound like a happy trip for Rapace andMichael Fassbender’s characters:
“Because [the Engineers] are such aggressive fuckers … and who wouldn’t describe them that way, considering their brilliance in making dreadful devices and weapons that would make our chemical warfare look ridiculous? So I always had it in there that the God-like creature that you will see actually is not so nice, and is certainly not God. As she says, “This is not what I thought it was going to be, and I think we should get the Hell out of here or there won’t be any place to go back to.
That’s not necessarily planted in the ground at the tail end of the third act, but I knew that’s kind of where we should go, because if we’ve opened up this door — which I hope we have because I certainly would like to do another one – I’d love to explore where the hell [Dr. Shaw] goes next and what does she do when she gets there, because if it is paradise, paradise can not be what you think it is. Paradise has a connotation of being extremely sinister and ominous.”
Scott reiterated his desire to travel to where the Engineers came from in a roundtable interview we attended:
“I know where it’s going. I know that to keep [David] alive is essential and to keep [Elizabeth] alive is essential and to go where they came from, not where I came from, is essential.”
One of the biggest questions left open at the end of Prometheus is why the Engineers made the decision to wipe out the human race, their creation. Josh Hororwitz at MTV asked Lindelof if he and Scott had worked out the answer to that question yet, and here’s Lindelof’s response:
“Golly, I’m all for ambiguity, but if we didn’t know the answer to THAT one, the audience would have every right to string us up. Yes. There is an answer. One that is hinted at within the goalposts of Prometheus. I’ll bet if I asked you to take a guess you wouldn’t be far off.”
The Prometheus crew calculates that the Engineers decided humanity was to be destroyed 2000 years ago, around the time of Jesus Christ. That specific date is not insignificant in relation to the Prometheusfollow-up and answering the question of why our race was targeted for destruction, as Scott brought up the issue of religion during his interview with Steve:
“It’s interesting to do a sequel because this leaves the door so open to some huge questions. The real question to me is – the more mankind discovers in science the more clear and helpful everything becomes, yet we’re very bad at managing ourselves. And one of the biggest problems in the world is what we call religion, it causes more problems than anything in the goddamn universe. Think about what’s happening now, all based on the very simple idea that a Muslim can’t live alongside a Catholic, or a Catholic can’t live alongside a Protestant…”
In fact, the original script for Prometheusflat out explained why Earth was targeted for destruction, and the reasoning ties into Scott’s thoughts on religion. They ultimately felt the idea was lacking in subtlety and scrapped it, but Scott elaborated on the plot point to Movies.com and his comments may provide a hint as to where the follow-up could go:
“We definitely did [have that in the script], and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an ‘our children are misbehaving down there’ scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, ‘Lets’ send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it. Guess what? They crucified him.’”
So where does this leave us? It’s clear that Scott really wants to make the sequel, and he and Lindelof have distinctly discussed the answers to many of the burning questions that could be elaborated on in a follow-up. That said, there’s no guarantee that Lindelof will be the one to write it, as reflected in his comments to Heat Vision:
“If Ridley wants me to be involved in something, that would be hard to say no to. At the same time, I do feel like the movie might benefit from a fresh voice or a fresh take or a fresh thought. Sometimes the baton should be passed, if that’s what the story demands. I had [Prometheus] for the period of time that I was running the race, and if that story continues, it could actually benefit going into someone else’s able hand. Although, I feel like some of the iceberg below the water for any potential future movies in that storyline has already been constructed based on conversations that Ridley and I had about it.”
As for Scott’s involvement, he’s a bit of a collector when it comes to future projects. He’s gearing up to direct The Counselor, and he also really wants to make the Blade Runner sequel that he’s developing right now with screenwriter Hampton Fancher. Prometheus scored the 10th highest opening weekend for an R-rated movie, and if it holds up next weekend Fox will most likely be pushing Scott to make Prometheus 2 his next film after The Counselor. We’re currently in the wait-and-see stage, but I’d love to see the story continue with Rapace and Fassbender’s characters.
From what we’ve gathered here, the follow-up will most definitely center on Elizabeth and David traveling to where the Engineers came from. We’ll most likely see Elizabeth try to answer the question of why humanity’s maker felt Earth deserved destruction, but Scott makes it clear that the Engineers are not nice people and this “Paradise” is not all rainbows and happiness. The director seems high on tackling issues of religion and that may or may not play a role in the explanation for humanity’s fate, but it’s a bit too early to start waxing poetic on what the themes of this possible sequel might be.
Lindelof is currently rewriting World War Z and he just signed a development deal with Warner Bros. Television to start developing his next TV series, so his involvement in the follow-up is up in the air. Compounded with Scott’s busy schedule and Fassbender and Rapace’s in-demand status, the logistics of moving forward on the follow-up could prove tricky. That said, I’m pulling for Prometheus: Paradise to come together sooner rather than later if only to see a space road trip movie with Elizabeth and a slightly decapitated David front and center.
In the meantime, I'm dazzled by all the work that must've gone into formatting those monster posts.
so I'm pleased and embarrassed at the same time that Scott cites that as inspiration for Prometheus. When the Prometheus flies in to land and the landing strips become visible my heart leapt for joy - no kidding 
I know the theories of Erich Von Däniken are generally laughed at but I grew up reading his books and LOVED the idea that god(s) was an astronaut and hoped it was true 
The plot is a lot smarter than most people give it credit for. If you think about it, things start clicking together very well.
First off, I don’t believe the goo is a weapon. When they enter the terraforming station, they all take off their helmets – which is the first mistake they make. The engineers wore their masks and suits in that room, they didn’t remove their protection: for a good reason.
The goo is an advanced evolution mechanism. It was stable until they brought their germs and themselves inside, changing the goo on the ceiling, and making things like worms develop just by a simple foot step (lots of little things happen in that scene that say a lot). Just by breathing, they infect the goo to start mutating with the biomes just introduced. The containers all start leaking and the worms start mutating, most likely originally a simple germ, it now becomes a parasitic enemy.
At the very beginning, we see an engineer drink the fluid and rot immediately, only to have his DNA reconstruct and reorder. I think that the planet he’s on is Earth- not the planet visited in the rest of the film. The engineer left behind on Earth then sacrifices himself to start animal life by letting his DNA (and in relation – all life) into the water to start the evolution of everything – we share over 90% of DNA with chimps, but don’t forget we also share 70% with sea sponges, etc… so while the goo is deadly, it’s not purely a weapon. Given the right use, it can either make life flurish, or act like a giant reset button, depending on if it’s released in a barren world or a populated planet.
The captain mentions that the place is probably a military base later in the film, but I think that’s a misled assumption from a military character. The planet is devoid of all life, no plants, nothing – chosen specifically because the goo cannot touch life without breaking it down and rebuilding it. If you were to create such an unstable substance, you’d keep it in a place where it wouldn’t hurt anything, especially their home world. Also, the star maps leading to this outpost also makes sense… if you were to leave a map, leave one that leads to a place where you have the upper hand – not to your front door.
Lastly, there’s lots of talk over the “squid” and I agree it was an odd choice, it’s not illogical, because it’s not a squid -or an octopus. It’s the product of spiraling evolution between human DNA and whatever other life was around at the time of conception – more germs, mutating DNA, etc… I think if you pulled up a list of simple germs and biomes, you’d stumble upon a little multi-armed lifeform that resembled the giant end product. This means the new alien race is a mix of human, germ, and Engineer, SO FAR.
These are my ideas, taken from long discussions after the film. They might not be right, but they make sense to me – until the sequel proves me wrong. I’m just happy to see some thrills and great filming and special effects, and have something to debate afterwards – too many films spell things out so bluntly that it’s an insult.