Podcast # 409 - "Prometheus"

[wraith1701]

http://www.prometheus-movie.com/uploads/112142280-Alien-Engineers.pdf

The first draft of the script for Prometheus when it was called Alien:Engineers, by a guy named Jon Spaihts.

Some points:

* The bulk of the movie takes place on LV-426 -- the same planet the Nostromo from "Alien" visited.

* Spaihts' Engineers are described as 15 feet tall. It takes two humans to lift a massive Engineer head.

* Noomi Rapace's role is named Jocelyn Watts instead of Elizabeth Shaw. Charlie Holloway is named Martin Holloway in this draft.

* David the android introduces Noomi and Holloway to the living Peter Weyland on a space station in Earth's orbit. There is no holographic Weyland near the start of the movie.

* The name of the ship is Magellan, not Prometheus.

* The business with David shooting basketball on a bicycle is absent. Ditto David dying his hair and watching "Lawrence of Arabia."

* The scene where the crewmen greet the alien cobra like a lost puppy is absent.

* The big storm is in this draft, but no flamethrower.

* A chestburster kills Holloway in its escape from his torso.

* Halfway through the movie, we learn a Weyland security force has been hidden on the Magellen the whole time.

* Weyland himself is not inexplicably hidden aboard the Magellen.

* Noomi's crucifix is not in this draft.

* If the Charlize Theron character randomly bones the Idris Elba character, I didn't notice that either.

* There's a deadly, acid-filled giant centipede. And an "octopoid" facehugger different from the one with which we're familiar. It turns out these Engineers carried at least seven kinds of weaponized species.

* Noomi becomes impregnated with an alien when an angry David places a facehugger on her. There's still a big medical pod C-section scene.

* I didn't notice anything about Holloway inspecting a tiny alien lodged in his eyeball.

* The alien craft still rolls toward Noomi on its edge.

* There's less of an Engineer rampage near the end.

* The movie ends with David and Noomi playing chess as beacons signal their masters.  David and Noomi do not use an Engineer ship to escape the planet.

That was the movie I was hoping for, and it's the movie I could see peeking through the "lindelization" of the script.  Sometimes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is incredibly appropriate. 

[X]

I don't like this script better. I think the version we got works better for me because they didn't paint themselves in a corner and leave no survivors. For the movie to work, someone needs to survive.

Also, and here is what I think. There is nothing stopping part 3 from ending at the beginning of Alien.

What if that's the last ship to go after earth and it's sabotaged by a certain human survivor?

I can't remember, but wasn't there a distress signal that they picked up to bring them to the planet?

[wraith1701]

Yeah, the Nostromo received what it thought was a distress signal, which turned out to be a warning. 

I'm glad I watched Prometheus. The film did a lot of the things that a good sci-fi film should do:  It took me to another place and time, it entertained me, and it made me do a lot of thinking.  If the film were released in a vacuum, I'd have a lot fewer issues with it.

As it stands, there are just too many of the original story elements evident in the movie.  There are way too many coincidences. The Prometheus finds a planet that just happens to bear a striking similarity to the one discovered by the Nostromo. The Engineer's ship just happens to crash, winding up in the same position as the wreck found by the Nostromo.

I can overlook the plot holes and inconsistent characters in the movie, but the original script elements peaking through the final draft are a source of frustration for me.

[Bryancd]

I don't know if I would say that LV-233 bears any strong resemblance to LV-426 beyond being rocky and barren of life. They certainly present in the films as having very different atmospheres and surface conditions and since this film takes place not too long before the events of ALIEN, it seems unlikely the climate would alter that much. I didn't notice that the Engineer's ship came to rest in a similar position as the derelict found in ALIEN and certainly the ALIEN ship didn't have any noticeable damage from a collision with the Prometheus and falling to the ground.

[ChrisMC]

Wasn't there a big hole ripped in the side that they entered from in Alien?

Mostly in this draft I think Halloway comes off better, he was maybe the worst characterization in the movie. He's a biologist fascinated by interstellar life, and when he finds it, he whines. My wife is a biologist and when she's involved with anything in her field, she's rapt.

[Bryancd]

Wasn't there a big hole ripped in the side that they entered from in Alien?

No,silly, they just climbed into the big vagina. :)

[Bryancd]

Here are the deleted scene's we discussed.
http://blastr.com/2012/09/gorge-yourself-silly-on-1.php

[ChrisMC]

Oh, I forgot about the spaceship's genital entrance. OK. You got me.

[Redshirt97]

I listen to the podcast a few days ago.  great podcast guys.  I haven't seen the movie yet but after listen to the commentary on the movie, I would easily understand what the plot is about.  it was also great to hear that a movie of that gene did very well at the box office.

[WillEagle]

Got this one in kinda late but you guys do a very good job of covering this movie. You had a lot of interesting thoughts on the movie and to be honest it seemed like it was kinda confusing. Saying that I haven't seen this and I was never a huge fan of the Alien series so this wasn't on my must see list. You guys did peak my interest and I may catch this with a rental.