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Dissecting Trailers: The New “Prometheus” Trailer, or What the S#!+ Is Going On Here?

This weekend, Perry posted the new full trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, which premiered at WonderCon. I’ve watched this thing a bunch of times and, as it’s super fast-paced, I think a full breakdown is in order. Let’s go a-dissectin’!

0:06-0:14: Cannot go wrong with opening your trailer with a spaceship over a waterfall.

0:15-0:19: Some messed up individual eyeing its scars while Charlize tells us about kings.

0:20-0:28: Really excellent CGI shots of the ship, while Charlize finishes by saying kings die. She’s talking about mankind here, folks.

0:29-0:32: As if we already didn’t know the film takes place in the same world as Alien, we see they’re using the cryogenic sleep pods. What if you have to pee right before you go in? I always seem to have to get up at least once to pee before I fall asleep. I bet they’ll answer that question.

0:33-0:39: So “Prometheus” is the name of the ship. Interesting. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a titan who stole fire from Zeus to give to mortals. As punishment, Zeus bound him to a rock and had a massive eagle eat his liver every day, only to have it regrow and be eaten again the next day. Basically, he paid the price for giving humans knowledge only the gods possessed. I can’t imagine this was done on purpose, certainly not with Damon Lindelof writing, he said sarcastically.

0:40-0:48: Ancient civilizations, completely distant and disparate from each other, all share the same pictogram. This is likely going to be explained by the theory that some THING, be it alien or divine or what-have-you, was at the birth of mankind.

0:48-0:51: Going to find an alien species is totally something humans would do. I mean, not now because of the whole NASA thing, but it’s something we WOULD do.

0:52-1:02: More visual clues to the Alien mythos. As for what they’re talking about… I’m reminded of Icarus flying too close to the sun.

1:03-1:15: The giant face is intriguing, and it’s a human, or human-like, face. One theory that I’ve heard is that this temple is a shrine to the xenomorph aliens, with the rows of stones looking like eggs, and that the face is because of the face-hugger being the way the aliens metamorphose. So the face would be a fertility statue.

1:16-1:27: As if we didn’t know already, this is the planet where John Hurt and co. initially encounter the alien eggs. The tunnels look amazingly similar.

1:28-1:33: We don’t get a great look at the “life form” but we can definitely see some kind of movement when Noomi shines the flashlight on the ceiling.

1:34-1:36: I think these little tiny critters are the beginning of what will become the xenomorph. This becomes more and more apparent the more I see.

1:37-1:38: Just for one brief second we see something carved or melted in the wall which definitely resembles the alien queen, or at least some kind of H.R. Giger creation.

1:39-1:43: Something knows enough to hightail it out of there.

1:44-1:47: They lead the aliens right to Earth! The FOOLS!

1:48-1:53: Umm…I’m tempted to make a joke about Noomi feeling the earth move under her feet, but I’m going to restrain myself.

1:54-1:58: Someone screaming “Cut it off!!!” does not fill me with warm fuzzies.

1:59: For the briefest of moments, we can see a pale, bald humanoid (likely the scarred guy from the beginning) as something, possibly the Space Jockey gun, rises from the ground.

2:00: Somebody’s got something in their helmet, and there’s definitely green or yellow acid melting the suit at the same time.

2:01: Flame throwers. Also, this siren-like music creeps me the hell out.

2:02: That same bald guy jumps onto a human.

2:03: A much clearer look at the Space Jockey gun coming out of the ground. I’m convinced the tall, bald, pale guys are the Space Jockeys.

2:04-2:05: Somebody writhing around on a bed/table. Having a dream, probably (not).

2:06-2:08: Ships crashing everywhere!!

2:09: For like a frame we see somebody with poison or something in their neck veins. An infection from the goo creatures, no doubt. We also see Noomi hobbling around in Ripley-like undergarments. This is a gift from Mr. Scott.

2:10-2:11: Bunch of stuff blowing around.

2:12: There it is, you guys. A shot of the Space Jockey in the gun chair thing. I’m of the opinion that the elephant-like head is just a mask, perhaps for targeting purposes, and not what the Space Jockeys actually look like. Just a theory, but given what we’ve already seen of the bald guy standing by the gun chair as it rises from the ground, it stands to reason he’d be the one to get in it.

2:13-2:15: The ship is crashing. If you’ll recall in Alien, they find a broken, gutted ship on the ground, and that’s where the Space Jockey’s corpse is.

2:16: Something’s going to attack Noomi. Again, this is likely the tall, bald, pale guy.

2:17-2:22: Fassbender saying “Big things have small beginnings,” while looking at the goo on his hand. I think the Weyland-Yutani corporation made the xenomorphs out of that strange, shape-shifting goo.

In case you missed it, a short piece of viral marketing also came out this weekend which is a commercial for Weyland’s “David 8” project of realistic, humanoid robots. Fassbender is playing a character named “David.” So…

 

I’m really, really looking forward to uncovering the mystery of what’s really going on in Prometheus. I have theories, but part of me hopes they’re all totally wrong and Scott and Lindelof wow us with something completely off the wall.

-Kanderson secretly hopes this bridges both Alien and Blade Runner. Follow him on TWITTER

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Comments

  1. Kyle says:

    The “ancient text” is Sumerian Cuneiform, among the earliest (known) written languages in human history.

    In REALLY broad strokes, Sumerian creation myths describe the creator gods, the Anunnaki, in terms that sound like aliens who created humanity by combining native simians with some of their own genes. The rulers of humanity were hybrid Anunnaki-humans, as we see in other mythologies where a god takes a fancy to a human lass and their offspring is a Hero. There are more than a few “non-standard” theories out there that describe this as being the truth of human origins… it meshes nicely with, for example, Indian mythology, among others.

  2. jeff says:

    I really enjoy these articles. Great stuff.

    One thought, Kanderson suggests that the goo, or the Space Jockeys, or something, are some sort of proto-xenomorph. However, in the AVP movies, the Predators brought the xenomorphs to earth a long time ago, so they would have reached that state in their evolution a long time ago. However, it`s possible that an even greater race of aliens managed to devolve the creatures for safety`s sake.

    OR, Lindelof, Scott and crew could just ignore the AVP movies and claim they`re not part of the canon. That`s what I’d do.

    Wait, will there be predators in this movie? I hope to science there isn’t.

  3. Chris says:

    Guys! Did anyone check out the actual Prometheus website in all this? There seem to be A LOT of clues over there.

    If you type prometheusmovie.com you are re-routed to weylandindustries.com (the Alien tie in, these motherfuckers make the ships and the cyborgs). There’s a bit of history to be found there, including an archival video of Guy Pearce giving a TED speech as Mr. Weyland himself, discussing the Prometheus myth about giving technology to humans and humans thus developing this technology until they turn into gods themselves.

    There is also a video listed as “coming soon” next to the one above which shows a fingertip with the Weyland logo on it, presumably their “David” cyborg. I would be willing to bet this is what the “big things have small beginnings” portion of the trailer is referring to.

    Also be sure to click on the Corporate Timeline and scroll all the way to the bottom and read until the top. This is all of Weyland Industries technological achievements in a variety of fields. The emphasis seems very big on the David series android/cyborg as well as the ability to make a synthetic breathable to humans atmosphere on any planet (this is even loosely referred to in the TED video).

    I’m not sure if this is enough to tie everything together, but it definitely has my anticipation level much higher than any movie has in a long while.

    Some more points: The guy you refer to in the trailer as the Space Jockey, I see as a cyborg (maybe failing, maybe adapting or evolving), OR this could be the original planets life-form that is being affected by the synthetic atmosphere mentioned above. PLUS we actually do see the Alien creature twice in the trailer, once at 1:37 and again at 2:14 (legs and body approaching one of the main characters).

    At this point I’m ready for anything! Could be an Alien-Blade Runner tie in for fucks sake! Whatever the case, I’m fucking interested!

  4. I think this movie will be fantastic, just like the previous alien movies!!! I mean, wait, no that’s right, this is aliens 5 or something. Only down side…. no Sigourney Weaver, well maybe that’s a plus now a days.

  5. Blaine St. Troubadour says:

    The “Jump Attacker” is built and dressed differently than what we believe to be the Space Jockey. I don’t want to come close to spoiling anything, but there are higher resolution pictures of the Jumper out there that may clarify who/what it is.

  6. MojaveAdventure says:

    My theory- The “Space Jockey” race left markers to find them, so when we did, they know it’s time to come back and wipe us out. They can’t have their progeny getting ahead of them!

  7. Max says:

    I don’t know if anyone else caught this (but this being nerdist.com i can’t help but feel that you have all seen this many times and have analyzed every frame) at the 2:04-2:05 mark you can see that there appears to be something else over the head/face of the person kicking their feet on the table. Could it possibly be a facehugger or something like it?

  8. Spray-Tan says:

    I can’t wait dammit! There’s also a marketing campaign video with guy pierce as Weyland talking about cybernetics!