Prometheus



"They went looking for our beginning What they found could be our end"

- The film's Tagline

Prometheus is a 2012 science-fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and a semi-prequel to the 1979 film Alien. Notably, Prometheus marks Scott's return to the science-fiction genre after thirty long years, the last of which was Blade Runner.

The film follows a team of scientists and cosmonauts who set out on the research vessel Prometheus to unravel the mystery of the dawn of mankind by seeking out the Engineers, who may be our very creators. Scientists Shaw and Holloway believe they have uncovered an "open invitation" to find them by means of a reoccurring star pattern found in ancient human writings. However the team soon learn the location is far from welcoming and that what they've discovered could be a danger to the human race itself.

For months there was speculation as to whether Prometheus was actually related to the Alien franchise. Ridley Scott danced around the issue at first stating it started as a direct prequel before moving onto something new entirely during its initial inception. Since then it's been confirmed it takes place in the Alien canon. However whilst the film makes notable references to everyone's favorite Xenomorphs and Weyland Industries (before it was Weyland-Yutani), the plot's main focus is on the nature of the "Space Jockeys" and their connection to humanity.

"I didn't know you had it in you. Poor choice of words."
 * Actor Allusion: One of the viral videos has various names cycling through over the image of Dr Elizabeth Shaw, including, for a split second, Lisbeth.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot:
 * The Automated surgical unit is, despite the unit being ostensibly intended by Meredith Vickers for her exclusive use . Also subverted in that, while the unit cannot perform if you tell it to, it can perform.
 * All-Star Cast:
 * Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw.
 * Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers.
 * Idris Elba as Captain Janek.
 * Michael Fassbender as David.
 * Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland.
 * Patrick Wilson as Shaw's father
 * Aliens Are Bastards:.
 * All There in the Manual: The Weyland Industries corporate timeline goes into much more detail about the technology and devices used in the film. The website's timeline also gives a much better understanding of Earth's advancement in the years leading up to the film's events, along with vague references to the main film series (including a mention of prototype rifles being developed for the Colonial Marines) and several interesting notes about Weyland's history, including the remark that he named the "David" android line after the name he wanted to give to his unborn child if it was a boy.
 * An Axe to Grind: Shaw is seen creeping around the ship in her spacesuit with an axe in her hand in one of the trailers, and  uses one in a tv spot.
 * Ancient Astronauts
 * Artificial Human: David.
 * As You Know: Played with.
 * Big Bad:
 * Blood From the Mouth:
 * Body Horror: The main form of horror used throughout.
 * Broken Pedestal:
 * Call Forward: The videoscreen in Vickers' room aboard the Prometheus appears to be the same technology that is seen during a scene from Aliens, where Ripley sits on a bench in the Weyland-Yutani operated Gateway Station and watches the scenery change on the screen behind her.
 * Canon Discontinuity: Prometheus ignores the Alien vs. Predator films. The Weyland Industries timeline notably does not feature Charles Bishop Weyland, who founded Weyland industries in that canon.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Continuity Porn: Everything related to the film, from the Viral Marketing campaign (that shows Weyland Industries before it merged with the Yutani Corporation) to the content of the plot (the crew interacts with the same type of ship seen in the original film, the Space Jockey race, proto-chestbursters and eggs, etc.), is made of this.
 * Crocodile Tears: The "David" viral clip shows that androids aren't quite capable of convincingly faking emotions like sadness.
 * Cosmetically Advanced Prequel: Possibly justified, if it is part of the canon, as the Prometheus is a brand new expedition ship whilst the Nostromo from Alien was an old space truck designed for cargo.
 * Cosmic Horror Story: Unsurprisingly the number of inhuman terrors on display is considerable.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Several given the nature of the film and the monsters found within.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Literally, From a Certain Point of View.
 * Crocodile Tears: The "David" viral clip shows that androids aren't quite capable of convincingly faking emotions like sadness.
 * Cosmetically Advanced Prequel: Possibly justified, if it is part of the canon, as the Prometheus is a brand new expedition ship whilst the Nostromo from Alien was an old space truck designed for cargo.
 * Cosmic Horror Story: Unsurprisingly the number of inhuman terrors on display is considerable.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: Several given the nature of the film and the monsters found within.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Literally, From a Certain Point of View.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Literally, From a Certain Point of View.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Literally, From a Certain Point of View.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Literally, From a Certain Point of View.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: Literally, From a Certain Point of View.

""We, are the gods now.""
 * Determinator:
 * Drone of Dread
 * : The defeat of the Big Bad. Or rather,.
 * Expy: Dr. Shaw is said to be one for Ellen Ripley. Not that that's a bad thing, Noomi Rapace considers it high praise.
 * Fan Disservice: Noomi Rapace half-dressed? Sure, but she also just woke up from cryosleep, and is vomiting quite a bit.
 * From a Single Cell:
 * Genre Savvy:
 * The Greatest Story Never Told: . The best we can hope for is an Apocalyptic Log.
 * Hate Sink: Vickers fills the role of "person we're allowed to hate" for most of the film, since  doesn't turn up until the end and   doesn't have clear enough motives for us to know why
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * Holographic Interface / Unusual User Interface: The
 * Humans Are Cthulhu: One possible explanation as to why the want to wipe out humanity.
 * I Ain't Got Time to Bleed:
 * Idiot Ball: Yes, go ahead and pet the strange hissing cobra thing; we all want to see what happens. Scratch that, we've paid to see it.
 * In Space Everyone Can See Your Face: The crew of the Prometheus all wear clear domed helmets with lights on them.
 * Kill It with Fire:
 * Large Ham: Peter Weyland acts like a combination of Tony Stark and Steve Jobs during his 2023 TED speech.
 * Humans Are Cthulhu: One possible explanation as to why the want to wipe out humanity.
 * I Ain't Got Time to Bleed:
 * Idiot Ball: Yes, go ahead and pet the strange hissing cobra thing; we all want to see what happens. Scratch that, we've paid to see it.
 * In Space Everyone Can See Your Face: The crew of the Prometheus all wear clear domed helmets with lights on them.
 * Kill It with Fire:
 * Large Ham: Peter Weyland acts like a combination of Tony Stark and Steve Jobs during his 2023 TED speech.
 * Kill It with Fire:
 * Large Ham: Peter Weyland acts like a combination of Tony Stark and Steve Jobs during his 2023 TED speech.


 * Love Interest: Charlie is Elizabeth's long term partner. They both share the dream of meeting the Engineers.
 * Meaningful Name: The ship is named Prometheus for the eponymous Greek titan, who stole fire from the Olympian gods to give to man and was punished. Peter Weyland discusses this at length in the 2023 TED Talk viral clip, and part of his speech is watched by the crew in the film.
 * Mega Corp: Weyland Industries. How "mega"? Weyland and his company discovered and/or are responsible for biotech, nanotech, fusion energy, M-theory, deep space exploration and colonization and Artificial Humans.
 * Mythology Gag:
 * Compare the first trailer to the 1979 trailer for Alien; most notably it contains the same wailing tone throughout. Lampshaded by the online community later with this gem.
 * David performs an impossible basketball shot, just like Ripley in Alien Resurrection.
 * Neglectful Precursors: And how! The Engineers developed the ultimate biological nuke, and they cannot even control it themselves. On top of that, they leave enough of it to wipe out thousands of planetloads of lifeforms in a single military base on some forgotten world... except they conveniently left a map to this Tomb of Horrors for us to find.
 * No New Fashions in the Future: Partially averted. Space Clothes do show up aboard the Prometheus, though their purpose is justified and well shown. On the other hand, most fashions seemed to have weathered the century of change from the present more or less unchanged.
 * One-Dimensional Thinking:
 * Only Sane Woman: Vickers may be a Designated Villain, but she is one of the few characters who behaves rationally, generally does the right thing, and generally tries to avert disaster for everyone..
 * Organic Technology: Staple of the Space Jockey culture. Anything from their ships to their clothes (seemingly seamlessly fused to their bodies) seems to be made of living tissue or bone.
 * Origins Episode: Scott claims fans will "recognize strands of Alien's "DNA" at a certain point in the film. The film
 * POV Cam: The crew on the Prometheus watches the feeds from the expedition team's helmet-mounted cameras (seen from the operator's perspective) at several points in the film.
 * Precursors: Alien Expanded Universe implied the "Space Jockeys" were responsible for man and the eponymous monster. Prometheus will likely answer whether this is true or not.
 * Ragnarok Proofing: It's stated that the are at least 2,000 years old, and yet are shown to be still functional and flyable.
 * Ramming Always Works:
 * Retraux: Subtle example, but the "Happy Birthday, David" viral video is done in the style of a 70's or early 80's informational or advertisement video. Its most noticeable in the retro music and the clipped, "brick to the ear" audio mastering, but also in the furniture and interiors shown, repeating, moving geometric patterns in the "beat clips," fonts on the infographics, as well as the high-key lighting and color choices.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot: David. The "Happy Birthday, David" viral clip expressly states that the David 8 model is capable of seamlessly integrating with an employer's workforce, and is capable of expressing many emotions (although even David himself admits he doesn't completely understand the concept of them).
 * And yet the characters never seem to get tired of reminding him that he has no soul.
 * Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The stated distance to LV-223 is 3.27*10^14 km . The characters are on Earth in 2089, and by the end of the film, it's 2094. They would have to travel at several times the speed of light to reach LV-223 that quickly.
 * As it happens, faster than light travel does exist in the shared universe of Prometheus and Alien. Rather than instantaneous transition that FTL is usually depicted as, it actually still takes months or years to travel interstellar distances in spite of it. If anything, this trope is averted with a vengeance.
 * Shout-Out: Elizabeth Shaw
 * "David, WE ARE LEAVING!"
 * "Good morning, David."
 * The Med Pod very nearly says "Please State The Nature Of The Medical Emergency."
 * David's love of the film Lawrence of Arabia.
 * Sigil Spam: The Weyland logo is on everything, including David's fingerprint.
 * Single Tear: David sheds a single tear in the "Happy Birthday, David" clip after being asked what makes him sad.
 * Stanley Steamer Spaceship: The Prometheus itself, notably seen when steam comes out from the floor of the cargo bay as the expedition team first sets out.
 * Stealth Prequel: It's about the "Space Jockey" race from the first film: The Xenomorphs and Weyland Industries do get notable references but the focus is clearly on the "Engineers" and their connection to humanity.
 * Summon Bigger Fish: The  is defeated by  set loose on it by the last survivor.
 * Theme Naming: David carries on the tradition of robot characters in Aliens movies having names beginning with the next letter of the alphabet from the last (Ash, Bishop and Call). Which is a bit strange, considering this takes place before they were even built.
 * "Three Laws"-Compliant: Played with in the "Happy Birthday, David" viral clip. David states that he can seamlessly integrate with an employer's workforce effortlessly and do what is asked of him, but also states that he can carry out directives that are too "distressing or unethical" for anyone else. This foreshadows Ash's behavior in the original Alien, and Bishop's comment about how his programming will never allow him to harm another human being.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers for the film clearly show
 * Traumatic C-Section:
 * Uncanny Valley:
 * Heavily invoked by the "Happy Birthday, David" viral clip. David is shown making several odd gestures, including what appears to be a slight moment of processing when the narrator asks what he can do (tilting his head slightly with a glossy look in his eyes), and his speech about how war and poverty make him sad, complete with thorough waterworks, then (without missing a beat or changing expression) describing how he does not feel even the remotest emotion but can replicate them perfectly.
 * The Engineers, first seen in the movie's intro. They look almost human, but are over ten feet tall, and seem to have about as much in common with us as we have with David.
 * Villain Protagonist:.
 * Viral Marketing - Includes a futuristic TED conference with Peter Weyland, the unveiling of the new "David 8" model and an "official website" linking to Weyland Industries, detailing the timeline of the company and its accomplishments.
 * When It All Began: The first 10 minutes-or-so serves as a "beginning of time" sequence.
 * Zombie Apocalypse:.
 * Viral Marketing - Includes a futuristic TED conference with Peter Weyland, the unveiling of the new "David 8" model and an "official website" linking to Weyland Industries, detailing the timeline of the company and its accomplishments.
 * When It All Began: The first 10 minutes-or-so serves as a "beginning of time" sequence.
 * Zombie Apocalypse:.
 * Zombie Apocalypse:.