New Prometheus Picture Features Two Familiar Faces (Well, Not Faces Per Se)

[Brendon Connelly]

As well as Noomi Rapace, front of frame, this latest official image from Prometheus features two... well, see for yourself. Click through on the image to make it full size for a really good look.

So those are, in the terms of the new film, Engineers. They're the same what-ever-they-ares as the Space Jockey from Alien. As I've pointed out previously, that's not their body but a kind of bio-mech suit. We've even had a look at what they're like underneath.

In the accompanying article, co-writer Damon Lindelof promises The LA Times that the film is going to be "epic in scope" and that he and Ridley Scott discussed David Lean a great deal:

We wanted to make the movie feel big by having the characters be small in big spaces. That connected to the larger themes we were talking about ? that we?re all just these little gnats crawling around on our little planet.

[Qward-O]

This movie is going to be so amazing.

So much better than Fringe (this line was added because Fringe fans are fanatical lunatics who never realized that their show stopped being good at the mid-point of Season 3) (You remember Olivia doing her impersonation of Leonard Nimoy? Exactly)

[thekeith82]

This movie is going to be so amazing.

So much better than Fringe (this line was added because Fringe fans are fanatical lunatics who never realized that their show stopped being good at the mid-point of Season 3) (You remember Olivia doing her impersonation of Leonard Nimoy? Exactly)

How the jimmy tits are those two things connected? That's like saying "Blade Runner is awesome, but fuck those Firefly fans". There is no logical throughline for you to make that statement..

[Chris Metcalfe]

This is the potential summer movie of this year for me. I just wish someone would tell me why the spacesuits look more advanced than those in Alien?

That is, of course, if this is actually a prequel to Alien.

I can't remember if it's been said outright it's set before Alien or not, but what if it is in the same universe as Alien without it actually crossing into those movies? Nothing in the trailer says to me that it's set on Acheron (or LV-I can't remember, I've had a drink) and those suits stick out like a sore thumb for me.

Of course, all of the above can be ignored as the ramblings of someone who's had a drink. Or two.

[Victorian Squid]

It has to be set on a larger planet than the planetoid in Alien to have the atmosphere we're seeing, perhaps the ring-shaped spaceship must leave the planet in Prometheus to end us on LV-426 in the future. Maybe it doesn't even have to go far to get there.

[Chris Metcalfe]

It has to be set on a larger planet than the planetoid in Alien to have the atmosphere we're seeing, perhaps the ring-shaped spaceship must leave the planet in Prometheus to end us on LV-426 in the future. Maybe it doesn't even have to go far to get there.

Which is the other thing that makes me think it's not a prequel. It can't be LV-426 as the atmosphere is completely different to what we've previously seen.

Again, I'm using the caveat of me having a drink, I see it as being set during (or maybe even after) the 4 Alien movies, which makes a degree of sense to me, given the design. It also means that the Alien movies can be rebooted without wiping the slate clean of what came before.

[juncruznaligas]

This is the potential summer movie of this year for me. I just wish someone would tell me why the spacesuits look more advanced than those in Alien?

That is, of course, if this is actually a prequel to Alien.

I can't remember if it's been said outright it's set before Alien or not, but what if it is in the same universe as Alien without it actually crossing into those movies? Nothing in the trailer says to me that it's set on Acheron (or LV-I can't remember, I've had a drink) and those suits stick out like a sore thumb for me.

Of course, all of the above can be ignored as the ramblings of someone who's had a drink. Or two.

Wondering too about the spacesuits. Based on what I've read online, Scott and Lindelof are sticking to their guns saying that this isn't a prequel to ALIEN, but it is most definitely set in the same universe.

My thinking is, well, the universe is a very big place, so maybe this movie is set, say, a thousand years after ALIEN, and this movie's protagonists found the Engineers in a different part of the universe, in a ship with a cargo still not infested by/mutated into by the xenomorphs (they didn't get the galactic memo?), who are now it seems really were bioengineered as a tool for planetary extermination (chances are they won't even show the xenomorphs, possibly only strongly allude to them) ... so, you know, that way, we can have the origins of the xenomorphs and the space jockey, the civilisation behind the ring ship, link those up with a fairly more interesting hook that is the origin of life on Earth (more potentially interesting than, say, just have it be about the origins of the xenomorphs), and also get a new movie (franchise) out of it that can be enjoyed out of ALIEN continuity. That's what I think, at least!

[Comicsfan101]

I don't know. I'm hoping. I really am hoping. I want this to be bad ass, but I keep getting the feeling that this is going to end up being another case where Dark Horse did it better.

[Victorian Squid]

Then again, weren't they in Aliens supposed to be terraforming the planetoid from the original film? That would make one think it's possible for it to have had a radically different atmosphere despite its size. But I thought it was Ripley Scott himself who said we weren't seeing LV-426 in the Prometheus trailer?

Oh wells, I'm excited.

[Kinnon]

The way I'm rationalizing the tech discrepancy is that the Nostromo was just a giant commercial spaceship, basically the sci-fi equivalent of a heavy goods vehicle, the tech is functional, but basic by comparative standards to what is potentially available. The Prometheus I'm assuming is a high end scientific, research and exploration ship, possibly massively funded by Weyland Industries. Everything they have could represent the upper end of the technology spectrum.

Basically so long as everything looks Ron Cobb-esque, I get a lovely glow in my heart. I've already put mental brakes on my expectation for this before it just runs away with itself, Alien was the second X cert film I ever saw, right after a double bill of the Incredible Melting Man and The Car.