Prometheus - Part 6

[Aesop Rocks]

Not Earth, no, but a good chunk of whatever Country it was in.

 

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

I saw that. Yes. I'm a huge fan of the Alien series. I know they're not invincible.

What Ripley meant was that they were unbeatable in the sense that an Xenomorph infestation would be too hard to stop from spreading.

And I think she was mistaken, based on what the movie showed. If they built a hive on an Earth city, for example, then anyone taken to be impregnated can be written off. Drop a bomb- problem solved. Another plot contrivance with the alien getting in the drop ship that the pilots stupidly left wide open stopped them from doing that.

I don't have a problem with a character overreacting, especially if they've been through a traumatic experience. Scott and Cameron seemed not to take character hyperbole as gospel. Paul WS Anderson and the Strauss did, and they made really stupid movies on top of that.

And good point to Schlosser85- but you have to take into account that an infestation on a more populated planet would have a larger defense, and gorman being an idiot was a big part of the story- not to mention that they may have sent a small squad on Burke's recommendation and we know he had ulterior motives.

 

[Schlosser85]

I always thought the Facehuggers were the creepiest ones.

I'm still curious how we go from the eel thing (Hammerpede?) to a squid monster to a Xenomorph....assuming that's what happens.

 

[Schlosser85]

And I think she was mistaken, based on what the movie showed. If they built a hive on an Earth city, for example, then anyone taken to be impregnated can be written off. Drop a bomb- problem solved. Another plot contrivance with the alien getting in the drop ship that the pilots stupidly left wide open stopped them from doing that.

I don't have a problem with a character overreacting, especially if they've been through a traumatic experience. Scott and Cameron seemed not to take character hyperbole as gospel. Paul WS Anderson and the Strauss did, and they made really stupid movies on top of that.

And good point to Schlosser85- but you have to take into account that an infestation on a more populated planet would have a larger defense, and gorman being an idiot was a big part of the story- not to mention that they may have sent a small squad on Burke's recommendation and we know he had ulterior motives.

That's assuming they come to that conclusion quickly enough. When people first started getting jumped by Facehuggers, people wouldn't realize what was happening to them until they popped out babies a while later. In the meantime, some of those people might travel somewhere else and give birth there.

Re: the small squad, I don't think that was on Burke's recommendation. That would have left him in harm's way too.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Earl, you make it seem as if Ripley should have been an expert on a creature she had no prior knowledge of existing.

 

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

Earl, you make it seem as if Ripley should have been an expert on a creature she had no prior knowledge of existing.

Not at all, I specifically said a few times that I don't have a problem with her ranting about the Alien being able to kill us all on Earth because she had been through a traumatic experience and I don't think hyperbole from characters is always meant to be taken as gospel.

 

[Still Wynning]

Not at all, I specifically said a few times that I don't have a problem with her ranting about the Alien being able to kill us all on Earth because she had been through a traumatic experience and I don't think hyperbole from characters is always meant to be taken as gospel.

Well, considering what the conversation between Ripley and Ash in A L I E N, which happens after Ash gets his head knocked off (bolded for emphasis):

Ripley: How do we kill it, Ash? There got to be a way of killing it. How – how do we do it?

Ash: You can't.

Parker: That's bulls**t.

Ash: You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.

Lambert: You admire it.

Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor … unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

Parker: Well, I don't. I've heard enough of this, and I'm asking you to pull the plug.

Ash: Last words.

Ripley: What?

Ash: I can't lie to you about your chances, but … you have my sympathies.

Now, I know that he held a certain admiration for the Alien, but, considering his expertise in biology, I doubt he was spouting hyperbole there.

Of course, you also have to take the Alien's very short life cycle into consideration, as shown near the end of the film, but I still think Ash's words should be taken into consideration.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Xenomorph's have a short life cycle?

 

[CConn]

Wait. They have a short life cycle?

 

[The Morningstar]

You can't assume they have a short life cycle, considering they survived long enough on LV-426 in Aliens. They don't need to eat or sleep or anything like that. They're like cockroaches.

 

[The Morningstar]

Yes, you can stop them. You shoot them. Did you not read the part where I pointed out they were getting mowed down by the Marines and it was only plot contrivances and Gorman's incompetence that stopped them from wiping them out?

I'm just saying the threat they represent is overstated in later material.

The marines had armour piercing explosive tipped rounds, and the xeno's were taking dozens of shots to put down.

Notice in the tunnel with Gorman and Vasquez when he was shooting the one that came up through the duct, the bullets were just bouncing off it's head. They'd be incredible hard to kill with standard ammunition, especially a swarm of thousands.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Wasn't it Ridley's original intention that the Xeno was dying near the end of the film, hence it's sluggish movements, and overall docility in the escape pod?

 

[The Morningstar]

Ahh yea good point. But then the continuity between Alien and Aliens is a bit sketchy.

 

[Nathan]

Xenomorph's have a short life cycle?

Wait. They have a short life cycle?

You can't assume they have a short life cycle, considering they survived long enough on LV-426 in Aliens. They don't need to eat or sleep or anything like that. They're like cockroaches.

I read somewhere, and I can't for the life of me remember where, that the Alien at the end of the first Movie was already supposed to be dying. Probably as a result of using up too much energy, on morphing humans into additional eggs. At least this was the idea I think. I prefer the idea that Aliens are practically living batteries.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I guess an argument could be made that the creatures in Aliens were more like the army ants of the hive, while the single creature in Alien was just a drone or something.

 

[chamber-music]

Considering the last Space Jockey apparently died by giving birth to a xenomorph, I'm not sure the xenomorphs come into being intentionally.

I suspect the SP impregnates Shaw, who gives birth to the squid monster, which impregnates/infects others, and somehow the SP himself ends up getting impregnated and through the creatures "borrowing" the DNA of their hosts, a xenomorph ends up bursting out of the SP.

Thats alot of impregnation

 

[Roose Bolton]

It's my bachelor party all over again!!

 

[Viscal]

NEW Prometheus TV Spot shows more creature
**SPOILERS**
http://www.prometheusforum.net/discussion/comment/41846#Comment_41846

 

[Boom]

Kinda reminds me of The Thing.

 

[Marvolo]

Wasn't it Ridley's original intention that the Xeno was dying near the end of the film, hence it's sluggish movements, and overall docility in the escape pod?

I read somewhere, and I can't for the life of me remember where, that the Alien at the end of the first Movie was already supposed to be dying. Probably as a result of using up too much energy, on morphing humans into additional eggs. At least this was the idea I think. I prefer the idea that Aliens are practically living batteries.

You are both correct, and I am currently looking for the interview where Scot discusses this. When I find it I'll post it.

 

[Schlosser85]

Are we assuming Shaw's "baby" grows into the giant squid monster?

 

[Valaquen]

I read somewhere, and I can't for the life of me remember where, that the Alien at the end of the first Movie was already supposed to be dying. Probably as a result of using up too much energy, on morphing humans into additional eggs. At least this was the idea I think. I prefer the idea that Aliens are practically living batteries.

Ridley said to Cinefex magazine in 1979, "'Like a butterfly or an insect, it has a very limited lifespan in which to reproduce itself." Talking to another interviewer in 1984, he explained, "The Alien life form lived to reproduce ... She [Ripley] killed it, but it would have died soon anyway. It's like a butterfly."

Obviously, Cameron's Aliens are more robust, being weeks old by the time the Colonial Marines arrive, and don't act sluggish at all. Despite what some may think, they actually also seem tougher - the original Alien is frenzied and cries in pain when blasted by hot air in the Narcissus, and a speargun blows a hole in its chest and flings it from the shuttle. In the sequel ordinary gunfire ricochets off the creature, as we see in the vents when Gorman has a go. Extreme close range can do a trick (as we see with Vasquez, to her injury) and the Marines' armour-piercing, explosive-tipped rounds would turn anything into toothpaste.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

So which is it? Do all species of the Xenomorph have a short life-span, or do a certain specie unfortunately carry that gene?

Each site (along with the comics) apparently has it's own theory but which version will Ridley use for Prometheus and it's future sequels?

 

[Blue Sugar]

I think the original idea back in the day was alluding to a short life-span, but with Aliens and other sequels/media I think it's not really possible anymore. And I think Ridley knows that.

 

[The Morningstar]

Well the Alien mythos has expanded beyond what Scott and O'Bannon and co originally intended. It's obviously quite different in Aliens and the expanded universe, comics, games etc.

There is that cut scene in Alien where Dallas is actually being turned into an egg. The whole life cycle and reproduction cycle is different.

The continuity is sketchy. But as mentioned before, you could say the xeno in Alien was like a drone or a worker, the ones in Aliens are like the warriors.

As much as a love Aliens and how it expanded the mythos, i think i'll always prefer Scott's version. Where it's less of a bug akin to ants or bees, and more of well, basically a space rapist lol. Much creepier.