Prometheus (2012) Sidestepping Creation, part 1

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:05]Well, why would that creature uh have a cargo like that?

[00:00:09]>> Yeah. What was his intention? Clearly, this was a a hold of something of for some reason.

[00:00:15]And so, you may as well tell it open up say, "Well, it's that." Right. And it's deadly.

[00:00:21]And then the biggest question becomes why and who would conceive these things and where were they going?

[00:00:44]During the early 2000s, Ridley Scott had a few questions that stuck in his mind after seeing Alien Resurrection. They were all about the space jockey from Alien. He just didn't understand why they never explored the jockey in the sequels following his first film. No one knew why the ship was there, what the eggs were doing there, and who was that pilot. Now, Ridley had some ideas about what the space jockey was, and it's stated he had these ideas since 1995.

[00:01:11]The biggest idea was that he thought the jockey was in a space suit. Some state he got this idea from recent movies like 1989's Communion that had gray aliens in suits, and the same concept was used in Fire in the Sky. Finally, in the hugely successful Independence Day, once again, aliens were in suits. So, detractors suggest this is where his idea came from. Whether this is true or not, I can't say. But, what is true is that another great director was musing about an alien sequel.

[00:01:52]Since 1992, James Cameron hated Alien 3, and he wanted to correct that film because he thought it was offensive how they could just go in there and kill off all these great characters we introduced in Aliens, and the correlation between mother and daughter, it stunk.

[00:02:09]Hopefully, I'll get a chance to rectify all that with Alien 5. At the time, Fox was musing over the future of Alien because Resurrection was not as successful as they wanted it to be.

[00:02:20]Everything was in limbo. Fox was not only looking at an Alien sequel, but considered the idea of mashing Alien versus Predator together. One person who was very against the Alien versus Predator idea was Sigourney Weaver. So, it's no surprise they joined up to make this fifth Alien project, and she was eager to play Ripley under his capable hands. But, Cameron would take it even further. He then pursued Ridley Scott to direct. Scott's response was straightforward. "I've been asked about Alien 5, and I said, of course. We've started a script meeting. I mean, I've started it, so I may as well close the door. If, in fact, this is meant to be the last one, I will decide in the next 5 weeks. I'm looking at Alien 5 for sure. Why not? Maybe." After the prospect of Ridley directing, Cameron got with a writer and began putting together a story. He would later state that the film would be something similar to what we did in Aliens, a bunch of great characters, and of course, Sigourney Weaver. "I've even discussed the possibility of putting Arnold Schwarzenegger into the Alien movie."

[00:03:27]Scott was still keen on his early question about the space jockey, though.

[00:03:31]And during 2002, he also stated that he wanted to go back to where the Alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created. Another detail about this 2002 collaboration was that Ridley wanted to have Nicolas Cage in the movie because he just worked with him on Matchstick Men. But, the truth was the price tag for this alien sequel caused Fox to reel back. Weaver made over 16 million for Alien Resurrection.

[00:03:59]Ridley Scott recently turned down a $20 million payday to make Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. And James Cameron always made big paydays from his film revenues. A perfect example was Titanic in 1997. Cameron made 97 million from bonuses from that film because he passed on upfront salaries. Putting these three together meant that upfront they were looking at $60 million and a lot more would eventually be paid out if there were no upfront fees. They were also already talking about bringing in Schwarzenegger who made 30 million alone for Terminator 3. And Nicolas Cage was paid around 20 million for being in Gone in 60 Seconds two years ago. That meant the studio was looking at over 110 plus million just for five people before any writing, storyboarding, designing, effects, constructions, other cast, and so on. The direction was just too expensive. And Cameron was well known for making very expensive films. So Fox predictably played it safe and clutched their wallet by hiring Paul W.S.

[00:05:12]Anderson to make an Alien vs. Predator film for under $70 million with a fairly unknown cast. And if you want to know about that film, we have an entire series on that one, too. After Anderson swooped down and took the alien franchise from under Scott and Cameron, there was nothing left to do but walk away. Today, you can easily find quotes where Cameron, Weaver, or Scott totally bashed the entire Alien vs. Predator concept. There's a good chance their lost project has more to do with that than the film itself because Ridley especially attested he never even watched AVP. But Ridley had more of a reason to dislike AVP because it was the second time he would have an Alien sequel taken away from him. The first time was during the mid-80s. Scott was musing over a sequel to Alien way back then and he stated that in the early 80s I actually had been trying to develop something but then Cameron was hired by Brandywine to make Aliens. Soon after he was hired to direct out of professional courtesy, Cameron called Scott and told him the direction he was going to take.

[00:06:21]Scott was cordial on the phone but later he recalled in 2024, "I was pissed. I wouldn't tell that to Jim but I think I was hurt. I knew I'd done something very special, a one-off really." So when Alien 5 crashed he was turned away for the second time empty-handed but he was not hurting for work nonetheless.

[00:06:41]Instead of filming Alien 5 he went to his next project, Kingdom of Heaven.

[00:06:54]Time passed and after the abject failure of AVP: Requiem the Alien franchise's future was unclear. Fox was currently working with Robert Rodriguez to revitalize the Predator series but nothing was going on with Alien. So Ridley went to 20th Century Fox and told the studio about exploring the Space Jockey and then he told them, "You know, I can revive this, revitalize the whole idea of Alien because we cannot waste him. He's too important not to answer questions about who for what purpose and why." For his third attempt at making another Alien film Ridley went in strong. His brother Tony Scott was ready to produce as well as Scott Free, Michael Costigan. Immediately the three promoted Karl Rinsch to direct their movie. Karl worked at Scott Free as a commercial director. The Alien prequel would be his first feature directing gig. Despite moving forward, Scott still felt that the Xenomorph had been ruined.

[00:07:53]He expressed this frustration back in 2008 in that the aliens in Alien Resurrection were caged behind glass like a shark, and it made the beast impotent. There were questions about involving H.R. Giger to design something new as well. Once I get more serious and get going and the big wheels start turning, we'll certainly talk and maybe we'll come up with something completely different. But in the end, Ridley would later feel that Giger would do a variation on stuff he's already done.

[00:08:24]And so, he opted to have new designers involved to make something completely new. Originally, they planned to do two prequels that would lead to the first Alien film. The three producers and their director started talking about ideas, and while Tony Scott was on the press tour for his new film The Taking of Pelham 123, Tony Scott was asked by Collider about the rumors that they were working on an Alien prequel with a new director, and Tony responded, "Yes, Carl Rinsch is going to do the prequel to Alien. He's one of our directors at our company." But 20th Century Fox didn't like this idea one bit. On June 5th, 2009, Entertainment Weekly reported that Fox told the outlet they would not greenlight a prequel unless Scott directed the movie himself. The article would also mention that there were rumblings that Rinsch was not only an untested feature film director, but that he also had romantic ties to Ridley Scott's daughter, Jordan, and that nepotism is what got him the gig. While the producers tried to fight for their director, they were searching for writers for various properties that they owned as well as their prequel. They had ideas for the prequel, but the project was considered a tough nut to crack story-wise. Around July 2009, Jon Spaihts came to Scott Free for a general meeting. Jon Spaihts' real fame as a writer began with his science fiction romance Passengers. He wrote the script in 2007, and it was noted to be on 2007's Black List of unproduced high value screenplays. Yet, Passengers would languish for many years and would not be made until 2016.

[00:10:13]Ridley Scott liked this script, and Spaihts would later say it's what got him in the door to write the Alien prequel. He came in and was shown some comics and books that Scott Free owned the rights to. Their attempt was to gauge what he might be interested in writing for them. Finally, Spaihts was told directly that they were working on an Alien film, and out of the blue, Spaihts was asked what he would do with a prequel of that franchise. "I had not been prepared for that question, as I thought I was taking a general meeting, but I found I had an opinion on it. I riffed for about 45 minutes, and it was one of those moments where you're asked the right question, and something leaps out fully formed." The idea that jumped out at him was to have a character in the film pregnant from a face hugger, and they use an automated medical machine that does a cesarean on that character, and the character survives.

[00:11:11]Producer Michael Costigan was impressed by the idea and asked if Spaihts would write some ideas down in an email and send them to Ridley Scott, who was finishing up on Robin Hood. Normally in Hollywood, you wouldn't do this because it allows the opportunity to have your work stolen, but Spaihts said, "This was Ridley Scott. I promptly wrote it down and left it behind. This is what happened after he emailed it. In something like 10 days, I was sitting in a conference room with Ridley and the co-chairs of 20th Century Fox, and Ridley was no longer talking about merely producing the film, but directing himself. The studio and media waited no time to announce the new writer and director. On July 31st, 2009, The Guardian reported the news. Thus, Carl Rinsch was pushed out by the studio and Ridley had to direct if he wanted the project to happen. After having two Alien sequels taken from under him, it was not going to happen this third time.

[00:12:10]Sadly, Carl's future would not turn out well. His relationship to Scott's daughter ended, and he would go to Universal Studios to helm the 175 to 225 million budgeted movie, 47 Ronin, with Keanu Reeves. The film would make 150 million, making it a colossal flop.

[00:12:32]In response, Carl would return to making commercials. Then, he would be given the reins of a 12-episode series called Conquest in 2018 by Netflix. He would spend 55 million and never deliver a single episode.

[00:12:49]Legal battles ensued, and Carl spent a lot of money on lavish things like a Ferrari, Four Seasons Hotels, and lawyers to battle Netflix. And in December 2025, he was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering, and five other counts over his conduct with Netflix and the money they gave him.

[00:13:15]>> [music] >> After Jon Spaihts was hired, he stated he came out sprinting and wrote out a 20-page outline for a script, and it took him 3 weeks to write it. Spaihts took the idea of writing an Alien film very seriously. At first, he wondered how he would write a story involving giant elephantine men. He thought it would look stupid, and to avoid them being active participants throughout the film, he turned the idea in the opposite direction. He decided he would tell a story about us searching for the engineers. Thus, the narrative was focused on our story, rather than theirs. Spaihts was also intensely focused on visiting fan sites to look at Alien fan theories, debates, and the thoughts of the most devoted fans. And he would later call many of these fans scholars. The deepest scholars of these fictional universes are not among the creators of the universes. They are the pinnacle of the fan base. So, for some of my research, I was actually going not just back to Ridley Scott's original movie and the large works inside the Alien in-universe, I was going to fan-made wikis online to look at fan theories of how all these games, comic books, novelizations, and movies could be connected together into a continuous fabric, and trying to pick up at least a fraction of the scholarship that the most immersed fans already have. He was also intensely loyal to the continuity and science. And I think it's imperative to serve science as best as you can. I think it's desperately important to honor that universe as deeply as you can, whether that's the world of Alien or the world of Doctor Strange and the cinematic universe. From his studies, he decided certain things about the direction he wanted to go. He committed to the idea that the eggs on the juggernaut were intentional cargo that the engineers created. He came to this conclusion not only from Ridley Scott, but because the ship and the aliens looked similar in design in the first film. So, he reasoned since the engineers created the Juggernaut ship, thus the aliens would resemble that technology as well, which is actually kind of cool if you think about it.

[00:15:35]Spaihts also formatted the engineers history to the Bible. There's all kinds of fantastic stuff in the Old Testament about the Nephilim, these sorts of giants who dwelt among humanity um in the early pages of the Bible. They were powerful, were teachers, and sired children with humanity to create a breed of more angelic and more noble beings who were leaders among us. So, that seemed very fertile mythology for our alien story. The draft would be called Alien 01, the master narrative, and we will take a look at this specific draft much later in our coverage of this film.

[00:16:13]Spaihts would go on to write five different drafts, and each time he finished a draft, he would be in a room with Ridley and two people who Spaihts called lieutenants. Ridley would have a silver tray brought in with fresh coffee and shortbread cookies. Then Spaihts and Ridley would throw around ideas. Ridley kept drawing storyboards and art concepts, and would keep throwing images and ideas at Spaihts. One such idea was to have the human ship collide with the Juggernaut at the end of the film. He also wanted to have a Christmas tree on the ship when they arrived at the planet, thus suggesting rebirth and meeting God. Another time Scott would suggest that maybe Jesus was an engineer, and it was trying to guide humanity, but after humans killed him, that's when the engineers decided to kill the human race. After Scott suggested that idea, Spaihts recalled, "I just loved the idea that blasphemous notion that maybe Jesus was a scion of some giant alien. So, it felt like the only non-incendiary way was to insert that idea in some throwaway and jocular mode in which it was pitched in the room, to let it be a throwaway joke.

[00:17:22]Whatever ideas Ridley threw at him, it was Space's job to inject them into his next draft and keep up with the director's concepts while infusing them with his own. Now, some of the earliest scripts had many different elements than what we later got, like David being such an early version of an Android that he did not look human at all. Another early version had the hammerpede as poisonous, but it was actually a 3-ft long centipede and its poison would turn blood into acid. And when it attacked Milburn, it literally bit him and then Milburn would begin sweating acid and die as he transformed into a mutated xenomorph. His very first finished screenplay draft was submitted around Christmas 2009.

[00:18:15]>> [music] >> Now, the first draft we will cover is called Alien Engineers. As to which draft it is, I won't say for certain. We know this script was after the February 2010 draft. This draft is fairly close to the final and fifth draft. The script starts with robed engineers standing under their hovering ship by a volcano and they give a lone engineer some black goo to drink. He takes it and is consumed by the substance while the robed engineers watch him being broken apart into DNA strands that spread into the environment. A short distance away, a primitive woman stares towards the volcano and sees the ship hovering in amazement before a piece of the deconstructed engineer lands on her neck and it's like a scarab that infects her bloodstream. Many years later, underwater, not far from the volcano, Shaw, who is Watts in this version, but we're going to call her Shaw to avoid confusion, discovers a find underwater that has alien writing on it. Holloway is 48 years old in this version, and Shaw is his student, and they have a romantic affair. The two take images before returning to the surface, where they spend many hours researching it until they realize they found another star map with exact coordinates to go to. We then head to a space station above Earth where Shaw and Holloway intend to present their findings to Weyland. David is there to meet them upon arrival. As they tour, we discover Weyland has many minds on different planets and is trying to terraform Mars, and it's not working out so well as they have lost a lot of money trying to do that. They find Weyland in his office with Vickers standing nearby. Weyland notes that David is one of a kind for now, but if he performs, he will be legion. Holloway proposes his theory to Weyland, as he thinks aliens have changed our DNA every 1,100 years, and our technological advances are due to these beings. Vickers scoffs at the idea, but Holloway goes on to say they discovered where they think these beings came from based on ancient star maps that were made when humans interacted with these beings. Weyland states that he knows he is their last hope to test their theory, and he already knows the star they want to go to, Zeta 2 Reticuli. Weyland says his scientists have been comparing their data, and they note that the environment changed around the time the proposed engineers appeared, and therefore their theory is solid. He then states to Holloway and Shaw that if they went, they can claim the discovery, but any technology they find belongs to Weyland Industries. He also says that if they do this, David will go as his eyes and Vickers will go as well to which he is not happy about.

[00:21:12]We then cut to the Weyland ship Magellan. David is alone like the film, but he is not shown doing much. Then they cut to Shaw and Holloway waking up.

[00:21:20]They discover the crew has been awake for a week now and waited to revive them. When they talk to Janek, he says the crew is in a bad mood because unlike most long space flights, there is no percentage for them on this trip since they are not mining anything. Although they are getting triple base pay, all the members of the mission are volunteers to gain favor with the company. So, Janek warns them to expect some attitude from some of the people.

[00:21:46]Despite this, Holloway and Shaw set up their workspace with David's help. David tells them that he has studied their data for the past 2 years and is convinced they are correct about the engineers. Despite David believing them, most of the crew treat Holloway and Shaw skeptically. In a dialogue moment, the character of Imon Chance blurts out, "We only have a job if you find something."

[00:22:09]Now, in this version of the script, Vickers is way more fleshed out. When Holloway and Shaw go to her quarters, they see the med pod and she notes it's hers because she wants the best. Then Holloway tells her that they are beginning one of their search patterns on a planet and wanted to inform her of the details. Vickers does not care and resents their science mission because she was second in line to take over Weyland Industries and now that she's on this mission, she lost that. Holloway states that when she gets back, she would be responsible for the find of the century. To which her attitude is, "I'll be 5 years behind the curve, out of touch, over." They argue this, but it's clear Vickers does not believe in their mission at all. Then, we come to the moment where they give the presentation to the crew and state that the gods of the the the gods of mythology, were engineers, not gods, and guided early civilization.

[00:23:06]A man in the crowd named Kamerov interrupts them stating that God is God.

[00:23:11]They discuss how the system is silent and it's been surveyed before and that there is a good chance there are no engineers on any of these planets they plan to survey. We are then on the bridge where Holloway knows exactly what to scan for and as they check out the planets one by one LV426 brings up some positive results. They enter the atmosphere, which is rough and cold like the first film, and they launch two satellites in orbit to help them scan for metal concentrations. By using a futuristic radar, they zone in on an area that has a pyramid with canals around it. It is definitely not natural in construction. They land and Holloway is eager to go even though there is just 6 hours left of daylight.

[00:23:59]When they approach the pyramid, it seems to be the same construction as Earth pyramids and there is a 50-ft iris door to which Holloway says, grinning, "Tell me that's a natural formation.

[00:24:11]Undeniable proof of alien civilization.

[00:24:14]You were here on this day, 31 December, year of our Lord 2172. History will remember your names." On the bridge, Janek and Vickers stare stunned at the feed and then Vickers leaves the room and goes to her suite where she takes a pill before entering a mysterious door in her room. In this version, robot rovers are used with the explorers to map the technology-laden pyramid. They find the same writing found on Earth, thus proving Holloway's theories that engineers were involved with Earth. Then the apparition of the engineer running through the hall occurs, but it doesn't fall and get its head chopped off.

[00:24:54]Fifield, who is a geologist, wants to leave because he has nothing he can do for these people. He states there is nothing to dig here and he's not fit for an alien archaeological mission. Then Milburn says that he should go with Fifield because the buddy system should be exercised while in the facility.

[00:25:13]Fifield asks for a rover to go back and Holloway disgusted by the man's cowardice says no because they need the gear on the rovers to do research and he can foot his way back if he's going to abandon them. As you have noticed already, Spates paid attention to the details and character setup. The people in the script are not tools to set up a scene. They are people with motivations and agendas that inhabit a scene. The characters in the script are not character puppets that do stupid things to make events happen. They were thought out and methodical and just in the first act alone you can see how superior this script was compared to what we got. But there's still a lot of differences to go through. So we'll go into that in our next video and many things to come are drastically different than the film version and one of those things is the med pod scene. So I'll let you guess what it's going to be like until next week.

[00:26:14]THE CLAW!

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