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Prometheus Spoilers: Five Questions Raised

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, since its announcement, has been one of those films that has raised more questions than it has answered–indeed, probably more than any single film could answer on its own.

With the movie in theaters now, though, and a potential sequel teased by writer Damon Lindelof, the questions that remain unanswered feel a little more urgent. So…what are they?

Well, spoilers are naturally on for this one–it’s in the headline and everything, so don’t come crying to me if I ruin a surprise for ya.

What was that kooky cocktail the Engineer drank at the beginning of the film?

The film’s first scene was a bizarre, grotesque and fascinating death scene, wherein one of the Engineers drinks…something…and it corrupts his DNA, causing it to necrotize, blackening and falling apart as his body wastes away to nothing and is ultimately washed downstream. It seemed like that would be an important issue to address–but the film never really did.

What was that stuff? Was it the black goo that we see periodically throughout the film, or something else? Why did it have that effect on the Engineer? And perhaps most importantly, does the brittle, black appearance of his DNA following ingestion imply something about a connection to the xenomorphs from Alien?

Why would the Engineers create humanity, only to turn around and try to kill us all?

This is of course one of those questions that’s fundamentally unanswerable, as it essentially asks about the motivations of gods. Still, it seems pretty inscrutable, bordering on silly, that they should go to all the trouble to create mankind, only to provide a map to our extinction for jollies after the fact.

Is the human race being harvested–cultivated to a point of ripeness and then plucked? And if so, will they do it again–or have they already?

Why did David poison Holloway?

It seemed clear that David was following some kind of programming, or at the very least pursuing his own agenda, when he “dosed” Holloway by spiking drink. Was it really as simple as being pissed that Holloway had poked fun at him?

My bet is on programming of some kind; the fact that he asked Holloway ahead of time what he would be willing to do in order to learn the truth, and only dosed Holloway after the man told him that he would do anything, suggests to me that on some level David needed permission to do what he did.

What did David tell The Engineer?

It does seem as though if he were just translating the message for Weyland, it wouldn’t have seemed quite so Lost in Translation, doesn’t it? No idea what else it could be, although finding out in a sequel (along with at least the question of that first Engineer’s death) wouldn’t hurt.

What happened to that corpse?

If we’re to assume that the chest-bursted corpse from Alien is the same one seen here, why was it not in the pilot’s chair, as it was when we first saw it? It seems unlikely that it would be moved to “stage” the scene, although obviously anything is possible.

Are there any other major questions you were left with, that we missed? Let us know in the comments, on the forums or Facebook.