'Prometheus' Now Being Brought Into Christmas Movie Debate

Depending on who you ask, the list of Christmas movies includes far more than things one might [...]

By Nicole Drum

Depending on who you ask, the list of Christmas movies includes far more than things one might expect, such as A Christmas Story or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Fans have been making the case for films such as Die Hard and Batman Returns and now the debate as what constitutes a Christmas movie just added a new contender to the list of non-traditional holiday films: Prometheus.

That's right, some fans are adding the 2012 Ridley Scott Alien-adjacent science fiction film to Christmas film canon. The argument, as spotted on Twitter, is that by the most basic of requirements -- a film taking place on Christmas must be a Christmas film even if it has nothing to do with the holiday -- Prometheus qualifies.

For those who may be unfamiliar, in Prometheus archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map in Scotland that matches up with others from various unconnected ancient cultures. Seeing this as an invitation from the "Engineers" -- humanity's alien forebears, they follow it deep into space to the moon LV-223 on a ship funded by the CEO of Weyland Corporation, Peter Weyland. That ship, the Prometheus, arrives in December 2093. Members of the crew, the ship's captain Janek (Idris Elba) are shown celebrating the Christmas holiday, complete with a Christmas tree on board the ship.

There's something to be said for the inclusion of Christmas, either as setting element or even a subtle part of the plot, as being reasonable criteria. After all, both Batman Returns and Die Hard both use the holiday season as its temporal setting which is part of what makes them must-watch classics each Christmas. However, one could argue that when it comes to nontraditional Christmas films Prometheus has a stronger claim on the "Christmas movie" designation. The film arguably has themes that line up with those of the holiday itself. Shaw, who is sterile, ends up pregnant in something of a twisting of the virgin birth concept though the scientist isn't exactly giving birth to Baby Jesus. There's something of a subverted idea of the divine -- in this case the alien Engineers -- "saving" humanity, though the Engineers want to destroy humanity, not save it.

Or, to put it as one fan on Twitter summarized it, "the doomed crew celebrates Christmas just before discovering (kind of) that the reason space-God wanted to end humanity is that we screwed up and killed space-Jesus and Dad wanted revenge."

So, what do you think? Does Prometheus have a place on the list of Christmas movies? Is it more Christmassy than Die Hard? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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