Prometheus, revelations (english)

The Black Messiah

Let's say it, the movie looks like everybody says, a big shapeless and not easily digestible one, very slow, more opressive than flamboyant, unnecessarily complex, and it gives the feeling of keeping the keys of its own construction by itself, so frustrating.     

  
But hearing ridley Scott speaking about his script in glowing terms, something absolutely innovative, stunning, tortured, agonizing, the script he had been waiting for for a long time, we have to conclude that either he has become a very old man unable to see what he's actually delivered or we are the stupid guys unable to undestand anything to his stuff. 

Strangely enough, everyone seems to believe that this is the first of these alternatives which is correct. An I believe it's a bit too fast. Certainly, it would be difficult to find that Prometheus is as clear as crystal, but it contains disturbing elements that deserve a visit.             

First things first.                            
Somewhere on Earth in the distant past, a white Greek handsome as a god profiled giant swallows a black substance on the edge of a cascade. He completely disintegrates, and his DNA is mixed up with the water which will soon produce life.
We're invited to identify him as our Creator.
The first problem is posed. For the essential question of the film is not : why do they want to destroy us now, but why did they first created us ?

Two assumptions :

1- each species has only one purpose : to reproduce itself. Engineers hope that, seeding the Earth, they also empower themselves to find their like on it in a few million years (a process they should renew on all planets of all galaxies that have the appropriate characteristics).

Obvious question : if the Engineers see themselves as the final link in the chain of evolution, we suppose they have made a big mistake in their calculations, because the final link, of course, is… Us.
There would thus be a kind of bug in the scheduled developments (still Us).                  

2- Engineers perfectly know who They are, They are embodied Good, They love life, They spread it. Here is their mission. By the way, would we not do the same if we were able to in a distant future ?
Given the difference in technologial level between Engineers and our own ancestors, no doubt that they have considered the first ones as Gods.
The result is obvious : Engineers have come back regularly to see how healthy their offspring, as loving gardeners towards their fragile seeds. So they have had regular contacts with the earliest human civilizations, they've probably initiate the parietal representations, taking the opportunity to leave their signature : five circles representing the five planets which they come from. The circles interpretation given by the archaeologists is therefore an erroneous and deadly one. That is not an invitation at all. Our ancestors basically reveals their God's presence on the walls of caves for worship during the long winter evenings. The film suggests that it is precisely when Man pretends to become the equal of God(s) that he is in trouble…

Problem for Engineers : mixing up one's DNA with the liquid element involves the sacrifice of that one. An that's a painful sacrifice : it is first necessary to swallow a black and viscous substance that will transform and destroy the victim.

And there again comes the duality of Good and Evil. Beautiful + White = Good, while Black + Ugly = Bad.
The DNA also seems to darken and to change rapidly. Therefore, from the begining, Life, and thus Humans in the chain's end, is the result of an harmonius blend of good and evil.
Considering the importance which both those concepts have taken in our philosophy, our religions, our mental processes, our History, our social relations, etc, it is not far to find it an enlightening explanation.Then Man becomes the result of an evolution in line with his Creator's expectations. At least, up to this point.                          

Engineers obviously master Evil. They confine It in urns inside their basements. The room in which these urns are stored is decorated with a gigantic head, which is the reproduction of the bust of Mussolini by Adolpho Wildt, a well known identifier to Evil.

But the corps of Engineers found at the entrance of this room are identified too by a crew member to a "holocaust". This time,the question is no longer permitted.

Question : how have Engineers eventually lost control of Evil ?

Well, it's been a classical theme in Gothic literature since Mary Shelley : the creature escapes from his creator and destroys him. Playing with fire, Engineers eventually got burned. All databases have been infected and destroyed by these creatures who, having nothing left to put in their mouth, have logically gone to sleep, waiting for better days.

Prometheus is precisely shaped upon this idea.

Even before they have lost control of Evil, Engineers realized that, by sowing Life on Earth (and probably elsewhere), they had sown the seed of Evil that would eventually take them aback. The threat does not come from those slimy and disgusting creatures, nor does it come directly from Men, but from Men's creatures (because Man has become a Creator in his turn, and he sees his own monsters escaping from his grap in a dizzying mise en abyme). Guess who those monsters are ? … Robots.

The specimen onboard the ship, David, is far from being a simple machine. He is a cold, perfect being. He is better than Tony Parker playing basketball, he reads in our dreams, he clearly dominates Humans by his capabilities. The proof is : he does not need to breathe. He logically has not the slightest admiration for Engineers Designers, the technology of whom he decodes very easily.
Thus, he immediately raises himself as a very serious competitor on the podium for deities. The film suggests that the takeover has been undertaken for a long time. There will be no revolution, no coup. Robots will become essential anytime and anywhere, even in space, especially in space (is it not already the case ?). They will gently become masters of their own creators. The Engineer who awakes from his biostasis is not mistaken injuring David : the last specimen in the lineage of ancient gods inflicts what he has suffered himself to his new competitor in the lineage of gods-to-be : he blows his head off.

Moreover, the Robot-God-to-be has knowingly introduced a drop of Evil in the drink of the archaeologist, a healthy carrier for a probable breeding. He insiminates Evil that will cause the catatrophe to which the Engineers precisely hope to escape, opening the door to a power without any competition.

Remember that the arrival of the ship on the planet takes place on December 24th (Commander's little Christmas tree), on the eve of a new symbolic age.

Then, the film makes relevant allusions to Catholicism.

PeterWeyland, the old ailing billionaire behind the expedition is supposed to be dead when the crew listen to his message. It is not the case. Rising from his glass tomb after the trip, we discover him surrounded by the apostles washing his feet. Christ, son of an invisible God, intends to return near his Father and to share his supposed immortality before disappearing.

Archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw wears a cross pendant. She is sterile and laments not being able to give birth. She will give birth anyhow, like Virgin Mary. Her name is the name of Mary's grandmother.
But if the Son (Weyland) wants to find his Father, who accidentally kills him, the girl gives birth to a monstruous creature sprawling and growwing at a tremendous pace.Introducing his penis into the Engineer, this creature (Mary's baby) mates with the Creator in a post-generational incest : grandfather and granddaughter. The fruit of this horrific union is agaisnt nature. It is the destructive Messiah of the future. Like his predecessor, he was born on December 25th. We do not know him until the last frame. He is consistent with our worst fears : Alien.

Well, Ridley Scott was probably right to be pleased with his script…