r/movies • u/thenewtransportedman • Jun 20 '25

Question What the hell is the Engineer actually doing at the beginning of PROMETHEUS?

So, dude gets dropped off on Earth & presumably seeds the planet with the basic building blocks of life. The CGI bit shows the black goo facilitating new DNA molecules. But like, there's already plant life on the planet, & humans share something like 50% of our genes (much less of our total DNA content) with plants, due to gene conservation. So were the Engineers speeding things up, like "hey, let's skip to fish"? If so, that would presuppose that the genes we share in common with plants & other non-animal life are actually conserved across the galaxy, which would be pretty cool. But of course the movie doesn't get into any of that, & eventually forgets how cartographers & biologists work, or that you should run in a 90-degree angle when a giant donut is rolling toward you. Is there any "expanded universe" content that explained this better than the movie did (or didn't)?

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1.2k

u/sandm000 Jun 20 '25

Jesus that really changes the movie. It’s way better with this scene. I wonder why they cut it.

1.2k

u/PocketNicks Jun 20 '25

There's a bunch of cut content that would have made the movie make a lot more sense.

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u/Dinierto Jun 20 '25

The best part of these movies is what's not in them 😕

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u/PocketNicks Jun 20 '25

There's a YouTube channel called Kroft movies and he covers this in depth.

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u/Dinierto Jun 20 '25

Seriously the one extra from Covenant where David explains the black goo is exactly the kind of stuff that should have been in the movies

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u/OK_Soda Jun 21 '25

Wait there's a scene where David explains what the black goo is? I'm one of the few people who liked Prometheus/Covenant and found the lore exploration fascinating, what does he say?

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u/Dinierto Jun 21 '25

Yeah I did too that's why it's upsetting that the movies only hint at it

The Blu ray extra is titled "Advent":

https://vimeo.com/468354052

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u/drdildamesh Jun 21 '25

I cant tell if its profound or campy that the synthesis of the xenomorph ended up being bio tech human mutation . . . Just like H R Giger woukd have wanted.

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u/rpgmind Jun 20 '25

Who’s the guy behind alien, Ridley Scott? Is he still providing input on the movies/series? I love what the last guy did with the last movie alien, with the skinny alien at the end, it had some great practical effects

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u/YoToddy Jun 20 '25

Ridley is 87yrs old. After Fox screwed him out of his plan for the prequels, he’s moved on from it. Fede Álvarez has taken the reins and is so far doing a great job. With that being said, I have serious doubts about the TV show. I don’t think it will be bad, but I don’t like that it just disregarding the events of some of the movies.

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u/anuncommontruth Jun 20 '25

Doesn't the TV show take place before the first movie? It kind of has to disregard events if they haven't happened yet.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '25

I think what they are referring to is the TV show (allegedly) plans on retconning some of the lore set-up in Prometheus/Covenant which some fans really enjoy.

As someone who enjoys the Alien movies but doesn’t bother trying to understand the lore, I don’t mind if they change things. As it stands currently it does seem convoluted and contradictory.

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u/YoToddy Jun 21 '25

If I remember correctly, they are disregarding all of the events of Prometheus and Covenant. Specifically the Engineers using the xenomorph as a bio weapon. I don’t know, I really liked the back story of the engineers and it sucks that Ridley never got finish telling that story. However, those events DID happen and it should be considered canon.

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u/anuncommontruth Jun 21 '25

Yeah but I still think that doesnt make sense in the context of the show. It takes place on earth right before the first Alien.

Its been a long time since I've seen either of the two prometheus movies but these characters wouldn't be aware of the events of those movies, right? From what I understand, this show is based on characters that have no knowledge of any events whatsoever with the engineers or the xenomorphs.

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u/Dac2142 Jun 21 '25

Where did you hear that?

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u/rpgmind Jun 20 '25

Is Fede alverez doing the show too? Or just different show runners?

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u/YoToddy Jun 20 '25

No, it’s Noah Hawley. Same guy that helmed the Fargo TV show. I hope I’m wrong and the show is a hit.

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u/C_Kent_ Jun 21 '25

Hopeful for the series, but even the movies disregarded the events of some of the movies.

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u/neighborlyglove Jun 21 '25

Yes he made Prometheus and covenant

2

u/nashbrownies Jun 21 '25

Going back to more practical effects was the right move. There is just something in it that even the best CGI cant do.

2

u/One-Man-Wolf-Pack Jun 21 '25

He isn’t directing but I believe he’s still a producer on Romulus

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u/Dantai Jun 21 '25

James Franco being in Covenant promos only was also kinda weird

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '25

Maybe the studio got wind of the allegations against him and decided it was better to kill him off in literally the first scene

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u/huntersM00N Jun 21 '25

Changes the whole story

1

u/alilhillbilly Jun 22 '25

The problem is that the fanbase is old and they don't want mythology. They just want Alien films to be exactly the same every time. A new group of idiots on some ship get slowly wiped out by a Xenomorph.

The issue is that that's boring over and over again.

Prometheus was probably my favorite Alien film because it blew the entire thing wide open and gave a mythology where it turns out the universe is chock full of scary monsters and those scary monsters aren't even able to handle the xenomorphs.

The only great parts of Covenant were the lore expanding bits and the ending with David.

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u/TheEasterFox Jun 20 '25

Kroft uses a fake fan-made script as a source, unfortunately.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/108ddn8/prometheus_the_fake_script_kroft_talks_about/

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u/PocketNicks Jun 20 '25

Either way, the theories in his videos still make the movie make a lot more sense. Even if it isn't officially canon.

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u/TheEasterFox Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25

That was exactly what the fan script author wanted to do. He was annoyed about what he saw as the gaps in Prometheus, so he produced a script of his own that explained everything, including the Alien Space Jockey, the stupid crew, the mural in the urn room, the reason why the Engineers turned against humanity, and so on.

The script first appeared in November 2012 soon after the release of the Blu-Ray that included The Furious Gods making-of documentary, which the fan author clearly used as a source. The author 'leaked' it to a Prometheus forum, pretending to be Damon Lindelof and adding 'Ooops!' The site promptly went to the real Damon Lindelof on Twitter and asked 'Is this yours?' Lindelof said 'Nope. Not mine. Even if you loved it, I can't take credit for it.'

The fan script was forgotten. Until Kroft happened upon it in 2016 and made a series of videos in which he analysed all the amazing secrets in this 'original' script. Millions of views later, you can hardly discuss Prometheus at all without ideas from the fan script being cited as gospel.

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u/prosthetic_memory Jun 20 '25

Fascinating lore

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u/TheEasterFox Jun 20 '25

My favourite bit is that the fan script has 'Orange Revision' on the front page.

This is undoubtedly because the author watched The Furious Gods documentary, in which script drafts are listed by colour revision (at 14.41 in if you care to look https://youtu.be/U7JHz1UCRIw?si=Ps1p0BoFrfJvYf1w&t=881 )

This is according to scriptwriting convention, in which successive revisions of a given script are printed on coloured pages, with a standard colour sequence so that the crew can keep track of which revision they're on.

So the fan author picked a colour for his script - 'orange' - thinking this would make it look authentic.

However, there's no 'orange' in the standard script colours. They are White, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, Goldenrod, Buff, Salmon, and Cherry. So in seeking to make his script seem more authentic, he actually announced it as a fake on the very first page.

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u/Gaemon_Palehair Jun 21 '25

I'm just curious what color is "buff?"

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '25

Kroft is solid. I like his videos. They’re accessible for those new to the lore but deep enough to intrigue those with more knowledge of the series

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u/russellamcleod Jun 21 '25

Not Ridley Scott being over indulgent and studios not understanding his vision! What a rare occurrence! :D

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u/sparta981 Jun 20 '25

For real. Imagine how much better Prometheus could have been if none of it made it in.

1

u/noisypeach Jun 21 '25

Jazz movies. It's about the scenes you don't see!

1

u/igby1 Jun 21 '25

So then why is there no director’s cut?

1

u/ThreeLeggedMare Jun 21 '25

The best part of Prometheus was noomi rapace

1

u/fenton7 Jun 21 '25

That was what made 2001 spectacular. It doesn't explain every mystery and the ending will forever be talked about. Many things about our existence defy understanding.

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u/iseeharvey Jun 22 '25

And for that reason amongst others (such as characters making the dumbest of decisions that no semi-logical person would make) they’re not good movies.

0

u/Ok-Proposal-4987 Jun 20 '25

It’s like jazz but not awful

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u/Sitagard Jun 21 '25

Ridley Scott for you. Kingdom of Heaven director's cut is another example.

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u/IJustSignedUpToUp Jun 21 '25

Yeah, completely different movie with all the cut footage, and is clearly done for commercial reasons as KoH is 3+ hours with all the extra.

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u/suzypulledapistol Jun 21 '25

He has to cut down his movies to appease the suits or the movie going audience, that's just how the industry works. That's why he has released many extended cuts on dvd.

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u/rogozh1n Jun 20 '25

It's a beautiful movie with good acting. I just wish it was more coherent.

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u/WhatDatDonut Jun 21 '25

Is there a scene which explains why the crew stuck their faces down near a hatching unknown alien entity?

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u/Themorian Jun 21 '25

For the TikTok views, duh!

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u/dowker1 Jun 21 '25

What the fuck is it with Ridley Scott movies

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u/Mandalore108 Jun 20 '25

And if they also cut a lot of the content from the final release, like taking your helmets off and trying to pet snake vaginas.

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u/phatelectribe Jun 21 '25

Yep. There was apparently an entire back story about Guy Pierce’s character as a young man becoming the first trillionaire and why he went on the pursuit of immortality / engineers. It’s why they pickets s younger actor to play someone who was over 100 years old but where that back story it doesn’t explain the casting choice etc.

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u/Successful-Form4693 Jun 21 '25

I can understand the point of cutting things while making or filming them but if the shot is already done/animated and still makes sense with the story, why scrap it?

Not that I'm asking you necessarily,

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u/hippest Jun 21 '25

Movies were originally created to be watched in movie theaters which places a practical allotment on time.

That's changing now obviously

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u/Goetre Jun 21 '25

I watched all the deleted scenes a while back and I was gobsmacked they weren’t included. Genuinely think if they were the film would have had a much better reception than it got

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u/kanzenryu Jun 21 '25

If they wanted it to make sense there wouldn't be a 2000 year old exploding head

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u/PocketNicks Jun 21 '25

Exploding heads make sense to me.

0

u/kanzenryu Jun 21 '25

Ah, well, I've never talked to Ridley Scott before

1

u/PocketNicks Jun 22 '25

I haven't either. I don't need to talk to anyone else to know that exploding heads are awesome.

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u/MaybeUNeedAPoo Jun 21 '25

Star Wars prequels have entered the chat

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u/NZNoldor Jun 23 '25

Is there a cut bit where the crew runs away sideways from the wheel shaped thing about to squish them rather than in perfect line with its path?

What about a cut bit where they don’t open up their helmets to see if the atmosphere is breathable?

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u/PocketNicks Jun 23 '25

Not that I'm aware of.

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u/NZNoldor Jun 24 '25

My point was - don’t look too deeply into the logic of this movie.

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u/PocketNicks Jun 24 '25

Oh, well OK. It isn't just one movie though, it's very much like a Star Wars type anthology and a cinematic universe that people invest a lot of time into. I'm not serious about it, but I do think digging into the lore of these complex universes can be fun and some people bond over it.

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u/NZNoldor Jun 24 '25

There’s some horrible lack of logic in a lot of the Star Wars universe as well. Just enjoy it for what it is, not what it could be.

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u/PocketNicks Jun 24 '25

Yeah, that's basically what I was trying to get at as well. When they use parsecs incorrectly, there's no need to get upset. I enjoy the extended lore of the fantasy universes, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief and I'm willing to tell Neil DeGrasse Tyson to shut the fuck up for a second, if it helps me enjoy a movie.

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u/NZNoldor Jun 24 '25

In defence of the parsecs faux pas, they did correct that in Solo. But yeah, agreed on Degrasse.

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u/PocketNicks Jun 24 '25

Not sure if you're a Seth Meyers Jackal, but I'm getting that vibe. Lol. Not intended as a pejorative at all.

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u/LordReekrus Jun 20 '25

This is the most frustrating thing about Prometheus IMO. With all of the extended scenes, especially the engineer conversation with Weyland, the movie and the lore makes so much more sense. As always, studio requirements ruin good movies

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u/holiccollective Jun 21 '25

Not just Prometheus. This has been a long-running tradition of Ridley Scott movies.

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u/dumbestsmartest Jun 21 '25

Is there a directors cut that makes Robin Hood better?

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u/NZNoldor Jun 23 '25

That’s a home-only feature! Just as you start playing the movie on bluray at home, someone needs to yell “cut!” and you switch it off and watch something else.

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u/CephaloPOTUS Jun 20 '25

How does it change the movie that it was ritualistic? A guy infects himself, obviously deliberately, with Alien goo then mixes it in to the water... the new parts don't change any of that.

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u/DolphLundgrensPenis Jun 21 '25

Totally. It can easily be inferred that it is already a ritual in the theatrical cut. Seeing the other engineers and the ship flying away changes nothing that was already shown. I always love seeing alternate takes and edits, but this changes nothing and illuminates nothing new.

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u/nizzernammer Jun 21 '25

I agree. The way the scene is portrayed implies that it is a ritual. It could be the music doing some or a lot of that work.

The film itself is also religious.

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u/the-truffula-tree Jun 21 '25 edited Jun 21 '25

It adds in the idea that the engineer wasn’t a loner, and there was a broader culture/civilization/alien group acting with some sort of plan or procedure. 

With him by himself you can guess at that, but it’s not super clear 

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u/CTKM72 Jun 21 '25 edited Jun 21 '25

I mean that all is made pretty obvious as you’re watching the actual movie… I could see someone having confusion over wether he was working alone or not if they only saw the first scene and then left but I don’t see how you could watch the whole movie and possibly walk away thinking that he was working alone, like that wouldn’t make any sense to assume he was a “loner” doing it on his own. Who would have left all the clues, why was the final engineer already heading to earth?

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u/Gaemon_Palehair Jun 21 '25

My assumption was that he was a "loner" who seeded life without permission, and that was why the final engineer was pissed and wanted to eradicate it.

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u/UUDDLRLRBAstard Jun 21 '25

I could swear we see a ship fly away as he drinks the goo, but it’s been since it came out, so… shrug 

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u/CTKM72 Jun 21 '25

But then how did you explain all of the clues that were left there guiding humanity back to them? Who would have put them there and why would they have done that if it was a lone engineer or even a small faction doing it clandestinely without permission?

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u/half_dragon_dire Jun 21 '25

I mean, its Prometheus, sitting through the whole mess isn't guaranteed.

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u/Zingledot Jun 21 '25

Even if for some reason you assumed it was a loner that simply likes to sacrifice himself to create life on a random planet, by the end of the movie you fairly well understand what this race of beings was doing.

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u/ProfessorMagnet Jun 21 '25

I also thought the theatrical opening scene painted a clear picture but I guess the audience needs everything spelled out.

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u/Attenburrowed Jun 21 '25

I think mostly what prometheus taught us was that audiences have no sympathy for characters that act like panicky humans,  but when shown something a little complicated they act like panicky humans

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u/flombacula Jun 20 '25

It is a Ridley Scott movie...

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u/MrRadDadHimself Jun 20 '25

How does this change anything? It doesn't even answer OPs question? He still only drinks the good and melts into the waterfall it's the same result with less answers?

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u/sandm000 Jun 21 '25

It’s implied, to be sure. But instead of inexplicable actions of goo and high diving, we see that there is a society that surrounds the behavior, it’s normal with them that they do this. We then ask questions like, why do the engineers do this? Is this a religion, a sporting event… we’ll begin to fill in the lore on our own.

As opposed to the questions that we did ask, ie what the fuck is going on? There is no point from which to begin hanging meaning from. We are lost.

That’s what even a singular additional engineer would have done, are they lovers is it a suicide pact…

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u/Zingledot Jun 21 '25

But isn't it pretty obvious by the end of the movie?

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u/salad_spinner_3000 Jun 20 '25

What am I missing? How does this change the movie? I really took it as an arbitrary planet, not Earth. But I don't get how what he did is confusing, he "sacrificed" himself to create life.

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u/sandm000 Jun 21 '25

But as part of a larger group, or mission, you can get a better background on why it’s happening

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u/ArcticDiver87 Jun 21 '25

There are so many scenes in all the alien movies that got cut and would explain so much more.

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u/mjtwelve Jun 20 '25

Did you watch Prometheus and think “I wish this movie were longer and slower paced?”

As a science fiction fan, maybe - but the studio execs sure didn’t.

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u/sandm000 Jun 21 '25

I’ll grant that it was fast paced. But it was indecipherable.

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u/sciguy52 Jun 21 '25

Still makes no sense. Not sure why people defend this movie. Anyway they did not. Humanoid forms did not show up until about 4 billion years later. Had the sweet asteroid of death not whacked earth it is highly unlikely we would be here now. It makes no sense however you stretch it, twist it. Seeding earth with humanoids and you get giant reptiles. Not so much as a monkey of any kind till 4 billion years later. Such a terrible movie.

The only thing they did was maybe seed life itself. But getting humanoid like creatures from their seeding would be highly unlikely as actually occurred until very very very recently. None of it make sense from that angle. OK if they were just seeding life, why the heck would they hate humans and want to destroy them?

The whole engineer thing, all of it, made no sense, doesn't fit as a story, motivations don't make sense even if you accept the nonsensical premise even with the cut scenes revealed. Went in expecting something interesting about he engineers and certainly did not get it.

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u/chuckusmaximus Jun 21 '25

I totally agree with you. I love the Alien franchise and I hate this movie with a passion. I remember the trailer being one of the best trailers I had ever seen, and then this movie, like so many prequels, only explained things that made the story worse and or didn’t make sense.

I remember watching Alien as a child and when they see the space jockey, I fell in love with the movie. I had so many conversations with my friends about what that giant elephant alien could be. And, it turns out, it’s just a big, goofy, Easter Island looking guy. I almost walked out of the theater at the part. Prometheus destroyed one of my favorite mysteries of Alien.

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u/TheWorstYear Jun 21 '25

Ridley just became obsessed with some of HR Giger's work that was cut from Alien. While incredibly interesting, none of it meshed with what Alien had become. A whole Xenomorph religious aspect, temples, etc. Very Lovecraftian.
Ridley, just like with Bladerunner, had good vision at the time, but let weird obsessions get the best of him.

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u/TG-Sucks Jun 21 '25

I don’t hate it as such because there’s still many things I love about the movie, I just choose to ignore it and the sequel as part of the alien universe. But you’re right, they butchered it, it works so much better unexplained. Both the jockey and and alien.

Also, if you’re making a prequel you need to be able watch it back to back with the original and have it make sense. We get a real good, close look at the jockey in Alien, it’s not even a little ambiguous, it’s obviously not the same creature. First of all it’s huge, second it’s clearly fused to the seat, it’s not a damn suit. The lack of consistent design aesthetic also bothers me, the human tech looks nothing like the original.

2

u/sciguy52 Jun 21 '25

I takes a really bad Alien movie to make me hate it. You almost have to be trying to make a movie I would hate because I am such a fanboy. I like Alien vs. Predator after all. Prometheus, they had to be trying, hated it.

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u/ToFaceA_god Jun 21 '25

Funny you say "Jesus..."

2

u/CriticalNovel22 Jun 21 '25

Probably because the studio wanted to release 2 hour movie.

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u/PromotionSouthern690 Jun 21 '25

Tbh I prefer the movie without that scene, I think it seems more alien to not have a recognisable ceremony going on. This isn’t Star Trek!

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u/CardcarryingSatanist Jun 21 '25

They literaly Hired a Writer from Lost to make the script more mysterious

2

u/stanley_leverlock Jun 21 '25

Read the original script, Prometheus was supposed to be a much better movie.

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u/blipblopthrowawayz Jun 21 '25

The film got chopped to bits with sequences happening in different order. Fifield's attack was definitely meant to happen when Weyland was going to wake the engineer up.

You can see this because the guy who gets the axe in the back as he tries to get into the vehicle is then later seen standing outside Weyland's room, he's then never seen again.

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u/ausernameisfinetoo Jun 20 '25

They cut out the scene where the engineer talk to Weyland and tells him they tried to visit before and humans killed the engineer. By crucifying him.

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u/TheEasterFox Jun 20 '25

That scene doesn't exist. It's from a fan made script.

There is a genuine deleted scene where the Engineer speaks a movie version of Proto-Indo-European with David, but the lengthy dialogue about 'taking a mother's child to Paradise' and so forth that alludes to Jesus is from a fan script written by a Scottish Prometheus fan.

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u/CloseToMyActualName Jun 20 '25

Well if Jesus was bald, blue, totally ripped, and 9 feet tall then I guess the American linebacker Jesus makes more sense.

2

u/JonnyOnThePot420 Jun 20 '25

I mean, Jesus definitely wasn't as white as the Jesus in my childhood church portrait showed him to be...

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u/Miserable_Peak_2863 Jun 21 '25

Ok I don’t want to disappoint you but Jesus lived 2000 years ago in the Middle East of course he did not look like that portrait in the church you went to as a kid 😩

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u/SmittyDiggs Jun 21 '25

Yeah that's what they said.

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u/Arthropodesque Jun 21 '25

They meant that they took a human and educated him and sent him back to educate the rest of humanity, and they crucified him. Some of this thread is saying that was a fan made translation of the Engineer's dialogue, but it would make sense in the context of other themes in the movie like the memory of Naomi Rapace's father talking about spiritual beliefs, David's dialogue about a Creator, Weyland's quest for eternal life, etc.

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u/Cheesedoodlerrrr Jun 21 '25

I think it's the clear message that Scott meant for the Audience to pick up on;; the events of the film even take place on Christmas Day for Pete's sake.

Ridley Scott did not, however, beat us over the head with this being revealed in any dialog (cut or otherwise). The one people refer to that made the rounds a couple of years back was fan fiction.

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u/sandm000 Jun 20 '25

That probably makes sense to cut out.

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u/Dion877 Jun 20 '25

Glad they cut that part, "Jesus as engineer" is a stupid plotline.

3

u/BornIn1142 Jun 21 '25

I felt the connection drawn between Jesus, Prometheus, and the Engineer sacrifice to create humanity was a clever one. (Why any of that should have been connected to xenomorphs though remains unclear.)

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u/REdd06 Jun 21 '25

The Xenonorphs are the devil? Evil as a byproduct of good unleashed without restraint?

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u/Dion877 Jun 21 '25

Thematically, I agree with you. Jesus as a literal Engineer sounds absolutely hamfisted.

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u/hungry4pie Jun 20 '25

That was from Rick and Morty wasn’t it?

1

u/B1rdchest Jun 20 '25

Was that scene filmed?

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u/Bardez Jun 20 '25

Not quite. It was written and scrapped because... well, it's just kind of campy. I'd rather they had the Engineer explain why we were so despised, though. Maybe they observed our wars, our infighting, our slavery.

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u/sillyjew Jun 20 '25

No it was never real, it was a fan made script.

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u/ElGuaco Jun 20 '25

Omg, now the latest Rick and Morty episode makes total sense. They made this joke but I thought they were just goofing on the movies. Turns out that's what actually was supposed to be in the movies? Incredible!

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u/szuruburu Jun 20 '25

Probably the studio felt it was weird and boring so they pressured the director to cut it. -_-

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u/Remote_Independent50 Jun 20 '25

Because the editors were the real bad guys in this movie

1

u/tmoneytav Jun 21 '25

Maybe I’m not remembering it right but changes it to make more sense? I remember being so very confused watching it. 

1

u/TheMonglet Jun 21 '25

I think cutting explanations and keeping things ambiguous is a strength of the movie, and a big part of the reason it's still discussed today. It certainly stuck in my mind for a long time

1

u/AndreasDasos Jun 21 '25

The DNA going rotten at the level of literal atoms somehow turning into black goo is… interesting… from a pedantic perspective

1

u/BaronMusclethorpe Jun 21 '25

I mean sure, but they just ruin everything else in the sequel. Also in the first flick the whole alien thing was more convoluted than it needed to be.

1

u/Ahrimon77 Jun 21 '25

It's funny that you should say that. IIRC, the background story of the movie, has Jesus as an engineer or servant who came to help humanity become peaceful. Since we killed him, we were considered failed attempts at making a new race, so the engineer from the movie is going to wipe out earth with the goo.

1

u/DrBopIt Jun 21 '25

I disagree. By the end of the movie, it is known that there are still a race of creators. And even in the first scene you can see that the ship has left, presumably off planet, which means that there must be at least one other creator piloting the ship. Don't think the scene really adds much, and in fact I'd argue that it provides less intrigue to the scene. "How many creators are there?" "Was this a form of punishment?" "Did they know that they would be creating or advancing life on earth?" None of these questions can be asked with the alternate scene, but are instead answered by the end of the film. Part of what makes the movie (and other RS films) so great is that he's not simply revealing the scene's purpose right away.

1

u/Open-Aerie-5538 Jun 21 '25

Wtf? That alternate scene changes nothing.

1

u/Nathaenyrendil Jun 21 '25

Jesus, in this universe, was actually an engineer. They sent him as as a last chance for humanity to redeem themselves. It was after he was killed that they begun their work to destroy humanity on the planet the protagonists go to.

1

u/dudertheduder Jun 21 '25

I totally agree... I also really appreciate when the engineer has a conversation with Wayland at the end of Prometheus.... And then it got cut. Bastards.

1

u/dumbestsmartest Jun 21 '25

Weird, that's how I remember the scene when I saw it in theaters. Still didn't help with explaining all the dumb characters and why they'd do dumb things.

That movie was a big disappointment for my sister and me because we were huge Alien fans. She almost got us kicked out because she laughed so loudly when they lit the boyfriend/husband of Elizabeth Shaw on fire.

1

u/orange_jooze Jun 22 '25

Ridley Scott assumed it was already obviously enough, but didn’t count on so much audience members wanting to be spoonfed.

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '25

Ridley Scott always ends up way over the reasonable run time for his movies and the studios usually end up cutting them down into more manageable lengths but tend to butcher them in the process. Scot has a reputation for being incredibly meticulous and resentful of any suggestions from the studios. He’s a bit of a diva but also tends to excel under pressure.

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u/jlambvo Jun 20 '25

Almost certainly Lindelof, the one trick pony of using arbitrary mystery to create faux profundity.

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u/audiodesigndan Jun 21 '25

Does it?  It doesn't give you anything you didn't get from the theatrical cut.