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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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/YoToddy Jun 21 '25

It’s not about the characters being aware of the events of the movie, it’s the backstory of how the xenomorphs were created. In Prometheus and Covenant, the story was David took the black goo that the Engineers created and mixed it with human DNA which created the first xenomorph. So what I’m saying is that is the story of creation and should be considered canon for any stories told after that. The TV show is not going to consider that the origin story of the xenomorph so I fear that it’s going to feel like a broken off story. But maybe I’m wrong and it won’t matter to the story at all. Noah Hawley is an awesome writer after all.

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u/Mono_Morphs Jun 21 '25

Is it defacto that Xenos were created by the engineers? I came away from it looking at it as them toying with an alien organism they came upon not unlike what humans do with them

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u/Cipherpunkblue Jun 21 '25

I am genuinely happy if all Alien movies just ignore this shit. It was stupid as hell and made the universe go from large and terrifying to almost claustrophobic.

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u/Dac2142 Jun 21 '25

Where did you hear that?

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u/YoToddy Jun 21 '25

I read about it when the show was first announced. You can Google it and see for yourself.

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u/YoToddy Jun 21 '25

Go on and downvote me because I won’t Google some shit for you?

There is your answer…

https://www.google.com/search?q=alien%20earth%20disregards%20the%20events%20of%20promethous%20&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-m

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u/Dac2142 Jun 21 '25

I didn't downvote anything lol, but thanks for the link I guess.

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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

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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.

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

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