Damon Lindelof on Prometheus's Ending and a Handy, Spoilery Alien Infographic

Prometheus Plot Explained

The Prometheus post-mortem continues (really, the fact that it's still provoking discourse says something... right?) with screenwriter Damon Lindelof talking end-of-movie spoilers with TIME Magazine. Namely, what does it mean that you-know-who does you-know-what with the whatsit at the end? Kidding! Dive in to hear the LOST veteran address the certain future of our heroes, plus: An infographic that breaks down Prometheus' DNA in one handy chart.

Spoilers throughout!

First up, TIME talks with Lindelof about the smoke monster. I mean the android, David (Michael Fassbender), who pulls some seriously heinous moves in Prometheus at the behest of one master, only to seemingly switch allegiances at the end. Can Shaw (Noomi Rapace) trust David's head to direct her where she wants to go, i.e. the space beyond space, from whence the Engineers of doom hail? Lindelof says yes, because David has a robot crush on her.

I think they’re going where she wants to go. His fundamental programming has been scrapped. Weyland [the man who built and programmed him] is dead and so now his programming is coming from God knows where. Is he being programmed by Elizabeth, or is it his own internal curiosity now that Weyland isn’t telling him what to do any more? He’s always been interested in Elizabeth, remember that: He’s watching her dreams when she’s sleeping in much the same way that he watches Lawrence of Arabia. He’s a strange robot that has a curious crush on a human being, and when Weyland is eliminated, I think he is genuinely interested in what she’s interested in. He reaches out partly for survival, but partly out of curiosity, and I think he’s sincere that he’ll take her wherever she wants to go.

Right. Well, inter-species relations have taken stranger routes in the Alien universe. Speaking of which, artist Carlos Poon whipped up a handy infographic (via the folks at Dangerous Minds) to help your brain keep track of the origins of species in Prometheus.

Prometheus Plot Explained

Alright gang, mysteries solved! Right? RIIIIGHT??

[TIME, Dangerous Minds]



Comments

  • lyjah says:

    i just saw it for the first time right now. and after reading all the comments i understand a lot more. so thanks for the that. but i have one question did the maggots + black slime = face hugger?

    • HAJYL says:

      (black slime + human male) + human female = squid baby

      That squid baby grew up to be what looked like a giant face hugger.

      Giant squid/face hugger + space jockey/engineer = xenomorph

      • Dylan says:

        I think the supposed "xenomorph" at the end isn't really a xenomorph. It doesn't have the same characteristics as the xenomorph a do in alien, such as metallic look or long kinda sharp looking claw things for fingers.

        What I think is that the "xenomorph" at the end is the thing that will create the imfamous xenomorph, just like the huge human things created us humans....

  • Swidhelm says:

    Keep in mind the eggs and the carcass of the space jockey in Alien was about 2000 years old. This movie asks more questions than it answers. Either that or Scott doesn't know his own material well.

  • AJ says:

    Did anyone else get the feeling that David was something to do with the other race, in the fact that he tried to clearly wipe all of humanity from the human ship? Also the statement "Doesn't everyone want to kill their parents" read "Your looking for your maker to destroy them"? I thought from Ridley Scotts interviews that this was one of his main points? Maybe David was placed on earth to live with the humans to ensure that they do not get in contact with the other race? Hence why he created the drawings and knew all the ships that were there, if he cannot die then he could have been created with the human race and placed on earth the same time.

    I honestly don't think in the next one that he will take Shaw to where she wants to go, he stated "Lets go back to earth now" as if to say he wanted to carry on with his role set by the alien race.

    • jay says:

      How is that so when David was created by the Weyland Corps? Charlie, Shaw's love interest, even said " They are making you close to us aren't they." This should only be assumed David was created by Weyland, humans, and not the Engineers.

  • Ryan says:

    The infographic is incorrect: Deacons are from Trilobite Engineers.

    Xenomorphs clearly exist before the Deacon: they're on a mural. The Deacon is the only one in existence because this is the very first time an infected human mated with a normal human resulting in a new facehugger thing, the trilobite, which is not a facehugger.