Over thirty years after the release of 1979’s Alien, director Ridley Scott revisited the franchise with Prometheus in 2012. This film serves as a prequel and is packed with Easter eggs linking it to the original series. Prometheus aimed to provide more than just the backstory of the iconic Xenomorphs.
The film stars Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw and Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie Holloway, two ambitious archaeologists determined to find clues left by humanity’s ancestors. Charlize Theron plays Meredith Vickers, who is strict and greedy. Idris Elba is Captain Janek, and Michael Fassbender gives a chilling performance as the android David.
Following Prometheus, Alien: Covenant continued the story as another prequel to Alien. Now, Alien: Romulus, which arrives in theaters this month, moves beyond Scott’s prequel-era narrative. Before moving too far from the origins of the franchise, let’s examine the key events of Prometheus.
What Is ‘Prometheus’ About?
Set in 2093, nearly thirty years before Alien, Prometheus focuses on an expedition led by Shaw and Holloway. They travel to a distant moon named LV-223, funded by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). The crew of the Prometheus wakes from cryosleep without knowing their mission’s purpose.
They are told they need to follow clues left on Earth by a species Shaw and Holloway believe are humanity’s creators, whom they call the Engineers. Weyland wishes to meet these creators before he dies. Although Weyland is believed to be dead, he is hidden on the ship, while his daughter Vickers acts in his place.
The crew, typical of sci-fi adventures, explores an alien spacecraft, removing their helmets and encountering dangerous unknowns.
Despite achieving their goal of meeting the presumed creators, the mission quickly deteriorates. The alien spacecraft seen in Alien, once thought to belong to an alien species called the Space Jockey, is actually part of the Engineers’ fleet. The crew is attacked by the ship’s defensive systems.
A snake-like alien kills Millburn (Rafe Spall), and Fifield (Sean Harris) falls into a pool of mysterious black liquid, transforming him into a violent mutation. David, who is curious and lacks empathy, adds a drop of the black liquid to Holloway’s drink. After Holloway and Shaw have sex, Holloway suffers from severe side effects and asks to be killed. Vickers agrees and burns him alive.
The interaction between Holloway and Shaw has more sinister consequences. The black liquid infects Shaw, causing her to become pregnant with a foreign entity. Shaw later has to remove this entity surgically. The creature, with its tentacles, is trapped in the med-bay.
Shaw returns to the Engineer’s ship, where David and Weyland release an Engineer from its stasis. Instead of communicating, the Engineer decapitates David and kills Weyland.
‘Prometheus’ Ends by Crashing the Film Into the Alien Franchise
Prometheus only fully reveals its connection to the Alien story towards the end. The crew learns that the moon is a military base and the black liquid is a biological weapon. The Engineer is restarting the ship to go to Earth and destroy humanity. Captain Janek and the remaining crew crash the Prometheus into the Engineer’s ship, destroying both and themselves.
The crash kills Vickers, and Shaw makes her way to the med-bay, the only remaining escape pod. The Engineer survives and enters the pod before Shaw can leave.
When the Engineer attacks Shaw, she releases the creature that grew from her abdomen. The giant face-hugger-like creature kills the Engineer. The film ends with a Xenomorph-like alien emerging from the Engineer’s body, an early form of the series’ antagonist.
In the film’s final moments, Prometheus hints at a sequel that never came to fruition. Shaw retrieves David’s decapitated head and decides to find the Engineers’ homeworld. She wants to understand why the Engineers wished to destroy humanity. However, this sequel was never made.
In Alien: Covenant, Shaw is killed off-screen, and the Engineers are destroyed in a brief flashback. The new crew faces David and the emerging Xenomorphs, leaving the story from Prometheus unresolved. Ridley Scott had envisioned a deeper storyline, but it remains unexplored.
The franchise’s new projects have moved away from the Prometheus and Alien: Covenant narrative, focusing instead on different aspects of the Alien universe.
