First of all, the year is something like 2094. Humans have decided to track a star system and planet depicted in many ancient carvings and paintings. The crew consists of 17 people, including a captain, a cold calculating bitch who acts as captain (great actress! Apparently this actress is kind of typecast in this role, but she knows what she's doing), our two main-est characters, a robot, and a few other crew dudes. One thing this film does have is a large cast--which keeps you from learning a lot about anybody. Are they in on the plot? Are they just random dudes? Mostly. This is also the first Alien movie where more than three people survive. Two crew members die in the space-ruins, and three more die elsewhere (we may or may not get there), but there was no ship-wide blood bath, as one naturally would expect.
Just some notes on the characters--the main girl is named Elizabeth, and truth be told, she looks a little like Sarah Jane Smith. Juuust mentioning that.
The robot, David is--well, he's jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Which makes sense. Robots are supposed to be the best kind of human. Powerful, cool, maybe with guns coming out of their butts... Um. Well, David is clearly an example of that. He's perfect. Hell, in the second scene you see him riding his bike in circles and casually tossing a basketball through a hoop and than catching it like it was no big thing (I wonder if he did that for real or if it was just CGI?)... I bring this up because in the other movies, the robots are very much every... everymen. In the first one that was certainly no more than wanting Ash to be indiscreet so the audience is surprised when Sigourney knocks his head up--but yeah. Ash is a dumpy robot. The robot in the second one looks friendly, but certainly not a guy you'd expect to be a robot. I don't really remember the third one, to be honest... But Winona Ryder... Well, no-one suspects that she's a robot, anyways, though she's less dumpy than previous robots in the series. But she's nothing compared to David.
So! Making the robots relatable? More human? There are still human/robot issues in the other movies (in the fourth one, set... Well, it's hard to know exactly without the aid of the movies themselves, but I'd say that it's at least 600, 700 years after Prometheus. (It's at least 400 years between the fourth Alien movie and the first, and possibly even the second.) So that may have been the attempt, but it still failed.
As for the bitchy woman who acts as captain even though she clearly isn't--she's all steel--but if you look, she's human. She's a tightly-wound bitch, but she goes to bed with the real captain--not that it ruffles her feathers at all. But the example of humanity comes when the guy main character (who we learn nothing more about than the fact that he's dating the female main character and he's a scumbag to David) gets infected with... well, something they find in the alien ruins. He entreats the woman to burn him alive with her flamethrower, and she does--and when it seems like she kills him, there's a split second where she kind of staggers back, and she has absolute horror on her face.
One thing that does throw me is that sometimes David refers to her by his name, and sometimes he calls her mom. That didn't make sense to me. Since she--well, was--heir to Weyland company, she'd be sister... Weyland himself refers to David as the "closest I'll ever have to a son".
Oooooof. Sorry about that. On to the plot! So, they pick up, they find this planet. One thing that impressed me is that even though the sets are obviously much more high-tech, they still looked like an Alien set--hell, for all I know, it's the same set updated--at least the dining area. So how to explain why the Nostromo looked so low-tech in comparison, other than the fact that it was featured in the movie from the seventies? Well, the Nostromo was just on a simple mining mission. They didn't need anything fancy.
So, they touch down on this planet, and find strange structures--there are a few actually... But the structures are these big C-shapes with huge mounds in the middle. Remember the spaceship that the crew of the Nostromo finds in the first movie? Oh yeah, you better believe that it's buried underneath all of that. They go in the ship, search around a little... (keep in mind, I'm condensing this a LOT.)
David accidentally sets off a strange holograph projector that shows giant creatures running into what appears to be a wall. (They're very desperate--running from failures at the other ship sites? Alien life?) David then opens it.
David takes a sample of what drips out unbeknownst to the scientists, who were busily collecting the head of one of the aliens that are believed to be humankind's forbears. (Which is a hypothesis proved to be correct--the DNA sequences are almost 100% the same, but these humanoid aliens have a little bit more.) So, the team leaves--I forgot to mention that they left so suddenly because a sandstorm/electrical storm/bad times were coming. Two scientists were freaked out by the goings-on and had opted to leave beforehand, and became hopelessly lost within the tunnels, but the team that was in the chamber makes it out and back to the ship safely. I should also mention that prior to discovering the chamber, the whole team was in a big room that was practically raining. If you've seen your Alien movies, any place with enough hydration--especially if it's inside--will freak you out. But no-one in this movie had Jonesy to warn them. (Why do I know the name of the cat in the first Alien movie?)
So the team that's lost in the tunnels eventually stumble into the chambers, where the worms have mutated into three-foot-long and arm-thick udon noodles from hell. One of them attacks one man, and his partner attempts to save him--but is sprayed with acid and the man's face melts. The worm then forces its way down the man's throat, which is somehow more sexualized and horrifying than the face-hugger. So the men die.
While this happens, David puts a single cell (look at his hand! His fingerprint is the Weyland logo!) in a drink he makes for Elizabeth's boyfriend. The man drinks it down, and later that night he and Elizabeth have sex. The next day the man collapses, and the captain burns him alive. But! Around this time, David goes into the tunnels and discovers the alien's version of the human's resting chambers and unlocks another holographic security camera-like thing. This scene in the movie is honestly beautiful. I would see it in 3D just for this scene again--a gigantic map of the solar systems appears, and David holds earth--it's amazing.
And David reappears for Elizabeth, who had collapsed due to grief. He checks her and discovers that she appears to be three months pregnant--impossible, because three months ago they were in biostasis--or, because the night prior was the first time they had ever had sex. David attempts to put her into quarantine, but after she leaves she fights her way out, runs to a surgery machine, made only for men (we discover that the almost-dead Weyland is hiding on the ship)... Now! This is where things get interesting! If you'll notice, usually it's men who are impregnated with the alien babies. At the very least, they are the first to be raped.
So, she is pregnant--but she programmes the machine and gives herself an abortion (she doesn't actually say "abortion", but it's god damn empowering). That is goddamn amazing--as a twist on the usual and because she remains conscious the whole time.
The creature is squiggly white monster--showing that, like the Alien aliens, the black gunk will change whatever it is contact with differently depending on what it is. (Giant sperm monsters are crazy. Oh, and watch that one scene from Alien 3--the first one comes from a cow and is thus quadrupedal. In a documentary I believe it was said that a greyhound in costume was used, or something like that.)
So David wakes up the alien that's left when they are in the chamber--it kills Weyland, and knocks David's head off (because it cannot tell the difference between him and a human--of course David survives). The crew then escapes in desperation--David is stuck there, however. This one humanoid alien, their forebear, plans to "take back" what he did for the humans--that is, something went wrong, and his next stop is earth, to destroy it. This is where I nearly squealed, because his captain's seat folds itself open and a strange telescopic device comes down from the ceiling. (The picture below is from the first Alien, of course). A lot of people are getting butthurt that it doesn't look exactly alike, but come on, they're pretty goddamn close. Also, these events could have occurred many years apart--maybe there was one forebearer who was a little big. Or maybe he was a little earlier or later in the evolutionary line. Calm down. And let's be fair, the original Space Jockey (yes, that really is what they called it) set was destroyed a few decades ago, so they didn't have the best source material. (Originally it was outside of the studio after the first film's completion, but apparently several people destroyed it, thinking it was some Satanic symbol or something.)
So the bitch captain ejects despite the fact that the real captain can get them out of there. (He actually says she can stay with him or go on the "lifeboat" and have two years of life--what the hell!) She crashes, runs out--the spaceship of the alien is intercepted by the Prometheus ship, and begins rolling on its curve. The bitch is crushed, and our Elizabeth just barely makes it out alive. She stumbles to the lifeboat (a very, very nice escape pod). The alien survived and follows her in--only to be attacked and killed by the sperm-squid monster, who has grown to gigantic proportions. It face-rapes him and kills him.
So Elizabeth is left on the planet alone. She decides to pilot, with David, the ship back to the alien's home planet--to see what made them, or why they changed their minds about earthlings. There is a teaser end a la an end that comes after the credits, where an Alien-esque creature (fully grown) breaks from the man's flesh. Now, Ridley Scott has said that he would do a sequel if given the chance, if the film did well or whatever. But! We can still speculate on how this gets to Alien.
Does this work with AVP? I really want it to. I wouldn't be surprised if they brushed it aside, but AVP is what got me into the Alien movies, so I want it to badly. If AVP will be an accepted part of the universe, we can say that the Predators picked Alien eggs up from somewhere else--since according to AVP they were gathered so Predators could engage in a rite of passage, and the humans could be all amazed at their "gods". No-one says where the eggs came from. The movie is set in 2004, and also features Weyland--but it turns out that it is not the same Weyland. It could be the son of that in AVP.
OH, and this all took place during the earliest realms of human civilization, the latest being from the Mayans (or something), so it was possible that the Predators still could have been intimately involved. To mention the time just occurred to me, and I'll have to think more on that...
Alien evolution? The Aliens change depending on who they're in. The black gunk could have landed on something else to make it change. It could have a basic outline for a creature which it recreates. Clearly it affects different creatures in somewhat similar ways--the worm went down the dudes throat, the wiggly sperm beast layed eggs in the forbearer alien which clawed its way out of him later... And the aliens have a basic hive society, with a queen and whatnot. So... bugs from hell+proper hosts... And somehow you get Aliens. I'm thinking Namekians. (They have Alien hands!)
Why were they going to destroy Earth? I'm going to say that this whole line of events took place, and the forbears realized they messed up bad. Obviously one died in this turn of events, as we've seen on the Alien home planet. We've seen in Prometheus that there was more than one ship per site (I'm curious about the other ship, but not overly so)--so someone could have left to send the distress schedule, or it was just this one guy and they had a transmission from him that ended with something bursting from his chest. The forbears got scared that the same thing was happening on earth, and the few that were left decided that they had to end it.
Are there other forbears left? Maybe. It's possible. They could have all died, or there are a few on the planet that are destitute, or they figured earth was gone... I'm figuring they're all dead for some reason. I don't think the Alien home planet was their home planet, so it was a different disaster--or someone carried eggs back by accident!
(Also the Predators may have observed this disaster and that's how they learned about the Alien eggs? Well, even if they were infected with the aliens, they are best suited to deal with them...)
Wow, I... I think that's it. I think those are all of my theories. If I... if I think of anything else I'll add it in the form of an "EDIT"...
(Also, this post was apparently so long it broke Blogger's spellchecker, so sorry about any gross errors. I'll fix them if you point them out!)
EDIT: Aliens (second movie) was supposedly set in 2179. Does this affect anything at all? Maybe not, but it would be interesting to see how far the Prometheus series goes, if they ever occur over the same time period... They are only 100 years apart (a little less, actually).
As it turns out, what I forgot about when originally writing this is that Elizabeth is barren. That was my bad.
AND, in the chamber where they find those strange containers--the room that looks exactly like the egg-filled chamber of the spaceship in the first Alien movie--the mural on the wall (one of them) looks like an Alien in a crucified-esque position. Those are some scenes I'd like to get better looks at though, because even on the big screen with my glasses, it was hard for me to really tell what they were showing.
Okay, this is the last edit, maybe. So. Why did the worms that killed the geologist and that other dude not make little worm babies crawl out of their corpses? Well, that squid monster was sperm. Sperm gets people pregnant, that's the point of it. Like I've mentioned, it's well-established that Aliens live in a hive community. All it would take would be one drop on one queen space-bug--she would mutate, and the babies she lays during that time (because I don't think they have sex all that often--my understanding of bugs is that they are constantly just popping babies out--okay, so I only know that from Antz and Aliens) would presumably change with her, and those would get cooler and cooler, till another Alien queen was born and cemented this awesome yet horrifying change.
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