There is a deleted scene on the Prometheus Blu-ray (3D in my house, dudes. Awesomes!) which I believe provides answers to this film. It’s an extended version of the prologue, the ‘Elders’ scene, where the sacrificial dude is given a blessing. It also contains the English translation of the script, revealing to us the sacred utterance.
“Let your body become the dirt. Your blood become the waters. And may your soul become their way back to us.”
This benediction says that this Engineer’s soul is “their way back to us”, but who exactly ‘they’ are, and where they must return from, is left ambiguous. Is this they us? We’d like to think so. So, is this dude dying for us? Is he creating us? And if he is, what part of him is becoming us, and what part does the black goo play?
Given that they share our DNA surely this is a possibility? It’s only our assumptions regarding the nature of the black mutagenic goo that make this seem such an impossible and impractical way to seed humanity. But if they are essentially us, are they not therefore a creation of the same god, or force, as we are? Our parents are our creators, but they are not our god.
This ritual, taken with the already mentioned benediction, suggests a sacrifice with a spiritual purpose. ‘Their way back to us’? A synonym for a metaphysical link? Or is it a route, a path, a road, a genetic bridge from one dude to another? Is this ritualistic sacrifice in some way giving us a metaphysical gift to help us find our way back to our maker? Knowledge encoded into our DNA? I choose to believe it is. It is the faith spoken of by theists, embedded within our soul.
Fact (of the knows it variety).™
“Sometimes to create, one must first destroy.”
So, is the dude creating life, or is the dude bringing death? DNA is so intrinsically linked to life that we always fail to consider whether the sacrificial dude may actually be introducing death. The purpose of this sacrifice is wholly ambiguous. Is it to clear the way for new life? Is the goo transforming the Engineer dude into a different organism, a monster, a daemon, or a virus, whose undertaking will be to purify all life? Or are our assumptions correct, and this is the seeding of life or the dawn of the human race? Is this an act of divine retribution, the end, or is it the beginning?
It’s both. Life and death are two sides of the same coin. Evolution is the destruction of weak DNA, the killing of a life before it can procreate, an act of providence for the competition, freeing up resources, encouraging the spread of the superior DNA. Life is death. Life needs death, not just to survive, but to thrive, to give it meaning and value.
Fact (of the priceless variety).™
This scene is a master class in the power of ambiguity. The outcome of this sacrifice is irrelevant. Its purpose is simply to bring the message, that life and death are inseparable, to the audience, while helping us believe Shaw. Life is but the passing of a code from one organism to another. At some point in the history of all life on Earth, it has shared a common ancestor with all other forms of life. We are all simply life, in all its variants. Prometheus asks us to question life’s genealogy. Does Earth’s family tree have celestial heritage? The first life?
Fact (of the first cause variety).™
What is this common, cosmic-wide ancestor that unites life across the universe? The answer is here in the prologue, dudes. The black goo. The Logos. The Logos is the will of god. It is the physical representation of the ‘spark’ of life. The thing that grants us a soul, that means our body, made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and many other non-living atoms, is unlike any other form these molecules could take. It is the word of god, in the sense that he said “let there be light” and it was light. It is the substance that is within everything, it is everything.
The mutagen is not a simple potion, therefore. It is life. It is the divine spark that resides within our soul; the difference between the spiritual and the material. It is the innate knowledge that tells us we are more than mere molecules.
So, who are the giant white dudes, dudes? The Engineers, as Shaw calls them. Clearly a race that’s had an influence over our ancient ancestors. The cave paintings and stone tablets suggest this, especially when we consider the dates of each find, which suggest key moments in the development of the human race. They have protected and guided our progress, and they have watched over us since our dawn. And as any more developed culture has done here on our planet when introduced to new dudes, we must expect that these Engineer dudes passed on to us their religious beliefs. The cave paintings should then be seen as the ancient records of a visitation by extraterrestrial missionaries, or angels.
So, who inhabits LV223 then, dudes? Again, we can look at pretty much any creation myth to help us discern the answer, since they nearly all agree. A fundamental component of many origin myths is the dissension of a faction within the race entrusted by the god to look after his most precious creation; mankind. Invariably the conflict arises at the creation of humanity, or through perceived injustice where man is given, or promised, equal footing. A war begins, fuelled by arrogance and jealousy, and ends only when the rebellious angels are condemned to infernal damnation. These rebels are known to us as Fallen Angels.
When you consider the title of the movie is named after the titan, Prometheus, who stole fire, or knowledge from the gods to give to man, we are forced to make an assumption about the mutagen found on LV223. If this is the same as the substance imbibed by the sacrificial being in the prologue, the Logos, the knowledge, then perhaps it has been stolen? Either it’s physically been taken, or its idea has been copied. This also fits with the theme of mimesis.
Fact (of the copyright variety).™
The Engineers on LV223, therefore, are carrying a manifest that has the power to destroy the innate goodness of man. These rebels consider the corruption of mankind poetic justice.. There has been a civil war in heaven, and the rebels have been banished. We are the focus of the wrath of the fallen angels who are hellbent on destroying our paradise.
Awesomes® or what, dudes?
And you knows it!©
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