The Prologue: A Cryptic Message

Has there ever been such a perfect prologue, dudes? From the moment the Engineer dude stands at the top of the waterfall to the unveiling of the franchise’s iconic title, the audience is getting a cryptic message about the philosophical themes and motifs buried within the movie ahead.

Fact (of the masterful variety).™

The DNA double helices unravel, providing the perfect metaphor for cryptography. The audience must unravel the information shown on screen, especially David’s riddles, in order to understand the story. It must be decoded. This motif runs through Prometheus like the black goo that rushes painfully through the dude’s veins...

Which leads nicely into Gnosticism. The Gnostics claimed that Catholic leader dudes were ‘Waterless Canals’. They didn’t have the light, the spirit, running through them like how water runs through a canal. In the moment he acts like god, the dude at the top of the waterfall doesn’t have 'light' running through him.

Faith is also a strong theme in Prometheus, dudes. But not only religious faith but also hope and trust.

And, as he stands on top of the waterfall and thinks about his last moments, this being doesn’t appear to be under duress. He's demonstrating free will. A central theme of Prometheus, which is explored not just by the human dudes.

As the lid is removed from the ceremonial cup we're being shown a Pandora’s Box moment The Pandora’s Box myth of course being closely linked with the myth of Prometheus. This won't be the last time that big things have small beginnings.

Fact (of the plagerised line variety).™

There’s MARTYRDOM in its purest ideological form. A big theme in Prometheus which tells us much about the intention behind the making of Prometheus....

There’s life, death and rebirth; one of the main themes within the Alien franchise.

We see creation through virgin birth, which is a huge theme throughout the history of religion.

Then there’s metamorphosis, like so many other myths. We're seeing one life form being changed to another right before our very eyes, dudes. This is an intended act of vandalism by Scott. It's the defacing of his own masterpiece, driven by his ambitious vision of a superior artistic achievement. It’s like when the The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu burned a million pounds, dudes.

 

One entity literally deconstructs to form another. The film deconstructs myths and philosophical ideas and presents a new story that shows us how most creation myths warn mankind against the exact same things, such as hubris, the pursuit of forbidden knowledge, and the ignorant quest for endless life. Prometheus also deconstructs its own franchise.

There’s the theme of misopedia, which is the rejection, even the hatred, of ones own offspring. This is a theme that appears throughout mythology and theology, and is at the core of the Gnostic creation myth.

The deterioration of the dude’s tissue introduces the theme of degeneration. This is a motif touched on later in the movie when we see the decrepit frame of Weyland.

As mentioned earlier we see the franchise’s famous, stylised, opening title which slowly reveals the name of the Greek god whose name means foresight; Prometheus. Both foresight and hindsight are being big themes in the movie. There’s David’s prescience on the one hand, and the eerie, phantasmal holograms of the Engineers on the other.

There’s a huge Nietzschean influence, with themes such as Perspectivism, the Eternal Recurrence, Untergang, and the Will To Power. Then there’s a more specific allusion to Thus Spake Zarathustra, with the Ubermench, Untermench or Last Man, and of course, let’s not forget that we’re seeing with our own eyes that God is Dead.

Fact (of the deceased variety).™

Ambiguity is itself a theme in Prometheus. This entire scene is drenched in it. Where are we? Which planet? When? Is this happening relative within the movie's time frame or is it happening millenia ago, dudes? Is the Engineer dude seeding life or introducing death?

There’s a strong theme of mimesis since God made man in his own image and the Engineer dude is doing the same here. And there are even more examples. His polished, marblesque perfection is the image we associate with our ancient ancestors. This dude appears to be created to replicate the art of our past, but the internal logic of the film says the art of our past is inspired by this pristine looking dude, dudes.

Then there's anti-mimesis, alluded to by the shot of the DNA. A brilliant example, since our vision of DNA, the twisting double helix, is as much an artistic impression as it is a photographic likeness, inspired by the caduceus symbol invented by our ancient ancestors. How they knew that the building blocks of life looked this way is an unanswerable question. Then there's the plot itself, man repeating the Prometheus myth. And the most obvious example of anti-mimesis is, of course, the huge influence Lawrence of Arabia clearly has on the android dude, David.

Then of course there’s knowledge and immortality represented in this prologue by the helices and the replication of the cells, since DNA is information and is passed on for infinity from life to life; true immortality. Prometheus also questions the logic of man's obsession with immortality, but it does so through the only non-living character.

And finally we come to the black goo; The Elixir of Life. But, I'm not so sure the black goo is a mere potion, dudes.

I believe that the word that best describes this shit is a word that spans the three relevant disciplines of theology, philosophy, and physics. An ancient Greek word used to represent many concepts that they felt were perhaps one and the same. A word that means truth, reason, will, order and knowledge. But, to those in the know it was considered much more than that. The Greeks called it LOGOS. The word of God. The truth of God. The will of God. The substance that binds and shapes the material world.

Fact (of the mind-blowing variety).™

Awesomes!®

 

And you knows it!©