Prometheus – Unanswered Questions [SPOILERS]

Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Prometheus.  So, don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie.

I watched Prometheus last night and liked the movie a lot.  I thought the visuals were wonderful, and the intense yet gloomy tone and the suspense in certain scenes all were very nicely done.  Noomi Rapace was great and Michael Fassbender was fantastic in his role.

BUT – I had the following nagging questions.  Some of them may be because I wasn’t observant enough, or maybe because they’re just not explained in the movie…

  • The opening scene – what was that goo which the Space Jockey took, that caused him to disintegrate?  Is that planet supposed to be Earth?  If so, did that Space Jockey create life on Earth?  Was that a mistake?
  • What was that hologram-thingy showing the Space Jockeys running and one of them getting its helmet knocked off, and later in the movie showing the Space Jockey piloting his craft with that flute?  Security cam footage of some sort?  (reminds me of a line from AVP – “finding Moses’ old DVD collection”, and here playing it back!)
  • What was the entire plan of the Space Jockeys?  They created us and they wanted to destroy us?  If so, why keep returning to Earth and leave behind a map of how to get to LV 223?  Is that an ‘invitation’ or a ‘warning’ or a ‘trap’?  And the Space Jockeys on LV 223 all died because they goofed up?  The beasties they were going to use to kill us turned on them?
  • So does each canister contain a different gooey creature, or is it just the one tentacley facehugger-inspired creature?
  • When our guys open up the chamber on LV 223, how is it that after some 2000 years, stuff in there turns on?  Is it like a tomb where the dead get reanimated?  Or is it some sort of trap?  If so, why booby trap your own station?
  • If I remember right, there were multiple structures (“military stations”?) on LV 223 – the Prometheus crew only entered one of them.  So does that mean there are other stations on LV 223?  If so, what happened to the Space Jockeys there?  Are they in charge of destroying other planets or something?  The Prometheus crew just happened to pick the right structure to enter, that pertained to human history?
  • The line “Prometheus has landed” was not there in the actual movie?  Or did I miss it?
  • So what was xenomorph in the Alien movies?  One more of the beasties that the Space Jockeys created to kill some other race?
  • Another Space Jockey was carrying one of those things, that guy also goofed up and his ship crashed on LV 426, and became the derelict in Alien?
  • Are both LV 223 and LV 426 in the same star system?
  • Why didn’t Fifield and Millburn just stay put in one of those chambers, instead of running about, trying to make contact with a blatantly obviously dangerous creature and getting themselves attacked?
  • What exactly does the icky sticky goo in the canisters do?  It mutates Holloway and Fifield – does it just turn them into zombies or is there a purpose behind that?
  • Signs that a PG-13 was targeted – only two occurrences of the word “fuck” in the dialogue, one of which (said by Fifield) is partly obscured by static.  So did they actually have more harder stuff planned in the movie that was cut out?
  • How did Janek & David figure things out so easily?  (Janek – “It’s a military station”, David knows that one of the Space Jockeys is alive)
  • What exactly is Vickers’ agenda – she knew that Weyland was alive, so was her purpose on Prometheus just to babysit Weyland and carry him to LV 223 so that he could meet his maker?
  • Why were Weyland, David and the others so trusting of the Space Jockeys at the end?  Especially after David and the others saw all the havoc going on?
  • What was that creature at the very end – mutated alien + human (from Shaw) + Space Jockey hybrid?  Does this thing evolve into the xenomorph in Alien or was it just something cool they added in this movie?
  • Going by the fact that even several years after this (in Alien) people didn’t know about the Space Jockeys’ ultimate agenda (or did they, and they just never bothered explaining it to the low class people on the Nostromo), is it safe to assume that Shaw and David died on the Space Jockeys’ home planet?
  • This leads me to believe – either they had something more elaborate planned out, and the studio forced removal of scenes to fit it to a 2 hour length; or they intend to explain things more in a sequel; or, they were simply playing with us and being all mystery-like; OR… they just didn’t think things through well enough.
  • The briefing scene in the beginning (even when I saw it in the trailer) reminded me of the Bishop-Weyland briefing scene in AVP!  Even the scene with Fifield and Millburn in the chamber reminded me of the characters caught in the tunnels in that pyramid in AVP!
  • So they’re entirely ignoring Charles Bishop Weyland from AVP, or is he some relation to Peter Weyland?
  • AVP: R if I remember right, had a reference to a Yutani, but in the timeline of Prometheus, that “merger” still hasn’t happened.  But I think like the rest of us, the filmmakers also feel, the less said about AVP: R the better.
  • The line “We are leaving!” is a direct reference to Aliens.  I saw on some forums posts referring to Vickers being an android too.  Is that trying to reference Blade Runner?  Did they just try including these references for fun?