Scientists follow an ancient star map to a distant moon, hoping to meet humanity's makers. They find a dead civilization, a black liquid and a growing threat. The film asks where people come from and what makers owe their creations. Watch how Scott builds its world from the design of Alien.
Prometheus is a 2012 science fiction, horror and mystery film directed by Ridley Scott. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 cinematography, 1 psychology and 2 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Black Swan uses several of the same techniques.
Designing sets and creatures that fuse living forms with machinery, like bone with metal. They disturb you because you can't tell if they are natural or built.
How this film uses it
The Engineers' chamber is built like a cathedral, with a giant head statue. The art team deconstructed the look of Alien and worked backward from it, drawing on H.R. Giger's designs. The shapes join bone and machine, so you cannot tell what grew and what was built.
Where to see it
The Engineer chamber: the crew finds stone cylinders, a statue of a giant humanoid head and the decapitated body of a large alien.
Showing the human body being changed, damaged or falling apart. The horror works because you imagine it happening to your own body, and it often stands for mental suffering.
How this film uses it
Shaw learns she is pregnant after being told she could not have children. She uses an automated surgery table to remove a squid-like creature from her abdomen. Scott said this scene was the main reason the film got an R rating. The horror works because the body here is yours.
Where to see it
The surgery table: Shaw uses the automated table to take the creature out of her abdomen.
Following an artificial character as it slowly comes to understand human feeling or questions its own mind. Its growth is the distance between its original programming and what it becomes.
How this film uses it
David the android watches the crew search for their makers and questions why they want to meet them. He secretly takes a cylinder, puts a sample of black liquid in a drink and offers it to Holloway. These are his own choices. Writer Damon Lindelof has said David ends up following Shaw out of survival and curiosity.
Where to see it
The tainted drink: David gives Holloway a drink with a sample of the black liquid after Holloway says he would do anything for answers.
Stacking layers of makers and made, such as gods, humans and machines, so each creation questions the one above it. The film asks what a maker owes what it makes.
How this film uses it
An Engineer sacrifices itself to seed life, humans find the Engineers, and humans have built David in their own image. Each group wants answers from the one above it. Weyland wants the Engineers to fix his age, and David watches his makers with little respect. Scott compared the Engineers to the fallen angels of Paradise Lost.
Where to see it
The waking Engineer: David speaks to the surviving Engineer in Proto-Indo-European and explains Weyland's request. The Engineer kills Weyland and his companions.
Questions
Prometheus: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Prometheus use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Prometheus (2012): H.R. Giger Biomechanical Design, Body Horror, Machine Learning as Arc and Nested Creator Hierarchy.
Who directed Prometheus?
Ridley Scott directed Prometheus, released in 2012. CineCode also covers The Duellists (1977), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Legend (1985), Black Rain (1989), Thelma & Louise (1991).
What films are similar to Prometheus?
Films that share techniques with Prometheus include Black Swan (2010), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Alien (1979), Hereditary (2018).
