Ridley Scott's Prometheus, An Analysis of 21st Century Myth

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!	45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" John Keats

My heart leaps up when I behold 

    A rainbow in the sky:

So is it now I am a man;

So was it when my life began

So be it when I shall grow old, 
   Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

"My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" ~ William Wordsworth




Why do these two poems by Keats and Wordsworth come to mind after viewing Ridley Scott's Prometheus?

Separated by seas of time, and with the innovations and literature created within those waves, Keats, Wordsworth, and Scott managed in three completely different eras, and in two different mediums, to approach the same classic topics: Eternity, Stasis, and man's purpose within all of these vexing concepts. 

Similar to the poetic focus on the sublime effect of the nature of being on the human psyche, Scott applies the main tenets of twentieth century nuts and bolts hard science fiction to the time tested inquires to create a purely twenty-first century masterpiece. Although recently the world has seen a space program suffering from the pangs of under-funding and privatization, Scott has managed to gather all of the most recent innovations and discoveries of the astro-science community and combine them into a terrifyingly truthful story that celebrates the ingenuity of man, while also preaching caution about what those innovations can lead us to discover. 

The questions that Scott ultimately asks in Prometheus is who is the God whose image we were modeled after, and in that image, were intentions also reproduced? Is there a "divine" purpose for creation, and if so, what is it? Should humanity pursue its quest for the truth through science, or like Keats, should we be satisfied with all we need to know on earth? Should we be satisfied with the answers we fabricate ourselves? However, Scott asserts through the story, much like Wordsworth's words, that "the child is the father of man."




Background

Prometheus takes place within the final decade of the twenty-first century--the end of the era we have recently embarked upon. It is a story close enough to our own time where we can ground ourselves and identify with the hopes and dreams of this not-too-far off future. Archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway, played by Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green, embark upon a space journey to discover the "engineers" of the human race, sponsored by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the presumed dead founder of the Weyland Corporation.




Ridley Scott and the Future of Space Exploration






From the onset of the movie Scott addresses the recent developments in the privatization of space travel. In this quest to discover the origins of human life, a journey whose intentions are perceived by Shaw and Holloway as being purely scientific, Scott reveals through the characters of Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), and the biomechanoid of Peter Weyland's creation, David (Michael Fassbender), that when science and private corporate agendas are combined, the pursuit of the so-called truth will ultimately be compromised. Like the unknown intentions of Shaw and Holloway's "Engineers," the intentions of the Weyland Corporation are as elusive and possibly as life threatening to the 17 passengers on board the star ship "Prometheus" as traveling into the unknown depths of space. 






Aside from addressing the most recent economic developments in space travel, within the film Scott also celebrates the latest discoveries being made by space programs such as NASA. Recreating an extra-solar quadrant similar to the system of Saturn, the "moonlet" on which the "Engineers" are thought to be located bares a striking similarity to the most recent theories regarding Saturn's Enceladus, deemed to be the most habitable place in our solar system outside of Earth. For those who follow science news, one cannot help but appreciate this exacting attention to detail.



Alongside this meticulously detailed recreation of theories regarding extra-terrestrial life within our own solar system,  in Prometheus we also see the latest advances in life sustaining innovations. For example, the space suit worn by the crew of the ship is based upon the Bio-Suit System recently developed by Dava J. Newman and her team at MIT, and the mobility suit worn by Peter Weyland is based upon multiple robotic devices recently being created to assist the disabled.

With all of these extremely elaborate components performing pragmatic functions within the film, alongside cautioning about human desire and intention, Scott also showcases noteworthy developments happening right now in our moment. It makes one wonder if he is also running an advertising campaign within his film to display the merits and importance of the public funding of space exploration.




Prometheus and Creation Myth

While celebrating the ingenuity and beauty of humanity's recent technological developments, Scott uses these ideas to also symbolically assert the question of the spiritual nature underlying their creation. We see this epitomized in the character of David. Having titled the film after the Greek Trickster God, David's presence within the film plays a two-part role--he is a main character, as well as an omen that foreshadows the truth behind this search for human origins. Like the psychological peril which both Victor and his Monster face in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Ridley Scott in Prometheus addresses the same classic conflicts between the creator and the created.

Left alone for two years on board the ship while his human companions reside in cryostasis, the biomechanoid begins to develop that haunting trait in humans known as a personality. Basing his appearance and demeanor upon actor, Peter O' Toole, his desire to appear a specific way is telling of the development of a soul within him.Upon waking and interaction, however, his human companions fail to recognize David's all-too-human behavior. Seeing themselves as superior to their creations, yet desiring the same recognition David desires from their own "Engineers." The most obvious evidence of this is when David and Holloway discuss Holloway's desire to question his own makers, while he drunkenly chides humanity's own technological offspring. Yet, David remains curious, and in turn, deceitful, as he infects Holloway's drink with an organic sample he gained from their exploration into the Engineer's pyramid. This sly and devious behavior, reminiscent of the mythological trickster figure, testifies to David's own developing humanity--He possesses the characteristics of vindictiveness, free will, wonder, and desire; yet, because they view him as a "thing" and not a living being, like Victor Frankenstein and his Monster, the crew not only fails to recognize David's ability to self-actualize, but they also fail to make the connection between their intention for creating beings such as David and their "engineers'" intentions for creating humanity. 

Prometheus, Creation, and Fertility

David's presence within the story also brings up the question of what exactly qualifies as human reproduction. During mid plot we discover that Elizabeth Shaw, the scientist who proposed this whole adventure, is infertile; yet, like David, she is impregnated with curiosity. Is that all one needs to reproduce life? Is human emotion and sexuality only a function within the machinations of a larger scheme? And if so, is the idea of a soul and individuality a farce? This goes back to the age-old question we experience in many stories of the connection between the female body and the act of invention (i.e. Frankenstein, Dracula, Bladerunner, etc and so forth) while also addressing the latest discoveries in the moral nature of genetic science. It seems that Shaw's quest for the truth and her imagined answers lead her to two very different destinations. As she becomes physically impregnated with the parasite David slipped into Holloway's drink, she reacts in panic and revulsion to rid herself of this foreign entity, not realizing that this being growing is an answer to the question she has been proposing all along. 




Eternal Life, Sublime Terror, and Scott's SciFi Moralisms

Much like the questions of truth and fertility, another question Scott presents in Prometheus is can eternal life be achieved. All of three of these questions create a trinity that has perplexed humanity since the onset of consciousness, and all three rely upon the same thought pattern, and what Scott seems to assert is that the truth behind the survival of the fittest is to perpetuate death. As the crew discovers that Peter Weyland has been remaining in a state of stasis until they discovered the actual creators of humanity, the audience discovers that what Weyland funded this entire expedition for was to discover the means for achieving immortality. Once again, like Shaw, Weyland's hopes are dashed to pieces as the remaining crew of "Prometheus" discover that humanity is only a perpetuation of a bioweapon that reproduces itself to perfection, basing itself upon the life already present on the host planet, to achieve a goal of destruction. In a moment of shocking self-discovery, of course, Shaw refuses to accept this view of the fate of humanity. Yet, what Scott is addressing here is that, while humanity, and also the "engineers," can create beauty, they can also create immense destruction. Once again, through these details, it seems that the film is presenting a warning message to the audience that functions upon humanity's obsession with the idea of sublime terror. Although we would want to believe that at the end of the movie Shaw and what remains of David escape the destruction of what has happened on the engineers' planetary base, what they are actually doing is creating an advanced reproductive couple that will perpetuate the original intentions of whoever created this self-reproducing bioweapon to the farthest reaches of the universe. As Michael Crichton would say, "Life," or in this case, death, "finds a way." 




Conclusion

Prometheus, although thin in character development, creates another chapter in the human mythology of the quest of the creator, and ultimately, the truth. I excuse the lack of character depth on the basis that no character within a myth of creation has ever been fully explained, and doesn't necessarily need to be, because in this type of myth the message of the plot is more important that the actors performing it. What this movie does do is that it gives us an up-to-date version of this classic myth and question, securing the 21st century's placement in the larger scope of the human mythological tradition. That's why I have come to the conclusion that it is a masterpiece. It also gives more depth to the sci-fi horror stories of within the Alien franchise that it creates, while also delegating to those stories a deeper meaning.