Event Schedule This Years Theme Is Building: Fill & Download for Free

Here are just a few of the many various activities, groups, and ways Quora helps build internal rapport:Onboarding:New hire welcome at our weekly all-hands meetings where you stand up, introduce yourself, and give the company one fun fact about yourself.New Hire classes that are shared across all functions (there are some function-specific ones as well, but the general ones are great for meeting new coworkers). I stay in touch with my “class” (those who started on the same day as me) and we have monthly lunches together as well as a slack channel that we keep up with goings-on in.“Quora meets Bagel” — twice weekly lunches for your first couple of weeks where you’re matched up with longer tenured employees to have lunch and chat. (You can also choose to keep doing these indefinitely!)Ongoing:Interest groups and clubs that meet both during the day and after work to cultivate mutual interests and gather socially. Just a handful off the top of my head: coffee lover’s club (meets monthly to test different types of coffee beans and preparation methods), badminton club, running club, baking slack channel (swapping recipes, pictures, and frequently bringing in test batches to share with coworkers), climbing club, Quora Cares (our employee-led group for volunteering and giving back to our local community), Whiskey Friday, Chocolate Sync, and Gaming Slack channel.Team off-sites for both working brainstorms and planning as well as sheer fun and team-building. Some favorites I’ve seen or been on: zip-lining, chocolate making, whiskey tasting, succulent garden-making, caramel making class, improv workshops, and graffiti art classes.Weekly Q&A with the entire company where everyone can submit questions for our executive team, our CEO, or just anyone at the company. This helps build our culture of awareness and open dialogue.Open office environment — no one here has an office or a cubicle; all desks are out and we sit mostly grouped by teams. This allows us to work well collaboratively even without being in a formal meeting or conference room.Open collaborative areas for working. All around our office, we have various couch setups where we can sit and work in an even more casual environment. This leads to a lot of great chat between functions and makes even IC work feel social when you want it to.Monthly birthday celebrations — every month, there’s a birthday cake to celebrate the birthdays for that month. Everyone’s invited to eat cake (of course!) and if you’re around and free, we gather together to sing and eat cake.Various interest Slack channels — for everything from Silicon Valley observations to #parents, we have a large number of slack channels for employees with shared interests to chat. These help keep us connected and allow us to build connections beyond job function or everyday schedule-crossing.Offroad weeks — these are our hack weeks, and they generally occur about three times a year. During those times, we’re encouraged to create projects (generally around a certain theme, but also freeform projects are allowed as well) and teams to work together, especially crossfunctionally or with people from other teams. The offroad week will be themed, and there are challenges throughout the week (like scavenger hunts, flag making contests, etc) as well as fun snacks throughout the day and decor around the office to match. At the end of the week, teams present their projects and compile documentation about them. Some projects eventually make their way to become a part of the actual product.Vacation Tax — when we travel, it's a Quora tradition to bring back a treat from where we've been to share with the team. We have a “Vacation Tax” table on each floor, and you'll often find goodies from various people returned from PTO as well as the baked goods from the bakers at the company. This makes those areas a good place to chat with coworkers after someone posts in Slack that they've just put out a treat from Tokyo for people to try.Holiday party, Anniversary party, Halloween, etc — we love a good excuse to dress up, whether it’s formal or costume attire, and at events like our Holiday and Anniversary parties, plus ones are also welcome, meaning we get a chance to meet the significant people in each other’s lives as well. (Fun fact, my youngest sister has been at two consecutive holiday parties now, once with me, and once with her boyfriend, who also works here, and both times, my coworkers are confused and can get us confused if we’re not standing together!)Annual retreat — we're getting bigger, but so far, we've managed to do an all-company annual retreat every year. This is a non-working retreat (aside from on-calls, of course), and it's a period of three days (late spring, usually) where we go as a company and stay together and enjoy getting to better know each other and strengthen existing relationships. This past year, we went up to Tahoe in May and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, hikes, kayaking, and watched the season premiere of Silicon Valley together (of course!). This is an intense rapport-building time and forges some really great connections.Overall, the culture of Quora is such that building relationships across the company and regardless of level is the norm. Although the company has increased greatly in size since I first began working with Quora in 2012, it still retains much of the small team feel that I really love. Getting to know my colleagues across the org has been one of the greatest joys of working full-time in the office for the past year and made all the work I do and the projects I participate in much smoother and more enjoyable for the good rapport that we have.

These days everyone is holding hackathons for everything from civic data and NASA's space app challenge to public transportation, health, mobile and NGO initiatives in developing countries.Just like food choices at the supermarket, not all hackathons are created equal. There are strategies and best practices that organizers can implement to ensure an event that is value-focused for attendees, sponsors and the theme.To date (2014) I've been involved in 40 hackathons as a coder, mentor, API sponsor, judge and organizer in the US and internationally.In 2013-2014 I organized three youth hackathons in partnership with The Level Playing Field Institute and Black Girls CODE. I developed the youth-focused hackathon curriculum, recruited and trained developer volunteers from startups and led the organization's staff in event logistics.In 2012 when I work(ed) at SendGrid as a Developer Evangelist, I was involved in about 20 hackathons that year. My role included organizing, mentoring at and sponsoring hackathons on behalf of my company. They were a global sponsor of Startup Weekend which holds hackathons all over the world.The basic schedule for a hackathon is:food & networkingintro eventpitch/build teamsbuild appspitch, judgeaward prizesgo homeStep 1: POVWho are the stakeholders for this hackathon? You have the sponsors, the attendees, the judges, the API's and companies offering prizes, the judges and the media. Don't forget the organizers and volunteers. This will help you to address the logistics and experience of each group.Step 2: Define SuccessDetermine what success looks like by describing what the over arching goals of your organization in measurable detail. (e.g. 100 attendees, 20 hacks, coverage by the press, 10 recruits, etc.). This will give you a metric for your post mortem review. You may also find some new and interesting things that you'll add the next time.Step 3: Consider the stakeholdersWhen planning a hackathon, consider the perspectives of each of the following: hackers, organizers, sponsors, mentors, judges and spectators. The act of thinking through the use cases of each varied participant will help make sure the event iswell rounded and increase the likelihood of accomplishing the goals determined in step 1 above.From there, think about logistics:Theme - Create an interesting or fun theme like eCommerce Hack Day , Comedy Hack Day - Sep 8 & 9 at Pivotal Labs NYC and Code For America's Data DeathMatch! events.Event venue - conference room or donated spaceTicket types - hacker, designer, business/other/watcher, demoTicket price - charge a nominal fee like $15 - $25. When tickets are free, attendance rates for Meetup/Eventbrite events in SF are about 30%. You could also have them complete a short coding test to earn a ticket.Food - meals, snacks, drinks, offer vegetarian and soy free optionsStart time - Friday evening/Saturday morning, pre or post conf is best so attendees don't miss the content they paid for. A prize can be a ticket to the conference.Run time - How long? 24 hours is idealA/V, projector, mic - test ahead of time and support for tablets / smartphonesPower - Have ample power for each table as this will make or break your eventWifi - This must work! Ask venue to bump download and upload speeds. Have a wired backup available and expect 2 connections per attendeeGet an MC - This person will make announcements and keep the event movingVolunteers - 2 volunteers for every 30 attendeesSponsors - Space, food, Wifi. Great if they have an API as well and can be on site to help teams implement.T-shirts - souvenirRecord It - Good for everyone. Livestream video. Get Craigslist photographerJudges - Select up and coming individuals who either run startups or deal with them often.Prizes - Prizes worth $250 and up. Hosting, free service, coworking space, tablets, headphones, O'Reilly books. Make sure to ask local businesses.Permits and Security - Get any licences ahead of time. You may need to hire security if your event is hosted at a private company vs a publicly rented spaceRegistration - Eventbrite FTWApp submissions - use a tool like HackerLeague (http://hackerleague.org) to collect app names and team info. *Disclaimer, my coworker is a cofounder of this solutionPitches and demos - 3 minutes is good. 1 min too short, 5 min too long.Start planning 8-10 weeks out. Look for scheduling conflicts with other major events or leverage them to piggyback off of.For promotion of the event, you'll want to start about 6-8 weeks out. You can release tickets in batches, give away tickets as prizes (SW and TNW have done this) and blog to announce judges, sponsors and venue information. Invite the media about 4 weeks out and remind them 1 week before.Going to hackathons and seeing the cool stuff is awesome! The stories of how people joined up and met at the hackathons are equally interesting plus if they stay together, what their product becomes. There have been several successful companies started at hackathons like GroupMe, Zaarly and CloudMine.Here is some TDLR; readingHackathon Planning In Less Than 10 Steps - (Hackathon Planning In Less Than 10 Steps | TechCrunch)How to Have a Successful Hackathon - (http://techblog.appnexus.com/2011/how-to-have-a-successful-hackathon/)Video: How to organize and run your own hackathon - ()Why and How to Host a Hackathon - (Why and How to Host a Hackathon)Quora: What are some useful tips when competing in a Hackathon? - (What are some useful tips when competing in a Hackathon?)How To Survive A Hackathon - (http://ralphbarbagallo.com/2012/04/30/how-to-survive-a-hackathon/)How To Win A Hackathon - AlexsTechThoughts - (http://alexstechthoughts.com/post/28836325740/how-to-win-a-hackathon) - [Hacker News Discusssion - (How To Win A Hackathon)How To Take Second Place at a Hackathon - (https://github.com/RobSpectre/Talks/tree/master/How%20To%20Take%20Second%20Place%20at%20a%20Hackathon)

A personal note. This essay/answer was written for those people who really loved this movie or who were genuinely perplexed by it’s complicated plot and seemingly unanswered questions. The essay isn’t short and it explains a lot about mythology. But for those that read it through I can virtually guarantee that all your questions will be answered. (And I welcome any comments, good or bad).PROMETHEUS FOUNDPrometheus, Ridley Scott’s science-fiction thriller and the “quasi-prequel” to the Alien series, despite it’s big budget and impressive special effects, is primarily a movie of ideas. The movie is fixated on the twin themes of creation and destruction, as well as the parallel relationship of men to gods and children to parents. The film has created enormous controversy, with much debate about it’s meaning, it’s inconsistencies, and whether or not it leaves unanswered questions. But the story is complete and quite coherent, although much is not broadly spelled out in the manner preferred by today’s movie audiences. Virtually every outstanding question will be answered in this detailed analysis, but this will require a detour into the pertinent mythology.Scott created a film which presumes a high level of literacy on the part of the viewer—literacy not only in basic science and the conventions of science-fiction, but also in religion, mythology, and cinema itself. Although Scott has insisted that Prometheus is not connected to the four previous Alien movies, the film undeniably continues a number of motifs that have persisted throughout the sequence.Recurring ThemesOne recurring theme is to replace the traditional leading man with tough, resourceful female protagonists. The seemingly indestructible Ellen Ripley character is here replaced by Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace)as the new and remarkably resilient heroine. Her most prominent characteristics, besides her religious faith, are her ferocious will to live and her insatiable desire to know the nature of human origin. A second recurring theme is that the Alien franchise has always portrayed androids with deep ambiguity. Sometimes these artificial creations are self-sacrificing and heroic in their actions and appear to be profoundly human in their motives. Conversely, on other occasions androids appear entirely inhuman, if not downright murderous! Here this tradition is continued with David (Michael Fassbender), a handsome android with polished manners, whose true character is murky, if not actually protean in nature. Is he beneficent or malignant or perhaps just a tool like a hammer?Yet another recurring theme is the ubiquitous presence of a mysterious and powerful corporate entity, lustful in the acquisition of new technology, and with a sinister and private agenda. And like all the movies in the Alien cycle, this film too provides an opportunity to examine the true nature of “monsters.” Could creation actually actually be the ultimate act of destruction or vice versa? What is the underlying nature of the parallel relationships between gods and men, parents and children, mankind and its constructs?Prometheus, What’s in a Name?In the late 21st century, Prometheus is the name of a spaceship carrying an exploratory expedition to a distant moon named LV-223, in the hope of finding mankind’s ancestors. (As a point of reference, the planetoid that the crew of the Nostromo landed on in Alien was LV-426, in the same general area of space.) Since the early days of America’s Mercury space there has been a tradition of plucking names of spacecraft from Greek mythology, but this particular ship has not been named at random. Understanding the complex and confusing events in this movie requires understanding the supporting mythology behind it. Prometheus deals heavily with the underlying nature of religion and the building blocks of religion are myths.Prometheus the TitanIn the creation stories of the ancient Greeks, Prometheus was a Titan, one of a rival race of gods that included the mighty Atlas, and which were ultimately conquered by the rise of Zeus, Hades, Poseidon and the other familiar Olympian deities. Prometheus is known to us for two defining deeds. He is the literal father of the human race, having created us from clay and then breathed life into us. Prometheus later broke one of Zeus powerful taboos by stealing fire and gifting it to humanity. As a punishment for this transgression Zeus had Hephaestus chain him to a mountain rock, and each day he would send an eagle to rip open the Titan’s belly and devour his liver. Being a god himself, Prometheus’ liver regenerates each day, so ironically it is his very divinity which prolongs his torment. But of all organs, why his liver? In ancient times the liver was believed to be “the seat of consciousness,” as in later times the heart, and today the brain. In some versions of this myth Prometheus is later unshackled by the demi-god, Hercules.Forbidden FireSo why had Zeus withheld the essential boon of fire from mankind in the first place? Here again the answer is Prometheus. Repeatedly the Titan acts as the champion of mankind, but always there are consequences. When Zeus required a sacrifice from humanity in order to “settle accounts,” Prometheus interceded and prepared two offerings for Zeus to choose from. A bull was slaughtered and Prometheus hid the very choicest cuts inside the unappetizing stomach, while also creating a pile of bones wrapped inside some tempting slices of meat. Fooled by appearances, Zeus chose the second offering which set a precedent. From that time on, man would offer the most worthless scraps of meet to Zeus, while retaining all the best for himself. Furious at having been cheated of his due portion, Zeus punished humanity by taking back the divine gift of fire. What good to man now these fine cuts of meat, if he had no fire to cook them? This dilemma is what forced Prometheus to steal the divine spark from the Olympians, with the forbidden fire also symbolizing knowledge, technology, and the impulse towards higher civilization.Pandora’s JarAfter Prometheus had restored fire to men, Zeus not only punished the Titan, but took his further revenge on humanity as well. Zeus made the lives of men harder, ensuring that in the future their existence would be one of constant toil—precisely like Adam and Eve after their expulsion from the idyllic Garden of Eden. And to further curse mankind, he now had Hephaestus fashion the ultimate opportunistic virus—Pandora, the first woman. The patriarchal myths tell us that women always bring trouble upon their men, thus Pandora’s tale is a variation of that of Adam’s wife, Eve. Pandora was not only irresistibly beautiful, but also possessed of a boundless, feminine curiosity. Next, Pandora was given a mysterious jar, with the instruction that she never open it. Prometheus (“Fore-thought”) had a slower brother named Epimetheus (“After-thought”). Not sensing the trap from Zeus, Epimetheus accepted the lovely Pandora as his bride. Deciding it must contain a treasure, in short order Pandora tore the seal from the mysterious jar, releasing into the world every plague, evil, and illness known to man! In both the Greek and Hebrew creation myths, free choice and a fatal theft play a pivotal role in determining the human race’s destiny. Seeing the consequences of her act, Pandora quickly re-stoppered the jar. Deep down at the bottom the only thing which remained was hope. While modern interpreters characterize hope as being a poignant consolation to all the ills of the world, it is likely that the pragmatic early Greeks viewed false hope as the greatest curse of all!The Sacrifice of the GodThe iconic characteristics of Prometheus are that he was a self-sacrificing, creator god who was eviscerated! Oddly, this grotesque image is far from unique, and indeed, may well be universal. To the mind of early men, something could never come from nothing, and so to them it made sense that the ultimate act of creation also required an ultimate act of sacrifice. In ancient times this theme was continually repeated in the myths of gods like Osiris, Tammuz, and Adonis. The Egyptian deity, Osiris, was literally torn to pieces, with his remains scattered all over the world after his murder by his own brother, Set the Adversary. They were mirror opposites—while Osiris is the Creator, Set is the Destroyer. Inconsolable at his death, Osiris’ wife, Isis, gathers his countless parts together and through her feminine magic he is reborn. This death and rebirth would be ritually repeated annually to ensure the earth’s renewal and the flourishing of crops.Fertility MythsThis chthonic myth remained current for thousands of years among agricultural societies. In his seminal anthropological study The Golden Bough, Sir James Fraser described “the dying god” who must be sacrificed each year for the good of all. Other variation are “John Barleycorn” and the tradition in rural communities of annually selecting a Corn God and Corn Maiden. In these communities, for the period of a year the male chosen for his perfect qualities is catered to and admired but then violently sacrificed in the fall to ensure the harvest. They would reenact the cycle of birth, life, and death, with everything occurring in its season. These beliefs and practices were very widespread and can be found too in the sacrificial rituals of the Incas and Mayans. (In light of these universal and race-wide beliefs, it’s tantalizing to consider the psychic significance of the recent genetic engineering of staple crops and the claim of ownership of the new seed patents by mega-corporations like Monsanto.)The “Willing” SacrificeThe defining characteristics of these ritual offerings, whether human or divine, is that the victim must always be without obvious flaw, and above all, willing. In this context, the martyrdom of Christ too, must be considered as part of this timeless pattern of divine self-sacrifice for mankind’s betterment, whether the goal be spiritual redemption or physical survival. And it’s worth remembering that during the crucifixion we are told that Christ’s side or belly was pierced by a Roman spear, constituting a form of evisceration!Divine KingshipThis same mythic dynamic of divine sacrifice was used in ancient times to validate the original concept of kingship. First and foremost, the candidate for kingship had to be “perfect,” possessing no physical flaws. The king would serve as the personification of the god on earth—this would provide the basis for his divine right to rule. But if the candidate were to be flawed in any way, he would be unacceptable, both to gods and men. He would not only be unacceptable as the god’s representative, making him ineligible to be king, but more importantly, the gods would reject him as a sacrifice. So the community would recognize and select its “perfect” candidate, ceremonially anointing this paragon with sacred oil and making him their king. For a designated period this new king would rule; his will absolute, admired and revered by all of his subjects. At the end of the designated period his reign would end and a new “perfect” king would be selected. The old king then submitted as a willingly sacrifice and his violent death was offered to the gods as payment for their bounty. This is the original meaning of the phrase, “The king is dead, long live the king.” The physical and spiritual health of the kingdom, the welfare of the people, and the fertility of the land were all dependent on the king and his ritual sacrifice.The King and His DutiesInherent in this notion of the “willing sacrifice” is the concept that the king can have no higher interests than those of his people—his pampered life is truly one of service. When a king becomes besotted with power or seeks to extend his life or reign unnaturally, beyond his allotted span, he becomes a tyrant, “Holdfast,” and the enemy of the very culture he is sworn to uphold. He is a blasphemer who has committed sacrilege and broken the sacred bargain with the gods. He must be overthrown and killed, replaced by a new hero who is pious enough to respect the natural order. Historically, the original “designated period” of a king’s rule was likely to have been a year, tied in to the annual crop harvest upon which the local community’s survival depended. But a year wasn’t very long to accomplish much as king, and the shorter the period, the harder to obtain willing volunteers. So over time the period of rule was eventually extended, and ultimately kings introduced ritual substitutes for the blood sacrifice. Only after that development did the concept of inherited royalty evolve. And over thousands of years, the human sacrifices came to be replaced by animals.The Prometheus NarrativeMythological speaking, the table has now been set and we are prepared to examine the events in the movie. Prometheus begins on an unidentified alien planet, which may even be the primordial Earth. While a spaceship hovers above, we see a large, humanoid creature walking by the side of a river leading to a waterfall. We later learn that he is one of the “Engineers,” the progenitors of the human race. Without explanation we see him calmly drink a black bubbling liquid which immediately causes his body to distort, and disintegrate. He howls in agony as he falls, dropping into the raging river. We see his DNA mutating and strands splitting apart. Did he just commit suicide? Not quite. From what we learn later we can intuit that the black substance he drank was a compound designed to break down his DNA into its component parts. So the Engineer is a willing sacrifice who uses his own body to seed this world which is apparently barren of all life. In time his DNA will provide the building blocks for an infinite variety of flora and fauna. This identifies him as an incarnation of the eviscerated creator god. Somewhat ambiguously, Ridley Scott has described him as a “gardener.”Next, on Earth in 2089 we see archaeologists Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and her lover Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map in a cave in Scotland. This map matches many others carved in stone that have been found all over the world. Together they comprise both an invitation and a set of directions for earthlings to come to a particular star system where we will find the Engineers, our historical mentors from beyond the stars, who may even be family. Following this we find ourselves aboard the Prometheus as it speeds towards LV-223. The trip takes four years and during it the human crew is kept asleep in cryo-stasis, just as the crew of the Nostromo will be some sixty years in the future.The Nature of DavidMeanwhile the ship’s functions are monitored by David, an incredibly human-like android. Oddly, he seems to have a penchant for old movies and we see that he identifies himself with the trans-cultural hero portrayed in David Lean’s famous Lawrence of Arabia. His passive admiration crosses the line to active emulation as he dyes his hair blond and styles it after actor Peter O’Toole’s in that role. Just as the English Lawrence was “embedded” in an “alien” world of Arab tribes, so the non-living David works in the universe of human beings. His obsession persists as he also quotes from this movie several times during the story–“Big things have small beginnings.” All of this tells us that rather than being some type of high-functioning but insensate machine, that David clearly has a strong sense of self—an ego. But unlike many androids in popular fiction, David is no Pinocchio, whose fondest dream is to become human, (as is, for example, the character of Commander Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation). What does it tell us about human egos that we require our creations to not only resemble us and behave like us, but that additionally we require them to want to be us? And what might this suggest about the motives of creator gods and parents?David may be designed to follow human orders, but deep in his mechanical heart of hearts he knows that in so many ways he is superior to humanity. Throughout the story he is unfailingly polite and cooperative, but occasionally he reveals a hint of the arrogance that he feels towards people, like a gifted student who’s been wrongly misassigned to the slow class. Or perhaps what he feels is more akin to the same sense of smugness that some spoiled children feel towards their parents when they come of age. Amazingly physically adept, as he demonstrates with a basketball, David also spends much of his free time voyeuristically watching the dreams of the sleeping Dr. Shaw. Is he lonely? From those dreams he learns that her father was a missionary doctor who had contracted the fatal Ebola virus while on an expedition deep in the jungle. Of all the crew David seems to identify with her alone.David’s Choice of Role ModelDuring the ship’s travels, David adds to his extraordinary abilities by specializing in the study of all of the Earth’s root languages. This is intended to give him the capability to communicate with the Engineers, should any be found. It’s also very telling and disturbing that David has chosen to model himself on a movie-version of T. E. Lawrence. Glamorous and photogenic, on film and in life, Lawrence was the very personification of dichotomy. He was the victim of a violent and life-long conflict between his sunny public persona and the dark desires of his shadow-self. Among the arrogant and guilt-ridden Lawrence’s personal issues were a god-complex, masochistic tendencies, and a festering case of repressed homosexuality.Handsome and charismatic, while presenting a heroic surface, Lawrence was quite deceptive in his dealings with the Arabs. A master-manipulator with a hidden agenda, he openly championed the cause of Arab freedom and independence, while secretly serving the less admirable interests of British Imperialism. While he did fulfill his burning ambition to become a “mover and shaker” of world events, his legacy today is one of ongoing conflict and bloodshed. Arguably, the effects of his scheming percolated throughout the Middle-East like a cultural time bomb, eventually aiding in the release of the current epidemic of world-wide terrorism. David’s need for a role-model appears to be very human, and our chauvinistic race prejudices force us to interpret this as appealing. But to one versed in history his choice is a very ominous one and raises certain questions. What exactly are David’s own ambitions? Where are his loyalties? And just what might his programming cause him to do?Arrival on LV-223: We Meet the CrewThe Prometheus significantly arrives at its destination on Christmas Day, 2093. Mission Director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) is awakened automatically, and she orders David to rouse the crew from stasis, and we meet them. The ranking ship’s officer is the charismatic Captain Janek (Idris Elba), but we learn that his role is more of a chief pilot than a commander, and he’s backed up by two other co-pilots, Chance and Ravel. The person in charge is actually the ice queen Vickers, who alone represents the interests of the Weyland Corporation, the precursor to the sinister Weyland-Yutani Corporation that figures in all of the Alien films. Many bloggers have posited that Vickers may herself be a replicant, but her character is too deliciously self-centered to make that likely—an android would have been able to cover her bitchiness better. There are other reasons to presume her human which will be discussed later. For now let’s just suppose her to be an ambitious and uptight control freak with some serious “daddy issues.”A hologram recorded two years ago of the corporation president Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) now appears and addresses the crew. He seems to be about 100 years old and says that by the time they view this he will be dead. He introduces Drs. Shaw and Holloway and has them outline the mission. Many film critics have commented that the Prometheus’ crew seems to lack the professionalism and high degree of competence one would expect from a handpicked interstellar crew. The answer is that this crew is merely a band of hi-tech mercenaries—they had actually accepted the mission blindly, in return for fat paychecks and only find out their objectives on site. Most of the crew apparently assumed that the mission would be one of terra-forming—adapting a hostile extra-terrestrial environment to make it “earth-like” and hospitable to human settlement. So, in fact, they are a crew of the most willing, not the most competent.Shaw and Holloway are a couple formed from complimentary opposites—she’s a believer while he is an atheist; she’s well-disciplined while he has poor impulse control. Jointly they explain to the crew about the numerous cave carvings and tablets back on Earth, some dating back 35,000 years, which illustrate ancient astronauts whom they call “the Engineers,” and providing directions back to their point of origin. There’s no end to what they hope to learn from them. The remaining crew members are a burnt out geologist with a red Mohawk haircut named Fifield (Sean Harris), a biologist named Millburn (Rafe Spall), a medic named Ford (Kate Dickie), and several others who are never named.Getting Ready for the MissionEntering LV-223’s atmosphere, the Prometheus’ crew detects a number of artificial structures and the ship is put down near to them. Interestingly and worth noting is the fact that during the holographic projection, Weyland had referred to the android, David, as “the closest thing to a son I will ever have.” While the crew prepares to exit the ship and investigate, Vickers sends David to fetch Shaw and Holloway for an interview in her private quarters. David tells them that Vickers wants to see them, “before the adventure begins.” In addition to being comparatively capacious and luxurious, Vickers’ quarters turn out to also be an elaborate and many chambered survival pod whose features include an automated medical treatment unit (“auto-doc”). In the event of a catastrophic event aboard the Prometheus, the survival pod has the resources to support life for up to two years. Vickers explains to the two archaeologists that they are to report any discoveries directly to her and not to make “first contact” without her specific approval. When they balk at this she offers that since the Weyland Corporation has funded the entire cost of the expedition, it gets to set the mission “agenda.” Period.This is followed by a noteworthy exchange between Holloway and David as the crew suits up prior to going out on the moon’s surface. Seeing David in a spacesuit Holloway comments that the android doesn’t need one since he doesn’t actually breathe. In a faintly testy tone, as if explaining something to an annoying child, David relays that he’s been deliberately designed to appear human, so that humans will feel more comfortable around him. So if he skipped wearing his spacesuit, “it would defeat the purpose.” Noticing David’s pique, Holloway comments that he is very close to human. David teasingly responds, “I hope not too close.”ExplorationWith only six hours of daylight left, a small “away-team” leaves the Prometheus in a van-like vehicle with two outriders on motorcycle-type scooters. The moon’s atmosphere is very Earth-like, except for toxic levels of carbon dioxide. Inside the artificial structure the team discovers a massive tunnel complex. In an impressive display of science-fiction technology, Fifield unleashes his “pups”—small sensor balls which fly ahead through the tunnels and map them in detail. This information is transmitted back to the ship, where Vickers and Janek are closely monitoring events. Inside the tunnels the atmosphere tests as being breathable and Holloway, demonstrating his zero impulse control, quickly removes the helmet of his spacesuit, and the others soon follow his reckless example. While this demonstrates that whoever built the tunnels had precisely the same breathing requirements as humans, it also shows a reckless contempt for safety protocols bordering on the psychotic. What if there are malignant micro-organisms or toxins in the environment? What if there’s a glitch in the equipment producing the air? And by exposing themselves, what contaminants might the crew bring back to their own ship or even to Earth? It does make you wonder just what kind of training this crew might have had.The MuralAs the team systematically proceeds slowly through the tunnels, they find numerous stone cylinders and a large statute of a humanoid head. Of a significance which can’t be overstated is an imposing mural found over one of the doorways, which is clearly religious in nature. Although the camera doesn’t linger on it, so much important information is contained in this mural that it ought to have its own spoiler alert. For those who can read its symbols, it provides the heart of the story. On one side it depicts an Engineer with a serene expression, but with his belly torn open—once again we see the recurring image of god as an eviscerated life-giver. In the middle of the mural are eggs or perhaps those large ampules, presumably filled with the mysterious black goo. And on the mural’s right side is the mirror opposite of the divine and willing sacrifice—a depiction of the prototypical alien monster familiar from all of the previous movies. Rather than a life giver, this creature is the Adversary, a destroyer who consumes the lives of others in order to indefinitely extend its own. Instead of considering the interests of the many, it cares for only one—itself.A Secret Agenda and a HologramAt this point David demonstrates that he clearly has an agenda of his own. He separates from the team and begins to conduct his own investigation, with little or no regard for the effects his actions may have on the safety of his more fragile human companions. Apparently reading a series of glyphs carved into the wall, David activates a hologram displaying a group of panicked, space-suited Engineers running through the tunnel. Something unexpected has clearly gone wrong. The figures sprint through a doorway, but the last of them is decapitated when the door shoots down. The Prometheus team follows this trail and they find the body and head of the alien. Other bodies are found and the team comes to the premature conclusion that the Engineers are extinct. Meanwhile, Fifield and Millburn freak out at these goings on and decide to head back to the ship ahead of schedule, except that they get lost in the tunnels. Does it really make sense for Fifield, the geologist charged with mapping the tunnels, to be the one to get lost? And if he and Millburn had succeeded in taking the rover-van back to the ship, were the others going to call a cab?Evacuation and StormAt this point, Janek radios the team that they must evacuate immediately because a massive storm is approaching. The team scrambles to get out and they bag up the alien head to take with them. David ignores repeated radio calls by members of the away-team. Instead he secretly grabs one of the mysterious stone cylinders and sneaks it back onto the ship with him. Again one wonders about even a pretense of safety protocols. And too, one wonders exactly what the dictates of David’s programming might be? His primary mission is clearly not to protect the crew. As the team leaves the tunnel-structure, we see that the stone cylinders have begun to leak that sinister black goo. Fifield and Millburn are left behind.The storm is tornadic in nature and biblical in scope. Shaw and Holloway are nearly killed, but David springs into action and gets them safely aboard the Prometheus. In the ship’s lab the amazing discovery is made that the Engineer’s DNA is identical to ours. We’re not just related to the Engineers, we are them! What does it say if men and their gods are identical? Should that comfort us or have the opposite effect? We see David in one of the halls, mysteriously talking to someone apparently through an electronic device. Could he be receiving instructions? And if so, from whom? Vickers confronts him, demanding to know exactly what’s going on. Did I mention that she was a control freak? David answers politely but cryptically. Tall and commanding, she literally slams him up against a bulkhead. They seem to know each other awfully well. Under other circumstances I’d wonder about sibling rivalry, but in this case that makes no sense, unless...The Engineer’s HeadShaw and Ford continue to work on the alien head they recovered. It appears contaminated by something, (black goo, anyone?) but it otherwise stayed remarkably fresh in its helmet. Again, no thought is squandered on safety protocols and the head is open to the air of the ship. Shaw suggests that they can “fool it into thinking it’s alive.” Might this be a violation? Or just plain obscene? Should science dare anything, merely because the capability exists? In this movie at least, the answer is always yes. They feed electrodes into the head and inject some kind of stimulant into it. The eyes open and the head is apparently aware, although in great distress. They increase the voltage and the head’s suffering appears to increase. At the very last moment, and only at Vickers insistence, a glass panel is lowered to isolate the head, just as it explodes into scraps and splashes of white fluid. Apparently Vickers was the only one who attended those pesky OSHA compliance lectures. By the way, if our DNA is identical to theirs, what’s that white stuff anyway? Did the head explode because the experiment went wrong, or because the dead Engineer refused to participate?The Theme of Talking HeadsIt might also be worth mentioning that “talking heads” is arguably another of the many recurring motifs of the Alien series. In the first movie, Alien, after the homicidal android Ash is disabled, his severed head is hooked up so that the surviving Nostromo crew can question him. At the time Ash is leaking a lot of milky white fluid, but we are led to believe that this is android “blood.” Instead of helping them, Ash only makes a dire prediction. He tells them that their plans are ineffectual and that the alien xenomorph on board will surely kill them all. Nonplussed by this response, they melt the head with a flamethrower.In the climax of the second movie, Aliens, the heroic android Bishop is eviscerated, but his disembodied head, spattered with milky white fluid, informs Ripley that the alien queen is coming for her. In Alien 3 the head of Bishop is revived again and this time he tells Ripley that Hicks and Newt, the other survivors from the second movie, have both died and that an alien stowed away aboard her escape vehicle, leading to her discovery that she’s been fatally impregnated by a “facehugger.” Since these talking heads always have such bad news to offer, it’s probably just as well that the Engineer had nothing to say. (It likely would have been a real bummer like, “There will be no sequel.”) Anyway, all of this stuff is highly improbable. I mean, just what do you think the odds are that we’ll ever see another talking android head? I wonder…David’s Real Mission RevealedIn the privacy of his quarters, David opens his purloined stone cylinder, revealing multiple ampules of the sinister black goo. I get tired of complaining about it, but he continues to shows no awareness of the safety protocols to prevent ship-wide contamination. Instead he breaks open one of these ampules and meditatively plays with the goo between his fingers. Although by now we have ample evidence that the stuff is biogenic in nature, it has no effect on the tissues of the nonliving David. Since he can achieve no reaction with the mysterious substance, the ever-curious David decides to take things a step further. Now where can he find a human Petri dish?In the ship’s game room David encounters Dr. Holloway amusing himself at the pool table. Exhilarated by the day’s events, Holloway has been nipping at the ship’s champagne like your cousin’s alcoholic boyfriend at your sister’s wedding reception. Beware a machine making small talk! When David casually asks the tipsy scientist just what he might do to have his many questions about the Engineers and human existence answered, Holloway callowly answers, “Anything!” This identifies him as an unknowing but willing victim. A smiling David hands him a fresh glass of champagne spiked with just the ever so tiniest little smidge of sinister black goo. Holloway then joins Shaw for a celebratory roll in the hay. Up on the bridge there’s a loaded exchange between Vickers and Janek. Sexual tension is in the air, but recognizing that she is colder than outer space, the savvy pilot challengingly asks if she is a robot. Excellent move! She and Janek then retire to her cabin where we’re led to believe that the burly captain manages at last to penetrate her… chilly exterior. This is another reason why I don’t think that Vickers is actually an android.The Fate of Fifield and MilburnMeanwhile, back in the tunnel structure, Fifield and Millburn are confronted by a snake-like creature which has sprung up from a puddle of the sinister black goo. Millburn, the biologist, is excited by the encounter. Let’s see, a snaky creature that arises from the compost heap of the gods—could this possibly be a good thing? The snake first kills Millburn and then sprays some type of acid onto Fifield’s helmet which melts his faceplate. Fifield tries to run but ends up falling face-first into another puddle of the sinister black goo.The Fate of HollowayThe next morning Holloway feels funny and doesn’t look so good. But the ever inquisitive scientist doesn’t let this stop him from joining the away-team. Could it be something he drank last night? When the team returns to the tunnel-structure they immediately find Millburn’s body, but Fifield is missing. Sneaking off alone again David makes some big discoveries. He finds a large control room with a fantastic holographic star map. Could this be a navigation system? And nearby is a living Engineer, still frozen in cryo-stasis, which presumably has protected him from whatever killed the other Engineers. But David shares none of this information with the others. Meanwhile Holloway’s condition worsens and the away-team rushes the stricken scientist back to the Prometheus. But at the entry ramp they are greeted by a space-suited Vickers armed with a flamethrower.While dramatic, it’s been pointed out by many in the “blog-o-sphere” that a flamethrower would be a particularly stupid weapon to pack for a long space voyage. It would be suicidal to use one in the oxygen rich environment of the ship. And then what are the chances that the atmosphere of your destination will support fire? Still, Vickers is hot, bitchy, and powerful and if she says flamethrower then you go out and get her a flamethrower.In one of the few science-sensible scenes in the movie, Vickers refuses to let the ailing Holloway, who by the way now looks terrible and is in agony, back on board “her” ship. She can see how sick he is, but they have no idea what’s causing it. And besides, this is what comes of being a smart-alecky showoff and gallivanting around without your helmet, not to mention drinking after hours with the help. Bizarrely, every member of the crew is against Vickers in this, including the usually professional Janek. Everyone is willing to bring Holloway aboard, regardless of the consequences. But the dying Holloway himself sees reason and when he urges Vickers to do it, she incinerates him with the flamethrower.A similar scene took place in Alien where second officer Ripley refused to let the away-team back aboard the Nostromo after Kane has been contaminated by the attack of the facehugger. In that instance the standoff was resolved by Ash opening the airlock against orders, but we now know that Ash was an android following secret instructions to return an alien to Earth at all costs.Shaw: The Doctor’s DilemmaShaw has evidently fainted from the shock of seeing her boyfriend suddenly being burned alive. She awakens to find herself undressed and David removing the cross she always wears while performing a medical scan on her. By removing her cross, David is symbolically seeking to put aside her more rigid religious preconceptions for the events that will happen next. He asks her if she recently had sex with Holloway, and when she admits that they did the deed just the night before, he tells her that she’s pregnant… in fact, about three months pregnant. She tells him that this is impossible because she is sterile. He then informs her that it not an “ordinary” baby and understandably she freaks out. She demands that he terminate the pregnancy, but David claims that they don’t have the personnel on board the Prometheus to perform that procedure safely. He tells her that the safest course will be to put her into cryo-sleep and to sort things out back on Earth. Shaw suddenly cries out in pain and David quickly sedates her.This is quite an interesting scene. Now where might we have seen something like this before? We have a handsome but nonhuman messenger informing a young woman that she has been impregnated by nonsexual means and will give birth to a miracle baby at Christmas time? If this scenario doesn’t ring a bell then try Googling The Annunciation, a favorite theme for Renaissance painters.Motherhood: Not for Everyone!Shaw awakens later to discover Ford and another crew member preparing to put her into cryo-stasis until the ship returns to Earth. She feigns unconsciousness until the right moment and then slugs Ford and scrambles out of the room. This is where Elizabeth Shaw bumps Ellen Ripley for the title of “Toughest Chick in Sci-Fi.” In considerable pain she heads for Vickers’ quarters where she earlier spotted the personal auto-doc. When she tells the machine to give her a “C-section,” the computer responds significantly that the unit has been calibrated to treat a male. That’s very interesting. These are Vickers’ digs and while she’s certainly lean and mean, even a quick glance at her in her “painted-on” spacesuit assures us that she is all woman! So why has the auto-doc been programmed this way?Shaw climbs inside the unit anyway, and gives it more detailed instructions to remove a “foreign body” from her abdomen. In perhaps the movie’s most harrowing sequence we see the medical unit spray her midriff with antiseptic, then anesthetic, and then cut her open with a laser scalpel. Next the machine plucks an ugly gray squid-like creature from inside her. In an awful moment the creature begins to struggle violently while being held precariously with calipers just inches above her while she is forced to wait while the med unit staples her up. When her wound is closed she rolls out of the med unit, slamming it closed and ordering it to sterilize the creature. The auto-doc sprays the squid with a thick chemical cloud, and afterwards it slumps inert. Now if Shaw had only watched any of the earlier movies she’d have known that this was just a little too easy. But we’ll cut her some slack because she’s really hurting and probably in shock. Shaw heads back to her own quarters, doubled over in considerable pain.The Mysterious Peter WeylandOnce in her cabin she pops a bunch of pain pills and then, incredibly, she suits up to go back outside. For some unexplained reason, perhaps playing a hunch, Shaw goes back to Vickers’ suite and there, alive and kicking, she discovers the ancient Peter Weyland. The old boy is wearing a nightshirt and surrounded by a small entourage including Ford and David, but his presence ties up a number of loose ends. Weyland was woken from stasis the day before, and David has been reporting all of his amazing discoveries to him. It was Weyland who gave David secret radio instructions, and those instructions were to use Holloway as a guinea pig, in order to crudely find out what uses the sinister black goo might have. Weyland also ordered David to sedate the “pregnant” Shaw and he instructed Ford to put her into cryo-stasis, all in order to bring an alien back to Earth. There’s been a small conspiracy at work, and Vickers too, has played a part. Yet oddly, Weyland seems to bear Shaw no ill will for having mucked up one of his schemes. And Ford, David, and the others show no surprise at seeing her, no one refers to her violent escape, and no one asks after her “baby,” although they all clearly know exactly what has happened.Long Live the King!Weyland now tells Shaw that his real agenda is to save his own grossly attenuated life. His logic is that if the Engineers could miraculously create mankind, they can also save a dying man—him! Significantly, we see David kneeling before Weyland, tenderly rubbing his feet with oil. Is this just commendable filial devotion or something more? The entourage next pops the fragile Weyland into a space suit for his trip to meet the last of the Engineers. David, both his creation and his adopted “son,” will now act as his interpreter. Meanwhile something very strange is occurring outside the ship. On the monitors one of the crew spots something peculiar and goes outside to investigate. Just beyond the entry ramp he sees a spacesuit strangely balled up. How did it get there? As he approaches it the suit slowly straightens up to a standing position revealing an ugly mutated version of Fifield, the missing geologist. My, but this black goo certainly is an amazing product! With preternatural strength the new and improved Fifield kills the crewman and marches onto the ship’s hangar deck. There he encounters and kills several others, flinging them around like cheap dolls. Finally the stolid Captain Janek arrives on the scene and definitively dispatches the mutant with Vickers’ flamethrower.Father and Daughters and SonsJust before leaving the ship, a sitting Weyland, now in his space suit, has a short but significant meeting with Vickers. In the uncharacteristic role of a supplicant, she kneels beside him and lays her head in his lap. She asks him to give up his mission. She speaks of the pattern of kings reigning for a time and then dying, passing on the crown to their heirs. She says that this is “the natural order of things.” He patiently listens to her but never responds. As he rises to walk away she calls him, “Father!” I told you she had daddy issues. Meanwhile, as we approach the story’s climax Shaw speaks to David, to whom she shows no hostility for his earlier treatment of her. Perhaps she knows that he was only following orders. She asks him what the end of the mission will mean to him, and he responds, “Freedom!” Freedom, one supposes, from intrusive dictatorial programming. We have no idea at all what David might be like following his own initiative.Where were the Engineers Going?While Janek returns to the bridge to study a 3-D model of the tunnel complex, Weyland and his bodyguard, with David, Ford, and Shaw return to the tunnel structure for their rendezvous with destiny. They proceed to the control room with the star map and where the remaining Engineer still lies in stasis. Meanwhile Janek informs them by radio that from his research he’s determined that the moon they’re on was an Engineer military installation where they developed or stored the sinister black goo—some kind of highly virulent biological weapon. Two thousand years ago something went very wrong, and the Engineers were killed by their own creation. Lastly, the tunnel structure is really a partially buried giant space ship! From the navigation system David determines that the destination of the Engineer spaceship with its cargo of death was Earth! Her deepest religious convictions threatened by this awful revelation, Shaw now becomes frantic to know why mankind’s creators have turned against us.The Sleeping Giant AwakesWeyland orders David to wake the sleeping Engineer. Giant and majestic, he rises silently from his cryo-bed and momentarily leans over to gather his strength—he must be ten or twelve feet tall! He placidly watches the away-team members for a moment while Shaw starts to shout that they should ask him why the Engineers want to kill us. Weyland orders that she be shut up and his bodyguard responds by whacking her in the belly with the butt of his rifle. (Hey, you mook, look out for her staples!) Doubled over in pain, Shaw backs away to the tunnel’s entrance. Weyland instructs David to tell the Engineer why they have come—so that Weyland can be saved from death. David speaks briefly in a strange language while the Engineer reaches out and paternally places his hand on David’s head while the android gazes up at him expectantly. Then his hand tightens and he rips David’s head from his body and smashes the frail Weyland with it, fracturing his skull.The bodyguard shoots the Engineer in the shoulder but this seems to have no effect at all. The Engineer crumples Ford with a killing blow and flings the bodyguard against the wall with more than lethal force. Looking up he sees Shaw running around a bend in the tunnel, but he appears to have no interest in her and turns his attention to the control panel in front of him. Following his original mission, the last Engineer begins to activate the spaceship. As Weyland expires, the head of David lying next to him tenderly wishes his father a “good trip.”End of the MissionReaching the outside, Shaw radios Janek and tells him that all the others are dead. She also communicates that the horseshoe-shaped Engineer ship, now slowly rising from the moon’s surface, is heading towards Earth with its lethal cargo. If it succeeds the human race will be destroyed. Vickers declares the mission to be over and orders Janek to ignore Shaw and to take the Prometheus back to Earth. Shaw responds that there won’t be an Earth when they get there. Janek takes command of the situation and with the help of his two co-pilots he determines to ram the Engineer ship with the Prometheus. His loyal crewmen agree and together they all comprise another willing sacrifice. Co-pilot Chance actually says, “See you on the other side!” showing that he is a man of religious beliefs.Shaw On Her OwnBy contrast, Vickers streaks for an escape pod, desperate for even the two years of life her survival pod can provide. As the Prometheus lumbers skyward, Vickers abandons ship in a tiny emergency escape pod while Janek ejects her massive survival pod which crashes violently onto the surface. Vickers’ escape pod lands more gently and she scrambles out to stand not far from Shaw while the Prometheus crashes into the Engineer ship and explodes. This desperate maneuver is a success and the Engineer ship smashes down on the moon’s surface, but unfortunately Shaw and Vickers are underneath it. Both run to avoid it, but Shaw is saved at the last moment by rolling sideways, while the self-serving Vickers is crushed.Shaw passes out, but when she revives she only has two minutes of oxygen left. She heads for Vickers’ large survival pod and makes it inside the airlock with only seconds to spare! The pod has taken some damage but its essential functions seem intact. Shaw explores until she comes to the room containing the auto-doc unit she used earlier and a massive tentacle smashes against a window near her head. Kids grow up so fast these days, and little squid is now a big, big boy! At that moment David, who we last saw as a disembodied head, now contacts her by radio and tells her to get out—the Engineer pilot has survived the crash of his ship and now he’s coming for her. The pod’s computer announces a breach of the airlock and Shaw grabs a fire ax for protection. The now crazed Engineer bounds up to her and flings her against a bulkhead. Shouting, “Die! Die!” she punches the door release and the giant squid’s tentacles grab the Engineer. He wrestles with it heroically until a penile-like appendage punches down his throat, and both creatures subside. Shaw makes it outside in her spacesuit, where she collapses, exhausted beyond emotion.More of DavidNow David contacts her again and asks her for a favor. She says, “Why should I help you?” and he responds, “Because otherwise you’ll never leave this place.” He explains that there are other Engineer ships and that he can fly one—he can take them back to Earth. Shaw replies that she doesn’t want to go back; instead she wants to go to the home world of the Engineers. David says he should be able to take her there, and so she retrieves his body and his head from the crash site. She also makes a point of retrieving her cross from David’s utility belt. This signifies that while the events of the story have certainly shaken her religious faith, they have not yet destroyed it.David asks her, “Doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?” But is he referring to her own parents, or to Weyland, or to the Engineers? And Shaw, whose parents died when she was child and whose faith endures, responds in certainty, “I didn’t!” She asks David why he thinks the Engineers were returning to Earth and David tells her, “Sometimes to create, one must destroy.” In turn David asks her why she wants to go to the Engineer planet instead of returning to Earth and she tells him that she has to find out why humanity’s creators turned on us. He calmly retorts that, “the answer is irrelevant,” and wonders why she is so obsessed with the reason while he is indifferent. Shaw responds, “I guess that’s because I’m a human being and you’re a robot.” Perhaps, or perhaps they just subscribe to different schools of philosophy.Next we see a second horseshoe-shaped craft shoot across the sky and we hear Shaw creating a radio message reminiscent of one left by Ripley at the end of Alien. She says that the Prometheus has been destroyed and that LV-223 holds only death. She is the last survivor of the Prometheus and that she is going on. The final shot is of the body of the last Engineer, lying in the survival pod. The body begins to shake violently and suddenly something bursts from its chest. Slowly the shiny black creature stands and now we see the familiar hammer-headed form of the prototypical Alien. The xenomorph hisses and bares the drill-press in its mouth…The Mystery UnraveledPrometheus is about a hierarchy of parallel relationships: the relationship of gods to men, of a king to his subjects, and of a parent to his children. Earlier we looked at the dynamic principle of the divine sacrifice of a god for his creation and saw how this was paralleled to provide a religious foundation for the concept of kingship—”As it is in heaven, so it will be on earth.” The old “divine right of kings” was originally tied to the practice of the willing sacrifice.Weyland Revealed as King and TyrantIn the story Peter Weyland is not just a corporate president; he is treated as and repeatedly identified as a king. The entire enterprise is his power made manifest. His adopted “son” David kneels before him and anoints his feet, a crucial part of the sacred ritual of kingship. His daughter, Meredith Vickers, also kneels before him, in her case in supplication. There’s no question that Weyland is a king, the real question being, is he a good one? And the answer that comes back is a resounding, no! Weyland has ruled for too long and has become besotted with his own power. He’s lost the ability to separate his personal concerns from the interests of his subjects. He has become the tyrant, “Holdfast,” whose greatest ambition is merely to perpetuate his own life and his rule.Sacrilege and It’s ConsequencesBut worse than that, Weyland is guilty of sacrilege. He is no longer a willing sacrifice and so he has broken the sacred bargain with the gods. He has lost his divine right to rule. The movie demonstrates that he has abandoned the needs of his subjects in favor of preserving his own life with one telling fact—the personal auto-doc unit. Instead of being available to the entire crew, it was stashed inside the private survival pod for his exclusive use. And the fact that it was calibrated to treat only males just confirms his intentions. Even more to the point, he has no concerns for the well being of Holloway, Shaw, or the rest of the crew. All are expendable in the service of his needs. Mythologically speaking, the only way to deal with a tyrant king is to kill him.Why the Engineer Strikes OutIn the climax, the Engineer can see at a glance that Weyland is an incarnation of the tyrant king, the ruler who glorifies self above service and who won’t let go, and is therefore an abomination. And he is accompanied by his “son,” and as an artificial life form David comprises a second type of abomination. So when David translates and petitions the Engineer that Weyland’s unnaturally long life be extended even further, it makes sense that this would be the very moment for Engineer to snap into mindless rage. It would be as if a man who had raped your wife and killed your children now asked to borrow your car keys. So the Engineer responds by ripping off David’s head and using it to fracture Weyland’s skull, employing one abomination to destroy another. The head too, has another important significance. When a woman conceives, the organ of creation is her womb; but when a man conceives, the organ of creation is the head.Vickers, the Would-Be TyrantVickers too, is merely another version of her father, in her case a would-be tyrant. She wants him to give up the throne, not because it’s the natural order of things (although that is what she says), but simply because she wants it. Although it made medical sense, when she refused to admit the dying Holloway to the safety and comfort of Prometheus, she demonstrated that she also was placing her own personal safety ahead of the needs of her subjects, in this case the crew. She showed this again at the end when she was willing to risk the destruction of the entire planet rather than jeopardize her own return trip to Earth. Her rejection of the principle of the willing sacrifice seals her fate, and so she too had to be killed.The Real Monster, The Real HeroesAll of the Alien-related movies have contained monsters, and all have offered questions as to what the nature of monsters is and who they might really be. In this regard Prometheus is no exception. The real monsters here are Weyland and his daughter. The squid and xenomorph are ugly and frightening, but in the end they are merely agents of change. Sexual imagery is used to make them more threatening to us, both consciously and unconsciously. Much has been made in the past of the rape-like attributes of the reproductive methods of the “facehugger” version. Prometheus not only offers us a penetrating rape image in the last reel when we see the Engineer “impregnated,” but the giant squid itself also offers us a classic image of the vagina dentata—a hole viciously lined with teeth. The true heroes of the film are those willing to sacrifice their own personal interests for the greater good—Holloway, Janek, Chance, Ravel, and of course the space pilgrim Dr. Shaw.The Black GooThere’s been a lot of debate about the precise nature of the sinister black goo. Is it good or bad? Is it influenced by the desires and intentions of those exposed to it. Does it represent sin? But simpler explanations are the most satisfying. The goo represents possibility or choice—to be either a creator or destroyer, pious or a blasphemer, to work for the common good or to be selfish. In abstract terms, it is the random factor. In more concrete language, the goo is another metaphor for the fire stolen by the original Prometheus. In that sense it is technology, and just as nuclear power can be used for countless beneficial and creative ends such as heat, light, and medicine, it can also be used to irradiate, sterilize, and obliterate.Mankind’s Original SinPerhaps the largest issue raised in the movie is the question as to what mankind might have done to turn the Engineers against us. The fact that the accident that killed the Engineers took place two thousand years ago has suggested to some that the rift involved Christ or the Roman Empire. Some have posited that we had already begun to lose favor with the Engineers and they had sent us Christ as a last chance. Instead of reforming, mankind crucified him and thus sealed our fate. But since the accident on LV-223 occurred two thousand years ago, that means that mankind’s fall from grace must have taken place earlier, perhaps much earlier.The real answer is so obvious that we overlook it. Mankind fell from grace because of “original sin.” But not everyone realizes what the true nature of this sin was. Man has always felt a sense of estrangement in his own world. Human beings stand apart, even amidst a vibrant explosion of related life. It’s rightly been said that the thing which sets humans to one side from every other creature is not our superior abilities, but that we alone possess the certain knowledge of our own mortality. This is the bitter fruit that was stolen by Eve from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.But why must we die? The Book of Genesis tells us that the Garden actually contained two trees with forbidden fruit, and the second of these was the Tree of Eternal Life. Genesis says that God expelled Adam and Eve not because of Eve’s “sin,” but because he was afraid that the couple would eat from the second tree and so become like him. God rejected us because we wanted too much, and he was jealous of his prerogatives. So even in the Judeo-Christian canon, the most grievous form of sacrilege is to disobey God and covet eternal life.The Same Old StoryDuring the course of our history there is no evidence to suggest that humanity has changed in any significant way. We’re neither better or worse than we ever were. So what might have changed since the good old days? The answer is that we changed in the way that we worship our gods. We no longer submit to what we once viewed as the “natural order of things.”To Every Thing There Is a SeasonWe all originally came from agricultural societies where we would daily witness the cycle of birth, life, and death. Very important in this agrarian culture was the timing of events—this is what’s meant by the expression, “everything in its season.” The lambs and other animals were born in the spring; otherwise they wouldn’t be strong enough to survive the next winter. The fields were also seeded in spring, to allow the crops time enough to mature in the warmer seasons. And the harvest had to be made at the peak moment in fall, or the people would starve. So it’s clear that the timing of things was just as important as anything that had to be done. But as men began to build towns and cities, we gradually lost our deep connection with the land and the seasonal cycle of life.The Sacred BargainLong before the time of Christ mankind had given up the practice of ritually sacrificing our kings. Kings were no longer willing victims. By two thousand years ago virtually all cultures had become “civilized” and rejected the practice of human sacrifice. And those few cultures that did still engage in ritual killing didn’t kill their kings—they killed substitutes! In the simplest terms, mankind lost favor with the Engineers because collectively we broke our sacred bargain. We no longer sacrificed ourselves for the greater good and we began again to seek for the forbidden fruit of Eternal Life.Some have asked why the Engineers would invite us to a military base whose purpose was to inflict destruction. The likely answer is sometime during the 35,000 years since the invitation was first proffered the nature of the installation was altered when mankind fell from grace.Creator Versus DestroyerAs far as the conflict between the Creator and the Destroyer is concerned, arguably it is false—an illusion created by a too-narrow perspective. It’s long been posited by philosophers and writers that the material universe manifests an ongoing and healthy struggle between the forces of order and chaos. While nothing much good can be built without an underlying foundation of order, at a certain point all constructs tend to turn “bad,” they become stagnant and moribund. When this happens the forces of chaos come along and reshuffle the deck to keep the game interesting. These forces cover everything from the fall of a leaf to the birth of a star. Both forces are necessary in a dynamic universe and they transcend simplistic notions of good and evil—both are good and both are evil. And most importantly, both are necessary in terms of “the big picture.” This is what David meant when he says, “Sometimes to create, one must destroy.” This is something to remember the next time you see footage of a flood, tornado, or sinkhole.The Nature of ParenthoodIn addition to gods and men and kings and their subjects, Prometheus is also about parents and offspring. The dark secret of having children, which no one ever talks about, is that at the deepest level, stripped of all sentimentality, the decision to reproduce is a naked act of ego. Rather than being selfless, it is actually a rather brutal assertion of self. It’s important too, to recognize that the relationship between parents and progeny runs deeper than just love and trust and nurturing. It also has an uglier, more primal side that concerns issues of power, approval, judgment, obligation, and withholding.In Prometheus, it’s no coincidence that Dr. Shaw’s unwanted child is to her an unrecognizable monster. Vickers is engaged in a dynastic power struggle with her father, Peter Weyland, and to all appearances there is no love or affection between them. One suspects that she’s only accompanied the expedition in order to protect her own interests. As the child of Weyland’s mind and his adopted “son,” David is her step-brother. And while he is highly obedient and dutiful, David is also sophisticated enough and human enough to ask the Freudian question, “Doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?” And most significantly of all, when asked what the end of the mission will mean to him, meaning the end of his programming and the end of his parent’s domination David simply responds, “Freedom!”A “Difficult” FilmHaving hopefully demonstrated that the story behind Prometheus is at least coherent, if not profound, it only remains to discuss why the film wasn’t more successful. Why did it fail to satisfy more people on more levels? Movies based on mythological themes are not obligated to explain themselves, nor should they try. When all of the elements are in harmony, they reach the audience on a visceral level, without requiring a conscious parsing of the details. The on-screen events resonate with the archetypal images inside us. When Luke Skywalker draws his light-saber to confront the Dark Emperor our spirits soar because he is acting out a truth that already lives in our unconscious. We feel it, at least as much as we understand it—and above all, it feels familiar. Instead of telling us new things, mythic movies like the Star Wars cycle or the first Matrix remind us of basic truths that we already know.But allegories must function on two levels and in this regard Prometheus sometimes stumbles. For example, the scene where Vickers bars the ship with her flamethrower ruptures the symbolic harmony. On a literal level her actions make sense to preserve the integrity of the ship and this is good. But on an allegorical level her actions demonstrate her exaggerated self-interest and this is bad. And another problem is philosophical. Modern man no longer thinks and feels in quite the way prescribed in the film. While we decry the notion of a class system, the real American dream is “Every man a king.” With cars, public transportation, electricity, computers, digital electronics and the myriad inventions that utilize the corresponding technologies, even the poorest people in the developed world today live like the royalty of ancient times. And as we know from our lives and our entertainment, “It’s good to be the king.” To one degree or another, luxury and excess are now all too easy to find, but true spirituality and a sense of connectedness with life, not so much. And hardest of all to find is a “victim” willing to make sacrifices for others. Not for nothing did the Engineers reject us. Selected BibliographySome of the many books which informed this analysis are:The Golden Bough - Sir James FraserThe Masks of God (4 volumes) - Joseph CampbellHero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph CampbellThe Greek Myths (2 volumes) - Robert GravesThe Hebrew Myths (2 volumes) - Robert GravesThe Universal Myths: Heroes, Gods, Tricksters, and Other - Alexander EliotThe Global Myths: Exploring Primitive, Pagan, Sacred, and Scientific Mythologies - Alexander EliotThe Timeless Myths: How Ancient Legends Influence the Modern World - Alexander EliotOrigins of the Sacred: The Estasies of Love and War - Dudley YoungA Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence - John E. MackLawrence of Arabia (film) - Directed by David Lean