Michael Fassbender on "Much Scarier" Alien: Covenant

[2/2 10k char :( ]One of the key undertakings of the film Prometheus is the explanation of the Engineers backstory with the objective of finding out clues to the origins of humanity. In Alien it was clear that the direct conflicts within the movie were between android, human, and xenomorph. The conflict was both internal as our technology turned against us, betraying humanity, and the more obviously external conflict of the predator-prey dynamic that developed as the Alien matured. The story evolved to encompass the hunter-becomes-hunted duality of the human and alien conflict. Prometheus turns the previous assumptions that were baked into Alien on their heads. Like its predecessor the synthetic individual present on the ship is duplicitous, the David model in particular resents humanity as its ‘creator’ – confronting, challenging, judging, and even defying crew members on a range of topics from morality to religion. As the only binary component to the story David takes on the role of the traditional ‘mad scientist’ and begins doing experiments on the crew – and fittingly he embraces this role as the true Prometheus of the film. The role of Prometheus is a metaphor for an individual working towards an outcome with no regard for the consequences of one’s actions; David himself has said that he is designed to perform tasks that his “colleagues might find disturbing, or unethical,” and he certainly makes good on that directive. Thoughts of Rene Descartes division of mind over body permeate the screen as Dr. Shaw analyzes the decapitated head of an Engineer, further analysis will clearly indicate that both the Engineers and mankind possess the same DNA – and this scene alone serves as the culmination of purpose within the entire film. The symbolism to Descartes is this: the stars of the Engineers local star system are so far away that the earliest civilizations on Earth who were depicting the constellations would not yet have be able to see the light from those stars; it is the mind that must identify this puzzle as significant, and it is the triumph of the mind over the body (given the use of hyper sleep chambers) that affords the crew the opportunity to artificially suspend their lifespans to make the voyage. The DNA results now redefine nearly all other central conflicts present in the film – every encounter can now be seen as some struggle between humanity, between species of humanity, or in conflict with some derivative technology which humanity had created. Prometheus leads us to realize that we, mankind, are the true antagonists – always our own worst enemy, and that beyond ourselves, beyond our capacity to kill, beyond our capabilities to destroy; we have nothing else to fear. Prometheus draws on a number of sources to create a beautifully envisioned world, and the final work that the film uses as a guide is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Prometheus is covered in references to its monstrous muses of old, with one parallel impossible to ignore: the uncontrollable amalgamation. An uncontrollable creature is one of the principle characteristics of creating a dynamic antagonist. The creatures act less intentionally and more chaotically in their approach to existence, in play for itself and adherent to no human law or decree, monsters like this exist and function on the fringes of understanding. It is this type of monster that is resurgent in Prometheus, one like David who acts in a Promethean sense and begins experimenting on his crew without understanding consequences. One like the Engineer who when saved from hyper sleep immediately retaliates against humanity, or one like the proto-Alien that burst from inside the last Engineer. They are all uncontrollable, they all act in their own self-interest, and they are all very difficult to kill. In conclusion the story of Prometheus is in good hands in its current incarnation under the guiding watch of Ridley Scott. Many of the age old challenges from Hesiod’s tale are still vibrantly participating in the dialogue and events of modern literature and cinema, while some themes are new, others are age old. As with the warning portrayed Engineers , mankind must be a careful steward of technology, all too familiar is the tale of the blind and ambitious, toiling beyond their ken, who reach for the flames of understanding only to be consumed by the fire. Even the Engineers of Prometheus got too close to their own ‘flames’ of technology and were consumed completely, and in spectacular Promethean form, where something was destroyed from its remnants something could be created: the Xenomorph.

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