Friday, May 18, 2012

(More 'Prometheus' Spoilers): Space Jockeys Aren't Galactic Police They Are Evolutionary Prompters

As always, you are hereby informed:

POSSIBLE SPOILERS BE PRESENT. THEY MIGHT BE PURELY IMAGINED, OR NAIL-ON-HEAD AND STORY-RUINING.

IF WHAT FOLLOWS IS CORRECT IT WILL WRECK THE 'PROMETHEUS' EXPERIENCE. AND, LET'S FACE IT, THERE WON'T BE ANOTHER MOVIE LIKE THIS, ANOTHER STORY THIS GOOD FOR, OH, 47 OR 48 YEARS, AT LEAST

STOP READING HERE

























Remember this guy? From one of the first full-length trailers (I think it was the first one). The Big Blue Man. Although, in this shot by the waterfall there's nothing close by for scale. This guy could be 5'9", but really he doesn't look it. Even though he's not standing next to anything for comparison he looks tall. Taller than almost any human.

There's another, very similar looking guy, in the latest trailer.



















I guess this image has been seen before. Most bloggers have thought this is David. I don't think so. Too big. And (like the blue guy at top) he's bald -- David has hair. Plus, this person seems to be working the glowing green control as if he knows what he's doing. David wouldn't know this stuff. (Yeah, he could learn it, but, I'm not going there right now). No. I don't think this is David. In fact, I don't even think this guy is human -- not exactly.

At this point I need to back up. There's a lot of set up so I'll have to ask that you be patient.

This morning, I got a comment from a reader named Dan and it got me thinking. (As you know, I do my thinking in the morning so as to get it out of the way). Dan's comment was in regard to a piece I did called "New 'Prometheus' Spoilers Lead to Exquisite Possibilities: Space Jockeys are Galactic Police".

Dan said:
  • One of the things that I feel this theory is missing that is very important is that there appear to be live Space Jockeys on the ship, which would (maybe) go against the idea of it being an automated "trap". In the trailer we see a large two-legged creature hovering over noomi rapace, and also in the short sequence where we see the female space jockey you described in the previous post, the "seat" is moving and appears to be closing in on the SJ, as if it's "buckling in". Also, the SJ in the trailer image looks very new and alive when compared to the obviously dead one in the original Alien. 
  • If it's a trap that waits for thousands of years, and especially if there was an accident involving aliens being released, why are there live SJ on it? Stasis chambers maybe?
I had considered these things but didn't mention them because they would clutter up the argument. You can read my take on Dan's question (at the link above), but this, really, is about Dan's observation about the Big Blue Man (BB) hovering over Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace).

You know, with all the plot speculation and examination of the squigglies in eyes and helmets, there's been very little said about BB. Who is this guy? Where did a 7-foot tall man come from? I was surprised that I hadn't looked at this. Sure, certain small specifics don't need to be mentioned in every argument or you'll make things hard to follow, but this big blue guy -- he's different. He's worth looking at.

So. Where did a 7-foot tall man come from. Was he hiding on the horseshoe ship (HS)? Does he live on that planet. Silly questions. The movie isn't about going to a planet and finding tall humans hiding in shadows. It's about being infected by an organism and then...what?

Changing.

Once the organism gets in you, you don't die. No. That's way too simple. You change. You become different. We've known something is in someone's eye, in someone's suit, in someone's body squirming around. And, we know that organism isn't trying to kill. It has another mission. The host may die in the process but that's not the goal. The goal is to create another. Not to reproduce, per se, but to make a copy -- to replicate. But, it can't be an exact copy -- that wouldn't make sense.

And, that's where BB comes in.


















BB is very human-esque. In fact, this guy is little more than a big man (yes, I like that turn of phrase). Even his face looks human. So, at this point, what do we know:

1) Squiggles get in the suits, eyes, and tummies of Prometheus crew members

2) Later, a big blue man appears

3) The process of infection and growth inside the host is not, by design, a method of killing the host

Then, what is the design? Why do the parasites infect us? Here's a bit from my response to Dan's comment:
  • it may be the large thing that looks very much like a human (that you mentioned from the trailers) started as a parasite, one of the squigglies (in the eye, inside the helmet, etc.) that ends up looking like its host once it grows to 'adulthood'. 
  • a parasite that kills its human host and looks like a human, a big tall human, when it matures. 
  • that's possible. why does it look like its host? who knows -- some simple genetic thing. something that makes perfect sense -- a copying of form. 
  • considering how much the guy in the trailer looks (exactly) like a big man, this last might be considered.
I was reading this and thinking it made a lot of sense. So, that's what I'm going with. The organism that infects the crew came from the 'Human' room in the mountain tunnel complex -- the one with the giant human face on the wall (again, you may want to read my previous assertions at the link above). This parasite is not, as I previously thought, designed to kill the human race. It's designed to change the human race.

And, that's who BB is. The next step in human evolution. The parasite infects the host, copies and modifies its DNA, then kills the host and emerges as a new life form -- one imprinted with the host's improved/modified DNA. That's why BB looks human -- he is. BB is Holloway after being infected by the squiggly thing in his eye.

As such:

1) Holloway gets the thing in his eye

2) He becomes infected with the parasite

3) The parasite grows and copies, modifies, and improves Holloway's DNA

4) Holloway becomes sick

5) The parasite bursts from Holloway's body, killing him

6) The parasite eats Holloway's body for sustenance

7) The parasite grows into the new being that looks human but is a different species with Holloway's improved DNA

8) The new Holloway resembles the original but is taller and has knowledge of the HS and mountain facility and the SJ mission to Earth

9) The new Holloway sets out to launch the HS (or another ship, say, the one under the ground covered by the 'giant opening iris' platform) to send billions of pods, each containing Human-specific squigglies, to Earth so that every person on Earth may be infected and transformed into the higher life form -- the next step in human evolution.

10) The remaining crew of the Prometheus try to stop the (new) Holloway from completing this mission


















The Big Blue Man is the new Holloway with improved DNA. The SJ intend to change all of us into a higher form of being -- a member of the galactic family of advanced space-travelling beings. We would become a version of Space Jockey and would monitor the advancement of intelligent populations on planets in our zone of responsibility and, when the time came, we would infect the candidate population with the properly designed parasitic organism and change that population into the next evolutionary form. We would 'wipe out' entire planets and replace the population with the new, improved version.

This fits with my earlier conclusion: The SJ were 'exterminating' us because we had become a threat to our neighbors. But, this determination was a bit too simple. We were not being killed off, we were being changed into a more viable form. This evolutionary advancement would come at a time when we would need to be saved from ourselves, when overpopulation, pollution and warfare would threaten the planet's ecology to the point that it may not be capable of continuing to support life.

The metamorphosis, however, would appear gruesome and would have to be done against our will. Nonetheless, it would be the SJ wisdom that this would need to be done, gruesome or not.

The SJ are not a police force who exterminate a population once it becomes a threat to its neighbors. They are overseers, advanced philosophical and spiritual beings, who 'nudge' the candidate race to the next stage when the time comes so that they may advance as a species. To affect this the lesser version of the species must be replaced. This conversion would have to be done on an individual level in order to preserve that person's DNA imprint. Copying and improving the DNA is accomplished via the genetically modified parasitic organism -- the squiggle in the eye. When the process is complete the less advanced individual ceases to exist and is replaced by the newer more evolved person -- The Big Blue Man.

The SJ would do this with each race of intelligent being once that race reached a certain point in its evolution. A point after which, without intervention from a highly advanced race, the lesser race would destroy its home planet. This would, in many cases, lead to the necessity of traveling to another suitable planet to find a new home even if that meant exterminating the indigenous population in the process. In order to prevent such carnage the SJ developed squiggles and implant them in your eye, whether you like it or not, or want to join the club or not, so that you can become a Space Jockey.

And, it's getting on to noon. Morning, thinking time, is ending so I'll call it a day.















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7 comments:

William Wheaton said...

I enjoy this kind of speculation about the film. Something to take into account- one of the recent trailer/Tv spots has the captain saying "this place is hell" which I think reveals a whole lot.

Anonymous said...

If the BB men were replicated from humans, where did they get their cloths (uniforms) from. I think you are reaching a bit.

Anonymous said...

David the android says in one trailer that "Big things come from small beginnings". I think he means big things like the big blue man.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous ... Of course he is "reaching a bit"...that is the entire point of speculation...if a being is able to engineer an organism designed to reengineer it's host , I am pretty sure that being could manage to make some clothes for its new babies.

Marcy Green said...

okay, regarding the clothes. this is about fundamental logic, not superficial considerations.

you can't try to extrapolate stuff utilizing logic if you're going to get hung up on fleeting details.

so, there are two possibilities:

1) it makes sense, or follows a logical flow, that the BB is Holloway after the transformation.

the BB could be something else, but you can't argue (logically) that it's impossible that BB is Holloway after being made into a genetically more advanced and evolved being by the SJ organism.

or, 2) it's impossible that the BB could be Holloway because the BB is shown wearing clothes.

that's not a good conclusion to come to (logically).

besides, there could be extra uniforms on board the Prometheus. i mean, this is a flagship... you'd have stuff like clothes for people to wear, say, if you rescued the crew of a ship in distress and one of them was tall -- you'd be pretty embarrassed if you couldn't outfit the guy. or, maybe the uniform was for a crew member that got sick and was replaced at the last minute.

who knows. there are ways to account for extra clothes.

really, you could shoot down my theory because the big guy has blue skin and Holloway doesn't. that's just as sound as saying it's impossible because BB isn't naked.

Anonymous said...

BB is Peter Weyland. Who, in a pursuit for eternal life, has transformed himself into a bio-mechanical monster. He was on board Prometheus unbeknownst to the crew. And once again, he's trying to get back to earth with the infectious aliens.

Mike Philbin said...

Moovy Boovy is half right, Anonymous @ 3:38 is half right, but you really should go see the movie, AND FORGET ALIEN, Prometheus has 'nothing to do with Alien' at all.

:)

Enjoy the ride. I did.

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