Prometheus (Alien prequel)

Mister Kite

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Furthermore, in the movie, there not looking like humans.
We look like them, which is sort of kinda like logical, right?
Being our seeding engineers and all.
 

T.Neo

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HOLY S***! IT'S AN ALIEN!!!

Why do alien organisms always have to be equated to cnidarians? Cnidarians occupy aquatic niches and are fairly simple, sedate animals- other organisms with other lifestyles (like that of an intelligent species) would presumably have adaptations befitting them. Evolution is driven by by natural selection, not strangeness, after all.

That said, human bodies evolved the way they did for a reason. It's not unreasonable to assume that aliens who are also intelligent tool-users will have followed a similar evolutionary course and wind up with two arms and two legs.

That is true, but many of those reasons will probably not exist for other organisms- physics and chemistry are universal, obviously, but the evolutionary heritage and bauplan possessed by humans is fairly unique. If a dinosaur were (unimpeded by extinction) to evolve into an intelligent being, it would most likely look quite distinct from us, despite being a two-armed biped with which we also share such features as vertebrate eyes, jaws, nostrils, digits, etc (perhaps they would look something like this artwork, which is profoundly closer to actual dinosaur physiology than Dale Russell's 'reptoman').

Presumably an alien creature with ancestors reminiscent of a slug or crustacean rather than our lancelet-like ancestors, would be even more unusual when compared to us.

We look like them, which is sort of kinda like logical, right?
Being our seeding engineers and all.

Thinking about how it would fit into what the fossil record says of the history of humanity (and life in general) is a headache-inducing activity. Not necessarily a fault of Prometheus, but of the "Ancient Aliens" genre in general.
 
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Codz

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I just saw the movie, and I have to say it was pretty good. Provided you can suspend your disbelief well enough. My only real gripes about it are probably that a few of the characters were quite annoying, and the whole "faith over skepticism" thing it seemed to have going. Plus the myriad of scientific and engineering flaws.
 

RisingFury

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Why do alien organisms always have to be equated to cnidarians?

I guess you haven't seen most movies and shows with aliens. They all tend to have a body, neck, head, two legs, two arms, two eyes, a mouth,...

And as you said, evolution works by natural selection. We just happen to be apes.



EDIT:
Alright, for those with limited sense of humor.

HOLY S***! IT'S AN ALIEN!

pic.jpg
 
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Andy44

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The other reason most movie aliens are humanoid is because it's cheaper to take a human and add some makeup then it is to build a credible puppet that doesn't look obviously fake...

War_of_Worlds-alien_0.gif
 

T.Neo

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HOLY S***! IT'S AN ALIEN!

Why do alien organisms always have to be equated to amoebae? Amoebae occupy microscopic niches and are.... :p

a credible puppet that doesn't look obviously fake...

I don't know... that Martian looks fairly legit to me. :lol:
 

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Why do alien organisms always have to be equated to amoebae? Amoebae occupy microscopic niches and are.... :p

...are very sci-fi-ish. Amoebae are associated with science, and microscopes. Aliens are "sciencey" too. Amoebae are weird the first time you see them, like a blot of jelly that's living. Amoebae are probably the first things you learn about that look alien and slimey, even if they are microscopic.


By the way.. does anyone know where I can buy some Amoebas?
 

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Those engine nacelles would be a really hard thing to animate and the thrust vectors would be a nightmare. I know because I've just spent a good 9 or so hours trying to get it to work and flyable. Not to mention the gear animation which is more of a nightmare. I didn't have a good shoot of the model when I first saw it so I rolled my own. I had to fake the thrust because it was unflyable otherwise.
QJFUgly.jpg

I have to ask, how aerodynamic (or not) would the Prometheus spaceship be? It has a lot of bumpy bits all over its hull, so wouldn't that affect it when entering an atmosphere?
 
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Andy44

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I have to ask, how aerodynamic (or not) would the Prometheus spaceship be? It has a lot of bumpy bits all over its hull, so wouldn't that affect it when entering an atmosphere?

It's not aerodynamic at all, pure fantasy. The thing I noticed right away was the flimsy-looking dish antenna on the top, which somehow survives atmospheric heating... That was obviously a modeler just throwing on some random details for visual interest.
 

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It's not aerodynamic at all, pure fantasy. The thing I noticed right away was the flimsy-looking dish antenna on the top, which somehow survives atmospheric heating... That was obviously a modeler just throwing on some random details for visual interest.

Well, assuming it reenters instead of descending under power, which is what I'd do in a magic ship with unlimited delta-v and swiveling engines.

And yeah, it was obviously the Rule of Cool being applied.
 

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The thing I noticed right away was the flimsy-looking dish antenna on the top, which somehow survives atmospheric heating... That was obviously a modeler just throwing on some random details for visual interest.

I noticed that too. That thing wouldn't have survived reentry or the "sandstorm" the ship sat through.
 
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Andy44

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I noticed that too. That thing wouldn't have survived reentry or the "sandtorm" the ship sat through.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that crazy storm thing. Besides being a giant plot device, what was that supposed to be, volcanic glass chips or something?
 

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I have to ask, how aerodynamic (or not) would the Prometheus spaceship be? It has a lot of bumpy bits all over its hull, so wouldn't that affect it when entering an atmosphere?

If it works like the Nostromo from Alien, it probably does a powered entry, which means it doesn't have to turn kinetic energy into heat to brake. Basically it sits on the engines' exhaust all the way down.
 

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I have to ask, how aerodynamic (or not) would the Prometheus spaceship be? It has a lot of bumpy bits all over its hull, so wouldn't that affect it when entering an atmosphere?

It's not at all. All of the antennas and other assorted bits would burn off during reentry. The whole engine system is unrealistic and it wasn't even show being used to keep the ship up while in atmosphere. The Captain said they were going 100kts and the engines were pointed back so there must have been something else holding it up. The pivoting beam the engines were attached to would represent a major drag and cause the nose to be forced downward at any high speed.

It's a pure fantasy ship that would be pretty much unusable in real life.To sum it up; it's less aerodynamic then a brick and would fly about as well.

---------- Post added at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 AM ----------

If it works like the Nostromo from Alien, it probably does a powered entry, which means it doesn't have to turn kinetic energy into heat to brake. Basically it sits on the engines' exhaust all the way down.

But it wasn't shown that way. At least in "Serenity" they showed the engines moved into what appeared to be a powered decent. I this one they showed it pretty much diving into atmo much like the drop ship did in "Aliens" which always bugged me.

I would think it would be able to go very fast in order to keep all those sensors safe so I wonder how many hours it would have taken to descend.
 

fsci123

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Im just curious? When they landed on the surface of Prometheus wouldn't they have waited several days before attempting to venture out into the unknown?
 

garyw

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Wouldn't it have been better to spend a few days in a polar orbit fully mapping the planet rather than going 'Hey! There is a lump on the surface, we have to land there!'
 

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Oh boy, that sounds great. Nothing like going to a movie and watch people sit waiting.....or checking equipment....love it went the pace comes to a screeching halt.
 
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