NB: Spoiler Alert. Proceed with Caution.
Who
made us ? The question itself is too big to pack into the body of the movie, yet Prometheus answers it fairly definitively if you are looking hard enough.
The
theme of Prometheus matches very well with the ancient mythology of Nummos as
believed by the Dogon tribe in West Africa. According to these people, who
originally migrated from Egypt, the starting point of our creation is from a
small star that revolves around the brightest star visible to human eye, Sirius,
located almost 8.6 light years away from Earth. They believe that the elements
of our creation are present in that small yet heavy star, which was officially discovered
by our astronomers in 1862 by the name Sirius B. Studies on this African tribe
were documented in a book by two French anthropologists, ‘‘Conversations with
Ogotemmeli’’ published in 1947. Ogotemelli was the tribe’s oral historian, so
was his father. In his words, we were created by beings who engineered our DNA.
Also, our DNA was manipulated three times due to failed experiments and
interestingly three versions of humans were designed. Ancient mythologies
mentions the existence of these alien races called Nummos and another race of
aliens called Annunaki, in Egypt approximately 5000 years ago. This could
probably justify Ridley Scott’s opinion regarding the planet shown in the
opening scene. He suggests it could be a planet anywhere and the Engineer is
just a gardener in space.
Though
the movie opens with an Engineer seeding life in a primordial planet dismissing
the concepts mentioned in the book of genesis, the movie still connects
strangely but not necessarily with some verses in the Bible. Let us take into
account the moon in the movie LV223, where the ship Prometheus lands, as well
as the planet LV426, mentioned in the 1979 Ridley Scott movie ‘‘Alien’’. Considering
the religious and philosophical views of characters like Elizabeth Shaw in the
movie, the planet LV223 might be in reference to a verse in the third book of Bible.
Leviticus 22:3 states ‘‘For the generations to come, if any of your descendants
is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the
Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from my
presence. I am the LORD.’’ This could very well refer to the creation of humans
and how they became unclean. Interestingly the planet LV426 might be in
reference to Leviticus 4:26 which state ‘‘He shall burn all the fat on the
altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest
will make atonement for the man's sin, and he will be forgiven.’’ What if this
actually answers the question which Prometheus leaves behind in the end. The
answer to why Engineers setting the destruction of unclean humans could be some
kind of sacrifice for forgiveness. But there is a lot of guess work involved
like the missing link between LV223 in Prometheus and LV426 in Alien.
Ridley
Scott may or may not have come across this passage somewhere in the development
of the movie. There is one more strange connection with the Bible which might
not make any sense with the storyline. Elizabeth Shaw shares some common
threads with the Elizabeth in Bible. Both of them are incapable of having
babies and god works out the magic. The movie connects more religiously in
matters of faith as Elizabeth Shaw being the only true believer on board and
hence become the only survivor in the entire movie. This could be that rare
movie which challenges its viewers in matters of science, religious
philosophies and spirituality at an intellectual level.
Speaking
of creation, there is an interesting conversation in the movie between Charlie
Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) and David (Michael Fassbender/Android) regarding
the purpose of creating humans.
David:
Why do you think your people made me ?
Charlie:
We made you because we could.
David:
Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing
from your creator ?
It
could even be possible that the engineers created humans simply because they
could and not for any profound reason.
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There
are still numerous questions in my mind such as, why would someone leave cave
paintings on Earth, giving evidence of their location, if they are actually
planning to destroy us ? Or has something happened with Engineers decision
making in between these long thousands of years ? Or could it be not the Engineers
who left the location maps at Earth ? Why should the Engineers sacrifice
themselves for the creation of life, or was it an accidental mutation rather
than a purposefully designed creation of life ?
Is
Jesus Christ, conceived by the holy spirit in virgin Mary, an Engineer sent by
God ??? This is one of my favorites as this opens an entirely new equation for
the movie with Christian beliefs. And it could even support the storyline of
this mysterious movie, as Jesus, one of the engineers, was crucified by humans,
eventually prompting the Gods to destroy humanity.
Prometheus,
in a nutshell asks some huge questions on life, influence of aliens in our
life, mysteries regarding where we come from as a species and what happens when
we die. It all seems to be too much of an education or rather some kind of an
intellectual awakening from a movie, thanks to Damon Lindelof, the writer and
Ridley Scott, the Director.
