Empire saw the first 12 minutes of Prometheus and they're not afraid to talk about it

Empire saw the first 12 minutes of Prometheus and they’re not afraid to talk about it

April 11th 2012, 9:25am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Craving for your daily fix of Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS? Look no further! We’ve got you covered, courtesy of the fortunate souls at Empire, who managed to get a glimpse of the first 12 minutes of the film. The mag has compiled a 19-point rundown of what they learned from the footage. Some pretty in-depth stuff in there. You can check out parts of it below or head on over to their site to read it in its entirety.

Make no mistake, you’re entering SPOILER HEAVY territory here. DON’T READ IF YOU WISH TO BE COMPLETELY SURPRISED BY THE MOVIE.

1. Prometheus is an Alien prequel. Make no bones about it – Scott has frequently said that there are direct connections in the last eight minutes of the film, but for Alien fans, Prometheus will have Easter eggs galore. For example, we learned that the planet on which much of the action takes place is designated LV-223. Just a stone’s throw, astronomically speaking, from LV-426, home of Alien and Aliens.

2. Another connection comes in the subtitles informing us about the Prometheus, as Scott did with the Nostromo. It has a crew of 17 (ten more than the Nostromo), it is very, very far from Earth (if we recall correctly, 32×1014 km from Earth, which is approximately 32 HUNDRED TRILLION kilometres from our home planet. Quite a way to go.). It is December 21, 2091. Its destination is unknown.

3. But we start in 2089, on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, as Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw and her scientific partner (in more ways than one, fnar fnar), Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) uncover evidence of an ancient civilization that worshipped giant beings. A cave painting shows one of the giant figures pointing to five balls hanging in the sky…

4. Which, as it turns out, represent the exact configuration of a solar system a long way from Earth (about 32 hundred trillion kilometres, as it turns out). Holloway and Shaw have been studying similar cave paintings from different civilisations, none of which could have known each other, and have discovered that they are, in fact, a map to the aforementioned solar system, which has a sun much like ours, and a moon orbiting a gas giant that is capable of sustaining life. So, with some heavy-hitting financial backing, away they go.

5. In 2089, camping equipment and clothing hasn’t changed that much. Holloway and Shaw still look like they’ve just shopped at Millets.