We broke down Ridley Scott's brand new trailer for Prometheus shot-by-shot and uncovered some very interesting clues as to what this Alien prequel is really all about. More specifically, who the hell is that guy (aliens?) messing around on the Space Jockey's ship?


First and foremost, if you haven't seen the original trailer for Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien movie, watch it now — because the similarities between the two trailers are absolutely insane. If there was ever any doubt that this new movie is a prequel to Alien, this trailer should have nipped all those questions in the rump. Just on first glance, here are the Alien to Prometheus trailer similarities: the slowly building titles, the copious shots of the female lead running down a dark hall (lots of dark hallways and darkness in general), Space Jockey spaceship shots (both interiors and exteriors, more on that later) — and finally the new trailer also incorporates the shrieking noises from the original. It's all just too wonderful for words.


An example of the title sequence we were talking about.

G/O Media may get a commission Subscribe and Get Your First Bag Free Promo Code AtlasCoffeeDay20

But let's focus on Prometheus for now. The footage opens with a woman whispering "You don't understand," over what could be a radio transmission, or a video log, her final video log perhaps? Also this sounds a lot like Noomi Rapace who is playing the character Elizabeth Shaw, but who can know for sure?

*cut to someone yelling what sounds like "Prometh, Prometheus!" then back to the dialogue*


"I was wrong. We were so wrong." *small sobs* "I'm so sorry."

This is the only dialogue we hear throughout the entire trailer, until someone starts screaming "PLEASE!"




CUE THE STRINGS RIDLEY!

BOOOM, BOOOM, BOOM goes the bass, or cello or what have you. It's all about the ominous Jaws-esque thumping beat which just pummels this video, hyphenated only by some sort of creepy digitized scream (which we mentioned was also in the Alien trailer). Feels good. Feels real good.


And here is is, your first spaceship full frontal. Behold the glory of Ridley Scott's spaceships that will no doubt lead this team of explorers off to their impending doom.




A ship (perhaps the same one we just saw moments ago) dots the sky in an alien wonderland, leaving a cloudy happy trail across the purple atmosphere.


The team gears up in their all terrain trucks and sexy alien-planet-exploring 4-Wheelers! What is the team looking for? Well, the only real clue we have is the official synopsis which states that the batch of scientists on the ship, "discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race."




Don't forget to pack the all important flame thrower.


Classic Alien Vertebra hallway, just not as Xeno-developed as the ones we've seen before.




The crew finds ominous stone face room. If this turns into a "four-toed statue" Lost-like kerfuffle that's never really, truly explained, I may just start throwing punches in the movie theater.




More shots of the giant humanoid-like head. Feels a bit like a throne room or prayer room, doesn't it? A hallowed place nevertheless. Is that giant stone head "watching" the little pegs below it? What are in the stone pegs?




Fassbender, who plays David the reputed android, stands over one of the little stone pegs, revealing them to be slightly larger than we expected. How much you want to bet those little statues contains one Xenomorph egg, but we won't find that out until the very last few scenes?




Then cut to a melting helmet. It's really hard not to draw the same parallels with previous Alien movie plots. Man goes into egg like room, man gets attacked. You can tell this is some sort of acidic substance on the helmet, as it's warping the clear parts.




Another great spaceship shot.




Fassbender and Rapace take back a head of a Space Jockey to their lab to dissect. Judging by the authoritative stance, camera angle, and body cut, we're guessing that's Charlize Theron (playing the characters Meredith Vickers)? She is supposedly the head strong leader of the group, and Rapace does appear to be a little bothered by her corporate, commanding presence.

Anyway, HOLY SHIT THEY HAVE A SPACE JOCKEY HEAD. Let's just revel in that for a hot second.


The group is back on the planet and using lasers to scan the site.




One male character (Fassbender) holds his head in his hands while another character lies asleep in his bed. First ever Alien franchhise Android sex scene? Yes please. I hear they are fully functional after all.




Fassbender studies alien jelly.




Theron runs down a hallway quickly unzipping her casual wear by the neck. Has the hull been breached?




Another shot of Rapace's character Shaw. In an interview with Digital Spy Rapace described her character as such:

"She has similarities with Ripley but she's more feminine, she's a bit more naive in the beginning," Rapace said. "She's a believer, she's full of faith, she's a scientist and archaeologist. She goes on this journey in space and she changes into a fighter, warrior and survivor. She's very much a typical Ridley Scott woman!"


We're wondering if the whispering intro sobs were Shaw losing her religion?


Lovely road to the ship. You can see the little 4-Wheelers in the dust behind the big tanker trucks.


Sexy UFO, or possibly the scientists' futuristic headquarters?




Characters we're not familiar with start shooting in space. What are they shooting at, a creature? By the look in their eyes it looks like people (they don't look horribly traumatized, mostly pissed).




Old time hibernation chambers? Remember this is the past! These people have a long wait until they see the white half naked hibernation chambers of the Nostromo.




Theron escapes to her pod. Not happy.




A character's skin is melting off, perhaps this is the same person we saw with the melting helmet from before? If you look at his helmet (which we now know has their names across their foreheads) the last three letters are WAY, which leads us to believe that Logan Marshall, who plays crew member Holloway, is the burn victim.




Absolutely no idea, but could this be the very big reveal that's waiting for us at the end of Ridley's movie? We only see one character on the screen, right in the middle of it all. And it looks to be Theron. Ridley doesn't like to leave many survivors at the end, perhaps this is the big climax?

Commenter lightninglouie pointed out that this is the same room as the giant Space Jockey's chair.


Possibly the second most interesting still in this whole trailer. Who is the person in the wheelchair that Fassbender is attending to? And who is the girl who collapses in front of (what we're assuming to be) is the infirmary? Is this the person who is really pulling all the strings on this expedition? A rich person looking to cheat death? A member of the Weyland clan?


On a side note, look at those hallways! Nostromo halls!


A ringed space ship explodes, and crashes to the ground.




Burned victim attacks! Our guess, that's Holloway gone mad from space acid. And here's a better shot of the mohawked acid man, from a behind the scenes image on the set of Prometheus. Feels a little Sunshine influenced, no?




First real look at the classic Space Jockey room.... WHO THE HELL IS THAT?




Theron readies her best Sigourney. See the teeny tiny top she's wearing? It's very similar to what the collapsed lady outside of the infirmary was sporting earlier in this recap. Hmmmmm.

This is what Theron has said of her character:

"I play this lady called Meredith Vickers. She's the suit that runs the company that has nickeled and dimed this whole thing together, to fund this mission. Initially, she really was just that. And, Ridley came to me and said, 'Do you want to do this?' I said, 'For me, to work with you is a really difficult decision to make, but I'll think about it.' No. Obviously, I wanted to work with him, but I felt like the character was just a little one-dimensional. [Damon Lindelof] stepped in, and I got on the phone with him and Ridley, and I threw very loose cannons towards him, with no specific ideas, but just wanting her to be somewhat more layered. I can't tell you what Damon came up with, but he came up with some good shit! She starts out one thing and ends up another thing. It's a pretty nice surprised, toward the third act, so I don't want to ruin that for you, but she really does start out very one-dimensional. The great thing about Ridley is that he shoots everything so layered that you always wonder. There were many days that I showed up and he would do this tiny little thing like throw me in the corner, just lurking. And then, all of a sudden, that became a character trait. I would always be in the corner, lurking over everybody, and not saying anything, but just watching. Then, you realize that it really adds to this enigma of this character and what her agenda really is."


Perhaps this is the moment when she breaks into a new character.


Stringer Bell sees something he doesn't like, is most likely doomed.




Excellent spacesuit shot.




Someone screams "PLEASE!"




And the giant space ring crashes. Although Ridley has said that the planet in Prometheus is not the same planet as in Alien, but watching the circular space ship fall to the planet makes us believe that this is truly LV-426. Plus this is almost the same ship we see in Alien and Aliens.






That is the same bloody ship.




And then BOOM, TO THE GROUND. What will happen next? Probably Alien, but many years later. Maybe.