As predicted, Prometheus will be rated a 15 in the UK. 20th Century Fox released a statement this morning saying: “Fox confirms there will be no edit to Prometheus to secure a lower rating, it will be a 15.” The recent movies AvP, AvP Requiem and Predators received a 15 here too and the latter two were pretty graphic.
Update: The rating is now live on the BBFC website. It was rated a 15 and it says it ‘Contains strong violence, gore, threat and horror’ and it has a runtime of 123m 36s.
Thanks to Darkoo for the news.
On the other hand, I would love to see those dipping birds countdown shot edited into the end of the actual countdown sequence.
You can see the film's editor, Terry Rawlings, and Ridley, talking about it in various 'making-of' features.
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I've also wondered about this too, the original cut did feature the cocoon scene, but Ridley decided to remove it at the last minute. When Alien came out all those years ago no one had seen anything like it before, people were truly shocked by that chest burster scene, that's why the film was an 18 when it came out. People are much more tolerable these days, plus theres been so many Alien rip offs we just dont easily get scared any more. I'm happy with a 15 rating here i the UK anyway.
I suspect that extra 4 and 1/2 minutes are just the credits, 119 was without them.
Threat, horror and violence all get a thumbs up, and I've always liked the way Ridley handles gore with very rapid edits that are suggestive more than needlessly graphic. Although I must admit that films like the Final Destination and Saw films and those that have followed in their wake like Piranha 3D with their 'gleefuly'(?) lingering gore have turned me right off of it. However I'll put that down to incompetence on their part for relying too much on showing every last detail.
2 hr 3 m 36 for those who thought 119 minutes was 1 hr 19 a while back...
Yeah it must have been a 15 in 2003, because I had just turned 14, and managed to get in to a screening of it - back then I absolutely could not get in for 18's and I distinctly remember not even being ID'd.
Wonder why the Director's Cut was a 15, but the Theatrical Cut has remained an 18.
Contains strong violence, gore, threat and horror
Thats everything I was looking for!
A 15 rating is a double-edged sword. You can imply a heck of a lot with ambiguity and I've always used Lambert's death scene as an example of this. It's probably the most disturbing of the entire series and much of that has to do with the audio heard over speakers, reminiscent of an agonising birth, immediately after that worrying implication of a tail slowly creeping up between her thighs. But... There are also a lot of films with a 15 rating which are awfully tame.
I know that Ridley Scott's repeatedly said he wants to scare the shit out of people, but we still don't know what his standard of 'scary' is, these days. He might have gone down the path of people like Moffat, in charge of today's 'Doctor Who', who maintain that the scariest possible things are often the most mundane. Hotel rooms, darkness and so on... It's totally plausible that we might get a version of 'Prometheus' which is very inferior, horror-wise, to the kind of subject matter implied with 'Alien'.
As always, time will tell. But I think we might be jinxing the thing by heralding this as the most awesome possible thing to happen for the project.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/recent/films/
excellent!