The Black Goo takes over the franchise

[David Weyland]

I like the idea of the goo being variable between creative/destructive depending on its purpose
Just to mix things up, I know it probably isn't but the planet at the beginning of Prometheus looks a lot like Planet 4 in covenant. Possible?

[Rudiger]

It certainly opens up some potentially interesting avenues. It would have just been nice if Scott and Lindelof had had a defined idea of what it really did, other than whatever was needed at the time. We've seen some clear similarities between uses that it will mutate hosts into Alien-like creatures. I liked Wayne Hagg's theory of the accelerant being some sort of ancient template for Alien-like creatures, that the Engineers themselves may have just found. But I think the Covie bombing scene and the disintegrations may put that one to rest.

I know David says about it being highly mutable and everything but I think it'd be nice to have some clarity on what it was actually intended to be outside of a "weapon". Was it the intent of the accelerant's creators that it create some mutates? Was it only supposed to be disintegrate? Did it go wrong somewhere?

I find that idea thoroughly depressing. The Alien is the result of a faulty robot messing about with some faulty goo? Jesus.

[Alionic]

I like how the Black Goo was never explained in Prometheus. Leaving it's properties to our imaginations was the best choice (fear of the unknown anyone?).

Really looking forward to the mostly untarnished Predator series being buried next.

What?

I'll respond knowing some kind of insult is most likely brewing in those fingers of yours, but personally I think the Predator franchise is just all round more solid than it's Alien brother as far as movie to movie goes. It knows what it is and it never stray's too far from that, which generally I think most Predator fans appreciate.

I thought you were implying Shane Black's Predator film was going to be shit.

I agree the Predator series has never had a misfire like Alien 3 and Resurrection.

And my fingers were mostly paying bills when you made this post. 

[Corporal Hicks]

It certainly opens up some potentially interesting avenues. It would have just been nice if Scott and Lindelof had had a defined idea of what it really did, other than whatever was needed at the time. We've seen some clear similarities between uses that it will mutate hosts into Alien-like creatures. I liked Wayne Hagg's theory of the accelerant being some sort of ancient template for Alien-like creatures, that the Engineers themselves may have just found. But I think the Covie bombing scene and the disintegrations may put that one to rest.

I know David says about it being highly mutable and everything but I think it'd be nice to have some clarity on what it was actually intended to be outside of a "weapon". Was it the intent of the accelerant's creators that it create some mutates? Was it only supposed to be disintegrate? Did it go wrong somewhere?

I find that idea thoroughly depressing. The Alien is the result of a faulty robot messing about with some faulty goo? Jesus.

I'm not keen on the direction it's gone which is why I wish they'd have had some sort of roadmap from the start, rather than the fumbling feeling we seem to be getting.

[Biomechanoid]

I like how the Black Goo was never explained in Prometheus. Leaving it's properties to our imaginations was the best choice (fear of the unknown anyone?).

You make a good point and its natural for the cinema fan to enjoy a story that requires our imagination to fill in the blanks.

On the other side of the coin, I don't think my imagination is the end all, be all of story telling. I like to see what others' imaginations create. Fear of the unknown, ambiguous endings, etc. was for me at one time a novel concept like Carpenter's The Thing for example. But it's my perception many young directors tend to migrate towards "what's vogue" at the moment in directing/story telling techniques. And ambiguous endings, ambiguous plot elements have been overplayed.

For a more stern commentary, it's time for these young directors to stop hiding behind the ambiguous platform, and show us what their imaginations can create.

[Baron Von Marlon]

I'm not keen on the direction it's gone which is why I wish they'd have had some sort of roadmap from the start, rather than the fumbling feeling we seem to be getting.

I'm still convinced they had some sort of map in the beginning. Ridley had 3 or 4 movies in mind.
But now that they changed routes with Covenant and the early introduction of the xeno, I don't think we'll ever know what the original ideas were.

[Denton Smalls]

Maybe one day Lindelof will divulge some details because I believe he was collaborating with Ridley to continue the story past Prometheus during the making right?

[Scorpio]

There may have been a map but Ridley had to compromise, that's the nature of the game, but Ridley compromises very well and is able to work within constraints.

The studio wanted him to bring back the alien so he brought it back in the best way possible, creatively. 

[Denton Smalls]

I wonder how long Ridley has had ideas about the black goo in his head. Hearing him speak ever since Prometheus was announced about the Jockeys and their role in creation, it seems like he views the Alien as a mere side effect of the goo. It makes me wonder if he always envisioned the Aliens as a small part of a big picture.

He's always talked about the Aliens being a form of bio weapon, but maybe he was actually referring to the supposedly limitless potential of what the Aliens were made of in the first place: black goo.

It would make sense because a greedy corporation wouldn't simply follow David's or the Engineers' path but would instead use the pathogen to satisfy its own needs by doing experimentation and hybridization of their own to see what type of feisty banana-headed beings they can concoct.

Or maybe Ridley will take some inspiration from the EU and incorporate the goo's potential as a drug like Xeno Zip.

[reecebomb]

Pretty certain the black goo concept wasn't a thing prior Prometheus, nothing suggests otherwise. And it's apparent that they may have some vague ideas for the sequels but no actual roadmap.

[Baron Von Marlon]

In the early draft there were 8 types of eggs in the cargoholds instead of the black goo.
Perhaps they merged the various egg types into the pathogen. Hence the various results?

[Scorpio]

Pretty certain the black goo concept wasn't a thing prior Prometheus, nothing suggests otherwise.

It's similar to the 'secreted resin' that the xenomorphs use to build hives and egg morphing.

[Corporal Hicks]

I think the black goo originates from the scarabs in Spaihts' pre-Prometheus scripts that go around injecting whatever DNA they've sampled. The Engineers use them in the start and they show up to turn Fifield into the Alien-hybrid thing.

[Denton Smalls]

Do you think that maybe the goo does the same thing? It would be great if the goo is a sort of carrier/delivery system and that it carries the DNA of an ancient Alien race to be dispersed into other organisms.

[Baron Von Marlon]

I think the scarab is part of the religious incluences.
But imo they don't work that well. In the Spaiht's draft they consume the sacrificial Engineer but leave the others (elders?) alone.
So the goo seems to work better in this case because it acts more local.

Religious significance of the scarab beetle
In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun god Ra is seen to roll across the sky each day, transforming bodies and souls.
Beetles of the Scarabaeidae family (dung beetle) roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs; this way, the larvae hatch and are immediately surrounded by food. For these reasons the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle and of the idea of rebirth or regeneration.