Quote from: SiL on Jan 29, 2025, 08:46:09 AMHowever 28 months x 2 is 56 months; if she spent 4 months on the planet she's pretty much bang on 5 years, not 6.
We did this about 12 years but lets go around once more.
Distance1.
Non-diegetic source: 3.27 x 10 to the power of 14. (35 light years)
The biggest question about this, is why is Ridley using a mathematical format that is meaningless to his audience?
2.
Vickers: Why would I fly myself half a billion miles from ... Earth.
This would put Vickers somewhere near Jupiter, so another contradiction. However, Lindelöf has said that this is legit - ie not a mistake.
Time2.
Weyland: I am recording this, 22 June, 2091. And if you're watching it ... I am long dead.
3.
David: Two years, four months, 18 (19) days, 36 (12) hours, 15 minutes.
This is the most popular time frame mainly because David told us and we definitely don't trust him. It is also the most likely one to be wrong because it mentions a 36+ hour day which means that the Prometheus' last port of call was not Earth. And therefore all calculations based on Distance above are null and void. But Widley told us it was a mistake because the super professional Fassbender spilt his cornflakes that morning and had a bad day. And we believed him too.
4.
Fifield: I've been asleep two years.
Probably ship time.
The three points above can be either Earth time (trip takes 35 years for those on Earth) or ship time (trip takes 2+ years for those onboard). This is because of the effects of time dilation. We can't tell which one it is because we don't know how fast the Prometheus can travel. I would prefer to choose ship time because more likely those on the ship would operate on this time. And the Prometheus may have other tricks up its sleeve which we don't know about.
SpeedThese are the only time speed is mentioned (albeit indirectly) in the film (that I know of).
5.
JaneK: We need the holidays to show time is still moving.
This cryptic statement from Janek seems to be saying the spaceship is travelling at sol. Given time does not exist at the speed of light, no time would pass onboard the ship. What this means I have no idea.
6.
Janek: Warm up the ion propulsion.
Ion propulsion is contemporary technology and when powering a spaceship in space over these distances, it can, after a very slow build up, reach up to about 70% of sol. So was the case 12 years ago. Not sure where this fits - perhaps with Vickers and Jupiter.
Bottom line -
we don't know.
