Alien Novel - Prometheus links?

[ChrisPachi]

The film shows us he's below ground level, without us being told.

The film shows us nothing other than a cavern. The idea that he is below ground level comes from an assumption that the 'bridge' is at ground level, but we aren't actually shown where it is or how they get there. The 'ports' that the crew use to enter the ship have a very sharp incline, and they climb up onto the SJ platform. There is also in the editing the suggestion that the exploration of the derelict actually takes quite a while so they could of been wandering around and up and down for a long time.

It could be interpreted that the egg chamber is below ground, but the film definitely doesn't show us that, regardless of what the novel says.

-Chris

[whiterabbit]

I think the egg chamber was supposed to have been in an under ground cavern but was moved to inside of the ship during filming. Either way, to me it does look like the inside of the derelict.

[T Dog]

I assume after Prometheus is released the Alien/Ripley series will seem lie a spin-off of it.
That really depends though on how large the mythology of Prometheus is.

[Xenomorphine]

I think the egg chamber was supposed to have been in an under ground cavern but was moved to inside of the ship during filming. Either way, to me it does look like the inside of the derelict.

That's because it's the same set with the Space Jockey chair removed.

On the technical side, the dimensions literally don't fit with what we see outside. Either:

(1) It's a ship, but somehow a lot of it is buried underground. The 'horsehoe' shape is only a part of it.

(2) It's a ship, but it docked onto another facility. Either of its own design or, in a haunting foreshadowing of the Nostromo crew's fate, a place which was even older than it was. I believe this was one of the original ideas of the writers/production team.

(3) It's not a ship, but is, in fact, a large building. A facility with much of its construction below ground.

[SM]

The film shows us he's below ground level, without us being told.

The film shows us nothing other than a cavern. The idea that he is below ground level comes from an assumption that the 'bridge' is at ground level, but we aren't actually shown where it is or how they get there. The 'ports' that the crew use to enter the ship have a very sharp incline, and they climb up onto the SJ platform. There is also in the editing the suggestion that the exploration of the derelict actually takes quite a while so they could of been wandering around and up and down for a long time.

It could be interpreted that the egg chamber is below ground, but the film definitely doesn't show us that, regardless of what the novel says.

They climb up to into the portals, then they climb up again to get to the Jockey platform.  However Kane descends much further they they orginally ascend.  Ergo, that part of the Derelict is underground.


Unless of course they climbed all the way to the top of the ship at some point unseen.  We're only given the impression of horizontal movement though beyond the obvious.

If Prometheus proves me wrong - no biggy.  The Derelict in the trailer certainly doesn't seem to have any extra ventral bulge.

[Bayo]

the derelict ship has some kind of glass dome on top, thats where the SJ is, you can search for models on the net and when you compare the scale of this dome with the rest of the ship, it seems that the cave scene could be below the SJ. but still the cave looks huge and maybe thats because the original plan was that the egg chamber should be on another part of LV426 on some kind of pyramid (Giger made a concept for it) and the SJ race got infected while doing the same as the nostromo. the warning signal came from the last survivor of the derelict ship, i think the original script has Dallas turning off the signal device. LV426 scene was supposed to be like 45 min long but the studio opposed for budget issues and they made the decision to make it part of the ship. i read somewhere a theory the eggs were the derelict crew transformed hence Lambert line "i wonder what happened to the crew".

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

(2) It's a ship, but it docked onto another facility. Either of its own design or, in a haunting foreshadowing of the Nostromo crew's fate, a place which was even older than it was. I believe this was one of the original ideas of the writers/production team.

If it is, I haven't seen it mentioned. The original ideas just seem to go with the idea that the silo/pyramid and the ship idea are merged into one or the eggs have been put aboard the ship and then it's less easy to say what the structures are in relation to one another in the arguments that Scott was familiar with basically whether the silo was a cave or the ship's hold and indeed in the end by O'Bannon's point of view, what the place actually is.

I've liked the idea that the ship had docked onto another facility very much, but I suppose there could be other factors to add into the possibilities that merge in with the alienness of the architecture.

[Valaquen]

"alienness of the architecture" is what I think - that the derelict is purposefully a mind bender, like the hotel in The Shining, which is full of paradoxical shapes, etc., with windows in places there couldn't be, etc.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

"alienness of the architecture" is what I think - that the derelict is purposefully a mind bender, like the hotel in The Shining, which is full of paradoxical shapes, etc., with windows in places there couldn't be, etc.

Another thought is that Giger's original picture gave a problem to the production department because it was too much like an Escher optical illusion

[Xenomorphine]

If it is, I haven't seen it mentioned. The original ideas just seem to go with the idea that the silo/pyramid and the ship idea are merged into one or the eggs have been put aboard the ship and then it's less easy to say what the structures are in relation to one another in the arguments that Scott was familiar with basically whether the silo was a cave or the ship's hold and indeed in the end by O'Bannon's point of view, what the place actually is.

I've liked the idea that the ship had docked onto another facility very much, but I suppose there could be other factors to add into the possibilities that merge in with the alienness of the architecture.

I think it was O'Bannon's idea, yeah.

All these old snippets of information I would have to hand if I hadn't had to throw out a load of stuff when we moved!

[RoaryUK]

My guess is it was all intended to be part of the ship in the end, it just didn't start out that way. Different ideas threw things out of proportion, stuff like that still happens in films even today (remember the APC from ALIENS). But since the Derelict was the only thing visible, and you never really get a true scale of the thing, they expect you to go with the obvious. A chamber which does curve like the "U" of the ship, and has the same design throughout, situated directly beneath where Kane descended from.

[Valaquen]

The silo was part of the ship. Giger likened the idea of those eggs being in the ship like 'termintes in a house.'

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

I think it was O'Bannon's idea, yeah.

All these old snippets of information I would have to hand if I hadn't had to throw out a load of stuff when we moved!

Once they changed his idea of having the silo and the space ship as separate structures, O'Bannon lost sight of the whole thing about what was supposed to be going on and he came out in interviews with creative statements of irony to be polite.

The silo was part of the ship. Giger likened the idea of those eggs being in the ship like 'termintes in a house.'

Ridley did seem to remain open minded though although he felt that one could argue that it was part of the ship. I'm not quite sure what Giger was supposed to think after having the purpose of his designs altered but go along with what seemed to be the obvious for himself in down to earth terms.

[Valaquen]

I'll just go with what O'Bannon said: "it's a surrealist mystery"