Ep. 19 - Prometheus - What Is The Pyramid On LV-223?

[@CMDR_Verm]

Nineteen episodes in and I'm well and truly hooked. I have never seen a movie so rigorously analysed and given to us, the audience, to decide. I was not a fan of Prometheus before I watched your episodic investigation but I am now. Please continue, this is fascinating.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

I'm glad you're enjoying the series.

[@blt171]

This series is so good!

[@J0MBi]

It's very well researched and the logic is easy to follow

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@blt171 Thank you - glad you’re enjoying it!

[@christopherjohn611]

I've watched many of your shows. I'm obsessed with the " engineers" my art reflects it.

[@J0MBi]

"we live as we dream - alone"

[@michaelprime7621]

Keep it up 👍

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

Thank you. I shall try.

[@J0MBi]

@@TheFilmSymbologist Any chance of covering the controversial Covenant? I feel like there's so much development of these ideas presented in Prometheus that it would be really interesting to hear your take on it.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@ I don’t have a concrete plan in place, but I think I will take a brief look at Romulus and then probably take a break from the Alien Universe to focus on other movies. I may mention Covenant here and there but I don’t think I have much to add at this point. As controversial as he was, I think Prometheus benefited greatly from Lindelof. Covenant feels like a redirection away from the direction Prometheus was headed and back towards the Alien franchise. But in order to really form an opinion about Covenant I’d have to watch it a few more times.

[@michaelprime7621]

@ Alien universe to me has been very interesting comics, games and movies and looking forward to see the Tv series Alien Earth and more Alien movies. Thanks for sharing👍

[@371kenny]

They need to finish this prequel trilogy

[@moolieporchers7629]

recent stuff i've seen of Scott talking about his next Alien movie he intimates quite strongly he wants to continue on from where Covenant ended

[@slang1517]

In Prometheus, goo creates life. ‘Goo’ is only 1 letter away from God. What was Ridley trying to tell us here? Perhaps that God as a concept is so ineffable and so beyond our understanding, that it can never truly be grasped, and thus slips through our fingers. Much like goo. What did David put in his hair? Also goo. Obviously, what this is saying is that Goo/God is on David’s mind. Clever foreshadowing for the fact that he will develop a God complex. He will see himself as God, and yet his focus is merely on the superficial, cosmetic aspects of God, hence the hair product. This movie is so deep.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

😂That's pretty good. Reminds me of Sam Harris reading into the recipe from a cookbook.

[@slang1517]

@ dude, I just listened to you talk about hermeticism for 20 minutes because of one scene with a hermetically sealed room. Despite every single spaceship, space suit and hypersleep chamber in all of sci fi bring hermetically sealed. You’re in no position to criticise Sam Harris. My goo analysis was comparatively less of a stretch.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@slang1517 I legitimately found your comment to be funny. While I certainly have some disagreements with Sam Harris, his cookbook analogy is also funny. I wasn’t being critical. I think you may be feeling a little defensive and are being overly sensitive. Also, goo is inanimate. The black stuff is animate and is more like an organism. While the ampule room being hermetically sealed is important to the plot, that’s not why I talk about Hermeticism. I’ll be talking about it again in a future video too. 👍

[@slang1517]

@ who told you goo must be inanimate? That’s not part of any definition I’ve seen. Secondly, the black goo is not animate, nor an organism as far as Prometheus tells us. I know in covenant that spore thing flies into a guys ear (without any method of propulsion) but that came out of a little organic pod which was clearly alive. I saw this as the substitute face hugger it clearly was. I didn’t mean to sound defensive of Sam Harris, I mean some of your analysis puts his cook book reading to shame. PS. You literally Segwayed into hermeticism after saying the goo was in a hermetically sealed room. The emphasis you put on it implied that this was intentional symbolism by the directo/writer.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@slang1517 The character of David, through Hermes, is one of film's connections to Hermeticism.

[@SpacePig-u3m]

The pyramid was an original concept from A L I EN where the eggs were supposed to be found, it wasn't used due to budget constraints. Personally I think Promethious destroyed everything that was good about A L I E N, the mystique, the horror of the unknown. Reducing it all down to some earth bound bullshit with religious connotations was and is a travesty. I think Cameron's queen concept was shite too but not as bad as where Scott went with the franchise.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

I initially thought it was lame that the space jockey was retconned for Prometheus, but as more time passes, I increasingly think it was a good idea to make the engineers humanoid beings. While the horror of the unknown is indeed terrifying. It's almost too terrifying. The idea that any creature could be out there and anything could happen at anytime and we as humans have no influence over it is almost immobilizing. If that is the world we live in, then perhaps the nihilists are correct. Prometheus presents a different vision of the cosmos and it's one that I have grown to appreciate.

[@J0MBi]

You must have loved Alien Vs Predator Requiem eh?

[@paulmascotti3645]

It is good to go into such abstract and symbolic explanation as background as long as it serves to explain the reason why and use as a justification for your ultimate concrete assertion of what the pyramids tangibly are. You answer the questions of what the pyramids are in the total abstract and symbolic sense, I think more time devoted to a hypothesis of what they tangibly are would be welcome as well.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

Thanks for the comment. Your point is well taken. I feel like there are lots of analyses available for Prometheus, and other movies, that focus on the tangible aspects whereas I'm trying to focus more on the symbolic aspects. Ultimately, I think the domed structures on LV-223 serve several purposes within the context of the film. They're research labs, military bases, tombs, ceremonial structures, etc. My main point, however, was intended to be about what these structures represent, not within the fictional context of this particular film, but within the context of an audience watching and experiencing a film in our contemporary world.

[@J0MBi]

Does it matter how I or anyone else reads the "tangible" incannon explantion of the pyramids? I've got one for you - it was build by Yautja (aka Predators) so they could battle "xenomorphs" on top of them like they did in the arctic in Alien Vs Predator 2004, or the jungle or whatever, because it looks rad and people would go "woah! That's rad as hell bro! Pass me a pulse rifle so I can become a space marine" - how does that sound?

[@resofactor]

Deep yo

[@teemoore4967]

19 and counting .😮

[@FosterWolf]

Will you go on to discuss your theories (if any) you may have concerning the world visited in Covenant?

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@FosterWolf I don’t have plans to discuss Covenant in depth at this point. But I’ll say that I think there are reasons to doubt that David was bringing Shaw to the engineer’s homeworld .

[@FosterWolf]

@TheFilmSymbologist that's generally been my opinion. I think the prolog (for Covenant) shows us David is definitely taught to lie by Weyland. I don't get a second of innocence from him, ever, as David. Maybe as his creator's son, it's his nature to be deceitful. Sise note: thanks for this series. If you were to cover Covenant, Romulus, or the others, I'm down to follow you wherever.

[@spen9643]

A good discussion about the Prometheus film. However, the discussion was marred by phoney racism claims, making out that medical testing around the world was racially based is false and itself racist. It is used on the poor in all countries and is this about class and money only.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@spen9643 It was certainly not my intention to claim that. Global health organizations do plenty of good around the world by bringing medical treatment to communities that otherwise wouldn’t have access to modern medicine. But there is also a dark side to global health, which includes unethical experimentation in both the past and present. I am aware of examples of this happening in the global south, including in Africa, under the direction of affiliates of some western global health organizations. The extent to which these experiments are conducted due to classism, racism, or greed, I did not say because I do not know.

[@charleslennon1]

And I thought it was a lousy movie; who knew it was esoterically bad on so many levels? I find your synopsis very informative, for many reasons, but a little too "wishful." Countless interviews and director commentaries regarding Scott's thoughts on fringe science and belief systems give insight into his state of mind and aspirations for the movies he has directed. If it wasn't for studio meddling, the deleted scenes and scripts that were not filmed offer a complete story that should have been filmed. That said, your overview, e.g., deep dive, should be a compendium of the story (that should have been shown). I suggest your video's are necessary to fully understand and appreciate Scott's vision for the movie and its sequels. I wish I had had your background regarding philosophy and the arts when I was in college. I have always found the Enginer's (Gene-ineers) background compelling and worrisome. We are led to believe their influence on humanity's existence and growth, not to mention those of other species, was by their hands, yet they could not stop their [own] destruction. Weyland exemplifies the hubris in believing they could rest nature in their hands. "You, me.." was a poem by Muhammad Ali during a commencement speech some decades ago. In its essence, it means 'we' are the same. This could be applied to all the races in the franchise, including the Xenos. All of the Engineers and humans have reached the pinnacle of technology without expanding their humility. Both are lacking harmony with their technology. They have tried unsuccessfully to tame or domesticate a 'lesser' species. A species that can not be reasoned or controlled. Regardless of its evolution due to symbiosis, a species [that] will revert to its baser instincts. A species at its core is the perfect organism, a monster.

[@razvantasca]

The Ancient Greeks vision is interesting, but there is a major thing not mentioned.A God gave humans the FIRE,being terribly punished by ZEUS for his act. His name? PROMETHEUS

[@AerialWah]

This is episode 19

[@DeathBYDesign666]

It should be noted that it isn't just fire in this case but how to use it, the very beginnings of what we call technology. It all started that very first time someone thought to build the very first camp fire.

[@jwalter81]

Prometheus Fire

[@MagicE13]

Spoiler - He minces on for 17 minutes. Answer - Its a Base.

[@J0MBi]

ALL UR BASE R BELONG 2 US

[@criticalthot4179]

To me nothing makes sense, there was a pyramid on earth with a queen, how did David create that. I over these movies we never get real answers.

[@Stylesomega_MW]

Avp is not cannon to the alien series

[@Les-y7x]

I usually like your videos but your losing me with all the greek shit. Sci-fi not greek mythology. But keep up the good work,you are appreciated.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@Les-y7x Not every video will appeal to everyone, but it’s going to be difficult to avoid talking about Greek shit when the name of the film is Prometheus 😂

[@bombchus]

A Pyramid is a specific 3d shape like cylinder or sphere. How is that a pyramid?

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

Well, there’s a reason why I’m the Film Symbologist and not the Film Geometrist. I agree pyramid is not the correct technical term for the structures on LV-223, but colloquially pyramid is one of the terms many people, including myself, have chosen to use for the structures. As incorrect as it may be, I see it as similar to the term "goo". Is the black "goo" really a "goo", a sticky inanimate substance? No, but it's the word that has been widely used to refer to it. Hopefully my use of pyramid to refer to a structure that is clearly more of a dome isn't too distracting.

[@slang1517]

@@TheFilmSymbologist Yes, black goo is goo. No, domes are not pyramids.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@slang1517 Looks like we've got ourselves a Film Goo-ologist over here 🙄

[@slang1517]

@ sorry, should I give a pretentious speech about how goo represents some Greek myth? Maybe Pandora’s box or something.

[@TheFilmSymbologist]

@@slang1517 I accept your apology.