Editorials
[Script To Scream] Would ‘Alien: Engineers’ Have Been A Better Movie Than ‘Prometheus’?!
Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve done this column but I think the surfacing of the script for Alien: Engineers, the original incarnation of Prometheus, is a pretty good occasion, right? Ever since the release of Prometheus over the summer there’s been intense debate between the film’s fans and its (many) detractors – would it have been better as a straight Alien prequel? Would it have made more sense? Would the characters still have been petting alien vagina snakes for no reason? I mostly liked the film, but I certainly understand some of these gripes.
We’ve always known that there are two writers on the film, Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. Many of the film’s logical shortcomings were laid at the latter’s feet, which is understandable. He was the last writer on the project. But now that Spaihts’ original draft of Alien: Engineers has surfaced we can trace the exact origins of the elements that made up Prometheus. And, true to the conceit of the film, the answers are frustrating. While there’s some cool stuff, including lots more actual Xenomorph/Alien carnage, in Alien: Engineers – it’s surprisingly close to the Prometheus we’ve come to know and love (or hate).
So now it’s time to do an in-depth breakdown of some key differences. Do they still pet the snake? Does Fifield still turn into a Zombie? Is all of the “God” stuff still in there? Does old man Weyland still show up at the end to take you out of the movie?
All is answered inside.
For starters, let’s get our bearings and address some character differences. Noomi Rapace’s character Elizabeth Shaw is named Jocelyn Watts in this draft and Logan Marshall-Green’s character Charlie Holloway assumes the slightly different moniker of Martin Holloway. Charlize Theron’s Meredith Vickers is Lydia Vickers here. Most of the major character’s names remain the same, with small variations here and there (and of course there are some characters from the film that aren’t in this draft and vice versa).
Names aside, the character of Watts is largely the same in temperament as Rapace’s Shaw (if a bit less openly religious). Vickers is still a blowhard, but is actually less layered in this draft (I actually found her to be one of the more reasonable characters in Prometheus, icy exterior aside). The big difference here is that Holloway in this draft is older (in his 40’s) and isn’t nearly as big of an asshole as Marshall-Green’s iteration of the character.
Michael Fassbender’s David, meanwhile, likely wouldn’t have been played by Fassbender at all (at least as we see him in the film). Here David is described as being more overtly robotic, he’s humanoid in design but couldn’t actually pass for a human being. He’s still very curious about the mission, but his agenda here is more overtly malevolent.
Surprisingly, the opening of the film is very similar (as is the overall role of the Engineers both in the story and in the creator vs. creation dynamic). If there was one element I expected to be hugely different, it was this. But, as you can see below, it was all Spaihts.
Overall, Alien: Engineers still goes pretty heavy on the religious stuff, but it’s not as consistently faith-centric as the Lindelof draft. It also has less Peter Weyland, who pops up at the beginning not as a hologram but in the flesh (and doesn’t pop up at the end to surprise us).
In what amounts to a huge difference to me, the story actually takes place on LV-426. That’s the moon that the Nostromo lands on in the first Alien and it really helps tie the events of this version of the movie to that film. Because of this the crashed Engineer ship from the original makes way more sense in Engineers (it was always such a frustrating coincidence that the ship crashed in the same position in Prometheus but wasn’t actually the Space Jockey craft from the first film). Speaking of ships, the Prometheus is now called the Magellan.
Still the same? F*cking Milburn still has to pet the snake/centipede. It makes slightly more sense here, but it’s weird that it made it into Lindelof’s draft. It’s almost as if Ridley Scott (or Lindelof himself) fell in love with this scene and wanted it in the new version no matter how badly it clashed with their new film.
Holloway is still doomed. He blacks out in the pyramid and makes it back to the ship feeling sick. He then gives birth to a gelatinous, boneless Xenomorph during sex with Watts. This is not the “Alien” that we know and love, but it’s close…
Like I said before, Holloway is less of a jerk in this version. So while the less innocent David doesn’t orchestrate his demise here as he did in Prometheus, he does arrange for Shaw/Watts to be impregnated by a Facehugger.
It’s then that Shaw/Watts gives birth to the actual Xenomorph/Alien as we’ve come to know it. It all happens during the Medpod sequence that marks the highlight of the film, after which the device repairs her massive internal damage.
The Alien itself goes on a rampage and brutally slaughters several characters. While Vickers doesn’t have Weyland secretly stowed away aboard the ship, she does have soldiers to help carry out Protocol 2. What’s Protocol 2? The plan wherein Watts and Holloway are to be neutralized in the event that the Weyland corporation finds technology they want to use without any pesky civilians knowing about it. In Alien: Engineers we find out that the Engineers have actually been working on terraforming technology, something that Weyland has been developing unsuccessfully for years. The soldiers are Aliens style grunts, one of whom is oddly named Vigoda. Many of them end of as fodder for the Alien.
One of the worst elements of the finished film, a zombified Fifield, is still present in this draft. And now that he’s got acid for blood, it’s partially him that causes Vickers’ demise (the Shepherd mentioned here is also one of her soldiers).
The stuff at the end with the rogue Engineer (called a “Sleeper” here) is more or less the same. He still rips David’s head off and he’s still on a mission to get back to Earth in order to deliver the deadly payload of Alien eggs. Only here – as it should be in a friggin’ Alien prequel – he gives birth to a giant Xenomorph. Thus, our circle is now complete. This is the dude with the hole in his chest that the crew of the Nostromo finds in the first film.
Watts and Captain Janek (who doesn’t have sex with Charlize Theron) still ram the Engineer’s ship, which is now on autopilot towards Earth now following the demise of is pilot. He’s still killed and she still escapes via escape pod. Absent here? The co-pilots who so cheerily die in Prometheus.
In the end, Watts/Shaw doesn’t go off in search of other worlds after her pod crashes. Nor does she help the beheaded David. Instead she sets up camp (the Alien head trophy is a nice tough) and plays chess with him remotely, biding her time.
Watts is content to wait. She knows someone will come for her, whether they be human or engineer. And the last few shots of the film feature a beacon that just might attract the Nostromo. It’s a lonely, desolate and satisfying ending.
Overall? I’d say this draft works slightly better than what we see onscreen in Prometheus. The characters’ motivations are more grounded (here they celebrate finding an ancient Alien civilization as opposed to getting all mopey about it) and there’s some actual Xenomorph/Alien action that doesn’t feel tacked on like the final shot in the film. Structurally however, it’s very similar. If you had an issue with the lurching and exposition heavy narrative of Prometheus, you would have likely found similar issues in this version of the film.
Obviously I didn’t have room to touch on every similarity and difference between this draft in the film. If you’re so inclined, you should check out the script for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
On July 13th, 2026, the world lost one of its brightest stars.
Beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill passed away from pneumonia after a long battle with stage 3 lymphoma. The multifaceted movie star will be remembered by mainstream audiences for his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece Jurassic Park, as well as powerful turns in A Cry in the Dark (1988), The Piano (1993), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), and prestige TV series The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. But horror fans know him as one of the genre’s most surprising Scream Kings.
Through a handful of memorable starring roles, Neill spent the 80s and 90s bringing life to a wide variety of characters and finding humanity in the most unusual leading roles, regardless of how heroic or villainous.
The Final Conflict (1981)
After a decade on the stage and screen in New Zealand and Australia, Neill made his international debut as Damien Thorn in Graham Baker’s The Final Conflict, the third installment of The Omen franchise. Now a 36-year-old businessman, Damien is fully aware of his devilish parentage and hell-bent on world domination. But rather than a hooved and horned monstrosity, Neill’s Antichrist is a suave businessman who leads his followers in an expensive suit and seeks to bring about the apocalypse through deceptive altruism rather than grand proclamation.
Despite his austere demeanor, the man’s true evil knows no bounds. When a prophecy foretells the second coming of Christ, known in the film as “the Nazarene,” Damien commands his followers to commit widespread infanticide, murdering all baby boys born on a specific date. He seduces a high-profile reporter while transforming her teenage son into a bloodthirsty disciple, then uses the child as a human shield. This tricky role allows Neill to demonstrate his trademark versatility, easily charming the outside world while dropping his suave mask of normalcy behind closed doors. Though certain aspects of The Final Conflict are admittedly dated, Neill’s performance feels eerily prescient. He’s mastered the heinous portrayal of a politician willing to sell his soul for power that will ultimately bring about the end of the world.
Possession (1981)
Though Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is often remembered for Isabelle Adjani’s stunning depiction of a woman on the edge, Neill delivers an equally unhinged performance as Mark, a spy returning home from a lengthy assignment in divided Berlin. Upon discovering that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants a divorce, Mark desperately tries to hold his family together even at the expense of her sanity. Filmed the same year as The Final Conflict, Neill dives headfirst into this visceral role, managing to evoke sympathy for the distraught father who becomes ever more desperate to regain control. Inspired by his own divorce, Żuławski resists blaming either party for the separation, instead showing the chaos and heartache that comes in the wake of a family’s dissolution.
Once considered to replace Roger Moore as the next James Bond, Neill has fun with the international spy persona as Żuławski’s plot grows increasingly bizarre. But the skilled actor never lets us forget that Mark is a flawed human being struggling to keep his life from falling apart. A second character emerges in the film’s mesmerizing climax, allowing Neill to lean into full villainy with a glassy-eyed stare that chills to the bone. Now a cult classic, Adjani and Neill bounce off each other’s seething rage, creating one of the most effective cinematic duets in the history of horror.
Jurassic Park (1993)
When Steven Spielberg’s creature feature first hit theaters, Neill was by no means a household name and hardly a traditional leading man. Without the swashbuckling swagger of Harrison Ford, the mega-watt smile of Tom Cruise, or the chiselled jaw of Brad Pitt — all famous action stars of the era — Neill felt like an unconventional choice for this massive role. But he perfectly captures the essence of Grant, an aloof academic who prefers dig sites to fancy fundraisers and social events. Despite an aversion to children, the dinosaur expert finds himself tasked with saving the theme park’s youngest survivors who gradually break down his emotional walls. Grant’s transformation into a courageous caretaker is a landmark deconstruction of traditional gender norms wrapped in the guise of a rugged outdoorsman.
Neill proves to be the perfect action star, effortlessly navigating Spielberg’s stunning set pieces without losing the character’s relatable hook. But perhaps the film’s most touching moment is Neill’s childlike wonder at seeing a dinosaur for the first time. Stunned to speechlessness, he channels the audience’s wondrous joy when Grant first spies a real, live Brachiosaurus. But he seamlessly weaves this infectious awe into serious concerns about the creature’s existence, amplifying the story’s prophetic messaging. Jeff Goldblum may utter the film’s iconic warning, but the duality of Grant’s performance perfectly illustrates the scientific imperative, reminding us that just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
Neill would go on to lead Joe Johnston’s 2001 sequel Jurassic Park III, in which Grant is again tasked with saving a child. In 2022, he would appear in Colin Trevorrow’s legacy sequel Jurassic World Dominion, which merges the franchise’s two distinct eras while bringing the carnage onto mainland shores. Despite turning in strong performances, neither film is able to top the magic of Spielberg’s original or Neill’s captivating performance as the stoic leading man. But his nuanced depiction of Alan Grant inspired a generation of would-be paleontologists and quiet kids who could now see themselves as courageous academics capable of surprising strength.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
After catapulting to worldwide fame, Neill returned to horror proper to lead John Carpenter’s mind-bending In the Mouth of Madness. We first meet John Trent (Neill) as he’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into a padded cell. An unknown stretch of time later, he recounts an unbelievable story while covered in protective crosses scrawled into his skin — and the cell’s walls — with black crayon. A private investigator, Trent has been tasked with locating Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), a world-famous yet elusive genre author whose work has been driving his ravenous readers to disturbing acts of random violence.
A love letter to fans of horror fiction, we delight in watching Trent explore literary easter eggs that lead him down jarring rabbit holes. A late-night road trip takes Trent and Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), an editor for Cane’s publishing house, to a tiny New England hamlet teeming with darkness. While investigating an ominous cathedral on the outskirts of town, Trent realizes that he’s somehow been transported into the author’s interdimensional story and become its unwitting protagonist.
Neill serves as a skeptical everyman and the audience’s conduit through this bizarre tale of literary monsters that find a way to burst through the page. An often overlooked Carpenter film, In the Mouth of Madness spirals into insanity, but Neill keeps us grounded throughout each outlandish twist. A shocking conclusion leaves us gaping at our screens and contemplating our own relationship with horror fiction. After all, does free will truly exist? Or, like Trent, are we merely pawns in someone else’s monstrous creation?
Event Horizon (1997)
One of the scariest movies ever set in space, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon builds upon the heroic image Neill established for himself in Jurassic Park. Dr. William Weir (Neill) is a physicist temporarily joining the crew of the Lewis and Clark to assist in their latest rescue mission. Seven years after vanishing without a trace, a spaceship called the Event Horizon has suddenly reappeared near Neptune’s orbit. As the creator of a top-secret gravity drive designed to facilitate faster-than-light travel, Dr. Weir has been sent to explore the ship and find out what happened to its missing crew.
Still haunted by his late wife’s suicide, Dr. Weir is a sympathetic figure, particularly in comparison to the harsh Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) who commands the crew of the Lewis and Clark. But Weir’s desperation to return to the infamous ship hides a sinister secret that leads his fellow astronauts to the threshold of hell. Neill’s talent for playing the everyman pays off in spades as the formerly sympathetic widower transforms into a disciple of this frightening dimension. Resembling a long-lost cenobite, Weir claws out his own eyes and prepares to drag the crew into a world consumed with sadistic pain.
Daybreakers (2009)
Neill returns to his Omen roots in Michael and Peter Spierig’s action-packed film as a secretly sinister businessman. But rather than the Antichrist, Charles Bromley (Neill) is a proud vampire convinced of the species’ superiority. With human blood in short supply, Bromley Marks Corp. is working on a synthetic substitute to prevent the human race from impending extinction. While hematologists perfect the formula, Bromley oversees disturbing fields of humans chained to massive machines that systematically harvest their blood.
Neill chills in this sinister role with vampiric yellow eyes, a pale complexion, and subtle fangs. But more upsetting is the fact that he honestly doesn’t believe he’s wrong. Once diagnosed with cancer, Bromley was delighted to find that vampirism would totally reverse his illness and grant him the gift of eternal life. He begged his daughter Alison (Isabel Lucas) to turn alongside him, but she has rejected her father’s controversial choice and is now hunted by his bloodthirsty goons. In a heartbreaking moment of clarity, Bromley brings his daughter to the brink of death, then turns away in disgust when she will not embrace his undead lifestyle.
Daybreakers is a surprisingly thrilling exploration of survival and sustainability. Similar to a plot Damien Thorn would hatch, Bromley’s ultimate plan is to placate the vampire population with synthetic blood while allowing the human population to replenish itself. With a larger stock, he plans to sell authentic humans at a premium, hunting these poor souls to season the meat. Bromley rejects a cure that would reverse the vampiric disease, choosing to enrich himself over saving the world. The strangely captivating villain’s end is a cathartic nightmare and fitting punishment for a wealthy man who places himself above everyone else.
In the Mouth of Madness
While the world may remember Neill for his signature role as a gruff but compassionate paleontologist going head to head with a raging T-Rex, horror fans may picture the versatile actor maniacally rocking back and forth in a filthy Berlin apartment, commanding a boardroom of corporate vampires, disappearing into the darkness of a haunted spaceship, sermonizing to satanists, or giggling over popcorn in a deserted movie theater. Or perhaps you have another favorite role in the beloved actor’s stellar career. But whether he was playing a hero or villain, Neill brought undeniable humanity to every role, redefining our idea of masculinity and the very nature of goodness vs. evil. By bringing such disparate characters to life, Neill challenged audiences with a variety of complex roles, asking us to examine the humanity of each character no matter how flawed or virtuous.
You must be logged in to post a comment.