Movies
[OMFG] ‘Prometheus’ Secrets Revealed: Movie Tie-In Tells (Almost) All!
When Prometheus: The Art of the Film arrived on my doorstep Friday afternoon, it took all of my willpower not to immediately crack open the hefty hardback. But since I wasn’t seeing the film until Saturday, I resisted the temptation. Good thing I did, because the gorgeously produced The Art of the Film not only fills in many of the blanks that have frustrated moviegoers, it’s a seriously in-depth exploration that has the potential to spoil the movie entirely.
This afternoon I sat down with Prometheus: The Art of the Film for a simulated Q&A over coffee and crullers, and the book indulged many secrets. But be warned, our fake discussion was candid in nature, and some very serious spoilers follow the break.
Have some of those major questions answered below!
[Editor’s Note: Information provided by director Ridley Scott, production designer Arthur Max, creature and special effects supervisor Neal Scanlan, and screenwriter Damon Lindelof.]
Q: So what’s up with that albino humanoid alien committing suicide in the prologue? Is he poisoning the planet’s water or something?
A: According to the Prometheus: The Art of the Film, the albino humanoids are known as “Engineers”, a superior race approximately 2-3 million years ahead of humans, that have learned how to seed planets with their own DNA. In the prologue, a sole Engineer is depicted seeding the planet Earth many, many, many years ago. His spacecraft departs moments later.
Q: What’s going on with all the cave drawings? If the Engineers are so bent on destroying us, why don’t they just wipe us out during one of their visits to our planet?
A: Arthur Max explains that “…the Engineers, playing the role of God in the universe, have visited Earth many times over millennia and given mankind genetic upgrades both physical and intellectual.”
Q: I don’t understand the importance of the big-ass human head sculptures in the pyramid. Explain that shit.
A: The giant head sculptures were constructed by the Engineers as a way to celebrate their place as God in the universe. A sort of self-effigy, if you will. Why is this celebratory head sculpture placed in a room with hundreds of ampules of black goo? It remains (purposely?) unexplained.
Q: Oh yeah, the black goo in the ampules. Where’d that shit come from?
A: The Engineers developed it as a biochemical weapon intended to wipe out all of planet Earth, but the creatures somehow turned on them. It’s not mentioned why the Engineers are so bent on eradicating Earthlings, but there are hints that they felt a complete planetary reset was in order.
Q: There’s a zombie in this movie. Why is there a fucking zombie in this movie?
A: The original concept of the zombie-esque “Babyhead” creature was “more alien than human”, but they liked the “strong performance” of actor Sean Harris, ultimately deciding to use less make-up since “the general feeling was it would be much better to hold on to the actor’s features, hold on to all the things that he would bring to the show.”
Q: The Prometheus is flying missions almost 30 years before we were first introduced to the Nostromo from Alien. Why is the technology so much more advanced?
A: While the Nostromo was a commercial towing vessel, a tug used primarily for grunt labor, the Prometheus is the company flagship. Hence the heavy-duty upgrades.
Q: What’s up with the arch-shaped display in the pyramid? Was that an altar?
A: Yes, it was an altar, with the depiction of an adult Giger-like alien at the center, apparently crucified. This indicates that the creatures from Alien have been around for centuries, and not first introduced in the final moments of Prometheus as some have speculated. The book is strangely coy in regard to the carving: “[The crew members] look at it and speculate briefly about it. But it’s not very clear what it is.”
The Art of the Film also reveals that some of the imagery in Prometheus was adapted from “archival work” leftover from the original Alien. For the curious, most of this imagery can be found in The Book of Alien, a slim movie tie-in first published in 1979. Arthur Max explains, “We went through [sketches and drawings from the original Alien] and Ridley was very excited to see all this stuff because he hadn‘t seen it in a long time. A lot of stuff he wanted to was included in this archive but hadn‘t made into the original film. He said, ‘Well, maybe we can base something on this,’ and there were drawings from all those original designers we took.”
(A few weeks ago, Titan Books, the U.K-based publisher releasing Prometheus: The Art of the Film, republished both The Book of Alien and the 1995 Aliens movie tie-in, Colonial Marines Technical Manual. Any self-respecting fan of the franchise should have all three on their bookshelf.)
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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