Prometheus.

Some of you liked it. The majority of you hated it.

I adore it.

The prequel/not a prequel to Alien (and now maybe it’s a sequel to Blade Runner) follows Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and Dr. Charlie Holloway, along with a crew, to LV-223. After finding multiple drawings across Earth, all depicting the same god-like figure, they set out on their journey to this distant planet. There they hope to find the answers to mankind.

Perhaps Prometheus can be seen as a warning to our society to not put our trust in man as a god. It can also be seen as a warning to not put all of our faith in an invisible God.


Prometheus blows my mind. There are so many complex themes and imagery in it that makes me want to watch it on repeat. I cannot do it justice. There is simply no possible way. I state this with every article where I present ideas to you, but this time I truly mean it. To give every ounce I believe this film deserves would take weeks if not months.

I think Prometheus affects me strongly because I grew up Catholic. I learned the Bible in a manner where I was told that I was special – because I was one of the few that believed in THE ONE TRUE GOD. In the last few years, any ounce of belief has left me. I still hope that there is some purpose to life or a higher being that put all of this into existence, but I simply can no longer put my faith into something I cannot see.

While I cannot give Prometheus the analysis it deserves, I can present the greatest, most obvious theme throughout this incredible film. The concept of God.

From the beginning, Prometheus is saturated with religion.

– The opening of Prometheus opens with a god-like engineer sacrificing himself. As his body deteriorates, it is washed away and DNA broken down. DNA we later discover is identical to human DNA.

– He has sacrificed himself, like Jesus, so that we shall live.

– The name Elizabeth is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Elisheva, meaning “God’s promise”, “oath of God”, or “I am God’s daughter”.

– Elizabeth is always wearing her father’s cross, showing she has faith in God.

– The name Charles is from the Germanic word karl meaning “free man”.

– Charlie’s faith is in science, much like Charles Darwin.

– When Prometheus lands, the captain is seen setting up a Christmas tree. The celebration of the birth of the Son of God.

– There is constant dialogue throughout the movie on what the characters believe, and what they have faith in.

– Elizabeth’s mission is to find the creators. Her thoughts are that the engineers created us, and she wants to know who created them.

– In the pyramid, the crew find the chamber full of the vases of death. This scene is very reminiscent of the egg chamber in Aliens, as mentioned a few weeks ago.

– Behind the giant head in the chamber, is a mural. The mural shows a familiar alien being in a very crucified Christ pose. Yes, it’s our Space Jesus.

– When Charlie and Elizabeth argue about the discovery of the fallen engineers, Charlie states that the realization is that nothing is special. Anyone can create life.

– We then learn that Elizabeth is sterile and cannot conceive. This idea is very important.

– In the Gospel of Luke, Mary, the mother of Jesus, asks how she is to conceive and bear a son, since she is a virgin. She is told it will happen by the power of God.

– After Charlie is infected and is killed, Elizabeth is told by David that she is pregnant. A virgin birth of sorts by the power of the engineer gods.

– Wrapped much like Christ on the cross, Elizabeth preforms surgery to remove the alien embryo from her.

– “Sometimes to create, one must destroy.”

– This quote can be seen everywhere in the Bible, perhaps the most prominent in the Old Testament with the story Noah and his ark. God sends constant rain upon the earth to flood and destroy it so that select humans can start over.

– In the Bible, King David is chosen by God.

– David in the film is stated by Peter Weyland to be his only son. Much like Jesus to God.

– A parallel of the Bible story of David and Goliath can be seen in Prometheus.

– Goliath was a giant and a warrior. David struck Goliath in the forehead with a stone from his sling. Goliath fell dead, and David took Goliath’s sword and beheaded him.

– The Bible story’s point was to show that Goliath represented paganism, and David represented a true faith in God.

– The engineer can be seen as the Goliath figure in Prometheus, however, with the stones of words that David throws, he is far from victorious and ends up being the one beheaded.

– In the Bible, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

– Jesus says that Simon is “blessed” to see his true identity. Jesus then calls Simon by the name “Peter” – from the word ‘rock’ in Greek.

– “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:13-20)

– The idea that Peter Weyland hopes to learn the secret to eternal life on LV-223 – a giant rock – can be interpreted in a much deeper sense from the above quote.

– The first scene we see the awakened Peter Weyland, he is having his feet washed.

– At the beginning of the Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Peter refused to let Jesus wash his feet to which Jesus said: “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me”, Peter replied: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head”. (John 13:2-11)

– The idea that Weyland’s feet are being washed just before his “last supper” so to speak, is quite significant.

– Weyland’s last words are: “There’s nothing.”

– David answers, “I know. Have a good journey, Mr. Weyland.”

– In the deleted scenes and extras in the dvd set of Prometheus, we see additional amounts of religious imagery.

– At the 2023 TED Conference, Peter Weyland gives a grand speech culminating in “We are the gods now.”

– In an extended conversation with the engineer at the end of the film, Weyland tells him that he made David in his own image. For that, he deserves to live forever as he, too, is a god.

– In a transmission to Weyland, Elizabeth pleas for his assistance, stating “Do you ever feel all the science in the world will never give us the answers we really want?”

– In the end, Elizabeth puts her father’s cross back on as David asks her, “After all this, you still believe, don’t you?”