leading from
a) Dark Angels
The connection however being made by Ridley is Milton's Paradise Lost, and in comparison, it was the Engineers who are tall and elegant and are the dark angels as in Paradise Lost.
The dark angels are the guys who look handsome, go to all the best nightclubs, have all the fun and all the girls, and they would be the evil sons of a bitches.
And so there was the other person that Ridley referred to as God and soon simply transformed into the good one who isn't quite as good looking, isn't having all the fun, is kind of dull and depressing or even as boring as hell, and stays home.
So in a funny sort of way, the story would touch on that to the degree of using it as a basis.
It would be too simplistic to call the bad element evil, but it's closer to answering the question, who and why would any being create such a monster as the beast in Alien and for what reason given that there was a reason.
- ERIC SPITZNAGEL: I got kind of an Old Testament vibe from Prometheus. RIDLEY SCOTT: Great. Then I've done my job.
Eric Spitznagel: So that was intentional?
Ridley Scott: Oh, yes. I'm really intrigued by those eternal questions of creation and belief and faith. I don't care who you are, it's what we all think about. It's in the back of all our minds.Eric Spitznagel: In the Old Testament, God is kind of an asshole.
Ridley Scott: Yeah, he was pretty hard on us, wasn't he?
Eric Spitznagel: Humanity's creators in Prometheus aren't much better. The "Engineers," as they're called, are really prickish and hostile. Are they a metaphor for your feelings about God?
Ridley Scott: Me, personally?
Eric Spitznagel: Yeah. Do you believe in a supreme deity who's sadistic and cruel and maybe hates us?
Ridley Scott: Well, that's not me. That's Paradise Lost.
Eric Spitznagel: You think Milton got it right?
Ridley Scott: I don't think so literally, but it seems analogous sometimes. The only guy in Paradise Lost having a good time is that son-of-a-bitch dark angel.
Eric Spitznagel: My favorite part of Prometheus is when a battered and bloody Noomi Rapace reaches for her crucifix necklace, and the decapitated robot head says to her, "Even after all this, you still believe." In that scene, are you Noomi or the robot head?
Ridley Scott: That's hard to say. [Long pause] I do despair. That's a heavy word, but picking up a newspaper every day, how can you not despair at what's happening in the world, and how we're represented as human beings? The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level. And the biggest source of evil is of course religion.
Eric Spitznagel: All religions?
Ridley Scott: Can you think of a good one? A just and kind and tolerant religion?
ES: Not off the top of my head, no.
Ridley Scott: Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshipping the same god. (Ridley Scott on Prometheus - Esquire and www.ericspitznagel.com/ Jun 4, 2012
Ridley Scott: They’re going off to paradise but it could be the most savage, horrible place. Who are the Engineers?(http://metro.co.uk/2012/10/10/)
Ridley Scott: It (Prometheus) was reaching out to talk about gods and demons and the world that we can never understand - our creation (Empire Magazine, December 2013, p25) - Yahoo!: And Prometheus 2 will be a continuation of the story?
Ridley: Of course. Have you ever read Paradise Lost, by Milton? In a funny kind of way, it’s an interesting basis for the darkness of [Prometheus 2]. Where the good-looking guy, who is evil as s–t, gets all the girls and goes to the nightclubs. The other guy, who is not quite as good-looking, is boring as hell and stays home. So in a funny kind of way, we used that as the basis for it, it’ll be Alien: Paradise Lost. Which is very spooky, because it continues after the last one, where Elizabeth Shaw [Noomi Rapace] says, “I wanna go where they came from.” And you’ve got Michael Fassbender in two parts, so she’ll slowly put him back together. They will go to the world of the Engineer. ( 2015-09-29 http://www.scified.com/site/prometheusmovies/shaw-and-david-will-make-it-to-the-engineer-home-world-in-prometheus-2-alien-paradise-lost) - Interviewer: So, is Prometheus a different animal?
Ridley Scott: Eh, no, actually I'm heading back to introducing why and how and who would make such a monstrous creature and for what reason. So I'm going back to the planet of the engineers, I'm going back to where they came from, as Noomi says in the film, I don't want to go back to where I came from, I want to go back to where they came from, so she heaves the two parts of David's body into the ship and they leave. We'll pick it up literally there. (2 Oct 2015, DP_30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWy6Egvz6Ws)
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| The Judgment of Adam and Eve: "So Judged He Man" |
b) The biggest source of evil
When Ridley picked up a newspaper every day, he could not help but despair at what is happening in the world and how we are represented at human beings.
The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level, and the biggest source of evil is of course religion.
Everyone would tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god, and the irony was that by definition they're probably worshipping the same god.
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| Fall of Rebel Angels by Gustave Doré from Milton's Paradise Lost |
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