Prometheus: Jon Spaihts explores the derelict mystery

leading from 

Prometheus: Jon Spaihts writes a script 

and

Alien: The Space Jockey's story

 

a) Thinking about the Space Jockey

Spaihts was aware that there was an audience to place, he was combing through fan-made wikis online to look at fan theories of how all of these games, comic books, novelizations, and movies could be connected together into a continuous fabric and trying to pick up at least a fraction of the scholarship that the most immersed fans already have. 

 

For him, it was very important to honour canon, wherever possible so he felt obliged to study the Alien Wikipedia version of canon.

 

Perhaps this is where why he felt comfortable with placing the desolate planetoid encountered in the orbit of Zeta II Reticuli rather than just have it as some well known star to navigate by,

 

Curiously, Spaihts assumed that the 'Space Jockey' was a name that was a product of fan literature.

 

We know that the Space Jockey had been named so during the production and so the name stuck ever since, but that detail can mean nothing to some people

 

So Jon Spaihts attitude to the Space Jockey was to basically have a theory about it as seen in the final Alien film rather than look to understand how what we see in the movie came to be via script and production development.  Perhaps it tied in with Ridley's idea that the derelict ship was a battlewagon carrying these egg shaped alien spore as some sort of a bioweapon.

 

 

1. Spaihts: I was aware that there was an audience to please, but moreover, there is a civilization out there that exists now, of its own accord.  The Alien universe has residents.  There are people who live there.  There are online encyclopedias where hardcore nerds have painstakingly reconciled all of the minutiae of six different movies, computer games, comic book series, fan fiction and novelizations.  Many of these things are mutually contradictory because a lot of different writers ran off in different directions in this universe now, but people have tried to make a bible to make all these things make sense to one another.  What’s interesting is that these historians of the Alien universe actually know much more about the Alien universe then any one of the writers who has tried to write a story in it, I guarantee you.  They write what they call the canon of their universe.  All hardcore nerd fan populations jealously guard their canon and they want their universe to be consistent and its awesomeness to be preserved, and you inherit that, as a responsibility, as a new writer entering that universe.  You have to balance the responsibility to the canon and all the fans who live, in some part, in that universe, with your responsibility to tell the best story that you can.  But, for me, it’s very important to honor canon, wherever possible.(https://collider.com/jon-spaihts-prometheus-world-war-robot-interview/)
2. I&T Today: I really enjoyed Prometheus. Was that a challenge taking on a franchise that has all these expectations and such a vocal fan base? Was that difficult to write or did you enjoy that?

   Jon Spaihts: I loved it but it absolutely came with a number of challenges on its own. Not least is the nature of storytelling canons and fan followings. Because I guarantee you there are people in love with the Alien universe who are keeping better track of all the stories unfolding in that universe and how they relate to one another than any of the actual filmmakers or comic book writers themselves are doing. The deepest scholars of these fictional universes are not among the creators of the universes. They are at the pinnacle of the fan base. So for some of my research I was actually going not just back to Ridley Scott’s original movie and the large works inside the Alien universe, I was going to fan-made wikis online to look at fan theories of how all of these games, comic books, novelizations, and movies could be connected together into a continuous fabric and trying to pick up at least a fraction of the scholarship that the most immersed fans already have. .

   I&T Today: That’s probably a good idea. Well, and then also once the film comes out any fan can then access the internet and say, “You didn’t get this one minor detail correct.”

   Jon Spaihts: Ultimately it is impossible, especially once a fictional universe becomes very complex with offshoots in different media like Alien, to dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s. Invariably there will be discontinuities and dissonances that some people will call out and other people will like. There again, the thematic requirements of the story in front of you must always be paramount. But just as in a hard science fiction story I think it’s imperative to serve science as best as you can. I think it’s desperately important to honor that universe as deeply as you can whether that’s the world of Alien or the world of Doctor Strange and the cinematic universe.(https://innotechtoday.com/jon-spaihts-writer-passengers/)
   

 

 

The engineer in his pilot chair in Prometheus

 

 

 

b) Exploring the similar biomechanic look of the Alien, the derelict ship and its pilot

His idea was that because Giger designed the Space Jockey, it's ship and the alien beast, so it appeared to Jon that if the alien beast looked like the ship, to him the ship was in a sense and extension of the Alien beast's biology. 

To him the him the ship and the alien beast had the same chitinous carapace and the same black sheen.

The interior of the juggernaut extended to the alien beast itself, to the walls and bulkheads of the ship, and what the chair in which the space jockey sits, which Spaihts wanted to called a cradle

 

1. Al Horner: In terms of the elements that you knew, that you had to play with in terms of solving some of the mysteries that have kind of surrounded this franchise for years. What did you have to play with? Obviously there was the kind of pilot that we mentioned, the kind of elephantine pilot glimpsed in the first movie. What were some of the starting points in terms of brain storming fun ways to answer these decades long mysteries that had amassed around.. around the earlier films.  
    
   Jon Spaihts: We had the furniture of.. of the first film which is the crashed ship that I named the Juggernaut, and (19:00) that alien, the pilot's cradle who had been nicknamed in lore for a long time the Space Jockey, and around the Space Jockey and the design of that ship, the Giger-ness of it raises a host of other questions because the xenomorph itself, the alien predator looks like the ship it was born in. The ship in a sense presents itself as an extension of xenomorph biology. It has the same er. repetitive units, the same chitinous carapace look to it, the same black sheen.  (See: Transcript for Script Apart podcast Episode 41: Prometheus with Jon Spaihts)

c) Exploring the Space Jockey?

To him, it seemed as if the Space Jockey itself seemed to be an elephantine monster appeared to have its body fused with what looked in many ways like vintage World War 2 combat helmet with breathing mask and tube as head gear for a pilot. 

So everything was part of the parcel with this creature, and this was like a great riddle in and of itself.

 

1. Jon Spaihts:  So in the Giger fuelled design of that original Alien movie, the interior of the juggernaut that extends to the xenomorph itself, to the walls and bulkheads of the ship and to the cradle in which the Space Jockey, sits, and the Space Jockey, himself who appears to have fused with what looks (20:00) like in many ways vintage pilot gear. So he's kind of an elephantine monster but it looks very much like he's wearing a World War 2 combat helmet with breath mask, the breathing tube, but it's all fused with his body and part of the parcel with him. (See: Transcript for Script Apart podcast Episode 41: Prometheus with Jon Spaihts)
2. Jon Spaihts:...part of another species of alien greater that our own. All the mysteries have alien players: the exoskeleton nightmare and giant pilot of the ship, the elephantine titan that was called the 'space jockey' in the fan literature. How do you make anyone care about events between creatures like this? (https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/05/03/how-an-unsung-screenwriter-got-to-work-with-ridley-scott-on-prometheus-and-ended-up-riding-a-bronco/#110d8b9846a0)

 

 

 

The Space Jockey in his chair from Alien

 

 

 

 

d) The mystery of biomechanics

d.i) Egg silo must be a cargo hold!

Spaihts had decided that the egg silo beneath the derelict ship was definitely the cargo hold, and because the egg like alien spores were, they must have been the intentional cargo. 

He perceived that this strange derelict ship and the alien life form down below had common makers that were the pilots of the ship

 

d.ii) Mysterious unitary technology

He also decided that this derelict ship was a place where there is a kind of a unitary technology that fuses biology with machinery and extends all the way up and down through everything that we meet in this environment.

To him. this implied a very different sort of technology and it showed itself in some detail the Space jockey's chair. 

He encountered a lot of speculation about whether this strange skeleton what he would describe as a grizzly cadavre was wearing a suit or was he fused to his chair and this was something that Ridley himself was puzzling over. 

 

The remains of the mysterious creature seemed to be built into it. 

 

 

d.iii) Interfacing with the pilot chair

But in the final Prometheus film the viewer would see that the engineers are joined with the mighty engines that they build when they use them, and they interface with it as a matter of becoming one wth the thing they've made

The viewer would come to see the Space Jockey's chair coming out of the platform that opened up like an iris as the Engineer approached it and climbed into the seat, becoming encapsulated in the flight suit, 

This sight Spaihts perceived to be the realisation of a great many fanboy fantasies.

1. Jon Spaihts: So that is a great riddle in and of itself. What does it mean that here is a place where there is a kind of unitary technology that fuses biology with machinery and extends all the way up and down through everything we meet inside this space. So it implies a... a different technology and it also implies that the makers of the ship are the pilots of the ship and the makers of the ship were also the makers of the xenomorphs. So it's not just the case of some particularly nasty triple like infection of this alien star cruiser. It seems to me from their placement and from the design of the xenomorphs, when they emerged, the only logical explanation er is that they were and intentional (21:00) cargo of this vessel and they have a common maker  (See: Transcript for Script Apart podcast Episode 41: Prometheus with Jon Spaihts) 
2. Jon Spaihts (01:41:19) Here's the Space Jockey's chair..  This is the realisation of er a great many fan boy fantasies.  This.. this completed circle. The space jockey returning to his chair.
    Lot of speculation about whether that grizzly cadaver was wearing a suit.  Is he fused with his chair?  He seemed to be built into it here.  We see the answer, yes the engineers are joined with the mighty engines they build when they use them, they interface as a matter of becoming one with the thing they've made (01:41:50) (Prometheus blu-ray writer's commentary )
   

 

 

 

 

e) Whatever we knew of the Space Jockey wasn't explainable

It didn't appear as if Ridley had that much to say about the Space Jockey to him, but it seemed as if he was looking for design cues, and so came upon Giger's work and lifted from that the design of the space jockey, the alien beast and the various elements of the ship design, and so he would give them his spin

Jon's point of view was there are film makers who will go deep like a Dungeon & Dragons role playing game play, and build a mythological universe behind the action, 

However in his experience in film makers think up as much as they need to to tell their story and everything beyond the ragged border of that zone fades to grey.

1. Al Horner: That's interesting. So did in your early discussions with Ridley, did he kind of er, yeah, give you any insight into, when he planted that in the first film originally, did he have any kind of mythology or was it like this seems kind of like a nice thing to plant in here, as something that would allude to a greater story around this. So what information was given to you from him in terms of like the original placement of the Space Jockey. 

   Jon Spaihts: I didn't... not very much. He was looking for design cues er... In his very early process, he came upon Giger and a number of elements er in the film, from the Space Jockey himself or itself to the xenomorph to the various elements of ship design were lifted part in parcel from that book and you know, given Ridley's spin and integrated by him, but I think he just found deeply alien design schemes and aesthetic infused with gothic horror but (22:00) almost biological alienness, you know like deep sea organisms fused with human nightmares. (See: Transcript for Script Apart podcast Episode 41: Prometheus with Jon Spaihts)

 

 

 

 

f) Comparison to a 'matte painting'

A thought that a film maker needed a world behind the foreground action, and will often suggest that world with some throwaway lines along with some decor in the background with a transition.

He decided that this operated in various ways like matte paintings in class film. However they also shared very often the quality of matte paintings in that they were paper thing and are of low resolution to the point that you're not meant to walk up to them and put your nose six inches from the canvas and interrogate the thing.

Jon's point of view was there are film makers who will go deep like a Dungeon & Dragons role playing game play, and build a mythological universe behind the action, 

However in his experience in film makers think up as much as they need to to tell their story and everything beyond the ragged border of that zone fades to grey.

Then what happens a lot when a franchise becomes successful, everyone goes looking for how to do more on that space, and they will find all the bits and bobs in the matte paintings that attract attention, and while some of them might support the weight of further story, many of them do not.

1. Jon Spaihts: And it's often the case I think in film making, it's a very interesting thing about the interaction of film makers and fans. A film maker needs a world behind the foreground action and will often suggest that... that world with some throwaway lines with some decor in the background with a transition. These things operate in various ways like matte paintings in classic film, but they also share very often the quality of matte paintings in that they are paper thin and are of low resolution and you're not meant to walk up to them and put your nose six inches from the canvas and interrogate that thing. Sometimes there's a film maker who will go deep like a Dungeons and Dragons player and you know build a mythological universe behind the action but much more often in my experience film makers think up (23:00) as much as they need to do to tell their story and everything beyond the ragged border of that zone quickly fades to grey.What happens a lot when a franchise becomes successful, everyone goes looking for how to do more on that space and there are all these bits and bobs in the matte painting that attract attention and some of them might support the weight of further story, but many of them I think will not. I think that many of them are fairly thin. (See: Transcript for Script Apart podcast Episode 41: Prometheus with Jon Spaihts)
   

g) The original Star Wars "Clone War" idea as a 'matte painting'? 

A great example for him to use was Star Wars, where they meet Ben Kenobi who tells Luke Skywalker "I fought with your father in the clone wars" It was an interestig thing to say to somebody but we don't even know what it meant. Who was cloned what? Whether they succeeded in telling the story of the Clone Wars wasn't he was going to give his opinion about. He didn't find it to be a fertile story seed.

But for Jon, the interesting thing about telling the story of the Space Jockey is that he was called to do the job that he understood that might not work, which was to take a so called 'Matte painting' detail like this and elaborate on it until it's a story in its own right. 

But he found that it dovetailed so neatly with some much mythology that he felt was already present in hearts and minds of people around the world who might have been asking where we come from, how the wonders of ancient civilisations were accomplished, and about our kinship with what might be out there.

He also found that there were also questions raised in the first Alien film that could resonate when connected with those ancient questions

1. Jon Spaihts: A great example is Star Wars, you meet Ben Kenobi, he says "Uh, I fought with your father in the clone wars" I think that's a rad thing to say to somebody, you fought with your dad in the Clone Wars, you don't even know what that means. Who's cloning what, what's a "kl'tz" (?), but it sounds cool. It is good matte painting, but then you have to go and invent a clone war and make it interesting and did they succeed in that, I'll leave that question to the audience, but um I don't think (24:00) it's the most fertile story seed, matte painting is thin. um, the interesting thing about this instance is that it was me being called to do a thing I'm generally skeptical of was to go take a matte painting detail like this and elaborate on it until it's a story in its own right and it worked in my opinion only because it dovetailed so neatly with so much detailed mythology already present in hearts and minds of people around the world because we do wonder where we come from, we do wonder how the wonders of ancient civilisation were accomplished, we do wonder about our kinship here with what might be out there and of course there are provocative questions raised in that first Alien film that can resonate when connected with those ancient questions (See: Transcript for Script Apart podcast Episode 41: Prometheus with Jon Spaihts)