Prometheus: The Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman influence?

leading from 

a) Once Ridley Scott mentioned that he was taking film viewers to the dark side of the moon, I wondered if this meant that we were going to encounter monsters associated with Pink Floyd which meant the movie "Pink Floyd: The Wall" released in 1982 with strange hallucinatory characters designed by illustrator Gerald Scarfe.  
 
b) It took me quite a while but I became almost convinced that I would find something odd relating to 1970s music culture once I noticed that the blue Deacon seemed as if it might have been named the Deacon as a sort of a homage to Steely Dan's song "Deacon Blues" because Ridley Scott's brother Tony had made a film called "Crimson Tide" which was a title that found it's origin in the song "Deacon Blues".
 

Gerald Scarfe
 

c) Since Prometheus didn't make much use of of Giger's direct input,  having ideas drifting from the world of Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe seemed to be a natural direction to go since they were part of the pop culture of the 1970s.

Ralph Steadman
d) So first I decided that the sight of the WETA's alternate Fifield Monster from the unused footage on the Prometheus DVD reminded me slightly of the Teacher from Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and then the fact it was rejected led them to create a design loosely inspired by something designed by Ralph Steadman whose work was often confused with Gerald Scarfe's work and I thought the drawing of one of the lizards from the Lizard Lounge in his drawings for Hunter S. Thompson's 1970s novel "Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas" drawings might have been the inspiration. Then I realised that the teeth and tongue of the trilobyte seemed oddly inspired by the teeth and tongue of the wife transforming into an hallucinatory monster in Pink Floyd's "The Wall". Once I had discovered this, it was easy to be convinced and then I suddenly wondered if the blue Deacon captured the essence of one of Gerald Scarfe's drawing of Mick Jagger.

Arthur Max

e) On November 14th, I googled Arthur Max's name to see if there was anything more about his background in the entertainments industry and it turned out that he was Pink Floyd's lighting designer during the bands' tours in the US and around the world in the early 70' and now he was production designer for Prometheus guiding and overseeing all the designs, was he the one who brought the Pink Floyd influence into the  Prometheus beasties . (see Wikipedia)

The "Origin of the World" Line

leading from

This line starts out from Nativity icon at St Catherine's monastery, which mysteriously appears to reference the  Egyptian Henu Barque and loosely echoes the layout of forms to be found at Occator Crater on the Ceres planetoid. But the main feature is Gustave Courbet's "L'Origine Du Monde" that can be seen to reference El Greco's The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane in a curious way. 

Numerous paintings reference the Nativity Icon, numerous paintings reference the El Greco painting. 
What appears to reference Courbet's piece are the very famous Basel version of "Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Böcklin which was the first version of five that he did, and it also seems to show signs of El Greco's painting and perhaps the Henu Barque as well, and the piece itself 

With that came the realisation that Skat players: Card Playing War Invalids (1920) by Otto Dix referenced the Basel version of Isle of the Dead, perhaps there's an echo of "L'Origine Du Monde" with the left breast becoming the central head.

A couple of days after his passing, a surprise came when I noticed that Alan Bean the former Apollo 12 astronaut's "Our World At My Fingertips" from 2005 conformed to elements of the Courbet painting


7th Century) Nativity icon at St Catherine's monastery

See also: Nativity icon at St Catherine's monastery

The Nativity icon, St Catherine's Monastery, 
South Sinai Governorate, Egypt, approximately 7th century AD.


1590s) The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane by El Greco


The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane by El Greco in 1590s


1866) L'Origine Du Monde by Gustave Courbet



Gustave Courbet's L'Origine Du Monde 1866


1880) Isle of the Dead: "Basel" version,  by Arnold Böcklin

Isle of the Dead: "Basel" version, (1880) Arnold Böcklin

1920) Skat players: Card Playing War Invalids by Otto Dix

See: Otto Dix's Skat Players

Skat players: Card Playing War Invalids (1920) Otto Dix


1979) Erotomechanics VIII, work 423 by HR Giger

The idea that this ought to be connected to L'Origine Du Monde was suggested by Elliot H. King, since it displays the lower torso of a woman in a similar way, and the comparison works.

See also:  Erotomechanics VIII, work 423 (1979) by HR Giger


Erotomechanics VIII, work 423 (1979) by HR Giger


2005) "Our World At My Fingertip"s, by Alan Bean

Comparing Bean's painting to Courbet's L'Origine Du Monde: 

The navel becomes the Earth.

The pubis becomes the notebook.

With the notebook somewhat removed from the position it ought to be as the pubis, while the division with the binder is the female genitalia going off to the left rather than the right. I suppose the book is on the left arm of the suit and it can't be changed over to the other side.

The legs and torso become the almost invisible bootprints with the left upper leg becoming the left boot print, the right upper leg becoming the lower right bootprint and the belly becoming the upper right boot print.


 "Our World At My Fingertips"(2005) Alan Bean'

Prometheus : Here comes the Juggernaut!

 leading from:

a) A New Starting point
While it became clear that the DNA was the mystery of the Space Jockey.

Ridley also managed to share with magazine "L'Ecran Fantastique" something more to explain how he could claim it contains the DNA of Alien, talking about how a charcoal rendering of the Space Jockey that Giger gave him which was displayed on his wall at home inspired him with the idea about where to go with a sequel.

Ridley thought ""Damn! This is where we should start again!"
 

Sketch by HR Giger . source: Michalovski's website.
(Is this the one on Rdley's wall?)

b) A character named The Juggernaut
Sylvain Despretz recalled that there was discussion about the Space Jockey being a man in a suit even before the Fifth Element production came into being.

Ridley had also been thinking about a little green watercolour by Moebius of an alien space pilot, he showed it to Sylvain Despretz, who worked on concept art and storyboards for some of Ridley's films, and would refer to this character as The Juggernaut (in sharp opposition to the Space Jockey)

The original space jockey drawing that Ridley came up with based on a Giger drawing looked like a flight suit that had become a chrysalis for a moth or butterfly. One might perhaps ask what was inside it.

Ridley's storyboard which adapts Giger's Necronom V


c) Early indications that it wore a suit
But Ridley would describe the Juggernaut character to Sylvain as being in "scuba gear" which appeared to imply that what we saw of the Space Jockey was a suit.

What we do know is that the final space jockey design by Giger looked as if he had a biomechanic body or wore a biomechanic suit and had a see-through space helmet which wasn't used in the film. Perhaps the skull of the creature was its own, but not for Ridley.

What Ridley liked very much about Giger's space jockey design was that one couldn't work out whether the pilot was part of the whole ship or was just melding with it for the flight.

Back then Ridley had ideas for the Engineer's planet that was far more alien and insane than what we have seen in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, and we might wait to see if there's anything more to be seen of them in future Alien films.



Moebius' space jockey (I scanned this from Alien The Archive)

d) See: Alien/ Prometheus: The doorway to the next chapter

  1. Ridley Scott: Moreover, after Giger has completed his drawing of the driver, he made me a present of the original. This is a beautiful piece, drawn in charcoal black on white paper, which I displayed on a wall at home. I spent so much time looking at that I ended up saying "damn! This is where we should start again! "[laughs]. [Laughs]. That is why I believe that we can quite accurately describe the Prometheus project, saying it contains the DNA of Alien.  (L'Ecran Fantastique Hors-Serie #20, p13) 
  2. Ridley Scott: I came up with saying, "what happens if these guys exist? And if they do exists, who were they?" And I always figures that pilot was flying a battleship and the battleship was a carrier of deadly objects. The deadly objects were the eggs, and the eggs were the DNA that would be carried out to destroy, would be used to destroy. What would they be destroying? (The Furious Gods: Making Prometheus(07:18) )
  3.  Dominic Kulcsar: Whatever the space jockey was in the first film, it was sculptural shell made to look realistic and other ideas could grow out of that. Then of course in the early storyboards that Ridley did, he took a part of Necronom V and drew something that resembled a chrysalis. One could look at that and wonder if it contained something else in the way a chrysalis would. But I suppose this question about the space jockey as a suit is something with different possible answers from different contexts. (See thread in Alien Explorations:  23 May at 11:38 )
    Sylvan Despretz: Yeah. I think it might be a mistake to try and pin down an exact crime scene because that's not really how ideas work.

    Most ideas travel with their opposite--with their contradictions.

    It's not until you fully unpack them that you become fully aware of what you meant by them.

    My memory is hazy but I recall that the inspiration for the "juggernaut" (how Ridley used to call it, in sharp opposition to "Space Jockey") was a little green watercolour done by Moebius which Ridley showed me in his office, before adding that "Giger developed it further".

    I seem to recall Ridley describing the Juggernaut as in "scuba gear" which implies to me that the chrysalis was always in the back of his mind. 
    And Giger, indeed, did a hybrid with one of his Necronomicon creations that seemed to simply grow out of the chair. Ridley originally said that he liked that you didn't know if the Juggernaut was the whole ship or just melding with it for flight. It's possible that the decision to have an ordinary Marvel Jesus-Super hero inside came to him as a 26 year late afterthought. More than likely, it's more part of a shitty Damon Lindeloff idea. The story Ridley told me about the Juggernaut planet was far more alien and far more insane than what he's done with it which seems more tailored for sequels and regurgitation. Anyway. This process is alway one of cross pollenation and you can never point to an idea and truly tell whose it is. Clearly, an alliance made the first Alien something uniquely grand which no one was ever able to rekindle... not even the original director.  (See thread in Alien Explorations:  23 May at 11:38

Arnold Böcklin

Alien Covenant: Terrace with garden by Wayne Haag (Homage to Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead)

leading from

a) The terrace garden by Wayne Haag that appears to be a homage to Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead, and that artist's work, as we can know from the podcast interview at AVPGalaxy with Wayne Haag was a point of discussion with Ridley during the production.

Either side of the huge circular building in the Engineer's city are these terraces with trees


(image source at http://www.alien-covenant.com/…/wayne-haag-shares-remarkabl…)

b) It shares enough with the third version of Isle of the Dead painting 1883

Isle of the Dead: Third version, 1883

c) A number of people might want to connect it with Giger's interest in Böcklin's Isle of the Dead, because of his painting that payed homage to the fifth version of Isle of the Dead, but there's also a wider appreciation for this symbolist painter than that so I'm not really connecting the two

See also HR Giger's Homage to Böcklin

Directions to pursue with Prometheus

 leading from

a) Gods
Ridley Scott when developing his idea for a sequel to Alien talked about associating the space jockeys with the ancient god Mars who was the god of war, although Mars was not far away enough.
In the trailer for the movie, the idea of the hoot of an owl was in the music for the trailer, and such an owl might have for me been representative of Athena the goddess amongst other things, wisdom, and this would have been alerting me to some sort of knowledge to be gained through watching the movie.

b) Ancient Tablets 

b i) While watching the movie, the ancient tablets even thought they were only to be seen briefly indeed inspired me, perhaps to want to look at their origins and then want to redesign these things because it never seemed to be perfect enough. One could see errors in the logic of some of these things but then again it was all still very interesting.

Tablet of Mayan Rocket Man in Prometheus 
NOTE WELL, this is not the real Pakal Votan tomb lid!

b ii) I wanted to imagine what the Egyptians would have made of the influence of the Engineers or the Space Jockeys creeping into their shamanistic experiences that showed up in their book of the dead murals and papyruses. Giger had already layed out the language for this back in the 1970s especially with his work for Alien, with the space jockey and seat being inspired by the Egyptian images of the Henu Barque, and the Was sceptre creeping into the form of the alien and stating itself as the hammer tip of the derelict ship

b iii) I also wanted to imagine what the artists Moebius or Giger would have made of the Pakal Votan tomblid which inspired their Mayan Space Jockey tablet. I had then discovered that Giger had already explored influence of that tomb lid to some degree in his Necronom V painting but didn't come up with a rocket exterior though. I also started to imagine Moebius transforming the Mayan Space Jockey into an Arzach like character who traveled through ancient tombs and the depths of space in a small rocket ship that was perhaps the size of an oversized dragster. I wondered what kind of adventures he could have that might loosely conform to the rules of the world of Prometheus

i) see: Ancient Mayan Space Jockey 'Star Map' Tablet
ii) see Ancient Sumerian Engineer 'Star-Map' Tablet

c) Holographic Orrery
When I watched the orrery scene, on one hand it posed the question to me about whether the universe was holographic. I also thought about a book that I had read as a child, The Most Beautiful Tree In The World which was about a huge Christmas tree that was discovered and transplanted to an Ice Rink in New York, which I later discovered was the Rockerfeller Centre ice rink where a statue of Prometheus was to be discovered. Not being an American, I wouldn't have been conscious of the place being real when I read the book as a child and enjoyed the illustrations



d) Prometheus by way of Eden Log and Pandorum

d i) I had seen an review for the 2007 movie Eden Log in a magazine and in the opening scene , it began with a flashing light and then it would be revealed a man without any memory suddenly waking up, and a reviewer for a magazine had the idea that it was as if the human were something that had manifested because of the flashing light were the initial spark of this reality of the film. I was very inspired by reading this interpretation



d ii) When I saw Prometheus in my own mental associations, I thought about the orrery as something that was manifesting the giant that would be found asleep in its sarcophagus and if the orrery hadn't been turned on, the giant would not have been found alive, he might have been another who would have been dead with a hole in the top of his sarcophagus.

A mutant from Eden Log

d iii) Eden Log, without being given credit had been remade as Pandorum released in 2009, produced by Paul Anderson, which was also considered a good film in its own right. In Pandorum a human finds himself coming out of hibernation in a pod removing a severe breathing mask. He appears to be immune to a virus that has transformed all the rest of the other people in the ship into mutants in the spaceship in which he is. In Prometheus the Engineer has not succumbed to the transforming infection that has  killed his brethren.


man wakes up from deep sleep with breathing mask on in Pandorum

e) Metamorphoses

e i) The transformations taking place in the movie that were due to the black fluid were also in my mind, perhaps loosely transformations in the manner of Greek Mythology as seen in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Perhaps the crew of the Nostromo themselves are incurring the wrath of the gods with their exploration.

e ii) Elizabeth Shaw's partner Charlie Holloway undergoes the beginning of a terrible transformation enough for him to have his DNA changed so that when he has sex with Elizabeth Shaw, she eventually gives birth to a multilimbed terrible monster loosely known as the Trilobite. Fifield also undergoes a transformation into a creature with the rage, strength, agility and intelligence of an angry ape.

e iii) In Greek Mythology, the goddess Gaeia known as Mother Earth gave birth to the Titans, one of whom was named Prometheus, she also gave birth to the single eyed cyclopses and then the hundred handed giants. Echidna, an monster who was human female at the top half and serpentine at the bottom became the mother of monsters, having given birth to various terrifying monsters such as Cerberus, the Chimera, the Lernean Hydra, and by some accounts the sphinx and the Nemean lion. However Pasiphae the wife of Minos after having made love to a bull gave birth to the minotaur.

When Perseus beheaded the gorgon named Medusa, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chrysaor, a golden sword-wielding giant, sprang from her body.



e iv) Mythology was given a contemporary spin by Ray Harryhausen in his various movies includingthe 1981 movie Clash of the Titans, Calibos the son of the sea goddess Thetis was punished by Zeus for slaying most of his herd of winged horses, and only Pegasus survived. He was then transformed into something close to a deformed satyr. When Perseus kills Medusa, out of her blood springs giant scorpions. In the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, Acresius punished by Zeus to transform into Calibos but is then given strength by Hades to pursue Perseus is soon slain and later giant creatures that were scorpions merged with elements of crocodiles known as Scorpiocs grew out of Calibos remains.

e v) The original alien life cycle from Alien in itself had become a strange sort of set of mysterious symbols with the appearance of the egg shaped alien spore leading to faceraping facehugger leading to the man giving birth to a chestburster leading to the huge alien creature that grew in a short time and could as shown in the comic book squash itself into a box shape. Fifield's reappearance as a humanoid with his legs bent up backwards behind him also loosely reflected the odd intended flexibility of the original alien.



f) The Hammerpede

f i) Small worm like creatures when  exposed to the black substance in Prometheus begin to transform into the winged headed snake like creatures known as hammerpedes, one of which attacked and killed Milburn. Were the worms always supposed to be there in the sealed off environment to transform into dangerous hammerpedes once the black substance had begun to leak?

f ii) Neca had made a hammerpede that came with their Deacon figure. I might have my engineer figure hold one as if it were a symbolic staff and then it seemed almost an alternative form of the Egyptian Was-sceptre. That becomes interesting as exploration because one can look at the fact that the hammerpede's hammer shaped head was inspired by the hammer head tip of the derelict ship that had been inspired by the giant blue Was-Sceptre as seen in the V&A museum. That is not to say that it had to only be a Was-Sceptre but they are relations.  (See: Influence of the Was-Sceptre on the design of the tip of the derelict's engine)

Alien Covenant: Creature face by Dan Hallet

leading from 


(Source :Dan Hallett -Artist Page on Facebook)
Dan Hallett intended this picture to be just on the other side of the tipping point of David the android's descent into madness.

For Dan, it had on foot in 'scientific' study, while the rest of it bordered on 'surreal nightmare'.

Perhaps one could compare it to various Beksinski's composition drawn in black and white dominated by large faces on the verge of disintegrating

He included also a secondary jaw as found on the tongue of the 'xenomorph' creature.
  1. Aaron Percival: What's the story behind this piece?
    Dane Hallett - Artist Page: In terms of the timeline of Davids descent into madness, I intended this one to be just on the other side of the 'madness' tipping point. So it's got one foot in 'scientific study', while the rest is bordering on 'surreal nightmare'. Had to have the Xeno-secondary jaw hinted in the void of the mouth haha
    Aaron Percival: Is one of David's drawings? When he's experimenting with the goo
    Dane Hallett : Yep. Every drawing is 'His'. And yeh, a pathogen experiment. Though, in the script it was more that the drawings detail Davids decent into madness and the images at times became grounded in science but more 'dark fantasy'. This is more in tune with the fantasy. 
    Aaron Percival: Thanks for the explanation, Dane! :)
    Dane Hallett - Artist Page: You got it! (Dan Hallett -Artist Page on Facebook responding to questions asked by Aaron Percival AKA Corporal Hicks of AVPGalaxy.net)

The Dark Side Of The Moon

leading from
 
album cover for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon


a) In 2010 Ridley Scott was unveiling details about the Prometheus movie and then he mentioned that the film was the dark side of the moon. Obviously he wanted to express how shadowy the film was, but the other side to this seemed that he was throwing around the title of Pink Floyd's well known album released in 1973. Despite the phrase being used out of context with the idea of music, my sudden question became, how might this movie be inspired by Pink Floyd's music?

b) In the commentary for the Prometheus DVD released in 2012, Ridley revealed that they had been playing the music Dark Side of the Moon during the filming of the scene where David the android stepped into the Engineer's orrery for the first time. Ridley had nothing but the black set and needed something to help Michael Fassbender pretend that there was the magnificent holographic orrery around him and so he said to Michael, " Listen, I've got four 50-inch speakers. I'm going to play Dark Side Of the Moon. Is that okay?"

Pink Floyd - Rainbow Theatre 4 November 1973.


Michael replied "Fantastic" and so they went ahead

c) Something to point out is that Pink Floyd are well known for their elaborate laser and light shows during their concerts. Ridley liked to imagine the orrery scene being something that Pink Floyd would like to be seen playing in the centre of, and he could make such a boast because his production designer Arthur Max used to be the lighting designer for the band on their tours during the early 1970s

d) Another thing to point out is that this use of music is much like when Ridley played Mars Bringer of War (from Tomita's The Planets) around the set to evoke the mood of the scene to help Sigourney Weaver towards the end of Alien and that album was the one that Ridley originally wanted as the soundtrack .
SEE: "The Tomita Planets"

David in the engineer's orrery
  1. Ridley Scott “The film will be really tough, really nasty. It’s the dark side of the moon. We are talking about gods and engineers. Engineers of space. And were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would actually go in and clean up a planet?” (Ridley tells Mike Goodridge of Screendaily.com, 26 April, 2010
  2. Stammers: When we filmed the scene, we didn't know how the effects would take form, but we knew it had to build and grow. Ridley set the mood by playing Pink Floyd music as Michael Fassbender watched the projections take form; and once it was fully on, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski used a gobo effect to create a refractive water ripple on the walls (Cinefex 130, p52)
  3. Ridley Scott: Sell, this to Pink Floyd you know,
    Put Pink Floyd in the middle of that , they'd love it wouldn't they?
    Oh god, you know,  the reason why is on the day, I had nothing except the black set and David, so I said, "Listen, I've got four 50-inch speakers. I'm going to play Dark Side Of the Moon. Is that okay?"
    He said, "Fantastic."
    So we did this to Dark Side of the Moon. That was it. (Prometheus commentary, 01:13:20)

HR Giger's Woman with Child, 1967 (work 72) references Brusilov's "Des Visiteurs Du Cosmos" illustration?


 
leading from
 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxYOnFrACyD40N6YZNhz-mEnIIcl_-KE_1bmlsnSv4uJa29TS9MKlHLPqFG7dEXcUrjzIZD5a4XSNgr64bDtuPLQSFV-4KuVGcrbwGq_-9eFeqLPVa0qVZ3NY_cBCJKLxlsFE0GR3aUVM/s320/hr_giger_womanwithchild2.jpg
Woman with Child, 1967


a) Illustration for Spoutnik monthly magazine by A. Brusilov for an article "Des Visitors Du Cosmos" published June, 1967. 
  
Unfortunately they made a mistake that looked as if they had claimed that this image was of a cave painting in Uzbekistan but apologised for the error in a following issue. 
 
Not everyone got the message. 
 
Probably would be nice to see more artwork by Brusilov because he put his images together in quite an interesting way.
 
(NB What has been interpreted by some as the signature A. Epychaob were revealed to be the Cyrillic letters А. Брусилов which translate as Brusilov. See: http://escritosdeunhereje.blogspot.com/2014/05/los-misterios-del-arte-el-astronauta-de.html)
 
 

 
b) As I can make out from comparing the images, HR Giger referenced the humanoid figure from this illustration in his work "Mother And Child" done that year, turning the head the other way around and transforming the whole thing into something else from his own imagination. 
 
The disk held in the hand turns mostly into a dark empty space, while the hand on the right transforms into the horizontal lines across the upper arm in Giger's picture.
 
 


 
Double page spread from "Des Visitors Du Cosmos"




  
 
 
 
c) A few years later, Von Daniken published the illustration in his book Gold of the Gods in the 1970s, going with the idea that it was actually a cave painting from Uzbekistan.
 
 
Dr. Saizev's "astronaut" as it appeared in The Gold of the Gods (p. 82).


 
d) More confusion comes with someone's claim that the illustration was based on a cave painting of which there is a photo which more likely appears to be based on the illustration. 


Perhaps the magazine illustration deserves all the attention it has had over the years despite the slight confusion it has caused. Perhaps the first thing that they should do when they invent a time machine and go back in time by 20,000 years to paint the image onto an Uzbekistani cave wall: 

See link for more abut this controversy /confusion http://www.jasoncolavito.com/faking-ancient-art-in...


Alien: HR Giger's Life Cycle Hieroglyphics: Mythologist Will Linn's comments



 
 
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[384.jpg]
Original life cycle tableau, 1978




a) Mythologist Will Linn commented on the painting in Alexandre O Philippe's 2019 documentary "Memory: The Origins of Alien".

He was presented talking about how Nut represented the Duat itself which was the realm of the dead, the realm of the night and the realm of the stars, that this was where the sun went every night and where the soul went between life and death. 



Nut from tomb of Ramses VI, (as shown in the documentary Memory)


b) Here he stated that he understood that we were in the alien's domain in this whole story.  

The idea was that the heavens being born from Nut , in many ways becomes the image of the alien giving birth to this species that could devour the heavens.

Of course as we might notice, originally, the alien painting  at the time that Giger begun the painting, showed the life cycle for a near primitive race that somehow lived on a small planetoid.


Nut relief from the Temple of Hathor (as shown in the documentary Memory)


c) The painting in its earlier form presented we know about shows a near human like astronaut like entity with helmet with proportions that resemble a human's and then at the end of this painting's development, the painting showed the victim in the form of the space faring giant pilot known as the "Space Jockey", and once it became the cargo of the ship, then the alien was perhaps a species that could devour the heavens. 

In Dan's original story, the creature was just a teenager with no culture, and if it had been raised in its own society, as Ron Cobb would remember,  become more and more harmless until its bloodlust and had gone and it became a mild intelligent creature capable of art and architecture, which lives a full scholarly life of 200 years. 

( See Alien: Chestburster to young Adult),

That changed when the pyramid was merged with the derelict making the two structures one making them seem perhaps a cargo of biological weapons or somehow connected to the Space Jockey one way or another.

Nut from papyrus of Greenfield (as shown in the documentary Memory)


  1. Will Linn: You see being born from her, the heavens and in many ways this becomes and image of the alien giving birth to this species that could devour the heavens.

    Nut represents the Duat itself: the realm of dead, the realm of night, the realm of the stars, this is where the sun goes every night, this is where the soul goes between life and death. We're in the alien's domain in this whole story.
    (Memory: The origins of Alien)


Nut image from the sarcophagus of Amenemhet (as shown in the documentary Memory)