1979
In 1979 I was 6-years-old. I was at that age when major corporations like to brand impressionable little brains. In 1979 I would take trips to the mall with my mom and sit in WaldenBooks consuming the images and words in the periodicals in the magazine stands.
More after the jump…
In 1979 I was introduced to the impression that would have the biggest impact on my interest in popular culture, Ridley Scott’s Alien. The commercial scared the hell out of me. I think it gave me nightmares. Even seeing it all these decades later I get a chill. The music, the white noise, that sharp bwee alarm like sound, the egg. That damn egg. It still scares the bejezus out of me. Take a look for yourself.
The promo material, the books, articles in Starlog, just all the stuff. I would look at the movie books where each scene was a small panel with multiple panels lining the pages. I remember the toy. I remember the H.R. Giger art books. I remember thinking awesome. I wanted a rubber alien suit. I wanted Sigourney Weaver, hot goddess of popular culture. I wanted to be spirited away to some unknown planet.
I don’t know when I actually saw the movie, if it was in the theaters with my parents, on TV or video. But I do know it is an annual pastime to watch the movie. This year I shared that with my sons, my youngest choosing to play on the iPad, glancing over his shoulder when it sounded interesting, while my oldest was fully engulfed. It was awesome, it was coming full circle.
And then Prometheus.
The creator, the man that gave this amazing space tale, Ridley Scott, returns to science fiction, to his mythology, with Prometheus. Before LV-426, before an unknown planet emitting a strange homing beacon. Before Ripley.
The trailers are pure awesome. My skin tingles, my hairs stand up on end, my eyes water and my heart skips beats.
What we know is that Scott is returning to LV-426 to tell the tale of a group of space travelers looking for something. In the recent New York Times article Scott says that he wanted to explore the theme in the film that no one asked: what was the giant pilot, what was the derelict ship? Do you know how many god damn conversations I’ve had about that with my friends? Hours and hours worth. All guess work, we wanted to know why the crew was nonchalant about a beacon, had they seen derelict ships before, what did the company really know? We wanted to know what the alien pilot was, what it was doing there, how the aliens got there, who laid the eggs, and who was sending the signal.
But do we really want to know?
Yes. My need for information and truth demands it. Craves it. Lives off it. And if my guess is correct, Scott will only tease me. He’ll scare the hell out of me and leave me with more questions that I will have to chew on for the next 30+ years. Questions that my children might get answers to or have to make answers to.
But I’m not going to see Prometheus for just answers. I’m going to get the shit scared out of me. I’m going because I want to see more of the universe he created 30 years ago. I’m going because for 2 hours I get to reconnect with a vision that shaped my passion for all things pop culture.
Discuss this article here:
https://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2010796#p2010796
