Declassified Weyland Document Delves Into Prometheus’ Black Ooze

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Much has been made in recent weeks of the deleted scenes and other bonus features included with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, which premieres on Blu-ray and DVD today. Hell, the marketing campaign has even used the phrase “Questions will be answered” to try and entire fans into checking out the movie on disc. Well, regardless of what the discs have to reveal, today the folks at 20th Century Fox have served up an intriguing new tidbit in the form of a “declassified” document from the Weyland corporation.

Existing within the mythology of the Prometheus/Alien universe, the document is presented as an “information manual” created by the mysterious Engineers and later translated by one of Weyland’s androids. The manual is focused on the black ooze that the crew of the Prometheus discovered, and which seems to have remarkable, disturbing, and varying reactions when exposed to a biological entity. Check out the graphic below, courtesy of the official Prometheus Facebook page. (Click on the image to super-size it.)

The chart examines the function and specifications of the black ooze, how it interacts with biologicals when ingested as opposed to inhaled, both events we see unfold in the movie. It also appears that the Engineers were testing the substance on at least two different worlds or moons, although any explanation of their goals or motivations are, unsurprisingly, absent.

Whether those promises that “questions will be answered” prove to be anything other than of marketing sleight of hand remains to be seen. Certainly we’ve seen some hints of that new information in the deleted scenes and featurettes that have popped up online in recent weeks, but I’m still not convinced that the Blu-ray will answer anything substantial. It’s already known that Scott considers the theatrical cut to be the definitive director’s cut, so if that’s the case who’s to say whether any of the questions answered on the disc will actually count as canon, as opposed to just abandoned coulda-beens.

The one question I want answered? Is the black goop just an elaborate excuse to bring the X-Files canon into the Prometheus universe as well? Somebody get Mulder and Scully on the blower.