Prometheus’ Noomi Rapace On The Ultimate Threat Of Prometheus 2
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Prometheus is easily one of the most frustrating films of the past decade. Sure, with Ridley Scott returning to the fictional universe he helped birth in Alien, expectations were always going to set far higher than the finished film had any chance of reaching. But most of the problems came down to a script filled with idiotic characters doing idiotic thing, which made Prometheus worse than just a flawed film: it was a film flawed in easily avoidable ways. Still, we reluctantly remain excited about the prospect of the sequel Prometheus’ final moments teased, and we aren’t the only ones. Actress Noomi Rapace, who played Elizabeth Shaw in the film, says she’s just as eager to see where Shaw and David’s voyage takes them as we are.
Speaking to MTV News, it’s no real surprise that Rapace didn’t have any specific plot bombshells to drop. At this point I’m not sure even Ridley Scott knows what the hell is going to happen in Prometheus 2. Still, she agreed that Shaw’s journey definitely has to take her to the “Paradise” of the enigmatic and occasionally genocidal engineers. Rapace told MTV, “She can’t go to Earth. There’s nothing left for her there, really. She wants to go to where they came from. … What’s there? I don’t know, but she wants answers. I feel like I’m sharing her curiosity, but also her anger.” So Shaw’s basically in the same boat as the rest of us.
One thing Shaw and David probably won’t be encountering in Prometheus 2 is any of those cuddly, acid-blooded bastards at the heart of the franchise. Scott recently said as much, telling Yahoo, “There’s only so much snarling you can do. I think you’ve got to come back with something more interesting. … I thought the Engineers were quite a good start.” And with the Engineers, Shaw will be tackling a bigger evil than the xenomorphs, which are basically just spiky bundles of id and instinct when you get right down to it. How do you follow up or expand beyond one of movies’ most iconic antagonists? According to Rapace, you have to face down “God, maybe. God or the Devil.”
I’m actually more interested in that answer than I would be at the prospect of just watching Shaw run around dark corridors with something slinky and homicidal pursuing her. If Prometheus was about anything, it was about the spiritual trauma of facing the possibility that God does exist, but he also wants to kill the shit out of you and everyone you know. Finding out why has the potential to provide one hell of a yarn…so long as they can get a better script that the first Prometheus.
Whatever Shaw discovers, however, it seems that she won’t be dispensing those answers to the general populace back home. Dark Horse’s Fire and Stone event series is spinning a new tale that launches off the back of Scott’s film, exploring the cracks before, in between, and ahead of what we’ve seen in Prometheus and the Alien films (with a dash of Predator thrown in for good measure). While Fire and Stone is still in its early stages, we do know that part of the story takes place well after the events of Prometheus, and those events are not common knowledge. Peter Weyland, for instance, is believed to have died and been buried back on Earth, as opposed to being bludgeoned to death with an android head by a testy Engineer. So if Shaw ever does return to Earth, it seems likely that any answers she brings with her will be covered up by the friendly faces at Weyland-Yutani. They’re probably keeping them in that warehouse with the Ark of the Covenant.
You can watch MTV’s brief interview with Rapace below.
