Giant Freakin Robot

Prometheus may not have been the #1 movie in America this weekend, but with a $50 million haul a lot of you definitely saw it. And if you saw it, you’re probably left with a lot of questions. Love it or hate it, Ridley Scott’s film raised at least as many new questions as it answered. And now the film’s viral campaign has a few more.

One of the bigger questions in Prometheus relates to the end credits and the ambiguous date popping up at the end. The date “10.11.12″ made audiences scratch their heads at the end of the movie. What does this date mean? Some think it’s the DVD and Blu-ray release date. Some think it’s when the sequel to Prometheus will begin production. In reality, it seems like “10.11.12″ is part of a new viral marketing campaign.

WhatIs101112.com popped up on the Internet and points to the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche along with the headline “What Is Great About Man Is That He Is The Bridge And Not The End.” The site also takes you to this very short video of a young Peter Weyland…

What Weyland said was “I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all.” That line is a quote from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and indeed, the video is titled after a book written by Nietzsche called Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Like a lot of Nietzsche’s musings Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a meditation on God, specifically on his death, and ponders questions of the eternal. All very much in keeping with the subtext of Prometheus.

Judging from Weyland’s appearance the new video comes from around the same time as his previous fictional TED talk video. This could be Weyland getting ready for his TED talk, though it’s worth noting that his hairstyle is slightly different and he’s got a five-oh-clock shadow going. Unlike the confident Weyland in the TED Talk video, this Peter seems visibly disturbed.

At the end the video directs you to http://www.weylandindustries.com/timeline, a viral site which details the history of Peter Weyland’s company, Weyland Industries. It seems like the answer to 10.11.12 lays in the Weyland Timeline itself. This exact date appears on WeylandIndustries.com where it says…

Weyland Corporation is recognized as a legal entity and corporation under United States law and receives their Certificate of Incorporation from the Companies House in the United Kingdom. Due to the combined value of Sir Peter Weyland’s various patents and patent-pendings, the company incorporates with a higher fair market valuation than any other company in history.

Maybe we’ll never find the true meaning of this date, nor we were meant to. It just may as well be a bit of fun from Ridley Scott and the producers of Prometheus. Maybe 10.11.12 is simply the date the DVD and Blu-ray of Prometheus will be released or then again, maybe not.