Prometheus’s Unused Chest-Bursting Concept Art

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

With the release of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus now readily available on Blu-ray/DVD, hours and hours of bonus features that will answer questions surrounding the film can now be seen. One of the more fascinating revelations appeared in the early stages of the script’s development. Before Damon Lindelof came aboard, screenwriter Jon Spaiths’ script featured an alien chest-bursting scene like the iconic scene from Scott’s 1979 film Alien. As the NSFW image depicted below, there was even concept art available to illustrate the gruesomeness:

As revealed by Bloody-Disgusting, the scene in question involved Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) and Elizabeth Shaw’s (Noomi Rapace) sex scene after Holloway drank the android David’s (Michael Fassbender) “special potion.” During the sex scene, an alien would’ve burst out of Holloway’s chest. The scene was ultimately scrapped and replaced with Holloway passing along the alien DNA to Shaw until it culminated in the amazing alien abortion. Another reason why the scene was replaced was Scott wanted to leave the connection between Alien and Prometheus ambiguous.

What we ultimately got in the final theatrical version is better. No matter how you feel about Prometheus as a whole, you have to admit that Shaw’s surgical scene is one of the best.

If Twentieth Century Fox and Ridley Scott decide to make a sequel film maybe they’ll find a way to incorporate this chilling artwork into the next Prometheus.