WEBVTT - The Science of 'Prometheus' 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.320 My name is Robert Lamb. My name is Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.040 And in this episode, we're going to talk about a 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.680 little movie that came out this year called Prometheus. Of 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.159 this tiny, tiny, little indie flick. You probably have not 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.960 heard about it, tiny little viral marketing campaign on the web. 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.640 Maybe a TV added too. You know. Um names in it, Yeah, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.120 up and coming guy by the name of Ridley Scott 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.760 and directed it. Yeah. So why are we talking about it? Well, 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.520 everybody is talking about it in one way or another. 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.360 And there there's a lot of talk about the science 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.560 in this film because we've discussed the importance of fiction, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:51.360 the importance of science fiction before um, where we're creating these, uh, 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.760 these fictional versions of what the future will be, that 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:59.000 be like based on present technology, emerging technology, modern concerns, 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.000 modern fears, modern hopes, and then you wrap that all 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.440 up into a nice package and consume it. And uh, 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.480 Prometheus is one of, if not the biggest science fiction 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.959 films to come out in um really, for my money, 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.160 the biggest science fiction film to come out in a 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:17.360 while I can't remember the last one that I really 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.039 kind of got excited about and and and ultimately really 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:26.039 got my my mind moving in a scientific way, saying, 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:27.679 in the last ten years, can you think of anything 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.759 and that's been quite on this scale? Yeah? Not not 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:36.160 not quiet No. Um. So we are going to jump in, uh, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.200 and we are going to discuss this film, but we 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.720 want to let you know that we are going to 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:44.280 have a clean divider between spoiler free and spoiler talk. 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.840 So from now until the commercial break that we take, 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.840 we promise to steer clear of any major spoilers anything 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.320 that happens in the you know, the later portions of 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.160 the film when once the plot gets moving and all that, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.960 and we're and we're can also save our opinions for 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.040 the most part for that section as well. After the 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.320 commercial break, anything's game. So fair warning if you if 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.680 you have seen it, you can listen to the whole thing, 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.040 no worries. If you have not seen it and would 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.560 like to watch it spoiler free, then when you come 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:20.480 to the commercial break, pose it and come back after 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.239 you've been to the theater. So before we jump completely 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.520 into it, let's uh, let's actually requain ourselves or if 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:32.720 you have somehow missed that massive ad campaign um that 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.600 they launched online and on TV and probably in the 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.560 sky and in our skin for yeah and our dreams, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.040 then here's the taste of what the movie is is about, 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.440 as much as we can convey in a purely audio environment. 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.440 So so here you go. Here's a little clip from Prometheus. 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:57.320 Please tell me you can read that. What are you doing? 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.880 I'm attempting to open the door. Wait, we don't know 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:25.320 what's on the other side. Sorry, remarkably humor beautiful painting. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:37.640 It's a mural. Stop. Don't don't touch sorry, please, don't 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:55.040 touch anything. Kay. Oh no, the mules are changing. I 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.440 think we lived back to the others during the room 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:04.560 Charley David. What must they know? So that clip kind 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.720 of introduces the mystery and intrigue that unfolds as we 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:13.560 follow a crew of scientists and soldiers and explorers and 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.960 mysterious corporate people as they travel to a just an 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:22.599 exo planet in attempt to discover possibly the origins of life. 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:26.120 That's right, it's a trillion dollar trip. Yes, right, this 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.560 is uh not you know, some sort of weekend jaunt. 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.440 It's taken them two years and I don't believe that's 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.400 a plot spoiler at all. There two years to too, 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.080 it will take two years to arrive on this planet. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.479 And uh, they are aboard the U. S. S c 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:48.640 SS Prometheus, which is a nuclear ion plasma engine fueled craft. Yeah, 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.919 and it is. It is really pimped out because this 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.120 whole venture in this film is is the product of 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.760 of this Peter Whalen character, this Whaland Industries, and and 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:04.919 this is a fictional congaboration of various, um, you know, 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.880 major tech company. So so think a little a little 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.919 bit of Branson inversion Galactic thrown in here, you know, 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.400 a little bit of Google, a little like any major 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.279 company that's really on the um you know, on the 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.920 cutting edge and the bleeding edge of technology. This is 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:21.240 an amalgamation of the VAT. And what I like about 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:23.640 this whaling character, to this Peter Whaland who's the head 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.400 of this corporation, is that he does have this Branson 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.120 like spirit in that he breaks all the rules. Right, 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:34.320 he's um, he's a pioneer. He is someone who lives 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.599 life to the fullest and he's interested in in exploring 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.640 every corner of the universe. And so I do think 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:46.040 it's a very engaging character, and I think actually get 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:51.120 that sense more from the promoes than the actual movie. Yeah, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.800 they did some virals where he's doing a Ted talk, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.960 I believe, and he's talking about, uh, you know, really 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.520 just something of his philosophy on on science and human achievement. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.080 And I was thinking too that for for me, this 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.799 is the first time that something like that, this material, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.719 this media that is not the movie itself, has really 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:14.200 enhanced my my enjoyment of the movie itself. Yeah, because 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.960 generally it's just one off stuff that is aimed at 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.240 getting in your theater, and they really were very interested 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.880 in getting you thinking about the film in the world 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.000 of the film prior to to you actually picking up 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:26.760 a ticket. And I love that they framed it in 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.760 the Ted dot com talk, you know, because and one 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.839 of the things they said actually is that they wanted 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.039 when they were advertising for the film, that they wanted 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.520 people to sort of engage on a different level and 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.839 to perhaps even be introduced to Ted dot com itself 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.400 if they never had listened to Ted dot com, which 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.720 is great because Ted, of course, I feel like most 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:46.800 of our listeners probably know Ted, and if you haven't 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.279 do check out the Ted Talks because it's it's amazing stuff. 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:52.359 Each one is a is a you know, deals with 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.320 mind blowing topics, generally around stuff that is that that 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:58.680 will or can change the world for the better. So 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:03.640 in eighteen minutes or less, Yeah, so Whaland Industries all 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.440 this technology. Um. So, the the ship in the film 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.920 and the characters in the film have a lot of 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.200 really cool gadgets, a lot of really cool science and 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.800 this is about a hundred years in the future. And uh, 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.320 and so we're gonna spend a lot of time in 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.440 this podcast just talking taking it bit by bit, this 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.640 little technology here, a little technology there, and discussing what 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:24.760 we thought about it, how it lines up with things 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.680 that we've discussed before on Stuff Toble your Mind. And 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.280 and then we'll also in the later half of this 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.760 podcast we'll also get into some of the cultural aspects 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.560 um and you know, in some of the grosser goofy 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.760 stuff as well. First, I should point out that this 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.920 was a science fiction film, a big blockbuster science fiction film, 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.600 so there are certain problems that are always going to 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:52.280 be present. For instance, magic gravity, magic artificial gravity of 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.520 borda spaceship, UM, really, the only film I can think 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:02.600 of that did not engage in magical unexplained gravity has 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.600 been two thousand and one, where were they actually put 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.640 some some forethought into what it would be like in 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.440 a weightless environment. How how you would you would simulate 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:18.120 gravity artificially through the use of rotation. Uh. You encounter 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.280 some legitimate or at least pseudo scientific excuses for artificial 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.280 gravity in hard science fiction, so specifically hard science fiction novels, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.640 but you get into the realm of big space movies 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.800 and they tend to either give it, give it sort 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:37.520 of a half explanation, or just don't explain it at all, 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.640 or it's just assume that the years and somehow they've 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.600 mastered h creating this this atmosphere where they're not floating 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:48.400 around heship like even Danny Boyle's Sunshine. Did you ever 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.079 see that one? Didn't um Like they had Brian cox 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.680 Um on board to to to give them science advice 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.160 as they were filming it, and they still just went 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.160 ahead and had artificial gravity and didn't explain it. And 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.079 and some people were kind of like British science journalists. 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:07.079 Uh Ajana Aja was was a bit perturbed by this 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:08.800 and made kind of a stink about it. But it's 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.040 just it's generally it's what you're gonna get with science 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.320 fiction films. Likewise, sound in space. The first Alien had 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.800 sound in space. You encounter a little sound in space, 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.360 and this one you see a spaceship traveling through the void. 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.520 Somebody's gonna want to throw in the sound of thrusters. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.520 Someone's gonna want to throw in the sound of an 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.440 explosion if something blows up in space. Uh. The only 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.640 exceptions to this rule really are two thousand and one 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.240 and uh and also the Firefly TV show did a 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.439 good job with this of keeping uh space soundless, but 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.600 then they made the Serenity movie and uh and clearly 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.000 you know, studio heads or whoever came in and said, 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:47.880 this is nice, but if you're gonna have a battle 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.679 in space, we want explosions. Well, and it is a 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:55.439 big blockbuster. You can't really, I mean, you can't help 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.720 but expect that the audience. You're watching a blockbuster science 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.120 fiction film, you go into it with those expectations. Anything 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.079 else is just a bit silly. But two thousand and one, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.880 I will say, um that the absence of sound really 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.319 just makes it that much more alienating and creepy and wonderful, 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.439 and that's it's the granddaddy of all science fiction films 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.600 still still holds up today. A right, So we're gonna 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.920 discuss more of the the actual technology that we've seen 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.360 in the film, but first we need to talk a 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:27.240 little bit about um. Sexuality in Alien specifically, and uh 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.840 in panties actually factors into this as well. Okay, So 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.120 the reason why you want to talk about Aliens and 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.920 panties and space um is because Ridley Scott directed the 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:43.360 first Aliens Alien. Yes, that's part of the Aliens franchise, 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:50.319 and although Prometheus is not directly related to Aliens really, 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.800 Scott has said that it's part of the DNA of Alien. Yeah, 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.360 and it was at least at some point in its 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.800 development a prequel to Alien, and then to a certain 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:03.040 extent still is yes, yeah there there there's definitely some 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.760 themes that are explored in Alien, Alien one and some 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.920 of the other ones as well as Prometheus. So let's 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:15.480 talk about the pantalonies. Yes. Well, okay, so if you 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:18.160 you go all the way back to seventy nine, I 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.000 was like a year old and uh, and Ridley Scott 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.560 makes this film, and he really he in interviews, he's 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.320 been very clear that he set out to make a 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.200 slasher movie in space, a haunted house movie in space. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.920 You have the alien spaceship, which is and the cramped 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:38.720 claustrophobic um uh Nostromo's ship in the original film, and 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.360 it's essentially a haunted house with a slasher aboard, only 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.200 it's a spaceship and an alien and and in the 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.520 three decades since that film came out, we've just layered 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:56.559 multiple layers of criticism and interpretation and UH and fanboy 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.120 fanaticism on top of that film and really built it 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:05.559 up into this great intellectual thing to cirt extent. I mean, 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.680 we we've on one level. You can't help but create 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.360 a lot of thought provoking content with this, because even 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.120 if you're saying, I'm just going to create a slasher film, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.760 what is a slasher film? Well, you can get into 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.880 a lot of interesting commentary and discussion on that on 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.040 its own. There are people that argue that a slasher 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:30.000 film is essentially human sacrifice. That in the old days 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.960 you had you had males that wanted to dominate society 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.319 and to uh to counsel cancel out female power and 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:43.040 to um combat the female science of birth, you bring 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.400 about the male science of death. We've touched on this, 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.400 I think a little bit in episodes in the past. 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:51.400 So whereas women create with their bodies, men kill with 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.080 their hands and their weapons. And modern societies, of course, 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.960 we're not really all about human sacrifice anymore, but we 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.760 can still make movie after movie after movie in which females, 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:07.280 typically females that are engaging in um stereotypically unethical behavior, 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.360 are brutally murdered by a male figure. Okay, so what 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.160 we're seeing as a moral code in a lot of 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.640 these films. Yeah, So just even if you're making you're 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.800 trying to make just a slasher film, there's a lot 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:23.080 of there's a lot of problematic area already there. On 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.079 top of that, who you get to design your monster 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.400 for this film? But hr Geeger, whose big deal is 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:35.319 biomechanical designs of a typically sexual nature. Okay, when you 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.280 say sexual nature, I think what you're primarily saying is 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:43.160 that so many of his creations look like a fallust, yes, 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:50.280 thallust or yes, everything looks like genitalia to a certain extent, 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:56.040 stylized um hot leather genitalia is generally you say hot 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.719 leather genitalia. I don't know why hot leather. It's more 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:03.560 like a cold anyway, cold leather genitalia, let's say. And uh, 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.080 I mean that's the look of H. R. Geeker stuff. 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.679 If you've you've seen it everywhere. And this is the 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:14.160 mood that pervades the Prometheus for sure. Yeah, and um 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:19.440 bills over into this Alien one and the other aliens. Yeah. So, um, 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.040 but the panties, the panties getting back to panties, what 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.520 the panties have spawned? And when I say the panties, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.640 that we're talking about Sigourney Weaver's character in the panties 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.960 in Alien one. Yeah, in in the original Alien film, 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.720 she's you have this whole crew, mostly male crew, and 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.880 one by one they're knocked out by this alien. Uh 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:42.800 it's bursting. It's basically impregnates one man through the face 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.240 and then burst out of his stomach. It and there's 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.560 and you sent me a really interesting article about how 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.360 it's sort of there's themes of rape in there as well. Yeah, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.720 it's they're strong themes of of rape and sexual assault 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.560 because the creature is essentially sexually assaulting each member and 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.760 especially the male members. And uh, in the case of 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.640 the one character impregnating him more or less with this 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:11.160 violent uh, this violent vision of of pregnancy in which 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.560 the thing then grows in his stomach like a gastro 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:19.600 intestinal confusion of pregnancy, with this violent birth that kills 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.920 the mother slash father. Um. You know, so strong themes 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.160 of this um. And then it just goes, of course, 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:28.880 one by one, each character getting knocked off, and Ripley 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.040 Sigourney Weever's character remains really strong. UM. You know, you 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.120 can really get behind her as this strong female character. UM. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.080 And then you have this scene towards the end of 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.120 the film that of course made a strong impression on 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.360 me when I watched it, UM as a like a 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:44.720 not a not a one year with that as a 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.840 as a you know, I'm I'm not going through puberty. 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.800 I watched Alien and there's this scene where oh, she's safe, 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.680 she's finally gotten away, she's blown up the ship, and 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:56.440 she decides, oh, now it's a good time to go 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.640 ahead and strip down to my underwear and then get 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.360 into my escape into my cryogenics pod and uh and 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.760 just sail home a little does she know the alien 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:10.200 is there watching her um and as she changes, so 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.960 the camera becomes the voyer, right, and the alien is 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:14.360 kind of the voyer because the alien is not really 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.640 attacking at first. He's just he or she is just 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.920 kind of hanging back and she doesn't know he's there. 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.400 And she's wearing really skimpy, simple underwear, but very skimpy. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.560 I think you said it like looked like she's wearing 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.000 something a few sizes too small. Yeah, it looks like 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.120 plumbers crack underwear. It's actually an underwear that I've never 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.400 quite seen before. Maybe this exists out there and it's 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.560 in the future right right, where apparently everybody has plumbers crack. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.560 But it's not ugly, but it is very Yeah, it's 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.360 not hyper sexualized, like she's not wearing like a G 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:50.160 string or anything. But it is a very sexual scene 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:54.760 because suddenly she's she's unclothed, she's vulnerable. The scenes are 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.520 shot in a way too. It's no accident that it's 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.720 a sexy scene and that and at any moment, this creature, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:08.200 this phallic, monstrous, uh sexual monster is going to attack 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.240 her and then you know, and we just hope that 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.040 she has closed on by that point. Well, this has 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.639 spawned the whole cottage industry within academia of trying to 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.720 figure out what the panties mean. I mean, even probably 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.360 more so than the Buffy verse, right, um, because it's 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.359 it's problematic for people because they're analyzing it and they're like, 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.240 all right, all the sexual content. Um, a really strong 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.600 female character and like, I'm totally on board, and then 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.200 she strips under the panties and they're like deal breaker. Okay, 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:40.160 So we're we're talking about all of this because after 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.240 the commercial breaking and we get more into um some 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.960 some spoilers there, this is going to be a larger 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:47.760 part of our conversation then, but we wanted to go 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.919 ahead and seat it now. Alright, so more more on 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.280 the panties la. But but but in uh, in the 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.480 sperit of seating, let's talk about this this other theme 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.280 that runs through Prometheus. Pants for me. Yes, So we've 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:07.120 discussed pants fermia before, and specifically to the idea of exogenesis, 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.040 which is the notion that life originated elsewhere in the 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.920 universe and somehow found its way to the planet. Um. 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:15.680 This is this is dealt with right at the beginning 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.720 of Prometheus because you kick off the movie with this 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:26.000 tall pale um humanoid creature. Yeah, and he's apparently abandoned 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:30.080 on this desolate world by a spaceship that takes off 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:32.600 and then he uh, he drinks some sort of goop 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.480 and then he melts in his DNA like just becomes 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:39.240 this primordial gup that, uh, you get the idea is 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.560 going to spawn life on this planet that the Earth, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:43.640 maybe another planet, we don't know. You see his body 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.919 breakdown and like the DNA ulysses just sort of merging 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.000 with the water. Yeah, and uh, and so this is 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.639 a fantastic idea of what exogenesis and to a certain extent, 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.520 pants Fermia might consist of. It's kind of like to 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.560 have a blender. You're throwing a little bit of pants 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.920 Fermian exogenesis and then throwing a little Charito of the 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.600 gods as well, Charito charoits of the gods of course, 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.840 the book by Eric von Denkan. And this is where 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.840 we could the idea that ancient astronauts visited Earth and 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.840 serve as the god figures of our mythologies. So while 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:16.720 this with their technology and taught us to do things 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:20.440 like baked bread and build pyramids, that sort of thing. Yeah, 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:22.720 it was interesting to me because I've always thought of 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:26.480 pantsopermia as being more like this tiny bit of bacteria, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.680 and it is in the strictly scientific sense, right. So 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.760 to see this this um, this sort of titan like 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:39.399 human like creature, um like literally dissolve into DNA and 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:45.639 then spread his his pantsopermia in that manner, was it 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:48.159 was interesting. I mean, it's it's visually arresting. And I 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.560 should say that if nothing this film is will knock 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.360 your socks off. I mean, it is gorgeous, it's beautiful. 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:58.200 You can't help but inhabit the minds of the characters 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:00.879 um in this movie. Yes, Scott a always been a 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.600 faculous visual director, even films like Legend, which I don't 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.800 think has I wasn't a huge fan of the plot 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:08.920 line and legend or I'm not really sure that it's 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.120 important though, because the legend was just such a stunning Yeah. Yeah, um, 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.879 and that the devil in that it's just incredible. I 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.679 think we've talked about that before, but um, he is, 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.240 but he's anyway, So um, that's a whole other conversation. 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.439 So that is the opening sequence here for Prometheus. We 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:28.840 see this happening, and it is a really interesting way 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.680 to get into this idea of how did we actually 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.040 come to exist here on Earth in the first place. Yeah, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.440 all right. Next on the list, suspended animation, crist status. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.560 This factors into all of the the Alien franchise films. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:42.560 It was in the first one. They wake up from 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:46.280 this quote unquote wake up from from this sleep, and 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.359 the plot begins and uh, and we see some more thing, 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:51.440 and that's the crew of the Prometheus have been traveling 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.959 for two years and they've been asleep, h quote unquote 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.440 asleep while David, the artificial human, the android of the ship, 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.080 learns languages and plays basketball and comes his hair while 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.440 watching Lawrence of Arabia, which is again another incredible scene 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:09.960 because you're trying to you know, you're sort of getting 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.720 your bearings in the in the film, and it looks 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.080 like he is the only person on the ship. And 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.280 played by Michael Fassbender, of course. Yeah, and he is 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.320 so good in this role. We'll talk more about the 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.439 significance of David later. So we recently did an episode 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.600 on Hibernation in which we discuss some of the some 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.879 of what we know about suspended animation and and and 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.040 hibernation in ways that we could artificially instill it. And 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.520 this is something that is of interest not only to 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:41.800 DARPA and NASA, but also just uh actually, like I 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.159 was gonna say, emergency room doctors. Yeah, you know, the 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.200 ideas like, all right, something is wrong. Let us chill 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.960 this out until we can actually treat it, or in 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.360 more extreme cases, chill it out until we can actually 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:56.040 find a cure for it. Right, Because if you have 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.480 some sort of trauma, you're bleeding to death, you're losing 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.760 oxygen to your brain, can you suspend that? And that's 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:04.920 what we're talking about suspended animation. So in that episode 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:08.720 of the Hibernation episode, we discussed methods to use both 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:14.480 chemical and thermal um techniques to put an animal under 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:19.480 into a hibernative state where their metabolism cranks way down 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:22.439 and and they're put into this not quite sleep phase, 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:27.320 but something that that you could call suspended animation UM. 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:29.760 And then there's a there's actually another interesting guy, this 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.520 guy Mark Roth, researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:37.960 in Seattle, Washington, and uh, he's he's looked into a 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.120 short term suspended animation a lot because again, this would 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:45.160 be a way to stabilize patient center and trauma from injury. 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:49.879 Uh So, normally hydrogen sulfite is toxic, but Roth has 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:51.440 working on this technique where you can use it to 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.040 actually alter a million metabolism when it's applied in a 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:59.960 cold environment, resulting in this suspended animation uh type situation. 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:02.439 All right, so when you're in this suspended state, the 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:07.160 body can better cope with deadly oxygen deprivation the results 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:10.800 from shock, massive blood loss, and heart attacks. So yeah, 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.880 it's really cool because if you give someone hydrogen sulfide, 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.760 which is what he did with animals, um, what it 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.640 does is it knocks you out and it might cause 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:22.760 the oxygen to not bind. So it's kind of like 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.240 a game of musical chairs there, and that can manipulate 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:30.040 your metabolism. And he was actually inspired by this because 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.359 there was a skier I want to say she was Swedish, 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:37.840 but she was caught, um frozen to death for like 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:41.119