Some Facts You Should Know Before Seeing The Ridley Scott Alien Prequel - Prometheus!

Hype about legendary film director Ridley Scott returning to the famed franchise he started with the classic Alien (1979) film has been freaking out fans for awhile now. Fans of the Sci-Fi/Horror movie, and it's 1986 sequel, Aliens, have been hoping the film's original innovator would redeem the franchise after the franchise's highly disappointing post Aliens movies.

With Prometheus finally in theaters, reactions by fans have been pretty positive. With the terrible cross-over flicks like Aliens vs. Predator, many fans, including myself, were both worried yet excited to see how it "all began."

In that aspect, the movie did deliver, producing many hints and keys to the Alien universe. Yes, you can technically call it a "Prequel" but this film is definitely a stand alone piece as well. Fans of the Alien franchise will have no problem understanding it.

But what about those who know very little about the 1979 Alien film or it's universe? It's hard to even presume that there are those out there who haven't seen at least one of the Aliens flicks.

For whatever reasons, I'm sure there are those who haven't seen a single Aliens movie, and before your Sci-Fi geek boyfriend or girlfriend introduces you to the Alien mythology, there's some fun facts you should know about before watching the Ridley Scott Alien Prequel - Prometheus.

LV-426 is what the planetoid that the first 1979 Alien film and it's sequel takes place on is called. In the Alien 1979 film, members of the crew, the Nostromo, receive an unknown signal from LV-426 while passing the planetoid.

They land on LV-426 and this is where they discover an alien space craft, in which they investigate. The story then begins from there, and the horror that they unknowingly bring back with on the Nostromo.

Prometheus does not take place on LV-426. It takes place on LV-223. It's unsure whether LV-223 is a nearby planetoid or even within the same same star system - Zeta II Reticuli.

However, in both Alien and Prometheus, both the ships the Nostromo and the Prometheus do head toward moons surrounding a ringed planet. Whether the prequel Prometheus takes place around that same ringed planet is unsure.

It just may be a clue that Ridley Scott wanted in there to remind us of the first Alien movie, or LV-223 just may be a neighboring moon to LV-426.

Yes, this notorious corporation from the Aliens franchise once again plays a role in the movie Prometheus. However, in Prometheus, The Weyland Corporation has not become the merged conglomerate corporation of Weyland-Utani yet.

For those of you who don't know about the Weyland-Utani Corporation, you'll get a little lesson. In the first Alien film, the Weyland-Utani Corporation was just known as "the Corporation."

It was the Corporation who ordered the crew of the Nostromo to investigate the unknown signal on LV-426 in the first Alien (1976) film. Only until the sequel Aliens was when the actual name of the corporation - Weyland-Utani - was introduced.

In Aliens, the Weyland-Utani Corporation had an even bigger role and is in the market of colonizing various planets. Known as terraformers, these colonies make living conditions on these various planets sustainable for human life.

The Weyland-Utani Corporation send these terraformers to colonize LV-426, knowing full well that they are hostile life forms occupying the planetoid. Once communication is lost with the colony, Ripley, star of the first Alien movie and played by Sigourney Weaver, returns to LV-426 with a Weyland-Utani Corporation company man named Carter Burke, played by Paul Reiser, and a band of Colonial Marines to investigate.

With Prometheus, it's just the Weyland Corporation, and you'll find out the origin of the role this company plays in the Aliens mythology.

Perhaps, one of the most classic and most talked about scene in the first Alien film is what Ridley Scott and the Alien creators simply called "The Space Jockey." This scene was briefly introduced in the first Alien film, but really became a huge question for fans after the sequel Aliens came out.

When the crew of the Nostromos investigate the space craft that signaled them to LV-426, they find the dead body of what seemed to be a large advanced alien being. Sitting in some kind of chair, the alien appeared to be humanoid and it's rib cage seemed to have exploded outward from within.

Be prepared to revisit the Space Jockey again in Prometheus. This prequel sheds a little light on fans questions to who that Space Jockey was, or should I say Space Jockeys were? However, the movie still leaves a lot of things about this alien race open-ended and unanswered which is great to keep fans like myself anticipating even more.

This has been fans most sought after question since it was announced that Ridley Scott would be returning to the Alien franchise he created. Is Prometheus an Alien prequel?

The movie, starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron, definitely shares the same universe as Alien. Yes, it's the events that somewhat leads up to the famed Sci-Fi classic Alien.

However, the story is original enough to divert off into it's own unique story line, and you will see this once you watch the film.

If you know little about the Alien film universe, it really does help if you watch the first 1979 Alien film, as well as the 1986 James Cameron Aliens. Any Aliens films after those two are crap. They don't really enhance or add to the complete shared universe and story line of the franchise.

Prometheus, however, does. The movie stands well enough on it's own for any non-Alien fan to understand it, but it's a lot more enjoyable if you know the mythology that surrounds the entire scope of the Alien story line.

I personally thought this Alien prequel was highly enjoyable. For me, it delivered as an Aliens fan and a movie fan in general. Although, it's hard to rival a ground-breaking classic in the Sci-Fi/Horror genre like the first Alien (1979) film, there was enough suspense, effects, and action to thrill special effects buffs.

What about the story, however? The story of Prometheus, although panned by quite a few critics, contributes to the Aliens continuity and shared universe in a logical, honorable and exciting way that the films after James Cameron's Aliens failed to do.

What did you think of Prometheus? Be sure to vote and comment and share if you like this hub! Always appreciated.