Alien/Prometheus – Why Did Ridley Scott Re-release the Egg Scene in Theaters?

As I continue to work on my outline for Prometheus 2, one question hit me today: why did Ridley Scott re-release the controversial egg scene in theaters (i.e. the Director’s Cut)? I ask this because the film was continuously re-released on DVD, Blu-Ray, etc. I felt that all the re-releases were satisfying enough for hardcore fans. But back when Alien’s Director Cut was shown to the theaters, despite it being limited release (from what I remember), it was a really odd thing to do considering the movie is over three decades old.

But since Prometheus came out, I thought perhaps Scott did it to generate some excitement ahead of time for what people had assumed would become the prequel to Alien. Yet re-releasing the Director’s Cut to theaters on a global scale was such an odd move.

In seeing what happened in Prometheus, we can see some connections with Alien but no direct links. So outside of generating some enthusiasm back for the series, I’m wondering if showing Alien to the world, especially with the egg scene, Ridley Scott attempted to hint at something bigger? While Ridley Scott did acknowledge his respect for the introduction of the Queen Alien in James Cameron’s Aliens, I feel that Ridley Scott might have disagreed about the general direction of the Alien series in general and wanted to show the world what really was going on.

More importantly though, I feel that by showing the Director’s Cut on a global scale, Ridley Scott was intentionally preparing us for the story he wanted to tell in Prometheus. I feel that the Alien franchise in general has gone in the wrong direction, especially the way Dan O’Bannon originally envisioned the lifecycle of the Alien. Cameron’s Aliens entailed his fixation on technology, family and war so the alien lifecycle itself was a consequence but not the primary focus. Ridley Scott, as the original director for the series, seemed to want to put his foot down and tell people (especially those who argue for canon vs non-canon) about the actual lifecycle of the alien.

This is important because Prometheus partly delves into the questions on the origins of life as well as topics like genetic engineering. These are far more compelling subjects compared to inane hack jobs Hollywood have been putting out all these years. By showing the egg scene to a global audience, Ridley Scott essentially re-opened the path for the alien lifecycle and these heavier topics that aren’t just some unjustified goofy scare mechanism some fanboy put together in 20 minutes.

Of course, we still lack answers and want to figure out the connection between Prometheus, the engineers, humans, Alien and LV-426. But this was his way of telling people that his vision is canon and return control back where it belongs.

Comments

comments