Wow, the “36 hours” controversy in Prometheus just won’t die down!
As you may know, when the Prometheus crew reach the moon LV-223 and awake from their extended cryo-sleep, David responds to Meredith Vickers that they have been asleep for “2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours, 15 minutes.” A common complaint has been that if Michael Fassbender’s David is using established temporal units to measure time, then he should have said “2 years, 4 months, 19 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes?”
Why 36 hours?
Well Jon Spaihts, co-writer of Prometheus, previously responded to a tweet about this saying “Robots have been showing off with this trick as long as there have been robots…”
At first many people, myself included, assumed he was stating that this was a deliberate part of the script. I realised though that it was likely that Mr Spaihts had not grasped the crux of the question. So I tweeted him back…
Benji Taylor: “King Jon! Please let us know about the “36 hrs” point. Am losing sleep over this and the GF is about to dump me!”
The screenwriter replied: “In candor, I didn’t write that line. I presume it’s an error on the page or on the day. Ask Damon.”
So I did, and Damon has responded…
Damon Lindelof: “I will take my lumps for all Prometheus mistakes, but for all asking, the scripted line was: “2 years, 4 months, 18 days.”
So there you have it! Screenwriters Damon and Jon did not script this to include “36 hours”, and it seems likely that this was the result of improvisation on the day.
Which still leaves the key question: was it deliberate, or an error?! As soon as WhatCulture has any updates we will let you know!
Follow me on Twitter: @BenjiTaylorWins
I really hope that Lindelof responds to you Benji. Let us know!
It’s such a shame if this is a scripting error. My faith for one will be shaken.
GUTTED.
Did your GF really come close to dumping you? Haha, guess that was a joke.
Good work Benji! Hope you can get something out of Damon! Great that Jon got in touch though. Love it!
I wonder… Would no one on the set really have picked up on that and ask questions? They’ve got guys watching for continuity, why not guys for watching stupidity then?
V impressive work getting the writers to comment to you!
So any chance you can get on the phone to Ridley or Fassbender?
Great investigative journalism!
Good work! Looking forward to the update!
Even if Fassbender improvised (unlikely) there would have been multiple takes and continuity would have jumped all over these (sometimes painfully so). So there would have to be other takes with the correct wording of the script. The possibility does exist however that this was the only “take” Ridley liked in editing and the only take Fassbender went “off script”. Again.. unlikely… but possible. But no way that Ridley did not know this was off script. Then again, he (Ridley) might just love tormenting us with these tiny tidbits of misdirection…. probably the most likely reason for it’s inclusion… the evil bastard that he is
I view it as another example of David’s condescending view toward humans–except Peter Weyland. But come to think of it, David even does it to Weyland himself. Weyland: “There’s nothing.” David: “I know. Have a pleasant journey…”
I have to agree with you here Gork. I think it was Fassbender, improvising on the day, trying to convey exactly what you state above. I think David is progressively losing faith and respect in humanity as the movie advances and as he continually gains more respect for the Engineers.
Look where that gets him!
You have a GF?
Haha.