The movie tries to explain how the first form of life began in earth by implying that some of human-like creature was left by a spaceship on earth (million years ago), drinking a dark liquid which in turn caused its body to disintegrate and burned out to the last cell.
This is a movie that might keep you thinking the whole time. It will fill your mind with questions of why is that and why is this. I first expect it to be a movie with Avatar like plot, on which there is a new planet, new species discovered, but no, this one offered something different and actually will remind you of one of earlier movies - Alien (1979). This is the sypnosis of the movie (warning: spoilers!)
Millions of years ago In the distant past, the spacecraft of an advanced humanoid alien race arrives on Earth. One of the aliens consumes a dark liquid, causing its body to disintegrate and fall into a nearby waterfall, thus seeding Earth with the building blocks of life.
In the year 2089, archaeologist couple Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map among the remnants of several otherwise unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners. Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the elderly founder and CEO of the Weyland Corporation, funds the creation of the scientific deep space research vessel called the USS Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon of LV-223 several light years from Earth.
The ship's crew travels in stasis at light speed while the android David (Michael Fassbender) stays awake at the pilot control to monitor their voyage. In 2093, the ship arrives in the orbit around LV-223 (note: it is not the same planet first seen in the 1979 movie 'Alien' as confirmed by Ridley Scott in an interview with Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode on Friday June 1st on BBC radio 5 live. Hello to Jason Isaacs!. Alien is set on LV-426, or Acheron source: See wikipedia page on "Planets in science fiction movies".). After being awakened from hibernation, the crew are informed of their mission to find the ancient aliens, called "Engineers" whom may be the original humans. They also view a holographic message from Weyland himself, who tells them about his funding for the mission and that he has since died.
Mission director Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) orders them to avoid any direct contact and to return if the aliens are found. The Prometheus lands near an alien structure (resembling a large temple-like pyramid) and a team including Shaw, Holloway, and David explores it, while Vickers and Captain Janek (Idris Elba) remain aboard the ship and monitor their progress.
They find several ampoule-like artifacts, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a giant alien, thought to be one of the Engineers. Other bodies are later found, and the species is presumed to be extinct. David secretly returns an ampoule to the ship, while the remaining ampoules begin leaking dark liquid. A rapidly approaching storm forces the crew to return to Prometheus, leaving crew members Milburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield (Sean Harris) stranded in the pyramid structure after becoming lost trying to find the way out. Shaw insists they take the Engineer's head back to the ship with them and they barely make it back alive.
In the ship, Shaw and medic Ford (Kate Dickie) analyze the Engineer's head, and discover that its DNA is identical to that of the human race. Meanwhile, David investigates the ampoule and discovers a vial containing a black liquid. He intentionally infects Holloway with the substance, hiding it in a drop of liquid on his finger and briefly tapping it into his glass of champagne Holloway drinks from to celebrate their discovery. Later, Shaw and the infected Holloway have sex. Holloway later looks in a mirror & sees his eyes are changing.
Back inside the structure, Fifield and Milburn are attacked by snake-like creatures. Milburn is killed, and a corrosive fluid (yellow acid blood) from one of the creatures melts Fifield's helmet, exposing him to the dark liquid leaking from the ampoules. The crew returns to the structure and finds Milburn's corpse. David discovers a room containing a living Engineer in stasis and a holographic star map highlighting Earth. Holloway's infection rapidly ravages his body, and he is rushed back to the ship. As he visibly deteriorates, Vickers refuses to let him aboard, and immolates him at his own request.
A medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being sterile, is pregnant. David subdues her, to return her to Earth in stasis, but she escapes and uses an automated surgery pod to cut a cephalopod-like creature from her abdomen. Weyland is found to have been in stasis aboard the ship; he explains to Shaw that he intends to ask the Engineers to help him avoid his impending death.
A mutated Fifield attacks the hangar bay and kills several crew members before being killed himself. Janek theorizes that the planet was used as an Engineer military base until they lost control of their biological weapons; the ampoules and the black fluid they contain. The remaining crew return to the structure and awaken the Engineer, who is occupying what is discovered to be a space ship (the same design as the crashed alien space ship seen in 'Alien' and 'Aliens'). David speaks to the Engineer, who responds by decapitating him and killing Weyland and Ford. Shaw escapes the alien ship as it is activated by the Engineer. The still-active David reveals it is going to release the ampoules on Earth. Vickers orders Janek to return to Earth, but Shaw convinces him to stop the Engineer's ship - he crashes the Prometheus into it while Vickers flees in an escape pod. The disabled Engineer ship crashes onto the planet, falling onto Vickers, crushing her. The ship continues to tumble and nearly crushes Shaw, but she escapes.
Shaw goes to the escape pod to retrieve supplies and finds her alien offspring has grown to gigantic size. The Engineer survives the crash, enters the escape pod and attacks Shaw, who releases the tentacled creature. It subdues the Engineer by thrusting a tentacle down its throat. Shaw recovers David's remains from the alien ship, and together they activate another Engineer ship. Shaw and the remains of android David then take off to travel to the Engineers' homeworld in an attempt to understand why they created humanity and why they attempted to destroy it.
In the final shot, in the Prometheus escape pod, an alien (very similar but not the same as seen in later movies) creature bursts out of the dying Engineer's chest.
Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/synopsis
Luckily, one of those cells survived and was planted on some part of the ocean, and that was the first cell which seems the movie trying to say the origin of all of the species of all forms of life here on earth.
The dark liquid, later in the movie was discovered was a weapon by the aliens (referred to as "The Engineers" in the movie ) itself, which is intended to destroy life forms in earth itself - the biggest question in the movie actually, why does the "The Engineers" want to kill all human?
By looking a the plot of movie, seems this movie is a prequel to the movie "Aliens", since it seems explains when these explains came from, and what they are motives in killing people.
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