Fictional Science: 100 Glaring Logical Issues With Prometheus

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Ridley Scott’s Prometheus has some major gaps, hence this week’s home video release being marketed around the phrase “Questions will be answered” (spoiler: they aren’t).

For many viewers like me, it’s not so much the film’s insistence on ambiguity – which is perfectly fine, in theory – but its string of massive, glaring plot holes that holds Prometheus back from realizing its full potential. The film has some good ideas, but they are utterly hampered by some of the worst scientific logic, biggest plot contrivances, and cavernous logical gaps I have ever seen in a film. This is not a ‘science fiction’ story so much as it is a ‘fictional science’ story, as very little of Prometheus could exist in any recognizable layer of reality.

With the film now available on home video, allowing us to analyze it to our heart’s content, I figured now would be the perfect time to set in stone every logical issue I could find. Well, some of them. Once my notes had extended past 6,000 words, I decided it was best to cut things off at just 100 issues, and that is the list you see here today. Time codes are included to assist in matching the list with the content of the film.

Special thanks to Sean Chapman, my WGTC Radio co-host, who was instrumental in helping to find and clarify many of the points made in this article.

UPDATE (10/12): As several reader comments have correctly pointed out, my assessment of issue #11, seen on the next page, is incorrect. The Prometheus can travel with glass windows because they are covered by metal panels during flight. I have accordingly scratched it off the list, but to keep this article at 100 total issues, I am including a reader-suggested issue as our replacement for #11:

Replacement Issue: How could David, an android, play a flute? As a robot, he would be in no need of lungs or a diaphragm, so where would the air needed to blow into the flute come from? In fact, Holloway and David converse, while prepping for the first expedition, about how David does not breathe, therefore not having the capacity to blow air into a flute. David can presumably speak without lungs or a diaphragm because he has a voice box or chip – which is how he can communicate after his head is severed – but he wouldn’t be able to play a flute.

Now, without further ado, let’s dive into 100 Glaring Logical Issues With Prometheus. Enjoy…

Begin reading on the next page…