Prometheus: The power in choosing to believe

Noomi Rapace's character, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, in the 2012 sci-fi film Prometheus embodies a phenomenon that many believe today to be a paradox: a scientist of faith. In the film, she leads the expedition to find the founders of humanity, believed to be an alien race whose visits to ancient human civilizations left a series of eerily similar artifacts across the globe. How could she believe in God and heaven when science has disproven such fantastical theories?

The key is her choosing to believe. This is revealed to us early on. Shaw is part of a crew in hypersleep traveling to a distant planet where, based on the messages they left behind, our ancestral alien founders are hoped to be found. We are joined in watching them sleep by David, an android played by Michael Fassbender, who has the ability to tap into the neural pathways of the sleepers and watch their dreams. Through this method we experience Rapace discussing faith and belief with her father, also a scientist, who explains that he chooses to believe in something beautiful, but that each makes their own choice.

Produced and directed by Ridley Scott, Prometheus is a prequel to the continuing Alien series, which he kicked off over 40 years ago. The initial entry turned Sigourney Weaver into a star and an icon for female empowerment, forging the way for female action heroes. Dipping and peaking at different points, the franchise has had a presence in every decade since, including a couple of spin-off collaborations with two Alien vs. Predator installments. You may have thought those would have killed the run (I haven't seen them, but I can appreciate a modern-day monster head-to-head similar to the old meet-ups like Mothra vs. Godzilla), but in today's world where IP is king, anything can live again.

More importantly, though, is the involvement of Scott himself. He has never lost his ability to craft a mesmerizing world through visual splendor and engaging, high-stakes stories. Here he is looking deep at the roots of this universe, which has always been about creation and the inevitability of life seeking survival, paired with the plot line of a monster thriller movie. On Prometheus, he doesn't disappoint in this either. The opening credits play over a series of breathtaking flying shots of a cold but living landscape that could be Iceland or some undiscovered distant planet. The soundtrack is aspirational, more reflective of the philosophical themes than the suspense.

But all the elements of an entertaining sci-fi thriller are still here: crew members isolated on a distant planet, divided by their conflicting and sometimes hidden mission goals; mysterious circumstances and creatures lurking in the shadows; futuristic technology that manages to malfunction or escalate problems. The minute the screen informs us of them, you know that all of the 17 crew members inhabiting the ship Prometheus will not be making it back home, as optimistic and casual as they may all act when awaking from two years of hibernation.

Once on the planet, different camps quickly form around competing goals. Some are in it for the pay day, some represent corporate interests, while Shaw and her partner are there for scientific exploration. Over time, as crew members get picked off one by one, we see it as a competition of ideas. The ship's captain, at first of the "following orders" type, becomes an ally to Shaw and supports her progress. At the same time, Fassbender's David shows interest beyond his programming. A roll he plays so well, as a kind-of more evolved version of 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL 9000. Hostile alien species speed up the process of elimination.

Who survives the chaos, and how, gives us a clue where Scott lays his own heart. The film posits that everyone has a faith system - whether that's in a higher power, the scientific process, or one's own self - but that those who lay a claim and stand by it will fare better than those who are unsure. But only the most dogged in their beliefs will likely survive the sticky, sci-fi carnage.