Prometheus: Damon Lindelof & Jon Spaihts Confirm “36 Hours” Was NOT Scripted

By Benjamin Taylor / March 13, 2013

€œ36 hours€ controversy in Prometheus just won€™t die down!

As I posted previously, 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 €œ2 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 €œ2 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 €œRobots 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: €œKing Jon! Please let us know about the €œ36 hrs€ point. Am losing sleep over this and the GF is about to dump me!€ The screenwriter replied: €œIn 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! For my analysis of the 'key themes' in Prometheus see here. Follow me on Twitter: @BenjiTaylorWins