10 First Draft Movie Ideas Better Than What We Got

5. Basically Everything - Prometheus

The Original Idea

Passengers sadly wasn't the first and only time that Jon Spaihts had one of his scripts molested by a studio that thought it knew better, as Spaihts' original script for Prometheus - a more direct Alien prequel called Alien: Engineers - differs significantly from the final film, and almost always for the better.

Where to begin? First and foremost, the moon the scientists touch down on is indeed LV-426 from Alien, and the film as a whole places a more direct emphasis on leading into the events of Ridley Scott's 1979 classic.

Elsewhere, David (Michael Fassbender) is more overtly villainous and directly impregnates female lead Watts with an alien embryo by placing a Facehugger on her mug.

This leads to a final showdown between Watts and the Xenomorph - removed from her womb in much the same way the Trilobite was in Prometheus - which she kills by chainsawing its head off.

The story ends with Watts reunited with David and forming an uneasy alliance, just as pyramids can be seen lighting up in in the distance, suggesting more Engineers are about to pay them a visit.

Other different details include the reduced presence of the black goo, which is instead described as a swarm of scarab-like insects, and Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) never appears on the ship, nor is Vickers (Charlize Theron) his daughter.

The entire subplot about him wishing to extend his life is absent, as his motivations are purely financial, to acquire the Engineers' planet-terraforming tech.

What We Got

Lost's Damon Lindelof was eventually brought on-board to help "flesh out" Spaihts' script with Scott, leading to an intriguing if frustratingly non-committal final movie filled with head-scratching creative calls.

Lindelof and Scott ultimately made Prometheus less of a direct Alien prequel than the original script, shifting the action to an adjacent moon for reasons that still aren't really clear.

David's villainous arc is decidedly more ambiguous and convoluted, as getting to the proto-Xenomorph requires him poisoning Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) with the black goo, Holloway having sex with Shaw (Noomi Rapace), Shaw "aborting" the creature, the creature impregnating the angry Engineer and the Engineer finally hatching the Xeno. Having David simply impregnate Watts is so much tidier and less fussy.

Aside from that final glimpse, Prometheus of course features no Xenomorphs whatsoever, and the cliffhanger is notably different, ending with Shaw and David heading off to seek out the Engineers' homeworld.

Is Prometheus a bad movie? Absolutely not, but it frustrates precisely because the seeds of a brilliant movie are so clearly sewn, especially once you take a look at Spaihts' script.

The next time this guy writes an original sci-fi movie, can we just leave him alone, yeah?