Prometheus: Damon Lindelof & Jon Spaihts Confirm “36 Hours” Was NOT Scripted
Wow, the “36 hours” controversy in Prometheus just won’t die down!
36 hours controversy in Prometheus just wont 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 2 years, 4 months, 18 days, 36 hours, 15 minutes. A common complaint has been that if Michael Fassbenders David is using established temporal units to measure time, then he should have said 2 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 Robots 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: King Jon! Please let us know about the 36 hrs point. Am losing sleep over this and the GF is about to dump me! The screenwriter replied: In candor, I didnt write that line. I presume its 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