Damon Lindelof took some grief from the internet after "Prometheus," this summer's sort-of prequel to "Alien," left audiences with many unanswered questions. For instance: Why would David, an android played by Michael Fassbender, poison Holloway, a human played by Logan Marshall Green, with the black goo? (Click here for more on the so-called black goo.)
Well, as Lindelof says on the "Prometheus" commentary track on the new Blu-ray release, he wrote a scene that was never filmed, which would have answered that very question. We reached out to Lindelof to ask about this, but, first, here's what Lindelof says on the Blu-ray:
Why is David doing this? This might be a question coming out of the movie. That's something that the Weyland scene would have answered more specifically had it been in. But in the sort of vaguer iteration of the movie -- Why is David doing this? -- because Weyland has basically told him, "Whatever it is you find up there, I need you to find the solution to my problem of dying." So, at first blush, when David comes, all of the engineers are dead. So, they're not going to be able to talk to them. "Hey, but I found this goop. Is there something in this goop that might give my boss what he wants. Well, there's only one way to find out. I'm going to inject it into a rat." In David's estimation, the humans around him are rats and Holloway is certainly a willing rat subject.
Now, what missing scene is he referring to? It turns out when David is speaking to someone shortly after discovering the black goo, the scene was supposed to be much more elaborate and way less ambiguous.
David, here, is talking to someone mysterious. We do not know who. We will later realize it is Weyland. In the script, there is, like, a four-page sequence where, essentially, David is walking along a white, sandy beach. And this gorgeous woman in a bikini picks him up on a wave runner or a jet ski.
He hops on and they scoot out to a yacht. He gets off and then he has this scene with Peter Weyland, played by Guy Pearce in Guy Pearce's glory -- Guy Pearce is a fantastically blond, beautiful, 40-year-old man. So the idea is that David would have this scene with him. And in that scene, Guy Pearce tells him -- and I'm saying "Guy Pearce" because I want you to differentiate that from the aged Weyland that we saw at the beginning of the movie -- "Do whatever it takes to get me what I want."
So, now David comes out of that scene and explains to Vickers that he told me to "try harder." So, in the old version, obviously, the audience would understand Weyland is on the ship. In this version we're just kind of hinting at it -- so it's a lot more mysterious.
But, ultimately, Ridley didn't shoot it. He didn't think that we needed it. And I kind of agree with him. But, I would have loved to have seen it in the movie. And the reason why is if Guy Pearce is going to be in old-age makeup playing a 100-year-old man, you wonder why we didn't cast a 100-year-old man. An old dude. And the answer was we needed to also play him as a 40-year-old.
I reached out to Lindelof to ask if he was worried that the missing scene might confuse viewers. His response:
"The scene on Weyland's yacht was there for a reason; not just to convey some necessary story points, but to reveal Weyland was aboard the ship MID-way through the movie as opposed to near the end, which by design, would have taken a lot of the burden off having to play catch up later. It also would've given David and Weyland their one and only scene together -- and who DOESN'T want to see Michael Fassbender and Guy Pearce (sans old age makeup) squaring off against each other?"
Well, for what's it's worth, I was quite confused about David's actions without this missing scene and think some explanation would have been warranted. Alas, now, at least, we have that explanation.
Mike Ryan is senior writer for Huffington Post Entertainment. You can contact him directly on Twitter.