Master visualist and supreme storymaker Ridley Scott Gothicises the Alien legacy to its outermost intensity, showing the gloom of exploring an unchartered universe, confronting grotesque creatures and being endangered by supernatural forces in the supreme Prometheus.

It's humanity being seduced by the lure of unfathomable phenomena and menaced by fear. Humankind's relationship with the gods, what happens when we challenge the gods, and our search for meaning to find answers to our existence culminate in a powerful cinematic tour de force.

With Prometheus, Scott has created a new mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey aboard the spaceship Prometheus, to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Prometheus is the crowning glory to the Alien legacy. It began life as an Alien prequel and evolved into another universe. Scott admits that there are "strands of Alien's DNA", but the mind-blowing ideas tackled with verve and vivacity in Prometheus are unique in every frame, far reaching beyond comprehension and daringly provocative.

Scripted by novelist John Spaith (who also wrote the frightening films Passengers and The Darkest Hour), and Damon Lindelof (the co-creator of Lost who also produced Star Trek and is co-writing and producing the sequel to Star Trek, and who also wrote Cowboys and Aliens), Proetheus is built on solid ground.

The fantasy element of its sci-fi sphere sets a spectacular background for this epical and visual extravaganza.

The Alien legacy

The Alien Legacy began with John Carpenter's student film Dark Star, which was supposed to be a comedy, but audiences reacted with fear, causing screenwriter Dan O'Bannon to embrace fear. "Comedy is individualistic, everyone laughs at something," he said. "But they are all afraid at the same time."

O'Bannon's new-found interest in scary movies was reaffirmed when he teamed up with producer-writer Ronald Shusett, who was on the same wavelength, and his inspiring encounter with the magnificent work of artist HR Giger resulted in the classic "chest buster" creature in Ridley Scott's 1979 classic sci-fi masterpiece Alien.

The rest is history. The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of novels, comic books, video games and toys, as well as three sequel and two prequel films.

It also launched Weaver's acting career by providing her with her first lead role and the story of her character Ripley's encounters with the alien creatures became the thematic thread that ran through the sequels Aliens, directed by James Cameron (1986), David Fincher's Alien 3 (1992), and French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien Resurrection (1997).

The subsequent prequels Alien vs. Predator, directed by Paul WS Anderson (2004) and the Brothers Strause's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) abandoned this theme in favour of a crossover with the Predator franchise.