Prometheus' Black Goo Explained: All Powers And How It Connects To Alien

The black goo in Prometheus is the ultimate way the 2012 sci-fi film connects to the events of Alien. One of the more mysterious aspects of Prometheus was the strange black goo used by the ancient alien race known as the Engineers during their intergalactic travels. Much like the Engineers as a whole, the mysterious qualities of the goo were steadily revealed to be far more threatening and terrifying than the humans investigating them ever initially realized, impacting the lives of countless people across the course of the Alien timeline.

In fact, the substance is actually one of the most important aspects of the entire Alien universe and was secretly a key ingredient in the eventual birth of the Xenomoprhs that film audiences have spent forty-five years being terrified of. Capable of reshaping life forms and inducing different effects on different species, the black goo played a key role in the chronologically early Alien filmsPrometheus and Alien: Covenant. Here’s how Prometheus introduced the black goo, what it does, and how it plays factors into the overarching Alien franchise.

What Is The Black Goo In Prometheus & Where Does It Come From?

The Black Goo Is The Alien Franchise’s Ultimate Building Block

Introduced in Prometheus, the black goo — otherwise classified as Chemical A0-3959X.91-1 — is secretly a key element of the Alien universe. The black goo introduced in Prometheus is a mysterious substance that can have different effects on different life forms. While the exact origins of the black goo remain a mystery, the substance was utilized by the Engineers during their cosmic travels. This means they have been the ones to either discover the substance or refine it themselves. As revealed in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, the Engineers used the black goo on different worlds as a means of cultivating different lifeforms.

In some cases (as with Earth), certain Engineers would ingest the black goo and allow themselves to become part of the primordial DNA of the world. However, the black goo can also be administered to kill an organism or mutate them, depending on their compatibility with the substance. The black goo is an effective means to transforming planets and life forms, as it has a number of different effects that can set in as it wipes the slate clean and helps create new species.

The Black Goo Can Eradicate Entire Planets

Some Lifeforms Are Simply Killed By The Substance — If They’re Lucky

One of the most horrifying uses of the black goo is to wipe out lifeforms. As part of their apparent “cultivation” of the universe, the Engineers would use the black goo on the worlds they visited. If the substance interacted with species that couldn’t adjust to the new substance, they would be painfully killed. Entire ecosystems could be taken out this way, underscoring the dangerous potential of the substance. This was also revealed to be the intent of the Engineer who was seen in the latter half of Prometheus.

He and his fellow Engineers had been on their way back to Earth to eradicate life with the black goo, only for an emergency to wipe out all but him. This Engineer would have likely used the black goo to wipe out most of the life on Earth if he’d been able to complete his mission. Notably, the Engineers themselves don’t seem capable of absorbing the substance either. When David returned to the Engineer’s world in Alien: Covenant, he used the black goo to massacre the Engineers and create a life form known as the Neomorph.

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The Black Goo Can Transform Hosts Into Monsters

How The Black Goo Mutates Men Into Monsters

Just because a species is capable of interacting with the black goo doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be spared a painful death, however. The dawning terror that plays out throughout Prometheus escalates after Holloway and Fifield are both infected by the black goo. In both cases, each man is transformed and mutated into durable new forms known as Anathema. It appears that the severity and length of exposure can impact how severely this transformation goes into effect. In both cases, Holloway and Fifeld went through a physical metamorphosis.

Holloway was only exposed to a small amount of the black goo, which might explain why his transformation, while quick, had less of a direct impact on his mental faculties. As a result, he was able to still communicate with the rest of his team, and encouraged them to kill him to protect themselves from possible infection. By contrast, Fifeld was left exposed to the substance for a longer period. This transformation seemed to leave him with no remaining mental faculties, transforming him into a mindless monster that proved durable enough to survive multiple fatal injuries before being put down.

The Black Goo Can Make Someone A Carrier For New Lifeforms

Spreading The Species

The most insidious effect of the black goo on a lifeform is its apparent ability to become a host for new life forms spawned by the black goo. Once Holloway had been exposed to the black goo, he became capable of spreading the infection to others, such as his partner Shaw. Although she’d previously been diagnosed as infertile, their intercourse produced a new life form that would become known as a Trilobite. Going by the experiments David conducted in the aftermath of Prometheus, this seems to create a cycle of reproduction within the species spawned by the black goo.

Effectively working as a virus given physical form, these resulting creatures in turn try to expand the hive and create new members of their species. Humans and Engineers alike have proven to be acceptable hosts for this sort of transformation, as seen when the Trilobite that had been gestated within Shaw infected the Engineer, resulting in the birth of the Deacon in Prometheus‘ final moments. The eradication of the Engineer population resulted in the spread of the Neomorphs, highlighting the adaptability and danger of these creatures.

How The Black Goo Connects To Alien

The Black Goo Led Directly To The Birth Of The Xenomorph

Although the Xenomorphs of the Alien franchise had originally been suggested to be a naturally occurring species, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant revealed that they were actually the result of genetic experimentation by David. Between those two films, David used the black goo, as well as biological samples from the deceased Engineer, Shaw, and local Neomorphs to create a new “perfect” life-form. This was the Praetomorph, which became the primary threat of Alien: Covenant. Having come to hate humanity and the Engineers alike, David used the Praetomorphs as the test subject in his further experiments.

This eventually led to the refinement of the Xenomorph species as they’re later seen in the Alien films, as the creations could remain dormant long enough for a viable host to become available — as seen with the face-huggers that sprang to life when the human crew of the Nostromo found them in Alien. While the black goo may not have appeared in any of those original movies, the later entries reinforced the importance of the black goo within the worldbuilding of the Alien franchise.

Prometheus

4.5

2012’s Prometheus is the fifth installment in the Alien franchise and was directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce, the film acts as a direct prequel to 1979’s Alien.

Release Date

June 8, 2012

Studio(s)

20th Century

Writers

Jon Spaihts , Damon Lindelof

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Alien (1979)

5.0

Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, is a science fiction horror film that follows the crew of the commercial spacecraft Nostromo. Upon investigating a distress signal on a distant moon, they discover a deadly extraterrestrial lifeform. The film stars Sigourney Weaver as Ripley and became a seminal work in both the sci-fi and horror genres, known for its atmospheric tension and groundbreaking visual effects.

Release Date

June 22, 1979

Writers

Dan O’Bannon , Ronald Shusett