Five things we learnt from the new Prometheus trailer

When a studio releases three different trailers in a matter of days then two things are certain - 1) the studio has a lot of money to spend and 2) the film in question is a HUGE deal.

Ridley Scott's 'Alien' prequel 'Prometheus' is the biggest sci-fi film to be released in years and the biggest horror to be released in even longer. This is a film with a huge budget and a lot riding on its success.

[Related video: Exclusive interview with the stars of Prometheus]

At Wondercon over the weekend the cast and crew revealed the second trailer for the film, this time one that expands upon the story elements while remaining as pulsating as the teaser released a couple of months ago.

The lightning-fast pace of the trailer means only glimpses are seen of some of the more intriguing aspects, so we've slowed it down, watched it over and now bring you five things we learnt from the three minute trailer.

There may be potential spoilers in here as we speculate, you have been warned.

Humanity has been cordially invited to be scared out of its wits
Scott's original 'Alien' never ventured to Earth but from the off we know that at least a small part of the film will be set on our home planet. The trailer reveals that a picture of a man pointing towards a small constellation of stars has been discovered in a number of civilisations throughout history that had no connection to one another.

It's an indication that there may be life among the stars, so an expedition to the constellation is set up. "We're all here because of a map you two kids found in a cave," quips one member of Prometheus, the name given to the ship sent into the outer reaches of space.

Noomi Rapace's character Elizabeth Shaw, who made the discovery, gleefully says, "Not a map... an invitation". Oooh that smile should be wiped off her face in about a minute's time we reckon.

David is the key to Prometheus' secrets
Michael Fassbender plays android David in the film and everything points towards his character playing the same purpose as fellow androids Ash and Bishop, who were in the first two 'Alien' films respectively.

Their purpose was to gather information for their corporate bosses back on Earth, a perfectly fine pursuit until their true intent is revealed.

In 'Alien' Ash turned bad, intending to kill heroine Ripley until he is stopped by a conveniently timed fire extinguisher to the head. In 'Aliens' Bishop is a good guy through and through, so with one being good and another bad, it casts a nice veil of uncertainty over 'Prometheus's David. Plus we reckon he has the creepiest robot smile since Arnie in 'Terminator 2'.

It's a trap!
"There's a ship... it's leaving."

"To go where?"

"Earth."

One surprise from the trailer is how it says that whatever is on this planet wants to go to Earth and destroy the population. We know that this is not how things go as the ship is seen crashing later on in the trailer, and it's also the same one investigated in the original 'Alien'.

So whatever race controls this ship baits humanity to the planet (using the already-mentioned pictures) to find a way to Earth. But why would they do that?

The primordial alien ooze
While on the desolate planet they discover a life-form which appears to be a type of ooze. They also find a colossal model of a humanoid head which we imagine would be more than a little unsettling to find on a planet previously untouched by humans.

It makes sense for Ridley Scott to want to mirror the original 70s film in some ways to effectively tie them together. So upon finding the giant head and the egg-like pods beneath it, something finds its way into the suit of one of the men, which causes him a lot of discomfort to say the least, much like how the face-hugger attaches itself to Kane in 'Alien'.

There's a snippet later in the trailer (above, top) of a fleshy worm-type creature finding its way into one of the crew's suits. Later on we see something similar being dangled above what appears to be Noomi Rapace's character, who looks to have been restrained there (above, bottom).

Could the living ooze be the very essence of life, creating the fleshy worm and other such life forms (face-huggers for example) inside those pods? It might explain the giant head, which could be a blue print for creating human-kind itself from the ooze.

The owners of the horseshoe-shaped ship may well be keepers of this ooze. These are the Space Jockeys. A space Jockey suit was already seen in 'Alien's derelict ship and in glimpses here. Imagine them as a race, spreading this life-creating substance around the galaxy using the Space Jockey's cannon. It would effectively make them gods.

Prometheus (the one of Greek mythology, not the ship) was a man who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the mortals. As punishment he was bound to a rock as an eagle picked away at his liver, which would re-grow each day to be eaten again. It ties in with the idea that these humans discover this race of life-spreading aliens and attempt to take some of the ooze themselves, only to be punished as a result.

Transformation
The crew are punished when they come into contact with the ooze. It transforms them as we see in a number of shots and could well be the explanation for the humanoid figure we see standing over Rapace towards the end of the trailer.

Notice the pattern on his leg (below), it's very familiar to a fan of the series and emits connotations of the horrific Xenomorphs that hunted Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley. This is either what becomes of the people who come into contact with the ooze or they are the Space Jockeys themselves. Which would beg the question, why do they resemble humans?

We see various stages of transformation from a character seeing something in his eye, to similarly coloured marks on another's skin. We also see a character seemingly ravaged by the transformation, leaping on another crew member.

These figures (Space Jockeys or otherwise) have some affinity with the ooze and probably want to protect it much like the Greek gods wanted to protect their fire. One of the figures approaches and presumably enter a Space Jockey suit. If whoever does that ends up being the one that's found in 'Alien' then we know that the original Xenomorph lingers inside him, waiting to explode from his chest.

To summarise, humanity ventures into space and discovers a planet on which they find a primordial ooze and its owners, who seemingly want to fly to Earth. The ship is stopped as the ooze comes into contact with some of the crew, who are transformed and turn on their former friends.

There's still a lot of mysteries left unravelled however. Just what do the owners of that horseshoe ship look like? How exactly do the original Xenomorphs tie into this? Will one even appear in the film? What's the deal with the waterfall at the start?

And what on Earth is this?

Our questions will be answered when 'Prometheus' is released on 1 June.