Summary
AlthoughPrometheusnever explicitly explains why David poisoned Dr. Charlie Holloway, theAlienprequel does provide a few clues to the cause of his horrific fate. Ofall the movies in theAlienfranchise, 2012’s prequelPrometheusmight have the most plot holes. Director Ridley Scott’s prequel is infamously convoluted, touching on existential philosophical themes like the source of life while also functioning as a monster movie. This madePrometheusa divisive effort, but the movie’s ambition is admirable. However, a lot of its twists are never fully explained due to the movie’s limited runtime and sprawling scope.
The franchise never explains whyPrometheus’s technology is better thanAlien’s machineryeven though the prequel takes place much earlier. Still, this can be attributed to Peter Weyland’s wealth and hubris. Similarly, althoughall of theAlienmoviesfeature body horror fates that defy explanation, some ofPrometheus’s nastiest deaths are quite underdeveloped. It is not always clear how or why characters die when they do, as is the case with Elizabeth Shaw’s beloved Dr. Charlie Holloway. Charlie receives one of the most memorably nasty deaths inPrometheus, but viewers may not understand why he was killed.
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Charlie Was Essentially A Test Subject For David In Prometheus
Michael Fassbender’s Prometheus Character Used Charlie For His Experiments
Prometheusnever directly explains why Micheal Fassbender’s android David poisons Dr. Charlie Holloway with the Engineer’s black fluid. However, viewers can surmise a few potential answers based on the movie’s events. The simplest is that David, who clearly has human emotions despite his robotic origins, resents Charlie’s insults about his android nature.David’s villainous plan inPrometheusandAlien: Covenantmade it clear that he has no moral qualms with killing people, so this slight might have been what led him to poison Charlie. This isn’t the only explanation for the incident, but it offers a compelling motive alongside others.
Viewers can guess that Weyland himself may have chosen Charlie since he resented his relative youth and happiness.
Peter Weyland needed to find out what the Engineer’s black fluid did, meaning he might have told David to poison Charlie to find out. Weyland’s grand plan was to discover the source of human life andPrometheus’s enigmatic opening scene does depict an Engineer consuming the liquid, so this wasn’t an entirely unreasonable plan. With this in mind, viewers can guess that Weyland himself may have chosen Charlie since he resented his relative youth and happiness. Alternatively, Weyland gave David the freedom to choose a test subject and the aforementioned insult came back to haunt Charlie when the robot picked him.
How David Poisoned Charlie & With What
David Poisoned Charlie With Prometheus’s Mysterious Engineer Liquid
Prometheusdoesn’t trip over itself to explain the black liquid that David uses to dispatch Charlie, but it comes from the Engineers. InAlien: The Roleplaying Gameand other canonical tie-in materials, the black goo is known as “Prometheus Fire.” This extremely potent bioweapon was created by the Engineers to wipe out the entire populations of other planets. David adds it to the arsenal of bioweapons that he develops for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, alongside the Neomorph variants seen inAlien: Covenant. While the goo is powerful enough to disintegrate an Engineer who swallows it, it kills Charlie far more slowly.
This might be due to a difference in the composition of human and Engineer bodies, but there is a more likely explanation. SinceRidley Scott’sAlienprequelsmake it abundantly clear that the Engineers are stronger, faster, and more powerful than humans, it stands to reason that Charlie’s slow death came about because of his low dose. The Engineer in the opening scene ofPrometheusknocks back an entire vial of the goo before crumbling like a sandcastle, whereas David might have only poisoned Charlie with a minuscule amount. As such, its deadly effects are less easily traced.
What Actually Killed Dr. Charlie Holloway In Prometheus
An Infection From The Engineer Liquid Led Holloway To Request Immolation
While Prometheus Fire is what poisons Charlie inPrometheus, the substance is not what kills him. That honor goes to a regular old fire, which is used to burn Charlie to death in a mercy killing when he becomes infected. In one of the saddest scenes in the franchise, Charlie realizes that his infection is not reversible and could be contagious, meaning he is a threat to the rest of the team. Charlie tells Meredith Vickers to burn him alive when she refuses to allow him back on board the Prometheus.
Charlie’s death is one of the nastiest moments inRidley Scott’sAlienprequels, but it serves numerous important functions in the movie’s plot. The storyline informs David about the powers of Prometheus Fire, indirectly results in Shaw’s impregnation with a Xenomorph variant, and proves that Charlie is a true hero in the end. Charlie’s character arc reaches a tragic but fitting end, Shaw’s story takes a dark turn that defines the remainder of the movie’s story, andPrometheusproves David is one of theAlienfranchise’s scariest villains.
