This article makes reference to fictional suicide.
Ridley Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus served as an unusual reunion between Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce after their 15-year-old post-apocalyptic survival thriller. Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce are two of the most talented actors currently working in Hollywood, and almost every movie they make is a hit. Despite their respective success, however, Pearce and Theron rarely work together, and there's almost no overlap between the best Charlize Theron movies and the best Guy Pearce movies. Prometheus is one of only two films they've ever collaborated on, and their roles in it were also much more memorable than their first collaboration.
Not only was Prometheus the second time Theron and Pearce worked together on a film, it was also much more successful than their first outing. Prometheus, though it wasn't initially well received as an Alien movie, was fairly successful. It earned a 73% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it earned over $400 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo). By contrast, Theron and Pearce's first collaboration earned 74%, but only made $27 million against its budget of $25 million. On top of its better box office earnings, Prometheus also finally put Theron and Pearce on the screen together.
Prometheus Reunited Theron & Pearce After The Road
Theron & Pearce Have Only Acted In Two Films Together: The Road & Prometheus
Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce have only ever appeared in two films together: 2009's The Road and 2012's Prometheus. In Prometheus, Theron played Meredith Vickers while Pearce played Peter Weyland, and in The Road, Theron played Woman while Pearce played Veteran. They are very different movies: The Road is an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel and one of the most realistic and scariest apocalypse movies, while Prometheus is an Alien prequel with all the sci-fi and body horror elements the franchise is known for. Different as they are, however, Prometheus still serves as a reunion between Theron and Pearce after their appearances in The Road.
Prometheus Finally Pays Off Theron And Pearce's The Road Roles
Theron & Pearce's Characters Never Met In The Road, But They Had A Big Scene In Prometheus
Prometheus wasn't just Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce's first movie together since The Road, it was also their only time being on-screen at the same time. In The Road, Theron's character, Woman, only appears in flashbacks where Man (Viggo Mortensen) remembers her suicide. Pearce's character, Veteran, only appears at the end of The Road, after Man's death. As such, Theron and Pearce were never in the same scene in The Road. It seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to put Theron and Pearce in the same movie and put them in roles where they couldn't interact, but luckily, Prometheus seized that chance.
The reveal that Guy Pearce's Weyland is on the ship is a big twist in Prometheus, but the Alien prequel drops two big hints about this early on.
Though Pearce and Theron never interacted in The Road, they did get a substantial scene together in Prometheus. Towards the ending of Prometheus, after Pearce's Peter Weyland wakes up from hypersleep and has a conversation with Theron's Meredith Vickers. While it was a short moment, it was quite important to Prometheus, as it revealed why Weyland funded the voyage in the first place and that Meredith was his daughter. On top of its importance to the film, Weyland and Meredith's conversation finally showed how well Pearce and Theron could work together in a shared scene, albeit three years after their first chance in The Road.
There Are Some Surprising Connections Between Prometheus & The Road
Pearce & Theron's Characters Have Some Similarities, Despite Their Many Differences
Though The Road and Prometheus are very different films, Theron and Pearce's respective characters each have some unexpected similarities. In Prometheus, Meredith and Weyland were obviously connected through a father-daughter bond, and in The Road, Woman and Veteran both took on parental roles. Woman was the Boy's mother and Man's wife, and Veteran was an actual father to two children and an adoptive father figure to Boy after Man's death. While their characters in The Road had a similar dynamic together as their Prometheus characters did, each individual character also had some similarities.
In Prometheus, Meredith and Weyland were obviously connected through a father-daughter bond, and in The Road, Woman and Veteran both took on parental roles.
For example, both of Pearce's characters take on leadership roles and are searching for something. While their motivations and morality are definitely different, Weyland was the leader of a massive corporation and several employees who was searching for the key to eternal life, and Veteran was the protector of his family who was searching for a way to protect the Boy. Likewise, both of Theron's characters met brutal fates: the Woman committed suicide because of The Road's apocalypse, while Meredith was crushed by the Engineer's ship while trying to run away at the end of Prometheus.
Based on Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, The Road centers on a father and son who attempt to make it to the coast after a global apocalypse wipes out all plant and animal life on Earth. The Road was directed by John Hillcoat and stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Director John Hillcoat
Release Date November 25, 2009
Studio(s) Dimension Films
Distributor(s) Dimension Films
Writers Joe Penhall
Runtime 111 minutes
Budget $25 million
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.
Custom image by Sean Morrison
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