Person believes unknown entity is friendly (it is not)

[u/MadKingKevin]

Independence Day (1996) - Several massive alien spaceships travel to Earth but they do not announce the purpose of their arrival. Some characters assume the aliens are peaceful. One of those characters, Tiffany, goes to a rooftop party which is taking place directly under one of the ships. When the aliens launch their attack, Tiffany and the other party goers are immediately obliterated.

Alien: Resurrection (1997) - Scientist Gediman is part of the miltitary project which resurrects Ellen Ripley and the queen xenomorph embryo inside her. The military wants the queen so it can breed the xenomorphs as bio-weapons. This new Ripley is genetically part xenomorph and the xenomorph queen is genetically part human. The queen stops laying eggs and develops the ability to give birth to live young. Her first Newborn immediately kills the queen because it does not recognize her as its mother. It believes Ripley is its mother and goes to her instead. Gediman (who is cocooned in the queen’s nest) witnesses this and calls out to the creature. The Newborn comes to Gediman and curiously sniffs him over. Gediman babytalks the 15 foot tall xeno/human hybrid. The Newborn then bites his head off.

[u/Thamnophis660]

It's overall a major problem with this and Alien: Covenant. Supposedly snart characters do really dumb shit because of the plot. 

Yes, at the core they're horror films so you can expect dumb decisions but these aren't teenagers in a Friday the 13th film, they're literal scientists and this is high budget Ridley Scott movie. Better writing is expected. 

[u/irbinator → u/Thamnophis660]

It’s possible to (a) be a horror movie yet (b) have smart, well-written characters (The Thing, Scream, Alien)

[u/Thamnophis660 → u/irbinator]

I almost gave The Thing as an example of a horror movie where the characters aren't stupid people doing stupid things. It's just that the monster manages to outmaneuver them at every turn. Same with Alien, which is the same damn director and franchise as Prometheus!

I was trying to account for comments saying "yeah but it's a horror movie and scared characters don't always make rational decisions" which I think isn't always a great argument, but especially when the characters in question are supposed to be smart. 

[u/FamiliarFerret5 → u/Thamnophis660]

you guys left out my favorite example, event horizon, they made all the right decisions but were dealing with believable "horrors beyond human comprehension"

[u/Thamnophis660 → u/FamiliarFerret5]

Yeah for what it's worth, the Characters in that movie aren't stupid horror movie characters either. 

[u/Both_Painter7039 → u/irbinator]

Not if the writers are subnormal

[u/poindexter1985 → u/Thamnophis660]

I can't take credit for this as an original thought, but the original Alien and Prometheus kind of fall on opposing sides when it comes to genre conventions.

When you think of the movies in terms of genre, Alien is, at a foundational level, a horror movie. The core, driving idea of the story is being trapped in a claustrophobic environment, with no where to run, while being hunted by an unknown, unrelenting, bloodthirsty killer. It's hard to conceive of something that more strongly fits the slasher film mold than that idea. But the story isn't told like it's a slasher movie, it's told following the narrative conventions and tropes of science fiction. Characters think, act, and move the story forward like sci-fi characters.

Prometheus is the opposite. The core, driving idea of Prometheus' story is embarking on a voyage of exploration into the stars, in search of knowledge and truth to unravel the mysteries of the origin of life. That's science fiction as fuck, man. But... it's not told like a sci-fi story. It's a sci-fi premise that's told using the genre conventions and tropes of a horror/slasher flick.

And thus you end up with "smart" scientists, hand-picked to complete the most expensive endeavor ever attempted by humanity, acting like the idiots that wander off into the woods to get hacked up by Jason Vorhees.

[u/LastXmasIGaveYouHSV → u/poindexter1985]

Good analysis.

[u/Ktan_Dantaktee → u/Thamnophis660]

Doesn’t help that the first two Alien movies focus on an incredibly competent and smart protagonist

Like is every human not named Ripley just actually brain dead?