A vast black ship hangs in the sky. We are touching down. Dropping towards a river delta, rushing water emits a tooth-rattling sound.

A large figure walks out to the edge of the waterfall.

A man - and yet not a man. The large black ship dominates the background.

His features heavy and classical, as if Michelangelo�s David came to life. His skin is clear and white, dressed in modest clothing. His glittering eyes entirely black. He is otherworldly yet familiar. Beautiful yet dangerous. He is an Engineer.

He places a black container on the ground. It looks like it�s made of black glass. Something meaningful is about to happen here.

Against the stark land, his height is impossible to judge. He removes his cloak. Somehow there is something sad about it. His smooth head is hairless. The Engineer stands near the precipice of a mighty waterfall. Breathtaking in its sheer power.

The Engineer he looks down at the container, furrows his brow, but there is no going back. He opens the black container: inside lies a cake of dark, sticky material.

He lifts the dark cake with ceremonial slowness. It hums and buzzes. Foams into iridescent spheres. The Engineer closes his eyes, deep reverence, a clear ceremony to this as he slowly opens his mouth

He raises the seething cake to his mouth as if taking communion... And swallows it.

And as we begin to hear the idling hum of a rising engine, the mighty sound of something lifting up and away. In the distance, the large ship disappears into the clouds. A moment as the Engineer takes in the pastoral beauty of all that surrounds him. Pure calm. The sound of the rushing water. The light of the setting sun.

And then, he convulses, violent, frightening. Close on the Engineer's eyes as they suddenly go dark. His skin begins to stretch as he howls again. Something is coming out of his ears, black and alive, a swarm. Not insects, but something else, pouring from his nostrils, his mouth, his eyes.

His skin melts away. A horrific vision of black blood and dissolving bone. The dark swarm is devouring him. He pitches forward, clutching his stomach, tremendous pain. His body starts to contort.

The swarm absorbs his genetic material. The Engineer stands cruciform. It swarms his shoulders, his chest.

When it reaches his hips, he collapses, toppling majestically like a felled tree.

Engulfed. As if blown by a great gust of wind, the swarm disperses in their millions in all directions. We are literally at the microscopic level. A fury of life and death as cell walls fracture.

His crumbling body falls into the crushing waterfall. We finally understand what the growing blackness is made up of. Tiny swirling ladders. And it�s instantly recognizable. It is the seed of This is DNA. He is completely enveloped in the swarm and he disintegrates. Imploding in on himself in a cloud of dust.

And we move down now into the rushing water as the tiny black particles drop in like scattered ashes, all that remains of the majestic being. The particles darting in and out of each other, almost as if alive. A fevered glimpse of the microscopic: cells rupture and bleed. Protein chains unfold. A DNA spiral unravels.

From blackness, the sounds of tools, picks. A pinhole of light, the hole widens, a face revealed. A woman, beautiful, young. There is a light in her eyes, something special, curiosity, intelligence. This is Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, a precocious scholar of many disciplines. A scientist accustomed to field work. Harsh glare as Shaw shines a penlight right into our eyes. Her own face brightens with discovery.

DR. ELIZABETH SHAW: Get Charlie.

ASSISTANT: Doctor Holloway! . . . . . Charlie!

We�re clearly in the midst of an archaeological excavation. Charlie Holloway, visionary genius and archaeologist. Twenties, scruffy, stubbly chin, confident as he is brilliant, reckless as he is handsome. Dark-haired and lean, with the rangy build of a frontiersman.

DR. CHARLIE HOLLOWAY: What?

SHAW: Come quick!

HOLLOWAY: Did you date it?

SHAW: 35,000 years. . . maybe older.

She guides his flashlight where she wants him to look. His eyes widen as he sees Shaw�s discovery. What these two are so excited about is finally revealed: a pictogram etched on the wall. Shockingly detailed, like no cave painting we�ve ever seen. A group of people looking up towards a giant at least twice their size. And he looks a hell of a lot like the Engineer. He points up, the flashlight dances up the wall, illuminates an intricately drawn starfield. One of those stars is prominent. This is what the giant is pointing to. Shaw and Holloway lock eyes in electric excitement.

HOLLOWAY: You got to be kidding me. . . This is the same configuration . . . and it's got to pre-date the others by a millennia.

Almost reverential as she turns to Holloway and softly says . . .

SHAW: I think they want us to come and find them.

Like two proud parents looking at a newborn. A sense they�ve finally found the very thing in life they have been looking for.