Prometheus’ fake TED Talk could not predict how we feel about tech billionaires
On Feb. 28, 2012, a video entitled “TED Conference, 2023” appeared on the website for the eponymous American-Canadian nonprofit organization. The faked, futuristic presentation was the beginning of a viral campaign for Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s then-upcoming attempt at revitalizing the science fiction horrors of the Alien franchise with a high-minded prequel. But the video turned out to be a weird premonition in itself.
Written by Prometheus co-writer Damon Lindelof and directed by Ridley’s son Luke Scott, the video starred Guy Pearce as a younger version of his character Peter Weyland, the ostensible antagonist of the film, delivering a defiant speech to a massive audience packed into Wembley Stadium, with floating cameras and real-time reactions scrolling across a massive projection screen. Prior to Prometheus, Weyland was the previously unseen (and long-deceased) founder of Weyland Industries, which would eventually become the unscrupulous mega-corporation Weyland-Yutani (aka “The Company”) first glimpsed in the original 1979 Alien. But in “TED Conference, 2023,” Weyland is alive and well, a 32-year-old tech mogul and veritable titan of industry at the apex of his combined wealth, youth, and power with clear thoughts on the future.
“Prometheus takes place in the future, but it’s a movie about ideas, and I just felt like it would be really cool to have one of the characters from the movie give a TED Talk,” Lindelof said in a Q&A interview published on TED’s blog alongside the Peter Weyland video. “Obviously, since the movie is set in the distant future, it would have to be a little more contemporary. But wouldn’t it be cool if it was a TED talk from a decade in the future? And what is a TED Talk going to look like in
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