Planet
The opening scene shows a planet that allows us to believe this could be Earth. Some untouched portion of the planet that we haven't seen ourselves. Scott plays on our belief that we can see this as home in order to reveal that we don't know what we see. This happens when the director puts a spaceship into frame above the waterfall. It makes us feel like we are home, but in truth we are far from it.
Memory
Scott shows David going through Shaw's memories while she sleeps. In order to separate what's happening in real time with Shaw's memory, Scott shows the memory in a grainy picture. The grain ripples across the screen as if a memory were rippling across time.
Horror and Serenity
We see two of the crew members being attacked by a snake-like alien that breaks one of their arms, douses the other with acid and then inserts itself down the first's throat. It's horrific. Scott then cuts to the sunrise before showing Hollowya and Shaw after their night of love making. The imagery shows us that in the midst of the beauty they shared the night before contains a horror that they have yet to see as David has tainted Holloway with the dna of the alien.
