Why did David Infect Holloway?

You probably shouldn't put a spoiler in your title like that. It's not really fair for those of us that haven't seen it yet.

The title is a spoiler in itself. I think that David's curiosity is what led him to do it. He made sure that Holloway would do anything to get answers before dipping his finger in his drink. He didn't know what would happen ... only that he was interested in seeing if anything would happen.

No there is no way he could have known and it makes no sense. I am totally with you on that. It's just one of the huge leaps in faith we have to take.

No there is no way he could have known and it makes no sense. I am totally with you on that. It's just one of the huge leaps in faith we have to take.

By the order of Weyland because he was messing around and drinks too much of Weyland's wines

It's very simple....Weyland programmed him to do it in order to get the ball rolling in order to save his own life. Later in the film there is a clear accusation made by Shaw to "stop Weyland programming you" Maybe there won't be so many "plotholes" when you watch Prometheus more carefully

Apologies, I thought by going only through the Spoliers section, the title itself would not show up on the main page. I'm trying to get to grips with the site and how it works, so sorry.

Sorry space jockstrap, there was no evidence at that point in the film that the goo would have any affect on Holloway. Putting it in his drink was speculative at best.

First off I thought the film was rubbish. Very glossily produced rubbish to be sure, but future generations will not admire it in the way that they do Alien and Bladerunner. For all that, I think the continuity isn't as bad as some have suggested. Isn't it obvious that Weyland's exhortation to David to "try harder" prompted him to consider infecting Holloway? I assume he wouldn't have had a clear idea of the consequences, but he was prepared to experiment. And, as someone else pointed out, he did kind of clear it with Holloway first: "how far would you go?" So it seems David has some form of (programmed) conscience, which explains his subsequent concern for Shaw and agreeing to help her (we assume for the sequel). In my view, despite several 'deus ex machina', the plot had it's own integrity. It just wasn't original or very good. Dialogue and acting (Theron) were abysmal. The best thing by far was Fassbinder. I would have preferred to see a film with only him and the 'engineers' in it, rather than any of those ludicrous, 2-dimensional, cliched characters. A trillion dollar mission to discover life elsewhere in the Universe and they send a disturbed sociopath with a mohican rather than, say, Story Musgrave. I'm intrigued by the reviews in The Observer and The Guardian (UK newspapers). Peter Bradshaw and Philip French (in particular) gave positive reviews. I am SURE there is no way that Bradshaw could have seen the film as anything but tosh. I guess it is difficult being a reviewer when your employers have sold a fortune in advertising to a film's producers.... I touched on a sequel earlier. In fact I doubt there will be one, or if there is it will be a low budget cash-in to try and recover a few dollars from Fox's folly. This film we be a flop. Word of mouth will not be good and repeat video sales will be poor. I'm sorry. I'm disappointed. Maybe I'll have a s;lightly more positive spin on things when I've had a few days to let it sink in. But I know, sitting in the cinema, I was saying to myself: "that's just rubbish/stupid/corny". I didn't do that with Bladerunner.

@TheNextLV426 Exactly !!! They haven't a clue what it will do if anything. Weyland clearly states he has days to live, no time for lengthy tests so what better way than a live subject and who would volunteer ?

Matt R, I do agree with what you say. For all fans, I would suggest reading Badassdigest's review, which sums up my own questions and frustrations nicely. I do want to see a sequel though, so they can wrangle back a good fulfilling story...well, I hope! I would loved to have seen much more of David on the ship in the two years prior to the crew awakening. Those moments were too few, but were beautifully Kubrick-esque. In my mind, they may have added to further reasoning behind David's motivations to please his 'father'

What happened to Asimovs laws ? Speculatively infecting a human to see what would happen ? unless Weyland programmed David to ignore the laws...,or maybe Scott doesn,t know much about synthetic lifeforms...,>sarcasm<

It's obvious to me that the subservient David is remotely reprogrammed by the secretly reawakened Weyland in order to carry out his diabolical plan...no mystery

As the consequences of the action were unknown i think it enters a sort of grey area in regard to the programmed laws. As for the transformation he undertook he did seem to be changing into an engineer I actually pictured a cringey fight in which he would battle the sleeping engineer so was quite relieved to see him burn

But, er, the 3 laws are from a different fictional universe.

What I can't quite figure out is what was the significance of David's choosing to model himself on Peter O'Toole's portrayal of T.E. Lawrence?

If you pay attention David asks how far will you go to get your answers, and holloway said anything so his system assumes he would talk the black goop

Why is everyone going on about the ' 3 laws' and the supposed fact that robots aren't supposed to harm humans? That is a concept invented by Isaac Asimov. It has no more relevance outside the universe of Asimov's robot stories than does George Lucas's 'force' has outside Star Wars. If any writer wants to have a robot harm a human, fine - it's their story!

David is also experimenting. David infected Holloway because he is also jealous, yeees, jealous cos he is "feeling" something about Elizabeth Shaw. We see David taking care of the ship, but we also see him "spying" Elizabeht Shaw´s dreams (we sense that he gave special attenton to the doctor) He protect her more than Holloway. He looks after her. He will know that he is in love in some point. Feelings come from our brain, not our heart. And feelings are learned! He knows how to operate de ships, knows how to open easily the ship doors...he has information, "someone" downloaded those programms. but they didnt teach him how to feel. He imitates human beings. And also we are aware that we all learn from imitation. but he also disregards not very polite or human behaviour like Holloway who is cruel (a very human thing ironically) David is the chosen one. He knows it.

Weyland perhaps wants to be indulged as the Voit Komph test in Blade Runner, Weyland as Tyrell wants a 'demonstration' he wants 'a negative before he is provided with a positive'. And he certainly wants the Black Substance tested out on a subject other than himself. He may be maniacal and hell bent on conquering in his own way as the Engineers now seem to be but he isn't stupid either to offer himself up as the first trial guinea pig for the so-thought of serum as they were not to know its value to an organism yet whether for the good or bad.