What Happened to the Engineers on LV_223?

also to explain the alien becoming a queen, and brace yourself its a bit nerdy but I remember that in the books and comics a normal alien grunt can convert into a queen in the absense of a queen. Remember its a so called "perfect organism" it would have ways of surving and procrating in the event something happened to the queen.

@Opplock... WOW! Awesome! That gave me chills just picturing it. That would be ( to me at least) EPIC yet tragic! But it's totally doable!! :D

Some very good ideas on this board. I have a few insights/questions: 1: @Lekks... (I think "Gratqaz" said this too?) If the last Engineer was infected, why..when he fell in the tunnel, did he get right back up to run? He seemed to be in full control of himself. And why did he "look behind" himself in fear as if something was right behind him? Someone else pointed out that there was a high pitch scream when David started the hologram, and that the scream sounded just like the scream the xenomorph yelled at the end of the film? 2: @zoom44... I noticed that the surviving Engineer didn't look "hostile" until David spoke to him. David said something real foul and sneaky I bet! The Engineer looked confused, but not like he was about to kick a$$. So I believe that David said something that prompted his attack. We all know that David had his own agenda regardless of his programing. He wanted Wayland dead, (among other things) and I believe that David developed a bit of a "god-complex"..so there's that mystery as well. 3: @donaldinks... I feel the same way. I'm leaning towards the Engineer at the opening of the film was peaceful. I too, noticed that the ship was TOTALLY different, and the look on the Engineer's face was one of sorrow, mixed with determination and hope. He looked very "emotional" and concerned about something. Not "arrogant" and "egotistical" like we was ready for war. But we'll see..

My personal theory is that the Engineers on LV-223 may have been a rogue group, possibly a cult. If it turns out that Dr. Shaw and David get to the home world in the next film, and the Engineers are indeed a warlike people, I'll revise that theory. After all, they are humans, as established by DNA, so it's entirely possible that their culture allows for wide variations. But therein lies the rub: they're humans, nigh-impossible to neatly categorize, driven by a whole gamut of personal motivations that range from gentle (as seen by the self-sacrificing one in the film's opening) to pathological (whoever of them developed the black goo bioweapon).

Well its kind've obvious they got messed up by the Xenomorph Aliens the way just about everyone not named Ripley has. Thank god they did or our ancestors would have ended up poping stuff out of their chest as our DNA line ended.

You know what would be really messed up. Is when Shaw gets to the Engineer homeworld she finds out that the group coming to Earth where a rogue "Corporation" that was secretly using us to develope new combat designs, and stuff the way Weyland Corporation has been in this Universe lol

Guys, the bowling pings like holder, that contains the black goo is actually an urn, that contains the ashes (here, liquidated DNA ) of the dead engineers. Thats why there are so many urns in the room with the head, and at the entrance of the engineers space craft. Just like, we take the ashes of our dead ones and scatter it across rivers, these guys liquidate the dead ones, or the engineers who want to die, in to black goo, store it in the bowling pin like sealed containers), and distribute across space to create life. The liquidation process is done by nano robots, thats break down their bodies, without water, into a super concentrated liquid called the black goo.

@Rubirosa Look, I've seen that you read a lot into this difference between the old design of the Space Jockey from 1979, and the ones in the new films. Matter of fact is simply that the bulk and body type of the old design for the Space Jockey wouldn't have worked so well with their new creative idea that the Space Jockey was actually some kind of ancient humanoid. The difference you see between the look of the Space Jockey in the Chair in Alien, and the Engineer at the end of Prometheus when the derelict takes off, is pure and blatant fault in continuity, most likely considered a tough but necessary decision by Ridley Scott and the others. I'm sorry to say, but they were just messy on this specific subject, the different looking engineer at the end of Prometheus, THIS is what you have to believe is the same creature in the same type of chair as in Alien. It is an obvious reference. People next to me in the cinema went 'Oh, right.' Because they recognized that image, even though it wasn't exactly the same. This was the exact intention of the creators of the film, to reference that scene in Alien.

in Alien 1979, one see the Space Jockey, surely an engineer, also a maker of the bio combat machine, killed by his invention. in our Prometheus, we see the same: at the end all engineers, also the one waked up by David, killed by their dangerous creation. only David and Shaw survives. I am making an idea concerning David: I think he want also to get rid of his creators. A bit like Hal in 2001 A Space Odyssey. He want to get rid off his creators to become free. In other words, the tool want to get on a higher level. So he opens the ampule room prematurely. He also manipulate the engineer to become a man killer. But he is severly injuried ( also decapitated.. is there a relation with the decapitation of the last engineer running in the ampule room?) and he needs help from a human ( Shaw, the survivor) to go further.

@Binu Ud Very perceptive idea. The thought never came to me, not even when Holloway says "It's just another tomb." I think the pile of dead bodies lead us to think the Engineers don't process their dead...

Going back to the original question of the thread- I think the engineers wanted in the ampule room because something about it's "atmosphere" caused the black goo to become dormant. Every single one of them was wearing a suit, when they obviously didn't need them to breathe in the rest of the temple... Obviously that could have been an attempt to avoid infection, BUT the goo was not shown to be an airborne contaminant. The "head" recovered by Shaw was already infected, as I suspect the rest were. It popped in the scanner after being removed from the helmet. Re-animating the brain may have also been what "awoke" the stuff as well. The ampule room would have been the only place they could stop the affect of the goo until someone figured out what to do. That room alone, was cryo-stasis for the goo itself...

Ok so here is my take on the situation. Somewhere near the end of the movie they ask David why the engineers hate us so much and he replies something along the lines of "in order to create, you first have to destroy". Now you jump back to the start of the movie with the lone engineer and you notice there is no other life around him except a saucer ship. He drinks a bowl of black stuff that seemingly brakes him down to his basic DNA except it gets partially corrupted. I think what he drank was meant to create life, specifically recreate his own species. But why?, because they're a highly advanced race that is dieing out. They don't have the numbers to repopulate through regular means so they must recreate themselves. This is why seemingly no one comes back to reclaim the base on LV223 or the ship on lv426. Their simply is no one left to reclaim it. So at the beginning of the movie we witness the creation of human life after they've used the xenomorphic goo to destroy the dinosaurs. Further reinforced by the design of the ship at the beginning of the movie. It's a saucer not a horse shoe, indicating that it is a much older design. So test experiment started, they leave a map in hopes their creations will one day find their origins. They come back every few generations to inspect the progress. However if you noticed at the beginning of the movie the DNA broke down far to much creating humans, which are similar but not the same. What happens when your science experiment fails? You decontaminate the work area and you start anew. This is why the engineers where loading up to kill us with xenomorphic goo, we represented the failure to save their own species. The base on lv223 was their last ditch effort to save themselves. "In order to create, you first have to destroy".

Ok well i have a few sugestions for some of the plot holes and unexplained things... And why the movie may link with Prometheus myth and what Prometheus 2 could be about.... My theory would answer... 1) Why the Engineers created us to wipe us out. 2) Why the Engineers from the home world, never bothered to check on why they may have had no communication with LV 223 after 2000 years, surely if they wanted us wiped out they would have wondered why they never heard from outpost LV 223. 3) If the Engineers in general wanted to wipe us out and LV 223 was their Bio Weapons plant to create something to wipe us out, then why 2000 years after something goes wrong are humans still on Earth? Surely Engineers would just send one of their ships to finish the job. 4) How come in Alien and Aliens no one never comes across LV 223? Imagine if the Engineer race wanted to wipe us out, and that the Engineers on the homeworld are part of this plan and know about it.... why have they not gone to find out what became of LV 223 and that out posts mission... If they wanted us dead, then surely Prometheus 2 would be a bit pointless, i mean if the Engineer in Prometheus was upset at us and soon took it upon himself to kill us off, then get back into his ship to finish the job off. If Shaw and David arive at the homeworld and these Engineers feel the same, then how is Shaw and David going to deal with them? surely they would be killed off as fast as Weyland and Co was and then the Engineers would set off to destroy Earth etc.... Nope..... Here is the deal.... Those Engineers on LV 223 created us, but those Engineers did not let the others know, basically the Home World Engineers or there creators did not maybe know about LV 223 or the creation of mankind. A bunch of Engineers decided to take off and set up a out post so they can practice and experiment with the Black Substance in the Urns, that they had taken away with out the knowledge of the Home World. Effectivly these Engineers Stole the Fire from their creators or higher Engineer cast.... They used it for many things including creating mankind.... But there must have been a point when they realised that if they get caught playing with that fire, the Engineers or creators from the Home World would find out at some point and punish them... As they have created life on Earth without there consent.... so what do they do? Well if they wipe out life on Earth, then they destroy the evidence of the no good they got upto (create life in their image). This would explain why after the downfall of that outpost 2000 years ago, no other Engineers from the home world bothered to see what happened, because they dont know. I would assume thus, that Shaw and David turn up, the Creators/Engineers then figure out that they (Shaw) was created by the Engineers on LV 223 and also the no good that those engineers was upto with the Black Substance. If they knew about our creation and wanted us dead like the Engineers on LV 223 then Shaw and David would not be around for long, basically they would get ripped apart within 5 minutes of landing and the Engineers would head off to Earth... So the Engineers they find must not be that hostile, they may want to put a stop to the outpost on LV 223 so as that no other Race, be that Engineers or Humans and no experiments or creations from that planetoid would be left, they would destroy that out post so that no one can misuse and abuse the Black Substance in a way that the Engineers on LV 223 did and that Mankind would should it obtain it. Thus maybe after Shaw contacts which ever beings are on the Home World the Home World send in a clean up operation to infestigate what ever the Engineers created on LV 223 (Temples) and then they would destroy that outpost (this would explain why Weyland Corp in Aliens timeline never came across LV 223 as its not there or its baron). But maybe after they do their clean up/destruction operation, there ship ends up with a uninvited passenger and this Ship then ends up crash landing on LV 426 and thus explains Alien? Maybe this is just a posibility?

@BigDave But the engineers themselves are engineered, as clones, all to serve a puropose for their master. Life from death springs life eternal. All this has happened before and shall happen again.

All, I look forward to seeing this movie, but I have some reservations regarding the logic, premise behind the background story as so far speculated upon here. A. Why would any culture advanced or not have anything to do with such an apparently dangerous cargo being flown around in their ships either biological superweapons or horrendously dangerous species like the zenomorph? If an interstellar race had interstellar space travel technology, it also goes that they have the automated manufacturing technology to replicate biological or non-biological items at the target site, or near it. B. Why would an space fairing culture use a biological weapon to destory another intelligent species? That is so pre-21rst Century Soviet-American. Assuming they did not require the planetary environment of the species they wished to destroy or the mineral wealth of the crust, why not just launch a relativistic weapon at either the planet or the parent star causing it to go prematurely nova? How about a nano-tech attack that destroys the surface of the planet? I hope the movie and the sequel do not take what seems a genuine literal hint that is buried in our shared human history and then anthropomorphize the thinking and or methodologies of a culture thousands of years more technologically advanced than ours is. Whether or not Engineer culture mimics human nature and weapon technology, when Shaw does reach the Engineer homeworld, I hope she discovers philosohical truths about us that put all of us into a plausible state of wonder and satisfaction, if not horror, too. Funny how Shaw and David are in a funny way opposite to Cortanna and the Masterchief of Halo... - strangepeade

Be careful projecting human virtues on those that are Alien from us, or even sensibilities. David is programmed by humans to be able to do things that humans find unethical or grotesque. David..now armed with his pebble seeks the universal Goliath. The exception is that his pebble is the "fire" of the Gods that was stolen, as no fire burns brighter or stronger than that of life itself...in whatever form that may be.

Thats why i said maybe these Engineers stole the fire from their homeworld and created us as a experiment.... then because of doing so would enrage the other Engineers on the home world or their creators... They then tried to then wipe us and all life on earth out so as to cover their tracks and pretend that they never messed about with the stolen fire... I think the Engineers or their creators that Shaw finds will be very suprised at the creation of mankind and then plans to cover that up by our destruction.

Just another unique observation but; isn't it unusual that the helmet that the engineers use/wear look fantastically similar to a face hugger-almost intentional. The trunk of the helmet looks identical to the tail of a face hugger and the overall helmet hugs the face with tentacles identical to a face hugger. There should be some sort of connection there- for reference, just look at the "Prometheus Gallery" image/thumbnail at the top of this page-

Concerning helmets from the engineers: did someone noticed that the last engineer must be without helmet running from his crashed spaceship to the ship where Shaw was with the "monster", thus in the air which is not breathable? Or do you think he had removed his helmet before entering to Shaw's place?

They ate some bad shellfish...