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Theory of motives of Engineers

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Scribal

MemberOvomorphApril 18, 2013
As far as I can tell there are 5 main questions left unanswered in the film concerning the motives of the Engineers, which for me is the most intriguing part of the movie. 1. Why did they create humans in the first place? 2. Why did they want us to go to them? 3. What was that pyramid? 4. What happened at the pyramid that changed their plans? 5. Why did they want to return to Earth to destroy their creation? I've had various theories as I have watched the movie, but none of them seemed to pan out since they couldn't answer all five of the questions. But in watching it this last time, and after watching the Fury of the Gods DVD, I think I have a theory that at least answers cohesively all the questions. 1. Why did they create humans in the first place? I could not help but notice how the sacrificing Engineer at the beginning of the movie was wearing a monk like robe that reminded me of a Jedi robe. I get the impression that he was a priest, or at least that he was performing a religious ceremony by sacrificing himself to create humans. The way he even drinks from the cup reminds me of a religious ceremony, since many religions drink from chalices or cups a drink that makes them divine or connects them with divinity. As one who was creating an entire race of beings he had the privilege of becoming their god. 2. Why did they want us to go to them? Here is where I think it gets tricky. Our first instinct is to assume that their creation of us was benevolent and that they wanted good for us. This is because they seem to have went through so much trouble to create us, and then to teach us and guide us back to them. However, I think this is where are instincts are wrong. They did not want us simply to go to them, but they wanted us to go their pyramid. They wanted us to advance enough to find this pyramid since in our advancement we had become worthy to also take part in their religion. But we would not take part as those becoming gods, but instead as those being transformed into the highest of biological species: the Xenomorph. Many religions do not merely deal with creation, but with transformation into something greater. By our transformation into the Xenomorph we would have reached the top of the food chain and thus the alpha species in Darwinian terms. 3. What was that pyramid? This to me seems the most obvious answer. It was a temple. Likely their most holy of places. In this temple they celebrated the greatest of mysteries of their faith. I use the word mystery the way many religions use it, not as something that is unknown, but as a sacrament or a climax of the religious experience. The mural on the wall that Dr. Holloway shines his light on reveals a Xenomorph. But if you look closely this Xenomorph looks like it is being held down by a god-like figure, a god that looks much like God the Father on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. It would appear that the Engineers believe that the ultimate act of Godhood was not creation, nor even transformation of us into Xenomorphs, but it was their ability to bring Xenomorphs into submission. They were planning to change humans into Xenomorphs, who were the ultimate in biological evolution, so that they could then bring the Xenomorphs into submission thus showing that they had risen above evolution to become divine and separated from biological entities since they were able to subdue even the greatest of the biological entities. And thus the mural on the temple displays God holding down the Xenomorph, and that was what they were planning to do to us once we found them and were transformed. 4. What happened at the pyramid that changed their plans? I believe the exact details of what happened cannot be discerned by the movie, but obviously something unexpected happened. Somehow, they lost control of the black substance and it began to transform them. Once they were transformed they were quickly overran by the Xenomorph. This would be a total devastation for the religion of the Engineers since it reminded them that they were mortal after all. In their pride in their amazing accomplishments they had thought to highly of themselves and had come to believe they were superior and of a different quality then other lifeforms. But when they could not bring the Xenomorph into submission their religion and their faith in their Godhood vanished and they were brought down to Earth, so to speak. If you think about this, this goes right along with the theme in the movie of loss of faith. At the end, Weyland says "There is nothing." He had met his creator and when he realized the brutality and lack of care the creator had toward him he died with no faith. David, who had realized all along how shallow and uncaring his creators the humans were merely says what he already knew: "I know." Dr. Holloway seemed to have lost his faith that there was anything special to life and that is why he tells Dr. Shaw to take off her cross. And Vickers seemed to never have any faith. By contrast, the captain shows faith in Dr. Shaw when she tells him, "Trust me" at the end of the film, and he trusts her enough to sacrifice his own life. And Dr. Shaw shows that even after all that had happened she still believed. Something David is quick to point out when she puts her cross back on at the end of the film. The Engineers would be keeping with this theme in losing their faith that they are gods and that they really don't have the power and control they thought they did over the universe. This would have been devastating to them. 5. Why did they want to return to Earth to destroy their creation? This one to me was the hardest question to answer. It was the question that destroyed all my other theories except this theory. It would appear to me that since their religion had been destroyed by the realization of the fierceness and brutality of the Xenomorphs that they had no need for humanity any longer. They wanted to undo everything they had done. The experiment had failed and they wanted to contain the failure. They wouldn't want any chance that an entire race of humans would be transformed into the Xenomorphs, and so they wished to destroy humanity to be done with the threat they posed. They never really cared about us. We were merely beings to be sacrificed to their religion. And thus we had no more reason to exist. It might be asked why the rest of the race didn't destroy humanity once they found out about the failure of the religion. This of course cannot be answered but this does not itself destroy the theory. First, like many religions the leaders of the race may have wanted to keep the religious failure a secret. Or second, it may have been that this religion was a secret religion that the rest of the race was not aware of. Or third, the Engineers involved may have been high priests and the only ones knowledgable of the details of the religion. Kind of like the Masons and other religions who learn more and more as they go up the ladder. Perhaps the commoners did not fully understand the religion, so they would not have understood what had happened since they had not yet been initiated into the mysteries. Either way, to me this theory works. I am not saying that Scott or the writers even had a complete overarching theory worked out, but perhaps, like artistry is, in their creative inspiration this is how it ended up coming out. At least this is so far the best way I have found to answer the top 5 questions consistently and simply. What do you all think?
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shambs
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The deacon in crucified position seems to be a symbol of our fate after that mankind killed an Emissary, a metamorphosis planned for humanity for their sins.
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malex234
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@ Shambala: Thanks for posting the image of the mural This is the most detailed one that I have seen, particularly the images towards the bottom always seem to be in the dark or have people standing in front of them. I enlarged the image to 5x original and it looks like the crucifed xeno is standing upon the head of another creature. If you look closely just blelow the xeno is what could be the face of satan -horns and all But that is hard to say for sure with all the swirls in the mural it's difficult to say just exactly what anything represents. . @Scribal. Looking at the mural in detail, I see nothing that makes me think there is anything representative of a benevolent god here. Something may indeed be holding the crucified xeno down, but it does not coincide with any image of God I have in mind. All that being said, and whether you see what I see in the mural or not, the whole notion of God, Satan, Jesus, angels and demons is definitely there for the taking in Promethues. I recall my initial thoughts after seeing the film was that it had something to do with Jesus's crucifixtion. However, I later saw an interview with Ridley where he stated that the "Jesus as an Engineer" concept was considered, but they decided it was "too on the nose." I interpreted that comment to mean that they considered making the reason the Engineers wanted to destroy us was that we killed off their emissary, but decided not to go that way. Ridley also made some comments to the effect that the reason for the Engineers changing their minds about us had to do with the Roman Empire and humans "running around with swords and shields." So, was Ridley trying to back away from Space Jesus or is he trying to trick us into not looking at the simplest and most obvious explanation of what was going on?` I honestly don't know the answer. One other comment from Ridley that bears consideration is that he called the Engineers "Dark Angels" which is a direct reference to Lucifer and the Fallen Angels from Paradise Lost. So, does this mean that Prometheus and its sequels are going to be "Paradise Lost in Space?" Again, I don't know the answer, and I don't think Ridley would or did serve us up a note for note rendition. I don't have time this morning to go into any further detail on these thoughts, but if anyone finds this notion appealing or if you think I've gone off the deep end please feel free to put in your two cent's worth.
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hadeze
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Embarrassing …. When a Ph.d. biologist nonchalantly takes off his helmet in a unknown atmosphere. we lose interest in his/her rational thinking. How foolish for all to follow ? Hey, instruments say air breathable, so .. let’s take our helmets off .. . Ever heard of air-carried diseases on Earth hospitals ? Ever heard of being cautious ? These are scientists ? Then, when an upright snake looks like a cobra, hisses & moves back & forth like a cobra … you then play here nice kitty with it? This script makes science characters types into full-blown nincompoops. Weyland Corp’s hand-picked scientists who sign up for 4 yrs, 2 each way, not knowing what they were expected to do ? they were there for the money ? not very inquisitive for scientists who typically think skeptically and doubt everything. The Prometheus crew behaves like junior high school kids. no one mentions in an aside that under light-speed travel to the next sun would take, at the very, very best, hundreds of thousands of years. And material matter cannot travel at light speed - according today's science. This text co-written by Spaiths(sic) & sophisticated by Lindelof ? Let’s admit it: whereas Alien 1 had real characters who we understood and acted real, even if we did not like every one of them … in Prometheus we were never able to identify with any of them - except David 8. He made sense. Holloway? A loser. Dr. Shaw, ineffectual from the word go. She says, she has no proof that Earth cave drawings are an invitation, she prefers to “believe” they are an invitation. For a scientist of utter such nonsense means throwing science’s efforts of the past 200-300 years out the window. A scientist brings us back to believing first vs. facts & proof second ? Holloway is infected by David 8 ( and looking in mirror sees his eye infection) yet he tells no one, not his sexual partner. No doctor on board ? Childish behaviour again and again. The star maps found in Earth caves - invitation to visit ? if 35T yrs have passed the stars (= suns that is) would no longer show the nightly configuration of yore. Dr. Shaw talks about a “system”, but she should talk about 7 star systems, since planets do not shine. Anyway, 7 sun systems would not show the same distribution (as the caves drawings) after a passage of time. E.g., our sun orbits at 560,000 m p Hr in the Milky Way ... as all other suns, some whipping along at 900T mpH. Nothing stays in place. Pre-Greeks astronomers knew that already. Mini conclusion: a script depicting top-notch scientists should have them talk (& think?) using today’s science. Some people in the audience read more than news about Brat Pitt and his divorce from a woman named Alliston? - not sure if I got the latter right. Wie auch immer, embarrassing when RS & his 2 co-writers choose ( and to be polite) simplicity over clarity and rationality. RS might hire a few post-grad physics students to add a footnote here & there in the next P script. we would at least be able to recognize that RS & writer(s) made a sincere effort to be clear & coherent. Instead throughout P1 we have smoke and mirrors with a 15 sec cameo apparition of an alien.
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nostromo001
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hadeze- I couldn't agree with you more about the lack of quality of the science in this movie! I am a trained PhD Chemist and I cringed over and over while watching this movie especially because otherwise I love Prometheus. When Dr Shaw made that statement that it is what she chooses to believe! I just about fell out of my chair. That is not science and I really really wish RS would hire scientists as advisors so he wouldn't make so many scientific errors in his movies. We scientists need jobs too! Luke Scott, Ridley's son also made a glaring scientific mistake in his short SF movie 'Loom': The scientist protagonist used a micropipetter without first attaching a disposable tip!!!! No scientist in his right mind would contaminate a micropipetter like that. A rookie student would, but not a trained biologist! Scott Free productions hire us scientists so we will have jobs and your movies will be scientifically accurate!
[img]http://0.tqn.com/d/chemistry/1/0/E/1/1/chemistry-glassware.jpg[/img]
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Facehuggers
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I think the Engineers were attempting to revive a female version of their race in order to keep reproducing, but ended up with the Deacon. 

Here's my theory:

http://www.scified.com/topic/42186

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