"We are Walter"?

This assumes that is what he said- but it sounds like it to me. On a different thread I asked:

Does that imply an awareness to the other Walters?

Or even an awareness to other synths- that could support the member who posted asking if David/Walter were communicating by means unknown to the crew. 

Possibly,it seems that after the androids being in the background for decades,they are becoming more of a primary focus.

Problem I'm seeing is, if Androids are becoming more "present", then why the hell wouldn't a single person on the Nostromo crew suspect one of the others is actually an Android? You'd think that that would be part of every day life and they'd wonder and try and find out that critical piece of info from every crewmember at some point along their voyage.

The video shows what appear to be synths building the synths and installing some kind of chip. From the video, humans don't seem to be in the equation so may not be exactly certain of what is going into their production.

Who knows... is Walter a Borg lol

I think this really shows us is that Walter is a Model and not the Chosen Name for him.. i.e he is not a David 9... so it would seem that since a Merger that Yutani have maybe Merged some of their Android Tech with Weylands.. as Weyland had the Patent for the real life like skin etc.

There is a lot to analyze from this Viral etc... but yes it would seem he is a new model, however it also maybe seems he can interface with other Walters..

Can David interface with him? Thats a big Question.

I concur,what ever is designing Walter doesn't seem human.As for Alien,i believe they were aware of androids of course.The shock came from that there was one part of their crew with out their knowledge.

I could not help but get that vibe that this could be a hint to the Alien/Blade Runner bridge.

I believe the "We are Walter" statement has a deep significance and is specifically referencing the Walter model's ability to imprint the personalities of those he associates with. I could be wrong on this but it seems our attention is being drawn to his "biosocial compatibility". A feature which (if I understand it correctly) would mean that Walter is a little bit of everyone he comes into contact with, hence "We are Walter".

I've been thinking about this from the time I watched the viral and have begun putting together a theory on the significance which I will be sharing in a separate thread shortly. Very interested to hear if anyone else has started thinking along these lines.

Hello Queen Elizabeth Shaw,it's been awhile.That's an intriguing idea,but i can't say i've thought of it yet.My thinking is that Walter runs on an assembly line,so when he says "We are Walter",it could be in recognition of already existing brothers that perhaps have already communicated with him.

ninXeno426

It is true, it could simply be a reference to his brother Walters. I've been thinking so much about the emphasis on his imprinting feature that I could simply be imposing those thoughts onto the "We are Walter" quote. It'll be hard to determine until I see more of the character.

Indeed thats a good debate QES

I think but could be wrong.. this means

Walter Imprints himself into his owners at the time... and so takes on personal traits of them, but what happens when they are not around?

Or maybe he can continue to gain imprints off others he interacts with, this has many potential problems and maybe we could see a Personality Overload...    We could argue David has a Split Personality.... but boy oh boy maybe Walter has the potential to have as many Personalities as Kevin (McEvoy) from Switch lol

I am sure he could get overloaded and go bonkers...

 Wonder if that specific Walter in the virals is assigned by Weylandyutani for the covenant mission (since he has many other copies for sale), or does he belong to one of the pilots or shipmates...also, why did WeylandYutani use the same face as David's..who is the template modeled after?

Excellent question Centauri.I do believe there has got to be some significance behind there resemblance.This is unlikely,because i think they just would have used him instead,but perhaps David is meant to resemble a young Peter Weyland.

I would also believe the Walter from the video is indeed the same.I would also say assignment,though if he's owned,then i'd say perhaps to Branson and Daniels.

Could be David is just a specific Walter model made for Weyland .... like Boba Fett was to Jango. David is "Weyland's Walter".

This may be thinking too big, but I have a couple theories. Everything so far has been leaning in the creationist / intelligent design way, to link the Alien stories to a far bigger story that Ridley is wanting to tell. So here goes ...

1)

Have you read the story of Prometheus? He was the son of a titan who went against Zeus and - because he felt bad for humans - gave them fire. Zeus warned him that the humans could try to use it to overpower their creators. But Promethues did it anyway and was punished.

The black goo is like fire in the Prometheus story. It has the power to give life or to take it away. Did the goo come from the Engineers' creators? Maybe the Engineers are being punished for trying to give or use the goo on humans? Since Jesus has already been mentioned as an important part of this overarching story (by Ridley himself!), I'm wondering if he is somehow tied to (or made from) the goo?

My theory is this: Engineers felt bad for early humans, who were always at war. To help them, they used the goo to somehow create Jesus. Maybe to give us hope? This ends up being a big mistake - like giving humans fire.

Anyway, we kill Jesus and this worries the Engineers to the point of planning to weaponize the goo to clean us up. As we have seen, it all goes downhill from there.

2)

Engineers made us. We made androids. What happens when androids now join into this cycle?

What if the Engineers' creators were machines? What if this is a cycle where machines end up outliving their creators throughout time , and end up becoming the new seeders? May sound far fetched, but as I think we will see in the next movie, (and got clues of so far) David is fascinated by exploration and creation. He was MADE that way by Weyland. Now (like many androids before him maybe throughout time) his creator is dead, and he will live indefinitely. What will he do with that time? What have other civilizations' androids done when their makers died off? Could androids be divine in some way?

Thanks Odencrantz for your contribution.The idea official machines now creating and coming full circle is an intriguing theory 

@Odencrantz  Your theories makes me wonder if we're about to see one Covenant being broken and a new one being made. Question: how would David play in this role? He doesn't represent a faction, or a species, or a group of interest (imo he's already set apart from Weyland corp. after Peter's death, and sees himself not as 'one of multiple fellow synthetics', but as an individual - I am David / We are Walter). He's such an independent player, the only one able to be an outside observer of the facts and, at the same time, a direct agent. 

In regards to the collective artificial intelligence discussed above, I believe the piano in the room where the androids are built is used to test the transfer of memories.

If the transfer is successful, then the newly awoken android should be able to play songs on the piano the previous android (from whom the memories were harvested) was able to.

QueenElizabethShaw, I agree.

"A feature which (if I understand it correctly) would mean that Walter is a little bit of everyone he comes into contact with, hence "We are Walter".

The "little bit of everyone" you mention is referring to (I believe) the default payments clause above in regards to DNA rights. If your DNA is used to construct a portion of the Walter collective then you will lose rights to the use of this DNA upon non-payment.

@Farlander:

I bet you are right. In fact, on the new planet we will see, the previous inhabitants appear to be wiped out ... be they Engineers or local humans (worshippers?). Did David and Elizabeth find it that way? Did they / he cause it? Covenant shuffle seems to be in play

David - again who should be immune to xenomorphs - may have come and used Elizabeth to bring judgment upon the engineers. I've been leaning on that theory all morning. After all, he's had Elizabeth to imprint onto him for the last few months or years. That sounds like something she would do!

Still leaves the question of what David will / has been doing AFTER Elizabeth. I hope we see depth into an unobstructed android creator story.

@Ingeniero

You bring up an interesting topic. the engineers used music as part of their language. Does the piano "play" into it? (yes, pun)

Although remember, we may be seeing David flashback to when he was created and may have been "training".

@QES

They definitely didn't put that message there for nothing. Whether  it is a commercial gag or something deeper, you may be on to something.

Update: David is in a room similar to the one in the "Meet Walter" video. I'm even more convinced we may be seeing a David / Walter flashback. Could technically be either android.

@Ingeniero

I even more understand the point you make now, and very cool! One way or the other, I think we are seeing Android 101 class. Whether we are seeing Walter(s) or David is the big question?

Sorry to take over this chat, but you HAVE to see the wiki description of David from the Bible ...

"

Depicted as a valorous warrior of great renown, a poet, and musician credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms, King David is viewed in biblical sources as a righteous and effective king both in battle and in providing civil and criminal justice. He is described as a man after God's own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22.

The Hebrew prophets regarded him as the ancestor of the future messiah.^[3] The New Testament says he was an ancestor of Jesus.^[4]"

And considering that there appears to be a statue of David made out of a dead Engineer (probably by the droid) in many screenshots, I think we are closer to an answer. I'm bumping my own theory due to this (lol)

@Ingeniero  @Odencrantz       This idea about the reason of the piano is a f***** great one. Also, I imagine how nice would be a scene in which we see the 'new synthetic' in the piano room playing 'by memory' the 5 notes sequence that David plays on the flute to activate the system of the Engineer's ship..!

About the owner's DNA "participation" on Walter: Everytime I thought about the so called "biomechanical" properties of the xenomorph, and a possible 'mix' of organic DNA + mechanics, I always had trouble to understand how would it be possible, I mean - what needs to happen, scientifically, to "pass" from the organic to the mechanic, and bind them into one single and functional organism? Well, we may still ignore the technical aspect, but since we are told that a synthetic system is able to combine with human DNA, we're being reassured that this is not only proved possible but makes even more probable that David has used Walter in his creation of the xenomorph.

Someone has pointed out in a previous comment (sorry, I don't remember who it was) that, maybe, David was Weyland's personal Walter series synthetic all this time. If something like that come to be true, David could be himself part of the xenomorph creation process.

@Farlander

Interesting stuff. I keep wanting to tie this in with Ripley's xenomorph, but I believe that jockey on LV-426 was also very very old, so can't be part of this timeline. David is very likely something to do with xeno creation, even if just on this new planet as a hobby!

@Everyone

OMG, I think I just figured out what killed the Engineers in Prometheus. The answer was there all along!

Predators!

I'm 100% serious!

Green goo on the wall? Piled up Engineer bodies? We know Predators are involved with the xenos from other movies.

OMG, Predators could be other creations of the Engineers?!

Discuss?

I am still very suspicious of Walter.

I know I am not alone in saying he really creeps me out!

On the meetwalter.com site, he can keep us from troublesome situations so long as we give him control, so to speak.  I think this will become a very scary decision for the crew, as soon as they allow this to happen!  It could be worse than David with his head reattached!

I have a theory that simply may be telling the difference between the two androids.  Maybe David is still just a head, and "infects" Walter.  Then Walter starts running around, and is found out by saying "I am Walter" instead of "We are Walter"?

How about this?:

Walter was made to help, to sacrifice his life for others. "We are Walter". He represents the nice engineers like the seeders that give their life to create anew.

David is was made to help one man try not to die, and now likely carries his ambition. "I am David". I'm special. He represents the engineers that used the black goo to do bad things (like maybe even augment themselves with it) to keep THEMSELVES alive.

Back to the....  sacrifice = good = goo makes life, self-serving = bad = goo makes bad things

Yeah?

@Odencrantz Interesting point, since we're then understanding that the black goo itself is not a source of evil, but how it is manipulated... nice concept.

I'm noticing a few things that are really intriguing me. Two specifically about what I think will turn out to be a grand cycle.

1) Take a close look at the engineers armor. No way to distinguish where the enhancement suit begins and the neck or arms end. Take a close look as well at the xeno carapace. Hard to make the distinction of which stole from which, but I'd say a faction of engineers became non-sacrificial and "played with the goo" to gain their suits

2) If you really REALLY focus on a xeno's head, you will see a human skull inside and the extension in the back is really a spine inside. Like the intact main ingredients of a human - after all, you are mostly just spine and brain!

Spooky

Also, androids are full of little pipes that look like bendy straws, and just so happens xenos have lots of "piping" like that too!

@Odencrantz  You made me remember Ash's assertion: "The perfect organism". Synthetics has the logical and mechanical efficience at its best, but miss the 'only thing they'll never have - a soul'. Humanity have this soul, the purpose that drives us, but lack this mechanical and other machine's properties of advantage. Would the perfect organism, the Alien, be exactly about the unity of those characteristics, human/humanoid + synthetical? If so, would have been the Engineers (or at least one faction of them) trying to improve themselves? Would have David finished what they started, with an important addition: the synthetic ingredient?