ENGINEERS' TEMPLE

Deadcell is right. The derelict ship has a broken arm in this screenshot (see below) from 1986 ALIENS. Something may have happened between events after Nostromo blew up and the colonization of LV 426. Or the filmmakers just make stuff up as they go along. [img]http://oi42.tinypic.com/o0z2hg.jpg[/img]

@Biomechanic Well, according to the analysis & the animation done in this thread, the ship survives intact after the fall, nothing is broken. If this is the same ship, then it contradicts the image in ALIENS. Or, it is a different ship ! One of many, maybe? It is speculated that the SJ visits many star system to seed life, or eggs, or bio-weapons etc.

I think that was explained as damage done by volcanic eruption but personally I don't take anything in aliens as being canon. Has anyone else noticed the hull of the ship is bent though. Look at the arms of the ship in the explosion pictures and then look at the derelict in alien. It could be the impact of the tumbling warped the ship.

Ah true when it is standing vertical it's arms still look straight. If it is the same ship it might bend when it falls or sometime during the period before Alien. Or maybe it is a different ship like you say.

There are clear design detail differences to each of the two ships - so i reckon they're not the same ships...

Unless something organic grows over it.

The arms "look" straight in the upright image, but that is an illusion from the viewers perspective. The right arm is clearly bent, but we are looking at the tip of the left arm giving it a straightened appearance. I initially thought the volcanic activity cause the broken left arm, but if a ship tumbling across a planet after suffering an explosion and falling from who knows how high didn't cause that type of damage; then how could volcanic activity?

Clarification of the Derelict in Alien and in Aliens I think is needed... In Alien the Derelict is seen flat not vertical as the Prometheus trailer shows. It is possible that at the end of, or after Prometheus the Derelict simply topples over. This could happen for a variety of reasons (insanely strong winds, duststorm, earthquake, settling of the surroundings etc.). Now in Alien Dallas, Lambert and Kane entered the flat and intact Derelict from the middle "vaginal" entrance, found in the centre of the craft, behind and below the cockpit. Yet in Aliens Newts parents entered the same craft via a whole from the fallen hammerhead shark end of the Derelict. The story reason for this was volcanic activity had damaged the derelict. In reality the original model from Alien had broken. I repeat...The Derelict in Aliens is the same one as in Alien - Newts family were sent there from the co-ordinates given by Ripley herself, under Weyland-Yutani orders, signed Carter Burke.

true, but would both entrances led straight to the jockey room. maybe they found something different. remember newt said they had been gone a long time. how long is a long time

its possible they never saw the SJ, but in Jim Camerons original treatment they did, and it was half buried in volcanic ash.

still, there was a dome behind the derelict in ridley scotts original script where Dallas, Kane, and Lambert actually encounter the eggs.