so weyland knows about the jockeys and travels to them

I always thought that Weyland Industries finds out about the Space Jockeys because of a signal received from a distant planet. They send Vickers and Shaw out on the Prometheus to investigate the source of the signal. The crew of the Prometheus discovers a tunnel on the side of a mountain on the alien world. They follow the tunnel to the Big Head/Ampule room where they discover a Space Jockey helmet and suit. "The rest is history" as they say.

yeah but weyland has terra forming technology..also he names theship prometheus so he knows that they were gods

I think Weyland named his ship the Prometheus because he is on board with Vickers and Shaw and he wants to the ship to be thought of as the next "Bringer of Fire" to mankind. If Weyland discovers some kind of God-like technology on the alien world and can bring it back to earth to use it as a weapon, then the Prometheus would be "a bringer of fire to mankind". Recall that the Titan Prometheus brought fire to mankind to defend themselves against the animals. Of course, when Zeus found out about it he sent Pandora and her urn to unleash hell upon the humans to balance out the fire gift.

You can't take any plot points away from that video.

@Xenotron: Why not?

Interesting. So, canonically-speaking, Weyland-Yutani's terraforming technology is based off of extraterrestrial stuff, the kind of stuff that when sighted was genuine "godly" material? That's something I never thought about; I figured Weyland-Yutani could make their own terraforming technology. But on the other hand, reverse-engineering alien technology would probably be easier than creating it from scratch. Of course I still see the alien technology as being that green goop from one of those urns.

also he most likely knows where the jockeys are from some artifacts or a signal he has found...then sends the prometheus to go them..he isnt just blindly searching for them..he knows where they are and has the prometheus specifically to set out for them

Do a search on mr. H. R. Giger alien lifecycle I don't think Mr. Scott follows this but it would be interesting, now go google!!!

A weyland financed expedition find some Alien artifacts on Earth or Mars ...then they go to visit them .... that is what is possible . All the rest is just wild speculation imo .

We can't take any plot points off of this for a few reasons. I'm going to share them with you now. For one, if this clip is not in the movie (as it's rumored that it isn't) that places it in the realm of marketing material. The sole purpose for this clip is to create a buzz for fans on the internet to tell their friends so as to sell more tickets at the movie theater. Secondly, the point of the speech is that he's about to change the world the way that other great men from history have and cites examples from human history. The quote from Lawrence about extinguishing the match was only to say that we can't look at the negative effects of moving forward. Citing Prometheus from myth as an example was his way of recounting the many technological advances in human history. He doesn't say anything about jockeys, aliens, or anything like that. Thirdly, he doesn't say exactly how he's going to change the world only that he's going to change it. He doesn't mention a mission into the outer reaches of space, or terraforming, and he doesn't even mention the "world-changing" technology that he's referring to. If this video is considered canon, we don't know if this takes place before, during, or after the movie. Therefore, we don't know the context behind his speech. Ultimately, we can't take any information about the movie away from this video other than Weyland's character. To do so would be, quite frankly, foolish.

If you go to the TED blog with the video there's a link titled about the speaker giving some background to Weyland. Are they suggesting that by him creating a synthetic atmosphere above the polar ice cap and also quoting him as saying that "if there is no air to breathe, than we will simply have to make it." that he already has terra forming technology, or is at least pioneering that field. Is this the tech that he's looking to steal from the Jockey's?

In the alien commentary ridley says that bret brought his hawian shirt at a interglactic gift shop sometime along the journey he later goes on to say its not mars that's to close to earth he later speculates about zeta reticuli

well when i said he sets out to find the jockeys i meant that he knew where they were at from either a signal or from an artifact here on earth..thus the prometheus is there to make contact with them on their distant planet

@GreatBoosUp Agreed. Well said. The reason I think Weyland's already figured some things out is because his mother was a professor in comparative mythology at Oxford. Not only do I think that's where he gets his inspirations from, but his father gave him the tools needed to allow his empire to grow, and to begin his secret endeavors. I think he has some of the pieces of the puzzle and that's why he's so sure of himself in the video. However, it's not until much later when he meets a young archaeologist who he can manipulate with his knowledge of mythology, that he's able to figure out where they're going. The initial discovery in the film + Shaw's expertise + his knowledge in comparative myth leads them to where we catch up with them in 2073-78

Even if Weyland has figured things out, even if he knows about the extraterrestrials, even if he has his eyes set on terraforming, this still doesn't tell us anything we don't already know about the movie. This is what we know: Some how, some way, Weyland (the company) launches an expedition into space to search for humanity's origins. As reported here before, this is probably by some archeological evidence--probably an artifact with a kind of star map. Be careful to read more from this speech than what's really there. Ultimately, if any of this is referred to in the movie, it will probably be a throwaway line said by a character. Something like, "Oh, yeah, 'Building Better Worlds'? Weyland has been promising us that since 2023!" It tells us nothing.

@Xenotron, I think they first find a serious and very large clue as to where to start looking in Space...but they find it...on Earth.

@Xenotron, I didn't suggest that we take the Peter Weyland TED Talk in isolation and try to deduce the plot of Prometheus from it. I was suggesting that we take all of the trailers, interviews, stills, etc and this viral video and fashion a rough synopsis of the movie. I apologize for not making that clear up front.

I'm guessing that Weyland gets all his information from a 'Saucer People' artifact and the mission is to visit their homeworld. The SJs are an unexpected surprise.