The reason for SJs hating humans?

I do agree. This is why I expect a) a big, sweet twist in the history or b) some very bad idealised motivation.

I think the Engineers created the race of Space Jockeys. The Space Jockeys came to meet their creators, the Engineers, and decided to wipe them out because they are just plain bad asses. Some "children" are born normal and nice but grow up to be evil. They evolved into an intelligent species but evil at the same time. And they want to wipe us out because, they are just bad asses and need to expand their territory. After they have knocked us off, they have a ready made planet with all kinds of "new" technology already. And I head they have a weakness for Orange Crush.

Well a lot would depend on if the Space Jockeys know about us Prior to us landing on their door step, and by that i mean what ever Jockeys are left and not maybe ones who was around from thousands of years ago. As far as overkill well thats the common theme with Gods and the Wrath they unleash in most of our civilisations. Maybe the Space Jockeys years ago was a race who had factions, maybe some of them was exiled by the rest of them and these exileded Space Jockeys seeded Earth, without the others permision or knowledge. My hunch is as we become advanced and discover where to find the Jockeys, maybe something we do alerts the Jockeys that our Race has become one that thinks they are Gods or one that would want to be as powerfull as Gods, they find out the Greed of some of the crew. Maybe because we tamper with their secrets we find or try and steal them. The Jockeys could go and wipe out all Prometheus Crew but then back home, potentially we could send out a rescue mission to find out what happened? Maybe the Prometheus has sent back a message of what they discovered. End of the day the Space Jockeys know we can travel space and that there would be other missions we would send out and the Jockeys realise that Mankind would pose a threat to them and maybe other Worlds in the Galaxy and decide to pull the plug.

Maybe it's not about wiping us out. They might have some other problem on a scale they'd actually care about, and humans are a convenient element of the solution. We just need a little...modification to get the job done.

I get what you're saying TheNextLV426, but to me, as a way to look at things, what you're saying - it's a bit too human......This alien race we refer to as the SpaceJockies is just that, alien...there is no way to conceive how another sentient race would relate to our species or any for that matter. The horror of the truly alien in this universe is what ultimately makes possible alien contact truly terrifying and I mean that implicitely... Would they understand empathy? Would they tolerate attempts at communication? Would they even give us the chance to say anything? Or would they be merciless, cold, indifferent beings regarding our species as little more than hairless ape-like ants that've grown far too big and self-important for our britches? Even if they did 'create' us...what makes us little more than the overly rambuncious children of experiments that went a hell of a lot farther than even they anticipated. Our technilogical aptitude in landing on their planet could be enough to make them go..okay...let's fix our mistake. No one...NO ONE can think to look into the eyes of a being as alien to us as we are to microbes and honestly contemplate what if any significance we would have to them.... Lastly, look at this way, if we were, to the SpaceJockies, little more than hairless ape-like ants...and they suddenly discovered us running around their home, getting into things we have no business getting into, taking what isn't ours the way ants scavenge food from a kitchen, would they not step on us as quickly as we do ants? And would they not step out into their intergalctic backyard, searching for our place of origin, our ant hill in the grass, our little blue marble we call home...that we call Earth? Would they not try to wipe us out at that source the way any of us would destroy that ant hill sending dozens of explorers to invade and discover the wonders of our home; then, perhaps, sending hundreds more to reap the rewards of what they've discovered?

the theroy of leaving invites or messages behind on planets that have been seeded is not a new one star trek the next gen had this as a two part story line but it did not end up with the older /original race trying to kill us all off !

I havnt seen any evidence that the SJs hate us... I have a feeling that the painted messages were probably made by early man and perhaps were misinterpreted them. I reckon that after finding them we meddle with things which we shouldnt and it all goes south. Cant wait to find out.

@craigamore Your last paragraph is like what i was saying, if they SJ find out we know where they are and how to get there and they realise upon seeing how we turned out that we cant be trusted to come across their secret. They know we would send out others in future. In 5 years we could send out a Probe to Moon Europa in Search of Life, if that mission fails and we lose contact with the Probe is that it? Would we never bother again? No at some point we would send out more Probes and thus the Space Jockeys would know that Prometheus would not be the last mission Earth does to its planet and if they dont want us getting our hands on the secrets of life then only way to stop us is to wipe us out at the source. @Slowboat You gave me a idea, if its a trap. Maybe mankind is a Host for something they need us for, and they need a large number of us for us to be of use. So they will know that by the time we can travel the Stars to find them, then our population would have grown to Billions and then the Space Jockeys have enough Human Matter on Earth for some task or use they have for us. They would then know Earth has Billions of Hosts.

Do they want to “wipe us out” in that punitive sense? Or, to put it another way: this seems an assumption, from a particularly human perspective. Yes, it appears that they represent a threat to us, from our perspective - but on what basis? If we adopt the position of a literal-ish interpretation Prometheus, the legend - coupled with a thought that is based on humans stealing something, the storyline would almost seems too simplistic to stand up properly: They created us, left us their address and then get upset when we move what they left lying around like the children we are? That doesn’t make sense - what do they care what we meddle with? If they are as God’s would be to us, with one wave of their hand, they simply un-meddle it? If they are as God’s would be to us, they must have anticipated our curiosity and imagination, as well as our jealousy and greed, if we have evolved to a stage where we are able to accept their invitation: so, why be quite so angry and surprised when that is exactly what we display? And, if they are as God’s would be to us, they will already know that we couldn’t possibly have one idea what might and might not anger them?.. Ultimately, if they don’t want the guests in their house, with all the risk of disruption that the invitation entails - why invite the guests? The only thing I can come up with is that the basis for the threat to us, is not so simple as retribution for a misdemeanour. It must be more complex than that and the clue would have to be in the initial conceit: yes, they invited us - but for what purpose? I’m guessing, NOT necessarily because they are generous and kind and wish to, at last, know their creation and for their creation to know them?….. It could be that accepting their “invitation” only serves to let them know that we are ready, somehow, in some sense, to be harvested. @BigDave I just saw your comment we think on similar lines, except there will have been "billions of humans" for a very, very long time before we are finally able to travel interstellar?... I'd say it cannot just be about biological matter (or mass)? There must also be something about "intelligence" and it's relationship to "technology" that must be in play for this to stand - if it was just about bio-mass, they may as well have come and got that themselves. If they are as God’s would be to us, this is no difficulty – they know where we are; and they will have been able to calculated for population development under certain conditions and variants of conditions, over a certain period of time because even we can do that. What they may not have been able to predict is exactly when, and IF at all, a species breaches a certain technological barrier… They need [i]us[/i], to go, (and to be [i]able[/i] to go), to [i]them?[/i]

Well, if they set humanity in motion, we certainly became fruitful and multiplied.......The thing is, our notion of time and urgency might be completely irrelevant to beings which live for thousands of years....or perhaps, even longer. Instead of regularly flitting hither and yon, perhaps they spend eons in stasis, just waiting for their experimental results to show up and ring the dinner bell. In any event, I certainly don't think we'd have anything to offer any highly advanced race, in terms of technology.

@artyoh Time and urgency? And I kinda hope it doesn't boil down like that? If it does, I'll be pretty disappointed: the whole deal is that they are asleep and also lazy, so they set this whole thing up so that when we call, they set off to basically consume us? Please, no... My reference wasn't to technology, per se? It was in terms of reaching a specific level technological advancement - less the artifact, more the artifice: an industrialized species is technological, but they are not sufficiently intellectually advanced to travel between stars - that is a step-change. I was only wondering if, for example, we were regarded less as simply a food for something and more as component [i]within[/i] something, or perhaps as the starting basis of something [i]else[/i] notice of such a step-change in intellectual and technological capacity mightn't be useful... The month of June has never seemed so far away.

@artyoh Time and urgency? And I kinda hope it doesn't boil down like that? If it does, I'll be pretty disappointed: the whole deal is that they are asleep and also lazy, so they set this whole thing up so that when we call, they set off to basically consume us? Please, no... My reference wasn't to technology, per se? It was in terms of reaching a specific level technological advancement - less the artifact, more the artifice: an industrialized species is technological, but they are not sufficiently intellectually advanced to travel between stars - that is a step-change. I was only wondering if, for example, we were regarded less as simply a food for something and more as component [i]within[/i] something, or perhaps as the starting basis of something [i]else[/i] notice of such a step-change in intellectual and technological capacity mightn't be useful... The month of June has never seemed so far away.

I don't think the Space Jockeys hate us, but being as we're their creation, they probably don't have to take us seriously and as such they can do whatever they want with us. Why would they have our interests in plan or heart if their intelligence is far greater than ours, either? Sir Ridley mentions also "The cast find an establishment which is not what they expected it to be, it’s a civilization but what we find in it is [i]very uncivilized behaviour[/i]." At first that makes it sound like we get to see a complete Space Jockey civilization, but the trailers say otherwise. The idea of "uncivilized behavior" makes you think, too, even if it's subjective. Maybe they're just "uncivilized" towards us. In this case, "uncivilized" could point out hostility, such as violence, and perhaps even rape. I know I keep talking a lot about rape in this movie, but something like that should be expected in something like this. If an undertone for Alien was "interspecies rape" or the alien being "an intergalatic rapist", I'm sure rape will have some involvement in this movie.....the idea of "Space Jockeys raping humans" touches upon one's theory that they made us, the humans, as sex slaves.

@ allinamberclad Heh, my "dinner bell" reference wasn't meant to be taken literally. Presumably, they'd have a more interesting purpose than simply eating us, however, they [i]could[/i] have any number of sick and twisted uses for our [i]bodies[/i]. I actually kinda like the idea of them lying in wait tens of thousands of years for some poor naive sods -who's ancestors they messed with so long ago- to finally show up. I dunno....I think an angrily capricious: "all your base are belong to us!" decision to wipe us out for stealing their tech seems rather childishly petulant, vs. We're very patient: "it's all part of a very dark, long term plan to harvest the fruits of our past labors." Anyway, if we assume there's no way around relativity effects of FTL travel, there isn't all that much of a meaningful difference between lying in hypersleep for a several years or lying in stasis for several thousand. Neither would work too well for friends and family left behind.

I don't think the Space Jockeys created us. The Engineers created us. The Engineers also created the Space Jockeys. The Engineers created or helped the other species they invited to this particular planet/star system. The Space Jockeys murdered the engineers and stole their technology. The Space Jockeys also want our technology and our home planet. They may have already murdered other "invited" species that showed up with their invitation. And if you see piles of other alien bodies laying about in the pyramids that show up on the trailer, you can bet your last space dollar that their species have been wiped out on their home planet already. The Space Jockeys do want to kill us, but its not personal. Its only business. They want to find out where we live, go there, and wipe out their competition. Once we are dead, they have a turn-key planet complete with our technology already in place, not to mention prime real estate that they can rent/lease out to other members of their ruthless race. The universe is a large place but there are only so many habitable planets. The Engineers seeded a few of these habitable planets but now the Space Jockeys want to become the new Kings. I reserve the right to amend my theory after June 8.

So, no "God was a monster" theme in Prometheus?.......cuz that one works for me, better than: "friendly, benign ancients made us along with some other kids, and one of the other kids was vary bad and stole all the other kids' real estate after killing them." One thing I absolutely know from practical experience. There are far worse things than death.

Okay; this is some new shit to me. The Space Jockeys and the Engineers are two separate entities? They're not the same? Who are the Engineers then? Are the Engineers some divine, god-like entity, thus making the Space Jockeys physical, mortal beings? Ugh this gets deeper and deeper...

@ CrazyDave55811 Exactly. I’d expect neither hate, nor any other emotion at all to be in play as far as humans are concerned – which brings us to the first,“Why?” That, to me, is the most troubling and frustrating aspect of this beautiful premise: that very first, “Why?” If there are to us as God’s might be, it’s hard to imagine why they would care, either way. And yet, they do – at least, enough to leave us a trail of breadcrumbs? Fine: if they’re benevolent, it’s touching - but, if not: it suggests, “ambush”. Yet, if not benevolent, the why go through all this process to create Life? What, (in a God’s name) manner of Being is this, who, being to us what God’s might be, would create Life, only to wish it harm? It seems, literally, Hellish... In that scenario, we do seem to have some value – but value as what: and in what regard?... On rape: well…I know what you mean, but it can’t be denied: the literal, biological, rape of other species - this is a cornerstone of the Alien premise and life-cycle, which itself is an extraction of some of the darkest pre-occupations of Giger, on whom this whole, Tower of Gomorrah has been stacked – so, yes: perhaps we should expect it. It may be a tricky dance in terms of not causing unnecessary offence, but I don’t see how you can discuss this Universe in adult terms, without acknowledging it and at least referencing these things – as sensitively as possible.

@HastaLaVista In my World, we call that “an elegant solution”. It addresses my intense frustration in trying to rationalize the motivation: in your premise, it does not seem rational that Beings who are to us, as God’s might be, would “ambush” us – and they do not: while, [i]other[/i] Beings, who would [i]seek[/i] to be to us as, God’s might be….well….yes: [i]they[/i] - they might… Interesting. [i]However[/i], even in this elegant scenario - and following the underlying theme of Greek mythology – the suffering of Hubris will be Nemesis….room enough, here, for a savage turn in fortunes.

@allinamberclad If you can accept the premise that the Engineers are the creators and that they not only created the Space Jockey race but also the human race and "other" races that were all invited to this one place, then, in my theory everything falls in place. The Engineers share some of their knowledge with the first species to arrive (the Space Jockeys). The Space Jockeys kill their creator and steal what ever other technology that wasn't shared with them. The Space Jockeys know that there may be other species coming to this planet in the future to meet their creator (the Engineers who are already gone). The Space Jockeys need only to wait for the next species to arrive to steal their technology as well, One thing that the Engineers will not share with any of the other invitees is the location of each others home world. Why? Because with that information, the other species home world is vulnerable for their extinction. I believe the star maps displayed so prominently in the trailers are generated only if the species are there in person standing on that platform. The Human Star map was blue and showed Earth's solar system with one of the Prometheus crew standing on the platform. The Space Jockey standing on the platform created a green minature star map. I believe that star map was of the Space Jockeys Solar system. Anyway, I don't think the Space Jockeys knew where the human solar system was until a human stepped on that pilot platform. I believe that platform can create a minature star map that can be plugged into the derelect spaceship navigation system for travel to that homeworld. Of course, this is just a theory. My original theory came after consuming a "bad burrito" and a warm beer.