Ramming or trying to Escape

A few reasons for the assumption: Janek's face while flying towards the Derelict looks like the face of a fighter, not one trying to run away. I think one can see in one of the trailers or stills that two co-pilots also stay on board for the ramming. Vickers we already have on record in trailers stating "take us home" and "if you go down there, you will die" i.e. she wants to live, no matter what. Now if Janek decides to ignore her orders together with the remaining crew and ram the Derelict (they do not expect to survive), what would be the logical thing for Vickers to do next, before impact? Run like hell for the escape pod, maybe (as seen in the trailers).

Here is why... [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/LT.HIGHTIMES/A1aaims.png[/img]

looks to me like Promo is Speeding at the Derelict !!! Deliberately !!!

Well we know that Promo definatley drops "something" before impact....this is how Vickers and Shaw end up running away from the impacted and now rolling SJ ship.

The Prometheus is definitely giving chase, but the good capt. looks rather more surprised than determined, in the shot just before impact. Maybe the SJ ship just keeps right on coming, instead of taking evasive measures.

@Mark Cawley I thought Shaw was already on the planet and not in the escape pod - when the hangar opens to let the Derelict out, she seems to be right there, trying to jump across between two moving segments of the opening Derelict hangar.

I didnt say she was in the escape pod.....i just included her in the running away thing. Why couldnt they just step sideways anyway? Why run away in the direction of a rolling huge ship that could flatten them.........its the stuff of cartoons lol

.....as is the fact that the gigantic SJ ship doesn't crumple up like an aluminum can when it impacts the ground.

@artyoh The good captain knows he will likely die in the impact, so no wonder some surprise mixes with the determination. In WW2, kamikaze bombers often called out for Mom and suchlike before impact.

Janek's facial expression is one of pants shitting terror, not bravery, fighting spirit, or determination. Looks like he's seeing something of unspeakable horror for the first time.

@Mark Cawley Agree for the scene when Shaw and Vickers are fleeing the crashing Derelict; been wondering myself how they end up running together (given it is suggested Shaw is at the hangar and Vickers in the escape pod). Ditto for your observation on why don't they step sideways. Running away is a bad idea even with trains (the "car on the tracks" scenario), as it puts you right into the way of the debris from the impact, and it is safer to go a little sideways and then TOWARDS the train. With the Derelict rolling, it would have to be sideways because its weird shape makes its rolling trajectory unpredictable. But I guess then it wouldn't look as frighteningly cool as seeing the two running away....

Janek's face appears to be screaming in a "scared to death" and "let's do this" way.-(to me anyway). The possible decision to ram the alien ship to stop it coupled with the thought of " this is it, i'm going to die right now.)

Ive never seen the point of giving your life to save others.........i mean whats in it for Janek?

@TKfanboy421 - My point exactly. @Biehn-Bandit - Don't think that brave people are never scared shitless, especially when they are asked to show nearly superhuman bravery. I have a friend who fought in an actual war for several years during the 1990s, and is nothing if not brave (he took down an airplane from a hand-held launcher at one point, now how's that?). And yet, guess what his favorite scene is in all war movies put together? Apocalypse now, when the choppers land and one kid soldier freaks out with fear and keeps repeating "I'm not going! I'm not going! I'm not going!"

@Mark "Either I die or the Earth does" sounds like some pretty strong motivation. And if there is no Earth (or humans on Earth), what would Janek do then? Fly around the galaxy till the fuel runs out? Go back to one of the temple structures with a breathable atmosphere and sit on his haunches hoping something positive happens (provided the atmosphere there is still breathable, and with the possiblity of some more ugly SJ inventions lurking there? It's all a matter of perspective. I believe I would never have the balls for something like that, and would generally vote for self-preservation if anyway possible, but I've never been in such a situation ( and I hope I never will.

@Wirm My point with saying that is, it may not be the scene where he's crashing the ship. It may be a scene of him seeing some monster or someone getting destroyed in some horrifying manner.

@Biehn-Bandit It's possible, and it is almost certain that trailers deliberately play with continuity at least some of the time in order to make us keep guessing. To me, it still seems like just the right kind of expression for someone making a desperate suicide attack on the Derelict (for anyone who does not believe that martyrs get virgins in the afterlife or some such nonsense, fear would creep in for sure - and Janek does not seem a nonsense kind of guy.) Could it not be "someone is getting destroyed in a horrifying manner in a few seconds, and it's ME!" You could still be right though.

@Wirrn: Brilliant observation. That is one main discrepancy that isn't explained and keeps bothering me: Vickers stands next to Janek in the scene where he becomes determined to ram, we presume she runs down the hall, rips off her suit in prep for putting on space-suit? Next she's desparately getting into escape shuttle chamber? Next, shuttle is dropped off. Seconds later, it looks like Prometheus rams derelict. Explosion Derelict begins to descend. And Shaw AND (????) Vickers suddenly on the ground running together? How can that be? If Vickers joined her, at least you'd think she'd scoop up Shaw from off the ground with the shuttle...not go for a jog next to her under the falling derelict...

For all the threads that have mentioned this sequence, I'm only wondering why it seems to be the given understanding that the alien ship is headed to Earth and with cruel intentions. This seems to parallel an equal assumption by the Prometheus crew (or at least Shaw), but isn't it possible that this is a big mistake? Just one of many things they are terribly wrong about? I'd guess that as a possibility, but mostly because I think hubris/assumption, and tragedy all seem to dovetail one another. Not sure about this guess, but maybe this act of seeming heroism happens very early in the film, and sets the stage for everything that comes after. (It would certainly explain some of why they put it right out there in the trailer, yeah?)

For all the threads that have mentioned this sequence, I'm only wondering why it seems to be the given understanding that the alien ship is headed to Earth and with cruel intentions. This seems to parallel an equal assumption by the Prometheus crew (or at least Shaw), but isn't it possible that this is a big mistake? Just one of many things they are terribly wrong about? I'd guess that as a possibility, but mostly because I think hubris/assumption, and tragedy all seem to dovetail one another. Not sure about this guess, but maybe this act of seeming heroism happens very early in the film, and sets the stage for everything that comes after. (It would certainly explain some of why they put it right out there in the trailer, yeah?)