Ive had a moment of clarity

Nice to meet you Mark Cawley: I believe that's the case. I'm one who believes in simplicity, and that is a pretty much simple answer. kudus

Thank you very much for believing me David 1.....now go out and spread the word to as many religions as you can lol. Yes.....everyone seems to come up with complicated answers. I love the simple ones.....like Dr Malcolms "Life finds a way". Its pure evolution of things init. I mean this cobrasnakeything has 37 years to advance after meeting humans......who knows WHAT its capable of? Or capable of turning into.....or making someone turn into.

LOL. I liked that "go out and spread the word" thing you did. Well, all speculation is valid until you watch the answers being given by the movie itself. keep them coming. :D

I kind of agree with that. But it does look like Weyland are aware of something, as ash is a last minute replacement for the Nostromo crew, so weyland must have had plans to send them to LV-426 before the Nostromo took off... ...so they must know something, but noone knows at this point what that something is. I would imagine if Weyland knew it would have to be a closely guarded secret really. I also wonder if the distress call was faked by Ash or weyland, to send the ship there, as I can't remember the crew finding the source of the call and switching it off (but that could just be poor memory on my part). Good post.

But then again.....Ash did seem to know that it can only be matched by its own hostility didnt he?

Both Windood and Mark Crawley make excelent points. I, for one, have always thought of Ash being there because somenone back at Earth would know that there was something out there and Ash was behavioring acordingly to that someones instructions [i.e. The Company] Windood: Nostromo Crew {Ash?] did hear the alien signal. [there is a cut-out from the movie where they hear and discuss the signal].

I wholeheartedly agree, the simpler the better. All the complex theories on this subject are usually awkward and prone to collapse because of vulnerabilities which give way to further weak theories in a sort of chain reaction. @Windood In the original script of Alien (and in the novel by A. D. Foster) the crew of the Nostromo actually find the source of the signal inside the derelict and switch it off.

[b]@Mark Cawley[/b] +1. I think you might be on to something. I had a quick flick through my copy of ALIEN vault about half an hour ago, and stumbled upon a passage that read something like this: [i]"The company picks up the signal from the derelict and then re-routes the Nostromo when it is on its way back to earth. The company doesn't actually know anything about the signal or who sent it, they simply investigate it out of curiosity. [/i] - [b]Ridley Scott.[/b]

@mentos I believe that exists and it is accurate to what is written down, but the movie itself says that the company knew there was an organism, and they knew that it could put the crew at risk, but they wanted it.

@Mark Thanks for saying that first because I've lost a lot my charm around here for my goofy theories, but hey, whaddya gonna do. ^_~ I'm an A-hole for continuity in and to the extreme...if it doesn't or can't match up, out it goes, in my mind. Thats why the sequels to me are irrelevant. Completely. Always, always ALWAYS believed that The Company did not know exactly what it was looking for or where it was, only that it was of an extraterrestrial origin. I believe that probably Vickers sent a message early in the mission after Prometheus landed and encountered 'problems' so to speak...it wasn't clear to her what these creatures were, but she dutifully reported what she knew at that time...one message and one message only. That is why the word 'specimen' is used in the message that Ripley discovers. Here goes another layer of my charm...the Prometheus mission is lost with all hands aboard...no one remaining to tell the tale when a followup mission arrives. All traces of what they found is gone, all of it....and that is why the Company keeps up a search for a trace of what Vickers was referring to. Everything the Prometheus found is gone?....another goofy theory, another thread...

@Mark Thanks for saying that first because I've lost a lot my charm around here for my goofy theories, but hey, whaddya gonna do. ^_~ I'm an A-hole for continuity in and to the extreme...if it doesn't or can't match up, out it goes, in my mind. Thats why the sequels to me are irrelevant. Completely. Always, always ALWAYS believed that The Company did not know exactly what it was looking for or where it was, only that it was of an extraterrestrial origin. I believe that probably Vickers sent a message early in the mission after Prometheus landed and encountered 'problems' so to speak...it wasn't clear to her what these creatures were, but she dutifully reported what she knew at that time...one message and one message only. That is why the word 'specimen' is used in the message that Ripley discovers. Here goes another layer of my charm...the Prometheus mission is lost with all hands aboard...no one remaining to tell the tale when a followup mission arrives. All traces of what they found is gone, all of it....and that is why the Company keeps up a search for a trace of what Vickers was referring to. Everything the Prometheus found is gone?....another goofy theory, another thread...

I don't think what mark originally said even made sense. Mark you said "Most....including myself wondered how Weyland came to know about the Alien and the eggs if they are not in Prometheus. My new answer is simple. They absolutley didnt know." But what you have clearly not understood is this. The human weyland died in AvP on an expedition to the arctic where they encountered the zenomorphs. The rest of the company i.e key importand corporate workers would have known about the expedition. Now in AvP2 the yutani corporation got footage of the Zenomorphs when they sent in the marine guards that compiled with the technology they got from wolf the predator who fought the pred/alien queen as well as key data that would have been acquired from the government goons who tried to capture the predator in predator 2 made the aware of the existence of the two species. Granted their knowledge of them took a hundred years bringing them to the events of promethius may still be scarce but they had gathered just enough information to know of them. Also there was a merger that took place between the two companies making it weyland-yutani corporation therefore bolstering their efforts in information gathering

I don't fully understand: haven't most people [i]always[/i] understood that the Company's awareness of what they are dealing with is at best, "partial"? I mean, isn't that one of the main themes that's played out, in plain sight, from Alien, onwards: the fact that they know [i]something,[/i] but not [i]everything[/i] - and that they continually misjudge and underestimate?.. I don't see the revelation. In fact, on reading it again, you seem only to have made an assumption that Weyland knew about the eggs, [i]specifically.[/i]..

@allinamberclad Yes, but it doesn't explain why Weyland and Co. doesn't simply go back at a later time and pick up where the Prometheus left off..and get it's "specimen". Weyland cant..there is no trace of what the Prometheus found..and so they keep searching.

@Forever War What? That's what I'm saying. I would have thought it obvious that one of the reasons they don't head straight back to the place could be, (for whatever reasons of plot you can imagine), they have little to go on.

Weyland has no problem going back, it may take some time but of course Weyland goes back..and finds no trace of what was reported. It is in fact there, but now it's hidden. it's underwater. So Weyland puts out a company wide directive and you have "Alien"

@forever war Underwater? where are you getting this from?

Good thread, linked to the discussion on time gaps too. Veey important for the writers of any prequel to deduce a feasible story from the known information in the future canon. Its clear that noone survives this, and noone gets their specimen. Its clear that other engineers do not get invilved or are called to an alert on lv223, or if they do they couldnt care less about earth since they bever show up

Smiles You got to shake the tree to get fruit Check the Wiki on Prometheus..under principal photgraphy....CAUTION POTENTIAL SPOILER

When the followup mission arrives they find a planet dotted with lakes, underneath one of which is the temple all all it's goodies.