Damn, they really are suits

What has caused this definitive sway?

"We are Giants"... not so much.

I agree, if the SJ helmet was actually his head, then it would be far more alien and cool, but since they are creating us in their own image, I guess we have to resemble each other. Plus, all the SJ's look like clones of each other, so I think that this is what they are, or androids like David.

[img]http://www.prometheus-movie.com/uploads/prometheusmovie_11512_5.jpg[/img]

Some kind of jazzed up Fremen stillsuit. Don't get me wrong - I've still got an open mind - the suit thing could be awesome. The suits could be alive and be incredibly painful for the blue guys to put on. I would approve of that.

I dont know if that was the idea all along... i doubt years ago that Ridley had the idea that the Space Jockey was a Human looking big guy in a suit.... Yes he said it was a suit back ages ago... But i think when they was doing the script and wanted to do more about the Engineers/Jockeys than the Xeno, they needed to explore a story about them add some depth to their character. And so a Alien being, (who may not be human looking) in a Space Suit that created the Xeno, was maybe not a indepth story or plot. I think after they decided to go for the Chariots of the Gods kind of story thats when they changed the idea that the guy in the suit was Human Looking to tie in with the whole Chariots of the Gods, creators theory.

Totally agreed. I also think he reimagined the SJ into a humannoid to fit his ideas of space gods. I bet Ridley didn't want to repeat Alien all over again, so he opted to go with the humanoid super being instead of the elephant like creature... Fun thing is, I always thought the Jockey was a suit... or some sort of biomechanical suit that bonded with the user permanently.

what if the suit is a lifeform itself? With it's own life cycle and thought process.

Has everyone forgotten what fossilization does to organic material. In the original movie, the SJ/Engineer looked like it was one with the chair, and depending on the true nature of the base materials used, they could be very close to a carbon-based polymer material. Polycron ( a synthetic rubber material, it exhibits all the characteristics of human skin, but is used as a rubber substitute).

Not fossilized - mummified is more accurate.

I think Ridley Scott has probably had to tweak, if not rewrite, history and what he may have said, just a [i]little[/i] bit in some of the details - in order to make the movie, it turns out he's making practically a lifetime after Alien, function - and go somewhere else he wouldn't have necessarily have envisioned as a complete idea, back 1979... If so, personally, based only on what I've seen so far, I'm going to let it all go.

@Kronnang Dunn I think Ridley always hinted the Jockey was a suit... Just say 3-5 years ago maybe he had a different idea or no idea at all about what they looked like under the suit.... And yes i think they went for the Human look to tie in with the Space Gods Story line so as that he can make a interesting plot for this movie.

@BigDave When you say, "always", I'm fairly certain he has been saying,"Suit", for a lot less time than the entire 33 years since Alien. I have feeling, "Suit", is a little revisionist.

Back when he did Alien I seriously doubt he gave it much more thought than "It looks really cool and creepy".

It was suit from the start because in Alien they showed breaking of suit from stomach, so if we go by that theory then surely skin would not last more than a year in such environment where there are organisms.

Horse-hockey!

@allinamberclad I agree. I think the suit is revisionist history. I don't recall a suit being mentioned along with the SJ in the making of original Alien movie, nor the subsequent 33 year period since then. Only now is the elephant-SJ being mentioned as a suit. I still believe the suit is organic, alive and there is some sort of symbiotic relationship with the engineer.

Chthon: Funny, that picture you linked was what helped me decide that they WERENT suits. Look at the details...they don't look "movable" or mobile, if that's the right description. To me, they definitely have a look of being carved. They don't look pieced together, like a suit would be.

I think its better to watch the movie first and then compare the ´78 SJ and the new Prometheus SJ/ blue guys in suits..

Hold on a sec everyone... it's not Ridley who originally came up with the suit concept, but Giger.