Missing the Point/Reasons Engineers Target Earth

My read on why the Engineers target earth is the following : The first Engineer we see on Earth is "Prometheus" as he actually gives life to the planet, and more specifically : human DNA. So it seemed to me that he was some rebel to his kind (like Prometheus was when he stole the fire, giving it to mankind afterwards. Do note that a different version version of the myth exists, stating that Prometheus shaped humans out of mud and then gave them the "fire of life"). So the other Engineers are pissed at their brother (just like the gods were at Prometheus) and decide to destroy his creation using the xeno weapon when they see mankind has developped too much.

Great ideas about Weyland and I actually think that is the exact reason they want to destroy us. They know that Weyland has used some of their tech to create David and other replicants. Then Weyland goes a step further and tries to actually steal their secret for creating non-replicant, true life so he can save himself and become immortal. Or it could be something like we just didn't live up to their expectations or acomplish what we were made to acomplish. Hell, maybe a combo of both.

No, they wanted to destroy us much before Weyland was even born. Weyland just believed the Engineers were man's creators, so he thought they could be able to make him live forever.

i saw the movie and i give you my opinion 1) main goal of Weyland is to give humanity a last gift , beating death . 2) yes thats right .. even if its not clear how much is an idea of David ...david is acting all the movie erratically. a true android . 3) the idea is really that Weyland did know absolutely nothing , that is what i get from the movie ( however ive to note that my french is far from perfect ) 4) no it seems to me tha Earth was already a target and only the "bioshit" did delay that but again ive to watch the movie again...surely its not well explained :p

hmmm, food for thought indeed, frantz, food for thought

Yes, basically Weyland knew nothing of what they would find there. They had the prehistoric drawings and that's all. They wanted to destroy mankind 2000 years ago more or less (they say that exactly in the movie)

Really, how come they didn't then?

They had a tiny problem with their bioweapon.

what is their reason for intending to destroy us then, if it was in place prior to the events of the movie? did we get too big for our britches 2000 years ago?? I can see that being a reason for modern man, not 2000 years ago...

Were the Engineers pissed that we were screwing up the planet even 2000 years ago? Did they seed ALL life on earfth or just humanity's? Were they pissed that we were killing off everything else? Maybe Mammoths/Mastodons were their pets. (What with the trunks and all).

We don't know, and that's what characters ask themselves in the movie, and why there will be a sequel. I'm pretty sure that what they were going to do would have destroyed all life on earth at that moment, changed it.

so @Blood, the problem with their bio-weapon, as it turns out are humans the missing element needed to perfect the weapon (xeno)????

It sounds like this movie is really the set up to a much larger sequel in which we might get some answers. I already accepted the fact that we get no answers to the "big questions" in this one. So all that said, here's hoping Prometheus rakes in a ton of cash at the box office so we get our answers eventually.

@giger I don't know. The Engineers planned a xeno at some point (the mural/statue), still if they wanted to create it is not clear.

@Blood--thanks! really looking forward to seeing it!

@Snorkelbottom You are right. I already know something is not as simple as we thought when Weyland industries investor page showing this very unique element. http://www.weylandindustries.com/investor Eitr is the lowest resources they have which conveying telling us Android like David is very hard to make, very precious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eitr Eitr is a mythical substance in Norse mythology. This liquid substance is the origin of all living things, the first giant Ymir was conceived from eitr. The substance is supposed to be very poisonous and is also produced by Jörmungandr (the Midgard serpent) and other serpents. You see we have David finger showing the eitr on his finger at the same time we know we have spacecobra thing lingering around those ampules. Whole movie main point already shown earlier in investor page. :)

I saw the movie, and Weyland didn't know about the engineer's technology. All he wanted was to be saved from death. Since the engineers created us, they might be able to save us (that's what he says). Ultimately, he might have wanted to give mankind a gift, but I'm not sure about it. About eitr, I think that's really interesting because there's certainly a part of the plot (big one I'd say) that involves some sort of snake thing, which develops into the so called adn of the xenos that we know so fondly. I really liked the movie, one of my top scifi movies ever. I agree with @drakeequation, there are a lot of questions left unanswered and if everything goes as planned, lets hope Sir Ridley Scott will give us the answers in a sequel.

I don't get why people think or thought that... #1. This film would have anything to do with the xenos. #2. A sequel to this film would have anything to do with xenos. Have they not made it clear enough that this movie is a starting off point for something completely new? I mean, I guess there's a chance that they might explain the xeno as a footnote in a sequel but to me it seems they want to get as far away from xenos as they can. I don't blame them either. Just hearing people yap about the xenos while we have been waiting for this film has got puke brimming in my throat. And maybe, depending on how the film does, they will decide it might be good to go in the xeno direction but I really don't think RS will do the film if that's the way the studio wants to go. Don't get me wrong. I love the xenos. I know they could have been done a hell of a lot better but they're cool. Personally, I kinda wondered why they couldn't have the xenos, face huggers and eggs and all that shit in the film AND go in a new direction as well. They could have done that. The fact that they didn't tells me they want to leave the damn xenos behind and move into ne territory with new aliens and new mysteries which is what I prefer at this point.

the answer might be 42.

I agree with you Deckard. I am so tired of people bringing up the Xenos in evey thread. Remember people the Xenos are a creation of the Engineers. At least to this point that is what most of us think. But that's it. What I think is more important is the Engineers themselves. Those who created the Xenos, and probably helped us evolve. So naturally the creator should be spoken about more. The engineers have a culture, diabolical it may be. But it's much more interesting to find out about them then coming back to the Xenos again. I see the Xenos as pet. While the engineers are the master.