Whole movie explained (MAJOR SPOILERS!)

Oh yea im not saying the black goo used to intentionally bring forth a xeno, im saying the black goo was created to blow your head off by modifying your DNA, its just that it evolved certain creatures for some reason or another as a side effect/.... but yea they had a mural of an alien on the ship also ?, which means they whould have been aware of what that shit can do and shouldnt of had any problems....

They create life because they can. Just like mankind created David in his own image. The SJ:s are intelligent and vain, they want to be treated as gods, and creates life to feel superior. They have not contacted us in 2000 years, because they died (Elizabeth doing a C4-test on the dead body). So they probably was on earth like 5000 years ago and looking through things and planning another trip around the birth of Jesus (if you believe in that). And yeah, I would like to know what's wrong or right.

Aye which is what I eman by I hate these films, Donnie Darko is the classic example of such a film, just replace 'cellar door' with mythical green stone or holograms of running SJ's.... I hate these sort of films because I feel like its lazy writing, leaving the viewer to come to their own conclusions is not what a movie is meant to be imo and I dont really get on with them because theyre never easy to discuss or elaborate on because everyone has a different version of events, making it pointless, which is why I dont think this movie will stand on its own 2 feet. I came trying to find a definitive answer which I knew I wouldnt get because it was written in a similiar vein to Donnie Darko, like I said in my 1st post I still like the way they opened up the universe and still thought it was awesome, its just that it needs explaining with a sequel and if done properly I really do think Prometheus II could be what Aliens was to Alien, now we all know how epic that would be !. Its just do any of us think theyll get a sequel and if they did, do you really think theyd do it properly because if they dont then that renders this film pretty pointless imo, just another AvP

Great post Shubble! Let me use it to explain my vision of the movie. But firstly let me explain what is the goo: I think the black goo is a DNA altering agent, but not one altering it in a hazardous way. I think there is sort of a preprogrammed sequence into it, focused on producing organisms strongly willing to reproduce and survive (less important). As it is very highly 'concentrated', when applied in too high doses it might actually rip the organism apart by acting on to many cells at the same time. (Though, or earthworms are more resistant to that, or organisms already partly altered by it becomes more and more immune to its effects). [After reading 'Movie.Monster' post I would add that it can stimulate life, make you life longer or make you stronger but also can alter your genes 'too much', especially when you're not one of the Engineers - the DNA is compatible, but their sequence is different]. 1) Engineers is granted with the gift of extreme DNA altering (black goo), either from another alien life form or through their own knowledge. Where they come from or how they know this is irrelevant. 2) Engineers look through universe after suitable planets that can sustain life similar to their own life form. "Earth" is found, probably one among many planets. 3) One engineer is chosen or volunteer to drink the DNA altering liquid (black goo) on earth to kickstart life in his own image. His ”pure” DNA is heavily altered and he is rapidly disintegrated. Engineer DNA spreads on earth. 4) DNA on earth creates life forms that become more and more like the engineers (human). OR 4alt) Engineers – willing to speed up the process – come back to Earth and re-alter primal DNA to obtain humans. Why? Well – in the movie the question is being posed and the answer is 'because they can' . But do we alter DNA of other species because we can? Maybe for having a cheap labor, beings intelligent enough to understand orders but not bright enough to understand the 'whole' (who is giving them, and what is their final purpose), therefore not really rebellious ones. Just like in real life... :) 5) Humans thinks of Engineers as gods, and therefore Engineers can rule easily over them. 6) Visiting engineers creates marks (the five planets) to show the humans where they came from. It is not an invitation, just one way of showing their greatness to the inferior life form. Maybe one way of showing the heritage of the life form of this planet, if there are other ”black goo factories” that the engineers have. 7) For some reason Engineers decides to end the 'experiment' and therefore they are preparing to launch a massive black goo 'cleaning'. Maybe because they want test something different, maybe because – seeing the advancement of humans – they are afraid of possible outcomes (a reference to Bible's Tower of Babel story?). 9) But just before take-off, something goes wrong in the engineers facility. Maybe by error some clean air is introduced into the chamber with the vases and the goo starts to react on its own? Or/and some of the engineers brings with him a sample of Earth life (a earth worm), which then mutates because of the goo? Important thing is that it might have happened in a different ship on the same planet (this explaining why in the movie's ship the earthworms are still earthworms ;). Another small lifeform (perhaps the same earthworms as we see in the movie) is exposed to the black goo and speeds up the evolution-cycle. This new life form chases down the engineers, enter their bodies and killes them from inside. Only one engineer is saved, when he it put in the hyper-sleep chamber. 10) New life form dies due to starvation. 11) Humans creates new life form (AI and synthetic life like David) , and becomes gods of their own. 12) Humans find the five planets in caves, treats it as an invitation, build spaceship and travel to the origin. 13) Crew on Prometheus open door to the sealed chamber, changing the temperature and moisture. This makes the black goo come out of the containers. /and the fresh air comes in making again the goo to come out from the vases. Also the earth worms must have survived (with a life span of 4 to 8 years their survival seems plausible, deepening on – how much earth is in this chamber). 14) Earthworms is exposed to the black goo and transformes them into the ”cobraliens”. 15) Cobralien kills Millburn by entering his mouth and bursting his chest. Cobralien accidently kills Fifield by acid in face. 16) Fifield falls DEAD into the black goo. This starts to transform some of the small organisms living in and on the human body (like bacteria, fungus and mites). Together these new lifeforms take control over the dead body, moving it around like a ”zombie”. /A zombie community not only controlling surprisingly well one dead body, but also being able to find the ship and then decide to kill it's crew? Too much zombie movies my friend ;). I'd rather say it was a minor exposure to the goo, that made the guy mutate and not blow up. Why minor, when he had his head in the goo? Well, he still had his helmet, and as far as I remember, the goo reacted with his helmet like an acid. Therefore most of the goo was 'burnt out'. 17) David gives Charlie a small amount of the black goo. His body starts to decompose (like the first engineer on earth) but also transforms other organisms on and in his body. Humans are not as ”pure” as the engineers. The worm in his eye is NOT the black goo itself, but a new life form. /The idea that small organisms also mutate is a good one, still I think Charlie would have mutated anyway into some sort of a bad creature, bad but still fully alive. 18) Elizabeth becomes pregnant with a guy with altering DNA, therefore the 'child' also has some altering DNA. More to that – Elizabeth might also become a monster in the future (although she has a good reason to feel bad in the final part of the movie, the symptoms seems to be quite similar to Charlie's). She simply might have been exposed to even smaller dose than Charlie... 19) Charlie is mutating. His life ends by flamethrower and takes it like a man. 20) Elizabeth removes the new lifeform, a facehugger-squid, from inside her with nasty surgery and takes it like a... woman. 21) Crew, with David and Peter Weyland, wakes the last engineer. At first he is surprised and curious when his inferior children is standing inside his spaceship. 22) Then he realize that their creation is now very powerful and able of creating artificial life witch capacities much greater than their owns. This is dangerous. Notice that Engineers are not using any machines. Even their suits and ships are biological/bio-mechanical. Are they simply afraid of humans advancement, or more about the fact that we have created such machines? The Engineer first admires Dave (and not other humans which he seems to ignore, i.e. by walking into the old man), then he tries to destroy him. Haw the Engineers had some problems in the past with machines or is he aware that his black goo won't affect Dave at all? I think it is important to see here, that the Engineer has the same attitude towards humans ('his' creations) as humans has towards Dave 'their' creation... 23) ->22 24) The engineer kills crew. Elizabeth releases the facehugger-squid which plants seed into the engineer. 25) A new lifeform, an ”Alien” bursts through the engineers body. This inherit some of the traits from the engineer, giving it head, arms and legs. 26) Some other engineers discover the new ”Alien” that have made eggs with facehuggers. They find the new life form interesting (maybe to use as a waepon) and decides to put the eggs on another ship and sends it away. But again, something goes wrong, and the pilot is caught by a facehugger. The pilot dies and the ship crashes on another planet. OR There simply are other outposts working on some other applications of the goo, and one of their 'best' achievements is the alien race. Therefore the genetic connection between humans and aliens might have come from well another place, as the Engineers have the DNA similar to humans. 27) The ship sends out a warning signal to other engineers to leave the cargo alone, a signal which Nostromo picks up in the movie Alien. What I cannot understand is: A) What is the meaning of the Alien-like statue or painting in the engineers big hall? Plausible answer(?): the ultimate weapon against species? Like a nuke picture in some weapon testing facility. But honestly I think that the main lesson from the movie is that when searching for answers one almost always ends up with more questions, and that it is better to believe in something positive than not to believe at all . So it seems to sort of connecting the scientific and 'metaphysical' views on life: learn, think, act, try to understand but... don't lose hope for existence of something 'greater'. (This being written by someone, who's religious views are most closely described by agnosticism.)

@ shubble or anyone! there seems to be a difference to me with the black DNA stimulator liquid which was in the urn, this is what affected the worms and fifield. However the liquid that affected holloway came from the glass ampoules within the urn, this was something else and is the parasite. So in the urn there is DNA parasite and black DNA stimulator stuff. The question is if they had combined what would happen? Theory: what if the space jockeys do exist as space jockeys and the engineers are just posing as them in suits. everything else makes no since so why not!

@shubble Well you never know. I think that if Fossilization occurred naturaly then it would take longer than just a few years. If it occurred unnaturally, well then anything is possible. I have another theory though. I think the Aliens (Xenos) were a genetic accident. I think that the Space Jockeys came to LV-233 with the intentions to make the planet habitable. In the process they come across a life form that mutates into a facehugger when it comes into contact with the black ooz. After the First Space jockey gives birth to the first xeno the xeno would makes it home in the cargo hold of the Space Jockey's ship, molt into a queen and start to produce eggs. When the Space Jockeys discover what has happened they attempt to take the eggs to another location. During the trip something goes wrong and the ship crashes on LV-426. The Space Jockey sends out the warning signal. The Mural on the wall could be a story of what happened.