Why the Engineer got angry

maybe he was waiting to see if they had brought him any "presents" first. Ancient Earth gods needed lots of offerings and "sacrifices"...

It may have been Wayland asking immortality or he didn't appreciate David. He may have seen David as a sign that humanity was becoming too smart in creating synthetic life for itself. This would eventually make humanity a threat, seeing how the Space Jockeys were at war with another Intelligent species (I at least think this because xeno's are superweapons) this is the last thing they wanted.

sorry double post

maybe the scene at the start where a sj dies to create life on earth is a punishment. humans might be made as a replacement to the space jockeys who fell out with their creators.

The problem is: if he slept for two millenia, he wouldn´t be able to understand modern english, even if he knew the idiom spoken by the natives of the british islands at the time (what is unlikely).

I also have a very similar theory, but I am somewhat torn, because there are also other strog theories that could be true. The way I followed it originally was that the goo was being engineered to while out the human race, eventually the Engineer's plans backfired and one was infected, which lead to a self contained outbreak inside the facility which I think is partly portrayed the first time you seethe holograms running through he tunnels. The engineer taking up the rear during the time that played out 2000 years prior didn't make it to the door before his friends closed it and he was decapitated. Eventually all of the engineers present were killed, except for one, who made it to his cryo-chamber and was able to preserve himself from the attack. It is also implied (I believe by shaw) that eventually the engineers decided they didn't want to whipe out humanity, so to fit this theory that must have happened after the point all of the engineers at this outpost were killed. Now, if that were the case, the Engineer that they woke up acted accordingly. Imagine if you were a member of a species that was playing God and created life, but then the species you created turns out to have characteristics you don't find admirable (be it greed, violence, etc. If this theory is correct, a sequel will be dealing with answering these questions) so you engineer a weapon that will wipe out all of humanity. Then, after a disaster you as a the lone survivor make it to a cryogenic chamber and put yourself to sleep for 2000 years. So, then this Engineer is suddenly woken by none other than the humans that they have been plotting to destroy. His first reaction would probably by confusion and curiosity upon being woken by humans. Then, the very first thing tht is spoken to you is a request to grant Weyland eternal life (if that's actually what David asked for), which is very likely the exact characteristic that the Engineers despised about humans in the first place. That being said, I'd start smacking the crap out of everybody at that moment too. That being said, there are many other theories that would explain that encounter in equally satisfactory ways, including that the Engineer was meant to be there to wait for humanity to find this planet, specifically because the Engineers felt that once humanity reached that level of technology they posed a threat, and the Engineer would again respond in a similar fashion once being awoken.

I think the difficulty in discerning motivation here comes from the scant evidence provided. The only real beat that tells us the Engineers were returning to Earth to 'destroy' humanity in some fashion comes from David and we don't know that he is telling the truth or that he fully understands the situation ( broad strokes....). In fact, the suggestion is that they've visited Earth in the past without such conflict so why now? Perhaps David was in communication with the Engineer before they arrived? That's really speculating... If the Engineer understood Shaw, he would quickly come to realize the situation at hand, i.e., the other Engineers from his ship are dead, the species they were going to 'visit' is visiting them instead and they know about the cargo, she doesn't understand what they've done wrong ( to which he looks slightly perplexed ). The notion of handing your children a bio weapon of that magnitude would be horrifying. When he in fact becomes violent is when David tells him Weylands purpose here ( access to immortality? more likely access to the bio weapon itself ) but what did he really say? It seemed to me like he said 'he was dying and looking for his creator' but I'm not really sure. I am sure that was the trigger though, not merely their presence alone but maybe Shaw got it wrong and the Engineer was just trying to get the hell out of there. An aside, whatever Vickers is, human, robot daughter, maybe she survived like Shaw and has a part to play. If she's a robot, the atmosphere wouldn't be an issue... Also, are the Engineers merely a further propagation system for the xeno's? Are they the servants of a terrifying creator?

Other ponderings, why did the Engineer let Shaw escape in the first place when he quickly dispatched everyone else? How did David know the Engineer was coming for her? Clearly the Engineer was strong enough to kill with a single blow, yet he treats Shaw pretty gently by comparison. I wonder if David told the Engineer about the tentacled creation after the crash and that was his real purpose there, which of course would make David a bonafide bad guy.

I hope Vickers was a robot. She was one of my favorite characters. Anyways I don't get it either.How come the SJ tried to kill her later and not with everyone else? Maybe he didn't see her as a threat? I don't think David told the SJ about the squid. SJ must have seen the ship that destroyed his. And tried to kill whoever crashed it. David knew about SJ coming to kill he because he was in the SJ ship.

So the Engineer told him what he was going to do? I'm not sure how David would have come to that conclusion without some information, I mean, he knew about the other ships why wouldn't the Engineer be trying to get off world in one of them?

David knew their intentions from listening to the hologram-recorded mission brief they gave the pilot in the control room before he went into stasis and they were infected.

loseyourname, maybe but we don't know that was their purpose for sure, all we have is a robot who isn't terribly forthright with an agenda to rely on, also it doesn't explain how he knew the Engineer was coming for Shaw at the end

Its simple. Just like Humans, anything we create has no soul. When was the las time you stepped on an insect or an ant. We as humans feel no remorse. What I'm getting at, is that the engineer woke up dazed. Found humans infront of him, arguing up a loud storm. Then one of these experiments (David, assuming the engineer thinks he is human) asks for immortality lol He shuts them up and Shaw runs away. He dosen't go after her because she is nothing to him. Remember he has a plan that needs to be executed. Big mistake on his part. Gets hit on his way out of orbit and gets really pissed and now knows he needs to kill her in order to try again in anther ship. Buttttttt he gets killed. simple really. If you think about it scientifically.

Ok since we all know now what David said to the Engineer, that will create some clarity. My problem with most of the theories is, if the Engineer was planning to destroy humanity, but they were thwarted in some way, why go into the cryogenic chamber? Nothing indicates any danger inside the Juggernaut, only the pyramid is infested with all these things. It's clear he can fire up the ship and take off in a matter of minutes. He could have done that back then, or even return to his home planet in stead to find reinforcements, other Engineers who would help him destroy life and fly the ship.

seeing them there was a shock seeing shaw being attacked led him to believe she wanted something other than immortality not sure if he understood english but i think he "had enough" when david had the nerve to speak in their language and then ask for immortality. i'm pretty sure he might have known david was a robot too... "stupid humans. they come all the way here, and they prove us right. all they are is greedy. kill em all"

Anyone else think that the Space Jockeys may be the slave caste of the Engineers society? There is circumstantial evidence for it. From that point of view, we have a slave waking up, expecting that he has been woken by his overseer, but instead finding that all the other slaves are dead, and only some humans are there, which is a surprise, but not an immediate threat. He then figures out a pecking order. Weyland is the boss man. David is his artificial slave, and Jackson his enforcer, who beats Shaw for displeasing Weyland, while Ford also shouts at Shaw for the same reason. So he deals with the slave master and his servants, and disregards Shaw, who is not one of the loyal servants. Then he makes his bid for freedom, but is knocked out of the sky because Shaw thinks that this guy is the angel of Death. It may seem pretty clear to her, and a large chunk of the audience, that the plan is to wipe out Earth, but I think Ridley Scott is doing what he did in Blade Runner. Misleading us and teasing us. Shaw jumps to this conclusion because of seeing some things she doesn't fully understand (much like a primitive human seeing advanced technology, like a shot gun, would probably also fear a waterpistol). Then David says something deliberately vague to her (David is very deliberate in his words and whether he wishes to be clear or misleading) He says something like 'in order to create you must destroy'. That doesn't necessarily mean "kill all humans". If it did, he could have just said that. He knows Shaws mind, and her dreams, and religious beliefs. Saying something like this to her, means "Armageddon" the whacky fire and brimstone end of the bible, opposed to the creation in Genesis, which she also believes in (with Engineers making the Garden of Eden). However, there is evidence against this whole 'kill the humans' idea. Some not easy to spot, but very strong. 1. During the 2000 years that this guy has been asleep, there were two more recent visits to Earth (Hawaiian cave drawing is from the 7th Century - nobody even lived on Hawaii 2000 years ago). Obviously humanity was not wiped out in the 7th century. 2. There's circumstantial evidence that all the previous trips involved abducting or luring humans back to LV 223, to be worked on in the lab, producing more Space Jockeys and Xenomorphs. If humans are raw material for these then destroying to create refers to maybe a few hundred humans, (number of urns in the chamber) not billions of us. 3. All those urns in the cargo hold, may not be the same stuff we saw in the urn chamber (mutating agent) or whatever the guy in scene 1 drank (the stuff that simply rips you apart at genetic level). If there's more than one type of goo, with different purposes, consider this odd little idea. Those urns are power sources. They don't seem to be stacked in an efficient way for weapon dispersal, but efficient enough for being batteries. Ever heard of a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery]Baghdad Battery[/url]? They are about 2000 years old. [img]http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery1a.JPG[/img] They may simply be the 'fuel cell' that gets the ship to Earth and back. This is a bit of a stretch, granted, but we haven't seen any other hint of a propulsion system for this craft, and it seems to fit the style of their technology, advanced but with that primitive retro look :) If this is the case, Shaw has convinced Janek to do a Kamikaze attack on a fleeing slave, thinking he was somehow saving all of manking. A tragic misunderstanding, which is also darkly comical, considering it means that Shaw is now travelling in a stolen ship, looking for the slavemasters, to discuss theology with them.

It occurred to me that while Shaw and her team were aware that humans and engineers are a genetic match, the engineer might not have known this. So it makes me wonder if his reaction would have been the same if he was aware that he was looking at beings with the same genetic makeup.

@I would argue that he does know that they are basically the same creature, but that he judges them by their actions. Weyland, the slave boss. David the slave who translates for him. Jackson, the armed thug, Ford obedient servant (both of them are angry at Shaw for displeasing the boss man). And Shaw, he has the opportunity to kill, but lets her run away. (You think this athletic giant couldn't catch her before she reached the end of the corridor?)

The awoken Engineer looked intrigued and affectionate at first. He would have thought he was on Earth at this point. He didn't understand the arguing amongst the humans until David spoke. He would therfore assume that David was the leader, not Weyland. After touching David lovingly, he suddenly realises he is synthetic, an abomination, so destroys him. He assumes the others are too and destroys them too. He does this because he knows that artificially created life is inherently dangerous as it has no soul or conscience. This is something the Engineers learned long ago through their own experiments in artificial intelligence/life. "The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something else." (Eliezer Yudkowsky) [21] See for reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

After reviewing the movie and reading all of your comments (and others online) I think I got a hold on things. The movie gives us enough all the clues we need. Starting off with David in the main chambers watching the engineers. When he is looking at the one engineer who is about to pilot the ship you can see other engineers in the background. They aren't getting into the hyper sleep beds they are [u]checking on engineers who are already in the beds.[/u] [u][/u] Now when David brings everyone in the chambers he talks about what he saw and tells everyone what he thinks happened. (remember he's smarter then us) Shaw: "So they were traveling somewhere?" David: "I've managed to work out the broad strokes. it is fairly evident they were in the process of leaving, until things went to part. Shaw: "Leaving to go where?" David: "Earth" Shaw: "Why?" David: "Sometimes to create one must first destroy" So the engineers are getting ready to travel to earth and some went into hyper sleep while others had to pilot the ship. When you see the digital shadows of the engineers running from something that is what David was referring to when he said "until things went to part" the guys who were in charge of running the ship had a problem. From the engineer's perspective when he is woken up out of hyper sleep he knows that he's been in there too long. I mean if it took humans 2 years to get there he was probably expecting a much shorter trip then 2000 years. So when he wakes up and see's humans he is shocked and he's dazed from being in hyper sleep for 2000 years. Then Peter Weyland says to David "David continue tell him why I came" We all know Peter Weyland is there to find immortality. David gave us a big clue earlier when he said "sometimes to create one must first destroy" So you remember the engineer in the start of the movie? It seems as though he was left on earth to sacrifice himself to begin the process of evolution. You see this from his DNA being broken down and then cells begin to divide. And it looks like a raw earth because of the all the water. So if they were on their way to earth to destroy it so that they could try again when he wakes up and see's humans there he knows things went wrong. Then when David starts speaking in his language he is intrigued so he puts his hand on David's head and I think he knew David was a robot who was better then humans. So he quickly is afraid once he realizes how much we have evolved. Remember he was going to kill us 2000 years ago. So that means what he knows of humanity is Jesus's time. Now we wake him up, he see's us in fancy gear with lights around our necks, guns, and worst of all a robot who is smarter then us (he knows this because David is the only one who speaks to him). So he gets very upset at how everything had gone wrong and he kills David. Then he gets shot at so he eliminates those guys. Think about it David is one step in evolution closer to them. So David lies between humans and engineers on the evolution line. So the engineer has plenty to worry about. He thought he was going to exterminate a civilization who didn't even know where they were in the solar system and now they are making synthetic humans!!! And when he see's shaw running away he could care less because he's got bigger things to worry about. And lastly the reason why they want to kill us and start again, well that's easy [u]Look at us what kind of a species we were 2000 years ago.[/u] [u][/u] Here's a funny thing [b]I think they would be more upset at us [u]now[/u] because we are killing the planet =D[/b] I think I nailed it!!!