unasked questions

Unless I'm mistaken, they were running from their bio-weapon, loosed in some form. It attacked and killed the majority but the engineer we see must have been protected by the knee of those giant bulkheads.

Notwithstanding how alluring most of these questions might be, the problem with asking too many questions is that you can fall into the "Lost Syndrome". You just won't be able to answer those questions because they are so many, and you will probably forget that you ever asked most of them in the first place.

By "one" of those giant bulkheads. Auto-correct strikes again,

But they were ostensibly running INTO the chamber with all the goo canisters in it. What kinda sense does THAT make? And what was with the seeming "pile" of Space Jockeys down the hall?

@Jv8r: yeah, that's definitely the implication and what everyone assumes, and is most likely the case i'd say as well...but what happened to the attacking creature? Xenomorph eggs containing face huggers have been shown to survive large amounts of time dormant (Alien, on LV-426 they said the ship seemed to have been there for thousands of years, or am i mistaken?) now, they did not find any queen alien on LV-426 (i'm not sure Scott likes the idea of a queen alien, but it's canon at this point, he has to acknowledge it at least) so a singular alien may not be able to survive that long without food/water/whatever, but could a proto-xenomorph? in my mind what was chasing the Engineers in the hologram recording may have been something we haven't yet seen....something large and powerful enough to scare a dozen Engineers into running like little girls. why wasn't this creature captured along with hologram of the Engineers?

@Red Wolf: i forgot about that aspect of things! i agree with that...why would they be running into that room? was it to destroy the goo? was it safer in there for some reason, or maybe just because the structure provided protection from the outside? @Arkadine: that's kind of why i'm asking these questions, so i can remember them all! and they're obvious questions to me, but i hadn't seen them being discussed, so i figured i would help spark some conversation. i'm not expecting answers at all, just discussion. i imagine most of these questions aren't possible to answer unless there's a sequel.

[i]in the underground Engineer ship, we see centuries old remnants and the recordings of the death of dozens of Engineers. who are in their space or flight suits...whereas the humans are walking in these areas with helmets off. so they must've set up the terraforming machines, got them started, but died before they were fully functional? [/i] They may be wearing those helmets as part of their bioweapons work. [i]that is assuming they would be harmed by the extra CO2 in the outside LV-223 atmosphere, not the the atmosphere produced inside the ships/terraforming machines;[/i] Actually its CO (Carbon Monoxide) not CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) that makes the atmosphere unbreathable there. I know there's a scene were Holloway says CO2, but that seems to be an error because when the intial atmosphere scan was done, they said Carbon Monoxide... and Dr. Forde also said 3% CO in the air would kill in minutes. This is true of Carbon Monoxide, but not true of Carbon Dioxide which is far less toxic. [i]which also brings up the first suicidal Engineer. he's shown walking around on what is assumed to be primordial Earth without a mask. if i'm not mistaken, early Earth's atmosphere would've been inhospitable to a current human...correct?[/i] I was thinking that myself. It's a valid point. [i]what were the holographic recordings of the Engineers running from? if it's something large enough to scare them to run like that, why was it not recorded on the hologram?[/i] That seems to be just convenient, to keep their options open and keep us guessing. Certainly the last guy stumbles and looks back. [i]if it's a something related to the Xenomorph/facehuggers, isn't it possible the creature that killed them could've still been alive or in a dormant state somewhere on the planet still?[/i] There's been no sign of whatever killed them. Possible it hibernated. Although we're not sure how long a mature Xenomorph can hibernate. We've assumed that eggs can stay dormant for a long time. [i]why did whatever they were running from not go and kill the Engineer that was in stasis?[/i] I'm stumped on that as well. It might be related to the fact that there were still other engineers alive after 3 of the 4 pods were breached. [i] there was a series of doors...the first one being where Fifield's pup waited outside for hours recording periodic life signs. could the dormant creature have been there outside the door, awaiting the time when the door was opened, all the while triggering the pup's life-detecting sensors periodically? is it possible David and the rest simply walked right past the creature without waking it? [/i] I would doubt it, because the "glitch" was very regular according to Janek, and that might just be how the stasis bed work... the metabolism does a little work for a few seconds every couple of hours. There were some intermitted lights on the stasis bed that suggested this also. [i] on the same subject, if the conclusion that LV-223 was a military weapons training station is true, why would visiting Engineers informs early humans of it's placement, and not of their own home world (if they're kind creators of us) or simply have killed us on their visits to Earth (if they're unhappy with how we turned out or whatever)....the possible motives of the Engineers don't seem to sync up between their various actions over time. there's some outside puzzle piece we're totally unaware of as viewers, or the story is purposefully being muddled. [/i] It seems certain that LV-223 was a bioweapons production facility, and they were filling their juggernauts with it. It is however an ASSUMPTION that the Engineers were guiding ANYBODY to LV-223. When Holloway explains the star map... it's six stars... so they found which six stars match... and then started making educated guesses as to which one would be the home world. They guessed at the star most like our sun and found it had a planet with moons, one of which had an oxygen and nitrogen environment. Lets back up here a second. They took a guess on which star out of 6... and here's the thing... these 6 stars exist in reality. most of them are about 34 to 39 light years away... more than half of them are quite similar to our own sun, and one of them is only 19 light years away (which would mean they over shot it by a whole year if it turns out to be the correct star.) We can't assume that just because they found something related to engineers around that star, (Gliese 86) that they obviously picked the right star. Because one of the OTHER stars in that map has a nasty little rock going around it, with a derelict ship, throwing out a message that will one day be intercepted by the Nostromo. The bottom right star in the cave drawings is Zeta 2 Reticuli, and LV 426 is a moon going round one of that star's planets. If they'd picked that star they would have found something too. If most of these stars are perhaps 8 light years from each other, then there might be little engineer outposts on planets or moons in each of the close by systems. [i] there were a dozen or a few dozen planets shown in the map-room David witnessed. are we to believe these are all military installations? other planets they've seeded with life? if they've seeded others with life, why make it so easily accessible to be viewed by anyone who walks in the door? [/i] [i]why did they have murals and altars to Xenomorphs, and what was with the green stone? someone somewhere suggested it may be like amber; the Engineers found the original Xenomorph DNA in it and made the black goo from that? if they know what a fully formed Xenomorph looks like, why would they be seemingly worshipping/revering it? it seemed a little too artful to be just a warning system.[/i] I'm guessing they have a death cult, (and note the use of the crucifixion pose on the xenomorph) and that they are not the 'masters' of their world. They come across as clones and worker drones, with a higher caste somewhere sending them on horrible missions to die in large numbers. (much like we might if we had unfeeling disposable Androids). My guess on the green stone is that its a device that exerts some control over the black goo. Perhaps activating it, or making / keeping it dormant. Everyone assumes that it's just the change of air that causes the changes in the temple room, but remember it was David at the controls to open the door, he may have done more than simply open a door. He may have pushed a few buttons to see what happens. Or there may have been something he wasn't aware of, that the green stone switches off when the wrong people open the door, and the nasty worms and black goo start moving again.

[i]They may be wearing those helmets as part of their bioweapons work.[/i] that would be a good explanation, definitely. i'm not entirely convinced that was a military outpost exclusively though. why would they go through the trouble of terraforming the entire moon if they just need a few small outposts for research? thanks for the CO/CO2 mix-up. i failed chemistry for a reason. lol. [i]I was thinking that myself. It's a valid point.[/i] i just read an excerpt of an interview Scott did where he said the intro sequence may or may not be Earth anyway, and he says it doesn't matter, because it's just done to show that the Engineers are seeding worlds with their DNA. so reading too much into that sequence may be wasted time, it seems. interesting nonetheless though. they must have done so on many different worlds...which begs the question why? as Holloway says to David...just because they can? [i]That seems to be just convenient, to keep their options open and keep us guessing. Certainly the last guy stumbles and looks back.[/i] most likely yeah. someone mentioned somewhere the possibility that the large group of Engineers could have been running from the singular Engineer who got decapitated...implying he had been infected and they were trying to get away by getting into the room with the large head and all, and the the infected Engineer realized this and tried to get in there as well. but that's a lot of guessing....who knows. [i]I'm stumped on that as well. It might be related to the fact that there were still other engineers alive after 3 of the 4 pods were breached.[/i] maybe so, hadn't thought of that. there must've been some long term plan, or some mistake that caused the situation the humans all walked into. obviously something went wrong, but how would that all connect with the sleeping/dead engineers in stasis? hard to say. [i]I would doubt it, because the "glitch" was very regular according to Janek, and that might just be how the stasis bed work... the metabolism does a little work for a few seconds every couple of hours. There were some intermitted lights on the stasis bed that suggested this also.[/i] yeah i'm doubting it as well, but there's still the possibility i guess. it's all left open to speculation, which is obviously a lot of what i'm doing. lol. [i]It seems certain that LV-223 was a bioweapons production facility, and they were filling their juggernauts with it. It is however an ASSUMPTION that the Engineers were guiding ANYBODY to LV-223.[/i] again, not entirely convinced it was bio-weapons production facility, at least not exclusively. but that is definitely implied, so assuming it is true...why would what was the human connection to the star maps found? assumption is entirely right...i think there's another layer to this all that isn't yet revealed. [i]If they'd picked that star they would have found something too. If most of these stars are perhaps 8 light years from each other, then there might be little engineer outposts on planets or moons in each of the close by systems.[/i] i think that is definitely the implication. the reasoning behind this set up, having outposts nearby for various purposes is open to speculation of course, but i like that the events of this movie are tied to what happened on this planetoid, the events of Alien are tied to what happened on LV-426, and so on. it adds to the 'universe' of the Alien movies, without linking it directly to the events of the other movie. things were a little different here on LV-223, and this is simply the way the shit hit the fan in this case. ha. [i]I'm guessing they have a death cult, (and note the use of the crucifixion pose on the xenomorph) and that they are not the 'masters' of their world. They come across as clones and worker drones, with a higher caste somewhere sending them on horrible missions to die in large numbers. (much like we might if we had unfeeling disposable Androids).[/i] i've seen that idea expressed elsewhere, and it very well may be what Scott intends to reveal, but i'm kind of hoping not. the idea of a civilization that advanced and ancient (4 billions years old possibly) still having death cults seems kinda silly to me, but hey, it's just a story. the imagery of it is all awesome. the idea that the Engineers are slaves or drones is interesting though. another possible level. [i]My guess on the green stone is that its a device that exerts some control over the black goo. Perhaps activating it, or making / keeping it dormant.[/i] interesting! hadn't heard that before. the thought occurred to me but i didn't flesh it out that much, i like that possibility. [i]Everyone assumes that it's just the change of air that causes the changes in the temple room, but remember it was David at the controls to open the door, he may have done more than simply open a door. He may have pushed a few buttons to see what happens. Or there may have been something he wasn't aware of, that the green stone switches off when the wrong people open the door, and the nasty worms and black goo start moving again.[/i] also very interesting. some kind of built in safety switch if anyone else who doesn't know the code tries to open the doors, the goo is triggered. definitely plausible and would fit in with the events.

[i]that would be a good explanation, definitely. i'm not entirely convinced that was a military outpost exclusively though. why would they go through the trouble of terraforming the entire moon if they just need a few small outposts for research? [/i] What makes you think they are terraforming the entire moon? The breathable atmosphere is only in some tunnels, and the ship.