The Engineers never had a plan to kill the humans.

...or, in this case, there's only one variant in confluence with situational evolution.

That last remark of mine was a general comment about the goo, fwiw. Szabi, no offence intended to anyone here but tell that to a midget or a dwarf... but seriously, longterm climate change and source evolution can have a pretty profound affect/influence on endotherms and ectotherms.

MostlyHarmless, proto-Earth is the planet in the first scene, a barren rock which was seeded with life by the dying engineer. In the movie, they didn't say, our DNA is similar, they said, it's [i]identical[/i]. We all know, that we humans have been evolved here on Earth - the similarities in our genetic make-up with the fruit flies are also a proof of that, and there is nothing in the movie which would indicate otherwise. If you want to get a creature, which has the same DNA as humans, it has to evolve in the same environment as humans in the same time because of the random events, which they directing the course of the evolution! If you think about it, the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact - if that asteroid missed Earth, maybe dinosaurs would be evolved into sentient creatures. So, if we would like to share the same DNA with the engineers, we should inhabit the same place in the same time, but in the movie it's quite clearly said, they came form somewhere else. Even if we go wild, and say, OK, the engineers created as 10000 years ago, the couldn' create fossils going back to million years. This is why I think this is a pothole.

From what I just read, human height has been influenced a lot by diseases and transportation and many other factors throughout history. Sometimes the population got shorter and sometimes it got bigger. I think this is a lot more complex than I thought, maybe there's an ideal height in the genetic code that the human tries to reach before all those influences come into play. But since the factors that change it seem so various I don't think we can conclude anything anything accurate about it then. What struck me though is that people who travel more were smaller from what I just read. So since the engineers are so advanced, they have many ways of transportation that do not force them to walk so they might be big because of this. Their colonization which was made in a hurry in my theory suggests that they left most of their technology behind. Going back to a life in nature like this forced them to do things more manually and become shorter over time.

I think you're making a mountain out of it though, it's like Star Trek where we're being asked to believe a black hole at the center of Vulcan wouldn't have put Spock in some serious jeopardy while in close proximity. Dinosaurs, purportedly, along with practically everything over the weight of 50lbs, were done in by the combination of an impact and the eruption of the Deccan Traps over a long time, from what I know ( I'm not an authority mind you ) For me, that doesn't change the fact that a corollary of DNA can be made without much harm in a sci fi story. No more so than Shaw surviving a ship falling on her or plugging an electrode into a 2,000 year old head with flying colours! I thought you were referring to the bioweapons planet when you mentioned proto-Earth, my awful...

Last reply was to Szabi, having a time with the edit feature for some reason.

"I think that if they had a different approach he would have been nice to the humans." Yeah that's why the Engineers had Earth as a destination on the navicomputer with a ship full of nasty alien goo which can mutate to even higher forms of nasty. Sure being nice to him after being asleep for millenia could change his mind. "An important clue about this is when the old man's daughter tells him that every living creature must die and that it's the natural course of things. That quote wasn't there for nothing" Reading way too much into it. Meredith said that in a futile attempt to recalibrate Peter's attitude in pursuing immortality/revitalization. "The engineer, being so much smarter, knows that immortality would only destroy everything." There was nothing in the movie to suggest this. If anything all evidence points to them being hostile. As to why they are hostile assuming they are the creators, that's what Elizabeth wants to find out. "As soon as the robot talked to the engineer in his language, the engineer realized how corrupted these humans were (he associated them all together) because of the intentions of the old man, so he immediately judged them dangerous for all life." You concluded that from the Engineer's limited expressions?? Bravo. "These engineers were rather the bringer of life than the bringer of death." Evidence suggests they were both. "Many years later when those life forms evolved and created a complete ecosystem the Ancients returned to Earth to colonize and the humans are their direct descendants." The Engineers returned to Earth? Which movie is this? I could go on but really most of your hypothesis has little to no reference in what transpired in the plot.

Double post deleted

Great discussion. I had a thought regarding why the tentacle creature looked the way it did coming out of Shaw is that it took on the form of the sperm from Halloway? From past movies and this one, the seed/ egg usually goes in the host and when it 'hatches' takes qualities and features from its host, i.e Predator or Enginner. The one seed from Halloway to Shaw passed through another reproductive system entirely and took form through the sperm before maturing in Shaw's uterus. Just a thought.

If these engineers are so intelligent, then why would one need to give his life to spread life? It seemed to me like his DNA was dissolving or disappearing at the beginning. Maybe the title of the movie was just the name of the ship they were on and thats all.

I'm meaning to say it couldve just been a suicide at the beginning, maybe he didn't agree we the rest that all humans deserved to die and he killed himself? Just a guess... a lot of holes in this story...

At best it was assisted suicide, seems more like he was dropped of for a reason aside from that though.

My thinking is that the Engineer seeding himself at the start of the movie is possibly a rogue, or from a different faction than the ones in the bio weapons installation. One way or another the Engineers regretted creating humans on Earth and intended to kill them off. The Engineer at the end laid his hand on David's head as if he were expressing sorrow then preceded to kill every human in sight. I don't understand why he didn't chase Shaw on his ship but he went after her on Vicker's lifeboat as if he were trying to wipe out a disease. Maybe the Engineers came to regard humans as a disease that needed to be eradicated.

["I think that if they had a different approach he would have been nice to the humans." Yeah that's why the Engineers had Earth as a destination on the navicomputer with a ship full of nasty alien goo which can mutate to even higher forms of nasty. Sure being nice to him after being asleep for millenia could change his mind.] Don't forget that the it might be the same stuff that created life on planet Earth so having a course set to Earth doesn't mean its cargo is intended for it. Have you ever stopped at a gas station with camping equipment in your trunk? You weren't gonna camp at the gas station right? ["An important clue about this is when the old man's daughter tells him that every living creature must die and that it's the natural course of things. That quote wasn't there for nothing" Reading way too much into it. Meredith said that in a futile attempt to recalibrate Peter's attitude in pursuing immortality/revitalization.] I've studied in Cinema and let me assure you that not a single phrase is left in a movie if it has no meaning to it. You always have to cut on the less important stuff to shorten the movie as much as possible. If there was no other meaning to this quote, then the whole scene and us knowing that she's the old man's daughter would have just been cut off. ["The engineer, being so much smarter, knows that immortality would only destroy everything." There was nothing in the movie to suggest this. If anything all evidence points to them being hostile. As to why they are hostile assuming they are the creators, that's what Elizabeth wants to find out.] I'm not talking about just the movie. You should read about Prometheus the titan from greek mythology. He brought fire (intelligence) to mankind and was then tortured for doing so because the gods were against it. I also talked about similarities with the bible about the giants. Here's another important quote: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." " And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." So yeah just like in the bible. the engineer realized the wickedness of man through the things that David said and decided to destroy them all at that moment. ["As soon as the robot talked to the engineer in his language, the engineer realized how corrupted these humans were (he associated them all together) because of the intentions of the old man, so he immediately judged them dangerous for all life." You concluded that from the Engineer's limited expressions?? Bravo.] No, I concluded that from all the references the movie has been built on. ["These engineers were rather the bringer of life than the bringer of death." Evidence suggests they were both.] Yup ["Many years later when those life forms evolved and created a complete ecosystem the Ancients returned to Earth to colonize and the humans are their direct descendants." The Engineers returned to Earth? Which movie is this?] Do you know the meaning of the word "theory"? [I could go on but really most of your hypothesis has little to no reference in what transpired in the plot. ] You're just trolling.

Sacrosanct, I think the members of an advanced civilization wouldn't have individuality as a value. If you look at ants or any other kind of super organised colony, each member fills out their role without question, they are born the way they are and they live to complete their mission and no internal war explodes between them to get control over the tougher soldier ants. I think that in Prometheus, the engineer in the beginning is killing himself to simply fulfill his duty. You call it stupidity, I call it supreme devotion. Instincts push living beings to fight for their lives. Only smarter living creatures think of suicide, and they do so in a goal. May it be to stop suffering or to save someone else's life. You could call it suicide or you could call it completing a mission for the sake of something greater than himself.

I believe instead that the Engineers had a very good reason to exterminate humanity from Earth. There is a documentary on the web = " Earthlings". It is gruesome ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7Ys After you have seen it, you will understand, why humanity has to be exterminated. The 2000 years thing fits greatly into it: Jesus was one of them and tried to change humanity. At that time the Romans ruled the known world with an iron fist, cruelty, torture, etc. Then they killed Jesus. That was the final drop to make the bucket overflow. Actually, today's situation of the planet Earth is even worse than it was then, 2000 years ago. Now, humanity is also destroying the whole planet Earth. This is just my grain of salt .... and I would not be surprised, if an "overlord" species somehow received, through space, some "signals" of the sufferings and misery amnd perhaps even the desperate cries for help ... and decided to stop it = once and forever. Humanity deserves it - unfortunately there are many good and innocent individuals that would not deserve it ..... but that's bad luck for them and it serves for the greater good of stopping this misery and suffering !

Oh just enjoy the movie and quit over analyzing why they cant be us. They're similar to us have you heard of mythology like the Greeks, Sumerians, Egyptians, and Puma Punku (Inca ancestors). They all say that they look like us because WE GET OUR PARTICULAR LOOK FROM THEM. Evolution did go its own route but when you have a creature that has similar genetic make-up as you or anyone else. Then that DNA will adapt around that certain environment and evolve accordingly.

How do we know that the engineers want to destroy earth? Remember David visits the orrey, David holds the earth, David can operate the juggernaut and therefore program it, David can see peoples dreams and comunicate via them (Wayland in Hypersleep, Dr Elizabeth Shaw ect). David in the Bladerunner Universe is banned from Earth and has no love for humans, the only one who treats him with respect is Dr Shaw & Weyland treats him as a slave. Just a thought!