The "Hey there, baby, it's ok, it's ok" Biologist mentality

none... I have said this before "I would have run like a cheetah."

Why, in our technologically advanced future, would a trillion dollar corporate program make any more sense than it does today? Provided the candidates were all accredited in their fields - sending a team of professionals to another world shouldn't require humility, caution, planning, contingencies, or even common sense. Honestly, how could a geologist with advanced mapping tech get lost returning to the ship? A geologist would never approach an attentive, and probably aggressive life form as if it were a kitten. Archeologists always maintain location integrity - unless they learned their techniques from watching Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider. Just because the air is breathable - doesn't mean that an expedition of diverse academics would agree to remove their life support helmets in a potential bio-hazzard environment. No - none of those ridiculous actions are possible. You're thinking of a government funded expedition.

Exactly!

Ok to be fair he was scared $hitless so you do dumb stuff when you are scared, so yeah, ironically that scene didn't bug me.

I didn't really think much of Milburn's stupidity at first. You can tell he's a pretty eccentric guy from his scenes and dialogue (desperately trying to befriend Fifield, "Nobody's home," etc.) and I thought this transferred over to the way he approached his work, too. He's a biologist, so he was probably familiar with snakes on Earth. My guess was that he (naïvely) thought that the hammerpede would behave the same way, and that it would not attack if he approached it with caution. (By caution I mean slowly moving towards it, and speaking in a gentle voice. Real caution would be to get away.)

I think Milburn was insecure (always wearing his hoodie, lounging across chairs instead of sitting up straight, inappropriate giggling) and I think he was trying to show the Geologist how cool and macho he could be by "taming" this thing. Seeing no teeth he assumed it couldn't bite him, so he started effing with it. Also, it's the one of the stereotypical sci-fi biologist who is "in love with all living things" and so reads compassion and harmlessness into the xenobiology he encounters.

A cobra is actually more interested in getting away, than in biting you.....unless you get up in its' face. Conversely, the hammerpede is incredibly aggressive, and can easily snap your arm like a twig, in spite of the fact that it's about the same size as a large black snake; smaller than a cobra. I had the impression that Milburn was transfixed in bio-geek fascination, while Fifield was terrified. Also, Milburn and Fifield didn't have direct access to the mapping data provided by the spherical laser scanners. That information was apparently transmitted directly back to the ship, for holographic display.

that scene reminded me of the crocodile hunter. Based on the movies own cues I wasn't taking any of it seriously. Captain of the ship was smoking a cigar, decorating a christmas tree after waking up from cybersleep, but didn't want to attend the briefing (which probably should have happened before the ship took off but whatever) because he hadn't had breakfast yet. ooookay. None of the crew had met eachother before going into cybersleep? Oh and how fast are organic particles moving when they are suspended in cybersleep? A person dreams when their body is organically frozen in limbo? yeeeeeah. okay.

A good point concerning Fifield - he comments that the pyramid is hollow, while riding in the transport. Any ideas how he scanned the pyramid's density from a moving vehicle, and at a distance? Fifield was also in communication with Prometheus, until the storm's silica content created transmission interference. He did chose to travel east though - away from the 'Engineer' pile and a potential life form detection - so direction wasn't an issue. It's a good thing that he 'loved rocks' though - because he was obviously attentive to the architecture and composition of the structure that he was exploring. Maybe, he was just a lab tech with insecurity issues - who decided that his first field study should be two years travel time from Earth.

Do you mean the same biologist 20 mins prior who would not take samples from 100s of dead engineers surrounding him ? What was it they said? "We did not sign up for this we are going back to the ship?" So he would not entertain samples of a dead being rather so play with an alien that ends up killing him? Sorry no cos i thought the other day i was getting ripped on here for bringing this all up. Floored movie

Biologists aren't generally interested in dead things to begin with......that would be the purvue of an archaeologist or paleontologist. Biologists study living things and systems.

One more contra: This isnt a Government funded mission, lol. Thats one of the main points. Its private, by Peter Weyland, and he selfishly holds back the others from behind. About Milburn not wanting to examine the dead bodies: They all thought those to be only skeletons. Plus he just agreed to go back with Fifield who really was the only one freaking out. You are haters because you had a specific 'original Alien' expectation. They purposley went with a different style. Come on now

It's possible that the Prometheus was crewed with students pursuing their doctorates. That way, Weyland was able to hire the lowest bidders for an expedition - without providing any prior knowledge of where, when, what, who or liability / mortality concerns. Academics - would of course, provide a tax-deductible advantage to the trillion dollar expenses, and would enable Weyland's P.R. Dept. to promote the expedition as a humanitarian cause. Unfortunately, the Captain and his crew of pilot / navigator, and the security detail are left with protecting the ship from a mutated geologist - and the Earth from a revived 'Engineer'. No 'credits' should be awarded to the irresponsible and arrogant intellectuals of the Prometheus. Oh, and thanks Lisbeth for racing after the 'Engineers' to inform them that the Earth wasn't infected with the alien biological weapon - but I'm sure you'll get published.

And yes, I know it wasn't a government funded program. That would have been more humorous than my intended sarcasm. There's no Hate here - actually, the fact that the film addresses humanity's origin is preferable to the AVP desecration of integrity. Hopefully, the trilogy will further elaborate on the current 'Ancient Astronaut' theories which are sufficiently thought provoking - without Aliens impaling people with their tongues. There have been a surprisingly impressive number of theories and speculations concerning this film, and what the subsequent sequels will elaborate on. The Prometheus crew would have benefitted from many of the contributors to these forums. If you are listening Ridley - maybe you can crew the next expedition without having to pay expensive celebrities to portray such unprofessional human envoys.

And yes, I know it wasn't a government funded program. That would have been more humorous than my intended sarcasm. There's no Hate here - actually, the fact that the film addresses humanity's origin is preferable to the AVP desecration of integrity. Hopefully, the trilogy will further elaborate on the current 'Ancient Astronaut' theories which are sufficiently thought provoking - without Aliens impaling people with their tongues. There have been a surprisingly impressive number of theories and speculations concerning this film, and what the subsequent sequels will elaborate on. The Prometheus crew would have benefitted from many of the contributors to these forums. If you are listening Ridley - maybe you can crew the next expedition without having to pay expensive celebrities to portray such unprofessional human envoys.

Perfectly well put

Treat it as Comedy.