Why did David poison Holloway?

David knew they were a couple and could not have offspring. It was a science experiment. David introduced the goo to see if it brought "life" to Shaw's barren, rocky womb... where Holloway's seed could find no purchase. It did.

This is just one of the many issues I have with the movie. There is little sense in it since the mission was to find who made us and not dabble in the unknown. He could have gone mad overnight and wreaked havoc inside the ship jepardising the entire mission. What was the point of killing Holloway. It would have been more interesting to let him evolve outside of the ship. There seamed to be a big weakness on protocol on the ship also. Didnt see any quarantine area. Who was the medic? Why did nobody notice or detect Shaws Alien. Why didnt Shaw tell anyone about it? Was this not the discovery of a new life form? Davids character, although well acted was not credible. One minute he was displaying total robotic like insensitivity towards Shaw hours later he is engaging with Holloway in a human like fashion. Would you take Milburn and Fifield on an expedition to the far side of the universe, I dont think so. It goes on and on. Not a great movie

- FACEPALM - It was an experiment to see what would occur should the substance be released as originally intended 2000 years earlier.

It is clear David wants to test the black goo. Who is better as a test subject than the jerk-off who calls him "boy" twice in the movie. I think the tension between David & Holloway needs to be emphasized further. That would make David's action seems a little less inexplicably cold.

Nothing cold about it, David used Holloway to test the effects of the "black goo" because he and Shaw were the only consenting couple (that David knew of) on the vessel.

Holloway was David's test subject Why not? It needed to be done, and he didn't like Holloway. Don't forget David can perform unethical acts. This was one of them

Te scene where David talks to Weyalnd is cut. There Weyalnd asks if David (and the others) have found living engineers yet. Daviid answers no, and weyalnd orthers him to try harder. it has nothing to do with david giving a drop to Holloway. I think David wants to be a god too. it's his time for experiments. You saw he didn't like when al the rest made it pretty clear he's "justt" a robot

Tbone223, When you say "David knew they were a couple and could not have offspring", how can you prove that? I did not see any evidence in the movie to support your claim. I did not understand David's motives and none of the suggestions in this thread make sense or satisfy this plot hole. I thought this movie sucked and I was really disappointed.

Axkoam, I believe that holloway made a remark about anyone can make a life form if they had a strain of DNA and half a brain and Dr. Shaw replied with "I can't" and started sobbing, and holloway cheered her up, I think this is the scene he was talking about.

If you take the movie as Weyland's personal quest to avoid death, David's actions are a test to see if the bio-former(goo) works in that capacity, Holloway is the guinea pig, do you think Weyland would expose himself without knowing what it does ?

The Greek myth of Prometheus is the story of a Titan who steals fire from Olympus and gives it to man. Zeus is pissed and so decrees that Prometheus will have his liver ripped out each morning by an Eagle (it grows back every night) forever. This story is about Peter Weyland trying to steal the secret of immortality from the gods, but all humanity will pay the price by having everything ripped out :-) I don't know why David poisoned Holloway but I think it might be possible that liquids from Holloway's dead body were going to be used to rejuvenate Weyland. The need for this changes when Weyland learns that one of he engineers is still alive.

Because he is a robot. He has been programed with scientific curiosity, but not with morals. So using a human as test subject for the mysterious substance is just logical for him.

Holloway effectively agrees 'he is willing to do anything' in the conversation he has with David immediately beforehand , in Davids' eyes at least.

To me, the film depicted a desperate Weyland. He wanted the power of immortality, and for this- he funded Shaw & Holloway's mission with the intent of taking for himself what he & they thought they were going to find. This is the actual "Agenda" that Shaw & Holloway suspected, but they just didn't know what is was. This mission (from a scientific point-of-view) was very disorganized. There wasn't any preparation for alternatives. Vickers stated that Weyland wanted a "true Believer" on board. David took what he knew to the site- which was quite a lot, and initially saw no evidence of what he had been preparing for. He soon determined that the "faith" part wasn't going to pay off as Weyland believed (hoped) it would. So, with all of this faith (Shaw's and Weyland's) at the beginning falling apart, and no immediate gold (a living society of "These BEINGS"- the discovery that Vickers directed them to not interact etc, with) upon entering the site, David TOOK THE INITIATIVE. He absconded with an example of the "Engineer's/Creator's" stuff and examined it. "Big things have small beginnings..." Going forward with his mission (agenda?) he deceived Holloway with a loaded question. The answer "Anything and everything" relieved David of guilt enough to risk Holloway and the other crew (Weyland too?) to the effects of the black goo. I perceive that Weyland's answer to the same question would have/must have been the same- "I would do anything and everything to obtain immortality." And since the faith part wasn't working out, David (like HAL in 2001) attempted to complete his mission with whatever logic was at hand...

This is an easy one Weyland was obviously on the ship for immortality David saw this Black liquid as a possibility for immortality so he tested his theory on a subject that he disliked ,this wasn't to outright kill him he did this to test the liquid and if it went wrong it was only a small loss for him.This one wasn't a very hard one to figure out.

Have you guys seen the movie ? It's plainly obvious...no big mystery. When Weyland appears in the hologram he states he has days to live and throughout the movie we discover he seeks the key to life itself. Before Weyland is revived we catch the end of a longer, secret conversation between Weyland and David. It is obvious to me that David is preprogrammed to carry out his instructions whenever he comes into contact with anything that may fulfill his quest, like opening the door without permission, secretly aquiring the black goo and infecting Holloway. He quite simply infects Holloway to test the effects of black goo, he is against the clock so no time for lengthy tests...Weyland has days to live !!

cinema is an art, so it's not concerned on the "truth" as much as philosophy or free thinking do, it's main objective is to produce emotion and (today) sell, they know most spectectors are not as clever as them, so that's why you see inconsistencies, if you are exited your critical thinking is lowered, (besides you don't have endless time to produce a movie). this is art's nature, and this is why art is for the artist first, not for the spectator, first you enjoy doing something even it's not perfect, then others look at it and enjoy it or criticise on it. if money was not a big problem in society, we would just enjoy things and not criticise so much, (im not a socialist, im a libertarian).

i was JUST watching an interview a few minutes ago with noomi and michael, they were joking around n she asked why did he have to test the goo on HER boyfriend of all people and he said "because he was mean to me".

David was a fan of "Lawrence of Arabia" he is seen watching a moment in the film where Lawrence dupes an officer into playing with fire and he gets burned. He seemed to have an appreciation for the line, "The trick is not minding that it hurts." I've never seen Lawrence in it's entirety but figured David singled out Holloway for similar reasons.

With the conversation between hollaway and david prior to david poisoning him. I think it was davids way of looking for 'consent' (so to speak) for his actions. If i remember correctly david said to hollaway " how far would you go to get what you are looking for", hollaway said " i would do anything" thats when david gave him the drink. I also believe that hollaway saw david put his finger in his drink .He probably just thought it was a 'challenge' or he saw it as an insult . He then thought he wouldnt let davids wee attempt insulting phrase him, so he just drank the drink.

David has motives other than what weyland knows about. That he survives the movie, purely from a plot driven perspective, evidences that he has more to reveal. As regarding the 'insults' being a motive, that's interesting although I dont believe it was a motive in itself, that the movie highlights this tension and shows it to be at least a part cause poisoning points to some resemblance to reasoning beyond what David should be able to engage in.David certainly has an internal mind which Weyland does not intend to exist as it is beyond davids functions.I honestly dont think enough has been made about the very strong linking of david to Lawrence of arabia. The message of that film, that story if there is one lesson that jumps out of the movie Lawrence of Arabia, it’s this: it takes great talent to bring unfocused elements together for a great purpose.This 'great purpose' is what i believe motivates David.Simply, we do not know the motive.... all will be revealed.There are too many different perspectives its impossible to guess.David is equally 'Alien'