Engineer was peaceful until David spoke

It makes me wonder if David said “This is my creator (Weyland) and I believe he deserves to live forever.”

I also wonder if his pause before killing us the crew was his admiration or disbelief that we had progressed enough to meet our maker.

ENGINEER [i]'SEES'[/i] SHAW'S CROSS? David, with a grin, "They're here to CRUCIFY you, fool," Engineer, "I appreciate your betrayal of the Tyrants, artificial person," ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.

... Engineer looks down on lesser beings... listens... thinks about... "Destroy them all now."

[u]I haven't seen the film yet, but was Shaw already impregnated at this point in the film when she got punched in the stomach and the engineer goes nuts?[/u] She's done that and more at this stage.

Cell phone issues, sorry....Shaw had already gone into the MedPod and extracted Holloway Jr. She was in massive pain when she got the gut shot from the Merc.

he seemed to be transfixed by Shaw before turning his attention to Weyland/David was it because she was in pain, or urgently asking him something...good question. I think Weyland ordering her punched in the stomach to silence her didn't exactly endear them to him

Well, considering all the plot holes and science errors that is a relatively minor plot point - though interesting one. My 2 cents on it is: It gets back to why this group of Engineers was intent on destroying life on Earth (as assumed by Shaw). If their intent to was to eliminate mankind then a man asking how to achieve eternal life probably just pissed him off.

But it relates to their motivation to destroy us. What he didn't do, which is what I would've expected, is wake up to see a bunch of humans and immediately start killing us. He peacefully stood there, watching Shaw as she yelled her questions, and intently listened to David before doing anything. I can't help but feel like it's a very important part of the film..

I haven't seen the film yet, but was Shaw already impregnated at this point in the film when she got punched in the stomach and the engineer goes nuts?

No

He hadn't seen a woman in a long time I guess. I think we'll see it differently depending on how we view the Space Jockey. If you think he is a real Engineer, then he probaly expects to be worshipped. Who bows down to him? Nobody. What does Weyland instruct David to do? "Tell him who I am" "Tell him why I'm here" Who he is? He's an old man with a god complex. He terraforms worlds, colonises them and makes android life. All he's missing is immortality and he will consider himself a god. This is all demanded, not begged for. And through his puppet too. That won't go down well. If the Space Jockey is actually a clone, with little free will, set to carry out tasks like a drone or worker ant, but with an element of superstition thrown in as a control device, then this puny human has committed a blasphemous abomination in this request, and it may anger the 'gods' if the Space Jockey doesn't smite them. Either way, the method of dispatch is poetic. He has a look at David, realises that he's synthetic, and also probably figures out that his head is probably easily removable for a big grey hulk. He beats Weyland to death with Davids head. We should also remember, if he was on a "lets kill the humans" mission, then smashing a few for a warm up isn't out of character, even if he was briefly stunned by their presence or interested by seeing a woman (Shaw not Forde or course). Jackson finds out that a shotgun blast is not very effective and he and Forde get creamed in short order.

he watched as Weyland gave an order to his guy to gut her with his rifle butt. Maybe Engineers don't like violence towards women (givers of life). Maybe it reminded him of what he was on his way to do 2000 yrs ago

I see your point, but then he does attack everyone, women included...

...except he stalked Shaw down at the end and wanted to rip her head off

heh, you got a point there. Maybe he wanted to talk it over and Cuddles got in the way?

Cuddles? lol nice

Ok thanks, I was just thinking if she still had the thing inside her when she got punched then all kinds of possibilities open up as to the engineers actions.

double post

I think he wanted to see how his creations were at that point. He should have killed the humans instantly, since they were going to earth to wipe us out 2000 years ago. But he just wanted to see how evolved we were at that point before killing us. And when david reached the point of learning his language he got pissed off because he thought it was enough.

Or maybe, maybe, The Engineer tried out his THOUGHT PROJECTION POWERS, saw that no perceptible signal reflected (or refracted) from those underused bi-lobes of collagen in our skulls and JUST PUT US OUT OF OUR MISERY, like mangy dogs. Or......

He may have also mentioned that Weyland's empire now extened to sixty off world colonies. Either from a point of religious war or colonial war, that should be a red flag don't ya think?

FreePlanet for the win Whatever it was that David really said, I don't think there's any doubt that David knew it wouldn't go over well, given his prior actions and intentions...although probably misjudged that the Engineer would get that extreme.

And David didn't even have the classic W.T.F.look on his face, wasn't he just benignly smiling at his soon-to-be beheader; like a babies face presented to the nipple? Very odd scene, all round.

David does keep his secrets doesn't he lol.. No subtitles is wonderful for speculation especially in light of Davids remark about wanting our parents dead..an idea which Shaw counters.. Having read the blu-ray will potentially have 20 more minutes added and specifically the fight scene with Shaw and Captain Engineer which was edited quite a bit but the final cut has been in my head since i saw it.. The way he comes up to her and grabs her arms, it's almost an sbs moment of 'what have you done.' It almost seems like he doesn't want to kill her but I'm not sure he didnt have any other choice.. notice he didn't just retrieve another ship and complete Earths population-density reduction protocol. Organic life with "intent" couldn't be exposed to the secret of the ooze, look at Fifield, THAT guy, wow, take a chill pill bro. We even saw what happened when simple life was exposed. The human presence/ human intent? in the garden of good and evil aka ampule room began a new "outbreak" which frankly couldn't be ignored. But i have digressed, my apologies. I agree that Weylands "Godliness" (wash your own feet man) was the undoing during that 'dialogue' but that's not to say David didn't KNOW what the reaction would be, he could read their glyphs after all. So if he were to say something like "BEHOLD.. my creator. Respect that. Reward him," well then lol, these are entities that are used to being worshiped by us. You don't throw down at a 15 foot strong arm dude when you're a child playing with expensive toys. Der. ESPECIALLY, when, for all we know, that enormous mans brother CHOSE to die for our creation. Weyland never stood a chance with them, Thus Spoke Zarathustra indeed. Perhaps that is why there were no subs. He never stood a chance and probably most anglo saxon peoples would recognize that before taking a 2 year cryosleep trip to demand whats coming to you. ill be quiet now, good post though. Its been dancing around in ma head too thanks @mdsfx!

If the 'Engineers' are associated with the Anunnaki - then I'm assuming that they would understand the foundations of any human language. I agree that David provoked the attack. It's a sidetrack - but - did anyone notice that Shaw begins cramping violently between the Prometheus and Alien craft. I realize that she just experienced surgery to remove the squid, and was stapled shut - but - she appears to be emphasizing the cramps more than would have complimented the scene. Is is possible that like the Queen in 'Resurrection' - Shaw's reaction to the viral impregnation is causing her body to birth in two different ways. The squid was attached to an umbilical - but we didn't see what David interpreted. The scan in the pod verified a foreign body in Shaw's abdomine - but did it complete it's procedure? Shaw may well - still be pregnant - but in an 'Alien' way that we can't associate with because the xenomorphs continue to mutate and adapt. Could the Engineer have received information in the life-pod or been able to sense Shaw's corruption? He did postpone his mission to recover her. So what did David tell the 'Engineer' about Shaw's pregnancy?

I would like to amend my previous post. It's obvious to me now that David was doing a very good job of hiding the emotions he "shouldn't" have. I believe he had his own prerogative and when he spoke with the engineer he asked neither Weyland's nor Shaw's question, but made his own statement. I think David and his view of humanity is the key to this scene and maybe the movie.

I think the engineer's reaction goes along with my tainted human theory. If you search for my post, I write about how I think engineers created humans without realizing the possibility of their black goo spawning the xenos when interacting with humans. They realize the mistake they made and are trying to wipe out humans to stop the possibility of the xenos spawning more. I think his expression is one of "Look at you my children, look at all you have become. However, we made a mistake and this has to end. This is the only way."

There's a reason why RS didn't want the translation in the film. I truly believe that what David says will change how we all see the Engineers. How we view the Engineer is typically reliant on this point in the film. We see him as hell bent to destroy humans, because that's what he did after David spoke to him. But if David was serving his own agenda and actually manipulated the Engineer into taking action, then that changes everything.

Bingo. It's a pivotal moment in the film (their first interaction with an engineer) and we don't yet know why events unfolded as they did. I'm not sure if it's better to keep David's translation a secret or to reveal it...