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.