Is Xenomorph the "GOD" of the engineers?

This is giving me a farking headache...we see the creature sculpture on the wall laid out like a crucifx and to me this is like a memorial or a tribute but then this thing is the end result of what kills the Engineer...I'm missing something and I've read a lot of theories...stuck. I need Blu ray therapy and it wont come a minute too soon

I only notice the temple showing the mural of the xenomorph. For the engineer with it's pet mural, I kinda didn't notice that......... I kinda also thinking the xenomorph as the engineer's as their subject experiment, maybe during one of the experiments went wrongly and start to distinguish all the xeno, just my assumption...

no

No, it is a weapon. Also my depiction of the mural with the "xeno" is Ridleys way of saying I created this thing and it was butchered by a couple "bad" movies. I got the new Prometheus book today and that was my read in to what he spoke about the mural

The one is a mural, the other a painting on the ceiling/wall (michaleangelo style) is completely different. liquified engineers or something else kept in urns in a temple for the dead?

The Xenomorph engraving in the rear door of the temple is not a crucifixion. It may be laid out in a cross shape, but it is not on a cross. It has its legs together arms out and head down... perhaps as if it was lying down or waking up for the first time as a xenomorph. They don't normally sleep in that position. The 'cistene chapel' style mural on the ceiling... shows one humanoid, (who doesn't seem to be as buffed up as the Space Jockeys, and seems to have some thing ornamental on his chest, has an arm extended to what appears to be part humanoid, part ... not... This was only up briefly, but if you watched the film a few times, and have a good memory, you'll see that the arm looks thin and rigid, and the head is an odd shape, malformed. I don't think they worship the Xenomorphs. I think it's there they way some religions put an image of their 'devil' as a reminder to obey the 'god' or 'gods' in the other image. I think you have some insight into Ridleys motives. He's smashing the whole 'Predators made the Xeno thing into a thousand pieces'.

in the concept art you can see the statue of that painting. to me it clearly looks like an engineer and a big buglike humanoid (i mean bug obviously, and humanoid coz it seems to have to legs to hands and is sitting)

@ShinobiX9X... link? Is it the final version of the mural - the same that was in the movie?

In the Art of the Film book Max clearly explains that the murals on the ceiling are "iconographic illustrations like in the Sistine Chapel, with the Creation, Armageddon and Judgment cycle." The mural of the Engineer with it's "alien pet"(which is clearly not a xenomorph) is Creation. As in the Engineers created them. Not the other way around. Perhaps the xeno wall mural which Max describes in the book as the "Alien DNA" that Scott talked about the film having is the "Judgment" mural Max talked about. Would LOVE to talk in depth about the book in the book discussion thread but it seems no one's interested. [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/7930]Prometheus Art of the Film Discussion Thread[/url]

[u]The mural of the Engineer with it's "alien pet"(which is clearly not a xenomorph) is Creation. As in the Engineers created them. Not the other way around.[/u] It is clearly NOT a xenomorph... that makes assumptions about how Xenomorphs are created. How do you know that is not the creation of a xenomorph in process? "Alien DNA in the mural".... in a mural with NO Predators... I like that sublte hit back at those sh1tty crossovers.

It's not a xeno. Could be something in the line of the creation of xenos but it's not a xeno. Put it this way, you don't call the trilobite a Shaw or a Halloway just because those were lines in it's creation. You don't call the Deacon an Engineer. Does that make sense?

I'm not calling a cow a liver fluke... Perhaps a caterpillar a butterfly metaphor, rather than calling a tadpole a frog... or perhaps more accurately, I'm calling a 'slightly green, still wearing a shirt but it's starting to rip' David Banner "The Hulk". does that clarify what I am saying?

So you're saying that the alien race shown in that mural transform and morph into the xenos from the Alien films like David Banner transforms and morphs into the Hulk? That's a more silly assumption than I ever made. And tbh I never made an assumption as to how xenos were created like you said I did until you did. I said that the alien in the mural isn't a xenomorph and if you have eyes you can see that. You're arguing semantics. I was arguing facts. ****EDIT**** I read into your sHulk statement a little more and I see what you're saying. That they may be in the line of the xenos creation which again is making an assumption which you didn't like me doing but whatever. How about this...you don't call a simian a human. There could be a direct line between the two but they are not the same. Much like Engineers and humans. Same dna profile but not the same thing.

I don't see it as silly. I see it as being indicated as a strong possibility by what we see in Alien and in Prometheus. What's on the roof of the dome? A long curved skull with a human face. In 1979 Alien, the Aliens 'scalp' is slightly transparent, we see a domed skull face through it. When we see this creature depicted it looks like the back of its head is sort of mushy... like a caterpillars when it has to rebuild into a butterfly head. You notice that the creature also has something that looks biomechanical, like an engineer suit? Aliens have all those tubes sticking out of them, similar to a Space Jockey in the flight chair or the stasis pod. And of course the whole two arms and two legs thing is just a co-incidence... cos Ridley Scott works like Gene Rodenberry - all aliens are bipeds , and the man in a suit was lack of imagination. How do Xenos attack? They stay very still let their victim approach and then launch into the air with fierce aggression and no fear of pain or death. Sometimes you got to run them over with an APC like Ripley did, or light them up with a Flamethrower. Remind me again how Fifield, whose head was changing shape got into the cargo bay and killed Wallace, Davis and Byrnes... He was motionless as they approached, and then launched into the air with fierce aggression and no fear of pain and death. They ran him over with a small truck which weighed less than an APC... and then they lit him up with the flame thrower. But you're right, I'm pulling all of this out of my ass rather than making an educated guess from anything hinted at the film right?

[u]How about this...you don't call a simian a human. There could be a direct line between the two but they are not the same. Much like Engineers and humans. Same dna profile but not the same thing.[/u] No, not all apes or monkeys are humans. And you can tell the difference in their DNA. Why can you not tell the difference between Human and Engineer DNA? It's basically impossible given the complexity of evolution over billions of years to get a copy of the starting code. You won't get this if you still think scene 1 is primordial Earth and occurs BEFORE the first recorded visit of REAL Engineers to earth. I'll stop there for now.

You don't call a "catapillar" a "butterfly". When it morphed it changed from one thing into another. Simple as that. If that alien in the mural morphs into a xeno it is no longer what it was.

Quote from Hadley's Hope... [i]"No, not all apes or monkeys are humans"[/i] What apes or monkeys [i]are[/i] humans?

C'mon Hadley's don't bail. You convinced me your Hulk theory wasn't silly. Change my mind about this.

Oh, and the first scene is clearly not primordial earth imo. Seems like we agree on that.

Fine. Sucks. I guess I'll never know which monkeys and apes are human and which aren't. Please come back and school me on that sometime, HH.

[u]Fine. Sucks. I guess I'll never know which monkeys and apes are human and which aren't. Please come back and school me on that sometime, HH.[/u] I didn't bail.. I was busy. You want to know which ones are human? Homo Sapiens. go read an evolutionary chart, see the common ancestor and that our line does not go outside the group. We are primates. Listen to [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ-ov4KtR2c]Aron here[/url], he is a paleontologist. It's a semantic argument as is the butterfly /caterpillar. There isn't a separate Latin name for the larval stage of butterfiles... As you're well aware, the point is I think it likely that the Xenos can come from Space Jockeys without their being another organism like facehuggers. Of course IF a facehugger then infects another Space jockey there will be a chestburster. But there's mutation, and then there;s the normal life cycle...

Apes and monkeys are not humans. It's crazy that you really do know more than me about this and a ton of other stuff on this forum and are debating this. If an ape or a monkey was a human we'd call it a human not a monkey. There are differences and that's why there are different names. It seems like you want to prove that you know more about a subject rather than admitting the simple premise that I'm trying to explain.

You know what, thinking about it more I do see what you're saying a bit. Maybe the term "xenomorph" is like the term "primate" and is the "enveloping" term so to speak and other names will be given to each transformation. If that's what you meant then yeah...could be a xenomorph. I was thinking that "xenomorph" was more like "human" and that there would be another "enveloping" term to include different stages if that makes sense. See, there was a reason I wanted to keep talking about this.

[u]See, there was a reason I wanted to keep talking about this.[/u] Yes, a very useful forum.

In the first scene of Prometheus, we see a recombination of DNA, the black goo is a genetic resequencer, separate, regroup and rejoins the DNA strand to create a new specie, according to program recombinant gene. Now xenomorphs are as viruses, to reproduce a required half-stranded DNA of a host. From an egg to get a facehugger immobilized and placed in a coma at his victim, then deposited a parasite, with half of the DNA strand, the other half is provided by the host. Genetic recombination have a xenomorph. Now as you create a facehugger, simple, by genetic recombination of a human embryo from conception (the son of Elizabeth Shaw). Never an adult, the adult is destroyed genetically (Holloway) or suffer a mutation (Fifield) Now, whenever you build a temple to a god, never to your pet, and (Bio)-Engineers built a temple to their goddess Queen Xenonomorph, what we see in the chamber is an altar dedicated to the Mother Goddess, and as the Bio (Engineers) themselves or by using other species give life to their gods. Gods need sacrifices to live forever, but the Bio (Engineers) of LV-223 were not willing to sacrifice themselves so created humans with the same DNA sequence for use as cattle sacrifice to their gods. Engineers for 2000 years they realized that humans were not willing to sacrifice for the god Xenomorph, all because of a new religion and therefore launched an attack on earth. The commander was the first to enter the hypersleep, but something went wrong and one of them became infected, the infection was propagated and all the crew died because of mutations that led to the charges facehugger. David knows all about this, can read the inscriptions of Engineers, but hides it, to follow orders from Weyland. At death Weyland, David is free and decides to help Elizabeth Shaw because now a believer.

@ Hadleys Hope... ...It was never inferred in either of the AVP's that the Predators created the Xenomorph. In regards to the mural I see it as more of a warning, much like those stickers that say "danger-risk of electric shock" or "danger-nuclear radiation"... the mural means "danger-tampering will result in the creation of this".

Awesome thread and I had to sign up so I could comment! All of the theories here are awesome and I just wanted to give my two cents. One thing people seem to get hung up on is the opening scene. Scott himself has sad "it doesn't matter whether or not this is Earth." To understand the film at all I think we first have to understand the purpose not so much the meaning behind the films prologue. As I see it this scene does exactly what critics of the film say the script doesn't do at all. It gives us an answer. Right at the start we now know what this black goo substance will do when ingested in large quantities. It degrades the Engineer down to his basic source: DNA. The scene teaches us what we need to know to understand what follows. I for one do not believe it is Earth and don't think it is supposed to support Panspermia or anything of the like. Now, as they enter the room with the Xeno mural it is commented that "..it's another tomb." Hmmmm.... So we have what looks like a fossilized facehugger egg and a bunch of urns and black goo all over the place. Again....hmmmmm.... So if the Xeno existed either as a creation of the Engineers or as a species that already existed would it be too much of an extrapolation to assume that (knowing what the black goo does to those that ingest it in large quantities) the urns in the room are Xenos that were exposed to the black goo and therefore boiled down to their own basic root??? DNA!!! So we have urns of Xeno DNA derived from actual Xenos exposed to the black goo. Now what we DON'T know is what this black goo is intended to do. While we don't know how the Engineers really planned on distributing it we get a taste of what their plan MIGHT have been when David spikes a drink with a small amount of the goo substance. Halloway slowly degrades and when the Alien DNA mixes with his own BAM! Xeno DNA in his sperm. Xeno/Human sperm creates a sort of proto-facehugger. Seeing what can happen when the goo is INTENTIONALLY ingested in small quantities then we can sort of assume what COULD have happened to the Engineers if accidentally exposed to a small, or even large amount of this substance. Maybe the Engineer in Alien was simply transporting Xeno Eggs to create more of these black urns in order to weaponize the DNA in order to unleash it on mankind? Why didn't the Engineers just kills us some other way if 2,000 years ago their first experiment failed? Being a race of higher intellect perhaps they learned their damn lesson (obviously in contrast to humans NOT learning their lesson as seen by Weyland-Yutani relentlessly trying to get a hold of a Xeno specimen) and gave up on creating/destroying life and are now just worried about themselves? Why would the Engineer go all Jason Vorhees when asked (as we now have the translation) to help extend Weyland's life? Well not only are the source of a tragedy for his comrades staring him in the face but also in one simple request he knows all he needs to about the overarching idiocy with which mankind will treat any technology they see as superior, whether it is dangerous or not. So...extend Weyland's life and have a cup of tea with one of your failed experiments or beat the ever loving crap out of them and stop them from doing the inevitable; trying to harness the Xeno as a weapon themselves. If the Engineers couldn't do it, how would humans succeed in light of their failure??

One thing we may have overlooked. The imagery in this temple, may not just be aimed at the Engineers. Look at all the urns spaced out in the room. Now look at how few engineers there are, and how perfectly tuned the artificial atmosphere is for humans, compared to the outside, which, although poisonous to us, didn't seem to bother the Space Jockey who followed Shaw. Could the Giant Head, and all those urn on pillars actually be for human sacrifice? [img]http://www.houriganwebworks.com/images/Urns.png[/img] Look at Shaw in that space. Looks fine to have a human stand by each urn, but imagine trying to fit Engineers into the spaces between them. And with the Space Jockeys in suits, it would be the warmth of the humans that sets of a reaction in the room.

I don't think the mural/sculpture of the Xenomorph is something the Engineers worship. I think it's more like an Engineer 'Know Your Enemy' poster like the fan-made ones for Starship Troopers

[u]I don't think the mural/sculpture of the Xenomorph is something the Engineers worship. I think it's more like an Engineer 'Know Your Enemy' poster like the fan-made ones for Starship Troopers[/u] I was thinking it wasn't for worship, in the traditional sense, but neither to get their blood up in a 'ready for battle' sense. I was thinking it was motivational in the same way as this would be to christians. [img]http://uploads8.wikipaintings.org/images/william-blake/satan-smiting-job-with-boils-1826.jpg!Blog.jpg[/img] The stick part of 'carrot' and stick. Do as we say, or meet this horror. [img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n34/mortis45/FreddyInSpace3/prome.jpg[/img]