They Evolved From Us

The Engineers made Humanity [in the movie]. Also stated by Sir Ridley.

Was just wondering about the significance of the DNA match that hadleys hope talked about in another post. Thought this could be it :P

When the engineers created us not only were we not twinkles in our daddy's eyes, but we also were not twinkles in the yet to be formed eyes of the first eyeless lifeforms. Having eyes was a major evolutionary milestone and, like all things, a mutation that happened to be beneficial. Have you ever looked at a goldfish? Isn't it amazing that we share a distant relative. ...and what's going to blow you mind is that in the fetus stages we show more resemblance to a sea-urchin than a horse. I read that somewhere.

I see your point. Alas, it is a very straight forward thing in question. The movie ponders about humanity meating it's creator. Humanity does. Creator not that nice. Robots loose their head.

Depends what your views are on evolution, but Ridley has stated that mankind may not have been so much created but given a push in certain directions. Let’s assume this is true. Then if a something was introduced to the evolutionary chain, there is a chance that over time cross breeding etc. may have occurred. If a substance was introduced into the genetic mix as shown by the sacrifice of the engineer, its affect may be localised and so whatever developed might only occur in certain regions. Over time this genetic thread could disappear and with good reason. New Scientist Magazine produced an article back in the 90’s (Can’t remember the exact issue, long time ago) which proved that a more aggressive and superior species would be wiped out by the lower species. This was done by all lower species mutually ganging up on the superior one. With this in mind, and incorporating this into the Prometheus story, is it then possible that Weyland had already found a fossilised alien DNA source, but not enough to do anything with. ( I will leave this theory for another thread). It is also possible that the engineers may have required some component from our DNA, but the product needed time to filter down through generations. What we do know is that at some point the two come together, but for what reason. I suspect the sequel.

My thoughts are they engineered us along with many other weapons. Yes they engineered us as the ultimate weapon. Self procreating self sustaining and incredibly intelligent. We got out of control and they had to destroy out before we slipped the boundaries of our planet. Something went wrong and the weapons/engineers tasked to destroy us failed. The reason the Engineer went psycho after waking up was because he was confronted by the ultimate engineered weapon...........so ultimate it became capable of further re-engineering itself into David. His reaction was to naturally attempt to destroy us before we found out where the Engineers home planet was. If we made it there - game over for the Engineers and their race.

Yes I think that is entirely possible. Simple DNA matching would not show who was whose ancestor. This would also help explain why the engineers wanted to destroy earth, given the reoccurring theme of killing your parents in the movie. Would be an great twist.

I have been advancing a similar theory for a while on the forum, but not that they 'evolved naturally' from us, but that Space Jockeys are the result of deliberate tampering with human DNA, and that DNA was brought back on all those visits to Earth. This explains why the artificial atmosphere being generated is perfect for humans, even though outside air, (fatal to humans) doesn't seem to bother the Space jockey who chases Shaw. From the ship to the tunnels, there is an airlock system whereby humans would not have to walk through the toxic air. Shaw says that their DNA predates ours, and she thinks this proves that they are our ancestors. However, this is not necessarily the case, and a proper scientist would explore alternative explanations (which she does not do, as she 'chooses' to believe what already fits her bias). If the Space Jockeys were made from ancient egyptians and mayans, then their mitochondrial DNA would be from an older generation than ours, especially if they are cloned rather than allowed to reproduce naturally. Also, notice that spacing of the urns in the chamber. Seems just about right for one human to stand near each one, but would be too tight a spacing for the big grey dudes to stand at one each.

Wrong way round... the Engineers are an ancient race of humans (not from Earth) they sacrifice one of their own to seed life on fledgling worlds, imprinted their DNA on the simple lifeforms present... ...Which after millions of years worth of evolution develop as programmed into a child race of the Engineers... us We are the children, the descendants, the evolutionary and genetically developed clones of the Engineer that seeded this world.

I believe they were mady by US, maybe the creator-species made the engineers form "hijacked people" from earth. Hell knows... Ah i forgot - its just a movie with a dumb story....

Hi, I agree with you. I've not seen anyone else propose this line of reasoning. Here's my theory; The scene of the sacrificial Engineer at the beginning is a deliberate piece of misdirection in order to help us go along with Shaw's hypothesis about our creation and to set us up for a twist-in-the-tale in part 2 or 3. This was not the moment of Creation on Earth, this could even be a flash forward, maybe the Xenomorph home planet? Time will tell. If the engineers had created life on Earth 3.8 billion years ago, then our DNA would not now match. If it did, then all life on Earth would match the Engineers' too (which it doesn't). It is also an unfeasibly long time for the Engineers to wait and for their civilisation to last essentially unchanged. It is slightly more feasible that the Engineers added their DNA to life that already existed on Earth but not combining with it, thereby starting the genus Homo 2.5 million years ago. But I believe this is still an unfeasibly long time to plan ahead and the DNA would still not necessarily match. It was Elizabeth and her partner who came up with the hypothesis that the Engineers are our creators. Based on, as Elizabeth says; "what I chose to believe" or faith, wishful thinking, rather than any evidence. Therefore I think a more credible reason our DNA matches the Engineers is that Elizabeth got it the wrong way round. The Engineers are not our Creators but are instead the genetically altered descendants of humans that were abducted from Earth at various times over the last 35,000 years or so. This is why the cave paintings point to the stars, because that is where they were being taken. They were abducted by aliens we have not yet met. The Xenomorph depicted in the mural. In this hypothesis the Xenomorph in the mural would be a sophisticated, highly intelligent and benign race and the Xenomorph from Alien and Aliens would be an abomination of this race created by accident. The story is essentially comparing natural life that has evolved over millions of years with 'created', unnatural life that hasn't. The essential difference being the 'soul' and a moral conscience. A subject explored in Blade Runner which, according to Ridley Scott, also takes place in the same universe. In the real world we are working towards creating artificial intelligence and scientists and philosophers speculate as to whether such AI will have a soul/conscience or not. Let's say the evolved Xenomorphs, as an old, sophisticated and civilised race will have gone through the early warring and destructive phase, that we are still going through, but went on to prosper and live in a spirit of peaceful cooperation and discovery. Developing faster than light travel and exploring the universe eventually to discover primitive humans 35 to 40 thousand years ago. Not being constrained by a Star-Trek like 'prime directive' not to interfere, they did exactly what we have done, and still do, here on Earth. We have abducted animals from their natural habitat and put them in Zoos and laboratories, not because we are evil but because we are curious. The Xenomorphs did the same. Some humans were taken away for study and experimentation but most were left on Earth. The Xenomorphs, using selective breeding and genetic manipulation bred the 'Engineers', superhumans who were sent back to Earth from time to time to interact with the primitive humans, out of curiosity in the name of science. This interaction, due to the 'Engineers' size, strength and intelligence is probably the reason we developed the myths of the Titans etc. As well as breeding and genetically enhancing the Engineers, the Xenomorphs created artificial life in their own form, just as Weyland did on Earth, not as a weapon but, to quote David 'because they could'. Unfortunately the created a soulless, predator. Perhaps the Xenomorphs were destroyed by their creation or enslaved by them. If we create something more intelligent than us, stronger than us and more resistant to disease etc., then what is to stop it replicating itself and wiping us out unless we can imbue it with a moral conscience? Asimov's 'three laws of robotics' wont work, he wrote a whole series of novels proving their flawed nature. The Xenomorphs and Engineers realised too late that it requires millions of years of evolution to 'develop' a soul and there are no shortcuts. This is why the Engineer, when awoken from stasis, reacted to David the way he did. He realised he was artificial and to his way of thinking, 'an abomination'. I think the Engineers on LV223, in order to save their benefactors, the original, benevolent Xenomorphs, were working on a toxin that would destroy the artificial Xenomorphs and were preparing to leave for Earth as a safe haven (home) to work, when they were overrun 2000 years ago. The black goo is still a mystery. If it is a weapon I don't think it is intended for us.

As Ridley Scott said - this "could" be earth, but could also be anywhere anytime else. So this fist scene with the sacr. engineer can also be just some detail which has to "blur" the overall view of the story, to mislead the audience ones more to a wrong direction.. That jesus was an engineer or some messenger from them seems to be clear, ridley scott said so, but "to tell it in the movie would be somehow like "to on the nose"... oh heaven, if they only would have SAID the damn thing! oh how i hate this riddler-style of storytelling, feels like they are teasing the audience with malice, and having a laugh behind the scenes... "We had heard it was scripted that the Engineers were targeting our planet for destruction because we had crucified one of their representatives, and that Jesus Christ might have been an alien. Was that ever considered? Ridley Scott: We definitely did, and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there†scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, "Let's send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it." Guess what? They crucified him. "