Why do engineers fear humans?

I have seen the movie 3 times now. On my third time around I picked up on something during that scene. I think the engineer actually understood what Shaw and Weyland were saying. I say based on the engineer’s expression on its face. I think there may be two reasons for his outburst. 1). He is awakened by humans and they are not supposed to be there because it is a weapons facility. 2). He realizes that David is not human thus he gets offended and pissed at the same time. Thus the head comes off and he uses it to kill Weyland who was asking about eternal life, creation etc. I really think this engineer understands the English language and he knows what they are saying. Also I understand that Shaw actually has a conversation with the engineer just prior to the giant face hugger/tentacle beast fight. That scene was edited down and we could see it in the Blu-Ray release and that may explaine a great many things.

Not sure there could be a few reasons.... Maybe this Last Engineer as the only one left in this area of the Galaxy knew that he was out numbered by Humans on Earth and that now we are as advanced enough to find their out post its only a matter of time before we keep coming back and then also get our hands on their secrets. Once that Engineer dies or is killed he knows that mankind would have full access to LV 223 and would then become the Gods. But then that dont explain why the Engineers wanted us dead 2000 years ago (maybe the Last one did not). Maybe it was something we did to offend them 2000 years ago? Or did those Engineers steal the Technology to Seed Earth and create LV 223 without the knowledge of their own creators or indeed higher cast on the home world. Thus the Engineers on LV 223 reasons to kill us was to cover up their tracks and cover up any evidence that they used the special stuff/Black Goo/Fire for something not intended or without the consent of which ever higher power exists on their home world.

After what Humans did to pollute and destroy the earth, and the way they reproduce and consume resources like a virus is reason for anyone to fear us. Humans are a disease that needs to be cured if you care about the health of this planet.

i feel to answer this question we may need the answer as to why they want to destroy humanity but most important we need to know if the Engineer in cryo knew about what happened to his fellow Engineers. Was he in cryo before or after the event which wiped them out? If the answer is yes and he went into cryo after the event then think about it. They had planned to destroy humanity and something happend-presumably their bio-weaponry somehow turned on them-and they were all killed. If that's the case then he put himself in cryo to escape what was happening. Then he is awoke by the very race his people intended to wipe out. Somehow the gig is up and these humans have shown up on their doorstep. I'm sure if this is the case he may be wondering how the hell they are there when all his fellow Engineers could not survive whatever had happened. Perhaps he's thinking they have control of the bio-weapon that all but wiped them out. Also, if David did say what Weyland told him to then not only would he feel threatend by what I stated above but then these creatures start demanding to be given life eternal. Just some thoughts. Who knows though. Hopefully we'll find out.

@dopelganger...I thought that maybe the Engineer could understand english but then realized that english didn't exist when the Engineer put himself in cryo. Now, maybe has the brain capacity to figure it out much like David took from ancient languages and deciphered their language but he would have to be awful quick about it. I personally believe that he had no idea what Weyland and Shaw were saying and that his reaction would have been the same anyway. Therefore it matters not.

I think we can all agree that the Engineers don't 'fear' humans. The engineers initial reaction was almost one of fascination perhaps even affection. He looked like he was just taking a moment before doing what he had to do. So maybe the Engineers in this movie don't want to eliminate humanity but feel they must for some reason.

First of all, The engineers dont "fear" humans at all, they are a vastly superior race. If we were so freakin relevant, they would have sure made a follow up on the project and somehow come back to the military facility and put things in order again. Second, their ultimate objective is not to destroy humans, but to create another species by infecting manking, of course, humans would get wiped out indeed. Anyways, its hard to come up with a good explanation when the movie has so many plotholes that allow people to create endless theories.

i think nobody truly knows, but it is possible that he believes Lindelof will write another script and this has angered him!

I may have missed it, but I didn't notice anyone bring up a one particular reason. At the beginning of the movie, when speaking of the ruins and pictures they found, they say that they all show humans worshipping a giant figure. Perhaps this Engineer was just a tad miffed that the life forms it created (if he knew they were actually even human) and who, last time he checked, were worhsipping him had woken him up and trespassing on his turf...as I can imagine any creator or "god" would probably be.

He was still hung-over from the centennial octopus mosh pit wrestle marathon in a bleach bath event !

Big Dave, You asked what did humans do to the Engineers 2000 years ago to make the want to whipe out the human race. What did we do 2000 years ago? We crucified the son of our creator, Jesus Christ. If JC was the son of our creator, then I can see why they might be pissed off at us. What do you think?

"Engineers are vastly superior...." There is no evidence of this. All there is evidence of is that they know how to operate their machinery and consume poison and also to kill. They may be considered physically superior but there is no evidence of intellectual superiority which is vastly more important.

WOW. never thought about that. Almost exactly around 2000 yrs. ago the whole Jesus thing happened. So yea maybe at that point they decided to reboot their little experiment with us. That doesn't make sense either. I mean. They're the ones in control of the biology making. They're responsible for the outcome. I can say for sure that we are WAY MORE PEACEFUL than a xenomorph and other snake/octopus looking things. So is that really an improvcement. I also imagined... any creature.. just popped up into one of our top secret military installations we would probably act even more aggressive. The engineer did seem impressed at first to see us. But it must have been like... this is way too dangerous for you to know about it. I agree. I think human technology was pretty good, comparable on some level, but even the humans or David said that it was vastly superior. Techncally and Biologically too. It looks like they engineered themselves too. There is a strange resemblance between the bio-mechanical look they have and that the xenomorphs have. That is strange.

Ok, I'll play with religion for this. In some of the oldest Jewish texts (among others), there's a rather specific 5-stage process of creation. It's far more complex but I'll simplify for brevity. At the 'top' is the source of creative desire, that would basically be equated with God, completely undifferentiated. At that level, there's nothing specific, just the driving force or whatever. Next down the path is where things are first separated. This is where we have both God as the father (Yahweh/YHVH/Jehovah, masculine and singular) and the mother (elohim, feminine and plural). At the top is everynothing, omniblah, make sense? Now at this second 'level' we have duality, separation, the masculine being form and the feminine being space. Next, things start to get even more complex. It's much like how a picture comes into focus. First there's nothing but light. Next there's light and darkness. Next there are colors. The fourth level is where there are patterns and shapes. At the fifth and lowest level we finally have physical manifestation. The path from top to bottom could also be described like 1) creative 'desire' 2) clarification of the desire to make something to sit on 3) a chair 4) a specific type of chair, one with wheels and the back tilts 5) all the detail resolve and it exists. Another way: 1) investor 2) company 3) architect 4) engineer 5) builder Back to religion... In esoteric/ancient Judaism, angels and demons are static in their nature. They are 'above' us and the flow of creation moves downward but their static nature means they can only do exactly whatever it is that they do. The have no free will, no choices, those things only exist in the physical manifestation, us. This sort of principle can be seen in many ancient religions. When a 'god' or angel/demon, a thing that's 'above' us is like the god of picking your nose on a Tuesday afternoon, that is all that thing exists for and all it can do. It has no choice about its nature. It's written (and these days hardly ever said) that it is our ability to experience duality is what gives us choice. the angels can only look downward until they manifest on earth through us, here at the bottom, where we are able to look up. They have no duality, they simply are what they are and that's it. We certainly have it. We can have many opposites exist within us simultaneously. It's also written that the angels and demons do all their 'battling' here on earth, within us. There is a word that I can't remember but it basically refers to the polarity of good and evil in an angelic realm. This is viewed very much like a directional thing in that it implies spiritual nearness or distance. In this view, it's no different from up/down, north/south, east/west, or light/dark. Each of these five pairs also corresponds to the 5 levels of creation but more specifically through 10 points used to describe their relationship so as to give us the lines themselves. It's because the angels and demons are fixed in their position along the good/evil line that they can't even approach each other to do battle, they are static. With all that said, these engineers would correspond to angels and demons. They are one level above us but fixed in their nature. They do what they do and it doesn't matter why. We are the builders. The creation that flows down upon us manifests here where we have free will. Here, at the bottom, is the only place where that flow can return upward. We have it in us to choose things that can eventually return us to the source, carrying all the fullness of (IDIC) infinite diversity in infinite combination. The 'purpose' of creation is so that all things can not only come to exist but also so that they can be consciously experienced and return to the source. In a sense, it's like the whole big bang thing is sort of like an infant exploring its reality in a mirror before it. We are God getting to know himself by producing this vastness of creation. This kinda gives a different look at man being created in God's *IMAGE*, if you can play with words a bit. These engineers have their task to initiate the creation of life here, at this lowest level. As we grow and evolve into our ability to exercise free will, the engineers in their static state watch. When certain things happen, each of them, according to their own static 'program' have a specific way of responding to it. By adding their essence to us in that first bit of the movie, we have all parts of them and their natures within us, but we get to choose what we manifest, what we do. Choose this angel within us and it's counterpart 'above' responds in some way that we may or may not be aware of, maybe some help because the right choice means that's where the energy of that highest creative desire wants it to flow because it will help us return. Choose that demon and it means there's a hinderance, something is wrong so there's an act of destruction. Now, ignore any dislike for the dogma of the church and all the crazy shit humans have done in its name so I can add Jesus to the conversation. First, the very name (Yeshua) is 5 letters as Yahweh is 4 (in Hebrew, of course). The only difference between the two is Yeshua has the letter 'shin' inserted in the middle. This letter is often drawn to look like a dove descending in flight. That's where we get the whole dove thing from in church and also relates directly to the idea of him being the son of God and insert something about the holy spirit. I'll spare you the depth and just say that each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a ton of information associated with it and it's a very specifically structured language full of meaning, not just random like most languages are. The relevant point is that the name Yeshua basically means 'the path to god'. We get to see it in another context when Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life". This pretty much means that Jesus was the most evolved and most useful human up to that point. The engineers were probably already getting ready to hand out some beat-downs but then Jesus showed up. The things he did created a pre-programmed response in the engineers, each in their own static way, and that's what stopped them 2000 years ago. That's where our sins were forgiven. We had evolved enough and had the perfect example of the path to God right here, finally. Considering all the neat tricks Jesus could do, it shows that a human was finally able to look up and see the next 'level' and operate upon it. He manifested the power of the angels and demons and did so with conscious choice. That's the point where our path became clearly in our hands. The engineers' jobs were done when it comes to needing their help to correct our physical evolution. It doesn't mean they needed to totally disappear though. They remained as did their tools so they could continue to serve their purposes as not all had been fulfilled. Things just became much more up to us since we at least have manifested the *capacity* to operate in their realm directly. What remains for the engineers is to continue to handle the 'throwbacks' that could still hamper our further evolution. The greedy lust of Weyland nearly got us spanked. The girl flies off in the ship to go confront the angels and demons, which is a form of approaching the source, the thing we're supposed to do. We get to deal with aliens still as a result of our own choices. Think along the lines of the plagues and all that fun stuff from the book of revelation. Oh, one more corny part. It's also written that it is through humans and our ability to choose between good and evil that the angels and demons are released from their burden. With that in mind, all the engineers dying could be seen that way. It's happening because of our choices. Also, I'm not a Christian or a Jew. I just know lots of weird stuff.

To tyop: I've been lurking on the site since P. premiered, and there have been many interesting posts, but I registered to acknowledge your above post specifically. Really very interesting to read. Thanks!