Why Humans were created? Why they were to be destroyed?

[u]The opening scene shows the lone "Sacrifice Engineer". I've been postulating that due to the nature of the sort of "Religious Ritual" he takes, it makes more sense that the Engineers were more benevolent and was seeding all life on Earth.[/u] Religion does not necessarily bring benevolence. Look at the religions that require human sacrifice. [u] I don't think it's as simple as that humans make the best Aliens, else the Engineers would have been around harvesting us the whole time and not letting us evolve and advance in intelligence and capability.[/u] Well, they presumably took as many as they needed, and didn't expect us to advance in the spurt we did. When they last visited in the 7th century, mankind was still very primitive in it's understanding (it was the Dark Ages in Europe) and religion and superstition still trumped logical thought in the centres of power. It's only recently that we had this huge leap in technology. Consider Orville Wright. When he was born, the telephone had not been invented, and most houses had no electricity supply. Yet he and his brother flew the first powered airplane in 1903, and by the time he died, an aircraft had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, and Neil Armstrong was already studying aerospace engineering. That's just one human lifetime. Perhaps they underestimated our curiosity.

Maybe the Engineers didn't need a real reason to destroy the human race. They just wanted to clean up the mess left by one of their experiments. You know, when they test a new product on lab rats, regardless of the success of failure of the product, the rats always end up dead. Maybe for the Engineers to wipe out the human race was just a simple precaution, like a human scientist washing a Petri dish after he finished working with it.

I like the premise but I do beleive it is not as simple as that. There is too much going on to reduce this to such a simple "this is what happened" theory. I dont see destruction as noble or as anything that has longevity. If the reason intelligent life exists is to just destroy it...makes no sense.

If the engineers didn't want the humans to become too intellegent then why did they leave "invitations" on earth? to free them from their sleep pods? lol...maybe the pods dont have timers

The movie implies the answer. We were created because they could. They wanted to destroy us because they could.

I believe that humans were created as hosts for the xenomorphs. they created us, then they planned to impregnate us with the xenomorphs to create a race of biological weaponry. but that's just me ;)

Well from the movie one thing is clear. The Engineers create the humans on Earth or start the evolution of life on Earth, and in essence the Engineers are also humans, evolved to a much advanced or later stage then the Earth humans. From the movie it is clear the engineer was going to destroy the humans. But why doesn't he just blow them away with advanced weaponry, instead the destruction on earth was going to be carried out by unleashing the biological liquid in those Barrels. It is also clear the liquid on from those barrels create the so called worms. The end result of unleashing the biological weapon only results to the creation of the Alien race. Hence the saying to create you must destroy meaning destroy the humans to create the Aliens. Intelligent life will destroy anything and everything to survive. Perhaps the Aliens are created for other reasons other then to destroy, this might became evident in the second movie.

V77Mad...very good commenting...enjoyable to ponser thank you..good post too

you cant be sure they are going to drop the liquid on earth, besides to create new life the other must be change, is nothing about destroy is just called Evolution.

Well I will say it if no one else will - maybe the engineers got pissed when earthlings started to praise and honor one being that was born 2000 years ago. People started to rally around that one individual whose message was that there was a higher power and he was his son. The engineers took that as an insult and decided to show humans just who was in charge. Just saying - please be gentle.

Good theory Dopelganger but many religions came and went prior to that in hisotry, also the engineer wasn't all that impressed when he was treated like a god instead tried to kill everyone. Besides its Sci-fi. Like Alex said they were not going to destroy humans lke drop a nuke on them but create the Alien race by letting the Xenomorphs/worms host their eggs in humans to create the Alien race, the real question should be what use had they planned for the Alien race?

You say it is clear that they created us. How is it clear? What part of scene 1 convinced you that the Space Jockey was standing on Planet Earth, and not some distant planet? If there is only assumption, then rather than look for answers, you should reconsider your question. DID they create us? And also, if they didn't, if that's some other planet in the first scene. What does that mean? How do you have to alter all your other assumptions about the film?

And likewise... who told you they were going to wipe us out? Shaw? Where is her proof? She asked David what the mission was. And he said something vague. Go look at how David talks in the film. When he is saying the plain and simple truth, he says it plainly and simply. Anytime he uses vague, double meaning statements, he is deceiving. He knows Shaw is religious. Say something a bit scary to her, and she imagines Armageddon. If the plan was to wipe us out 2000 years ago, why didn't the two visits SINCE then (latest was in the 7th Century in Hawai'i.) finish us off?

- They look human, we (last time I checked) also look human, 99% DNA match. - Big ship carrying tonnes of urns filled with nasty black stuff heading for Earth. I understand asking questions, but why not hypothesize some answers.

They didn't say 99% match. It's a match. If you want my hypothesis, it's simply that they didn't create us. They took some of us, adapted them, made a bunch of obedient slaves who were strong and expendable, and every now again, travel back to earth for more. These Space Jockey slaves can be sacrificed, or used for war (hosts for bio-weapons) or lab work, or rounding up more slaves They didn't say they were going to wipe us out, and the two subsequent missions didn't wipe us out. "to destroy and create" could refer simply to Igor getting more specimens for the lab. Everyone is fixated on the story of Prometheus from Greek mythology and ignoring the whole UFO abduction theory... simply because none of the characters mention it. And yet there is air clean enough for humans, and Space Jockeys who seem to be fine breathing the toxic crap outside. Here's another Prometheus myth worth thinking about. [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/eb/Frank1818.jpg[/img]

I'm familiar with it, I have it next to Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost. Mary Shelley's story is about the creation of life, the ramifications of the creation and the creations view of its creator... amongst other things. Many parallels to this film. The creation searches for his creator for answers, whom ultimately has none, or as Holloway put it "because we could". They are both stories about creation, yet Prometheus (the myth) itself isn't, it's about punishment for disobedience and the gift of technology given to us by a former God, replaced by a newer, younger God.

Ridley Scott isn't sticking strictly to any myth. He hints at both - the electrical reanimation of the head, and all the ancient mythology lines. Frankenstein didn't create life from nothing. He used other bodies, that's the point I was leaning on. I contend that the reason that Space Jockeys match our genotype, but have 'older' DNA, is because they are from all those older cultures, whose mitochondrial DNA won't have changed as much as the Aztecs, Egyptians etc on Earth, due to the selective breeding, and stasis.

They seeded us, they added their DNA and an evolutionary accelerant to life on Earth and through clever engineering, evolution, and natural selection the Engineers genome becomes dominant creating us. Its the creation myth, the core of all of the major myths - God(s) creating mankind, but with this movie the why isn't going to pleasant.

"The movie implies the answer. We were created because they could. They wanted to destroy us because they could." / / /This!!! or possibly I'm beginning to think that human beings as we are right now were only intended tobe an intermediary species in the evolution of mankind....if you buy int the Ancient Aliens theories we were seeded and at various times given "updates" to our genetic codes and lesser humanoid species wiped out that were co-existing at the same time. Perhaps we were never meant to be the end result but only one more "step" up the evolutionary ladder and they intended to wipe us clean to reboot their experiement....

All our assumptions a based on a belief that the Engineer race had one collective thought, when in reality, they are just like us with many different philosophies. Maybe one rouge sect of the Engineers believe in terra-forming planets and spreading their seed and another sect (as found on LV-223) believes it's a bad idea and aims to clean up the mess.

Something to note about the "worm". It is a mechanism to destroy and then go dormant. Xenomorphs (drones at least, not sure about the queens) do not have a long life-span. Their "immortality" is in the "egg" stage of their life-cycle. Take the doomsday scenario of a Juggernaut arriving to Earth and dispatching its "cargo". In short time humans become infected by the black-goo whether through ingestion via the water supply or by other means. Procreation of the infected leads to trilobite/body-huggers that impregnate hosts to create deacons that grow up to be big xenomorphs that excrete stuff to create a nest for a queen that begins laying eggs containing smaller face-huggers. All of the above happens pretty fast and a continual supply of hosts (captured by xenomorphs and take to the nest) is required to keep it all going. A xenomorph dies in a couple of days but is replaced by another. At some point, hosts will be extinct. The "bio-weapon" has accomplished it's goal and then becomes nothing more than lair mounds full of eggs with dead drones and queens. The eggs can then be delicately collected and piled back onto the ships for their next conquest. I would imagine, looking at the orrery star-map with many systems marked, that the engineers had a long reign of successfully conquering (maintaining control) of this quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy with this method and accidents were inevitable, but considered an acceptable "cost of war/domination". I see, however, like the fall of the Roman Empire, the "Engineer Empire", got too greedy and spread themselves too thin and hung themselves upon their own petard. How did it happen? We may see in Prometheus: Paradise.

The opening scene shows the lone "Sacrifice Engineer". I've been postulating that due to the nature of the sort of "Religious Ritual" he takes, it makes more sense that the Engineers were more benevolent and was seeding all life on Earth. Not to just make humans that are the best hosts for the best xenomorphs. If you have seen some of the concept art, it showed an older Engineer with the Sacrifice Engineer for the beginning scene. On another website, I found an image of what appears to have been an actual filming of that scene that was edited out for the end result of Prometheus in theaters. [img]http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/prometheus-elder-engineer-570x855.jpg[/img] My opinion is that all Engineers are clones/androids. They are all made for different purposes by these elder "Creator Engineers". Some Engineers are made to be used for Seeding, some for military stations like that on LV223. I don't think it's as simple as that humans make the best Aliens, else the Engineers would have been around harvesting us the whole time and not letting us evolve and advance in intelligence and capability. As David said, "Don't all children want their parents to die?" I think that the Military Engineers were purposed to wipe us out because we were getting too advanced and that some day, we were going to come to them bringing their downfall.

Theory for why they want to destroy us... Once the engineer was awake the first thing he did is to put his hand on David the robot head. at that moment, the enguneer linked to David's database and find out all man kind histrory... all the war... all the pain we cause. [ The movie allredy show us there can be neural link when david was comunicate with his boss or saw the doctor's dreams] Now once the engineer knew that everywhere the human go, they only bring death (to the planet, themself or others), there was only one outcome... the human must be ELIMINATED. what do you think?

It wasn't the first thing he did. He coughed, bowed, listened and stared. He listened to the arguments, stared because he probably didn't understand English (if he's been asleep 2000 years, he's never heard it before), and didn't understand why they were shouting at Shaw, and why she got a shotgun butt to the stomach. David needed complex machinery to read someone's dreams. Why would a Space Jockey be able to do it with just his hand, to an android, whose program wouldn't be familiar to him? He touches David's hair, probably missing his own, cos he's built like a greek god, but just can't get those modelling offers from L'Oreal. It's jealousy that sparks the violence :p

Although the movie tends to overlook some science... i think they must have more of a direct hand with us than the usual 'seeding' for us to be so close to The Engineers. There would be no point in doing a 'seeding' for the purpose of having it evolve differently if you wind up with the same code in the end... in fact that would be impossible.

Daniel N, Just because it's the first scene, and shortly after we see a scene on Earth, we are led to assume that the first engineer is on primordial earth. However, if you think about it, there is zero proof of when and where this takes place. And yes it's impossible. It would be like if, after the destuction of the Enterprise in Star Trek 3, and the parts raining down on the genesis planet, someone went back a few billion years later, and, while not being surprised that life had evolved to space faring technology, actually expected - and found - a replica of the Enterprise among their fleet. I think the direct hand took place at the earliest 35,000 years ago, and resulted in humans being brought to LV 223, and altered until they suited the needs of their masters. Big single minded worker slaves, with no need for body hair, eye color, nipples or any other features to differentiate them as individuals. They only differ according to their function. Those bred for sacrifice are not given bio-mechanical parts. Those who are bred for different purposes, are given adaptations to fit with the technology.

We are not sure of the SJ's intentions. Shaw and David launch off at the end of the movie in order to hopefully answer these questions. You are just offering a possible explanation, which in my opinion is not correct. It doesn't make sense. The SJ's intentions are yet to be fully explained. Hopefully, the next movies will provide those answers. My personal opinion is that the SJs did provide the "DNA Soup" for life to be created on Earth. - otherwise, the scene at the beginning would have no purpose or meaning. With that as an assumption, then it would be logical that the SJs would come back periodically to check on their "garden". - which is also supported by the paintings on Earth. I think it is a sad notion to think that they would create us only to use us only as "food" for their Alien creations. It is a possibility, but I doubt it. Are they "mad" at us? Maybe. - but again, I would like to think that a species this advanced would be beyond that. A more interesting proposition is that they seeded e universe in preparation to support them in a large war that is brewing. We shall see.

[code]"We were created because they could. They wanted to destroy us because they could."[/code] =This.

[u]You are just offering a possible explanation, which in my opinion is not correct.[/u] To whom is that directed?

[u]My personal opinion is that the SJs did provide the "DNA Soup" for life to be created on Earth. - otherwise, the scene at the beginning would have no purpose or meaning.[/u] Except to mimic the opening of the Bible... Genesis perhaps? And if you start at Genesis, the other end of the book is Revelations, with that whole dramatic Judgement Day destruction. And how about to mimic the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6msq8mgdnE]opening scene of "The Usual Suspects"[/url] which throws us off the scent of Verbal Kint, by focussing on the place he claimed to be hiding? Your personal opinion, like mine, is speculation. There is no conclusive proof one way or the other.

From Sir Ridley Scott himself; "The film clearly shows that Engineers created life on Earth and then guided humans throughout our development, one day hoping that we would come visit them. But we did something very bad. So bad, that it upset the Engineers. And according to the movie, whatever we did, happened two thousand years ago. The only thing that could be is that we killed Jesus, who apparently was an Engineer as well. [b]Here is a quote from Scott[/b]: "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." [url=http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/6/11/ridley-scott-reveals-the-engineers-true-intentions-is-it-con.html]Your text to link here...[/url]

and he says of that idea "It was too on the nose, SO WE DROPPED IT"

Sorry about the confusion. There seems to be a series of very similar threads. Anyway the discussion is continued in this thread [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/8661]Your text to link here...[/url]. At any rate Scott says "It was a little too on the nose." he doesn't say "so we dropped it". He continues the interview with the sentence "But if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there” scenario....

Interesting points everyone. Well thought out and forensically detailed. So, I have the question still. Does Ridley imply there is a God? I believe I have the answer and it's as simple as two words.

@Tha_Pig: Definitely plausible. As a follow-up, I would then ask, "So why make a movie about a billion-year-old species that creates humans and then decides to clean the petri dish?" @N'Hoj: What's your point?

"..They just wanted to clean up the mess left by one of their experiments..." It occurs to me that the Engineers seeded more than one planet(Earth) with human growth DNA.. THat is what explains why there is so much goo stored away..just for our Earth. Maybe there are 100's of Earths..all a potential being a threat to the Engineers' life.

This topic has already been discussed in great detail in this topic The Secrets of the Black Liquid REVEALED http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/7023

This is a very interesting debate on of the main ones. It does feel a bit far fetched and a lot of effort to create a race and wait thousands and thousands of years to then use us as a host for the Xeno Bio Weapon. Was the creation of a Xeno as straight forwards...? Nope it was not a case of Humans coming into contact with the Urns creates a Xeno, even the not so lame Fifield more Xeno looking Mutation is not quite Xeno. The only Process of Humans plus Urns that created anything like a Xeno was Holloway coming into contact with only the inner substance within the Urn via Oral transmission and this seemed to effect some part of his body that was able to pass on to a Shaw who could not get pregnant that then gets pregnant with a fetus that closely resembles the Face Hugger. Now Logic would dictate that its most likey that some how Holloways Sperm had got infected with the Substance that then with its properties to revive Dead Cells managed to impregnant and activate one of Shaws Eggs. Now a Eggs and Embryo is the basic stage if life and nearly all life is very similar at stage one Embryo. [img]http://home.honolulu.hawaii.edu/~pine/book1qts/embryo-compare.jpg[/img] As the above shows most Organisms at stage one are similar and it takes on its host/mothers genetics/dna to then develop into a fetus that represents the actual Organism. So at stage one, the Embryo is basic and thus leaves less DNA to rewrite into Xeno DNA and hence this process produced a Organism more closer to the Original Xeno Cycle. It would be safe to assume that just throwing Humans into the Goo would not result into the Squid Trilobite that resembles the Face Hugger that then leads to a Chest Buster that resembles the Xeno. I therefore think that if the Goo infected out oceans we would all then change into Xenos and then Eggs. Also more clues are given by Ridley and not the movie. Ridley hinted the Derelict had landed on LV 426 hundreds of years prior to the LV 223 outpost fall thus over 2200 years prior to Prometheus. He also said it contained Eggs and not Urns. And he was infected with the same thing that to Kane. Ridley also said that the Engineers played a part in our creation and also had visited us over the years and upgraded us. And that Mankind had developed into something that they had not intended and we offended them, they sent down a emissary to advice us of our wrong doings and we killed him. Well crucified him. This then caused the Engineers to then decide we needed to be destroyed. To me this does not add up with the creation of us and upgrades to purely use us to use the Urns to then make Xeno Eggs.

Also i feel that Prometheus was no accident the name was used for a reason and also the links to many Ancient Cultures. i thus feel the Anunaki Tale and the Titans Tale are what the movie are based around with also ties to modern religon like Christanity. which i dont think is about some god like race who created us to purely wait thousands of years to use us as a host for the Xeno. I think the Engineers are the Prometheus and that the stealing of the Fire would either be creation of man without consent of the Engineers higher Order or creators. Or/and that there trying to use the forbidden knowledge to create mankind was then used to meddle with the Xeno race only to back fire on them. The stealing of the Fire = Creation of Man. The Burning of the Fire the experiments concerning the Xeno Organism. The Fire being the Substance within the Sacrificial Bowl.

It's more so about destroying the old order to create a new order.. something David may also want to do by saying "sometimes". "A king has his reign and then he dies.." Sometimes the king leaves behind a kingdom that is greatly influenced by the past king/head of the kingdom/company/culture/greater body. Sometimes this king has left many great gifts in the hands of his subjects and the board members. The old order has to be destroyed sometimes when a new king steps up to the throne to rule the kingdom/the company/humanity. Weyland single handedly advanced humanity with all of the gifts he invented. None of that progress was really all a collective effort as we know how Weyland is brilliant and probably invented most of those things himself. Without him or Vickers who may have learned a little from him the company may be lost. They may cease to advance, and may decay before being reborn. When the king, or head of the company is removed, the company/body/kingdom may lose control without the guidance of an intelligent leader/head/god-king, especially if the body is influenced by the black liquid. Without Vickers or Weyland, and with plenty of money spent on a fruitless mission, the company may start to break down. It may start to disintegrate, before being recombined with other elements to be rebuilt, renamed, given a new "head" and mutated by the influence of the black liquid to form a hybrid of kingdoms: the Weyland-Yutani Empire. The Engineers may want to actually help us more than David does. David feels he's superior to us. He feels it's easy to be "a superior species [to humans], no doubt." He doesn't specify that he thought the Engineers were superior to androids. It's subtly revealed that he feels superior to his creators and is rebelling against Weyland in deceitful and semi-hidden ways throughout the movie. He wants Weyland dead. He wants the king dead. He feels superior to humans and that Weyland was foolish, sharing some things with vickers here. He wants to be the king. Weyland's preference for him may be part of it, and the fact he's the closest thing to a son, makes him a prince. A metaphoric potential heir to the throne. Weyland's creation who wants to destroy and replace his creator in the hierarchy as a god-king. David doesn't want to be made too close to us because of how he feels about us when he says not too close I hope. The ironic thing is David may not know how much artificial emotion he actually has and how that feeds into his thought process and actions allowing him to choose what he believes and to report it as true.