Dr. Shaw

bishop was nice... call was nice... ash was bad... david was bad... 50/50

Their like people... a mix of both... they take after their masters.

I'm not at all sure David has a very good clue why the Hell he does anything at all. He seems to me to be a very intelligent, yet ultimately clueless, slightly lost soul of a potential liability... I'm not particularly surprised that the Engineer took to instantly knocking David's block completely off with vigour - he probably picked up the overwhelming, aimless and vacant neediness being projected in one blink of his great google-eyes and decided to end David's pain.

David has a sub program that is actually controlling his actions,,.. I doubt if even David is aware of it,,, But who..or what is causing David,,well to be David..??? I don't think Shaw survived because David 'willed it'...more from her own will and an unseen controller..that want Shaw as a Specimen..on thgeir next stop.

@ Indy John The 'unseen controllers' would definitely want Dr Shaw as a specimen - she's carrying Xeno DNA, which is why she was able to perform all those otherwise impossible feats (no crippling pain after the "caesarian"; running, leaping, fighting, hauling David piecemeal into the Engineer ship, etc). If you wanted to wipe out humanity, she would be an excellent starting point; with a little help from Mr Giger perhaps!

And what will cause the Xeno DNA to show it's self? And when will she realize she is not only infected,,but is a danger to to herself and any other Engineers arounbd, The Controllers.would be smart to send Shaw back to an unsuspecting Earth and let the XENO DNA do it's thing...after all Shaw is the only survivior(Vickers.perhaps ?) of a Trillion $$$ exploration trip and everybody would want her to tell her story.. She would be well recieved..

I too thought that Vickers may have survived - at first I thought she was a bot, but after the proposition she made to the captain, I'm not so sure. Does anyone think that the opening scene with the waterfalls was perhaps earth? They left the engineer there why? maybe he was a prisoner and was given an ultimatum - ???? XENODOCHY, why do you think Shaw would be a good starting point?

@ yoli Because, being realistic (in Science Fiction terms) not crude, she could serve the aims of the Engineers as a brood mare. She’s already given “caesarean birth” to the trilobite and shown that her recuperative and general physical powers are beyond the normal female (and male) capabilities, so she must be genetically enhanced or altered and that can only have occurred through her love making with Charlie Holloway and the transmission to her of the Black Goo genetic code in the same way as any STD. Sorry, not being crude here, just the way I see it. Look at the Engineer’s response to Shaw being struck. He didn’t attack her in the same way as the others he swiftly and easily despatched, so why was he after her? My answer – he knew that she carried xeno DNA. Sure, she wasn’t wearing a neon sign saying “Easy now, I’m part Xeno”, but I think that in the SF realm it’s not an unsafe bet that the Engineer, who knew that David was a robot (no DNA) also knew that Elizabeth was harbouring Xeno DNA. Although he’d been fast asleep for a couple of millennia, he knew his team’s Black Goo worked just as they hoped. When he lost his cargo he went to fetch the doctor to deliver her somewhere. Earth? His laboratory for further work? About Meredith Vickers – If you look up the meanings of the names of all the characters in the movie, you could say that they are all true to their “word”. Meredith (meaning - Great Lord) Vickers (vicar/substitute in office); Charlie (free man) Holloway; Jared (God is gracious); David (beloved); Peter (stone) Weyland. So when both her “lords” Weyland and Jared are dead, she has no one to substitute for thus no reason to exist so she dies. This movie is alive with more symbolism and mind games than certain rallies in 1930s Germany! Take a look at the ends of the arms of the “Croissant” Juggernaut.