Flamethower

It's use as a weapon was secondary. It's prime purpose was for decontaminating the hangar.

Yes that was the practical use,, very apparent during the crew's return during the storm scenes, I had not thought much about it at first...just seemed to be an antiquated piece of war equipment..

Some of the best tools remain in use for a very long time and cultures pass them on to others. Humanity witnessed very little change to the overall design of certain tools and technological trades, for example the Plough has existed in essentially the same form since about 7000 BC... If you change it too much it loses it's functionality, it stops being useful. This tool must still be important to the people of 2093. However, this Flamethrower mines elements that are combustible from the air and combines them to create fuel for the flamethrower, it pretty much generates its own fuel and creates the fire out of the basic elements in the air. It creates fire in the same way the Engineers create their fire... or at least one part of it. I'll only hint at how much this may tie into the storyline and the storyline later i.e. what the Pyramid/Atmospheric processor/weapons facility (creating and storing the fire..) could actually be doing and how this relates to the flamethrower. More than cleaning the air in the temple so it's cleaner than the air back on Earth. The Engineers weren't only generating an atmosphere-- they were mining the atmosphere and producing oxygen/clean at the same time. Their atmospheric processors don't just clean the air... they produce and store the black goo so the alien genetics could be mixed with it... Look at the characters comments about what's in the atmosphere, especially when the storm hits.

This is a symbolic movie, don't try to give it scientific or practical explanations, it looses the point.

With the reamining crew from Prometheus,,heading to their next,adventure the moon is left with the remaining pyramids,,,,,perhaps some goo and secrets that have not been revealed. Mala'kak,, I enjoyed your comments and welcome a prequel that tells the Engineers story..even if it does not contain any reverence to the starship Prometheus Are you just a great storyteller...or have access to inside info? In any case i enjoy your posts..

@Mala'kak - I have not thought about the pyramid's purpose other than to create breatheable air? Please do elaborate your idea, I am listening!!! Do you mean the storm happened because they entered the ampule room?

The flamethrower seems to be the only weapon that proved effective against the Fifield monster. He was shot, several times, to no avail. He was run over by the people carrier thingy, to no avail. But a few blasts of the flamethrower put him out for good. That's what prometheus gave us, fire, a way to fight the engineers WMD.

the best way to destroy bio weaponry is to incinerate them. Seem to be used alot against in the alien movies.

Well we all know the flame-thrower as been used in ALIEN ALIENS umm, expect no weapons in ALIEN 3 all they had was shit! lol "No ice-cream no rubbers all we have here is shit" ALIEN 4 had the flame-thrower.

Pyramid's purpose,,is a curious question.. as I only thought of it as a housing for the Juggernauts,, It did have a 'face' at the top(Weather worn,,in the commentary in audio track 2) sitting above a Bee Hive shape,, Why have any structure above ground at all..ecposed to surface conditions? It is not clear in the movie if all pyramids were actually the same,design.... I don;t know about the 'atmosphere manufacturing line of thought,,,but Goo making is a possibility... In summarry there must be more to the domed constructions that what i first assumed..

@andyscat. they did use that fuel.....huh ? not the same ?

It is much more dramatic„creepy and symbolic.

LINUS SPACEHEAD.. ..at least to Earthlings....