Timeline

I've read a lot of people saying that the space jockey's ship on LV 426 is far older, at even hundreds of thousands of years old. I don't know where these impressions came from. I don't remember them in the film, [u]Alien[/u], and I'd be very curious to know that all they say is that it's "old". Assuming you're right, because I've also read that LV 426 is near LV 223 in space, I think the Prometheus would have intercepted the same message the Nostromo did. This would suggest that the beacon was put there after the events of the first movie. But who would have put it there? Why would a space jockey/ engineer warn people away from there but not away from LV 223, for instance? To me, this is an even bigger question. In so far as the events of the first movie are concerned, I could see another surviving engineer somewhere on the moon taking off in pursuit of Shaw and David, and crashing on LV 426. Say the engineer didn't realize he was infected/ impregnated with an alien, but he had time to start the beacon, which was intended for others of his own kind to "respond to the facilities on LV 223 being broken into" as he was trying to. This leads to the next question, of why no engineers from their home world, distinct from LV 426, and which Shaw is going to, have responded apparently? Their entire civilization may have perished, or LV 223 may have been unknown to them, perhaps known only to a few if it was a top secret military research facility. Whatever the case, it seems clear that no responsible agency of the engineers is policing anything there, a fact that would undoubtedly distress any surviving engineers to wake up. Additionally, there is a deleted scene that has David mentioning seismic activity underground by the pyramid. Such earthquake like vibrations may have set off an alarm on board one of the other juggernauts, which would awaken all personnel on hyper-sleep if no one else was on hand to respond.

"..Why would a space jockey/ engineer warn people away from there but not away from LV 223, for instance? To me, this is an even bigger question.." If the SJ was from LV223,,,he may not have known that the danger he faced in his Juggernaut on LV-426....was present present on the moon. You cover a lot of ground in your note, THe time between the Last Engineer Waking up and Shaw/David's departure is stilll not clear in my mind.. But with the number of Pyramids around,,our Last Engineer could not be the only Engineer on duty..could he? There were many more ships according to David,They would surely be awaken by the events in the movie at some point and would give chase to our remaining crew. This may then tie in with the Alien storyline..

The 'old'ness came from Dallas saying it was fossilised, granted without any true dating of it, and I've no idea in reality how old something would need to be to become fossiled as such. I agree the Prometheus should have detected the warning beacon on LV223 but not if it had not yet been set i.e. it is not set by the fossilised engineer prior to his demise but by humans, maybe Shaw, in a Prometheus sequel, realising the danger that she discovers on LV223 when she goes there. Guess it all boils down to how old the fossiled engineer really is, and we may never know!

Wow, good subject matter.... When David was doing his custodial duties on the Prometheus, he would check to see if any response was receive from their broadcast to LV-223, yet that communication system should have picked up the warning signal from LV-426, at least you would think it should have. I know when they show that scene you can hear some verbal communications when David approaches the communication screen.... I wonder who was doing all that talking during that scene, it sounded almost English...perhaps what we hear in that scene is the warning from LV-426, but David ignored it because he was aware of the mission thru Weyland and never mentions it of course.... Also Ridley Scott has already mentioned that the SJ had been on LV-426 for a very long time, thousands of years if I’m not mistakened...

"..how old the fossiled engineer really is.." It has been awhile,,but what the Alien crew needed was the carbion dating probe used in Ptometheus,, PLus what we know about the Juggernauts they had sleeping units...so the engineer could be 100's..1000's of years old.. I wonder if Weyland would opt for a 2,000 sleep? He may not have been immortal..but his Birthday cake would be seen light years away!

if you'll remember back to Prometheus, they 'tried to' cover both these bases by having the 'engineer suit' on the outside of the (guillotining) Ampule Room door 'fossilised' and the head on the inside of the door preserved i.e. not fossilised. I'm not convinced though - as you all know - for me "Space Trucker" will always be the ORIGINATOR of the technology the Pressure Suit Engineer has in his control interface/chair.

guys check this out [url=http://www.prometheusforum.net/discussion/3740/blu-ray-extra-weyland-talks-about-lv-426/p1]weyland files quiet eye memo[/url] acording to this both Weyland and David knew about LV426 but Weyland corp didnt invetigate this until Alien which could have been because of the prometheus mission going tits up.

imo, all information at our disposal (the films themselves/info provided by the filmmakers etc.) points to the notion that the "derelict" juggernaut that went down on LV 426 came from LV 223. In the midst of the "outbreak" that occurred approximately 2000 yrs before shaw and the crew of the prometheus set down on lv 223, one (or more) of the engineers managed to get off of LV 223 (albeit, already "infected"). Said engineer ultimately had to land his craft (happened to land on LV 426) due to the fact that he was "going into labor". Therefore, the "derelict" craft on LV 426 came from the facility on LV 223...the "derelict" craft had been sitting on LV 426 for approximately 2000 yrs by the time shaw et al. began their exploration of LV 223. The above scenario is the whole reason why ridley and co. told the story of the outbreak on LV 223 (big part Prometheus). Essentially, they were telling us how the "derelict" craft came to be sitting there on LV 426. Instead of hitting us over the head with the info. (and ruining the wonderful mystery that surrounds the derrelict), the filmmakers gave us just enough pieces to answer some of the big questions surrounding the infamous "derelict" while still leaving certain details open to the imagination (excellent idea! imo). As far as the warning beacon that should have been picked up by the prometheus is concerned...well, if we are to believe the tidbit on the blu ray, weyland (and by extension, david) already knew of the beacon on LV 426 prior to the prometheus expedition. Who's to say david didnt encounter the beacon while everyone was in cryostasis? If he did encounter it, id imagine it would just be one of those moments like: "yep, there's that beacon we had picked up with our long range scans. per weyland's instructions/programming, ill just continue to keep everyone in the dark on this one.". Then years later, after the failure of project prometheus, someone "in the know" at Weyland corp. (Wey./Yut.) decides to follow up on plan B (investigating the signal detected on LV 426). Enter: the nostromo. Makes sense to me!?

".. Who's to say david didnt encounter the beacon while everyone was in cryostasis? ,.." I don't recall anyone else on board the Prometheus,,contacting...or trying to contact Earth..or any part of Weyland Corp. With what seems David controlling the communcations to ..and from the ship...who's to say what was sent...message/video wise? Maybe it is too much to say David controlled the outcome of the story....but he was in the key position so that very little happenned ,,that he did not know about.

will David handhold Shaw to the LV-426 location, rather than Paradise, in the film/films to come?

Hmmm arguing about the specifics of a film that was made up on the fly and really is a mess with facts and specifics - such fun eh? :D But if I had to guess yes the SJ was very old minimum 100,000 year but maybe millions or more...the other problem with dating all this is if they are moving faster than light well time could be all over the place so it all gets complex!