So.........the cave drawings

I think what Prometheus was trying to get across was that the Engineers would visit our planet once every 2,000 years. That's why they had cave paintings from several different generations across the globe.

Yeah, been spoke of before but I like your thoughts on it! A lot left out on how man developed the starmaps at all. Certainly true. Mind control or dna, take your pic! I personally think dna tells the tale

@ ChugALug I really love your angle on this and I’m surprised that no one ( to the best of my knowledge) has really picked up on it before, myself included. The point being that to draw the paintings, that contact must have happened and what was the nature of it. Since there are multiple pictures there must have been multiple visits. My interpretation though of the original engineer is that it did not happen on earth. So my answer is to the question of the star charts is that they are neither a warning, nor an invitation, but a marker to a point of origin, and that’s it. An argument/discussion that I don’t think anyone has raised as yet. I think the paintings are just a means of saying this is the beginnings, nothing more, but if you want to come and visit then……….

I do not see any plot hole at all. The drawings were made by cave dwellers who saw and or came in contact with various engineers. These drawings were made by different civilizations through out the early history of man kind. So naturally they were done by people from different cultures spanning thousands of years.

@ rubirosa: agreed. Definitely not a plot hole. the implication is that the engineers visited earth multiple times throughout history...making genetic alterations along the way.

Is there anything to be made of the civilizations selected for Engineer visits? Where they the most advanced at the time? and.. Did the Engineers leave a bit of 'Fire' with each one,,to give an advantage for the development of their humans? I am thinking like mathmatics,,alphabet,,even fire it's self..

"You're a naughty boy, we'll send you here!" that's what the cave paintings mean.

@ Chris - "I think what Prometheus was trying to get across was that the Engineers would visit our planet once every 2,000 years." sounds a little AVPish @ Rubirosa - yes, not a plot hole at all Lindelof answered this question once and said that the engineers taught humans what is coming and where it's coming from (or something like that) and ancient men drew it down so they "can" remember it.

Yeah I guess it's left to us to infer that return trips would have been made. To what end though? Why return, tell us what constellation they originated from, just to come back and wipe us out? If the endgame was just to wipe us out, then what does it matter that know our creators? Unless...... Maybe the Engineers are not all one unified group. I mean why would they be? We, their descendants, certainly aren't. So maybe there are two groups of engineers. The original engineer at the waterfall, he wore a robe, almost monk like. The one at the end was dressed in an outfit that was very warrior like. Maybe there is a faction that intends to create, and another that aims to destroy. Maybe the original intent of planting the seeds of life wasn't the same plan that ended up (almost) playing out.

@ChugALug - There have been many discussions as to the existemce of two Engineer factions & I do agree that there may be: 1) Pale-looking sacrificial, or obedient Engineers still working for the Creators. 2) Pressure-suit-wearing disobedient/defiant Engineers looking to destroy anything & everthing. I think the LV-223 Engineers altered their own genetic make-up with Alien DNA. They then became increasingly hateful & aggressive toward: 1) Us, their younger sibling creations. 2) Their own creators.

It might turn out that way, but I for one would find it to be a terribly dull explanation. Notions such as invitations, warnings, war, hate... these strike me as being elements of human culture. An alien race that has been seeding the Galaxy for 500 million years or more is going to think in radically different ways to us, and they may have motivations and behaviours that are beyond human comprehension. We've only seen the tiniest glimpses of their culture, and know nothing of their origins, so much remains to be revealed. Of course, I would dearly love to know the real reasons why us humans were facing extermination, but I doubt that hate has anything to do with it. When I exterminated a wasp's nest in my house, it was just a matter of practicality. Hate never entered the picture.

@ ZZ - Yea, I see your point. There will be some interesting points needing to be addressed by Paradise. I am left to draw my own conclusions for LV-223 until we get more information.

wasps are different to us we dont relate to them or even care they exist where as we are miniture versions of the engineers so to them are we like chldren or are they using our dna to repair their own in a similar way to how a relative would allow one of their kidneys or bone marow to be used to cure a sick family memeber?

The Deacon is a wasp to me! Just flick him off the screen! Deacon & Wasp have no great plans to end humanity other than hunt, kill, eat, sleep. It is just their instinctual behavior. The evil of the Engineers is more sinister & harder for humans to fathom!

@katiel238: We really have no idea how we truly relate to the Engineers. You might be tempted to think that we are their cherished creations who draw lovely pictures of their benefactors on cave walls. But you'd be thinking like a human. Although we share some of their DNA, they are not human. They are alien. They are far too advanced to use us for the purpose of harvesting body parts. You are thinking like a twenty-first century human. Problems like organ replacement would have been solved by them hundreds of millions of years ago, without messing about with the likes of us for that purpose. We may simply be an experiment. One of countless experiments that they have conducted. Almost all doomed to failure. What are they truly trying to create in their experiments? And why? We need to know a lot more about their culture to answer these questions. @Cerulean Blue: 'Evil' is a tricky one, because what is evil to us may be nothing of the sort to them. Try asking David to define morality, let alone an Engineer, and you run into trouble.

"We may simply be an experiment." yup but why then did he seem so angry? he wasnt acting too clinical there wasnt the emotional detachment youd expect if that was the case, no he (the last engineer) was defo narked

You'd perhaps be narked if your guinea pigs started gnawing through the mains cables, causing major problems. I don't know if that's an appropriate word to use or not in respect of the hibernating Engineer, because I don't know enough about alien psychology. There are so many possibilities. He might be a member of a warrior caste that reacts instinctively, for example. We don't know.

Definitely not a plot hole and probably it is not very important in the sequel but I still wonder What is the purpose of the maps? are a trap? a warning?...besides we have two different fractions in the same race of Engineers, so...

There is no human life on earth; until after the sacarifice of the Engineer. I'm really finding your thoughts and ideas interesting. I believe in the idea of genetics and DNA in stranded into the earths Eco system; and human beings evolving from. Hence the creators of the human race. Very Interesting.

@ZZplural "You'd perhaps be narked if your guinea pigs started gnawing through the mains cables, causing major problems." :O i would not lol.... not AT the guinea pigs.... maybe whoever let em out (bloody freshers) so maybe two factions divided over whether we should be allowed/trusted with the freedom of the galaxy? would be nice to see some friendly engineers in 'paradise' [b]FYI never worked on anything bigger than microscopic nematodes[/b]

Nematode,,, Since word over two syllabals is a challenge I to check into the meaning ofthe above word. Is there any similarities to the slithering creature that afffected Millburn that can related to nematodes,,you have studied? At first glance to my untrained eye there is a resemblance could be a clue to what attacked our biologist.

lol no thankfully! hahaha! the idea of returning tomorrow to find an aggressive weiner-snake in the lab tickles me XD I am actually studying the morphological changes that occur when we remove the functioning of collagen genes (though not growth rate) but any changes are small and have to be observed under a microscope. i wonder about what holloway saw on his eye in the mirror though was it a hallucination or maybe the mutagen goo affected microscopic nematode that wouldnt normally have bothered him like mutated threadworm! eek thatll give nightmares. no dont worry the little worms i use are non-parasitic and microscopic..... and staying that way!!!!!

I recently had an eye irritant and thought of the Holloway scene checking his eye. I did sleep that night and the next morning was so relieved that everything was OK. However I did look at the kitchen fire extinguisher with great affection.

lol fire extinguisher! i remember when i first saw alien when i was 11 i was so repulsed i couldnt eat my dinner so i went to bed hungry and when my stomach gurgled my overactive imagination got the better of me acid indigestion-stress-more gurgling a vicious and silly circle XD

THe first time I saw Alien I fell asleep fairly early in the movie,' Later my son brought the movie to my attention I watched it again and enjoyed it very much,,though I thought it was a slow paced movie. My son also brought Prometheus to my attention an we saw it together a t the theater. After the movie we were both more than a bit confused,, For me the movie that scared me the most was The Exorcist..now that was a scary movie!