Is there a reason why the engineers were bald?

They....just don't need the hair. and it might be in the genes like the bald gene in humans they have their own.

Maybe the thinking is that humans have evolved to lose most of their hair over time, and a natural progression of that would be to end up more like Sinead O'Connor. Remember, you're a hairy monkey at the end of the day.

Could you imagine them with hair! They would look silly - I imagine it's purely design for the film. They needed to look cool and ominous and unfriendly.

Yes they are the human babies ready to be born!

Try and envisage the Engineer waking up all stroppy with a Beatles moptop - hysterical! Who wouldn't be mad?

Every Engineer and Xeno we meet is hairless. But it is curious that David has hair and even styles it. Maybe the Last Engineer is stroking David's hair..because it is so unusual in his world.

@ Indy John - I like your point :D "What is this ... fur??" Guess he didn't like it or really wanted a wig.

Rogaine hasn't been invented yet in the Alien/Prometheus universe.

and what you spected? Dreadlocks? :p

It is said bald men are more virile than most ;)

"It is said bald men are more virile than most." I believe that only bald men say that :-].

I think we can thank our maker this movie was not made in the 80's, or the Engineers may have had big hair!

[img]http://www.alancross.ca/storage/U2%20-%20Bono%20mullet.jpg[/img]

@Oneironaut 717 - Classic Bono! I am laughing out loud!

..I guess the engineers have evolved to having a monsterous level of testosterone.... think of their powers...

Mmmmm...POWERS. I think they were manufactured, and reflect the tool logic of their makers, purely functional. I bet their makers look nothing like them ( SJ anybody? ). We look like them via their DNA upgrades, ultimately we would BE them.

We would be them? I don't want to be the beheaded running Engineer...

i wonder if there women are Bald [img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_X3lNYc1hcaE/S95CE6LgNhI/AAAAAAAAApo/v_NeX0Z9X0c/s1600/ilia.jpg[/img]

You maybe right and I didn't see the tufts...

God I didn't remember Bono's hair that long!! And look, no wraparound sunglasses! I think the bald look is supposed to be more greecian statuesque and more evolved. We are the monkeys with hairy palms!

@zzplural not if you don't believe in evolution..?

I'm bald myself, and I like it that way!

Indy John says: 'Every Engineer and xeno we meet is hairless.' Really? Indy John, and everyone else, look again closely at the trillobite as it is attacking the Engineer. I SEE tufts of hair on the top side. Check it out. Light beige texture. Look.

@ParkerN: Anyone who does not believe in evolution is really really blind to the facts. Richard Dawkins amuses himself constantly by destroying the arguments of such people.

zzplural, you are of course right. Evolution is no longer just a theory, modern science has shown on a molecular level that life evolves over time. We can trace proteins through different related species and note the slight changes in sequences which is evidence that the same protein has evolved along with the species as a whole. Even Prometheus, which suggests panspermia, the idea that life here arrived from extraterrestrial sources, either intelligent sources or simply on an asteroid or meteorite, does not deny evolution of such resultant life once it got here. The biomaterial that the Engineer drank destroyed his genetic matrix and reformed it into eukariotic cells which would then go on to evolve into more complex life forms. But the movie only shows the first step. Since we are the ultimate result at the point in time of the movie, we can assume thar they provided the starting biomaterial but then most likely natural selection took over as a force of change, i.e. Darwinian evolution.

That's right, Prometheus does not deny evolution, although Milburn implies that Shaw is contradicting Darwinism. Of course, he's not too well clued up on facts at this point. However, there is the question about whether or not the Engineers interfered with life on Earth once it got going, nudging it in certain directions like good shepherds. After all, the humblest of beginnings do not a humanoid form guarantee. Unless, of course, that is in fact a universal principle that we have yet to discover. Convergent evolution has led to eyes, ears and limbs on many unrelated occasions. Maybe the inevitability of trees, and animals that dwell in them, inexorably leads to the evolution of humanoid forms wherever life arises on a planet like Earth. Did the Engineers tamper with our genome directly from time to time? I really don't know. In a way, it would be more interesting if they hadn't.

Steven Hawking recently wrote a book entitled 'The Grand Design' that states that M-theory, which is based upon combined string theories and coined by Edward Witten results in the formation of the universe without the need for postulation of a God to make it happen. Since the universe can form all on its own with the help of scientific laws of physics, life also must be a result of M-theoretical principles and evolution is a function of Darwinian aspects of the life cycle. Its interesting that the viral video of Peter Weyland's TED talk directly names M-Theory as one of the developments of the 21st century. Luke and Ridley Scott may have been more correct than even they imagined. Based upon interviews with Ridley Scott, he seems to believe that life on earth originated from extraterrestrial sources which is why he keeps making movies that support this idea. In Prometheus, Melbourne the biologist does raise the question that positing the Engineers replaces Darwinian evolution but just as Shaw pointed out to Holloway, who created the Engineers? By this I mean by analogy, positing the existence of the Engineers does not in the least discount evolution. I personally think that evolution of lifeforms is the natural order of the life cycle over many generations and is an inevitability. Molecular evolution is a scientifically verified fact and evolution of quickly growing bacterial and viruses that have developed resistance to antibiotics and antiviral compounds is direct evidence of evolution at play. So if the engineers started the process it would likey evolve by the principle of survival of the fittest resulting in us as well as perhaps other or even all species.

PS thats bacteria not bacterial, sorry for the error.......

Well id RS wanted to make a movie that cause to think aboiut something after leaving the theater,,he certainly did. @nostromo001 By bringing in a Steven Hawking reference show how thoughtful are the posters. Existance without 'Gods' is interesting to me. 'God' would then be a conception by humans for various reasons..probably for power or control or at least influencing the populations of the world. As you suggest the survival of the fittest,,not on a global stage,,but in all that the human mind can imagine...and beyond. Some answers are beyond logic,,that is why we need another episode in this series. Rs Make this sequel to Pometheus now..don''t wait.