They are Leaving..

Actually "he" was leaving, the plural is wrong here! David8 misled the expedition, since he knew that all the other engineers were dead.

Wrong. I don't believe he knew all the other Engineers were dead.

Interesting point SubsumeYou, definitely a question of when he went into hypersleep, I have been going through that deleted scene again and the other hypersleep chambers seem to have 'breakouts' around the chest level which would suggest chest busters but it would also suggest that their bodies are still in those sleep chambers - no mention of it in the film, did David know? Equally, since David knew the Engineers were mortal, why did Weyland continue to think they were immortal?

@SubsumeYou He knew how to read their language remember? What do you think the writings on the walls were for? Anyway I always put it metaphorically, because I believe that the whole plot is happening in a virtual reality and David8 is the guider to this maze.

Better be something like that idea geopap cos the story dont make sense if its set in reality! :O

"..Equally, since David knew the Engineers were mortal, why did Weyland continue to think they were immortal?.." THis is somethiong that iseems I should have been aware of..but didn't connect the dots. Everybody on board new there were dead Engineers signifying they we not immortals based on FiField and Millburn's find of pile of dead bodies. Even with the Last Engineer why would Weyland think that this one was special..or in fact immortal if he needed a sleep chamber to keep alive. In fact as a last resort why didn't Vickers, if human, bring this info up during the scene where she calls him 'Father'? Vickers already told Weyland that if he goes down there he would die,,something that realdaughter probably would not say in real life even if they knew it.

What if David said "they are LIVING" and the crew understood "leaving"? :)

[i]";It is fairly evident they were leaving.."[/i] Which it was. When David activated the hologram playback, the navigation system showed the waiting Earth right next to the Engineer's console. Plus, he had the benefit of listening to the Engineers' little pre-flight chat. NB, did anyone notice Shaw's line in the the Big Head Room when the storm kicked in? "David, we are LEAVING". I couldn't help thinking of a similar line from Hicks in [i]Aliens[/i] when things went to pot: "Marines, we are LEAVING".

I noticed the Shaw line because somehow she sensed that the changing murals were a threat,,,or an indication of a threat.. Also when Holloway was in ill in the tunnels Shaw immedietly told Janek we to leave now, There was no hesitation in either case.. To she showed when there is a clear and presant danger Shaw took command of the situation, perhaps not even knowing herself why. In looking back it is more easy for me to accept Shaw heading to the next stop on the Engineer's trail..wanting answers now.

"..the navigation system showed the waiting Earth right next to the Engineer's console. .." This would indicate the next programmed stop for this Juggernaut. To my mind this raises the question of when the Engineer would awake to start the journey, I would even question if an Engineer was even needed to begin the journey and could be left in statis til arriving at earth, If the Prometheus had not even come to this moon everything would be the same:Engineer sleeping..flight plan ready to be activated. But to me it is still not clear that the Engineer, Juggeranaut it's deadly(presumably) payload were ready to take off. MY problem I suspect.

"I've managed to work out the broad strokes. It's fairly evident they were in the process of leaving". David understands the controls. He understands the Engineers' language. He saw and heard what they were up to in the recording. He worked out what was going on. In order for you to fully understand, you would need to understand the Engineers' language and figure out what was happening in the recording. Since you don't, I'd perhaps accept David's account of the matter if I were you.

agreed zz.

Everything you say is true based on the film.. I have no disagreement.there. My question is when was this trip to Earth to take place?