Alien Origins - What Happened on LV 426?

@caenorhabhditis. No. When the woman looked at the machine, it was stated earlier in the movie that it was configured for a male. That's what made me suspect Vicker's gender. So I'd went online and Googled it to see if I wasn't the only one that questioned this. Turned out there are several listings that talked about Vicker's sex gender, concluding that she's a he. I doubt that this was for the old man. He basically had all that he needed in his private area. Think about it. Why would Vickers need to have it there? Why would Weyland need to have it there and he could have it in his area where they had him at, basically on life support keeping him alive? Remember, the robot stated this was Vickers private area and what she wanted in that private area. Regarding her possibly being a hermaphordite. That is still relevant. If she has male parts, in particular, more male than female, then that machine is needed. If she's not a hermophordite, then she is a male who had a sex change.

@epics7, the medpod was for Peter Weyland, there are no ifs or buts about it. Damon Lindelof confirms it in the commentary, and it didn't need to be confirmed since all the evidence is implied on screen. The medpod was just as much a foreshadowing device for Weyland's presence on board the ship as it was for Shaw's caesarean. Vickers' quarters is [i]Weyland's[/i] quarters; Vickers was a late addition to the mission, why do you think Weyland was surprised to see Vickers on board?” “So you came after all..." "After all your vigorous attempts to stop me from coming here, I'm surprised to see you." Though he does not have much time on the clock, he knew all along that he would be going on the journey, and the ship was appointed accordingly, ergo, the lifeboat luxury suite was not Vickers’ accommodation, it was Weyland’s.

I just can't buy the bioweapon theory. That would take far too long for one and doesn't make sense...why not use something far more effective? SJ and Engineer are noticeably different in size, cargo/xeno egg features and ship features. The SJ's ship on LV 426 has no hypersleep chambers, no holographic control center and the eggs are organic containing facehuggers. The Engineers' ship has a holographic map, hypersleep chambers and metallic ampules resembling the eggs containing xeno microorganisms in the glass tubes of fluid resembling water which were contained within an organic goo I think was a micro-nutrient for the xenos to live on and grow in. These ampules and their xeno microorganisms on LV 223 as well as the eggs on LV426 responded to slight increases in atmosphere temperature via human body heat and outgassing from our breath seen as "sweating" or some form of chemical reaction.

Hi...Um..I read...AND.....the jars werent a bio-weapon..they were alien DNA...and the builders were seeding the galaxy with it. Spreading thier..um.."Gifts" as it were....What happened is what always happened...enough time lapsed and enough decay took place to smudge the initial goal...and some of the dna leaked into the planets ground..and its indigenous populations of whatever worms or flies existed there..and the dna did what it was supposed to do. It altered the dna of the host. Its what always happens. Anyhoo..Those eggs werent part of the initial cargo. Another creature replaced the jars with their own eggs..thus providing protection to its young. Just follow the film and youll see Im correct in this. It was basicially a way to "further" any and all planets that had life...ego notwithstanding..even Earth has that much Ego to go around...just look at what we do to the Middle East. Same thing. Infection= Change.

the lv426 crash could be a result of ignorance to the xeno species? much like in Alien - the fachugger falls off and they think Kane is fine. same thing with the engineers? scouting mission ends with discovering the pilot has a facehugger on him, gets infected, facehugger falls off they think everything is fine and they take off. everyone is in stasis except the pilot, chest bursts with a queen, she spits enough acid to escape through the floor, eats the rest of the crew and gets big enough to lay a whole bunch of eggs in the cargo, which she figures is like a stasis bay and will last longer than her... does her job and curls up in a corner somewhere to die hidden from unsuspecting customers. pretty thin? obviously this is disregarding the cargo image posted earlier ...so many ways they could go... alternatively; like the sacrifice of the engineer at the start of Prometheus; the crash on lv426 could be completely on purpose and not a crash after all. the cargo bay starts as full of eggs, the pilot could willingly get infected and land the ship, leaving a critter to go forth in case there's any indigenous life. and the beacon is left transmitting to trap any engineered life that has evolved to the point of space travel - is thus a threat and needs to be wiped out. also pretty thin, or; the Deacon on lv233 eats the humans from the follow-up mission (or the Yutani corp. sneakily following the Prometheus, may be like months away instead of 3 years?) or maybe infects one which becomes a proper xeno queen? jumps on board one of the remaining derelict ships (whos crew is in stasis) lays a whole bunch of eggs, curls up and dies in a corner. the engineer crew wake up (because their alarm goes off for their specifically timed missions), the pilot gets facehugged (like in the image) they take off to go show their masters this new form of species, and crash on lv426 because the pilots chest bursts. i dunno, i like the original idea Ridley Scott had of it being a warship that was compromised - i'd like it better if it were completely independent from the Prometheus story, perhaps happened tens of thousands of years before anything happened on lv223

how do we even know there is an engineer in that cockpit on lv426? maybe following yutani or weyland corp teams get caught/infected by deacon or other goo related org's and try to leave/escape on one of the other juggernauts as shaw and david did because their human spacecraft got destroyed or more likely in this case left in a panic without them there would have to have been at least one human plus (infectee in chair) and maybe another android to assist in juggernaut operation (assuming it takes android iq to work out how) its not impossible but: where'd the android go unless it set the beacon? were the nostromo crew the first/only ones to go down? where did ash arrive on the scene in the chain of events? how did he appear to know what theyd find (the xeno)?

you have a good point there - since the cockpit makes its own 'shell' for whoever the pilot is, then perhaps the pilot could be human - maybe even Liz Shaw? dna locks, if applicable, would probably not see the difference. im not sure if androids would contain any living flesh - if they did it would surely carry human dna (the writers could play with this) though, if Shaw got to the point of knowing how to drive a juggernaught, then no need for David to be about (plus i'd say the warning beacon would probably be automatic once a ship crashes?) if Shaw made a daring escape from some un-winnable situation - David would sacrifice himself. also, im sure theres plenty of places for an android to hide on lv426 if it comes to that; the nostromo crew did very little exploration of the ship, so theres tonnes of space to write-in other things. from the time the juggernaught set down on lv426 im pretty sure the Nostromo crew were the first to find it, theres no hints of it at all, next was Newt's family. After the events in Aliens? I would say 'the company' would get on top of it eventually, maybe find the remains of David, maybe find the remains of what laid the eggs, maybe find the remains of more engineers? i get what you are hinting at. In Alien, i always used to think that 'the company' orders were standard cold procedure; 'on contact or discovery of any alien life, observe and study, any alien tech must be assessed for usefulness, militarization is first priority by default. samples must be obtained at all costs, crew expendable - goes without saying' it would be a logical doctrine. i also assumed 'the company' has secret intel on previous encounters with alien races and would probably never announce 'first contact' to the general public; that's how they roll. now with the Prometheus movie as canon, then the events of lv223 would be a possible source - meaning someone caught a radio transmission or a 2nd team actually landed there. so if 'the company' did know about lv426, went and had a look without disturbing anything, then left quietly; getting a bunch of ham-head miners to be the ones to be the guinea pigs - would be completely within their nature. they may have even set a beacon off to make the story plausible for the nostromo crew. all that said, i dont think 'the company' would give ash any key intel - for risk of him getting hacked. he would just be following orders from 'mother' as they were issued. ash is just a company tool with a few of his behavioral inhibitors left out.

what i was wondering was if a team followed prometheus to lv223 then one human plus infection plus android (ash) left in a juggernaut crashed on lv426 human chestbursts in cockpit android although having places to hide well wouldnt he want 'picked up'? and so set a beacon or earlier transmission to notify his company... they recover him and send the nostromo after the trick beacon message to get infected and brought back for experiments

maybe

ash was well creepy i went back n watched alien again for the first time since i was a kid the other day haha i needless to say i didnt fully understand the magazine business back when i was a kid i remember thinking oh dear he's malfunctioning badly what an odd way to try and kill someone by sticking a rolled up magazine in their mouth hahaha

Gigerfan- good point there, but as far as Ash being in the dark without his "science officer eyes only order" I doubt it.. Remember; Ash's whole impetus for being a part of the crew of the Nostromo to begin with was that he was a "last minute replacement" of the regular human science officer and that this was the first time that crew had flown a mission with him. This suggests to me that the company knew possibly years before of the Juggernaut warning beacon and subsequently placed Ash on board to carry out the "real" mission. As far as the company with the beacon... (possibly found through an unmanned space probe charting "unsurveyed worlds" at the time); which happened to pick up the signal and transmitted it to earth... Ripley stated that Mother had just started to decipher the beacon as a warning and wanted to go to warn the others.. Remember, Mother didn't have the raw computing power necessary to decipher the warning until well after it was too late for anyone to do anything about it.. Back on Earth however; they would have had plenty of computing power and time to do it... (Warning, Accidental Bio-Weapon release, DO NOT LAND!) Or what have you... Ash not only wanted to prevent Ripley from going to warn her crewmates about the danger; (implying strongly that he already knew or at the very least had a fairly good idea what was waiting on-board the Juggernaut and didn't want her to interfere)...but as we saw afterwards he did everything possible to compromise the safety of the crew; (breaking quarantine to let Kane inside the airlock with the facehugger attached, irritated when Ripley tried to look through his microscope; questioning his range detector sensor, etc..) and during their "last supper" before going back into the hyper sleep chambers Ash was CONSTANTLY eyeing Kane up and down suspiciously as if he KNEW and was actively waiting for something to happen to him while everyone else was completely oblivious... Then, helping the newborn alien all along the way to prevent it's being captured/killed while purposely doing as little as possible to help the rest of the crew to defeat it. (though this last part could be attributed to his special order I suppose).. Only problem of course is that only Dallas had access to Mother at that point, so one could argue that Ash could not be actively sending correspondence back and forth to earth without Dallas' knowledge. (especially while trying to give the appearance of trying to help the crew at the same time). This means he would have had to have known almost everything from the beginning.. The company wouldn't have needed to worry about him being hacked as no one onboard the Nostromo knew he wasn't human... They only found out after Parker smashed his head off his body when he attacked Ripley. For the company's bio-weapons division it would have made perfect sense. Program a Synthetic as a science officer with all the necessary intel to begin with; replace the Nostromo human science officer with Ash and a crew that otherwise suspects nothing; then send them on a standard mining mission with an otherwise expendable crew/ship to investigate the beacon on the way back to earth. (doesnt do any good to investigate it on their way to the mining planet...) Ash does everything in his power to bring back a live Alien(s); then (assuming he was still in one piece himself) have him remote pilot the ship (minus crew of course) back to high earth orbit.. The Nostromo then would have ultimately served as an completely self contained orbiting Xenomorph lab for the companies bio-weapons division. if things ever got out of control, the company could simply remote detonate the ship.. Threat neutralized...) Just my two cents, but it sounds plausible...

makes a lot of sense pegbyter... really dig the idea of the nostromo as becoming a xeno lab - love it if they made a movie of that happening somewhere ... i remember a dark horse comic that had a space lab where a mad scientist was developing synthetic xenos.. in fact several of those comics could be reworked into awesome films imo. yeh i still like to think Ash got clues from mother here and there (science officer only intel?) , but not the full report of the lv223 missions. i mean the films have to be linked logically, i just dont want the new films to overshadow what happened in Alien. In Alien, it feels to me that Ash is genuinely excited about discovering a new species human know almost nothing about - hence he knows almost nothing about. being a high level android with an intelligence comparable to David - im sure he could fill in the blanks of whats happening simply through his own observations. ie - what does a creature with incredible defense mechanisms have to gain by attaching itself to a humans face and not letting go? its either feeding or ? oh it died - well it wasnt feeding then... lol lets see what happens XD 2 big dark jokes in the film Alien; One - because the xeno came from an egg the humans assumed that was the only metamorphosis to happen. Two - Kane wasnt instantly shitting his pants at the sight of 2ft tall eggs. so no full body scan of anomalies for kane, and no fleeing the juggernaught before contamination - two things working greatly in Ash's favor. Xeno lab setup doing fine until Ripley gets cluey and finds order 937. http://alienanthology.wikia.com/wiki/Special_Order_937 and magazine in the face. ... ok could go either way, IF he did have previous intel i really want it to be from sketchy, incomplete lv223 reports. as for the beacon... i dont know how far signals go in space but its way more plausible if nobody discovered any signal till a ship got within a certain distance - otherwise the signal could have a huge range and be heard by ham-radio geeks some years later. or maybe both? 'the company' has to get there asap either way.

Hmmm... some very interesting ideas being shared here (as usual). One question that has come up before is just what is actually in the suit in the Derelict in LV-426. I finally decided for myself that it is indeed an engineer because in Prometheus he was much larger than any of the human crew, and although the suit encases him, it doesn't greatly increase his overall volume. So now if we were to remove Bob and replace him with any of the human crew members, it would really be off in terms of scale- and indeed, isn't the suited engineer in Prometheus already smaller than the one in ALIEN? I don't think the Juggernaut was left on LV-426 on purpose to serve as a booby-trap for visiting ships or to keep the xenos on the planetoid on a permanent basis. First, as many others have said, if infecting others is the goal then there are many other (much more efficient) ways of accomplishing that. I mean they seem to have a rather vast map of the entire galaxy (cosmos?) so imo this would be unnecessary. Second, the Juggernaut looks like a rather costly technological accomplishment- just look at the Prometheus ship itself. Would they really sacrifice something like that just so it can serve as a high-tech venus fly trap? As for Ash, well I think he actually knew just enough to (possibly) get the job done. He knew there would be a dangerous ALIEN life form, possibly eggs. He seemed to be doing quite a bit of analytical work on both Kane and the facehugger so I would imagine a lot of what he was discovering was new to him. A warning is typically straight and to the point, I doubt a full-blown scientific breakdown of xenomorph biology was included as part of the transmission. Plus, being an andriod, he probably surmised that he was "safe" from being a host for the creature and would merely adapt as best he could to the situation as circumstance evolved. What would have made things really interesting is if *all* of the three members of the search party in ALIEN became face-hugged within the Derelict! In that case, Ash would be lucky for Ripley to join a second rescue party because it seems she would force quarantine no matter what!

agreed, far more likely that the pilot is an engineer. my guess is the scale difference was a cheapo budget shortcut they hoped nobody would notice - or a different 'batch' of engineers? (my understanding is the engineers are clones built by a so-far unmet species???) or one of the creators of the engineers who are 2-4 foot taller than their servants? i still like the idea of the lv426 booby trap. if a spacecraft were actively exploring that part of the cosmos then they would likely notice the signal before anything else and thus miss the installation on lv223. but yeah a whole juggernaught just for this purpose seems a bit much. theres nothing to say that a biological parasite could not infect an android as it has organic parts, xenos would not have much use for it though. its interesting the comparison of the androids of the series: from his 2 years left to potter around on the ship - David seems to be bordering on breaking his programming and thus is developing self-preservation much as humans have. Bishop, on the other hand puts more importance on the safety of humans above all else. (not sure with winona-bot - it seems her series is more like the replicants from Bladerunner?) Ash's programming would hold his mission priorities above all else - so my guess is his regard for his own existence would hinge on that and thus he would not care if there were no absolute guarantee for his own safety. so he would probably just start murdering everyone and attempt collecting a sample himself somehow. i just got to thinking (now with colonial marines game out) whether there were any followup missions after the Nostomo? i suspect this is something James Cameron didn't think too much about. Evidence points to the derelict being untouched for 40-57 years afterwards. If the Company DID go back, then there would be no reason to keep looking for samples - they would have plenty - and they would have probably NOT let colonists setup camp there. This is UNLESS the Company have got samples, been playing around on a ship (like in Alien4) and would like to specifically study how a colony is affected AND test how a few teams of Marines deal with Xenos in combat. Burke may be ordered to collect samples from curiosity of how the Xenos change from generation to generation? Bit much. So James Cameron would have left it at..... - Nostromo mission abandoned by the Company after receiving a few of Ash's initial reports. Some of the top executives would have full knowledge of the risks from the Xenos and are quietly waiting to see what happens. A full complement of terraformers regarded as expandable - and probably seen as a cost-effective way to study the Xeno from a long-long way away - ...and then set about making a kick-ass action film.

My theory on the info provided is that the facehugger escaped and melted the hole up from the bottom. It was likely a floor grate covering a vent down into the cargo hold and when enough of it melted it just fell through splattering acid all over the opening. As for the origins I think we can reference the comics on this one whereby the host alien xenomorph gets a portion of its genes from its host. The specific genetic strain and combination of hosts determines what the end product would be. My theory is that the Xenomorph is actually a natural species in the egg and facehugger states and the black liquid is a genetic "extract" of the portion of the Xenos that allows them to absorb some traits of their hosts. As an evolutionary step you can adapt to any environment and through a few generations end up essentially back at a similar type of organism than what you started with. It would be the ultimate way to ensure the survival of your species.

got an idea from your post there - that, at the time ALL the same models of the Ash droid all went bonkers and were all considered; in human terms - Hannibal Lecters - a reason for the company to ignore the Nostromo mission. maybe... still thin Burke had his reasons; money/blackmail = to me it doesn't really matter after that given his character. i would say order 939 stays as per mission (when issued), i dont think Company politics will affect this standard.

@gigerfan, yes and we can see where Cameron put some thought into that evolution (from Ash to Bishop) in the form of the latter's behavioral inhibitors. Assuming the company did not know of the events aboard the Nostromo, we can deduce that there were incidents which occurred elsewhere with the Ash model- prompting a redesign. Which brings me to the next point- the company, in all likelihood, did *not* know of the events on the Nostromo! Ash did his analysis, probably took detailed notes, etc. but all of that was lost when Ripley initiated the self-destruct sequence. I say this because you don't invest tons of money and manpower in a terraforming project of that magnitude and then casually send a poorly armed family to investigate such a dangerous organism. Burke was essentially operating independently- his own little black ops project- thinking that once he had a sample, dead or alive, it would be worth a lot of money to the company. And he would be right of course. So... where does this leave the original Order 939, and who within the company was responsible for it? It could be that after Vicker's death, a power struggle ensued and someone else took over the company; however, loyalist elements would still undoubtedly persist and want to continue pursuing the goal of obtaining a specimen.

I feel like we'll never know :/ Ridley said the sequel would take it further away from alien

I think what happened was that the Derelict was headed to Earth and was intercepted by the ''Good Faction Engineers''. They engaged in air combat with the Derelict being the loser. Something close to this I believe. This is seen in the Alien:Colonial Marines games. It shows the downed Derelict playing a hologram showing the air battle and how it ended up there on lv426.

well there was a theory about the engineers, how the bad ones piloted the juggernaut and the good one piloted the saucer, well what is the bad engineer found the alien, crated the alien queen to lay the eggs and contiuned to earth with, the xenos, but then one of the facehuggers pop out and catch him of guard , then after the engineer breaches the atmosphere he crashes on lv426, but from what apex said that sounds more logical

The whole Queen theory is absurd. If the Xenomorphs are bio-weapons created by the Engineers, as many speculate including myself. Then why would the Engineers go forth and create a Xenomorph Queen. That would be counter productive to there project. it would mean that there would be a high probability that they could lose control over a Queen and that might result in total case for them. Imagine a Queen on the lose with the capability of reproducing thousands of Xenomorph eggs. That could only bring total chaos to the Engineers. No the Engineers to maintain control of there creation must have total control over it. That means the Engineers would want to create the Xenomorphs in a contained environment. Which would allow them to create the Xenomorphs at will when needed. When I saw Aliens I was disspaointed when I saw the Queen appear. The Queen inclusion decimated the whole purpose of the eggs being grown and kept in containment tubes. I am not saying that the idea of growing the eggs in a closed environment is full proof. We all ready know that the face huggers can get loose one way or the other. We saw proof of that in Alien. But in my opinion the percentage of that type of incedent happening to the Engineers is small, compared to having a Queen reproduce the face huggers for the Engineers.

My theory is that the Derelict found crashed on LV 426 was indeed a transport and the eggs its cargo as was stated by Mr. Scott. However, Mr. Scott never clarifies the specifics. Many believe the craft crash-landed on LV 426 with the eggs already in tow. Others believe the Xenomorphs originated from LV 426 and the Space Jockey found them there. I believe the latter idea is the more likely one. I believe LV 426 may have been a planet which was already "cleaned up" by the Xenomorphs, and a Space Jockey was sent there to collect the eggs for some purpose -- perhaps for study. We do know that what the Engineers created was quite unpredictable and without control -- even for them. I believe the Engineer collected the eggs and was somehow exposed before taking off. Some reasons why I do not believe the Jockey crashed on LV 426 with the eggs in tow from some other destination. In Aliens, the people of Acheron described a region on the moon they referred to as the "Alien Zone". This would suggest there was something more than a spacecraft there, something "alien" and not yet fully determined. When Newt and her family stumbled upon the Derelict, that was the peoples' first exposure to it -- therefore the Derelict itself could not solely lend to the establishment of the "Alien Zone". They immediately laid claim to the ship, having not discovered it prior to. Which lends to another question -- what happened to the warning signal? Most likely inadvertantly disturbed or turned off due to the activities of the Nostromo crew (or possibly the explosion of the Nostromo in nearby space). Another thing is that it would not make too much sense for the Space Jockey to have set a course to crash on LV 426 with his precious cargo in tow. It would have made more sense to continue on his destination, even in the threat of his own demise as an expendable being. Also, would the Derelict have been in such decent condition had it crashed there from space? Doubtful. It would have disintegrated. Having unsuccessfully taken off from LV426 similar to what happened in Prometheus on LV223 is more plausible.

A few of my theories about the crash land on Lv 426, 1.the Juggernaut crash landed during maybe a routine drop-off travel and that a Xeno secretly got on board during take off, in any case to me it seems the eggs were allready onboard .Were did the jockey leave from? My guess is Lv223 , this planet is used as somekind of weapon engineering Laboratory, so it's the center planet to create the different kinds of Xeno-Rases, that is why Prometheus isn't a prequel , just a different chapter of the same book in my opinion.The Xeno-morph is a different type of creature then the Deacon, berhaps even being created in the same lab.The Jockey was headed for Earth or some other planet to colonize/assimilate. 2.The Xeno eggs were already on Lv 426 and the Jockey and crew were there to pick the cargo up, as the planet was some kind of Storage location/breeding ground for the Xeno to reproduce, A routine pickup got out of hand.As the engineer got face-hugged it send out a distress call.

Chris asked, [i]"What happened on LV 426? How did the Space Jockey crash and what do you think caused the Xenomorph outbreak?"[/i] and I personally believe Prometheus i.e. the script that got filmed, didn't want to address this. It was having 'too much fun' making myths and confounding BASIC CONCEPTs. What are those basic concepts? Well, it's like when you're making a computer game. Or at least the 'good' video game makers, like Nintendo. They'd toil for years on a massive sprawling enigma-filled update/original product ... then they'd re-examine what they'd and hone in on the best bits. Completely scrapping the 'original script' and making a narrative/dynamic from the best of the visual/control/reward solutions. I don't think Prometheus did this. Basic Concepts: i) LV-426. ii) Elephantine 'space trucker' in its own room. iii) Rogue self-replicating Xeno burst out of the chest of 'space trucker'. iv) Egg cargo. [b]None[/b] of these Basic Concepts were examined in Prometheus, instead we got 'narrative simulacra' or 'standins' to use a Hollywoodism. a) LV-223. b) Giant Head Sculpture in its own room. c) Black goo infestation of human expeditionists. d) Ampules laid out like the eggs in Alien. There's also the possibility that the Space Trucker (or his slave crew) were PICKING UP EGGS from the surface of LV-426 and there might have been a Chernobyl moment, when something went wrong. None of this was mentioned in pre-Alien and that's its loss. In fact, if you look at the cover image for this very thread, you'll see that the History Rewriters have been busy REFERENTIALLY WELDING the old Space Trucker chair onto the new Engineer chair (this came from the Prometheus To Alien boxset even though Prometheus never stated it was bound by anything in the original film. [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bA92Hf_Fc7A/UDVvgQJEZTI/AAAAAAAAHdA/H3YozaS9JbQ/s1600/sinful+EVOLUTION_edited-1.jpg[/img] I suspect Prometheus was trying to tell us, all along, that the Engineers had 'back engineered' an ancient Space Trucker technology they'd come across and made it work for them over the years. But that's being 'charitable' ... i.e. I don't think The Engineers (at least not the stunted ones shown) should have ever been in this narrative, [u]not one bit.[/u] There was PLENTY STORY to play with in Space Trucker Universe and we still could have got to that point where Alien starts - we'd have had 'some' answers. I don't think the Xenomorph outbreak was 'an outbreak', I think it just 'ran out of fuel' i.e. humanoids (or abducted humans) to convert into eggs. I think that's what the Space Trucker chestburster did, what it always does i.e. creates from destruction. Egg Worlds forever waiting for victims. Maybe in Hollywood Scriptland, no one can hear you [i]SCREAM the obvious[/i].

I bet the acid born hole in the juggernaut was made by a predator who intercepted the space jockey. He cut that hole to make an opening for the xenomorphs and that's how the jockey got face-hugged -predator sabotage.

reading thru these 4 pages is to be impressed. something that came to mind is that the vessel on the original Alien did not crash land. a ship that size hitting the surface would have broken. therefore, the dead gunner the Nostromo crew find was killed after landing the ship or in the process of taking off. the myriad of organic pods with face huggers inside on Alien 1 ... some of the comments suggest these are samples to be studied ? but do you need 10,000s of these identical pods to come to some kind of analytical conclusion? No, but ... yes, it makes impressive visual imagery ? on the other hand, if the face hugger pods were cargo to seed a given planet with face huggers to spare you might need 1,000s to kill more, more quickly ? what puzzles is why Engineers in their laser projection (in P1) are running for their life, one after the other ? one thinks of a hoard of aliens chasing them? who else could give these Engineers trouble, making them run away like weak humans ? yet, we are on LV223 and not on LV426 ... so where would the aliens pursueing them come from or... where have they since gone? there were no aliens in the vessel on LV223 to chop up the naive, unarmed science crew ? in the death scene of the only surviving Engineer on LV223 ( survived in the hyper-sleep pod) we see that even Engineers serve as a gestation species for the alien of LV426. the massive Squid gets the best of the last Engineer in hand to hand combat & forces into him cells that create an alien. the losers in battles with the aliens (on LV426 and LV223) are both humans and Engineers ... when it comes to close conflict. in P1 neither the Engineers nor the humans are armed. Since both of them lose out when contacting xenomorphs why do they never deal with them with weapons and from a distance? finally, just how smart are alien creatures ? cunning, yes, but can they project ? the answer is yes, they project, they sort out possibilities and understand human behaviour. nevertheless, they place also erronously place home office ( Alien 1) right in the heart of a nuclear reactor. yes, it's warm & steamy there. but it should not be. a nuclear reactor that is warm & steamy is going to blow soon. you might say a good place to hang out since it's dangerous to shoot at them ( = Aliens & the marines), but, on the other hand, it's a most critical place to jump or slither around. aliens, young and old, have acid blood, sticky body fluids and there is the nuclear cooling system to gum things up royally. cunning, devious, constantly on the alert, yet they chose as central hide-out (Alien 1) the right location destined to blow them to kingdom come. good riddance I could add. still, we would have preferred their eventual demise from puny species they ruthlessly hunt and easily kill. that's us ... we don't get that in Alien 1. as the marine remarks ... "we just got our ass kicked". had Nostromo not come along the alien hoard would have inadvertently wiped themselves out, as a result of mother-alien's decision to nest in a warm corner of a nuclear reactor. no, technicians they are not; messy, sticky, yes, full of acidic fluid ... but finally indifferent to the finesses of nuclear annihilation. xenomorphs like heat, even the heat and steam in the proximity of an unwatched nuclear reactor slowly going critical ? it's ironic that Nostromo came before they left existence all on their own.

There are some good theories to be found in this thread. These are mine: The black goo is the origin of everything. It's a weaponized mutagen that attacks other life beings - ANY other living beings - using them as delivery vessels destined to reach a specific xenomorphic form which is - or might be - the final version of the mutation, but also the very first form of an advanced new delivery agent (xenomorph). This is after all a biological weapon. With that in mind: 1. The black goo has been engineered to mutate any life form in what we know as xenomorph. This might be the reason why we see the murales of a clearly xenomorphic creature in that chamber. 2. the WORMS have NOTHING TO DO with the xenomorphs. The worms, the tiny ones, were already there, they were an indigenous life form. When the Prometheus crew triggered the activation of the urns by changing the atmospheric conditions inside that chamber, the worms have been immerged in that goo that started oozing from the urns. Their transformation didn't took long and they encountered Millburn and Fifield shortly after a first mutation stage. 3. The worms killed Millburn by penetrating his body and INJURED Fifield by splashing him with the acidic liquid. What happens next is that Millburn obviously dies, but Fifield doesn't - trying to get the helmet off he collapses right into the black goo. 4. At this point we can see that the mutated worms showed some of the xenomorphic characteristics: they nested in Millburn's body, if not for anything else, purely for sustenance, and acquired acidic blood that we know very well. In fact, they were already on their way towards the final stage of the mutation: the xenomorph. 5. Like the worms, Fifield started to mutate as well. Different life forms, different middle-stages, but everything that got in direct contact with the black slime start to mutate at a frighting pace into the same final creature. 6. Holloway got infected as well, and he started to turn as well, yet at a slower pace due to a small amount of goo within his organism. 7. But it would not be a such a dangerous biological weapon if it didn't use multiple vectors to propagate itself - in fact this black goo was able to use reproduction processes of other life forms. Holloway, already infected, inseminated Watts with the alien organism that started to grow in her womb. Once outside, it would enter a different phase, one that needed another living host to continue to reproduce itself in the same way. This proto-facehugger would find another body and infect it with the xenomorphic embryo. 8. What makes this "black slime" such a powerful weapon is that it will adapt to various delivery vessels, using all possibilities in order to create the final reproduction agent which is the xenomorph. 9. For all we know, the xenomorph that emerged from the Engineer could be the final stage of a preliminary mutation that we have seen in Prometheus, and the first form of another series of mutations that will continue until it will produce the xenomorph from Alien - which again, might just another mutation of a highly adaptable organism. 10. There two facts for certain: ONE - the Engineers on LV223 have been wiped out around 2,000 years ago. TWO - the Space Jockey was far older. Now, we assume that LV-426 and LV-223 are in the same system. 11. The Space Jockey was coming from LV-223. It DID NOT CRASH at all. The derelict space craft LANDED on LV-426 thousands of years before the outbreak on LV-223. It didn't crash, because if it did we would see some external damage because now we know that it's not indestructable. And it wasn't transporting EGGS. It was actually transporting the same urns we have seen in Prometheus. It might have been used on that planet to test the weaponized organism (In Alien novel the ship is actually full of "urns", not eggs.) Now, "something bad happens" and the crew is exposed to the alien organism. We know that at least one xenomorphic organism emerges from an Engineer and, as shown in Alien Director's Cut, is capable of capturing and transforming the rest of the crew into eggs. The ship then starts sending warning messages, and the Engineers from LV-223 must have it deemed enough, because apparently they didn't glass the nearby planet. The question is why Promethus crew didn't receive any other transmission from LV-426.

Good post so many questions that have been given answers and some that contradict.... First the Signal from LV 426 the Weyland Viral site etc did indicate that the company had discovered a signal from LV 426 and that David was aware of such a signal.... Prometheus was sent to LV 223 as it was where the Star Maps pointed and was a most habitable place in that system, it could be a case of check out LV 223 first and if no rewards then go check out LV 426 Now if David had some idea about the Engineer Language, the crew thought the Star Maps was a Invitation and so thats where they went and David would maybe known the LV 426 signal was some kind of Warning.... It would make sense to go and explore LV 223 first.... As far as the Derelict...... Now Ridley had said ages ago that the Derelict was... 1) A Bomber of Sorts, a Cargo Ship for carrying Bio Weapons 2) The Pilot was a Space Suit not a Organism. He hinted, well indicated originally after the movie release that the Derelict was carrying that Cargo of Eggs and one had got to the Pilot just as one got to Cain. Yes the Alien Book had Urns not Eggs but these was not Urns as in Prometheus they was Urns as in the Star Beast Drafts which was Urns that had a leathery almost Organic look and feel as opposed to Ceramic/None Organic look of Prometheus. These Urns in Alien Book and Star Beast contained the Face Huger Organism... Not Goo... Ridley had said long time ago that the Derelict was transporting its Cargo when one got to the Pilot and it caused him to crash on LV 426, and then the Pilot set off a Warning Beacon and his actions was deemed as Heroic. Fast Forwards to Prometheus Era and Ridley confirmed the Derelict was carrying a Cargo and nothing laid Eggs... He said that the Derelict and its Cargo was going to a destination, when its Cargo became compromised and infected the Pilot. The Pilot knew what the outcome would be and he then set a course to a Baron Near by Moon to Quarantine the Compromised Cargo and Set off a Warning. Ridley said the event occurred within few hundred years of the same period of the outbreak on LV 223. Now considering he said the Space Jockey set a near by course could mean that it was leaving LV 223 with a Cargo... or it was going to LV 223 with a Cargo. Ridley said the Ship did not crash but kind of landed... This tells us the Space Jockey infected but then awake, like Cain was after the Face Huger came off, had some short period of time where all seems fine until the Xeno Chest Bursts. This tells us the Space Jockey was trying to land on LV 426 to Quarantine the Cargo... The fact that the Derelict was not massively damaged, and Space Jockey had his hands on the controls seems to suggest that the Chest Buster broke out not far from when the Pilot was close to landing, and that while being Chest Busted the Pilot held on to the controls because he knew he must at all costs land that ship on LV 426. i assume this means he got Chest Busted as it was entering the Atmosphere of the Moon. Now here is the contradiction by Ridley... Latter after Prometheus was out, he said the Derelict and Juggernauts are related, as Brothers meaning they are indeed part Biological Ships. He hints that it was carrying a Cargo, that Evolved and one escaped and got to the Pilot..... Now this could indicate that there was Urns that Evolved into Eggs... But how does Urns that have Goo, Evolve into Eggs and thus a Face Huger that Evolved inside the Urns got to the Pilot unless the Pilot had been flying his ship in space while under some kind of Cryo Sleep at the controls for a very long time, or maybe enough time for Urns to Evolve to Eggs... but how? Unless some other Organism was on the ship and got itself infected by a Urn contents.... this Organism then found the Pilot or the Pilot went to investigate and got infected by said mutated Organism and Face Hugged.... then latter the Urns evolved into Eggs after the crash landing? I say this because i cant see a Engineer getting infected by the contents of a Urn, and how can the Goo bring about a Chest Buster Hole? Yes the Dead Engineers had holes in places in there body, but maybe as the movie hinted to the holes was made as the Engineers exploded after contamination with the Goo... But why did next to the Space Jockey did we see a Acid Burn Hole? Many possibilities... maybe the Engineer got infected by Goo, he exploded from his chest and resulting matter then hit the floor melted through and contacted the Urns and they Evolved into Eggs? But then we have to ask, why did the Engineers have Mural that showed Face Hugging sequence? Surely it was known to them, and thus the Eggs containing Face Hugers was not some random set of events that occurred after Space Jockey got himself Gooed... Also the other Cryo Pods in Prometheus Juggernaut had Holes from inside out that was at same height as Chest Buster Holes... Also the one Mural, that broke down and you could not see was indeed a Xeno Holding a Egg... These all add up to maybe the Xeno and Face Huger had been known and around for before Prometheus, we dont have answers to 100% confirm that Eggs come from Urns or its contents, or are laid from something that is created from a Organism created via Goo.. But the Xeno Queen can lay Eggs.... So Logic could sugest that maybe laid Eggs was placed into the Ship Cargo Hold, or indeed something Laid Eggs on the Derelict but Ridley stated the Ship was all ready carrying a Cargo.... So you see Ridleys something Evolved Comment contradicts his older Cargo of Eggs, he has gone from Cargo of Eggs to Cargo of Biological Drums. But when he made the Biological Drums comment it could be related to what the Juggernaut was going to drop on Earth and not the Derelict. So its still not clear about what happened on LV 426... All we know is this for sure..... Within few hundred years of downfall of LV 223 so about 1800-2200 years ago, the Derelict was carrying a Cargo (be that Eggs or Urns) the ship was going to a unspecified location and was the Pilot got infected by one of the Cargo.... how who knows. Then the Pilot piloted a near by destination a Baron Moon to Quarantine the Cargo which happened to be LV 426 and set off a Warning Beacon. Thus Ship was not far from LV 223 at time he got infected, but sure he never got infected soon after take off, maybe this could imply the Derelict was heading to LV 223 as opposed to away. Thus Warning was to inform that the Cargo can not make it to LV 223 as its compromised.... As opposed to leaving LV 223 and then getting compromised. But still thats not a certain only certain is the Derelict was either on way too or from LV 223.. Now as far as Derelict having Egg Cargo, which is simple to explain what happened to the Space Jockey.... or Urns which would beg a more unlikely series of events that led to Eggs and Chest Buster etc... I hope we can clear that up some day... But next post may explain...

Now onto the Goo.......... The Goo is not quite how you see it, not from what i gathered, and my theory is and was even simpler, it makes sense to the Murals, the Eggs etc.... And upon reading Spaights Original Draft it matched my ideas perfectly.... The Deleted well replaced Altar that had the Ceremonial Sacrificial Bowl that was replaced by Green Crystal also made my theory fit... Ok first lets look at the goo.... 1st Goo breaks down Engineer whos Genetic Material is seeded into Water and creates or Evolves Life...... (that planet must have had basic life in the Water, because well there was trees in the back ground and greenery now that needs basic Organisms that produce CO2 right!) So if we assume that Engineers broken down substance mutates with basic Organisms thus kick starting advanced Evolution... (now Story Board shows a Early Amphibian creature to be shown walking from Water to Land.. which is the Ichthyostega this or similar was shown in Story Board... This shows that Engineers seeding started Evolution that led to the first animals to walk on land and eventually to Mankind.. Right? This is confirmed when Shaw DNA Matched the Engineers to us, essentially she confirmed we came from them....... Now we have to then ask..... why does the Goo in Urns Mutate Life into carrying Xeno Traits....? Worms became Snakelike Acid for Blood Xeno-esque Hammerpedes.. Fifield mutated into well Long Armed Crab Walking Toxic Avenger dude.... but the other scene was more Xeno-esque the unused Animatronic Fifield even more so, and many of the concepts much more Xeno Look... Shaws Baby via infected Holloway, ended up being the closest we seen to a Face Huger, it performed the same function and implanted the Deacon Embryo into Engineer which became the Deacon Chest Buster that had many traits of the Xeno... If you also paid close attention to the deleted Engineer vs Shaw Scene, and the Goof Galore, of the now you see it now you dont, now you do and now you dont Engineer Face Burn, with the images released from him running to Life Boat and Reading Book all unburned.... Watch Carefully the Engineer getting tied up by the Trilobyte... (Ignore the first part when it first grabs him) You will see the Engineer fight off the Squid thing with no Burns, he then bares his teeth as he struggles, we then go to the part where the Squid fires its tongue that implants the Engineer and he is now burnt... How? Most likely during Struggle he tried to bite the Trilobite and Got Acid Burnt and this then was the moment the Trilobite got the upper hand and the Engineer lost the battle.... When most animals and people are caught and cant escape in a fight etc they resort to biting as a last desperate way to escape... If i am correct about the above, this confirms that Shaws baby and the Hammerpedes all had Acid for Blood.... we see Shaws Baby is closest to the Xeno in the movie.... (Face Huger) So again go back to how i saw the movie, and compared story board and how the planet must had basic life for their to be trees etc.... and thus Engineers seed caused Evolution and thus lead to us to share DNA link.... ANSWER THIS..... Why do Humans not have Acid for Blood or Xeno Traits? or the Engineers? Its same substance is it not............... Yes/No... Now look at the Mural, its shows Xeno-Esque Deacon Organism in Sacrificial Pose, above the Alter that had the Sacrificial Bowl Originally before being changed to a Crystal... Does the Bowl not make more sense? Is the Head Statue a Icon/Effigy to show that a Engineers Sacrifice created mankind? The Mural is in Sacrificial pose like that Sacrifice Christ Gave to save mankind, is it not to show us the Deacon/Xeno Sacrifice to create something as opposed to oh its God or Jesus is a Deacon? Then the Murals had Face Hugers it also had a Xeno holding a Egg, certainly a hint of Egg/Xeno before Goo in Urns? Maybe... Now go back to LV 426, we have a Cargo that is dangerous one thats hard to contain and store, Eggs that is... Could there be a way to re-weaponize such a Weapon for Safer Storage, more potential applications, ease of use etc.... Well what if they used that Mural Room, to break down a Xeno or related Organism just how the Sacrificial Engineer was broken down at the start of the movie...? Imagine if the Elders placed that Sacrificial Engineer into a Large Vat say like you use to make wine, or large bath. Then the Engineer takes the Bowl and consumes the Matter and breaks down, what is broken down does not go into the Water Fall but its drains down into pipes and collected into containers... Would it be right to say that such collected broken down Engineer material into a bottle, if they then took that bottle or bottles and then emptied them into the lake/waterfall we would get same result? Surely if taking Sacrificial Bowl stuff breaks you down into a new substance this could be collected and then taken to any body of water that contains life and it would evolve and mutate said life to have Engineer DNA.... well DNA of what ever had originally taken the Sacrificial Bowl Goo? Now picture this.... Trailer showed that Bowl on the Altar in front of Sacrificial pose Deacon... Does this not make more sense to show that a Xeno - Ancestor was Sacrificed via Sacrificial Goo (hence Bowl in front of Mural on Altar). The resulting broken down material collected and contained within the Urns.... with other substances to both help store and keep the Goo inactive, as well as when certain climate is near and certain atmosphere changes the other substances break down, and mix with broken down Xeno DNA Goo, while one of the substances in Urn acts as a Excelerant which increased rate of Evolution much faster than it occurred when at start of movie. This would show why these Urns Goo mutated life to have Xeno Traits and not simply broke them down or passed on Engineer Traits... Now back to LV 426, if LV 223 was as i assume a place to Re-Weaponize the Xeno Organism into a Safer more easier to store and deploy Bio Weapon... Then was the Derelict in the Process of transporting lets say this Cargo/Cattle to the Slaughter House/LV 223. Now Cattle can be minced down to make Burgers, the Xenos or Eggs broke down to make Goo for Urns... Now just if a shipment of Cattle was found to have say BSA then the Cargo of Cattle would not go to Slaughter House it would have to be destroyed...contaminated meat? So why not the shipment of Eggs for LV 223 Process Plant became compromised, thus had to be Quarantined... To me this is whats going on, i may be wrong, Ridley has chopped and changed the Script and even Shots taken in movie and commented to change things, into a big pile of mess.... When simply the above theory makes sense, and matches Spaights...... Spaights Draft = Nano Scarabs that attack a victim and the many thousands and millions of these eat the Engineer, what they consumed was Engineer and their stomachs contained Engineer DNA.... These Scarabs , well one then found a native female primate and it bite her on the neck and injected the Engineer DNA it consumed via the Sacrificial Scene into the Primate and the Primate Evolved into Mankind.... Replace Scarabs with Mutagen Goo but apply same principles as Spaights Scarabs then watch movie and read my theory and its a near Match with not many holes at all. Also look at Eggs vs Urns.... Eggs are hard to store they need the Stasis Field to keep them from being active, a barrier to stop them opening up.... How would you move Eggs without them going off? Well what if its the atmosphere or even what most living Organisms give off..... CO2... The Presence of CO2 could be what sets off Urns and Eggs or some other change in atmosphere... There must been some reason for the Stasis Field in Alien, as only when Cain was close to Egg did it open up, then again he had his helmet but maybe the breaking of the Stasis Field caused some kind reaction or at least prevented Eggs from being active... Now Cain had his Helmet on so maybe that rules out CO2... But then surely Some Space Suits would expel the CO2 out of the suit? Maybe thats why there was moisture and mist around him..? As if CO2 is not expelled then eventually the person in the suit would be overcome by toxic CO2 Gas... My point being maybe the Space Jockey suits are there to prevent Engineers from contaminated the environments, if they are like us they would exhale CO2. Thus Space Jockey suits prevent them from setting off Eggs and Urns, and thus they can safe handle and movie or operate near my machinery that transport Eggs. Now we know how unsafe transporting off Eggs are, and once Face Huger is released you have to watch out and kill it. We know that in order to deploy Eggs they would need to be placed on ground, we can assume that crashing a ship with Eggs so it explodes, or dropping Eggs from hundreds or thousands of feet up would surely damage the Eggs and Face Hugers? Now Urns are easier to store and transport as long as the environment conditions are not changed, thats why David could transport one back to the Prometheus Ship. Also as a Goo the Bio Weapon has many more uses, and you could drop them from high up and watch them smash open the Goo would be split everywhere but not destroyed. In a nutshell Re-Weaponizing a Xeno Bio Weapon into a Goo contained in Urns via same way Engineers seed their DNA is a more easier and effective Bio Weapon.

@King; Where did you get that image of the egg silo from? Do you know if it is an official concept? Or is it fan made?