Engineer Background

You have formed some really good theories, most of which I agree. I would like to take what you posted here and add a little more detail. First let me tackle the LV-223 installation. The installation may have been originally built by the "seeders." When looking in the caves and the rooms of the dome-like structures, we see a particular language carved into the doors and walls. However, a completely different looking language can be seen engraved in the urns or vases that contain the black goo. This language probably belongs to the Engineers that wanted to destroy Earth. As you stated in your post, there was no accident on LV-223. Instead, it was sabotage initiated by one or a few spies (seeders), but there is a big and disturbing question that needs to be asked. It has been hinted by Ridley Scott that perhaps the Engineers wanted to destroy all life on Earth because we crucified Jesus, who happened to be an Engineer. What if these rogue Engineers were not interested in killing the human race, but instead were interested in killing Jesus himself? If so, who or what is Jesus and why is he such a threat to these rogue Engineers?

I really like this post. (Kschott) I completely agree. At least 2 factions. The LV223 group are definitely the 'Dark Ones'- very Luciferian in appearance, and the mural of the xeno resting on an inverted pentagram. It's there, i promise you. (also the green crystal is a nod at Lucifer himself, i'm sure) I don't want Aliens to happen all over again, and the sequel to be turned into a balls out action movie; but i Would love to see some Engineer on Xeno action, or some Engineer war action. So long as the vibe is consistent with the original. I still prefer the slow creep, and disturbing philosophical implications to Die Hard in Space. (Looking at you, James Cameron) Awesome post- and i totally agree that it wasn't a universal vote to destroy/change us.

@kscott185, you've posted a sound theory, I can tell you've put a lot of thought into it and I agree with you, to a point. @kevthedm, quote " The installation may have been originally built by the "seeders." When looking in the caves and the rooms of the dome-like structures, we see a particular language carved into the doors and walls. However, a completely different looking language can be seen engraved in the urns or vases that contain the black goo. This language probably belongs to the Engineers that wanted to destroy Earth." There is a slight problem with this bud. Assuming that the disc shaped aircrafts are what the Elders (good engineers?) use and the juggernauts are what the LV223 engineers (evil engineers?) use, it wouldn't make any sense that the installation on LV223 was built by the Elders, because, the installation has an underground docking bay built for a juggernaut. It would make sense that the faction that uses the juggernauts, (evil engineers?) also built the installation, wouldn't it? However, I do agree with you that their are atleast two factions of engineers with differing beliefs. I think it's more likely that the LV223 engineers had differing beliefs to the Elders, which lead to them being either banished from Paradise or leaving Paradise. Like the first European Americans/Anglo Americans, leaving England because they couldn't practice their beliefs here, so they boarded a ship to America (the Mayflower) so they could practice to their hearts content. I think that when they left or were banished from Paradise, they stole some of the black stuff from the Elders, but they didn't have full knowledge of it, they thought that they could handle it but it didn't react well to them, it sensed evil? and turned on them. But then again, there are a number of different possibilities and I could be completely wrong.

@Necronom 4, I certainly agree with you regarding the installation on LV-223. What puzzles me are the two different languages that were discovered. If there were two different factions then which language belongs to which faction? I like your “European Americans/Anglo Americans” analogy, but let me throw you a curve, if I may. What if there is another alien race, totally different from the Engineers, which hate all life that is not similar to theirs? They never leave their homeworld. Instead, they have taken Engineer DNA and fused it with their own to create a kind of drone to do their dirty work. Therefore, the “Engineer” that was discovered on LV-223 may have been a drone carrying out the wishes of this evil and malevolent race. This would also mean that David and Dr. Shaw are not on their way to the Engineer’s home world, but the home world of this evil race, which I see as being totally Gigeresque. This is why I am such a fan of Prometheus: the possibilities are literally endless!

Well this is where the movie can get complex as there is so much we dont know about the Engineers... We can assume which group is Evil or Not and it maybe the other way around, or that there is no rogue group who differs, until a point when the Engineers wanted us to be Black Goo'ed and one fraction disagreed... What i am saying is the will of the Engineers to carry out that mission may be the same as the Elders, at one point they created us via Sacrificial Engineer, then for some reason they may have wanted us to be destroyed or redesigned. This is where a small fraction or even lone Engineer disagreed and caused things to go to pop....

In Order of what we see here is what has appeared to be going on... 1) Ancient Elders/Engineer Race come to Earth (we assume) they give Strange Substance to a Young Engineer to Sacrifice himself, thus breaking down his Genetic Make Up that due to the substance is then able to either a) fuse his genetic material with basic life on the planet to cause it to mutate/evolve. b) Allows his genetic material to reform to create a basic life form that can evolve into many species. Ridley stated that this Sacrificial Engineer would been treated like Royalty for a while just as Mayans would with a chosen Sacrifice, then that Sacrificial person after 1 year must then perform his sacrifice to the Gods for the benefit of the Mayans. This implies the chosen Engineer, was given a great place of honor for their race and that his deed will be for the benefit and agenda of their kind. We dont know what that agenda was, and if mankind was the desired outcome. Ridley also states that the Sacrifice route via Black Goo is just how Engineers seed their DNA onto Worlds to Create Life... this does not mean its the only way they can do it, just its how they chose to do it. This would imply they may have created life on other Worlds via same process and this goes with when Ridley said this does not mean that opening scene is Earth..... The event of when these Engineers carried out the opening scene, is Millions of Years ago maybe even Billion plus.... 2) Shaw and Holloway uncover many Star Maps from many Ancient Cultures, which is to imply that many ancient civilizations who had no connections with each other, all shared one thing in common and that was they appeared to Worship Ancient giant beings from the Stars, who appeared to have left a series of clues in paintings, carvings, murals etc that all appear to show the same configuration of stars. This stars point to a System that at the very least LV 223 is located in.... This shows us that the Engineers or a fraction came back to Earth a long time after the Sacrificial Scene, and they began interacting with mankind at the very least 35'000 years ago. This would also imply that LV 223 was used by the Engineers at least 35'000 years ago. Ridley said that these Engineers had came back over and over the years to Upgrade our Race and Teach us things over time, until 2000 years ago. We dont know if at the time of 35'000 years ago these Engineers are the same as the ones at the start and different fraction to LV 223, or they are those from LV 223. All it shows me is that we was created see 1) then they visited us over years and taught and upgraded us see 2) I would assume that we take these Engineers as Galactic Biological Gardeners, and that they planted the seed via Sacrificial Engineer and that then a fraction of Engineers was placed on LV 223 as a outpost from which to monitor and visit us. Maybe this is why the Temples produce a Atmosphere that supports Life on Earth? Maybe this is why the Head Statue is there as a symbol to show that they (Sacrificial Engineer) created us.... 3) Now for the reason why they wanted us destroyed and the Juggernauts and Black Goo and Xeno.... This is a area that really we have no real clues, well less of them. All we know is there are Murals to these Organisms, a Mural that shows what looks like a Deacon, that has what looks similar to a cross between a Face Huger and the Trilobite which is Face Hugging Bald Humanoids. There are others that appear to show a relation to the Engineers and a Xeno-Esque Organism in a submissive pose as if Engineer is master and the organism is a creation or pet. Then we have the one showing what appears to be Xeno hands holding a open Xeno Egg. We dont know the connection, its vague... What we do know and get is a Temple filled with Urns that contain a substance that in different ways has the ability to mutate and change life so that it some hows carries on traits connected to the Xenomorph or indeed what ever Organism the Xenos came from. The Engineers for some reason 2000 years ago wanted to drop this stuff on Earth via the Urns loaded onto Juggernaut ships. 4) The planned destruction of Mankind, and Outbreak on LV 223... For some reason about 2000 years ago the Engineers on LV 223 either decided to or was given a command to reprogram our genetic code using the Urns, now we dont know how long before the outbreak these Urns and contents had been created, could had been around that time as in decades or centuries or maybe they possessed the contents of the Urns for much longer (i talking about the ability to change to Xeno-Esque Hybrids). Now Ridley hinted that the 2000 year date was no accident, he implies that at that time, Mankind was behaving in a way that was against what the Engineers had planed for us, and that at that time we had displeased them. They sent down a emissary to try and correct our ways, but we ended up killing him. Ridleys comments seem to imply that this triggered the Engineers to say thats enough, this creation (mankind) has proven that it has failed for the purpose and has become disobedient, unlawful and unfaithful. And they have no choice but to destroy us. As far as why their mission failed, well it would be safe to assume they had safeguards against the Urn and infection, as they had managed to had loaded some onto at least one Juggernaut with no problems and for period of time had managed to contain another load of Urns in the Big Head Room with no problems. It would be safe to assume that some kind of sabotage had occurred and that ONE.. or a number of Engineers had disagreed with the order to drop Urns on Earth. This could explain why a Advance Race managed to get infected and how come one lone Engineer survived. Maybe the deleted scenes show this Engineer felt some Sympathy with our kind as the deleted scenes do not show him to be a Angry Engineer hell bent on our destruction, he seemed intrigued by mankind, even after he entered the lifeboat (his reaction to the Violin Girl and the Book he found on the Floor).... Only when he had seem the selfish actions of Weyland, and realized he created David and wanted to be Immortal the Engineer had then affirmed that his brothers were correct and that Mankind had become a corrupt and wicked, selfish species who desire themselves as Gods... The above are the connections i made with the Engineer Race and Earth, as far as connections with the Xeno, LV 426 how the stuff in Urns came about and differences with the Sacrificial Substance. And indeed where are the rest of the Engineers, why they never came back and who created them. These are all things i hope Paradise will answer..

@Necronom 4 "they stole some of the black stuff from the Elders, but they didn't have full knowledge of it, they thought that they could handle it but it didn't react well to them, it sensed evil? and turned on them. " That's really quite a good idea. I really like the idea of the black goo having some sort of sentience. Remember in the film when David first finds the black goo, he says "Hmm, Biological", implying that the black goo is some sort of living organism, manufactured perhaps. It's also hinted that the engineers are pretty capable of making substances with extraordinary powers, for example the "green goo" which is used by their holographic systems. When David first encounters this, he remarks "Impressive", implying it has some technological purpose (this is of course before the viewer is shown the green goo's purpose). So the film is trying to show you that the Engineers are experts in liquid/polymer creation. I really see that as a sign to a broader theme within the Prometheus universe: The conflict of scientific breakthrough vs. morality/self-preservation. Early in the film, prior to entering the LV-223 base, Vickers tells Holloway and Shaw that they shouldn't make contact with the Engineers, implying two things: 1. Vickers knows more than she's letting on, 2. Contact with the engineers could be a bad thing. Now in the context of the theme I mentioned above, this can be seen as scientific breakthrough (by making contact with the engineers, surely the science story of the century) versus morality/self-preservation ( they question of "should they" make contact, also not getting killed in the process of making that discovery, thus Vickers' warning). This theme can be applied to the twin factions of the engineers and how it relates to the black goo. Perhaps the "evil" engineers made a scientific breakthrough with the black goo. Maybe in the process of making that breakthrough, the "good" engineers became hostile towards them, either because of how they made the discovery (the morality part), or the "good" engineers were scared of their new creation and banished them for it (the self-preservation part). Maybe making the bombing run at Earth was an attempt at retribution for their banishment, or the "evil" engineers tried to hide what they were doing by going to LV-223, but the "good" engineers found them and wiped them out. Either way, I definitely expect Paradise to explore some of these themes. Prometheus was an incredibly multi-layered film, that why I think it was so polarizing to fans (most either love it or hate it). There's much more going on under the surface here (pun intended).

In my mind the Engineers (at least those we've seen) are simply clones and servants of a higher race of being. These servants are delivery systems, used to deliver life, or take it away from planets around the universe. Their bodies are required to distribute the building blocks of life. They sacrifice themselves, via in taking the chemical cocktail in order to create new life. This is what they are bred to do. We saw this in Prometheus in the opening scene. I think the saucer shaped ship we saw hovering over the scene contained the actual architects of this process. I like to call them Architects. I think that the actions we saw during Prometheus were the outcome of son kind of mutiny from the Engineers. They were punished, one survived and was found many years later by the Crew of The Prometheus. The chemical cocktail or cocktails which abide within the vessels have many outcomes depending on their use. They can be used to create life and or change or destroy it. Once in an environment the life that the cocktail has created evolves into a form of life which fits within the environment in which it evolves. Life, helped by the cocktail, will find a way to procreate, taking on a shape or form, taking traits from the host from which it has evolved. We have seen this over and over in the various Alien movies. I think that the mural art in Prometheus features a default body plan for a pure strain of the Architects cocktail. Variants of this plan are complex and many depending on the environment it is grown in and in which it evolves. I believe that the derelict seen in Alien was another survivor who managed to escape from the punishment of the Architects. They managed to escape LV423 but had a passenger on board. As in Alien1 this passenger caused havoc and ultimately managed to get to the last Engineer and infect him, therefore causing the crab landing on LV426. These of course are only my thoughts and could be way off mark. I'm so looking forward to seeing further instalments to this series and stand to be corrected. Brego

What we have: 1. an upset race of engineers 2. a very flexible alien form that has as grandma Elizabeth Shaw and as father an engineer 3. a temple with a 3D texture of an alien that some religious people consider the alien version of jesus crucified The result is: mixing local terrestrial dna with engineers dna brings to a very terrible possibility, the creation of a super alien that can change the organization of its body depending on environment until to arrive to acid as blood. So what a good engineer could think: “We have created on earth a potential huge risk. The consequence is a mass genocide just to make galaxy secure. We have tested already but the result of test was left in a secure moon LV 462 where no one will go as there is an alert message. “ 

Bur Neologos, the super Xeno wasn't created just by Engineer DNA. The Deacon was made with DNA of a male human, who impregnated a female human, creating a hybrid embryo, which grew and face hugged an engineer. This, for all we know is the first and only time that this combination has occurred. I imagine that perhaps this unfortunate and unforeseen happening created a creature which had been foreseen as a possibility, judging by the mural. Perhaps the Engineers knew that someday this would happen, but didn't know how or why. It was an Omen of what the punishment could be if the strayed from their purpose.

Well we are left with many many possibilities for the Engineers, and indeed that Mural and Xeno connection.... It could be a Omen/Prophecy that has come to pass..... or could be some how a sign of how they hold the Xeno or a Xeno-Esque Organism in high regard for its Sacrifice to create something. Pretty much maybe how the Big Head Statue could be a effigy towards the Sacrificial Engineer? Or the Mural could be regarding something they worship for some other reasons, or even their God as there is so many possibilities. As far as the Goo well having studied its effects and thrown out the Weyland Files Shambles of a Explanation, all that was needed was read how the Original Idea via Spaights Nano Scarabs worked and change Scarabs to a Black Mucus Goo and Voila it makes perfect scene. The Goo in the Sacrificial Bowl, simply is a Chemical that breaks apart a Organisms DNA and Genetic Code and it then forms a new Chemical that contains the Genetic Codding of the Organism it broke down, this substance then has other properties that then allow it when it contacts another Organism to Mutate and Evolve that Organism and imprint the Genetic Code it contains that it obtained after breaking down the Original Organism the Base Liquid had come into contact with. It would also appear that the Substance that is formed after breaking down a Organism requires a Liquid to activate and then start to Mutate life........ Remember Worms, Fifield came into contact with the liquid Black Goo, Holloway the Goo was put into a drink and the Sacrificial Engineer broken down material reformed in Water. Maybe thats just coincidence or maybe some kind of Liquid is required in order to activate the substance. Well the resulting substance that occurs after Organism is broken down. Sorry for going off Topic.... Nut Shell.... Sacrificial Goo + Xeno (or Progenitor) = Goo stored into top of ampules, plus the other slimy stuff and glass like substance must due to certain conditions break down into a liquid that the Xeno DNA broken Goo mixes with to become active....