XenoGuard25
MemberOvomorphJun-08-2012 2:55 PM(*EDIT* I feel this is necessary to post, so please read. I am personally not trying to change anyone's views on the Engineer's whereabouts or significant plot points in the story. This is just what made the most sense to me. I could be very wrong, I could be very right. Either way, I'm just sharing my thoughts.)
(Giving Fair Warning, this is kind of a lengthy read. I have yet to see this theory as well, so I apologize if I'm double posting.)
Hello Prometheus-movie.com community,
I've been following these boards for a while, but first time posting. I would like to offer my theory on why Ridley Scott is wrong about the first Engineer, and how this small plot point ties the entire movie together.
The sacrificial engineer is not on Earth, and here's why:
First of all the Space Jockeys have technology that is beyond our understanding. They are far more advanced than we are, or at least this is what the movie is leading us to believe. So in that respect I don't believe that they need to undergo a terribly painful suicide to narrow down a few DNA strands. The movie even shows humans narrowing down human DNA with a little laser that took maybe a couple seconds. All an engineer would have to do is narrow out their DNA and dump it in the water. No fuss. So I don't believe the Engineer at the beginning had to drink the black goo to introduce human DNA.
Secondly, they show us the mothership. If anyone else noticed the giant saucer ship in the beginning was full of the little horseshoe ships. Why do the Space Jockeys need to carry around their mothership just to drop off one engineer to seed Earth? They could've easily plopped out a horseshoe ship to drop off the Engineer to seed life on Earth, and you're done. There's no need to show the mothership on Earth. It makes more sense to show giant vessels on LV-223 since that's their base of operations.
So where is the Engineer, and why is he drinking a horrible bio-weapon? Let me tell you, he's on LV-223! The landscape looks extremely similar, and it ties the movie together to make sense.
I believe the Engineer was apart of the research and development Space Jockey team on LV-223. This Engineer witnessed how corrupt his people had become, and wanted no part of it. After seeing the potential of the black goo, as well as its destruction he had only one choice; Drink the goo and release the contamination onto the facility to stop their crimes against the universe. This would explain how the facility on LV-223 was compromised, how there were compromised escape ships that and crashed on LV-423, and frankly ties up the entire black goo plothole mess (how it deconstructs engineers, but mutates humans / worms, yet also begins to deconstruct humans again (Holloway)). This also explains why the pilot space jockey wanted to continue with his mission to Earth. He was the 'last' space jockey of the research and black goo development team, and escaped the wrath of the engineer that sacrificed himself in the beginning to stop this facility.
I do believe the movie is stating Engineers created life on Earth. So in that respect, yes I believe the Engineers created life on Earth. However I don't agree the first scene of the movie depicts this plot point.
How do I explain the director is wrong? Well the director just directs. He isn't the writer. In the end, Ridley's theories will most likely always be taken over the original intention of the writer. However, I believe the writer intended this explanation.