Why is there an Alien Mural?

Why is there any artwork at all? If its only a weapons facility then why decorate it? The "big head" room is significant in that the green crystal, ceiling artwork (that apparently moves), remarkably human-looking head and the goo is found there. I've asked myself the same question but so far I haven't come up with a plausible answer.

With the Engineering world being one of bio-mechanics, maybe the mural changes as each combination of DNA that enters the room? I mean to say, when the room's atmosphere changes, the mural changes. Could it be the mural changes to reveal the resulting product of the room's current dna mix??

It's weird alien stuff. You're not going to understand it. But if you really want to anthropomorphise the situation, and project your own way of life onto what's going on, you might like to think about words like religion and symbolism as a starter. Imagine for a moment a situation where there's a bunch of dead bodies in alabaster suits trapped in a chamber with no way in or out. The room is covered with strange art depicting stars and strange creatures. Elsewhere, more dead bodies are found in caskets. The air, when breathed, is death itself... LV-223? No. I'm talking about the Egyptian pyramids. You can get a handle on the above description because your head is full of history, and you know that they were constructed as tombs, slaves were sacrificed and buried, tomb-dust can be fatal, and the symbolism and artefacts were placed there to assist what was believed to be a God on his way to the afterlife. You're not going to be so lucky as far as the Engineer's pyramid is concerned. You'd need to study the place in great detail for a very long time, and it's likely that you'd need to understand how the Engineers think, and how their culture has evolved. There may be aspects of the Engineers' culture that is so alien, it doesn't have any direct analogue in human thinking or culture.

I think they were working from the premise that every great film has a message. That message is that religion is bad or even evil. The following is a quote from Ridley himself, regarding the idea behind Prometheus. “It’s interesting to do a sequel because this leaves the door so open to some huge questions. The real question to me is – the more mankind discovers in science the more clear and helpful everything becomes, yet we’re very bad at managing ourselves. And one of the biggest problems in the world is what we call religion, it causes more problems than anything in the goddamn universe. Think about what’s happening now, all based on the very simple idea that a Muslim can’t live alongside a Catholic, or a Catholic can’t live alongside a Protestant…” I think what he's trying to get across, is that, religion leads to war, genicide, death. The mural is depicting Jeebus Christ but it is monstrous instead of angelic because they are trying to articulate that religion leads to death and suffering.

@zz: boom. nailed it. i couldnt agree more.

THe mural is in the Big Head Room for a reason. How, where and when was it made? zzplural suggests that we would need to knwo a bit more about the Engineer's culture to decipher any meaning in this art piece. This would include how to 'read' the musil. Some earth cultures read a page in a book right to left which in the USA seems all wrong,,,but it works for them. There is no right way to read. Maybe the Engineers 'read' top to bottom, I don't buy into the anti religion messege too much True religion has been justification for wars but thye human element, ego cannot be discounted as being weven a more powwerful reaqson to create war excuses. For example power, the haves and have nots, sex, territories, racial makeup even envy have been excuses for war. Each difference between you and I could be war excuse and 'ring' of differences makes it harder to solve problems and could lead to conflicts. So religion can be a source of problems,,but really it is what we as individuals are that we want to use as an excuse to bring mayhen into our lives. And as we know this has been going on since the Engineers started the ball rolling a few years ago.

@DenzelTH; If you type "Mural" into Google (Prometheus-movie.com) , you can read though some fantastic older posts people have written here. I often do that when I am looking for answers and insight into questions I can't find answers to. :) **When searching a topic, use Google for post bodies and the "search" function provided on this site for post titles.

I think the most likely explanation here is that as can be seen in the beginning scene, there is a ritualistic and sacrificial aspect to Engineer culture or in other words a spiritual aspect. Perhaps they don't see the installation for the production of DNA mutagenic toxins as military as much as a spriritualized scientific base where they carry out the edits of the larger Engineer culture as a spiritual duty. We still don't have the final answer as to why the Engineers earmarked us for destruction after they created us in the first place other than the idea that we had become so destructive 2000 years ago that the order was given from higher up to start over on planet Earth. The creation of our culture experiment had failed and so we had to be sterilized. We secularize our science but perhaps they don't. That would account for the symbolic iconography all over the head room including the large head itself in addition to the green crystal and murals. That's my take on it.

To me it is like church. It is to get them to remember there beliefs and /or intentions.

@Jocky Hunter - if it's a church/temple... one should remember the title of the film, Prometheus. In Athenian culture there was a cult of Prometheus [size=50](bringer of fire to mankind-our "helper")[/size] and "Prometheus' association with fire is the key to his religious significance and to the alignment with Athena and Hephaestus that was specific to Athens and its "unique degree of cultic emphasis" on [size=200][b]honoring technology.[/b][/size]" [size=50]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus[/size] With that in mind, if the "gods"/Engineers were upset with Prometheus [size=50](the engineer at the beginning of film who is torn to shreds by the drink )[/size] for helping us/creating us... they would eventually want to clean up that mistake. Hence the Bio-Weapons facility/temple/warehouse/ship-o-doom. Remember at the end? There were more ships on that planet, so, perhaps this Prometheus character was quite busy seeding the galaxy??? The derelict ship in the original "Alien" movie was located on a different planet than the one in "Prometheus", but one can see clear connections... Perhaps the Engineers grew worlds, and the weapons/temples/ships are fail-safe mechanisms that would launch if we ever "reached for heaven" (Tower of babel, Icarus, driving the Engineers ship to their homeworld??)

Thanks Svanya, I found alot of good info.I just read this online and im goin along with it. (Xenos) beings gods. They have to be, Who the hell or why the hell would you make an altar for a bio weapon? I think they were trying to bring there gods back to life . Because for all we know the classic Xeno could be the abomination. and that deacon creature could be its true form.

".. they would eventually want to clean up that mistake.." If Shaw's carbon dating is to believe then 2000 years have elapsed since the running Engineers are depicted running from another mistake. That gives too mistakes we can attribute to the movie Human development and xeno development. So why so long before we as a human race are to be wiped out and and the Last Engineer enters the scene? @jdavis1278 THanks for adding to the Prometheus story. I have read a bit about the original story and sometimes it becomes unclear as to the relationship of the movie title to the events depicted. I say this because on a casual reading it was said that Prometheus created man. My understanding was Prometheus gave humans 'fire' and the Gods/Titans cast him out. THhis allowed the tortures to begin(eating out of his liver everyday) Maybe a search of the past threads would be of help to me. Or perhaps just read the original Greek story

I was thinking that too, there has to be different types of Engineer, or they're all dead. If they wanted to kill us 2000 years ago, but failed, and what has stopped there attempts again?? If the Prometheus didnt go to LV moon, then the Engineer would still be asleep. Did they get what they want from the goo? Or has it been they're death?

ultimately i think Prometheus is about sacrifice, and sacrifice is the ultimate good thing you can do for someone/thing. There are many references throughout. I think the Engineers sacrife is in the urns and mixed with xeno dna to infect the ultimate hybrid, but it couldn't be controlled. They depict the Xeno as the ultimate species and want to use the it for themselves,to become as strong, but it doesnt work out.

As you mention, DenzelTH, sacrifice shows it's self in many examples in our film. Was the sacrifice made for the betterment of whom? I guess all of the events have their reasons for their ultiment sacrifice ,,because it was they believed in. Weyland was willing to sacrifice his crew, company even Shaw, the person(he says talked him into going on this trip) to achieve his goals. So sacrifivce was a theme in this movie, good and bad.

Mostly good though; Engineers making life; Janek crashing into the juggernaught; On the mural, it depicts Engineers being facehugged, and also what looks like a Xenomorph crucified? I personally think theres a Trilobite holding it,maybe a Trilobites intended target for face rape is the Xenomorph, to create the ultimate hybrid. I do think you can say Holloway was sacrificed by David/Weyland, but commited suicide when burnt by Vickers. Also i think theres been alot of sacrifices goin on that we havent seen.. Maybe Paradise will be about resurrection.

Yes it does seem that some of the evil charactors got their just due,,but it seems that the the OK crew members just got wasted for no good cause:Fifiled and Millburn come to mind. Well with just Shaw and David left in the mix will there be any self sacrifice be evident in P2? Shaw seems determined as ever to find the God and David will just be an egotistical robot. We will need to see some new charactors. Does the Mural depict the next stage of our adventure?

I think whateve the Pararadise is, Shaw will be like a mesmerised kid, whilst David will keeping away from the main action. The Engineer has made him cautious, maybe even David has a slight hate towards them, but to be honest, i think maybe the Engineers are all dead, but we will see a 3rd race or Gods. The mural is what was goin on in the pyramids, but they couldve started it on there own planet, went wrong, so they moved it to a new base. We may even see that other creature thing on the mural/ceiling. It could be a Pararadise where you have to sacrifice yourself to get into. May even leave there bodies,come out as entities.

"..May even leave there bodies,come out as entities.." Earlier when reading your post I didn't grasp the full context of your stastement. Paradise a place where Gods begin? By sacrificing your body(earthly attributes) you gain a higher purpose? This sounds very spititual much like the teachings of enlightened earthlings that want to escape human bondage. I am still not sure of the full meaning of your post. If you care to expand on your thoughts, please do..

ZZ i take your point but humour a little anthropomorphisation here; At my uni there is a parasitology dept, the staircase side is visible through large glass windows revealing colourful banners and murals of all sorts of disease causing organisms depicted very artistically. However, the people that work there are endeavouring to solve the diseases not cause them, and the art serves to stimulate the imagination and lift the mind away from the grimness of disease. When we as humans go about creating a dreadful weapon our boffins/soldiers tend to keep it very secret so you wouldnt have such art But! that is because we are our own enemies we have to keep it secret from other humans, and because people like that often do that which they know isnt publicly ethically approved of but considered by them as for the greater good of a nation. These guys (engineers) however may be entirely united in these endeavours and the act having the approval of all their kind might lend to them being more open, romantic and therefore artistic or even spiritually minded about it! Think of communist dictatorship posters depicting marching soldiers and nuclear warheads as though twas an accepatble thing of beauty.....

to be less longwinded they advertise what theyre doing there because it has cultural/societal/spiritual approval it makes more sense to me that they would celebrate [i]what[/i] they are doing there than the worship of the actual xeno itself, its what the xeno represents that matters, in the way ancient people worshipped an animal that symbolised a characteristic (strength etc) rather than perceiving a creature of a less evolved state to be their maker as with religions with creator deities

"..its what the xeno represents that matters.." If what you say is true that makes the 'Running Engineers scene' more chilling..if they are being run down by loose xenos.

I was thinking the Paradise could even be heaven. Imagine it being like avatar ha! know that would never happen. But if they were to become entities or spirits, David couldn't do it because he has no soul. They might have to put on Engineer spacesuits to breathe there. Its gonna unbelievable seeing P2, dunno where RS is gonna go now, but its gonna be hard.

I don't see how any follow-up film could tie up all of the loose ends mentioned on this site. RS will have to pick and choose what to put the script and what to leave out. I hope an explanation of the 'goo' wil be included in the storyline.