Shaw and Vickers DO make a turn to escape falling derelict.

I mean to their left...

This is correct, I've argued before that they make a sharp turn to the left after turning their heads back and are bombarded with exploding debris. Even if they didn't, during flight or fight there is a loss of peripheral vision, this is otherwise known as tunnel vision.

I agree, I have always agreed with the facts, but I think it was a cynical 'choose a lane' commentary about 'female highway driving' more than a 'proper escape plan'. ;) You know, this is why they roundied up the arms of the original Juggernaut design. [b]In summary:[/b] Prometheus has NOTHING TO DO with Alien or the Xenomorph Franchise. It's just a reboot.

nope. Evidence suggests that Prometheus is not a reboot. Prometheus is a thread that runs parallel to the Lt. Ripley narrative, but is, by all accounts, a film that is planted in and constrained by the framework established by alien, aliens, and alien 3. and yes...Vickers and Shaw clearly do not run in a straight line while attempting to evade the rolling juggernaut. Falling debris dictates their path and then, when opportunity presents, both slightly alter course. Shaw finally falls and rolls out from under juggernaut.

I guess the ship was so big they couldn't escape from it no matter where they would run. Guess we can no longer mock them for running in a straight line :)

Joey Joe, we'll just have to see who ends up with green-slime on their command interface come franchise-end. :)

It should be obvious that the burning debris falling and exploding to their left and right was the main reason that they tried to outrun the Juggernaut. Who would run out into a rain of burning ship fragments? A lot of people were quick to criticise the running option. Truth is, if Vickers hadn't tripped, she would have been fine. After the juggernaut steamrolled her, it came to a stop fairly quickly (probably as a result of one of the oddly shaped prominent parts of the hull hitting the surface - a sort of cylindrical outcrop that would be on the port bow) . So, if she had been able to keep up the same speed, she would only have had to run a little bit further. The oddest thing about that scene is the Juggernaut landing on (or almost on) Shaw. Not just the fact that she luckily is in a hollow, but that either the ship has spun on its axis, or she has somehow moved from the being to the right of the ship's path, to being on it's left. When she rolled out from under the ship, the topside of the ship was facing her. And yet when it came to a halt, and started toppling over, it was the underside that was facing her, and the ship landed the correct way up. It's not easy to notice this, because for most of the rolling sequence, we only see parts of the ship in shot. And then there's a high shot, showing the ship rocking and stopping. The direction it is rocking suggests a backswing away from the direction it was going when it crushed Vickers. And the 'Hammer' and 'Spike' prongs appear as one would see them if the topside was furthest away - which is not how the ship looked from Shaw's point of view. Also, when it was toppling, all she had to do was get between the prongs to be safe, there's about 60 yards/metres of space between them. And luckily for her, the rain of burning debris seems to have stopped around the time the juggernaut rocked to a halt.

Yeah I tried to argue to someone (who otherwise enjoyed the film) that it was absurd to expect them to run into the barrage of exploding debris but they didn't really listen and said they would have had more of a chance. And I was like, really? They would have been killed more quickly had they done so! As I've said before, people get tunnel vision when in extremely stressful situations and their decision making is severely hampered so their behaviour was entirely human, I swear, I don't think many viewers were really paying enough attention in that scene; I've watched it again and again and they [i]did[/i] turn to their left when they saw a chance through the debris and to no avail. Imagine the sheer flood of euphoria and panic of a situation like that and Shaw would have been pretty damn exhausted and hopeless as she scrambled for the rock. What a scene though, I particularly love the score in the scene; sends shivers down the spine.

Custodian, Well said (slime/interface, lol) but Ido agree with Joe. It's a story happening just over to the side a bit while Alien happens over here-> I have a feeling we will see the original Jockey crash or land on LV 426 before its all over.

I wonder as with many other internal film structures they ALWAYS have the character/s running CONTINUOUSLY 'down wind' so to speak from what ever calamity is attempting to befall him/her/them. Why don't they near enough IMMIDIATELY try to snatch a quick look behind and all of a sudden DART LEFT or RIGHT! and keep on running those directions. Fair enough the falling/chasing obeject could be gradually pulling to either the left or right during its decent upon our fleeing characters as is the case with the crashing Juggernaught but more often than not TV and film characters are portrayed as not really being spacially aware or even showing any symptoms of actually being clued up on the process.

Well whatever about street chases, in this case, if they look behind, they would see an object about 40 meters across and maybe 200 meters high, and off to the side, bits of burning debris landing and exploding, so I wouldn't expect them to have a great picture of where is safe to run. If they hadn't tripped, they would only have had to keep running for a bit longer anyway (tough for old "slashguts" Shaw of course, but she got that roll maneuver down fairly well. )

@Hypernova, the simple answer in terms of film making is just for the sake of Drama, the director will always want to maximize the Drama, but yeah if you look at the symptoms of fight or flight or high stress situations people actually loose their peripheral vision and become fixated only on the object or subject inducing the panic. Take Forest Gump for instance; every time he's chased Forest runs a fair distance before turning, all a film maker ever wants to do is maximize drama. The Juggernaut scene is particular carries great subtext when you look at it more thematically; here were these hubristic humans being wiped out and literally squashed by forces greater than them and that's what I always say when more cynical viewers ask, 'why were the characters doing anything?' - 'It's a cautionary tale of hubris; we have characters being punished for their unfounded faith, characters punished for their arrogance, all the characters are punished for their hubris, so why do the characters do anything? Given all the themes in the film and subtext, you'll find that they always do anything out of hubris and are appropriately punished, but I'm trailing off now haha. Seriously though, that scene was absolutely amazing in IMAX; everyone in the theater were speechless, I can't believe it's been almost a year now!

Yeah, don't get me wrong I loved that particular crashing scene in Prometheus, no doubt about it, it was a great cinematic visual and spectacle to behold there are and have been less well executed examples where by the internal logic structure SCREAMS OUT at you, me, us the viewers to say "OHH COME ON! Quickly dart left and run ito that clump of trees either side of you no more than fifteen or twenty feet away left or right to get under that canopy of trees to avoid that arial carnivor that is constantly trying to swoop down upon you and eat you YOU DUMB SHIT!" That is what I said to the television whenI watched an episode of Primeval. One guy was running upon an open golf course I think and a Teridactyle was constantly trying to swoop down upon him to take a bite out of him or some thing and rather than suddenly throwing off the creature and making a sudden dash to his left, to those clump of trees and to safety the stupid F***in A****le INSTEAD runs the longer distance of about thirty or forty feet down range in the GOD DAMNED OPEN!! Its just stupid sometimes when that occurs in things its like the creators, producers are sometimes insulting our inteligences. Humans are unpredictable more often than not during serious situations and improvise their way out of calamaty if it need be. Its fair to say and you could argue that Shaw and Vickers BOTH saw that lumbering GOLIATH falling straight towards them they stood and stared at it for a little time, it is then they could have decided to run the direction that is left of the crashing ship or the right. But no doubt about it, it did look fantastic while crashing down after them, I won't take that away from the film.