Engineer Sacrifice Ritual (enhanced)

Nice captures and observation.

love the opening sequence as I love Prometheus. im guessing most people are in agreement that this is earth? I know ridley says he gets annoyed at the immediate assumption it is earth and could be anywhere but given the context of the film id say its earth and would be pretty redundant for it to be anywhere else

It really is a beautiful opening. "The Engineers believe sacrifice will cleanse them of their sins."

ali81 Agree although it could arguably be Paradise. You bring up another question unrelated to the OP: might the others have scrawled the cave drawings during that visit before leaving the planet if it was indeed Earth?

whether earth or not the process would be the same to seed earth no?

Holloway and shaw date the drawings to when man was up and about and gathered in social groups though it could very well have been the engineers who drew them, very possible.

Ridley said that these Engineers would visit their settlements occasionally to see how they would progress and if things needed to be reigned in. So during these visits I could see the Engineers being revered as gods by the local inhabitants at the time and have them immortalized in drawings/carvings/what have you.

that's the way I took it lawrence

Indeed i can see the comparison, the Black Goo does indeed replicate into a liquid inside the Engineer and this breaks down his Molecular Structure and these broken down particles then fly off into the wind/air.. but they do also look like they are flying away like say a swarm of tiny insects.

As far as the whole Earth thing, well it was on Earth, but then Paradise was Earth and even LV-426 was on Earth lol

But i know what is meant, and indeed the scene was intended to be on Earth... but its also to show that this is how the Engineers Seed Worlds and so while this happened on Earth, it also happened on many other Worlds too.

it depends with what Ridley Scott meant and how it applies to the Engineers we see on Paradise/Planet 4, because RS could change it to being on Paradise (Sacrificial Scene) and this leads to Engineers who then end up setting up colonies on other Worlds and Evolve.

Thank you dk.

I too think the planet shown in the Engineer sacrifice is Paradise. There are birds over the water behind Peter and David. Are these images from probes when there was life on Paradise?

The pyramid and background in the beginning sequence of Prometheus (below) and the pyramid behind Peter Weyland in the opening of Alien: Covenant look like a match. 

Great opening scene! I also really like the one with the older looking engineers. Gives it more meaning.

I wonder why David said that the humans were an accident. Did he mean the engineers made humans by accident or that the engineers were disappointed with the humans... or both? (sorry, english is not my first language)

Love that opening scene, sets the tone for the whole movie! I think it could be paradise too but I don't have any real evidence or arguments for it, beautiful scene though 

the fact they kept returning would lean towards human creation not being an accident, or it was due to a splinter faction operating outside their mandate which would mean accident. id say the initial impression given and the one that shaw states is that theyv changed their minds about us was accurate. wev done something to disappoint them and their going to wipe the slate clean. how wev turned out was possibly what was meant when david says humans (modern day humans) were an accident. maybe those who seed worlds went out farther than they usually delve into space and due to the distance, they couldn't visit us as often as they could other worlds therefore were unable to maintain our evolution on a path they deemed satisfactory? so they lost their children as they were absent parents.

Good point ali81.

"Holloway and shaw date the drawings to when man was up and about and gathered in social groups though it could very well have been the engineers who drew them, very possible."

It certainly seemed like Earth's early inhabitants saw Engineer technology.

"Ridley said that these Engineers would visit their settlements occasionally to see how they would progress and if things needed to be reigned in. So during these visits I could see the Engineers being revered as gods by the local inhabitants at the time and have them immortalized in drawings/carvings/what have you."

Yes he did Lawrence of Arabia and very well written. Thank you.

Exactly BigDave. 

"Indeed i can see the comparison, the Black Goo does indeed replicate into a liquid inside the Engineer and this breaks down his Molecular Structure and these broken down particles then fly off into the wind/air.. but they do also look like they are flying away like say a swarm of tiny insects."

A special thanks to Kethol for bringing this (below) up in another topic. I looked at the Prometheus sequence again after reading that in search of motes...

"I guess these are a version of what John Spaith's talked about in the Prometheus commentary when we see the little dots swarming away from the Engineers body as he disintegrates - "The black material that consumed him transmuted into little scarab-like gnats that flew away across the earth…"."

ingeniero, when u say paradise, which planet do u mean?

ali81, I believe that the planet shown in the beginning of Prometheus may be the planet Paradise in Alien: Covenant.

That is, if the planet that David opened his eyes to is Paradise.

id suggest the company was up to something long before Prometheus then as when the covenant is hit by the energy burst, they discover planet 4 for the first time which makes me doubt its the same planet as it is uncharted. UNLESS, the company is up to something and hide its existance

I'm sure ali81. They had known about an Engineer system for decades (publicly).

that's not the same system pal. lv426, lv223 and another moon are in zeta 2 reticula but planet 4 in covenant isnt

Thank you ali81, I had posted before correcting that. Very supportive tone though...I'm sorry it was incorrect for a few seconds pal.

If you have more time, can you please go spell check my other topics ali81.

my reply wasn't meant in a derogative manner in any way and if u have taken it that way then I offer my apologies.

For the professional debaters who missed the May 2017 debate, see below.

Weyland-Yutani report says, see below.

LV-223

I found on page 45 of the Weyland-Yutani Report:

"LV-223

Located in the Zeta II Reticuli system: 1,400 km diameter."

LV-426

I found on page 70 of the Weyland-Yutani Report:

"In 2122, twelve months after departing Thedus, the crew was awakened from hypersleep when Mother intercepted a transmission of unknown origin being broadcast from the planetoid LV-426 in the Zeta II Reticuli system."

Also, on page 84 of the report:

"Calpamos

The fourth planet orbiting Zeta II in the Reticuli system. Much like Saturn, Calpamos is a ringed gas giant, but with only three moons of significant size, the most notable of which is LV-426, commonly known as Acheron.

LV-426

1200 km diameter, .86 Earth's gravity."

By all means please add what else we missed....

We're good ali81. If someone else has teased out info on Paradise's location...I'd love to hear it.

Ingeniero - The beginning of Prometheus and the beginning of Covenant show the same planet! I don't know which planet is shown, but the two movies show the same planet.

Two more pyramid stills from Covenant just for you:  :)

are they pyramids or just mountains shaped that way? I don't think its very clear but I good thought if they are. maybe planet 4. pictures from probes sent back including information on a civilisation on the planet. the company wipes all record but weyland, being the vein man he is, displays pictures of the world for all to see yet no one will know where it is?

Those pics are better than the ones I used above. Thank you Ati.

I know we have written a little about this months ago. I'd like to get a confirmation, some kind of marker, where Paradise is.

Is there anything in the Covenant star maps that come up and then zero-in on Paradise when Dr. Shaw's signal is traced back to origin?

someone did put up star charts from the covenant and, not sure if it was the same person, someone put up an enhanced star chart or the milky way showing where planet 4 and zeta reticula were. wish I knew which threads they were on

The scene unfolds in the beginning of Alien: Covenant and the single pyramid-shaped structure is blocked by David waking up facing the wall screen ali81.

Later, while talking, Peter Weyland moves out of the way and the "pyramid" is revealed again for a moment. I can only assume that these are probe images sent back to Weyland.

I get they r pyramid in shape but are the pyramids in the sense as we know them? built by someone? they look very rock based mountains to me

I think the problem is that we do not know if the phrases 'Paradise' and 'the Engineer homeworld' are used to name the same planet.

Probably, in the first version of the story Planet 4 was the Engineer homeworld called Paradise. But now I think that Origae6 will be the Engineer homeworld. According to Lindelof, we haven't seen the homeworld planet yet.