oh man, for some reason I'd never seen this film before, lots of fun despite the cheesy aesthetic. The scifi mindfuck genre is one of my favourite types of movie. 

Why was the Engineer infecting himself at the start? What was the ship at the start?
If this is supposed to be the Engineer dissolving himself to produce human life, why does the planet look like LV-whatever and why does the fluid look like their black fluid later on?

What were the Engineers in the holo-recording running from?

Assuming there are at least 3 stages of Alien micro-evolution (parasite via consumption, squid via secondary infection (impregnation by parasite host), Alien via tertiary infection)...
Why was there a bas-relief of an Alien behind the Engineer head?

Why the change in the nature of the lifeform?

Why did she "give birth" to a squid?

Assuming the oral infection of the abandoned human duo by the "cute" tentacle thing and the oral infection of the enginner by the squid were the same, how did the cute tentacle thing develop?

Assuming the cute tentacle thing is a black-fluid induced development of the maggot worms (similar to how the fluid mutated tattooed geologist), where did the worms come from?

How was David communicating with Weyland senior via a mask (before Vickers interrogated him)?

Why were Weyland also trying to infect humans and how did they know how to do that? Was this Weyland senior's instructions?

Why was Weyland senior kept a mystery?

Why did David want Weyland senior to die ("dont all children want their parents to die")?

Why is the surgery machine only configured for one gender and why does Vickers have it? If it was for Weyland, why was it in her quarters?

Why does Shaw have a change of heart and accompany the Weyland team even though Fassbender tried to use her as a host?

Why does no-one bat an eyelid about Shaw's near-birth experience? 

Please exercise your imagination and ponder these (deep) questions, instead of venting your autistic internet nerdrage...



Yeah the script is a fucking mess, good thing we have books! 

I don't have the nerdrage this time, I mostly really liked the film, I thought the first 2/3 was brilliant and the who Alien/s sci-fi style of it was great, last 1/3 was okay and it was a mess of loose ends and inconsistencies transitioning towards the end. I think some questions are there for pondering as Kinn implies, but some are a bit WTF?? Hence that post... 

I was pretty dissapointed, guess I was expecting too much. There's lots of cool stuff in there, but none of it ever felt believable to me, the characters, the science, the story.
I'm all for having mysterious things unexplained, that's what made the pilot in Alien so great, but here it just feels like a mess of random ideas.

I liked the start, the whole exploration/discovery thing is great, wish it had continued more in that style for a bit longer. 

rid of the the final scene, I think a lot more people would be happier because then it actually would be more open ended for interpretation rather than be very messily linked in to Alien with contradictory logic. 

TR is very cool, remake looks bland but apparently more in line with the book. 

There's still the bas-relief of an Alien in the Engineer shrine though.

Also why is there a shrine / temple at all, hmmm? 

cant answer that.

But my point was simply that it would leave less contradictory explanations, not remove all of the inconsistencies. As it is, apart from a cheap direct tie in, that scene serves no purpose and makes things worse. 

There are actually answers to most of your questions. And Ridley Scott himself admitted to a lot of the religious tie-ins.

Just spent 10 mins finding this for you (I read it about a week ago and found it made a lot of sense):

http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html 

Found that linked elsewhere, it is the biggest pile of mind-numbingly tedious anally retentive nit-picking micro-analytical drivel written by someone who could painfully contrive lifetime's worth of deep meaning in a 30 second advert, I failed even to skim-read it and I doubt any of it actually relates to any sense behind the film. 

OK, but you should read it. It answers your questions. It quotes Scott. It explains so much of the plot, like why all the engineers were dead, why the engineer commits suicide at the beginning etc. 

proceeds down a path that Scott says was considered (I'm not convinced but it doesnt matter) but dropped. 

'Cause it all made perfect sense to me, having read that article and seen the film twice.

Like about why the engineers happened to die 2000 years ago.

The name of the leading character.

The engineers acceptance that death happens before life as opposed to the human code of trying to stay alive at all costs. 

'And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.' 

What a cool film :)
Should have watched it a long time ago.
I was put onto it by a Youtube 'top 15 scary films' video, and saw a clip of a guy having his face peeled off...... 

the Scott quotes are taken out of context for a particular purpose.

I dont deny the religious imagery, just that to link it like that is only an opinion not fact. 

Anyone can spout a load of shite on the internet.


I'm asking questions on here because I think most of the main funcers have the brains and sense to give some interesting answers. 

thing, that is no direct link. It wasnt Elizabeth who had the immaculate conception was it, she was a barren cousin. The movie character could have been named Elizabeth for many other reasons.

And Jesus the Engineer Emissary, last I checked, he wasnt a giant. 

this search for answers and the proposed solution has far too much irony. 

It is possible that he would have been normal size, and resembled a human.

Explain the 2000 years thing then. Explain the 'I need to know why?!'.

Heh - I love how the film is so open to interpretation. It's purposeful I'm sure. It gets everyone thinking about creationism and science. 

 

Why was the Engineer infecting himself at the start? What was the ship at the start?
If this is supposed to be the Engineer dissolving himself to produce human life, why does the planet look like LV-whatever and why does the fluid look like their black fluid later on?

It can represent any lifeless planet, not just Earth. It shows how the Engineers seed life. The black goo reconfigures the dna of an organism in some way. The goo in the intro was used to reconfigure the engineer into a microbial soup that presumably becomes the starting point for an entire planet's ecosystem. The goo later in the film had different functions, but still was all about reconfiguring dna, that's the common link with the goos.

What were the Engineers in the holo-recording running from?

Xenos? Tentacle beasts? The specifics are not important, but it's obvious that their engineered bioweapons had backfired on them.

Assuming there are at least 3 stages of Alien micro-evolution (parasite via consumption, squid via secondary infection (impregnation by parasite host), Alien via tertiary infection)...

Why was there a bas-relief of an Alien behind the Engineer head?

They are proud of their creations. It's like going to BMW head office - I'm sure you'd find a framed picture of a car on a wall somewhere.

Why the change in the nature of the lifeform?

Do you mean "why does goo mutate an organism into something else?" or do you mean "why does the path go: infected mutant -> facehugger thing -> xenomorph thing?"

If 1) then, the goo found on LV-233 was bioweapon goo and turned things into bioweapons. If 2), then I would say "because it's body horror and more gross/disturbing/alien to show a convoluted reproductive pathway that includes multiple stages of different monsters". The same question could be asked of Alien/Aliens - why can't the xenos just reproduce directly? Because throwing facehuggers into the mix makes it more disturbing and "alien".

Why did she "give birth" to a squid?

Let's work backwards - to create a xenomorph you need a facehugger. Facehuggers come from Alien Queens - a type of xeno. So how do you get a facehugger if no xenos exist? That was never explained (lol) in any Alien films, but Prometheus gives us that answer. In some way, Shaw became the Alien Queen.

Assuming the oral infection of the abandoned human duo by the "cute" tentacle thing and the oral infection of the enginner by the squid were the same, how did the cute tentacle thing develop?

AFAIK, the "cute" cock-snake didn't infect anything, it was just a mutated worm bioweapon that killed stuff. It killed Milburn, and didn't get to attack anyone else, apart from acid spraying Fifield, who then faceplanted into the goo, and became a goo-mutant bioweapon himself, like the cock-snake. Dunno if this answers your question, you'd need to go into more specifics as to exactly what you're asking here.

Assuming the cute tentacle thing is a black-fluid induced development of the maggot worms (similar to how the fluid mutated tattooed geologist), where did the worms come from?

indigenous life

How was David communicating with Weyland senior via a mask (before Vickers interrogated him)?

Weyland was in a sort of pseudo-cryo-sleep state that preserved his dying body and had to communicate via some sort of brainwave interface. I dunno, this one is easily handwaved away with "it's the FUTURE"

Why were Weyland also trying to infect humans and how did they know how to do that? Was this Weyland senior's instructions?

Weyland weren't trying to infect humans but David used his own initiative and infected Holloway after Weyland's instructions to "try harder". Weyland wanted answers, and David was determined to get those answers. Holloway sort of unwittingly gave his consent to David "what would you do?" "anything and everything". And David, being a sinister as fuck robot, did what he thought would yield answers.

Why was Weyland senior kept a mystery?

To mask the true nature of the mission i.e. that Weyland could meet god and request immortality (all other crew expendable).

Why did David want Weyland senior to die ("dont all children want their parents to die")?

Eh I dunno, you got me. SINISTER ROBOT. 

Why is the surgery machine only configured for one gender and why does Vickers have it? If it was for Weyland, why was it in her quarters?

The lifeboat (i.e. "her quarters") was never meant for Vickers, only Weyland.

Why does Shaw have a change of heart and accompany the Weyland team even though Fassbender tried to use her as a host?

She wanted to know wtf the Engineers were playing at with all their goo, tentacle shenanigans. She had no idea that David was up to stuff, or how Holloway got infected, so why would she have any animosity towards David? Or the rest of the crew?

Why does no-one bat an eyelid about Shaw's near-birth experience?

I didn't notice anything wrong here, maybe I'd need to watch it again, but that said - who else knows about it? David knew obviously but AFAIK, everyone else had other shit to worry about whilst Shaw was aborting it. Maybe a couple of medical personal knew, but they weren't in any scenes afterward were they? 

+2 informative, I want to have your alien parasite babies.

Some good answers there, especially about David and Weyland.

A few that still stand out.

Engineers proud of Aliens....hmmm okay so maybe the temple is a shrine to their bio-weapons??

I still don't get the large variety of xenos from squids to Aliens themselves?? Unless the squids are the original precursor and anything Alien-esque is depend on the species they have impregnated...

Are you sure the cute cock wasn't trying to impregnate Millburn?

And...

Surely Shaw would suspect something was up with David when he refused to help her abort the Squidien?? And surely she would be a bit suspicious about WTF is going on and why was that thing in me??

AFAIK the other female doctor was one of the people trying to put Shaw in quarantine, and yet she is there with Shaw on Weylands trip into the Engineer ship, without any questions??

(I am assuming that David would have liked to have had more control over Shaw after her failed gestation, but at that time he had to focus on serving Weyland more??).

Ta, xxx