# Prometheus: Why the Engineers did It (Spoilers)



## Fernin (Jun 1, 2013)

So, one of my housemates and I were watching Prometheus earlier today, and we were talking about why the Engineers did what they did, why they created humanity and why they were so hell bent on destroying it. We came up with the following theory.

The Engineers seem to be fond of biological weapons, look at the black goo, and the xenomorphs. How ever, both are hard to control, one being an out right virus, and the other a cunning and perhaps intelligent animal. These are all and good when you can just dump them on a planet and let them wreak havoc. But what if you need t wage a more traditional war, were large numbers of troops are needed. Well, if you're a race of master biological engineers, you create the ultimate weapon. You. But in a smaller, more compact and rapidly reproducing form. If the engineers created humans to act as soldiers this would make a great deal of sense. From a combat stand point at our best we're viciously violent, cunning and resourceful, capable of working well in groups when united against an enemy, and not entirely easy to kill without over whelming force or exacting precision. Sounds alot like the xenomorph, right? Right. But as seen with the xenomorph if you make something a pure predator it's difficult to control and makes a poor standing army. So instead of making just a violent animal, you put a bit more of yourself into it, give your creation the complex intelligence needed to follow a battle plan and more importantly improvise on the battlefield. Give them the empathy needed to defend their fellows and yourself. And give them the disposition to submit to a higher power, namely, you. In the absence of the the engineers one could argue that this latter most trait is why we have believed in gods of all manner since as long as history has been written, and all the traits before it the cause of our seemingly contradictory tendencies toward war, art, and societal advancement in equal measure.

Unfortunately for the engineers, and ultimately for us as well, if your create a species this way you'd find them not at all like the xenomorphs, who are difficult to control. No. This creation would be IMPOSSIBLE to control. More importantly it would be smart enough figure out you created it, and probably smart enough to kill you if it decided it didn't need you.

This theory more or less explains why the engineers created humanity, and why in turn the decision was made to destroy that creation before it could reach and spread through out the stars, where it would likely become unstoppable. Where its warring nature and intelligence would bring it to combat and in worst case scenario conquest of your own empire.

It's possible the team depicted in the movie were the sole ones responsible for the project, and thus why when they failed due to the containment failure that killed all but the one of them, humanity was left unmolested to advance unchecked and without guidance. It would explain why the first action upon the Engineer waking and regaining control of his ship was to set course for earth to destroy humanity before it could get any more out of control.

So what are your thoughts and opinions on this theory?


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## Saga (Jun 1, 2013)

Haven't seen the movie, but it's an interesting theory.
...after this point I sat for like 10 minutes trying to figure out what to say but couldnt because whenever I would think of a question, the answer was already in the first post so enjoy this potato


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## Demensa (Jun 1, 2013)

That's a really nice theory there...
I really can't think of much to disagree with, except that they probably would have taken more care to make sure that the humans would be under their control, since that would have been the point of making them.
It just seems like they could do a better job.



Saga said:


> potato


For some reason that made my day a lot better.


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## Taralack (Jun 1, 2013)

I don't know why they created humanity, but I thought it was fairly obvious they wanted to kill us because humanity killed Jesus. And Jesus was obviously one of them.


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## Smelge (Jun 1, 2013)

I just assumed the engineers did it because of lazy writing, and the whole mystery was to cover up the lack of thought into the thing but make it look deep and profound and enable a sequel that nets them another wad of cash and a few years to try and fix their writing plotholes.


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