On rewatching an extended fan cut of the film, 1 thing that leaps out at me:
The Engineers revered the concept of dying to create life, death as a part of the natural order. We learn this in the films beginning, with the Engineer who sacrifices himself.
Weyland has dedicated his life to what the Engineers would look at as a corruption or an attempt to thwart the natural order.
This is most clearly seen in the scene in which Vickers attempts to reconcile with him, talking about how in the natural order of things the king has his reign and dies.
Weyland completely rejects this - and her.
This is another aspect of why the request Weyland has David relate to the Engineer would be so abhorrent to him. Not only does Weyland want to thwart the natural order, he's asking an Engineer who seems to WORSHIP this natural order to help him destroy it.
Weyland spent $1 trillion dollars in an attempt to ask an alien being who revered the natural life and death cycle for a way to circumvent it. His reward was to get his head bashed in.
Quote from: D88M on Jan 03, 2017, 10:06:59 AM
Quote from: drawandstrike on Dec 24, 2016, 01:12:56 PM
Just saw this movie.
While we don't know exactly what the Engineer says to David in the deleted scene, it's clear from the tone of his voice and his body language the request from Weyland greatly upsets him.
In the brief moments he observes the humans, what does the Engineer see?
He's seen them being violent towards one another, then an extremely old human requests eternal or continuing life from him.
From what we know of the Engineers beliefs, dying is a revered part of their religion. You see this in the 'idol' or 'Big Head' room which contains murals in which Engineers are shown with burst chests, having 'birthed' xenomorphs.
I believe what the Engineer sneers in response to Weyland's request is "In your obviously flawed state, you demand something we don't even grant to ourselves!"
The Engineer finds Weyland's request for 'more life' in his decrepit state to be extremely repulsive.
LOL WTF, does people STILL believe there is no subtitles of the sceen? Jesus, is in youtube, you can all look it up, it shows exactly what is said between David and the Engineer
I've only seen several videos where it was pretty clear English wasn't the subtitler's 1st language. How about linking the definitive translation then?
I've read several translations of what the Engineer says in different blogs on line. I have yet to find a captioned video in English that translates, though a poster above says such videos can be found on YouTube.
The most common translation of what the Engineer says after David tells him Weyland believes the Engineer can 'give more life' or make Weyland immortal, is that the Engineer sneers "If you did not grow old, you would not be a man." which appears to point to the impossibility of Weyland's request. A change in nature to a being that does not grow old and die would necessitate a change from being human into being.....something else.
By his very nature as a man, Weyland was 'created' to grow old and die. To change from mortal to immortal would involve a change in nature.
Here's what we see in the deleted scene at the beginning of the film:
It appears the Engineers, if they ever had the ability to make themselves immortal so they did not age and die, deliberately chose not to utilize such an ability. The Engineer who reverently hands the 'cup' containing the black goo to the younger, larger Engineer appears to be far older and thinner.
The awakened Engineer would be, in my theory, absolutely horrified by what Weyland asks of him. The Cycle of Life and Death, where one is born, reproduces, then ages and dies is sacrosanct to this species, it seems from what we glean about them over the course of the picture leading up to this 'first contact' scene.
Weyland is deliberately attempting to arrest and stop this natural cycle, rejecting his own daughter, insisting on remaining 'king' forever.
If the Engineer can indeed understand what Weyland is saying to him, or if what Weyland said was translated but this was cut or left out, imagine how doubly repulsive Weyland's entreaty would be to the Engineer as Weyland projects his own desire to live forever as a 'god' onto the Engineer himself.
After hearing Weyland out, the Engineer decides it's time to reassert the natural order that Weyland is trying to undermine. In fact, it's time to give Weyland a big heaping dose of the natural cycle of Life & Death by ripping David's head off and killing him with it.
This is all conjecture, of course, since Scott & Lindelof didn't define this scene or place it within any clear kind of context. Would the Engineer have responded differently if Weyland hadn't immediately made his request of him? After all, the Engineers had already decided to wipe out humanity. Could he have changed his mind if the initial meeting had been handled differently?
We'll never know.
