I'm hoping that this would be the right place to put this. I attempted to analyse and answer the unanswered questions in Promethues, like many other people do. The reason why I love Prometheus so much is because you can go on for hours trying to answer all the questions and it makes it really unique. Comments, questions, agreements, disagreements, etc would be appreciated. So here are the answers I came up with:
What happened during the beginning sequence?
The beginning of the film shows an Engineer on an unknown planet taking some form of black goo (probably not the same kind of black goo seen later in the film), which kills him. He falls down the waterfall as he deteriorates into dust. When the dust hits the water, it becomes new life that immediately begins multiplying. We are led to believe that the planet is Earth and that the Engineer ingesting the black goo is what causes life on Earth. However Ridley Scott once stated that it may not even be Earth. So what is the point of this scene? What you're suppose to get out of this scene is that the Engineers at once point sacrificed themselves to create new life, specifically human life or not. It takes a lot to willingly kill yourself, thus seems to contradict David's statements in the film when he suggests to Halloway that the Engineers created humanity simply because they could. That is something David believes, but the movie implies that that isn't the case. At one point, at least some of the Engineers valued the creation of life before something changed their minds.
What is the black goo?
As seen in the beginning of the movie, there is a kind of black goo used to create life, 'normal' life as you could call it. This could have been used for religious purposes or, like David suggests, was only created simply because they discovered how. The other black goo mutates life. When you mutate humans, they seem to transform into the Deacon. We never actually see that, but the original scene in which Fifield comes and kills everybody, he is mutated into what appears to be half-Deacon himself. The Deacon seem to be what The Engineers wanted, as made clear by the Deacon mural they have, which suggests they intended to use it on humans or other Engineers (which I believe also become Deacons). The intention is so that these newly mutated Deacons will then lay eggs, which produce proto-facehuggers, which impregnates humans and makes more Deacons, Xenomorph style. When the goo hits other life forms, it creates similar creatures, such as the snakes that came from the worms. They would presumably do the same thing as the Deacons.
What was the Deacon?
The creature created when the black goo touches a human or Engineer life form. It's unknown whether or not they are the predecessor of the Xenomorph or how it's related to the Xenomorph at all (which might be explored in future sequels, but it might not, as Ridley Scott wanted the series to do it's own thing), but due to the similarity, it's hard to believe it was a completely separate creation by the Engineers. The real question is what was it's significance to them? They had a very religious looking mural with a green stone next to it, which implies they worship it. Why would they worship something that was just a biological weapon made by them? Whatever the reason, it implies that this crusade to destroy humanity was related to their religion. The term Deacon is a type of minister in Christianity but is ranked lower than a Priest. So the Deacon is definitely holy to them.
Why did The Engineers want to destroy humanity?
The ultimate question in the film. I believe it's because that was always their plan. They created humanity understanding that they would then infest it with the goo. This makes sense because it doesn't entirely go against the themes produced by David, who suggests that the Engineers created humans for no particular reason. It doesn't go against it in that humanity is still like what a robot is to a human, they're just being used as tools. We're just tools so that the Engineers can create their Deacons. Why do they need Deacons? Whatever reason, it has to do with their religion and will probably be explored in future sequels.
If they didn't like us, then why would they give us maps to their location?
We don't know if they gave us invitations. They could have simply told our ancestors where we came from or maybe it was even a warning, suggesting us not to go there.
Why did the Engineers come back to Earth in the first place?
It's clear that they were guiding evolution on Earth so that it would eventually create humans that are similar to themselves and so that they can create Deacons. Perhaps at one point in time, not longer before the original schedule of the destruction of humanity, they came down and told everyone there something, which including giving out the 'invitations', then they went back to the LV system to go get the goo.
Why were all the Engineers dead on LV-223?
Some sort of outbreak involving the goo. Monsters got loose and started killing them. This could tie into the theme of Prometheus. Maybe creating the Deacons was some sort of attempt to get closer to god or to get closer to becoming gods, but they were punished. That begs the question though, where were they? Presumably somewhere else on 223, too far for them to notice the ship at the temple. Or maybe some other Engineers came along and killed them off and just left the place abandoned. Or maybe the Deacons are more intelligent than that and got off the planet somehow. Maybe they just eventually died because there wasn't anything to eat.
Why was one Engineer in hypersleep?
This Engineer probably went into hypersleep for their mission to Earth, and then the outbreak happened shortly after he went under. He probably wasn't the one setting the time so he just got stuck there. So, essentially, the outbreak of Deacons happened right before they went to go destroy humanity. Lucky for Earth!
Why did the living Engineer immediately start killing everybody?
It's important to note that THE most important deleted scene shows Weyland, David, and the Engineer talking with each other. David explains to the Engineer what Weylands, he's confused, Shaw starts yelling at what killed everyone, then the Engineer asks why he wants immortality, and Weyland explains that he created David, an android, in his own image and that he was superior like him. This angers the Engineer and triggers the killing spree. He, a tool to the Engineers, claim to be a god like them, thus causes him to punish them. But even without the deleted scene, the point still stands, it's just less obvious. He asks him for immortality, something that gods have, and he also sees how technology advanced they've become. Nothing more than tools trying to be more, that was enough to anger him.
Why did David infect Halloway with the goo?
The scene where David reads Shaw's dreams not only gives backstory to her but shows that David does what wants sometimes. However, he was definitely under orders of Weyland, who kept his presence secret. Weyland asked him to 'try harder', as he explained to Vickers, but doesn't say what to try harder with. I believe David told Weyland that the Engineers were all dead but that there was mysterious goo, Weyland told him to try harder to carry out his orders, which is to find live and something that will make Weyland immortal. David takes that idea, and being the curious guy he is, decides he's going to see what the goo does. Then he gives it to Halloway.
What was up with Weyland?
Weyland was obviously obsessed and not exactly right in the head. No sane person would fund a mission to an unknown planet system just because a couple people thought some old cave paintings told them to go there. So he was delusional but he was also really old and had nothing to lose. He didn't fake his death, but he did tell everyone in the hologram that he'd be dead by the time they saw it. He kept himself there under wraps because he didn't want to tell Shaw and Halloway of his real intentions. Shaw and Halloway wanted to know their maker, but Weyland just wanted the metaphorical fire, which was immortality. And the reason why Guy Pearce played him? There were going to have dream sequence with young Weyland, one in which David would read, but it was deleted. They may also have more of him through flashbacks in future sequels.
What was up with Vickers?
Vickers wasn't a robot, but that was suppose to be a suspicious character. She clearly hates her father Weyland and he hates her. He refers to David as the 'closest thing to a son I ever had', which implies he was wanted a son and that Vickers meant nothing to him. She wants control of The Company but he is obsessed with keeping control over it, another reason for wanting to be immortal. Her uselessness in the plot of the movie, however, is one thing I'll attribute to poor writing.
Why would anyone go into a deep space mission without knowing the details of it?
We don't know how regular space travel is in this universe, so maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. But they were all paid handsomely and even Fifield acknowledges it and states that he's just in it for the money. Perhaps Fifield and Milburn specifically weren't that great at their jobs and needed money desperately, which also answers why they act so idiotic in the film. Fifield, despite being a geologist and being the bearer of the flying robot drones that mapped out the whole place, got lost, and why the two got scared at a few dead bodies but Milburn being stupid enough to pet the alien snake. It's another thing I'll attribute to poor writing, but understanding that not many other people would agree to the mission, these idiots were all that were left.
Why didn't they detect life in the temple if there were worms?
I'm assuming they did detect the worms, but once they discovered that there was an atmosphere, worms weren't a big deal. Remember, as implied in Aliens, there are other aliens that humans are aware of. This was probably some intergalactic worm that nobody cared about. Although they should have been at least a tiny bit interested in how the species of worm got there, so that is another example of poor writing.
How did David understand how the Engineer's technology work?
He is like a supercomputer and figured it out, simple as that. The holographic ghosts helped him out in a couple parts too. During the two years of him alone while everyone else was in hypersleep, he taught himself how to speak ancient Sumerian and probably at on of other languages. Ancient Sumerian was apparently the closest language to the Engineers, which spins off of the popular ancient alien theory. Of course it wasn't exactly like it so he had to fill in the gaps with hyper fast computer brain thinking. Maybe along the way he saw the pictographs and realized that the goo was important, which is why he picked it up in the first place and he just didn't tell anybody.
