Let me get this straight...

[DerelictShip]

By no means do I really understand the science behind this, but something just doesn't add up for me when thinking about the Engineers and Humans relationship.

So, the Engineers and Human Beings are a complete DNA match from what I understand.

The Engineers came to Earth and sacrificed one of themselves to start life, I do believe.

Now, If they seeded the beginning of life on Earth, doesn't that mean everything would be related to them, or a direct DNA match? Which would not make sense because as humans we aren't genetically related (or barely) to other organisms we share this planet with - aside from these 'Engineers'. And if Humans are a one hundred percent match - or close to it - wouldn't that mean we have gone through no genetic mutations to maintain such 'purity'. Meaning that the human species would immediatley have come to be after the Engineers sacrifice with little evoultion in between now and then. But then the theory of evoultion is thrown out the window and it is more of the Adam and Eve thing - maybe that's what Ridley wanted?

Or was life already in motion on Earth when the Engineers arrived, and the humans - sprouting from the Engineers - became an Alien species that was introduced to Earth, meaning we never evolved here to begin with until after the Engineers sacrifice?

F*** me, I'm confused. Someone unwind this...

[TheSailingRabbit]

It could be that the decomposition of the Engineer created millions of "seeds" for life, each diverging into something else. Like it starts out as bacteria and single-celled organisms and moved on to dinosaurs and fish and rabbits and monkeys and humans, eventually.

I wouldn't think too hard on it, though.

[DerelictShip]

But then we would all be genetically related. And through the process of it 'evolving' humans would somehow have to be resilient to change to keep that direct DNA match to engineers

[SM]

1) They 'seeded' humans - not all life.
2) It's only a movie.

[Huggs]

What about Mr. DNA?

[whiterabbit]

The idea was that the engineers had been enhancing the human species through genetics. Likely for hundred of thousands of years.

However in reality we are very much more closely related to everything else on Earth that you might think. I believe we even share around 50% of our dna with bacteria. Where as the difference between us and our closest primate relative is just 1%. Yea the difference between building rockets and not being able to create fire is just a 1% difference. What would happen if we evolved another 1% from current humans? Time travel? Who knows. The one big difference is that human being dna is much more refined. There is less junk encoded in our dna. If I recall correctly we have about half the dna of a chimpanzee. This efficiency is very likely the reason we were able to develop a superior intellect. It's wholly more complicated than this but that the simple theory.

So in movie it is possible that the engineer just "perfected" the human race through time.

Also there is great variation in human beings throughout the world but this isn't because we have different dna from each other but due to environmental conditions. Things such as skin color, height and eye brow thickness for example.

The engineers are white, tall and bald with large black eyes is because they are a space faring race.

The bottom line is that the engineers created humans for some reason and then decided that they didn't need us. Ridley hints that they wanted to kill us because we were assholes. But it could have been for any number of reasons. Maybe we were an accident, alien host farm, army that was no longer needed?

[DerelictShip]

It's only a movie.

That needs explaining.

[SM]

"We come from them."

[DerelictShip]

Seems just about as easy as explaining how the egg got on the Sulaco.

"Insert egg here."

[SM]

If you like.

It's just a fictional alternative explanation for how homo sapiens got here.

[DerelictShip]

Well this is science fiction we're talking about, so yes. But in regards to the storyline of Prometheus it just seems like a plot hole.

[Huggs]

Well this is science fiction we're talking about, so yes. But in regards to the storyline of Prometheus it just seems like a plot hole.

I thought the plot for Prometheus had more holes than Clyde Barrow?

[DerelictShip]

Thats the first time I've seen that analogy, but I can't disagree!

[SM]

Which plot holes are these?

[whiterabbit]

The engineers creating mankind is plausible science fiction. The engineers and their existence is also well thought out even if a lot of it is unexplained. So I don't get where all the plot hole complaints come from.