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RE: "But what was the Black Goo?" It symbolizes technology and empiricism

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In Reply to: RE: "But what was the Black Goo?" It symbolizes technology and empiricism posted by Jazz Inmate on August 18, 2013 at 12:59:24

"That doesn't make sense to me for a variety of reasons--most notably the way the engineer's ship arrived, hovered and left after the sacrificial engineer drank the substance."

The ship that was hovering during the opening scene was not an Engineer's ship. It was a much larger ship, a Mothership, if you will, most likely belonging to the race of beings that created the Engineers. It was these beings that David and Elizabeth were headed for at the end of Prometheus, and presumably the subject of Prometheus 2.

"This makes no sense given the fact that the engineers themselves succumbed to the black goo, and appear to be all but wiped out by it."

The Engineers succumbed to the black goo (only) because the black goo became mixed accidentally with another substance that mutated whatever it came in contact with. I seem to recall David held some green colored liquid he used to spike the drink of Dr. Shaw's husband, who of course mutated rather quickly.

"The surviving engineer was clearly hostile to humans and disgusted by their creation (David). He quickly murdered every human he could, and headed for Earth, obviously to destroy humanity. There absolutely nothing in the film to suggest this engineer wanted to save humans. Once his ship was brought down, he went after the one surviving human. Did you think he was trying to save her, too? As for the theory that 2000 years ago was some kind of pinnacle of suffering and injustice, I don't buy it and there is nothing in the film to suggest that. Humanity has always been mired in evil and the engineers had seen enough to want their "error" corrected."

I don't think the Engineers were in charge. The ones in charge were most likely the supreme race represented by the Mothership in the opening scene. The Engineers were just carrying out instructions. The being that drank the black liquid in the opening scene was not an Engineer. He was one of the supreme beings, perhaps in a religious order of some kind. See attached photo of deleted scene.

Follow Ups:

RE: "But what was the Black Goo?" It symbolizes technology and empiricism - Jazz Inmate 09:19:42 08/19/13 (1)
> > The ship that was hovering during the opening scene was not an Engineer's ship. It was a much larger ship, a Mothership, if you will, most likely belonging to the race of beings that created the Engineers. It was these beings that David and Elizabeth were headed for at the end of Prometheus, and presumably the subject of Prometheus 2. < <

No, the planet shown in Prometheus was not the engineers' home. It was some sort of settlement and installation where the engineers engaged in terraforming. At the end of the film, Shaw makes it very clear she wants to go to the engineers' planet. As for the ship hovering in the opening scene, of course it was a mothership but there is not a shred of dialog, imagery or inference in the film to suggest it was anything but an engineers' ship.

> > The Engineers succumbed to the black goo (only) because the black goo became mixed accidentally with another substance that mutated whatever it came in contact with. I seem to recall David held some green colored liquid he used to spike the drink of Dr. Shaw's husband, who of course mutated rather quickly. < <

Holloway mutated no more quickly than Fifield (overnight).

> > I don't think the Engineers were in charge. The ones in charge were most likely the supreme race represented by the Mothership in the opening scene. The Engineers were just carrying out instructions. The being that drank the black liquid in the opening scene was not an Engineer. He was one of the supreme beings, perhaps in a religious order of some kind. See attached photo of deleted scene. < <

The deleted scene showed a procession of engineers. There is NO reference in the film to "supreme beings". You are making that up. The deleted scene is more easily interpreted as I did: that the engineer in the opening scene was sentenced to drink the black liquid as some sort of punishment; if you want to call it a ceremony, that's fine. But the hovering ship did not leave until the punishment had been carried out.
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We must be the change we wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
- RE: "But what was the Black Goo?" It symbolizes technology and empiricism - geoffkait 11:10:34 08/19/13 (0)
  I think it probably makes more sense to interpret the opening scene as a religious ceremony in which the white dude, part of some sort of religious order, was sacrificing himself so that others might live. Yes, it might be a stretch to say it was analogous to the blood of Christ, nevertheless....Recall the DNA of the dead Engineer on the planet on which Prometheus landed was found to be nearly identical to human DNA. So, it makes sense that the opening scene was intending to show that life on Earth was started by these alien beings. The opening scene was Earth millions of years ago. Engineers might not have showed up until millions of years later.

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