2. Answers
Prometheus was big on philosophical posturing and asking grandiose questions about the nature and premise of mankinds existence. The movies central theme, about the dynamics and politics between creator and created, served as the springboard for exploring the paradoxical nature of this existential conundrum...However,
Prometheus was disappointingly silent when it came to providing answers to the lofty questions that it raised which were always seemingly deferred for the follow-up. By the time the credits rolled there were several questions which I desperately wanted answering and that I hoped would be addressed by the sequel
- Why do the Engineers want to destroy us? Shaws carbon dating of the decapitated Engineer chronicles its demise at around 2000 years prior to the mission, which interestingly places the Engineers wanting to set out to Earth with a payload of lethal black goo to just after the time of Christ. The 2000 year timeframe is unlikely to be insignificant but what does it mean? Could it mean that the Engineers, more megalomaniacal than Peter Weyland himself and just as intrinsically insecure and narcissistic, took offense to the spread of monotheism (and the possibility that we had stopped worshiping them as gods), and decided to send us all on a one-way black-goo ticket to Hell? Or was this a preventative attack to save the universe from the fanaticism that we know from history often went hand-in-hand with uncompromising monotheistic devotion?
- Why did the Engineers create us? Given their apparent negative outlook towards humanity why then did the superior species of the Engineer take the time create us in the first place? Its doubtful that the answer is as gut-wrenchingly ego deflating as the one that Doctor Holloway provides to David when asked a similar question aboard the Prometheus
- because we could There is no doubt that Lindelof and Scott belong to a caste of film-makers who understand the power of enigma and ambiguity when applied to film, but theres a chance that if they again generate more questions than answers then many fans will be infuriated to the point of no-return. I therefore expect that the sequel will probe the answer to this question, and to the related one above, extensively. Other answers that the sequel will also hopefully explore will be
what exactly was the disaster that killed the team of Engineers on LV-223 all that time ago',
what happened between David & the Engineer, and
'what was the xenomorph-style mural and the green crystal at its base