Why use the Goo? and not Facehuggers?

Well we do not know the full routine of events in the making of the movie, by that we do not know if Giger had finished or near finished the Mural before changes was made to add Goo instead of Eggs. Their is no explanation for the Mural and as it stands it could mean one of 3 main things. 1) It is a prophecy, which would then suggest that the Deacon is connected to the Face Hugger and may be some kind of Progenitor of the Xeno. 2) Its shows that their was a similar Organism held in great esteem by the Engineers that is related to and maybe Progenitor to the Xeno and Deacon and the Goo. 3) Or it depicts some of the creations that is the ultimate aim of the Goo Bio Weapon. I had my own theory about the Goo and Urns and Mural that all seemed to perfectly connect with little or no holes and was very rational. I have scrapped my idea now, because well the Weyland Viral attempted to answer the question and i have to take this as the biggest clue, which then renders my idea as obsolete and while it tries to explain what the Goo is, all it does is make a bigger mess of inconsistencies.

Anyway if we look at the ideas of Spaights draft as Lindeloff edit it to change it some how. Spaights Draft the Goo was in it just it was a substance that contained minute scarab type organisms that had a purpose of infecting the Engineer, these scarabs ate and broke down the Engineers Genetic Material, they caused his DNA to unravel and then be consumed by the scarabs. These Scarabs harvested on every molecule of the Engineer untill they ate and broken down all his Genetic Material and these Scarabs then stored this DNA in them. These Scarabs then dispersed once the Engineer was no more, and they eventually come into contact with native life forms and they then attack bite and implant the Engineers DNA with some kind of other substance that then breaks down and mutates the native lifeforms DNA and injects Engineer DNA into it. Latter in that draft Fifield is mutated because he comes across a swarm of the very same Scarabs and these may have came when he knocked over a resinous structure that breaks on the floor, this is when a swarm of scarabs come. Note he was running way after seeing Milburn killed by a Centipede with a Hammer Head and hence name Hammerpede. I can only assume maybe the swarm of Scarabs came from what ever Fifield broke as only he came across the Scarabs none of the other crew ever do. These Scarabs get onto his visor and he swats them and they produce Acid that burns into his helmet. Again as with the Primitive Humanoid that a single Scarab bites in the opening scene, one Scarab gets into Fifields Helmet and Bites him on the Cheek... Then this Scarab passed on DNA that then mutates and fuses with his own creating a Mutant Hybrid only this Hybrid has a Elongated Head is pale and has spines on its back and sharp claws. A Human/Xeno Hybrid of some kind. So this seems to show that their are some parasitic small scarab organisms, that like how a Tick or Mosquito could catch a disease from one host and pass it onto another, these Scarabs can bite and abstract DNA from its victim/host and the next victim/host it attacks it then injects the DNA it extracted from its previous victim/host into its new victim/host and thus causes the DNA of both Organisms to be fused and mixed to create a Hybrid. Looking at that, i think Lindeloff took that idea and changed the Scarabs into a Viral Agent Chemical (Black Goo) that seems to have similar traits to the Scarabs. The resinous structure Fifield knocked over and broke, could be what inspired the Urns. If this is the case, well the Original Draft which effects of the Scarab was explained are similar to my idea about the Black Goo. The Weyland Viral However seems to imply that the Goo the Engineer drank, is the same as what Holloway had taken and the same Goo that mutated the Worms and Fifield. Which off course if you look at it like that leads to so many more inconsistencies. 1) Why does Mankind not have Xeno DNA and Traits, if the Engineers DNA broken down by Goo gave us traces of Engineer DNA. 2) If same substance then why does Fifield (especially concept and alternative Fifields) and Worms take on Xeno Traits and DNA. 3) If Holloway was infected the same as Engineer but at slower pace due to smaller dosage how come his slowly infected DNA or Mutated Sperm was able to infect Shaw which caused her to get Pregnant with a Baby Embryo that contained Xeno DNA? Yep in order to answer the question, Fox has gone and made it more complicated and also contradictory well has holes.... Where as the Original Spaights idea of the Scarabs if the Goo is based on them thus explains the process and this ties directly into my theory and near enough matches 100% My idea was that the Goo at the Start breaks down a Organisms DNA into a Material that then when comes into contact with other lifeforms then mutates that Life Form to take on DNA and Traits of the Life Form that was boken down by the Goo. Thus Humans who consume the Goo would break down into a chemical that has Human DNA which when mixed with a Human would well, cause some kind of Hybridization but not much, if mixed with a Worm then the Worm would take on Human DNA, just as life on Earth would have taken DNA from the Sacrificial Engineer. So why does the Urns contain what appears to be Xeno DNA well mutates to create lifeforms that have Xeno DNA....? Because the Urns contains a Substance that has Xeno DNA, how is this? Well if the Engineer at the start of the movie broke down into a substance that diluted into the Water, surely if the Engineer was given the Goo while he stood in a bath or vat that was connected to pipes that leads to a Container, then the broken down Engineer DNA etc would be collected into said Container correct? And if this container of Engineer broken down Substance was then poured into a lake, would it not have same effect as the Engineer who broke down into the Water Fall? Thus maybe the Urns contain broken down Xeno Material obtained by the method above, this would prove to be a re-weaponizing of the Xeno Bio Weapon that to be frank was very risky Weapon as the Original Space Jockey and Humans from Alien onwards found out. Why the Xeno Mural...... Well it was depicted in a Sacrificial Pose like Jesus, which represents in Christ his Sacrefrice for our sins.... In Spaights Draft the Engineer just before he fully dissolved spread his arms in the same pose as Christ on the Cross and the Xeno Mural and thus in his draft this implied and tied in with the Engineers Sacrifice just as Christs. So the Xeno Mural had same pose, a Sacrifice the Original Draft the Engineer took same pose as his body was being broke down and consumed by the Scarabs. Therefore why cant the Xeno Mural depict that the Engineers Sacrificed the Xeno (or related Organism/Progenitor) to create the Bio Weapons in the Urns. This was my two cents, my argument which i put forth a long long time before the Spaights Draft and things in his Draft seem to conclude my findings... But as i said the Fox Weyland Viral well would make my idea not plausible but then just creates more in accuracies with the Goo.

Facehuggers were featured in the original Spaiht script however the rewrite with Lindelof pushed them into the background in favor of the new plot and effects. Prometheus may have begun as a prequel but it has morphed into something altogether different from the original Alien universe. So be it.

Consider: The eggs seem unstable and near impossible to manage, apparently even for the Engineers. So it would follow that they would try to streamline the process, mechanize it so the bio transformation takes place at ground zero, the opponent becoming the weapon of its own undoing, the dead becoming psychotic killers, the living transforming or birthing new horrors that continue the cycle until it burns itself out, and there's nothing left. It seems to me that this sort of weapon would be conceived by something with much more than mere annihilation in mind. It seems like punishment, as bizarre and cruel as it gets. A self replicating torture machine, planet scale.

Just wanted to add that it isn't clear as to whether the substance at the beginning is the same as the goo seen later on.

Yeah it could be different, it could've advanced over the years ,but the goo could act different ways within different atmospheres. Also if the engineer was willing to drink it for self sacrifice for life .

@Svanya- yes, to me events suggest the two are related but not the same. Almost as though the first is the pure form and the second was modified to produce a specific result: Chaos.

Ans who is to say that the first goo depicted is actually the first goo produced? We may in such a time frame that it could have been Goo#9 that was used in our film. But at some point the time frame boggles my little mind

Here is my take: 1) Bomb planet with Black Goo 2) Inhabitants of the planet morph according to DNA make-up of Goo & Victim 3) Xeno/Inhabitant of planet hybrid kill all life forms found 4) Xenos then coccoon victims to make eggs/facehuggers 5) Eggs containing facehuggers lay in wait for anyone who may have been in hiding, or finds the eggs after Xenos have died off. I see the eggs as a booby trap type of fail safe. They remain to continue the chain reaction/life cycle of Xenos.

@Cerulean Blue If what you say is true then the xeno's are the ultimate adaptive species in the Universe, With the Mayan calendar date 12/12/12 coming up plus xeno's as the ultimate booby trap perhaps I should cash in all my limited savings and take a trip around the world First stops Monte Carlo and Las Vegas.

First of all you need life so that the face huggers can be used on them. The facehuggers which come from eggs would not have anyone to evolve into Xenomorphs if there are no humans around. So the black goo must me used to produce those victims. The black goo from what we surmise created the human race. I believe that the Xenomorps and like creatures are a recent addition to the Engineers experiments. They were created after the human race had evolved. They were pricely created to destroy the human race using the same black goo that created the human race. In other words the Engineers in my opinion have created the Xenos as a weapon to destroy those life forms that the Engineers deem useless and maybe even threatning to them in the future.

Just my personal opinion about this thread.

LV-223 as a vaction spot. I bet any Engineers being sent to this moon for some R&R would be choose another site..

Your thoughts are presented just fine. It seems to list the facts as we know them. You sort of wonder if other bio weapons got out of control in the Engineers' experiements and what other worlds would have been used.

@Indy John - I would not recommend planning any trips to LV-223!

I think LV-223 was originally sold to the Engineers as a time-share?

The engineers did not want to destroy humanity...they wanted transform the humanity..."sometimes in order to create, you have to destroy firts"...so, could be the origin of the xenos or a species relative...then no facehuggers because it is the starting point for all...but the simplest reason could be that Ridley wanted something new...that's all.

@Cerulean Blue Yes that was similar to Snorkies idea... And one that the Weyland Viral now supports. Problem is the movie hints that the Engineers may not have originally planned to use us as a Host... i mean why wait so long? Why wait for our population to get to the stage it was 2000 years ago? And if the aim of the Goo was to create Eggs so they could obtain well its a pretty risky way of doing things. 1) Use potentially uncontrollable and deadly Viral Compound to Mutate Life Forms into Xeno Hybrids, that then change into Eggs. We find out that the substance and process is volatile and a outbreak lead to the destruction of the Engineers. 2) The then said created Eggs are to be collected? If so its a risky job to collect and move the Cargo of Eggs which has potentially dangerous outcome. The Original Space Jockey was simply carrying a Cargo of Eggs and one got lose and infected him and he set a course to Quarantine the Compromised Cargo and warned all NEVER SET FOOT ON LV 426 EVER..... thus the Eggs was also a very deadly and volatile Cargo.... i would imagine that collecting them would be even more potentially dangerous than merely transporting them. 3) If the plan is not to collect them and simply that they are used as a End Game Method of Eradicating Life (seems plausible to hints in movie and purpose in Alien-Aliens etc) Then this really is just like using a Nuke. You see if you take the Gaza Conflict, if Israel was Nuked to the ground then that land would be of no use to the Palestines the Fall Out would render the land inhabitable for hundreds of years, well at least 100. The only purpose the Nuke would have would be to simply Destroy Israel and the Jews within. And you see the Xeno Bio Weapon be that Eggs or Goo has same consequences once deployed the Engineers would face a World filled with either Xenos, Mutant Xeno Hybrids or Eggs and we all know the combination of those even on a Small Scale but a End to the Engineers. 4) What about the End Game is to create the Eggs that the Engineers can Harvest DNA from, so that the Goo mutates life, creates Xeno Hybrids that evolve to Xenos that create Eggs to Harvest for DNA.... again thats a long winded effort with major risks to obtain DNA. Surely a advanced Race would have much easier means of Harvesting DNA than that? Off course the Sometimes to create one must Destroy comment by David does imply that the Agenda and purpose of the Goo is to create something new from something old.

the one must destroy to create is Davids interpritation of things and there is evidence that David says and does things to get back at the humans. so what better way to get your own back on the humans then by leading them to believe that their makers didnt want them, he's a little f@@cker and cant be trusted much like a spitefull child. i think the engineers or elders were making us more like them and the black goo was a fail safe incase we became hostile towards our creators which we did 2000 yrs ago. the black goo if ingesed in a large quantity breaks down the host DNA for later use/seeding. a much smaller dose inhailed or ingested creates a death machine capable of killing and creating more death machines that may not be xeno morphs, hence saving the engineers from using their own soilders and avoiding nukes that would make a planet inhabitable or unsuitable to seed. what substance do we know off that alters host DNA and breaks it down... Ebola hence why it is mentioned in the movie, Shaws dad died of it and when David picks up the holograpic earth in the star map room it points to Africa where Ebola was first discovered. im not saying that the black goo is entirely composed of this virus but it could have been used a base component to create a dna accelerant. heres a link about it [url=http://www.scienceclarified.com/Di-El/Ebola-Virus.html]Ebola[/url]. i believe that the black goo is catered specifically for a certain type of life so the black goo on lv223 probally would not work well on other life forms . now Ebola doesnt create zombies just gloop so something else was added. the dna of a creature that is efficent at killing life forms and very adaptable ... the xenomorph. there is also no evidence in the context of this fictional universe that the engineers didnt manufacture Ebola first and tested it on us because they are a bunch of moraless d@@ks. they have basicaly took two of the most destructive organisms in the universe and used them to create armagedon in a bottle. however then there is the other black goo the scrafical engineer used, i think that its the same scarab like organisms described in the leaked script except the writers made it ambigous to the audiance the aim of this film seems to be to confuse the truth and make the audiance work it out themselves. the facehuggers and their eggs could have been an accidental biproduct of experimenting with the black goo, otherwise we would have a cargo of eggs not vials. i think the pilot flying the ship that crashed on lv426 was trying to remove the eggs and place them in storage away from the other engineers but got killed in the process. the engineers being scientists probally wanted to study them before destroying or reusing them. we this is my theory but i could be wrong.

TY - Dave & Katie! @BigDave - I like Snorklebottom's idea, too! @Katiel238 - I never thought of the Ebola reference until now! It makes a great thesis to propose Africa is the targeted area on the star map! We have traced AIDS there as well as Ebola? This thesis is so much more sensible! Africa would be an easier continent to land un-noticed & start infecting unsuspecting victims. I was thinking Africa was shown because of a possible Engineer/Egyptian relationship? Do continue, please!

Well you see if my idea was spot on or close and reflects the clues in Spaights Original Draft then the Goo would be the PERFECT WEAPON to use to RESET Life on Earth. If we consider the effects of the Goo at the start of the movie and the effects of the Scarab at the start in Spaights Draft. Then why create the Xeno, or why re-weaponize it, the perfect Weapon is what we saw that the Engineer drank. Basically drop a shed load of that on Earth and it would mutate many of us and break down the DNA of others into new lifeforms that contain same DNA that we already have. If Mankind has become selfish, powerful and advanced and does not see the Engineers as Gods no more, then Humans mutated by the Goo or dissolved would reset us back to the start of our Evolution it would change us into mammal based Organisms and Hybrids that would then surely lose its knowledge it once had and become primitive again. Engineers could come down to Earth to visit these primitives again when we would be less of a threat. As if the Bio Weapons effects are same as that in the Urns then all it does is create Organisms based on Xeno DNA that are deadly and hostile as opposed to what the Substance at the start of the movie did with the Engineer. This is why the Original Draft Scarabs effect made more sense and links to how i interpreted the Movies Goo. The Xeno could had been a experiment created with the Goo just as Mankind was via using Goo with Engineer, maybe they used the Goo with something else and it produced the Xeno type Organisms and Goo, or maybe the stuff in the Urns was produced from the Xeno by infecting it with the Goo. But the Weyland File seems to not support any of that, basically here is what Weyland found out about the Goo. The substance in large amounts taken orally will break down the victim at a molecular level and the matter they then break down into contains their DNA which when it contacts another life form will merge with that life form and create a hybrid that contains the Organism DNA that was effected by the Goo. Well not quite as it actually just says the subjects DNA is broken down, and the time it takes to do is depends on amount ingested. The other effect is inhale which will confuse and result in memory loss to the Victim and then it would end up having a primal instinct and become violent it then starts to mutate before eventually breaking down also. By inhale i assume they mean if the Goo comes into contact with the Organisms body.

"..Basically drop a shed load of that on Earth and it would mutate many of us and break down the DNA of others into new lifeforms that contain same DNA that we already have..." What happens to our story when the mutation takes place and results in no human shape ? From what we have seen any meeting of goo and human results in a non human shape. We accept Engineers and their Earth's history because there is a similar design..2 arms, two legs, head and similar body proportions, I guess it is possible that such a mutant shape might be less severe...but if the use of goo created a more adaptive smart species that the Engineers could exploit then the human race that we know would disappear. Big Dave thanks for your detailed post. Not only good ideas, thoughts but explained in a way that I hope I can understand.

TRansforming humanity,,Even if we accept this noble reason for The Engineers,,why at such an extreme part of the universe. Why Earth of all places? This must be a thread somewhere. But why were the Engineers so active and persistant in first seeding earth and then transform the humans and other life forms on land and in the sea?

Yeah i am not saying that dropping the Goo the Engineer had taken would change us into well different versions of us, the change would maintain our DNA to a degree but then the outcome could be different i,e maybe as close as a Ape is to a Man or as far as a Cow is to a Cat etc. Also there is no saying that the Cargo on the Juggernaut contains the same as what was in the Mural Room. Well not from the movie.... But the Weyland Viral File does suggest that the stuff the Engineer drank and what Holloway had was the same thing, and so maybe when mixed with the outer slime.substance it produces the reaction we see that leaked from the Urns that the Worms was swimming in and Fifield fell into.

Maybe they tried seeding a different planet, and when the dna mixed and they came back, the xenomorphs were alive. The Engineers could've created loads of different life on different planets through goo experimentation .