[Robert]

Yeah, Shaws guts should have been splayed out all over the alien space dome/cover when she vaulted the seperation when the space ship tried to escape.

I concede I could be way off base, but I'm fairly well convinced that this is a sci-fi version of the christian creation/apocolypse. Through transpermia the Space Jockeys created life on the planet. Ridley has confirmed it's the begining of life we see in the opening sequence - though it may not be the planet earth we see. I don't see the point of it not being Earth, but whatever.

Through cave drawings we see that there has been contact during mankind's history. Could they have attempted to guide mankind thoughout time? Ridley also mentions an early concept of a messenger 2000 years ago - an allusion to the christ? I think he declined that idea because of a public uproar from christians, but in the movie we know that the SJs were destroyed about 2000 years ago (another reason I believe this to movie be analogous to the christian myth/story). There's a section in the gospel where Christ cries over the city of Jerusalem, lamenting that if they knew the time they were in and the peace he sought to give....... but he knew he was to be denied and killed - thus the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. (A foreshadow of the alien destruction by the xenomorphs?)

Now, it's easy to assume the SJs were going to destroy man out of revenge or for not living up to a standard they may have been trying to communicate to man. IMO, they could have been sent to destroy man to prevent the yet unknown horrors man would perpetuate upon himself. Due to what ever happened on the planet the SJs plans were foiled. Why one was left alive IDK? That's a plot hole that bothers me - among many.

Anyway, 2200 years pass and mankind is now capable of traveling in space. They arrive on this derelict planet to discover the history they imagine is nothing like the reality they see. The crew goes through their various stupidities and we discover Wayland is in fact still alive. The first thing mankind does is not ask what happened here, or are you our creators. Wayland asks for eternal life. Remember, Charlize's character bows/hugs her father while mentioning a king has his reign and dies, its the natural order of things (wildly paraphrased I know). It's easy to assume she's looking for power after her father passes, but it could be she either doesn't believe in the rainbow he's chasing or that what he's seeking is wrong, and only tacitly complies with him out of filael allegience.

Now, I write all the above to got to this one point, and if you've read this far you're a better man than I, Gunga Din. The last known history of mankind that the SJs were aware of was from 2000 years ago when man was killing each other with rocks and spears. Now here they are on the doorstep - the proverbial holy of holies - and instead of questioning their creators about who they are or any other myriad of questions one would ask the creator, Wayland demands eternal life (If you eat of the tree of life you will not die, but be as gods). Thus he shows mankind is still incapable of ruling himself in a peaceful manner and seeks his own selfish causes. There is no self sacrifice in him and demonstrates to the SJ that the right course of action was to destroy man 2000 years ago. Asking for eternal life would forever doom man to the horrors of his own mind and creations without the respite of death. Seeing that man is capable of space travel means they can further their destructive nature on other planets. so the SJ attempts to kill them and complete the mission of destroying mankind on Earth.


This movie is riddled with incredulous plot devises and strange behaviours by the humans, but thematically I find this portion to be pretty well done. I can still be way off the mark (and read between a whole lotta lines to base my opinion), and may be proven wrong, but this portion of the movie fits very well together for me despite all the other things that make me scratch my head.



Bear in mind I liked the movie "Knowing" and was sorely dissapointed when "Caprica" was cancelled. I enjoy a mix of theology and Sci Fi.