Alien: 10 Things About The Engineers That Make No Sense

The Aliens franchise has attempted to explain the presence of Engineers but there is a lot about the creatures that make no sense.

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Alien’s Space Jockey is one of the most chilling, haunting and iconic creatures in sci-fi history, and even that is an understatement. Ridley Scott introduced audiences to the mysterious race in the original classic Alien film, only for the creature to be cast back into darkness for over 30 years.

When Ridley Scott returned to the Alien universe with 2012’s Prometheus, he brought the Space Jockeys back in a big way, but it wasn’t necessarily a good one. The big reveal ended up being a rather colossal let-down as it attempted to bridge the gap between their origins, and our own. Now called “Engineers,” it took the Alien franchise into a very uncomfortable direction that it may not fully recover from. Here’s 10 things about the Engineers that make absolutely no sense.

10 Their Connection To Earth

Prometheus establishes that the Engineers were responsible for the creation of life on primordial Earth, leading to the eventual rise of humans. Human and Engineer DNA is thus almost identical, and there’s no telling how far their biological influence truly goes.

None of this makes sense, however. Why would the Engineers even bother seeding a planet like Earth, only to step away from it for millions of years? There’s such a thing as playing the Long Game, but this is a bit much!

9 Their Hatred Of Humanity

Theories have flown about suggesting possible reasons why the Engineers are so hostile towards humans. Perhaps humanity wronged them in some way, or they watched our progress and decided we were a failed experiment.

Trouble is, the Prometheus crew discovers Engineers that have been dead for 2,000 years. Since humanity never sought them out before the Prometheus mission, the Engineers would have only glimpsed us during our humble beginnings, which would not be enough for them to draw conclusions on.

8 Their Enemies

No mention is made of the Engineers having any sort of enemy to contend with. While the universe is a big place, and antagonists might lurk around any corner, it seems a bit odd that they’d have to put up with much resistance.

After all, the Engineers are quite literally millions of years old, if not more so. Either their technology started off at hyperspeed, only to slow to a snail’s pace for the better part of Earth’s existence, or they have enemies who progressed at an identical bell-curve. Either way, this seems unlikely.

7 Their Bio-Weapons

The Engineers have been around for untold eons, and their technology is far above and beyond anything humanity has developed. Would it be so odd to ask why they failed to place any safeguards on their own bio-weapon stockpiles?

Remember, this is a race obsessed with playing God and seeding other planets with life. They’ve had an eternity to perfect the craft, so how were they so easily overwhelmed by their own creation?

6 Their Physiology

A single Engineer sacrificed himself so that his DNA could seed the planet Earth and give rise to the species we now have, including humans. This begs the question of why humanity doesn’t share the same physiology?

The Engineers are taller, faster and far stronger than we are, and their skin tone is unlike ours. There’s nothing to suggest that the Engineers did anything special when they seeded Earth. It’s one guy’s DNA seeding the planet, seemingly unaltered. Wouldn’t humanity follow the same genetic template?

5 Their Aesthetic Sense

Part of the reason the Space Jockeys worked in Alien is because their design aesthetic was so chillingly abstract. Their bio-mechanical Bone Ship was a patchwork of harsh lines, wet curves and sharp angles, courtesy of H.R. Giger’s demented mind. They looked authentically extra-terrestrial.

By adding the human element into the equation, the Engineers almost seem like they don’t fit the decor around them. These human-like beings seem like aliens themselves. They don’t fit in with the architecture or the styling introduced in the original Alien film.

4 Their Artwork

A key scene in Prometheus shows the crew investigating the Engineer ship when Elizabeth Shaw shines her flashlight onto a wall motif, showing the outline of a Xenomorph. While this was obviously a nod to Alien fans, it makes no sense from a chronological perspective.

Alien: Covenant would do irreparable damage to the Alien franchise by suggesting that the android David was responsible for the creation of the Xenomorph we all know and love. This directly contradicts the wink and nod from Prometheus.

3 Their Technology

As mentioned earlier, Engineer technology seemed to have hit major strides long before the first building blocks of life ever appeared on Earth. Yet, for some reason it stagnated beyond all hope of progression. For millions upon millions of years, this God-like race had suddenly gone full Wall-E.

Unlikely for many reasons, not the least of which is humanity’s innate curiosity and desire to continually progress by leaps and bounds. This would have come directly from Engineer instinct, yet humanity seems to be rapidly playing catch-up to its creators by orders of magnitude.

2 Their Culture

Engineer culture seems to be a mixture of extremely advanced technological achievements, and almost primitive cultural norms. There’s no truly advanced technology in the dead Engineer city seen in Alien: Covenant, instead showcasing a Roman Empire-style.

The cultural markings don’t match with what is seen on the Engineer’s Bone Ship design either, which leads one to wonder if they’ve been using the same fleet for millions of years, or simply decided to abandon their cultural style in favor of something completely abstract.

1 Their History

It is entirely possible that the Engineers and the Space Jockeys are not, in fact, the same race. While many fans were disappointed by what Prometheus had to offer in terms of Space Jockey lore, the real ones could still be out there, while the Engineers merely hijacked their ships and/or technology.

This would go a long way to explaining the cosmetic differences in style between what was seen in Prometheus and Covenant, not to mention the original Alien. Unfortunately, the decision to make David the “father” of the Xenomorphs might have prevented this theory from becoming a reality.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/alien-things-about-engineers-no-sense/