Artistic license. It's a movie. Plenty of other sci-fi films have used similar editing. See "The Minority Report" for one.
They obviously detected its approximate location from space. And as soon as Holloway spotted the straight Nazca-style lines on the surface he got excited and asked the ship's pilot to zero in on that location.
It's a modern ship. With cutting edge technology. It isn't some industrial barge ship like the Nostromo.
Fifield shouldn't have been on the mission in the first place. He was unstable. This was alluded to later in the movie when it is suggested that actually all the crew were just picked out of a hat almost. They didn't really care on team fit, mental stability or what have you. They just needed some joe schmoes to go down there and stir on the hornets nest. Sure it can be argued that's all that Hollywood needed too... Again, it's a movie!
Why does Kane go and touch the egg in Alien 1? When the entire audience was begging him not too...
Because Holloway removed his, and its human psychology in this sort of situation that when one person has done it (and not died) then generally everyone does it too. Perhaps the helmets are claustrophobic.
It's still being speculated on. There is a theory that the green goo creates life and the black goo destroys it (or weaponises it). The only person that actually touched the black goo was Holloway and it was in such a small quantity that it took ages to have any effect. But then his body started decomposing like the Sacrifice Engineer at the start of the movie. Shaw didn't touch it, she only had sex with Holloway and it can be surmised that when you do this then a bad ugly proto alien is the result... Fifield didn't touch the black goo either. He got spat on by a proto alien (in the form of a Hammerpede) and this seemed to turn him into a zombie of sorts. The other scientist also didn't touch the black goo, he just got a Hammerpede down his throat instead.
I don't understand why people got so confused over the black goo. Maybe it just needs more than one viewing to take it all in. But I took it all in fine on just my first viewing
Okay this is probably the weakest scene in the movie. The real key to the scene was the carbon dating, revealing the Engineer had died ~2000 years ago. Everything else was just Hollywood filler I think.
No idea.
I think they were pretty careful TBH. When things started going wrong they immediately ordered a containment as well.
Because David told her if I remember correctly. Nobody knows yet if it was actually preprogrammed to head to earth. Or whether David, by playing with the star map menuing system, had inadvertantly "selected" earth from the list of planets.
He obviously saw the Engineer get out of the chair after the Croissant crashed. What's hard to believe about that?
She doesn't. The look on her face says she is terrified and looking like she is about to meet her maker (ooh er). She hits the door release button in a last ditch attempt to get her off the hook.
That's because they all knew. She collapses into a room full of people that were all "in on it". David kept the whole inner circle there informed. So when she arrives with a stapled abdomen they already know what's happened. The music for this scene changes also and becomes a sort of deceitful tune - to provide a hint to those who weren't following the story up to now.
There was a lot of competition between David and Vickers. I don't remember all the specifics on this sub-plot so need another viewing.
Pass. Don't remember this bit. Just like nobody remembered the banter between the two mechanics on Nostromo (Alien) after their first viewing.
I guess this can be put down to a combination of the futuristic surgery, pain killers and sheer determination (something that David points out).
Because that's what happens if you mix black goo with a human sperm cell... Just like if you mix black goo with a centipede you get a Hammerpede. The black goo can do two things 1) deconstruct life, or 2) weaponise life.
The temple didn't have a main security door either. And they left invitations all over the galaxy pointing to this planet. Could it be that, originally, this place was intended for "shared" use?
This is a pretty minor thing that hasn't been explained yet. It's so minor that I doubt it ever will be? It's not hard to believe that an alien outpost will also let humans/androids interact with their computer systems. If it wasn't for the quarantine failure ~2000 years ago, presumably there would have been security guard engineers...
This is still being speculated on. There are some good theories out there by now, you should go read them.
When it's your only remaining shot at extending your life you would surely take it. I don't think he believed to save extent that Shaw did. He was there based on hope.
A lot of people in the world believe what Shaw does. That there is a god and that, if you ever met him, he would be pleased to see you. It's not exactly far fetched!
Along with the "engineer head dissection" scene, probably this one too would have been better left on the cutting room floor. The first part of the scene was okay ("Are you a robot?"). But the second part about ("Meet me in my quarters in 10 minutes") was a little over the top. But I don't know, I need a second viewing to make sure. These sort of things might be cleared up in a director's cut anyway. Remember this was a FOX movie and the whole white blonde chick getting it on with a black guy thing is kind of on the up right now...
It's a distinctly alien way to control a space ship I would say. I thought it was cool.
Because, shock horror, a lot of people actually liked it? Hell, many are going back for second or third viewings?
