Prometheus, as Ridley Scott put it, offers us a strand of the ‘Alien’ DNA, but is more about the creation of mankind in his universe, faith, believing in god and why it’s wrong to go search for answers sometimes.
But meanings aside, with everyone having their own different opinion about what’s behind the movie and the plot (Some say it’s nothing, like some characters say in the movie), there’s also the question of mating what makes what. We see what is hinted to be the creation of mankind as the ‘Engineers’ or ‘Pilots’ drink the dark liquid, disintegrating and falling into the water while a new DNA is formed.
Warning – Spoilers Ahead
So the dark liquid that comes from cylinders is the biological weapon which got out of hand. Combined with the humanoids DNA it creates mankind.
Combined with regular human beings, like it happens to Charlie Holloway and Fifield, creates a disease, with zombie like afflictions.
Holloway got Shaw pregnant while carrying the dark liquid inside of him, impregnating her despite the fact that she can’t have babies. When she cuts it out of her with the computerized surgery station, it resembles some evil squid, which has some scary growing rate thing going in.
Right near the ending, when the Huge squid like creature is waiting in the medical deck, Shaw is attacked in the ship by the engineer. She releases her huge offspring on the engineer while escaping. Seemingly both engineer and the Squid like creature die, but something bursts out of the dead engineer, looking a lot like the Alien we’ve all learnt to know and love for over 30 years.
Credit for the infrographic goes to Carlos Poon.
