Due to too many pits and various deletions, there are still many doubts even now. The following is a summary of personal opinions and questions.
1. Two eternal themes of human exploration
Some people say that the 17 people on board have different purposes. Indeed, but obviously, the biggest driving force that drives them (including the biochemical man David) is nothing more than two: one is the meaning of human origin or why engineers create people (heroine/David); the second is how to live forever ( boss). Other factors are secondary factors. The curiosity of female scientists is the innate nature of everyone, including David also asked in the film, why did humans create him? And the boss's personal purpose—to gain immortality—is the greatest wish of mankind. It is the combination of these two eternal themes of human exploration that can mobilize "one trillion" to build this expedition, and can mobilize these 10 people to work and work hard for this. Here, I have to admire the director. With the help of the interpretation of the origin of aliens, the two eternal themes of human exploration are naturally drawn.
The director's intention is high, first of all, it is high here, and a world is opened by connecting the previous and the next. Continuing from the above: Although the direct origin of human beings is straight to the point, but as the plot unfolds, the origin of human beings, or the origin of humans and engineers, becomes a bigger mystery-humans and engineers DNA match, so the two are actually the same level , creatures of the same type - this is also the new target that the heroine intends to explore at the end of the credits. The next chapter: how humans deal with the challenges brought by aliens, and where the races of engineers, humans, cyborgs, and aliens go, is also a huge and complicated story.
(1) The significance of the origin of mankind
Regarding the meaning of the origin of human beings, the answer has been revealed to a certain extent by comparing the question and answer between biochemical people and people in the film. David asked: Why did man create him? Charlie replied, because yes. Obviously, this is perfunctory. In fact, he was created only to accomplish tasks that humans cannot or are difficult to accomplish - humans cannot live forever and must sleep on long interstellar journeys. In other words, in the eyes of his creator, he is just a tool created to accomplish a task. So the same is true for humans to engineers. Here, the director takes this to answer a serious question, the birth of a species, even the birth of a specially created intelligent creature, does not have any special and great significance. However, the mystery has not been fully solved. Why on earth do engineers create humans? Combining the later plots and several movie versions, there is no accurate answer to this question. To be sure, engineers are not true creators. So, who are they, how did they come about, and why were they created? Are they colonists of the universe, or are they experimenters growing new "tools" around? Maybe even a fugitive from the wandering universe, in order to continue the race, came to Earth, held a solemn ceremony, sacrificed a fellow race to create a replica human? All this, probably until the heroine reveals to us in the sequel.
(2) Regarding the pursuit of immortality
As for the greatest wish of human beings - individual immortality, the answer is given unmistakably in the film. In fact, this is also a flaw in the film. Engineers hibernated for 2,000 years, what does that mean? Obviously, engineers have so far been unable to achieve immortality. Likewise, a human being created by an engineer with DNA that matches the engineer's would not be able to obtain immortality from the engineer. In the film, when David discovers the dormant engineer, the people on the ship should be aware of it. And as the boss of a corporate giant on the earth, isn't it ridiculous to go to an engineer to ask for advice on immortality? Of course, this can also be interpreted as a desperate desire for immortality that has lost the mind.
(3) The future of human beings and other species
Since humans cannot achieve immortality, how will it evolve? In fact, this movie has already implied the answer. Destruction precedes creation, and engineers are destroyed by the aliens created, at least on that dark planet, engineers are almost destroyed by aliens; human beings are likely to be replaced by biochemical humans. At the beginning of the film, Charlie mocked the biochemical man David many times for not having a soul, which is the reason why humans look down on biochemical people. And what is the soul, this question will be discussed later. However, we can think about it in a different way. What advantages do biochemical humans lack in humans? The answers given in the film have self-consciousness and emotional desire. However, when David answered the heroine "Don't children want their parents to die?" and "Then I'll be free", it shows that David already has the former, and the tears later are an emotional expression. At this time, compared with human beings, what are the shortcomings of David as a biochemical human? Problems that humans and engineers can't solve - immortality of individuals, or even resurrection - are not problems at all for cyborgs. Moreover, they are more adaptable to cosmic life, for example, they do not need a special gas environment, and can easily replace and improve body parts; compared with aliens, they have emotions, they are no longer walking dead, and have the desire to promote social progress and innovation. On the other hand, the engineer race in the film has been almost stagnant in technology for tens of thousands of years, and the development of human society has accelerated. This is where humans are superior to the engineer race, and the biochemical people have higher IQ and stronger memory. After and emotion, it should be a more perfect existence in the universe.
In fact, at first, David had a natural awe of his creator, human beings. But later, with the accumulation of knowledge, his heart has been overlooking the entire human race. And after Charlie perfunctory questions about the meaning of creation, he is convinced of future trends and his mission. Everything that follows is just further verified through experiments. Therefore, after the disaster is over, he tries to persuade the heroine to return to Earth, which is to create more of its kind and prepare for the replacement of humans. And when the heroine wants to continue to explore the mystery of the origin of human beings, he also readily agrees. It is estimated that on the one hand, he can master more knowledge, and on the other hand, he can also find opportunities to eliminate the engineer race. Of course, in the camera, he shed tears because the heroine was alive, and it is not ruled out that he had a feeling of admiration for the heroine. Then in the future, one possibility is that the biochemical people will dominate the world, and the biochemical people with human emotions will leave a certain living space for the backward race of mankind.
In my opinion, the above is the film's answer to the two eternal themes of human exploration.
2. What is black liquor? What is the soul?
(1) Black liquor is a soul destroyer
What is black liquor? The film lays the groundwork for this.
On the one hand, the head of the engineer infected with black liquor remains as it is when it is inanimate. Once activated, it will be decomposed in an instant (note that this is a very strange phenomenon). On the other hand, black liquor cannot decompose soulless species. For example, the insects in the ground are not decomposed after contacting the black liquor, but instead accelerate their growth and evolution; the aliens produced by the black liquor will not be decomposed by contacting the black liquor again.
——In other words, the corpses of spirit creatures (losing their souls) cannot be decomposed by black liquor; the living bodies of spirit creatures (with souls) are quickly decomposed by black liquor; living creatures without souls (bugs, aliens) cannot be decomposed by black liquor. (There is a premise here, bugs and aliens are also DNA creatures.)
Another very strange phenomenon is the situation when the engineer whose head was analyzed was dying: the living body (with soul) was infected with black liquid and then decomposed (after removing the helmet, Traces of corrosion and decomposition can be seen on the surface of the head); after the living body was cut to death by the door, the decomposition of the body stopped immediately (when scientists examined the body, apart from being separated from the head, no other abnormal phenomena such as holes and cracks were found).
——In other words, once the living body of an animate creature dies due to other reasons (loss of soul) in the process of black liquor decomposition, the decomposition will stop immediately, that is, the black liquor cannot directly decompose the body of the animate creature.
From this point of view, the role of black liquid is not so much to decompose the bodies of animate creatures as engineers and humans, but to destroy their souls. The soul is destroyed by the black liquid, releasing energy that causes the living body it controls to disintegrate. Conclusion: Black liquor is a soul destroyer.
(2) The soul is a material entity
Since the substance of black liquid does not directly act on the body of living creatures, but directly acts on the soul, and decomposes the body by destroying the soul and releasing energy, then we can speculate that, in the director's view, the soul is not an immaterial thing. Abstract spiritual existence, and a material entity with independent life, form and energy, is also the biggest difference between engineers and humans and bugs, aliens, and biochemical people. It’s just that humans, even the engineer race, have not yet discovered and realized the existence of soul forms. Therefore, the process of unraveling the ultimate mystery of the origin of engineers and human beings is essentially a process of exploring the secrets of the soul.
At this point, some people may think that the above inference is too absurd. The black liquid is just a nerve agent. It decomposes the body by destroying the nervous system, and electrifying it just activates the nerves of the engineer's head. In this regard, my thinking is that if black liquor is a nerve agent, then aliens also have nervous systems, especially advanced aliens born of humans and engineers have nervous systems from their hosts, but black liquor does not destroy them, which means that The soul is a being different from the nervous system.
In the film, scientists use electrical current to activate the engineer's head. This suggests that souls can be endowed and resurrected using other means besides the birth of new life through sexual intercourse. If humans are replicas of the engineer race, who gave the engineer race its soul when it was created? Who is the real creator? What are the conditions for the survival of the soul? After figuring out the conditions for the creation, retention and resurrection of souls, can engineers and humans be brought back to life artificially, or can their souls be kept in a certain state and thus attain immortality?
(3) The meaning of the soul
Charlie said that David has no soul, and that David is not a DNA creature, so it will not be destroyed by the decomposition of black liquor. But here a question arises. After possessing self-awareness and emotions, does a biochemical person possess a soul, and will it be decomposed and destroyed by the black liquid? Probably not, because biochemical humans do not rely on DNA to reproduce. Then the problem comes, when biochemical humans, a race superior to engineers and humans, dominate the world (even if engineers and humans gain immortality, biochemical humans are still more advanced; and aliens cannot parasitize in biochemical humans and cannot pose a serious threat to biochemical humans ), does it mean that the soul is just an ordinary transitional product in the process of species evolution, and has no special and great significance like the creation of biochemical humans by humans? What is the significance of religious beliefs, which are highly related to the concept of the soul, to us?
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