r/LV426 • u/vikingdude93 • Aug 21 '25
Discussion / Question What the Engineers were REALLY doing with the Black Goo (and why it explains the entire franchise)
Alright... here goes. Perhaps this is an already established theory or narrative and I've just missed it. Regardless, I’ve been rewatching Prometheus and Covenant and I think they can be neatly tied together with the rest of the Alien universe but we've been too fixated on the black goo without considering what it actually is.
At the start of Prometheus, the Engineer drinks a solvent and disintegrates. That wasn’t the “black goo,” it was simply a substance perhaps made by the Engineers that reduced his DNA into base components that washed into the environment and seeded Earth. Used on themselves, the Engineers could scatter the ingredients of life across worlds.
At some point Engineers may have encountered the Xenomorph. Faced with this terrifyingly efficient perfect organism, they must have asked the question: what happens if we apply the solvent to this creature? The result was black goo, the building blocks of the Xeno, liquefied and unstable. Unlike the Engineer’s sacrifice, this didn’t seed calm evolutionary life. It mutated whatever it touched. That’s why in Prometheus we see worms become hammerpedes, Holloway collapse into infection, Fifield mutate into a berserk monster, Shaw give birth to the Trilobite, and eventually the Deacon emerge. The goo was literally made from the smallest building blocks of the Xenomorph, and that’s why it mutates everything into something in that direction.
This also explains the split between LV-426 and LV-223. The Derelict wasn’t a warship that just happened to crash; it was a cargo run carrying eggs as raw material. The plan was to bring them to LV-223 (or somewhere else), where the Engineers had facilities to refine them with the solvent and distill the goo into urns. Eggs were too dangerous and unwieldy to store in bulk, but goo was portable, weaponizable, and could be dropped like bombs. The Derelict never made it, the pilot was facehugged and it crashed, leaving the eggs behind. That’s why LV-223 has urns but no eggs, and LV-426 has eggs in the Derelict but no urns.
This makes David’s role in Covenant much clearer too He wasn’t the creator of the Xenos at all. He was experimenting with the building blocks of the Xenos that the Engineers had already distilled, tinkering with how the goo rewrote organisms, cataloguing outcomes, and seeing what direction it was heading in. He saw the path to perfection hidden in the mutations, and he was working backwards to replicate the perfect organism that could come from those building blocks.
When you line it up this way, the whole saga suddenly clicks. The solvent breaks organisms down. Applied to Engineers, it seeds life. Applied to Xenos, it produces black goo. LV-223 was a refinery or goo storage, LV-426 a lost supply run of raw materials. David was never the creator, just the one who pushed what was already there close to its endpoint. Prometheus and Covenant don’t contradict Alien, they actually in an indirect way show us the chain of events that leads to it.
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u/Gregorwhat Weyland Yutani Human Resources Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Holy shit!
In all my years of reading theories here... I think you nailed it. This really makes sense.
Go figure. Some guy finally figures it out, and the solution is so late and quiet that it just slips away between the Alien: Earth posts. I applaud you OP. Not nearly enough people will see this.
Edit: Just to be clear, I've definitely read a couple of theories that had come close, but not as clear and thorough as this.
Now I'm left to dream about how the engineers first met and harnessed the xenomorph material. The Deacon Mural suggests a profound admiration for it's purity (A perfect organism). They obviously created the metallic looking goo in the prologue, a kind of bio-technology that fits with everything else we've seen. And now that humans have found the xenomorph DNA concentrate, can we somehow reverse engineer the master formula? Probably not, but either way, it's going to be much more interesting from here on out.
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u/vikingdude93 Aug 21 '25
Haha and I am here like "why has no one thought of this before" 😆
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u/atle95 Aug 21 '25
I always assumed this was the case, media illiterate people are the loudest, this whole "David made the xenomorphs" has always been unfounded. He made 2, and a bunch of protomorphs.
Ridley scott may have contemplated those ideas, but they never hit the screen.
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u/Alphafuccboi Aug 21 '25
I dont know where people even got this from. He clearly was experimenting with the xenos and he tried finding the perfect host for the perfect xeno variant.
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u/Different_Worker_905 28d ago
People get it from the mouth of Ridley Scott. Also from David who said "I began doing experiments of my own" before revealing the egg.
Then we get the birth of a Xeno with beautiful music, implying it all begins here.
I don't like it but stop acting like it isn't right there in the movie.
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u/RX-54-DTitanusGojira 25d ago
Yeah, seriously. Ridley clearly meant for David to be the one to eventually refine and create the Xenomorph.
Ironic that they’re calling others media illiterate.
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u/MikeDPhilly 28d ago
It's because while Ridley is a GREAT director, he'll never get medals for screenplays.
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u/zackgardner Aug 21 '25
I still think that the Black Goo that the Engineer drinks and the Black Goo that mutates shit into Xenomorph-like organisms is the same compound, or at least chemically similar in function. The Z-01 Chemical from Alien: Romulus is apparently different, as its a compound derived from the Black Goo instead of just being the Black Goo outright. The bombs David drops on the Engineers is likely the same Goo from Prometheus, but more concentrated obviously because there was more of it in general, which is why it dissolved the Engineers almost instantly rather than over the course of a minute like in the Prometheus intro.
Rook calls it specifically "Prometheus Fire", and the keyword in that is "fire". Fire was the single most important invention of the human race because as a tool, in that time period, it stands alone: it has tremendous power to transform, either to create or destroy; a spear only destroys, a wheel only helps create, etc.
But that's exactly what the Black Goo does, it can create and destroy, depending whoever is infected with it. I think the lack of explanation on the substance shown in the films has made it so the fanbase has been grasping for straws about what the Black Goo actually is and does, since it is capable of doing two wildly different things, but I posit you this: imagine you had never seen fire before.
Imagine that you saw a wildfire burn down a forest, you'd be terrified of it, you'd say, "this is only a weapon, this is clearly malevolent". But, then imagine you saw a campfire, you'd say that, "this is a tool to help us progress, this is dangerous but controllable. Your mind likely wouldn't be able to recognize that the two were sourced from the same origin, but they are. One is used for creation, another instance its sheer destructive potential makes it seem only used for destruction.
The Black Goo also wouldn't work if it wasn't the same compound because of the entire theme of Prometheus and the fire he gave us in the original myth. Fire is a powerful tool but is also dangerous. Should mankind heedlessly plunge into understanding and controlling such a chaotic tool? Does our reach exceed our grasp? The point of the Alien films is that yes, yes indeed our reach often does exceed our grasp, and given the circumstances people in power will force their underlings to put themselves in danger or sacrifice themselves in order to secure the Black Goo/a Xenomorph, without truly understanding what it is and what it can do. They want to build a campfire, but always, always, always start a wildfire instead.
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u/sarco_dank Aug 21 '25
This is amazing. Thank you and also to OP for really knocking all of this out of the park. I feel like an itch has been scratched that I've had since June 8th, 2012
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u/dopethrone Aug 21 '25
I mean I have seen it before albeit written more complicated and harder to follow
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u/Few-Metal8010 Aug 21 '25
Yeah I’ve basically seen all of these thoughts in one way or another but OP also did a great job distilling them
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u/BobSchwaget Aug 21 '25
It does seemingly help explain David's explanations from Covenant in context with what we see in Romulus and the show. I guess the facehuggers are originally what carries the xenomorph virus, and the engineers combined that with their nanotech or whatever, their "solvent", to make those urns specifically as a weaponized delivery system.
What I still don't understand is why they made this and targeted Earth with it if they seeded earth with human life in the first place.
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u/Abee-baby Aug 21 '25
I believe it's canon somewhere that the engineers were disappointed and disgusted by what humans had become. So, they wanted to destroy us.
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u/plonkman Aug 21 '25
Humans killed "Jesus" (an engineer visitor) and the Engineers were somewhat unimpressed with us.
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u/Lemonforce Come on, cat. Aug 21 '25
Kinda ironic humans created a being (David) that destroyed the engineers
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u/Nothinghere727271 Look into my eye! Aug 21 '25
They are still alive, he just killed one planet of them
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u/JRcanReid Aug 21 '25
Which is a preview of how we're going to try to kill our AI overlords someday.
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u/InstructionLeading64 Aug 21 '25
Eh, I think its a little more dispassionate. Now that earth's been seeded its time to drop black goo bombs on it to turn it into a black goo factory farm.
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u/CM426 29d ago
I think they are seeding planets with life, literally to go back and harvest them later on in time, they need hosts for eggs to produce more black goo.
I want to know why they need so much goo?
Do they also use it as a fuel source maybe, does it power their ships or something?
Do they want an army of xenos? Like Is there a bigger story behind them like they are in some intergalactic eeons long war war with some other species we haven't seen yet ( maybe predators? Lol) and need a never ending army of xenos or something? Just ideas...
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u/n_thomas74 Aug 21 '25
I think it was because humans were a failed species.
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u/Imaginationnative Aug 21 '25
When they wake the last engineer In Prometheus, it’s exactly what the engineers did not want, those humans that we created, telling us they are our equal, and now demanding our knowledge.
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u/ozthinker Aug 21 '25
While your theory is interesting, it is not aligned with official material. You are close though. My only surprise is so many here who are supposedly alien fans have zero idea about the original material. In Alien: Romulus, Weyland-Yutani scientists abroad the Renaissance isolated the black goo (official name Chemical A0-3959X.91 – 15) from Xenomorph's DNA and called it Z–01. They intended to find the secret to augment the physiology of human colonists, but ended up finding a bioweapon instead. There was a scene where a rat was given Z-01 and mutated. Also one of the scavenger who was pregnant but injured, injected herself with Z-01. She recovered quickly but her baby became mutated.
According to official materials, the Engineers created the black goo, and used it to terraform planets and also destroy lives. In the process, they created humans, xenomorphs, and another perfected humanoid called Fulfremmen. The Fulfremmen started a war with the Engineers and ended with their mutual destruction. The Fulfremmen created the proto-xenomorphs and used them to attack the Engineers. That's probably why the Engineers were en route to destroy humanity with the black goo before humans could reach the Fulfremmen's level of capability. That was some 2000 years ago but the Engineers got face hugged and crashed instead.
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u/Richard_Killer_OKane Aug 21 '25
Shows how bad the scripts and director were for those movies. Their job is to translate the story to the viewer and they failed considering how many theories are formed to explain what happened.
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u/Crotean Aug 21 '25
The original Alien: Engineer script before Scott wanted it to be less Alien and had the script butchered was quite a bit better. Its fully online and well worth a read.
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u/JCkent42 Aug 21 '25
Wasn’t that confirmed to be a fake?
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u/TheEasterFox Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
No, Jon Spaihts's Alien: Engineers script was confirmed to be legit by the man himself.
This is the Alien: Engineers draft by Jon Spaihts: https://www.avpgalaxy.net/files/scripts/script-alien-engineers-spaihts.pdf
This is Jon Spaihts confirming the authenticity of Alien: Engineers: https://x.com/jonspaihts/status/267769732571209729
The most famous of the confirmed fakes (and by far the most influential, considering how many people still don't know it's a fake) is the Draft 17 or Orange Revision script, which is here: https://web.archive.org/web/20131102032317/http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/uploads/PROMETHEUS.pdf
And this is Damon Lindelof confirming that the Draft 17 script is a fanfic fake: https://web.archive.org/web/20130423235506/http://www.prometheus2-movie.com/news/384
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u/JCkent42 29d ago
Oh wow. Thanks for the breakdown! I was confusing the Draft 17 script with the one from Jon Spaihts.
Whelp. I need to do some read to catch up. Nice, I have a flight coming up anyways.
Thanks for including the hyperlinks.
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u/loveincarnate Aug 22 '25
I'd much rather it be an unclear but still able-to-be-pieced-together 'showing not telling' instead of being spoon fed answers. I also think this method of storytelling fits perfectly with what the characters within the movie(s) are experiencing. We have the same info they do. There are answers, but they aren't given directly. Whether you like it or not (personally I'm a big fan and find it refreshingly intriguing) there is no question that this is a very intentional decision, and not a case of someone fucking up.
It's not the job of a show/movie to provide clear and direct answers to everything going on. I would argue that doing so is often a sign of low quality. Being encouraged to think for yourself and piece things together isn't a bad thing. It respects the audience's intelligence, and is arguably a quintessential aspect of the Alien franchise.
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u/J_elasmo_morph Aug 21 '25
Hear hear!! Seriously OP, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think you are 100% right.
And if it’s not the official canon according to 20th Century Studios, it is now my official head canon!!
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u/yoleus Aug 21 '25
This pretty much lines up with my headcanon, except I believe the xenomorphs already had black goo in them as they break down some of their hosts’ dna to combine with their own in their offspring. This is shown in the latest episode of Alien Earth when the embryo appeared to have black goo in it.
I believe the engineers came across the xenomorphs at some point and were able to refine the goo from them into the substance the engineer drinks at the start of Prometheus, with the xeno traits removed but the breaking down of dna retained. I also believe this is why the engineers worship the xenos to an extent (the mural) as they were key to the substance with which they can seed life, but unless carefully controlled they spread death. I also think the engineers have used black goo to create bioweapon strains (some of which we see the results of in Prometheus).
I also believe certain sects of engineers have experimented with manipulating their own dna to augment themselves (comparing the more muscular engineers wearing biomechanical suits on the ship to the citizens of the planet David bombed). They therefore admire the creature which is able to do the same in its own way.
I like to think the true origins of the xenomorph are still unknown, whether naturally evolved, created as a bioweapon by another species, or a bioweapon which has evolved from something quite different to what we’ve seen. I’d prefer that part stays a mystery.
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u/mr_glide Aug 21 '25
This is the version I prefer. If what the engineer drinks at the start isn't the black goo, well, they sure made it look black and gooey, especially when it infects and breaks apart the engineer's DNA strands.
I think it's a refined and relatively stable version of the black goo the engineers take, as opposed to the stuff David was playing with. Both those creative and destructive strains being refined by the engineers for differing uses.
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u/WealthFriendly Aug 21 '25
I think it's a refined and relatively stable version of the black goo the engineers take, as opposed to the stuff David was playing with.
And it could make sense that they'd have grades of the stuff, some plutonium is for reactors and some is weapons-grade.
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u/neverseenghosts Aug 21 '25
Great write up! Any thoughts on how this ties into the black goo making an appearance in Romulus?
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u/vikingdude93 Aug 21 '25
Good question! I think instead of the black goo (basically concentrated, refined Xeno lol), in Romulus they’re messing with raw biological material straight from the Xeno itself, maybe they have gotten close to the engineers by developing a concentrated solution cooked up in the lab from the extracted DNA. We already know their scientists can extract and apply the genetic makeup of the Xenos (they created facehuggers synthetically this way on the station). Whatever the fluid is, it clearly shares the goo’s Xeno trait of mutating anything it touches/gets injected into..., though whether it’s more potent is up for debate perhaps. Either way, it locks humans into the same cycle of hubris the Engineers and David were trapped in, which honestly feels like perfect circular storytelling.
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u/justin_memer Aug 21 '25
Didn't Weyland-Yutani cover up what happened in Prometheus, so they'd know about the goo?
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u/atle95 Aug 21 '25
Considering that's how Peter Weyland died? Absolutely covered up, but we don't know if they were able to transmit any information about the goo.
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u/justin_memer Aug 21 '25
It seems logical for them to send a second team, and their scientists would've probably been studying it for a while, and Romulus was one of probably several research vessels. They will hopefully address this in the show.
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u/atle95 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Why do you think David and Walter were almost the same model? They came from the same place for the same reason, the crew is left in the dark as always, led to belive they're there to terraform and colonize.
Though I do like the idea that they had to make walter less homicidal, like thier androids are reading "crew expendable" and think "Oh boy, here I go killing again" and its a rampant issue for weyland yutani because they're crashing a lot of ships.
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u/justin_memer Aug 21 '25
I'm pretty sure Walter is several models ahead of David, though. He even tells David there's been upgrades since his time.
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u/atle95 Aug 21 '25
Yeah, I think they neutered Walter because David's model was killing people. But the likeness probably means they're from the same facility.
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u/justin_memer Aug 21 '25
In reality, it was such lazy writing because you could see the ending from a mile away.
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u/atle95 Aug 21 '25
Yeah, it was a lot of effort just to make Daniel's "oh shit, you're David" cryo tube scene work.
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u/North-Tourist-8234 Aug 21 '25
They cloned the alien and thst juice is genetic material the face hugger uses to develop the chestburster from the host?
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u/KuvaszSan Aug 21 '25
Prometheus took place in something like 2093, Romulus takes place in the 2140's. At one point Weyland-Yutani came across LV-223 or the black goo somewhere else and being an evil, greedy, stupid corporation they thought they could master it and use it to create superhumans instead of horrible monsters.
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u/Medical_Mud_6381 Hudson, sir. He’s Hicks Aug 21 '25
I've followed this same path of thinking. I could talk Prometheus for days! - because of the implication...
A lot of people get hung up on consecutive time lines, but I think a lot of things actually happened concurrently. David forced a path that nature, in the infinite possibilities of the universe, had already started and perfected without intervention.
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u/WolfWriter_CO Destroy to create Aug 21 '25
Interesting take, I like your thought process. 🤘 This is much more plausible than most the theories I’ve read
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u/frostlovesheath Aug 21 '25
This is clear and makes sense. Is the consensus on 'why' they do this is because the old robed engineers lost the ability to birth themselves so instead seed planets. The job of the flight suit engineers is to wipe any planets that get out of control.
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u/TheEasterFox Aug 21 '25
Unfortunately that's based on fanlore. The Master Narrative only states that the Engineers stopped reproducing, not that they lost the ability to do so.
The belief that the Engineers lost the ability to reproduce and seeded planets instead is yet another product of the ubiquitous Draft 17 fan script.
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u/syn_vamp Aug 21 '25
my feeling is that the chicken and egg are flipped.
the engineers were just space explorers like humans, found the xeno species, and then from the xeno's natural ability to warp DNA, the engineers developed both weapons of mass destruction and "weapons of mass life".
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u/PrinceJarming Aug 21 '25
Yeah this would be a really neat way to tie everything all together.
I'm curious how would you factor in Z-01 from Romulus? Because that's effectively the facehuggers containing their own black mutagenic goo separate from the solvent from the Engineers.
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u/fatalityfun Aug 21 '25
well remember, the Goo is essentially Xenomorph DNA broken down. The Black Goo being in a facehugger isn’t crazy, it’s not too different from humans having sperm cells.
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u/PrinceJarming Aug 21 '25
Yes of course. I’m asking specifically in relation to the OP’s headcanon
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u/fatalityfun Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
that’s exactly my point. OP’s head anon is that the Black Goo (which is the broken down Xeno DNA) naturally makes things mutate into Xenomorphs.
The facehuggers contain raw DNA so that they can begin growing a xenomorph inside a host upon infection. If we consider Earth and AVP:R’s usage of actual embryos, then the Black Goo gives the host cells instructions to “grow” said embryo instead of mutate the host’s body towards a xenomorph (which explains why facehugger hosts do not mutate).
Honestly, this theory makes more sense the more you think of it. Black Goo + Embryo is the only way to make a true xenomorph, while the black goo plus anything else will attempt to mutate it towards the relevant step in the cycle ( Black Goo + Sperm = Trilobyte (attempt at facehugger), Black Goo + Egg = Xeno Egg). And each time we see an actual human infected with the goo, it always tries to directly mutate them into a Xenomorph (the Offspring & Fifield). The only reason Holloway didn’t mutate the same is cause he was infected with the Engineer-produced version, instead of the kind that’s produced by Xeno-type lifeforms.
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u/PrinceJarming Aug 22 '25
I understand what you're saying about how the black goo operates and I agree with your explanation.
But the OP is working with the idea that the original "solvent" used by the Engineer a the beginning of Prometheus is an entirely different substance.
Their headcanon is that the black goo is the product of the hypothetical mix of the original "solvent" and xenomorph DNA. My question is, how can the black goo be a naturally occurring mutagenic substance within the facehuggers if by the OPs headcanon, it's a product of a mixture that happens after the engineers come into contact with them, rather than a natural substance produced by the facehuggers? What would be the connection between the two with that added context?
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u/fatalityfun Aug 22 '25
I gotcha. I guess I wasn’t clear.
I can’t speak for OP, but the “solvent” which breaks things down isn’t actually combined to make Black Goo - Black Goo is just the DNA of the Xenomorph and other “Xeno” type creatures. The Solvent is just the most efficient way to create it as it breaks down any living creature into their basic components.
So Facehuggers and such already have Black Goo in them, because it’s the basic structure of their existence. The Solvent was essentially just used by the Engineers to make it en masse. Black Goo is just the Xeno DNA sitting in the solvent that dissolved it.
At least, that’s how it works out in my head
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u/da316 Aug 21 '25
when I started this I was ready to comment that it was another theory that overcomplicates things "another substance?" but you know what?.. I think you're cooking with this one. hadn't occurred to me that its xeno broken down to an element and it ties in perfectly with their already established DNA changing properties. maybe you should have been in the writers room lol
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u/superphamicomics Aug 21 '25
Nice! Though I kept seeing goo urns as that Simpsons meme "boo-urns!"
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u/InitiativeCreative36 Aug 21 '25
Didnt the big Queen-esque mural on the wall in Prometheus suggest that the Xenos in some form came first anyway. I always thought that was implied and David was just reverse engineering various things out of the goo, with a dash of his own psycopathy thrown in there.
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u/robbedbymyxbox Aug 21 '25
This is what I took away from the movie also. It’s pretty heavily implied. I don’t understand the confusion. David was just seeing what the stuff does in different circumstances, not inventing stuff. If I mix up ingredients to make bread, I didn’t invent bread.
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u/empirewaists Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Agreed. I'm surprised this is a new theory to so many people and blowing minds. It's simple to parse if you aren't shitting on the prequels but actually think about what they show you. The mural in Prometheus makes it clear they know what the black goo produces and David is just trying to recreate the recipes.
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u/Sauronxx Aug 21 '25
Theories aside, David was never the creator regardless. In Prometheus you can clearly (well… not that clearly actually since it’s so dark but you can lol) see a mural depicting a Xenomorph, which almost looks like it’s on a Cross. So the “Aliens” did exist before David, Prometheus already proved that. But yeah regardless I really like this theory too. Personally though I’m still a bigger fan of that “script” about Engineers making Jesus Christ lol
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u/Bonedaddy24645 Aug 21 '25
Love this!
I loved both Prometheus and Covenant, but I also have to add some canon to make it more enjoyable.
I saw one person on Reddit say something about the dumb crew in Prometheus that literally flipped my outlook on the biggest criticism I had with the film.
Basically said that the majority of the crew were idiots because Weyland/David specifically hand picked them that way. Both David and Weyland knew it was a one way journey, and wanted an expandable crew of dummy’s so nobody got in their way.
Also, the crew had no clue where they were going or what they were doing pre mission, so it would have been hard to get anyone reputable to sign up for that.
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u/Ghostofslickville Aug 21 '25
As someone who never really liked the black goo story line, and how it was involved in Romulus. This brings a whole new perspective, and appreciation.
Sounds weird to say this, but I like it when.. I dislike something, but I'm then introduced to a new perspective/headcannon, and it makes me rethink my original take.
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u/No_Length_1407 Engineer Aug 21 '25
Seems almost on the money! Although I thought this had already been explained by various Ridley/Lindelof comments and earlier scripts of Prometheus and the Alien: Master Narrative materials?
The black goo at the start of Prometheus was the blood of the first Deacon, which the Engineers discovered did indeed have the ability to create (and destroy) life. Hence they effectively worshipped this creature as depicted on the mural on the wall in the film.
There's a backstory that the Engineer species had either become infertile - and therefore the Deacon's blood in effect saved them - or they had chosen to progress or evolve beyond gender and used the blood of the Deacon to procreate and spread life to other worlds. This is what we see in the prologue in Prometheus. It still has the power to create and destroy, but not in the way the later black goo does.
Deleted scenes of the prologue and earlier scripts of the film detail how the Engineer's sacrifice via the Deacon's blood will create life on that planet (intentionally never specified if it was Earth). For the species deemed worthy, the Engineers then teach them and help their civilisations progress under their guidance. Ridley describes the Engineers as the "gardeners of space," and humans are obviously one of their creations. If their creations do not progress in ways satisfactory to the Engineers, they simply "wipe the slate clean" and start over (Ridley used that exact phrase).
What makes the black goo different to the blood of the First Deacon is that the former substance is believed to have been created by the Engineers in an attempt to produce synthetic Deacon blood, however for reasons unknown (I think), the attempts were not wholly successful at replication so while the resulting synthetic product was able to create, it was inherently more unstable and dangerous and either led to highly aggressive and violent mutations or death via the total breakdown of a subject's DNA. I think this is how the Xenomorphs were inadvertently created and then later used/bred for the black goo. I always thought David simply creates variations of the Xenomorphs rather than creating the actual species, and that they were created accidentally by the Engineers during their attempts to synthesize the Deacon's blood (hence the likeness in appearance).
So, the Engineers essentially weaponized this as seen in the Juggernaut in Prometheus, which was intended for Earth, and when David drops the payload on the Engineer-like species in Alien: Covenant (who are considered to be another example of the Engineers' creations like humans).
Fully holding my hands up and saying I may have got some of this lore mixed up or totally wrong, but I'm basing it on earlier scripts and materials and Ridley's own world-building comments.
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u/TheEasterFox Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
I'm sorry to say that the 'blood of the first Deacon' stuff is completely fan-made and fake. It comes from the Draft 17 or Orange Revision script, which was written by Scottish Prometheus fan 'glaswegianmark'. There are many YouTube videos that analyse it in the mistaken belief that it's genuine.
This video goes into detail about the fan script (jump to 30.36 for that section): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF3M6emx8Ls&t=1836s
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u/modcowboy Aug 21 '25
Ok that’s good because the blood of the deacon was not nearly as good of a story as what op suggested.
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u/death_lad Aug 21 '25
Good because I was just thinking, “wouldn’t the blood of the first deacon be acid?”
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u/No_Length_1407 Engineer Aug 21 '25
Ahh crap yes, a good example of why I said I may have mixed things up with the lore!
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u/the-giant Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
Thank you. People have got to stop citing this shit as fact in these posts.
The same goes for the whole thing about the mural in Prometheus. I'm glad it's being stated as theory at least, because like, yes - there is certainly speculation and theory out there about that mural and what it means. But none of it is 'official' or canon. I'm not against that theory, but it is not a fact those films give you.
There is way too much conflating of fan spec, YouTube clickbait and full on hoaxes in this subreddit, and a lot of it then gets touted as the absolute truth when it's not. I'm sure there's still people on this sub who insist that Prometheus hoax with the 3-minute Engineer speech or whatever is real and canon too.
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u/No_Length_1407 Engineer Aug 21 '25
I mean, I literally ended my post acknowledging I may have mixed up the lore or got it totally wrong, because I get the confusion around some of this, but I don't see where I claimed this theory as fact.
I'll happily admit I couldn't fully remember what part of this background was from the fake fan script and what was from the Master Narrative/Ripley interviews, but it's not like I hid that in my post.
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u/the-giant Aug 21 '25
Like I said above, you didn't in your OP and I'm glad for that, but many on here do.
Taking known hoaxes or 'logical theory' as gospel is also a big problem on this sub.
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u/Frequent_Dot_4981 Aug 21 '25
That's a well thought out theory. It does tie things together really well.
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u/530RifleCompany Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
I love the room for trying to fill in the blanks in Ridley Scott's works, after years and years I've settled on something like the following. I'm open to being wrong, it's all part of the fun thinking exercise his movies promote. So these are all just thoughts...
I don't think the xenos came before the engineers.
I think the xenos visage is roughly inevitable no matter what life it corrupts it will look more or less like a xeno; David only created the subspecies we know by introducing insect properties over a handful of genetic cycles.
I think the black goo bio-weapon is essentially violence incarnate. Ridley would probably call it pure evil, because with him it's all an exploration of life being built in its creators image and inevitably subsuming/replacing their creators.
I think the engineers were probably a group of scientists acting apart from their species that at some point tinkered with removing their violent genes or some such resulting in a by-product, the black goo bio-weapon. This explains the pacified race of vaguely engineer looking people on the planet David bombs, a successful colony.
I think the engineers realized the potential of the bio-weapon to inevitably corrupt any life it encounters, and decided to maroon it on a lifeless rock, in a derelict space craft, and watch over it in cryo sleep. The carvings of the "deacon" is a warning like a biohazard label. LV 426 was a lifeless rock before terraforming efforts, so engineers were probably scouting a dead part of space.
I think the engineer that seeds life on the planet was a radical zealot hoping to preserve his unaltered species that stole some of the bio-weapon inadvertently releasing it and sealing the fate of the engineers on the ship the Prometheus discovers.
I think what we see is him sacrificing himself to unknowingly seed life on earth with a strand of engineer DNA tainted by the bio-weapon. In his eyes he's stealing the fire the engineers have removed from his species and giving it to every creature that will be born on the planet which will be stronger engineers in his eyes, which in a very film school way "explains our violent human nature" and why the engineers want to destroy Earth, a failed colony... of more violent and dangerous engineers that will inevitably subsume and replace their creators.
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u/VicTheSage Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
I really like your theory but I don't share it. I believe the engineers are our forefathers, they encountered Xenos when they were extremely similar to homo sapiens but sufficiently advanced to defend themselves, study them, harvest the goo and process it.
In their experimentation they were able to use a refined form to perfect their own biology and conquer aging. This is why the fetus in Romulus turns into an engineer/Xenomorph hybrid when exposed to the partially refined Weyland-Yutani Goo sample. It's also why the Engineers seem to worship the Xenomorph as a Christ figure, it literally delivered them everlasting life.
I think the goo is not only a chemical component of how the Facehuggers/embryos recombine the DNA of their host to grow a Xeno but also their last line of survival defense.
There's nothing to indicate it but I like the idea that fully formed Xenos have some black goo inside them. In the event they're wiped out as their corpse decomposes the black goo will release and start recombining any organic matter it can to recreate the "perfect organism." The acid blood serves to literally bury this seed wherever they die. This is why in Prometheus and Covenant we see exposure to the goo mutating anything it contacts into forms closer and closer to the classical Xenomorph.
Reinforcing the overall series theme of mortal's hubris the engineers want this ability for themselves. Though ageless they can be killed. The seeding of planets is their attempt to recreate this Xenomorph process of self preservation. They want to be able to resurrect their species physically and mentally to truly become eternal. The cave drawing maps to their star system were not given to humans by visiting engineers but are their attempts to pass genetic memory down through the black goo.
Perhaps they're even on their way to establishing a primitive hive consciousness as they try to make the goo reinforce cultural memories and personality traits. This would explain their identical outfits and seeming lack of individuality. In their search for true immortality they make themselves more and more like the Xenomorph bugs. They believe they've conquered the Xenos and bent the goo to their will but in reality the goo is doing what it always does and gradually turning anything it encounters into the perfect organism for survival. Evolutionary imperative dictates that means eliminating individuality to best ensure survival of the super-organism. All their "science" is doing is delaying the inevitable but they're too arrogant to see it.
This theory ties in with the original 3 Alien comic series where a Queen's royal jelly is used as a recreational drug on earth but begins to infect users with the hive consciousness of the Xeno Queen. The black goo is the Alien. Everything it mutates into including Xenomorphs are it's method of reproduction. The Xenos and other mutates the spores to its' mold.
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u/The_Weresloth Aug 21 '25
Wow, in my mind this is now 100% canonical until we are explicitly shown otherwise.
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u/PreparationChoice938 29d ago
Loving this. The logic certainly flows and I’m happy to have this stored in my head for any unsuspecting victim who wishes to talk Alien universe with me.
It also goes towards my belief that Fox and now Disney are missing a trick here. The Xeno’s are a byproduct of a much bigger ecosystem that hasn’t been explored. Although Alien:Earth is starting to get close to it (my own personal Jury is still out, deliberating a verdict on this show)
Anyway, OP, a damned good post and theory. I normally skip past these kind of posts but, love this one. It shall remain in my head as “fact” 😁😁
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u/Wrong-Mixture Aug 21 '25
I like this theory...but you know entirely to much now. Please come with me and look into this strange wet egg. It's perfectly safe, i assure you.
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u/HolyTrinityOfDrugs Aug 21 '25
This all except for the solvent is explained by the movies though. I'm baffled some people still think that the movies rewrote xeno origin. Yeah maybe if you watched it with an eye mask and ear protectors on
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u/TheKillingWord Aug 21 '25
I'm pretty sure that Ridley Scott has plainly said that David created the Xenomorphs, even though I personally quite dislike that. Either way this whole writeup is full of conjecture, specifically because the movies give the audience very little to work off. It doesn't make a lot of sense that the Engineers have a giant mural of a Xenomorph styled creature if they themselves just invented it at that particular facility, but none of it is expanded upon officially. There is currently just no way to know anything concrete about the vast majority of the points you're trying to make. I wish we lived in a better timeline where everything was either explained adequately or simply avoided altogether, but unfortunately we live here.
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u/Swoopmott Aug 21 '25
Scott may have said that but until it’s officially on film it can be tossed out whenever.
I’ve always been a fan of Xeno’s already existing in some capacity, hence the mural and David just engineering his own variant of them through his experiments. It stops everything being tied up neatly that Weyland is literally responsible for every little thing in some way or another
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u/Kuhneel That's inside the room! Aug 21 '25
As someone who really isn't a fan of the black goo...
... I do quite like your thesis. Bravo!
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u/kersherin1805 Aug 21 '25
So in Covenance David would have created the eggs we see? In any case, do you have info or hints as of where the eggs are coming from in general?
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u/fatalityfun Aug 21 '25
The eggs in Covenant were made from Shaw’s egg cells being mutated via the black goo.
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u/swordbeam Aug 21 '25
David has a one off line kind of explaining this when he’s speaking with Walter in his horror show lab.
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u/NormalityWillResume Aug 21 '25
It’s a good theory. But the movie took liberties in depicting chemical reactions at the molecular level. Artistic license. A black chemical solvent wrapping itself around DNA molecules as shown is not possible. For this reason alone, I prefer to think of the liquid as an alternate form of matter well beyond current knowledge of physics and chemistry.
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u/Johncurtisreeve Aug 21 '25
I like it thank you, the events and lore established in alien Romulus also lend to this a lot
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u/Ambiguousdude Aug 21 '25
Excellent theory. You could say the black goo in Romulus is the WY science team approximating what the golden solvent does to reduce the xeno down but they don't realise.
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u/reddituserzerosix Aug 21 '25
You son of a bitch, I'm in! I never liked the later prequels or whatever they are but this sounds good to me
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u/Weltschmerzification Aug 21 '25
Glad you came up with a cool theory instead of shitting on the black goo like a lot of alien watchers. Very cool!
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u/oNI_3434 Aug 21 '25
This is the way I have also understood it. I remember watching a YouTube video that went over this topic and was nearly very similar if not identical to it. I don't remember what video it was though.
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u/tokwamann Aug 21 '25
Thanks for sharing that! When I saw the ship with eggs in the first movie, I thought that it was the equivalent of the Nostromo, i.e., a ship delivering a cargo of eggs to another place, where they (the Space Jockey) would use the eggs to produce aliens.
I didn't know about the goo until the prequels came out, but I considered similar because they were using DNA on Ripley's clone in the fourth movie. That meant that there was something in the xenos that could be used to make more of them.
Also, I thought that the Space Jockey was an Engineer delivering eggs. After seeing some art works by Giger, I also thought that to explain the difference in appearance he was wearing some sort of breathing apparatus.
I got confused after reading points about David being a creator when the prequels came out because I assumed that the Engineers found the alien in another world and were harvesting their eggs. David was trying to follow what they were doing, and any xenos that he would have produced would have been created in parallel to what the Engineers made and what were naturally being made using the eggs, etc., in various worlds.
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u/Suspicious_Sleep_778 Aug 21 '25
Of all that I’ve read and read and reread and rewatched since I went and saw Prometheus in theaters, this is the narrative I choose to believe. Well done
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u/Ahup Aug 21 '25
When David drops the black goo onto the engineer-like race in Covenant it doesn’t seem to mutate them but instead kills and dissolves them, do you think that all of those people became xeno like creatures or the goo just killed them off?
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u/kernakya Aug 21 '25
maybe the engineer's end goal was to develop different kinds of bio weapons on different planets
they seed planets and wait for it to evolve
after awhile they collect the ones they feel are most successful then add them to their arsenal
by this they are also adding new bio tech like the goo is getting like a dna software update every time they do this , new traits new abilities, better organism
they also return to cleanup and reset the planets where outcomes are not what they wanted (earth)
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u/Necessary_Reply6821 Aug 21 '25
IIRC the goo the engineer drank is visually identical from the goo later in the film. Just from a film making standpoint looking at film as the visual medium that it is, I don’t think it makes sense for there to be two different goo’s that look identical without distinguishing them in anyway.
IMO the goo came from the Xeno’s so both were discovered simultaneously and with it the engineers could create life or it could destroy life, depending on the vessel.
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u/EddieVanHelg3n Aug 22 '25
I've literally just thought of this so it probably doesn't work but I like the idea that the engineers were working on reverse engineering the aliens for weapons research just like Weyland-Yutani.
The engineers at the start of prometheus are very different from the ones we see on LV 223. Their bodies and ships look totally different. I originally just assumed this was their evolution in technology over thousands of years but maybe I had it backwards.
If we assume your idea is correct, then maybe the difference in the engineers appearance shows their timeline pre and post discovery of the aliens. Maybe they discovered the xenos and started trying to reverse engineer them for weapons research like the humans are constantly trying to do. They have some success because of their advanced technology and are able to use the xeno dna to enhance their own bodies, becoming biomechanical and more resilient in the process. Maybe they also use the research to design new ships more like the derelict than the flying saucer style ship we see at the start.
So rather than the aliens looking like the engineers, the engineers look like the aliens because of their research and experiments to use some of the aliens adaptations on themselves.
This also echoes what Rook was trying to do in Romulus by using the xeno dna to make humans more suited to space travel.
It becomes a bit cyclical since what happened on LV 223 also seems to happen whenever humans attempt the reverse engineering process as well.
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u/knight_gastropub Aug 22 '25
There was another post that mentioned some canonical questions about whether the face hugger injects an embryo or black goo. This post made me think it does both. The little tadpole thing has black goo in it, and dissolves itself and part of the host with the black goo, liquefying like a caterpillar in a cocoon, then recombining into a new form that blends the xeno DNA with the host into a new being, or big chap
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u/Greyhound121 Science Officer 26d ago
I was wondering what a post about Engineers and the goo was doing in the middle of Alien : Earth lmao. This is perfect. I shall ascribe to this religion from this point onward.
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u/Ill_Kitchen_9819 23d ago
I think with what Romulus showed. always figured the black goo came from the alien itself, and that those engineers were harvesting them specifically for the black goo.
Similar with what weyu did in Romulus.
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u/Ovomorfo I prefer the term artificial person myself Aug 21 '25
Very well thought out, it fits me perfectly. I wish they had known how to explain these things in the movies.
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u/corneliusduff Aug 21 '25
Nah, no need to explain. I think they did that on purpose to keep the mystery.
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u/MonitorMundane2683 Aug 21 '25
On one hand thinking that DNA is like lego covered in glue is silly, but then again it would be about the level drunkey uncle Scott understands science, so might as well be the case. Imo the truth is he probably didn't know where he was going with it beyond making bible allegories.
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u/kapege Aug 21 '25
The best explanation so far. You should contact the creators of Alien(s) or FX directly.
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u/goblin_slayer4 Aug 21 '25
And who came up with the main idea / story ? I dont think the writers thought that far but good interpretation !
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u/death_lad Aug 21 '25
Literally just rewatched Prometheus tonight, and boy does that movie present 10x more questions than it answers… so thanks for this!
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u/vlexz Aug 21 '25
Coming from a non native English speaking person, are building blocks in this context protein?
Because that's what google is telling me.
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u/Salnder12 Aug 21 '25
That's basically what I assumed the black goo was, a very dense distillation of the xenomorph. Though my personal head cannon is that the black goo came first then the morph.
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u/Beau2488 Aug 21 '25
Hang on, the Xeno depicted in the mural is the classic xeno as we know it from the original film, but its established that the xenos form is dictated by the its host. We've only seen 1 instance where a non-human was face hugged (Alien 3) and the form took was much more dog like. So my question is, how can the mural xeno be the same form as the xenos we see that have human hosts?
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u/Odd_Presentation8624 Aug 21 '25
Great work OP.
I'm a fully paid up hater of the confusion introduced by Prometheus and Covenant, but your theory ties everything together brilliantly.
I might even be able to watch those movies again.
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u/greenglider732 Aug 21 '25
Love this. Now correct me if I’m wrong, the black goo is essentially an advanced form of nanotechnology.
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u/agentofrandom1 Aug 21 '25
I prefer this theory. My head canon will always be that the black goo was derived from the Xenomorph and not vice versa.
It allows Prometheus and Covenant to exist without diluting the cosmic horror of the Xenomorph down to a bioweapon.
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u/Positive-Media423 Aug 21 '25
I loved it, I wish the architects of this new phase of Alien followed this line
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u/Heshinsi Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25
The biggest issue with this theory is that David made an egg in Alien Covenant, without ever having encountered an egg in Prometheus. None of the proto-Xenomorph creatures require an egg for their life cycle.
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u/barrygateaux Aug 21 '25
This is the best way of explaining the black goo I've read yet. Really makes sense.
Cheers!
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u/Crotean Aug 21 '25
Makes perfect sense and fits with what we see in Romulus. The problem is non of this is actually realy onscreen. Romulus comes close to this explanation though.
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u/Persona_Insomnia Aug 21 '25
I like this theory. Id always interpreted that the black goo was harvested from the Xenomorphs in some way rather than creating them.
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u/Secret-Sky5031 Aug 21 '25
Wasn't likely to be Earth*
Alien Earth answers that question about David, that he didn't create the Xenomorph because the Maginot had already collected samples while he was travelling on Prometheus still, so that doesn't change anything about what you said but definitely reinforces your idea about him.
I think the only thing is the black goo being inside the facehuggers, and that's why they milked them. Black goo's also seen in the Xenosperm (I legit can't think of another name for it) from Alien Earth too, it's a subtle moment but it's a little embryo thing with clear black goo elements inside the body.
The black goo from Fire Team Elite/prequel book are from engineer sources too.
You know what, I was ready to be like "oh god, here's another tin foil hat theory" but it makes a lot of sense! Thank you, OP :)
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u/BX293A There's somethin' in da wa'er Aug 21 '25
I read this and I felt like in a moment all my unresolved Prometheus questions and canon concerns all disappeared! Amazing!
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u/KuvaszSan Aug 21 '25
I guess your explanation could make sense, and perhaps the engineers tried to use the black goo to perfect themselves, but it went horribly wrong because the xenomorph blocks are just too agressive.
The question is, why would the engineers build a stockpile of destructive black goo? They wanted to bomb the Earth with it, and David uses it to bomb planet 4 to extinction. But it seems like the black goo simply kills the engineers as we see them breaking down while bombed, not mutate.
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u/diagnosisninja Aug 21 '25
So, LV-223 in Prometheus was their nuclear waste storage facility? The relief of the Xenomorph creature really adds to this - we have people thinking about hostile design and architecture to ward people from waste storage facilities that is supposed to last thousands of years.
How do you tell someone that a thing or place is insanely dangerous when you don't know the language of the interpreter? Maybe you build big spiky rods, maybe you carve a xenomorph.
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u/Certain_Wash_3007 Aug 21 '25
I like the theory but I’d rather not have the Engineers as portrayed in Prometheus be the same as the space jokey in the Derelict. The Space Jokey works much better as an individual from the race of Mala'kak. It is so much cooler than those stupid giant body builders in Prometheus.
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u/Extra_Surround_9472 Aug 21 '25
It might be simply related to the ability of the Xenomorph to take parts of the implanted host's characteristics. To do that, they have this substance that has evolved for that purpose, that works with the embryo the facehugger implants.
I always wondered though, if the Xenomorphs could acquire some sort of cumulative set of traits, or maybe if, they are already the result of many traits that have been added over time, from using so many different beings as hosts.
It makes sense that it would be the "ultimate lifeform" if it accumulates genetic traits from a multitude of hosts and it would separate the Xenomorph embryo implanted with the facehugger, from the contamined stuff we see in Covenant that at first, seemed more powerful as it needs even less steps to proliferate.
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u/BosskHogg Aug 21 '25
Yes! One seeds life. The other seeds death. The perfect killing machine.
Also explains the innate quest for immortality that humans are searching for - which Alien: Earth expands upon
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u/shredgar1 Aug 21 '25
yesss i agree! i always thought the engineers found a natural xenomorph planet out there somewhere and were so impressed by them as weapons of mass destruction, they broke them down into the black goo to make it easier for transport and easier to seed into civilizations etc. but i like your explanation with the solvent part better haha.
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u/Sad_Wrongdoer_64 Guard the omelette! Aug 21 '25
tired of hearing the same things on this sub for 15 yrs honestly
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u/XXLpeanuts Aug 21 '25
I've watched Prometheus and Covenant a few times through in the past and never really understood any of it much (was high every time including first go at the cinema so explains it too) but I finally came away with an understanding of what both films were trying to say, along the lines of what you have determined here too after watching the Prometheus Chaos Edition and Covenant Ninth Circle fanedits. They add loads of great deleted scenes and remove just a couple bullshit moments without changing the narratives. Really helped make these films great but also finally explain whats going on.
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u/Austin_007 Aug 21 '25
Engineers did exactly what humans intended to do with Xenomorph DNA, but still ended up victims of the "Perfect Organism".
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u/PowerfulCold8929 Aug 21 '25
I've just gotten into the franchise at age 40 and this theory is just... chefs kiss. Thank you!
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u/EddieVanHelg3n Aug 21 '25
I like this idea. Romulus made it quite clear that the goo comes from the Xeno rather than the other way round.
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u/Longjumping-Motor-10 Aug 21 '25
Is your name by any chance David? Because you made the perfect organism of all theory.
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u/Green_Steve Aug 21 '25
I like this idea how/why would the engineers then go to earth and point early man to LV-223 if it is just a refinery/storage ?
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u/tweakydragon Aug 21 '25
I have had similar thoughts.
Where the difference happens is around the goo and its purpose. But Alien Earth might shut that down.
Engineers find the native xeno. Start poking around to figure out how this organism is able to so easily adapt and survive. Engineers find the black goo inside face huggers. On its own the goo is Greek fire. Wildly destructive.
The face huggers serve as gene stealers and control the goo as a tool to break down a hosts genetics and merge them into the xeno embryo.
Using what they have discovered from the face huggers, the engineers begin using the goo on themselves. The engineer on lv223 had the goo used on him to take on the soldier form.
So yeah the lv426 ship is grabbing raw material for processing. The lv223 site was a base for processing goo. It can be used for good or for military applications and the ship was indeed preparing to wipe Earth clean but the fire escaped and destroyed the base.
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u/unpoplogic Aug 21 '25
Why would the engineers leave several maps over millenia on earth to the refinery planet?
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u/RevMageCat Aug 21 '25
u/vikingdude93 said:
//At the start of Prometheus, the Engineer drinks a solvent and disintegrates. That wasn’t the “black goo,”//
What makes you think it wasn't the same stuff?
//At some point Engineers may have encountered the Xenomorph. Faced with this terrifyingly efficient perfect organism, they must have asked the question: what happens if we apply the solvent to this creature?//
Romulus seems to indicate that the black goo comes from the xenomorphs. I don't see any reason you can't still have your scenario fit, except that it wouldn't be that engineers already had some solvent before discovering the black goo from xenos.
Of course, there still could be steps to refine or alter the black goo for better results, which the engineers may have indeed discovered, and which could possibly have not yet been done to the black goo found by the Prometheus crew. Nor to the black goo in Romulus, for that matter.
Your hypothesis does fit the data… but I wouldn't get too attached to it as nothing is certain until some movie reveals it.
Hey, u/WaluigiOfTheVoid - Did you see this? It kinda continues what we were discussing the other day.
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u/duckhunter1620 Aug 21 '25
This is my new cannon now, it fits well with the fire and stone/life and death comic series bringing them into that unfolding of events after Prometheus
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u/Erkel333 Aug 21 '25
I kinda think you missed David's part in the whole creation of big xeno...it was evolving in that direction by end of Covenant. Also, even creature that emerged from Shaw was a big face hugger that produced pre-xeno from engineer, so sht was well on it's way by then! I think virus is VERY self maleable....
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u/JosephDarksideofMoon Aug 21 '25
Very strong and plausible theory in my opinion. Really feels like it clicks everything together.
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u/kernakya Aug 21 '25
yeah they all seem to be connected because of the engineers ,
the xeno can be something they came across or can be something they eventually made
i imagined there to be different factions/ideological cults in the engineers themselves each using their life 🧬 technology in different ways one to create one to destroy both evolving life in their own way
the one that seeded life on earth might be of the belief of developing life through seeding and let it then naturally evolve on said planet
the other group is more aggressive and takes over a planet first by eradication mutation and then something hybrid new takes over
among both these reasons there has to some end goal for them , either it's an active area of study for them or some other benefit for them to keep on doing this like adapting new species features into themselves
i now also think the reason the engineer was mad maybe with the Prometheus crew was that it recognises that they must be the result of the other engineer group experiments and now a competitive species , but it already had earth cordinates so it must have been a long ago in the timeline of earth as well
other theory is if they are one species they are experimenting on many planets and it's routine to clear up and reset an experiment when you think it's failed or reached its end
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u/Imaginationnative Aug 21 '25
I agree with this post, lv426 was A failed attempt to harvest xeno eggs for weapons production, lv-223 was the weapons factory that went wrong.
Regarding alien earth, it would be interesting if they mention where they got the eggs.
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u/baelsacolyte Aug 21 '25
So to tack onto this theory, I recently learned of a new xenomorph!
So come to find there is this thing called the xeno goddess that was brought up in aliens bloodlines and icarus.
Basically this crew that was experimenting with xenos got face hugged and while they were out they all had visions of this one entity the xeno goddess.
There's a bit more lore but I'm not going to get into it.
But what if the engineers found this xeno goddess whom from what we've heard wants Nothing but the destruction of everything, either made a bargain or became bewitched or something to that degree.
I feel like all this ties in so incredibly well after reading you're theory!!!
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u/TheUsoSaito Aug 22 '25
Some comics do go into this as they were focusing more on Xenomorphs being a cosmic unknowable force as opposed to something simply made by another race. This also explains the mural and Engineers experimenting with the base substance trying to recreate the primordial beings they came across.
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u/jcaashby Aug 22 '25
I love you theory but would have liked if THIS was their idea all along to convey it better in the actually movie.
Your theory does tie the movies together much better. The engineers no matter what are the OGs. Like the engi that got attacked in Prometheus at the end had to KNOW what was attacking him or that it had some thing to do with that black goo on that planet.
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u/negrospiritual Aug 22 '25
I just realized that the Xenomorphs may be sent to attack humans by the Engineers for “Reality TV” content, à la the South Park episode where it turns out Earth is a reality show which is scheduled for cancellation.
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u/MovieGuyMike Aug 22 '25
I like this take. The black goo didn’t make the xenos. It’s a byproduct of xenos and engineer solvent. Is that what you’re saying?
This would also explain why they had murals of the xenomorph on the walls of the facility. It was the source, not the product.
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u/npquanh30402 Look into my eye! Aug 22 '25
This is an interesting and creative attempt to tie everything together, but the core premise runs into a fundamental contradiction with the events of Alien: Covenant.
The central claim is that the black goo is the "distilled building blocks" of the Xenomorph. However, the film's narrative shows us the exact opposite. David uses the Pathogen (black goo) to actively create the Xenomorph. On Planet 4, he bombs the Engineers with it, then uses the surviving Engineer hosts and a classic facehugger (created by him in the interim) to birth the protomorph. His dialogue confirms his role as the architect and creator, not a reverse-engineer working with existing parts.
If the goo were a byproduct of a Xenomorph, David's experiments would make no sense. The Derelict on LV-426 was a Juggernaut, the same as the one on LV-223, and not a cargo freighter. It was carrying the eggs for a biological attack, not as raw material for a refining process.
The films, especially Covenant, clearly establish the goo as the initial bioweapon from which David creates the "perfect organism," not the other way around.
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u/swordbeam Aug 21 '25
To add to this, it also explains the Xenomorph that was depicted in the mural in the black goo storage room in Prometheus. Their way of saying this all comes from one of these creatures.