One of the most confusing chapters in the Alien franchise, Alien movies chronologically, Prometheus is absolutely brimming with lore and information about the xenomorphs and their origins. Alongside that lore, however, are multiple layers of symbolism, subtext, and hinted-at pieces of information. That's part of the reason Prometheus is considered one of the most confusing Alien movies in the whole franchise. The ending of Prometheus, however, can be explained, and its information sheds new light on the entire series.

Every Alien movie has contributed to the wealth of knowledge about xenomorphs, from the warriors introduced in Aliens to the offspring from Alien: Romulus. With the new types of xenomorphs, Alien movies also reveal more about how they're created, from facehuggers to chemical compounds and more. Prometheus, however, dived deeper into the question of where xenomorphs come from than any other entry in the saga, and the movie became so densely packed that its ending became somewhat confusing. Here's everything to know about the ending of Prometheus, from its symbolism to what it means for the rest of the Alien franchise.

Why Did The Engineer Attack David & The Humans?

The Engineers Wanted To Destroy Humanity & Start Over, So The Last Engineer Continued His Mission

The final bloodbath of Prometheus kicked off when Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), David (Michael Fassbender) and Shaw (Noomi Rapace) awoke the Last Engineer (Ian Whyte) from his hypersleep and he began killing everyone in the room. Given Shaw and Holloway's original theory, that the Engineers had invited the humans to meet their makers, the Last Engineer's attack came as a surprise. However, as David explained, the Engineers seemed to be heading to Earth to destroy humanity. The Last Engineer was woken up by a group of humans, the very species he was about to destroy before going into hypersleep, which helps explain why he attacked them.

Though David's theory about the Engineers heading to Earth to kill humanity proved to be true, it doesn't explain why they decided to destroy their own creation. Prometheus doesn't explicitly explain why the Engineers wanted to wipe out humanity, but there are a few possible reasons. As David mentioned, "Sometimes, to create, one must first destroy," which could mean that the Engineers wanted to start a new species on Earth to replace humans. Alternatively, the Engineers on LV-223 may have been a separate group from the creators of humanity, one that wanted to destroy them.

Weyland was essentially living proof that the Engineers were right about humanity, that they didn't deserve the gift of life, and the Last Engineer continued the mission he had started years prior.

There's also something to be said about what the humans - through David - told the Last Engineer as he awoke. Weyland immediately began asking for the secret to immortal life, yet the Engineers, as seen in the opening scene of Prometheus, believed that life requires sacrifice. Weyland's request was the exact opposite of sacrifice, it was wholly self-centered, and it directly opposed everything the Engineers believed in. So, Weyland was essentially living proof that the Engineers were right about humanity, that they didn't deserve the gift of life, and the Last Engineer continued the mission he had started years prior.

Why Janek Rammed The Prometheus Into The Engineer Ship Explained

Janek's Sacrifice Directly Contrasts Peter Weyland's Selfishness

After the Last Engineer began taking off in his ship, Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) ordered the Prometheus to return to Earth. Shaw, however, convinced Captain Janek (Idris Elba) to take down the Engineer's ship, but since the Prometheus wasn't a war ship, that meant Janek and the rest of the crew had to sacrifice themselves. That wasn't an easy decision to make, and Janek had mentioned earlier that he was only there to pilot the ship and was otherwise uninterested in the Engineers, so it might have been a surprise when he agreed to Shaw's plan and rammed the Prometheus into the Engineer's ship.

Though Janek claimed to be unbothered by the Engineers, the black goo, and all the horrors on LV-223, he was actually deeply disturbed by them. He told Shaw that "No matter what happens down there, I can't bring none of that s--- back home with us. Can't let it happen. I'll do whatever I have to to see that it doesn't." That explains why Janek and the rest of the crew sacrificed themselves: Shaw convinced them that the Engineer was heading to Earth, and Janek saw it as his only opportunity to save humanity. In the end, Janek's nobility won out.

Janek and the flight crew of the Prometheus' sacrifice also holds immense symbolic significance, especially as a parallel to Weyland. Where the billionaire was willing to sacrifice others for himself, Janek and his crew were willing to sacrifice themselves for others. Weyland's selfish quest for eternal life nearly doomed Earth by waking the Last Engineer, but the crew of the Prometheus saved humanity. It's the perfect representation of the duality of humanity: simultaneously self-centered and selfless. If the Last Engineer had met Janek first instead of Weyland, the ending of Prometheus could have been very different.

What Happened To The Deacon, The Alien That Came Out Of The Engineer?

The Deacon Suffered An Unusual Fate In An Alien Comic Book

One of the bigger surprises at the end of Prometheus was the deacon, a variant xenomorph who grew out of the Last Engineer's body. The deacon had a somewhat confusing origin: after David infected Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) with the black goo, he had sex with Shaw and impregnated her with the trilobyte. After Shaw removed the trilobyte from her abdomen, it grew to massive proportions and eventually used the Last Engineer as a host. Then, the Deacon was born, but it didn't actually do anything after emerging from its host.

What Prometheus didn't explain about the Deacon was what happened to it after the events of the movie. Luckily, the comic book Prometheus: Fire and Stone - Omega by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Agustin Alessio answered what happened to Alien's first xenomorph. As the book explains, the Deacon grew exponentially due to the black goo in its system until it became the size of a mountain. It had swallowed up everything near it as it grew, including the Prometheus ship, and a salvage team discovered it while searching for a way off LV-223. Other than that, however, the Deacon never appeared in another Alien movie.

Shaw & David's Decision To Go To The Engineers' Home Planet Explained

Shaw Needed To Find Out Why The Engineers Wanted To Destroy Humanity

Once the Last Engineer had been dealt with, Shaw returned to help David so he could pilot their ship and get them back to Earth. Shaw, however, told him that she wanted to go to where the Engineers came from, not where the Prometheus came from. Simply put, the reason they decided not to go to Earth was because Shaw still had her scientific curiosity and wanted to know why the Engineers turned on humanity, and David didn't have much choice in the matter. The answers Shaw wanted weren't on Earth, and the only way David could be repaired was by listening to her orders.

How Prometheus' Ending Ties Into The Original Alien Movie

Alien's Space Jockey Seems To Be An Ancient Engineer Corpse

Though it has a mostly self-contained plot, Prometheus is still a prequel to 1979's Alien, and it ties into the classic in a few key ways. In Alien, the crew of the Nostromo investigated a signal from a derelict ship, and Prometheus proves that it was actually an Engineer ship. Not only that, Prometheus helps identify the famous Alien "space jockey" as a deceased Engineer as well, as he was wearing Engineer armor. The Engineers and their ships help explain a key scene from the original Alien, but Prometheus also contains some hints about how the franchise happened in the first place.

It's not entirely clear Alien movie or show to revisit and resolve that question.

What Alien: Covenant Reveals About Prometheus' Ending

Covenant Revealed Shaw & David's Fate After Prometheus

Alien: Covenant, a sequel to Prometheus set 11 years after David and Shaw left LV-223, helped fill in some of the gaps in the first movie's ending. After initially lying to the crew of the Covenant, David eventually revealed the truth: he and Shaw had gone from LV-223 to Planet 4 on the Engineer ship, and Shaw had repaired him. When they arrived, David released the black goo on the populace, and he claimed it was an act of kindness to Shaw. There's some disagreement over whether the original inhabitants that David killed were actually Engineers or whether they were another species they created, like humans.

Regardless of whether the victims were actual Engineers or not, David and Shaw likely didn't get to the Engineers home planet. Whether it was a colony or another Earth-like planet, Shaw and David were the only two sentient people left on the planet, and they wouldn't remain that way for long. David still wanted to experiment with the black goo and the xenomorphs, but Shaw seems to have objected. Eventually, David ended up overpowering Shaw and using her body to conduct experiments and create new xenomorph variations. Thus, Shaw died on Planet 4 at David's hands, even though she survived the events of Prometheus.

The True Meaning Of Prometheus' Ending

Prometheus Tackles Heavy Philosophical Questions About Faith, Purpose, & Humanity's Origins

Beyond its connections to the rest of the Alien franchise, the ending of Prometheus is interesting in its own right. Prometheus poses a few big questions to the audience, the first of which is a tried and true sci-fi dilemma: does being able to do something mean that thing should be done? Holloway and Shaw went to LV-223 because they finally could meet their creators, Weyland funded the project because he could get a chance at immortal life, and David poisoned Holloway because he could experiment with the black goo. Those decisions all led to horror and tragedy, and Prometheus loudly declares that caution is worth more than any prize, scientific or otherwise.

The next big question Prometheus tackles is the battle between faith and logic. This, too, can be seen throughout the movie. Shaw was the only member of the Prometheus who came to LV-223 because of her faith, and she was also the only person who survived. Likewise, the people who thought only logically suffered the worst fates in the film: Fifield (Sean Harris) and Millburn (Rafe Spall) chose to leave the Engineer's base early on, which ended up turning them into monsters. Prometheus argues that faith, especially having faith in others, is sometimes better than being logical.

One of the most important and prevalent questions Prometheus poses to its audience is about the relationship between a creator and their creation. Several humans, like Holloway, Shaw, and Weyland, were drawn to LV-223 with hopes of meeting their makers, only to be disappointed by the Engineers. Likewise, the Engineers were disappointed by their creation, and David was also disappointed by his creator, Weyland. Prometheus begs the question: does humanity really want to know why it was created? The purpose for its existence and reason for its creation may disappoint.

Another message Prometheus has to offer is not a question, but a statement. Sacrifice and suffering are major themes in Prometheus, from the first scene of an Engineer sacrificing himself to create life to Janek crashing the ship to save Earth. Even the title is a reference to the Greek Titan who sacrificed himself to bring fire to humanity and unwittingly unleashed the gods' wrath upon them. The same is true for the Engineers: they created humanity, but their black goo bioweapon was also a huge source of suffering for their creation. The ending of Prometheus is, partially, about sacrifice and its consequences, both good and bad.

The ending of Prometheus can be interpreted in an almost limitless number of ways.

Even with so many themes and messages in Prometheus, the film still has plenty more to offer. Entire novels could be written about the symbolism, the references to mythology and history, and the deeper meanings of Ridley Scott's Alien prequel. While those subtleties are endlessly interesting, they aren't necessary to understand the ending of Prometheus, and rather serve as optional ways to enhance its story. Luckily, that means that the ending of Prometheus can be interpreted in an almost limitless number of ways.