What killed the engineers (REVEALED)

Still up for debate on the infestation that killed the Engineers, but yes that was Fifield and Milburn who got lost.

Freeze! if only it were that simple - remember, we're dealing with an openly deceitful (based on LOST) writer here who knows how to II or Invent Intrigue ... with no real understanding nof (necessarily) how to get himself out of his invented quandary. I mean, PARALLEL SPOCK??? Come on, must do better!

Now now. It's not difficult to imagine a number of possibilities as to what was chasing the Engineers down their tunnel. There's no quandary in this situation.

alrite fellas Well its all theory and nothings quite explained...BUT! it seems what ever they were working on (the engineer) turned on them! no we do not know who unleashed this on them (one of their own) or by accident. If you see the bodies they have holes in the head and chest area, fifield and milburn both think something burst out of them. Now watch the hologram scene of the engineers running, the last engineer doesnt trip at the end he Falls over as if something is about to happen to him (infected) u will see this fully on the deleted clip of SHAW watching the play back, its quite clear and then his head gets chopped off by the closing door. Also before you see them running u hear a distince Shreeking sound then they run. Now when they re animate the engineers head to see his end or what his last thoughts or movements were, what happens? they whole procedure of black ooz comes about his head starts changing like the engineer and holloway and eventually its bursts! which would have happened had he not been killed by the door and preserved in the ampule room. Sooooooo take from what you will...its still open to debate.

. . . I'm pretty sure we hear the deacon scream at the beginning of the hologram, before you see the Engineers run away. Soooooooo, yeah

what about the thing that janek see on the radar in the prometheus while Fifield and Millburn are lost in the "cave" and then disappear?? we never know what it is and I doubt it's the alien "snake" haha also... did u guys noticed that when they cut the "snake" alien the blood is like acid but it's when the guy hit the black goo in the floor is when his helmet implodes in?

There is a lot of holes(no pun intended) in the theory that killed the Engineers.. Right lets take a look we know they have the Urns that contain the Black Goo and it creates Mutant/Hybrid Organisms out of what it comes into contact and these Organisms process Xeno traits. Ultimately we get the Deacon but do not forget the Deacon only occurred after a series of events, and basically it evolved from a Human Embryo that was from a Egg that was fertilized by Black Goo infected Sperm. Now we do not know what happens to Engineers if they are effected by the Goo both Orally or by contact via large amounts on the skin. Yes we do see the Sacrificial Engineer take some substance but i dont think it is 100% the same as what is in the Urns... unless if it is then this substance maybe only breaks down Engineers as Fifield and the Worms was not being broken down. We have to look for Clues... The Dead Engineers had Chest Buster Holes, and some had Head Buster Holes, does this mean some kind of Chest Buster infection and that a Chest Buster does not always exit via the Chest but will also exit via the Head. But then its hard to work out if they all have holes in them, the one who had his head chopped off had some holes in his feet and bottom of leg also. We see these bodies piled up why? Did these Engineers all just gather outside this area and just either got killed by something or they all Chest/Head Busted together why would they have not spread out and ran off, surely if some was being attacked where they lay or they Chest Busted then would they not all run off (the survivors at that time). So its maybe more likely that someone or thing stacked them all up, we do see the Xeno collect Humans and take them to be cocooned both in Alien Deleted Scene and Aliens. But then would a Xeno not cocoon these Engineers? Could it be that some other Engineers piled up the bodies but then where did these guys get too? Unless only the Last Engineer did this. We also see the Sarcophagus and 3 have holes at Chest Height and the Early concept work shows the Engineers in those sarcophagus are suited up like the Space Jockey and have outward chest buster holes like the Space Jockey in Alien. Could this hint to somehow a Chest Buster or few on the lose? Who knows. If we see the other clues, they tell of simply a Black Goo infection. Shaw at many times hints at some kind of infection on the Head and at a Outbreak. Janek in the deleted Scene with Vickers mentions a Outbreak and something leaked. The head when they revived it seemed to just explode, if he had the Mask on would it be possible that this would leave a Hole in it? But then i find it odd at how could they all had gotten infected with the Goo while they had their Space Jockey suits on? Unless like Holloways from David, the Last Engineer got some Galactic Champagne and made a Toast to the Destruction of Mankind and he infected their drinks like David did with Holloways lol.. Sounds like a joke... but hey if somehow without knowing they all got infected, and the result is well they just seem to explode then that would explain the various areas of the Holes. Bit of a let down if something like that as i was hopping for some kind of Xeno creature, as the sarcophagus looked like having traditional chest buster holes. But i guess if the Sacrificial Engineer took that substance while he was inside a Space Jockey Suit, he would break down but then where would the resulting stuff go? Maybe it would under pressure just explode out of the suit and create a hole or few? So right now what we have is either.. 1) Black Goo Outbreak.... unknown consequence. 2) Black Goo creates some hybrid or creature that gets to them. 3) Some how they got attacked by a creature similar to or the Xeno.

The jockeys were killed by something more fearsome than xenos. They were killed by humans. To paraphrase Ripley in [i]Aliens[/i], the xenos do what they have to do to survive but they don't kill each other for a profit. If a jockey got it in the back by a projectile fired from a high calibre weapon, the result would be small entry wound; large gaping exit wound. We're very good designing things to kill.

Here's another twist... Lets not forget how the original xeno likes to attack with it's second mouth They wouldn't have this information to consider that as a cause of death.

@Javablue There seems little evidence that Humans had been to LV 223 prior but maybe they could have via one of Weylands research vessels.. However you need to remember 2 things.. 1) The Engineers are supposed to had died 2000 years ago and thus Humans on Earth had no means of getting to LV 223 back then and they also never had such Weapons. 2) The Engineer was shot by one of Weyland high powered Riffles and he shrugged it off, as well as Axe Blows by Shaw in the Deleted Scenes. It would appear a Head Shot would be required but with a SJ Helmet/Mask on this would offer same level of protection maybe as the Engineers pressure suit did from blows.

Thanks for your reasoned reply, BigDave. I agree with what you say altho I think the Prometheus was very poorly armed and their weaponry seemed closer to pop guns than high powered rifles. For my humans-did-it theory to work there would have to be a change in the Prometheus timeline and that's a huge problem but not an insurmountable one. I think the 2000 years thing is just a red herring meant to lead us in wrong directions. I'm working on it...

I think when the experiments went wrong, some trilobite/facehuggers were made. And resulting in Xeno's, but they're much bigger and ferocious because they're born from an Engineer. A Xeno cant be born without a facehugger right?... Is it me or does a Xeno just look like an Engineer with a Xeno head. Maybe the Engineers gave up on trying to infect us, become obsessed with being immortal, and infecting themselves on purpose, to become Xenomorph.

I don't quite see the resemblence betweeen the xeno and Engineer. However in thinking this over if there was a connection it seems to me that the xeno is more highly evolved that the Engineer. I know that sounds crazy but the physical evolvement would be less important that the intellectual developement as a species emerged. To me the Engineers seem to rely on the physical aspects of their developmemt Perhaps the xenoes we have seen depicted are just the 'baby' ones not just developed enough to show off all of their hidden talents. A fully devoped xeno would be one mean sob.

If anyone is still here, loved reading this so far, here is my theory. The way I see it, the Engineer bioweapon is simply a DNA strain that gathers more biomass with each successive host.. In other words, it encountered the little worms in the vase-chamber, resequenced their DNA, and turned into those proto-facehugger-snake worms.. then those encountered the two team members and -attempted- to subsume their biomass (the whole Space Zombie thing that the mohawked guy became doesn't really fit into Xenomorph canon at all). The same virus encountered Holloway's sperm as Holloway was putting the business to Shaw, and so became a mutated sperm that we can assume would have burst out of Shaw had she not removed it surgically. We see this same mutant-sperm facehugging the Engineer at the end of the movie. It looks as if the goal of the Engineer bioweapon virus is to collect biomass, modifying itself with each "birth" to become a more efficient weapon. The xenomorphes were the destructors and the engineers the creators. The black goo would create life and the pinnacle of its evil life would be the xenomorphes which were the ultimate species since they adopt the the traits of its host improving itself in each generation. The Humans were turning bad (roman empire etc, maybe Jesus was actually an ambassador) and so the engineers were worried they might end up like the xenomorphes and so decided to cleanse earth and deconstruct the humans and start again, HOWEVER during this plan, there was an outbreak and xenomorphes were running around the ship. this explains the stacked bodies and holes because as observed in the Alie movies, this is what they do. Maybe the rest of the engineers escaped to their homeplanet, and the destruction of humanity is postponed because of an outbreak of the "virus" was occurring on their own planet. The last engineer, who was in cryo sleep, must have tried to save himself by hiding there, when he wakes up he finds that humans have found their way onto this planet and they still have violent characteristics, (hitting of shaw) also they have tried to create life (david) but instead only created imitations, and so the engineer kills david. im sure my theory has many flaws but im just putting it out there..

It did seem as though maybe a act of sabotage could had been what happened.... we have to ask how come the Last Engineer Survived?

Spaights draft made it more simple... in his the Last Engineer was infected with a Chest Buster only for some reason his Cryo Pod managed to suspend this event which the other 3 Engineers was unlucky....

Prometheus we saw we had our Engineer as being none infected and WHY? that is a Question that has many answers and is one of the most ambigious things in the movie, we also see the other 3 Cryo Pods are Chestbusted and again we cant be sure when this happened.. i.e before the outbreak or after and who is to say that this Juggernaught was not parked in he loading bay a while before of  after the event....  the Hollogram Scene does seem to sugest they had gone into Cryo Sleep and was preparing for a Mission which David hinted was to Earth....

So we just dont know for sure.. how they got infected with Chest Busters as the Franchise seems to sugest they only happen after being Face Hugged and so we have to ask was they Face Hugged before... or after going into Cryo Stasis...?

We just cant be sure..