3 die but one survives

There are many many possibilities. Try [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/11682]this[/url], for example.

Maybe once a few deacons were born it is their sole characteristics to pile the dead bodys of their carriers for coccooning. They could've left the last Engineers as he was already infected.

Posted the following to another thread but probably more appropriate here. The Deacon may be a new species since it results from the goo>human>human>trilobyte>engineer lineage. Perhaps whatever killed the engineers (stacked and in cryo) isn't yet known to us or to our heros in the sequel.

Maby he sabotaged the cryochambers himself. He seems pretty vicious and fierce. It is also possible that he is responsible for the outbreak on the base. He seems to be the only one alive afterall, at least in the first pyramid(i think the whole planet). It is also on his ship(if it is his ship ta tata!?) that the course is set for earth with the mission to destroy it.

My interpretation and explanation was that maybe the survivor actually was responsible for the outbreak, and that he objected to the eradication of mankind and he thus sabotaged the mission. This explained why he was the survivor, it explains how a Advanced Race was all but wiped out by their weapon, otherwise the Engineers well dont have good fail safes and protocols for a outbreak and ultimately stupid. This is why the Engineer looked bemused and intrigued with the Crew and not Angry at first... The Deleted Scene backs this up more so. But the deleted scenes are not part of the movie and neither are they intended to be so and so Ridley intends to ignore them as part of the movie and thus gives a explanation to the Engineers reaction. That is he wakes up, finds us on his doorstep and goes like how dare they come here we was meant to wipe you out and then goes berserk on them.. Well Ridley thats not what the movie shows..... Also the Engineers are simply just infected with the Goo, all of them and nothing else.... how that explains Chest Buster Holes well best leave that for Ridley lol

My Explanation would be that as the Engineers prepared to set off to Earth. A single Engineer or a rogue group decided to sabotage the mission. The Last Engineer got the others into Cryo Pods as we see in the Orrey Room Hologram, but he then got something to infect the sleeping Engineers be that a Face Hugger or similar Organism. At the same time he infected some others with the Goo or some got infected with the Goo when they was running away from what ever broke out of the One Juggernauts Cryo Chamber. I would assume that the one Juggernaut suffered a Xeno outbreak and a alarm was signaled and all other Engineers suited up and headed to the main Temple room but some got infected on the way. You see the scream of the first Hologram we see, sounds like the Deacon so is a similar creature... the Running Engineers the 3rd one of about 6 falls over and he is then last and looking over his shoulder so he was running from something and the others the same thing. The second Hologram scene also has Audio as we hear the flute played by the Engineer and some muttered Engineer conversation. But the Fox/Ridley explanation is that some of them got infected with the Goo and the others was running away from infected members.... Yep another explanation that defies what we see in the movie, as the decapitated Engineer was not last at first so others running from someone else and then after he fell over he was then last and also looking behind him.

@ pulserifle 187, my theory is that the Juggernaut just landed to pcik up a load of black goo for their nest mission.... The pilot of the Juggernaut clocked out and went into his cryo while the other 3 Engineers went to load the goo... Then for whatever reason those 3 engineers became infected by the goo and ran to get into their cryo's, but apparently it killed them.... Sooo the pilot was uninfected from the get go, well until he tried to kill off Shaw, then guess what? But that's my 2 cents on it, perhaps I am wrong, I don't know, why are you asking me anyway, I don't have all the answers, what was the question again...? lol

The Clues are in the Hologram. David sits on the Control Chair. The Control Room has two entrances one on the left and another on the right, David and the crew of Prometheus enter via the left one. During the Hologram playback here is what happens. Two Engineers Enter via Right Entrance. They are not close together but a fair few meters apart, the one at the front walks up to the centre part of the room and goes over to the closest Sarcophagi to Davids Right and presses a button on it. While the other walks around the back of the central area heading to the Sarcophagi the Last Engineer was in. The other Engineer then waves over to his left, and we then see 2 more Engineers enter from the Left they are close together and one has a Space Jockey Helmet which he puts down in the corner of the room. The other heads over and sits in the chair David was in and plays the flute to start up the Orrey. While the Engineer that was to Davids Right now moves to the other sarcophagi on the right and activates that one as well. But also seems to place some object on it. He then walks over and sits infront of the Engineer on teh Chair and they have a chat. While the other two are to the left and face each other having a chat also. Then one of those goes over to the top right sarcophagi that the Last Engineer was in and does something to it on his knees. While the one he was chatting with faces the left entrance then he turns and walks to the bottom left sarcophagus and goes down to activate it. While they do this the one who was talking to the one on the chair walks over to the top right sarcophagi and activates it. He then walks over to the map hologram and looks up and touches it. The Engineer who was at the bottom left sarcophagus then walks through the holomap and faces the one who was touching it and they chat and seem to plot a course. while the Engineer at the Last Engineers sarcophagi is still there for longer. They then head back to the sarcophagi they activated and this is when the hologram turns off. This seems to show one clue... At the time the Hologram turned off the Engineer in the Chair was still there, the Engineer near the Last Engineers pod was still there while the other two went over to the two far right pods. Leaving the Pod that was at bottom left free which we have to assume the one in the Control Chair would go to after. Now the Interesting thing is the only sarcophagi that has no holes and contains the last Engineer is the top left one, this is the Engineer who spent the most time at and with his cryopod while others did other stuff. This Engineer was also the one who was carrying a Space Jockey Suit and no doubt the Pilot then. So he either entered his sarcophagus first or he did something to it that offered it protection being as though he spent a longer time near his cryo pod/sarcophagi.

I think that the surviving engineer may have been unaware of the fate of the others (killed while in cryo sleep). If he was aware , why would he stay in cryo sleep? If he was one of the saboteurs wouldnt he just wait until his plan had taken effect and then come out of sleep ( set on a timer). why would he stay in cryo sleep for so long?

Thats a good point and we really dont know as of yet what happened and why he was the only survivor. It would be safe to assume the Engineer would maybe had stayed for many more years in his Cryo Sleep if it was not for being woken up by the Human Crew of Prometheus. Maybe he was waiting for a rescue team from the Engineers homeworld, or maybe he was banking on us finding him some day, which i doubt as his reaction was one of surprise.