Was the Engineer dead before it burts out?

i think the trilobite justs kills people when it hugs them.

Agreed. I don't know where I read that the engineer was dead but it would seem that he was but again not sure where I read or saw this.

To me it seemed that the deacon sheds the engineers skin rather than bursting through like a traditional xeno. Because of its large size at "birth" it must have either absorbed or consumed a large part of the engineers internal organs. This would of course cause death assuming the hug from cuddles wasn't enough already.

dead cells vs live cells - the facehugger keeps things alive so the chestburster has the capability to gain strength from the host - using a placenta - if the host were dead the chestburster would have to use its mouth and digestive system to gain energy (unless the placenta can get energy from dead cells via some sort of chemical breakdown) so then the trilobyte could do both i guess. keep the host alive long enough for the deacon to grow big enough to have a functional digestive system, then once the host is totally drained and dead - the deacon starts eating the host from the inside out to give it the best start in life possible. thats my figuring since the deacon was so big at the time of birth.

actually, a placenta that can get energy from dead cells via chemical breakdown - would explain away a whole lot of xeno birth mysteries for both the facehugger and the trilobyte. this would make the facehugger system more versatile - faster maturity of the chestburster via live host - with the backup of the dead cell feeding if the host dies.

I think you might be right gigerfan because he was dead and the deacon used its head to rip its way out. I think what the trilobite does is esfixiation to the host litterally choking it to death in order to place an embryo inside the digestive tract. Then using a placenta and some kind of umbilical cord to live off of the creature. Feeds on its insides and DNA to use by copying or splicing into its own genetic make-up. It probably needs to copy/absorb DNA in order to take advantage of the previous animals natural adaptations.

so, has it been officially/narratively confirmed that the (Alien i.e. LV426 Derelict) "Space Jockey", is one of the hologram [i]'rats leaving the sinking ship'[/i] that escaped the original (LV-223) infestation 2,000 years ago?

Keep in mind that we are talking about a movie organism so they could have it do what ever is useful for the story. Having said that, and keeping in the spirit of the film, I would think that the alien is a master of genetic adaptation and as gigerfan pointed out extremely versatile. This is one of its characteristics that makes it so deadly.

Would you all agree that the timing suggests the Deacon was growing for several days before it burst? I understand that it was put at the end for dramatic reasons, but I still think it means the Deacon burst after Shaw took off with David.

@custodian: Essentially, yes. The engineeer found in the derelict craft on LV426 may or may not be one of the engineers depicted in the holograms, but i feel that the film was implying (rather strongly) that the "derelict" space jockey was one of the engineers who managed to get off of LV223 during the outbreak (2000 yrs prior to the crew of the prometheus setting down on LV223). @majornoob: Though we cant know for sure, my interpretation of the events/chronology has always been exactly what you articulated above.

the last surviver or Engineer, was infected, in my opinion, they (others) left him there, because he was infected, he was not any kind of guardian of the temple, as is suggested by other threads. He was released on hypersleep, as a preventive measure.

this is a good question ,this may answer what do The Hammerpede to milburn,kill him or he impregnant the victim with some xenomorph and i thing he impregnate with something because he stay in milburn afecter he is dead if he is dead,and when they aproach the hammerede he run from humans don t attack,maybe he impregnant the milburn and he die like facehuger

I think the last Engineer was infected too, though wouldn't he have shown some transformation? But that would have been obvious, like the deleted Fifield attack. Given what we see about Ridleys thought processes, he was willing to give some great stuff up to avoid the obvious. What a trip. Claudius, that whole nesting bit made me wonder too. I do think there's a sort of default behavior all things from the Goo have. Like... finding orifices.

joey joe, hmm, maybe I'm sloooooooooow ... I mean, after all, it's just taken me THE BETTER PART OF A YEAR to work this out. Maybe they could have 'mentioned' this event (with illustrative armada-leaving footage) at the start of the film, or somewhere within the hologram database David found. You know, if it was THAT important. Unless, it was a counter-move or false-flag operation on the part of the enemy-Engineers. You know, infiltrate, infect, then THEN raise alarm to ensure galactic spreadage of their lab's goo. That means there 'might' be MORE THAN ONE planet like LV-426 where derelicts have landed. Gah, just wish they'd have had the bravery to ELEPHANT RACE this film/series or (at the very least) FIVE METER TALL HUMANOID this film/series. What's that Rolling Stones song, "You can't always get what you want..." :)