Alien vs. Predator

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

In 2004, a Predator mothership arrives in Earth orbit to draw humans to an ancient Predator training ground on Bouvetøya, an island about one thousand miles north of Antarctica. A buried pyramid giving off a "heat bloom" attracts a group of explorers led by Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), the original founder and CEO of Weyland Industries, who unknowingly activates an Alien egg production line as a hibernating Alien Queen is awakened within the pyramid. Three Predators descend unto the planet and enters the structure, killing all humans in their way with the intention of hunting the newly formed Aliens, while the scattered explorers are captured alive by Aliens and implanted with embryos. Two Predators die in the ensuing battle with an Alien, while the third allies itself with the lone surviving human, Alexa "Lex" Woods (Sanaa Lathan), while making their way out of the pyramid as it is destroyed by the Predator's wrist bomb and eventually does battle with the escaped Alien Queen on the surface. The Queen is defeated by being dragged down by a water tower into the dark depths of the frozen sea, but not before she fatally wounds the last Predator. The orbiting Predator mothership uncloaks and the crew retrieves the fallen Predator. A Predator elder gives Lex a spear as a sign of respect, and then departs. Once in orbit it is revealed that an Alien Chestburster was present within the corpse, thus a Predalien hybrid is born.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Set immediately after the events of the previous film, the Predalien hybrid aboard the Predator scout ship, having just separated from the mothership shown in the previous film, has grown to full adult size and sets about killing the Predators aboard the ship, causing it to crash in the small town of Gunnison, Colorado. The last surviving Predator activates a distress beacon containing a video recording of the Predalien, which is received by a veteran Predator on the Predator homeworld, who sets off towards Earth to "clean up" the infestation. When it arrives, the Predator tracks the Aliens into a section of the sewer below the town. He removes evidence of their presence as he moves along using a corrosive blue liquid and uses a laser net to try to contain the creatures, but the Aliens still manage to escape into the town above. The Predator fashions a plasma pistol from its remaining plasma caster and hunts Aliens all across town, accidentally cutting the power to the town in the process. During a confrontation with human survivors, the Predator loses its plasma pistol. The Predator then fights the Predalien singlehandedly, and the two mortally wound one another just as the US air force drops a tactical nuclear bomb on the town, incinerating both combatants along with the Predalien's warriors and hive, as well as the few remaining humans in the town. The salvaged plasma pistol is then taken to a Ms. Yutani of the Yutani Corporation.

The film features many references to both the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise, including: a dressing gown reminiscent of Ellen Ripley's one from Aliens is worn by the main female protagonist at one point in the film, the gravestone of Hawkins, Shane Black's character from Predator, is visible at one point in the film;^[1] a character named "Dallas Howard" (after the character with the same name from Alien) says "Get to the chopper!" at one point in the film, a line previously uttered by Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Predator.^[2]

Future

Colin and Greg Strause were adamant that they wanted to develop Alien vs. Predator 3 during the production of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. They essentially sought to make an AVP-film in space and set in the future, but by the time they were hired, 20th Century Fox had already decided to go with Salerno’s script set on Earth. They incorporated elements of their ideas into the second film, such as the Predator home planet. ADI duo Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis were also contenders for the director’s chair. Having worked on the special effects in each movie since Aliens, Tom Woodruff revealed in April 2008 that he and Alec Gillis had aspirations to direct Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem themselves.^[3][4]

In 2008, according to the horror news-website ShockTillYouDrop, “An anonymous source over at 20th Century Fox got in touch with us over the weekend to relay the news another Aliens vs. Predator sequel is a ‘certainty’ at this point. If you recall, the brothers Strause – who helmed the Christmas release Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – stated Fox was going to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to a third chapter, furthermore, that the story would have to continue in space.”^[5][6][7]

On September 21, 2008, Collider published an exclusive interview with John Davis (the producer of both AVP films) and he stated, "I think we’ve logically done what we could’ve done with the two AVP movies. But I think there’s something to go back to with Predator."^[8]

On October 28, 2010, io9 published an exclusive interview with the Strause-brothers in which they revealed that Alien vs. Predator 3 would have led directly into Alien. Greg Strause stated that, "The original ending for AVPR, that we pitched them, ended up on the alien homeward [sic], and actually going from the Predator gun, that you see at the end, it was going to transition from that gun to a logo of a Weyland-Yutani spaceship that was heading to an alien planet. And then we were actually going to cut down to the surface [of the alien planet] and you were going to see a hunt going on. It was going to be a whole tribe of predators going against this creature that we called "King Alien." It's this huge giant winged alien thing. And that was going to be the lead-in, to show that the fact that the Predator gun [at the end of AVPR] is the impetus of all the technological advancements that allowed humans to travel in space. Which leads up to the Alien timeline."

When asked about the ending sequence of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, that the Predator-weapon handed to Ms. Yutani would lead to us humans developing advanced space travel technology, Greg stated, "That was the idea. They never got any of the equipment from the first Predators. It's the first time they ever received any intact working technology left over. So they could take that and reverse engineer, figure out what the power source was – all of those things. And in theory, that would enable that company [Weyland-Yutani] to make massive advancements in technology and dominate the space industry. That was the whole idea, was to literally continue from Ms. Yutani getting the gun – and then cut to 50 years in the future, and there's spaceships now. We've made a quantum leap in space travel. That was going to set up the ending, which would then set up what AVP was going to be, which would take place 100 years in the future. That was kind of the plan."^[9]

In 2012, What Culture stated that "surely sometime in the near future we will see a third attempt at an AvP movie" and listed five major reasons that would make a third sequel work – namely the inclusion of Colonial Marines, a strong lead character, no Predators teaming-up with humans, memorable action sequences, as well as a great director.^[10]

In 2015, having worked on the special effects of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, VFX make-up artist David Woodruff (the son of Tom Woodruff who worked on both the Alien- and Terminator-franchises) participated in an interview with TheTerminatorFans, and when asked about the situation of a third chapter in the AVP-trilogy, he stated, "I haven’t heard anything about a 3rd installment, not even rumors. This Neill Blomkamp project is the first possibility I’ve seen or heard of another Alien film and I’m all about it. I know the guys at Amalgamated Dynamics are pushing for something like this too. It’s time."^[11]

In 2015, during the London Film and Comic Con, Sigourney Weaver stated that she asked to have Ripley killed in Alien 3 because she knew that Fox were moving forward with Alien vs. Predator.^[12] Peter Briggs (writer of Alien vs. Predator) responded by praising all films in the franchise and pointing out that the AVP-films were more successful than Weaver's last two Alien-films, and noting that "There’s a terrific “Alien vs. Predator” movie still to be made by someone. It just hasn’t happened yet."^[13]

In mid-2018, Shane Black, director of The Predator, tweeted his belief that a third Alien vs. Predator can still happen.^[14] A ComicBookRumours.com article from July suggested Fox may attempt an "AvP Cinematic Universe" after Ridley Scott finishes making the Alien prequels, after which Fox considered a "soft reboot" to the Alien series with new/original characters, a new setting, and new timeline,^[15][16] which the same article also suggested, if it were to happen, could potentially take place within the same continuity as the Predator films and AvP films, noting Predators featured an Alien skull cameo and The Predator underwent reshoots to have Lex's spear (along with other references) from the first AvP appear in the film at some point.^[17]

Crew

Box office performance

Critical response

Alien vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

Comics

• Dark Horse Presents (1986-2011)
• Dark Horse Insider (1989-1997)
• Aliens vs. Predator (1989 short story)
• Aliens vs. Predator (1990)
• Aliens (1991/1994 UK magazine)
• Aliens vs. Predator (1991 short story)
• Alien 3 Movie Special (1992)
• Aliens vs. Predator 2 (1992-1993)
• Dark Horse Comics (1992-1994)
• Total Carnage (1993-1994)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Deadliest of the Species (1993-1995)
• Aliens/Predator: Deadliest of the Species (1993)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Blood Time (1994)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Duel (1995)
• Aliens vs. Predator: War (1995)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Booty (1996)
• Dark Horse Classics - Aliens vs. Predator (1997)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Eternal (1998)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Annual #1 (1999)
• Aliens vs. Predator: The Web (1999)
• Overkill: Witchblade/Aliens/Darkness/Predator (1999)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Xenogenesis (1999-2000)
• Aliens vs. Predator/Witchblade/Darkness: Mindhunter (2000)
• Aliens versus Predator versus The Terminator (2000)
• Alien vs. Predator: Thrill of the Hunt (2004)
• Alien vs. Predator: Whoever Wins... We Lose (2005)
• Superman and Batman versus Aliens and Predator (2007)
• Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus: Volume 1 (2007)
• Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus: Volume 2 (2007)
• Alien vs. Predator: Sand Trap (2007)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Deadspace (2008)
• Alien vs. Predator: Civilized Beasts (2008)
• Alien vs. Predator: Three World War (2010)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Special Collector's Edition (2010)
• Alien vs. Predator: Fire and Stone (2014-2015)
• Alien vs. Predator: Life and Death (2016-2017)
• Predator vs. Judge Dredd vs. Aliens (2016-2017)

Novels

A novel series was produced based on the franchise.

• Aliens vs. Predator: Prey (1994) by Steve Perry
• Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet (1994) by Dave Bischoff
• Aliens vs. Predator: War (1999) by S.D. Perry
• Alien vs. Predator: The Movie Novelization (2004) by Marc Cerasini
• The Complete Alien vs. Predator Omnibus – collects Prey, Hunter's Planet and War (Titan Books, November 2016, ISBN 1-78565-199-4)

Books

Other books depict the background to the film's work with Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI), the special effects company that worked on the Alien films.

• Alien vs. Predator: The Creature Effects of ADI (by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., Design Studio Press, August 2004, ISBN 0-9726676-5-2)
• Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – Inside the Monster Shop (by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., Design Studio Press, December 2007, ISBN 1-933492-55-4, Titan Books, January 2008, ISBN 1-84576-909-0)

Video games

An Alien vs. Predator arcade beat 'em up game was released by Capcom in 1994. Two other Alien vs Predator games were also published by Activision for the SNES and Game Boy in 1993. There were also several Alien vs. Predator mobile games, and two cancelled titles for the Atari Lynx and Game Boy Advance.

In 1994, Atari Corporation released the Rebellion Developments-developed first-person shooter Alien vs Predator for the Atari Jaguar, in which one could play as a Marine, Predator or Alien. Rebellion then went on to develop the similarly themed 1999's Aliens versus Predator for the PC. This was followed by, among others, Aliens versus Predator 2 and the expansion pack Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt. In 2010, Sega released a reboot, Aliens vs. Predator, a multiplatform first-person shooter also made by Rebellion.^[29]

Both Alien and Predator appear as downloadable characters in Mortal Kombat X.

Action figures

In 1994, Kenner released a collection of action figures known as Aliens vs. Predator. This followed the two initial series of Aliens that were based on an animated series, Operation: Aliens, that was never broadcast. As such, the inclusion of Predator is often considered the 3rd and 4th series of the Aliens line. This collection includes several Aliens, many of which feature built-in attack features, and Predators, which include removable masks and battle weapons such as spears and missile launchers. The figures generally possess 5 points of articulation, and some include a mini Dark Horse comic book.

While the collection as a whole is known as Aliens vs. Predator, the two character types have their own card art that only features the character at hand. An exception would be the Aliens vs. Predator 2-pack. Since human space marines were included in the initial Aliens line, the Predator was marketed as an alternative enemy to the Aliens. A figure cardback reads:

"The stage is set for the universe's two most ferocious enemies. It's the gruesome and evil Aliens against the big-game hunter Predator. Who will win... the beast or the hunter? Can the Predator stop the evil Aliens before the galaxy is destroyed?!?!?!"^[30][31]

The Aliens: Hive Wars series was released in 1995, which included various Aliens, Predators, and larger scaled space marines. More figures, including a female Predator and an Alien/Predator/Smash Mason 3-pack, were designed for this series but never released as part of the line.

Six sets of Aliens and Predator Micro Machines were also planned by Galoob in 1995 but never released. This would have also included the LV-426/Outer World Station Action Fleet Playset. Thanks in part to the research of toy collectors, many photos of these unreleased toys and prototypes have shown up on the Web in recent years.^[32]

In December 2002, McFarlane Toys released a highly detailed Alien vs. Predator deluxe set.^[33] In 2004, they produced a series of figures based on the Alien vs. Predator film. Alongside the articulated figures, McFarlane also released statuesque display sets depicting scenes from the film.

Hot Toys produced highly detailed 16" tall figures for every film including Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in 2007. That same year, NECA released two series of Requiem figures.^[34]

Theme park attractions

On August 4, 2014, Universal Studios confirmed that there will be haunted mazes based on Alien vs. Predator for their Halloween Horror Nights events at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida.

Boardgame

In 2013 Prodos obtained the license from FOX to do a Boardgame and successfully funded it on Kickstarter.^{[35] [36]}