Alien vs. Predator (film)

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Alien vs. Predator (also known as AVP) is a motion picture released in 2004 by 20th Century Fox and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. It is based both on several series of Alien Vs. Predator comic books published by Dark Horse Comics and on the Alien and Predator films which spawned the original characters. The release of the film marks the two species' first shared appearance in a motion picture.

Contents

1 Background
2 Storyline
3 Trivia
4 Filmmakers
5 Cast
6 Spoofs
7 External links

Background

Screenwriter Peter Briggs created the original spec screenplay in 1990-1991, which itself was essentially a simple rewrite of the comics. In 1991 he successfully pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox, who owned both film franchises, although the company did not move forward with the project until 2003 after several re-writes of the original concept and screenplay and several changes to the cast and crew. Production began in late 2003 on the Barrandov Studios backlot in Prague, where the vast majority of the filming took place.

Critics were not allowed to view the film in advance, although it is unknown whether this was a precautionary measure against poor reviews or was simply due to the fact that the film was extremely late in being finished. [link] Once critics were able to review the film they were not very positive about it. [link]

Despite the poor reviews, the film earned more than 38 million dollars over its US opening weekend and spent its first week of release at the top of box office charts. However, the success did not last long and subsequent weeks saw the film's popularity (and thus revenue intake) severely decline.

In 2006, James Cameron (director of Aliens) said that of the 5 Alien films, he would rate it 3rd, before Alien 3 and . ["Quint interviews James Cameron"]

The film earned $171.2 million worldwide and Alien vs. Predator 2 is scheduled for 2007. [link] Visual effects artists and commercial and music video directors the Brothers Strause have been linked to the project.

Storyline

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in 2004, the film centers at first on billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland, owner of multi-national communications giant Weyland Corporation (which eventually becomes the Weyland-Yutani Corporation of the Alien films). Weyland is dying of an unnamed disease and is concerned that he has not done a sufficient job of securing a legacy by which he will be remembered. An opportunity for him to do so seems to present itself when one of the corporation's satellites detects a sudden, never-before-seen heat source emanating from below the surface of an ice-island next to Antarctica. In a desperate bid to secure the source of the heat bloom in the name of the corporation, Weyland hastily assembles a team of scientists, paleontologists, archaeologists, linguistic experts, weapons experts and a "rough and tumble" female guide with a reputation for leading groups into unfriendly terrain in the hopes of mounting a quick discovery and retrieval campaign.

Once on site, the team discovers an incredibly advanced, self-powered pyramid with the capability to turn itself on and off based on input from a semi-mechanical, Aztec-style calendar. Believing that within the pyramid lies the proof of an empire predating written history, the group goes in, but finds much more than ancient sarcophagii and hieroglyphics. Dismembered human skeletons and the fossilized remains of unknown aliens that appear to have violently burst out of the humans' chests are found in a sacrificial chamber, while hieroglyphs inside the structure seem to indicate that the events are all part of an ancient ritual. Matters only get worse when three Predators (Yautja) arrive, apparently to take part in a gruesome rite of passage wherein young Predators must travel to Earth and kill the Aliens (Xenomorphs) or die in the process.

Trivia

A number of changes were made to both the appearance and equipment of the Predators in AvP. Director Paul Anderson and the film's costume designers chose to give the Predators heavier armor in AvP than had been seen in the prior Predator films, partly because they felt it made the Predators seem less vulnerable to the Aliens and partly because it gave them a larger, sturdier overall appearance. Some fans, however, were upset with the costuming, as many felt that it made the Predators appear overly bulky, unstable and awkward. In addition, the Predator's vision system has been modified; it now includes a viewing mode used for tracking the Aliens. Modifications have been made to almost all of the previous weapons: the wrist blades are longer and larger, and can be fired; the net gun has been built into the wrist gauntlet, and its nets automatically contract; a folding shuriken-style weapon has replaced the disc;(an in-universe explanation for this may be that Xenomorphs are much more dangerous than humans, so they need to be better equipped to hunt them)a more ornate version of the spear appears at the end of the film, perhaps only given to Predator elders; the plasma-casters are larger and more powerful, for use against Aliens; and one Predator is given a pair of giant, retractable fore-arm claws, though he never gets a chance to use them.

There is a considerable amount of confusion with respect to the Bishop android who appeared in the Alien films and his tie to Weyland in AvP. In Alien³ we are introduced to a character credited as "Bishop II", who claims that he is a designer for Weyland Yutani and that the Bishop android (seen primarily in Aliens) was created in his image. However Charles Weyland is played by Lance Henriksen in AvP, the same actor who portrayed both Bishop and "Bishop II". Based on this and the fact that the events of AvP take place over 175 years before the events of Aliens, it is most likely the case that the Bishop android was created in the image of Charles Weyland as seen in AvP, and that "Bishop II" is a descendant of the original Charles Weyland introduced in Alien vs. Predator. The commentary on the Alien 3 Quadrilogy DVD seems to reinforce this fact, as it is noted by the production crew that director David Fincher showed "Bishop II" bleeding profusely and reacting in pain when warder Aaron assaulted him with a piece of machinery expressely for the purpose of showing that Bishop II was indeed human. However, adding to the confusion surrounding this issue Lance Henriksen has admitted his own opinion that "Bishop II" was an advanced model of the Bishop android.

Around 11 minutes into the film, Lance Henriksen's character idly stabs the space between his fingers with his pen - this could either be a homage to Bishop's similar trick with a knife in Aliens, or it could be suggesting that the android was programmed to do this after the original Bishop's ability.

The Alien gestation cycle as shown in the Alien films seems to take anywhere from several days to several weeks; however in AvP the gestation cycle takes what seems to be only a few minutes, far quicker than should be possible. There is some indication that the Predators have altered the Queen's reproductive system to allow for this quickened gestation, but it's not entirely explained in the film.

Before AvP was greenlighted, James Cameron, the maker of Aliens, started work on a story for Alien 5, but when he heard of AvP, he thought that the crossover would "kill the validity of the franchise" and stopped work on his script. He changed his opinion about AvP after seeing it, however. [link] He has also gone on record with Ain't it Cool News that he actually enjoyed AvP very much.

Antarctica has been glacial since the beginning of the Pliocene epoch, five million years ago, well before the development of the human species, or their civilization. From a purely historical standpoint, it is impossible for any large grouping of humans to have existed on or near Antarctica during the timeline setup by the film, as the climate is too cold for humans to live in.

The setting of the film, Bouvet Island, is referred to as "Bouvetøya Island". "Bouvetøya" is the Norwegian name and is a combination of the words Bouvet and øya ("the island"). The film claims that Bouvet Island is not controlled by any nation, as is the case with Antarctica. The island, however, has belonged to Norway since 1927. Additionally, an animation in the movie shows Bouvet as being located off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, when in fact it is over 1,600 km from the nearest land. At this distance, Bouvet Island can be considered the most remote island in the world.

One scene in the film involves two characters discussing the appearance of the full moon (one calls it a "Hunter's Moon," not-so-subtly foreshadowing the coming battle). However, in real life, the moon was not full on the date given in the film.

Although the ruins of the Antarctic pyramid are continually referred to as partially "Aztec," this is a mistake, as nothing which could possibly be referred to by the vague exonym "Aztec" had developed until well after the 11th Century AD--neither did any "Aztec" group ever develop a glyphic writing system nearly as complex or compact as the glyphs found in the Antarctic pyramid. The term "Aztec" is itself confusing and ambiguous, and is generally avoided in most academic discourse concerning Mesoamerican civilization. However, if the term "Aztec" is interpreted in the broadest sense--for we might assume that Sebastian did not want to confuse the rest of the laymen crew with obscure names--to refer to Mesoamerican civilization in general, this mistaken identification might be forgiven. Some of the Pyramids shown in the flashback scenes depict Atlantean warriors of the same design as those (still surviving ones) that served as columns for a temple atop a pyramid at what is now identified as the "Toltec" city of Tollan, or Tula, in modern Hidalgo, Mexico. It is commonly believed that the city was destroyed by a fire, and as a consequence of this and other historical factors, we know relatively little about the "Toltec" civilization, that dominated the Basin of Mexico between the time of Teotihuacan (roughly 100-600 AD) and the pre-Mexica city states.

It makes no sense to guess that the pyramid would shift every ten minutes, just from the knowledge that the Aztecs used the metric system--which, in fact, they did not. The Aztecs, and many other Mesoamericans, used a vigesimal system of counting: that is, one based on twenties. Moreover, the specific system of dividing the day into 24 equal hours, the hour into 60 equal minutes, and the minute into 60 equal seconds, did not, of course, exist in pre-Colombian Mesoamerica.

According to the novelisation, the three Predators are named Scar (the main Predator), Celtic (the leader who attacks Quinn) and Chopper (who has the shortest screentime). Scar is also noted in the credits, and Celtic is acknowledged in one of the DVD commentaries. Chopper has also been called Gill. The three are easily distinguishable owing to their different masks - Celtic has a very elaborate design over his mouth, Chopper has several horizontal 'ribs' beneath his eyepieces, and Scar's is almost entirely smooth. In addition, the Alien which fights Celtic is listed in the credits as "Grid", owing to the gridlike pattern Celtic scars onto it. Also the Predator Leader of the Spaceship, the one who gives Alexa his spear, is called Elder, since he's the main leader of all the pack.

The writing credits submitted by the studio to the WGA recommended that Peter Briggs and Paul W.S. Anderson be credited for the story, while Anderson and Shane Salerno get the screenplay credit. Instead, the WGA denied any sort of credit to Briggs or Salerno, and instead gave co-story credit to original Alien writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett on the rationale that some story elements were based on a deleted scene from that film. Shocked at this decision, the studio offered Salerno an executive producer's credit, but he turned it down.

The ship the team are initially stationed on is called the Piper Maru, perhaps as a nod to the X-Files episode of the same name, in which a ship also named the Piper Maru transports the black oil (a deadly alien itself). The ship in the X-Files episode was named after Gillian Anderson's daughter.

During one of the first fight scenes in the movie, Celtic uses his wristblade to cut off the sharp end of the attacking Alien's tail. The blade is shown reversing right before the tail is cut. This makes little sense, since it's unlikely the blade would be sharp on the inner side only considering the weapon seems to be designed particularly for backhanded slashing attacks. The general consenus is that the Predator wrist blade is double edged, which would make the reversing action useless.

Count the number of Aliens in the film and the number of captured humans. There are more Aliens than there are hosts.

It is highly possible that portions of the film were based on or inspired by At the Mountains of Madness, a novella written by H.P. Lovecraft. Similarities include an alien race now in hibernation being in Antartica, a scientific team exploring the continent, boring being done to the land by means of drills, the disappearance of many members of the team by aliens, and also a great hidden city built by an extraterrestial race.

Filmmakers

Paul W.S. Anderson - Director, Co-Writer
John Davis - Producer
David Johnson, BSC - Director of Photography
Richard Bridgland - Production designer

Cast

Sanaa Lathan - Alexa 'Lex' Woods
Raoul Bova - Sebastian De Rosa
Lance Henriksen - Charles Bishop Weyland
Ewen Bremner - Graham Miller
Colin Salmon - Max Stafford
Tommy Flanagan - Verheiden
Joseph Rye - Connors
Agathe De La Boulaye - Adele Rousseau
Carsten Norgaard - Quinn
Sam Troughton - Thomas

Spoofs

The name, if nothing else about this movie, has opened it up to spoofing:

In the summer of 2004, MAD Magazine reran its Alien and Predator spoofs together in the same issue of MAD XL. The two spoofs, both written around the time the two original movies came out, were called "Alias" and "Predecessor", respectively.
In an episode of MADtv, A movie titled "Alien vs The Princess Diaries vs Snuggle The Fabric Softener Bear" was advertised with the tagline "Whoever wins, we lose 8 dollars, or 10 if you live in a major city".
In the Fundalini section of an issue of regular MAD, there was a spoof movie poster for "Ewok vs. Predator", for which the tagline was: "Whoever wins... Lucas makes money".
In one of the many cutaways of the episode of Family Guy entitled "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", a clip of a (fictional) movie called Kramer vs. Predator was shown. It consisted of Dustin Hoffman's Kramer from Kramer vs. Kramer telling the Predator it could not have custody. The Predator then simply shot Kramer with a shoulder-mounted weapon.
The show Robot Chicken has made cracks at this movie more than once. The first time the movie was referenced was a subtle, short gag involving an Alien and a Predator playing chess in the park. The second was a much longer segment which featured an "Alien" going on a date with a "Predator" on the show Blind Date which ended up with the "Predator" activating the wrist-bomb and blowing the "Alien" and her parent's and/or her house up after the "Alien" accidentally punched a hole in the "Predator"'s mouth with her secondary mouth while kissing.
Alien Loves Predator is a humorous online comic where a Xenomorph (Abe) and a Predator (Preston) are best friends and housemates in current-day New York City. They are both heterosexual and attracted to human women.
Simon Pegg remarked in an interview, when asked about a sequel to Shaun Of The Dead, that "you can retroactively damage a product by adding to it". He cited AvP as an example, with the tagline "Whoever won, we left". [link]

External links

[Official movie website]
[Alien Experience website - The Best In the AvP Community]
[Predator: The Hunted]
[PredatorFans] Predator films fansite.
[}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
[List of Alien Vs Predator Movie Reviews]
[Another spoiler for the movie, located at themoviespoiler.com]

Alien movie series

Alien | Aliens | Alien³ |

Predator movie series

Predator | Predator 2

Movie cross-overs

AVP: Alien vs. Predator | AVP: Alien vs. Predator 2

Cross-overs

Alien vs. Predator | Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator | Batman vs. Predator | Alien Loves Predator

Relating to the Alien universe

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