The concept of Alien vs. Predator originated from the Aliens versus Predator comic book in 1989, and was hinted at when an Alien skull appeared in a trophy case aboard the Predator ship in Predator 2 . Screenwriter Peter Briggs created the original spec screenplay in 1990–1991, which was based on the first comic series.[2] In 1991, he successfully pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox, who owned the film franchises, although the company did not move forward with the project until 2002. A draft penned by James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox was rejected by producer,John Davis who hoped to give the film an original approach by setting it on Earth.[3]
There have been 2 movies of the Alien vs Predator series, called Alien vs Predator and Alien vs Predator: Requiem, both usually called AVP and AVPR respectivly.
There have been a numerous amount of Games released on the series including the Arcade AVP, the fully 3D FPS, AVP, the 2nd FPS AVP2, and third, named simply Aliens vs Predator, also a spin off title of the 2nd movie called AVPR
These 2 franchises were put together to make AVP, the newest movie of them both is Predators which is due for release this year.
There are 3 species in the Alien vs predator world.
These are:
Alien (Xenomorph)
Predator (Yauja)
Human.
The Alien is the one of the Main Species of the game and the movie, it is usually the last thing the predator fights, in its Praetorian or Queen species.
ORIGIN
There is not one solid fact as to the origins of the Xenomorph species.
Instead, there are many assumptions which can neither be confirmed nor denied.
The most commonly accepted hypothesis is that they evolved naturally on a planet much different than our own.
Other ideas include that they were created by another race, perhaps the Yautja (Predator) as an "ultimate prey", or by a race only to known to us as "Space Jockeys", as a biological weapon. Xenomorphs are specifically said to not be indigenous to LV - 426, a relatively small and unknown planet, where a large body of their eggs were found in the hold of a derelict Space Jockey ship. No one knows if they were using the eggs as research, or as a bioweapon. Some say that billions of years ago, the advanced race controlled much of the universe with the xenomorphs, but were wiped out by them.
LIVECYCLE
The alien has multiple lifecycle forms.
Egg
The Xenomorph is born in egg form, laid in place by the hive's Queen, through the use of a detachable ovipositor. The egg is thick and gelatinous, usually with several membranes attached to the outer layers.
The Xenomorph hatchling - called a Facehugger - is protected by a thick fleshy layer at the top of the egg, where the "shell" peels open when the Facehugger senses creatures nearby.
In the first movie, it appeared they could sense when another creature crossed into some form of mist covering their nursery area. It's a widely accepted hypothesis that this was a containment field to keep the eggs dormant, put in place by a Space Jockey. When this mist was broken, the Facehuggers appeared to be alerted, and went on the search for the host.
Facehugger
After the egg opens, the Facehugger emerges and seeks out a nearby life form, latching onto it's face, wrapping it's tail around it's airway, and implanting the xenomorph embryo(s).
It will coil it's tail tighter around the airway to prevent premature removal, and an attempt to sever the fingers found that Facehuggers possess the same acidic blood as a Xenomorph.
The Facehugger supplies oxygen to keep the host alive during the impregnating process. Once the embryo(s) has been implanted, the Facehugger falls off, curls up, and dies.
Hosts usually fall into a short coma and wake up ravenously hungry. Hours might pass between then and their time of death.
However, in some cases, they will awake not gradually but suddenly - just in time to be conscious for the Chestburster's push out into the world. Their state of normalcy will last only seconds or minutes.
Chestburster
After attaching itself to a vein and gestating in the chest cavity, Xenomorph infants - called Chestbursters - writhe and chew through the host's chest, causing severe pain, blood loss, and shock. The host's rib cage is cracked open, bones bent outward. No one has survived this process, except for Ripley in the film Alien: Resurrection - she was cryogenically frozen, and then had it surgically removed.
At this stage, the Xenomorph is small, limb-less, and very vulnerable. Among other possibilities, it's neck can be snapped. It needs to get to a safe area so it can reach it's next life stage.
In Alien vs Predator: Extinction, they turn into a cocoon (though this could be a subspecies).
Adult
Little is known about the transformation that occurs between the Chestburster and Adult phases.
The Xenomorph appears to moult before reaching maturity[1][4][5]. Maturity is reached in a few hours, and involves a dozenfold increase in mass, which would presumably require some form of nourishment. In the novelization of the movie Alien, Ripley comes across a food locker that had been raided, apparently by the Xenomorph to get food. Whether or not this was nourishment to grow was not specified. In the video game Alien Vs. Predator 2, one of the Alien missions requires the player to find a source of food in order for the Chestburster to advance to it's Drone phase. At the end of the level, a short cutscene indicates that the Chestburster consumes a house cat in a carrier. The scene does not show what happens during the change in life cycle.
When the first Drone encountered on record was born on the Nostromo, it had a smooth, long head, and an upright-standing body. It had no eyes, a tail, and strange spines protruding from its back.
However, many years later on LV-426, the same warriors were found, but they looked slightly different. The head was no longer smooth, but ridged. One theory is that the smooth-headed Xenomorph was a Drone, and the ridge-headed Xenomorphs were Warriors. (The Xenomorph in the first movie built a nest. Only Drones can build a nest - that is their job in the colony.)
The most widely accepted idea is age - the Xenomorphs found on LV-426 were more than a few days old, where all of the others encountered were less than a day old. On the other hand, the Alien vs Predator game has showed that the Drones are black (like in the movies), but the Warriors are a very dark blue, the color difference indicating that age is not a factor.
Another variation is the Dog or Runner Xenomorph, called so because of it's dog-like stance (standing and moving on all fours) and higher speed. It's host was a dog, rather than a human.
Another variation was encountered on an expedition to Antarctica. These warriors were less humanoid and sometimes walked on all fours. Their tails were longer, with a large, curved barb at the end. The head was smooth, but much shorter than normal. It is important to note, however, that this particular Xenomorph hive was grown by the Predators, who introduced a hormone with unknown effects into the Queen's system.
Yautja are best classified as mammal-like reptiles; this means that they are warm-blooded creatures with a reptilian appearance, usually referred to as therapsids, which may hint at a synapsid evolution. Yautja are adapted to warm climates and can with stand temperatures up to 250°C (482°F).
Although Yautja are warm-blooded, they cannot live in a cold climate. If an unprotected Yautja were to be exposed to temperatures below 10°C (50°F) it would probably die within a few hours.
In the game Alien vs. Predator: Extinction, the spear master's armor is made out of Vy'drach, which lives on the infernal deserts of Yautja Prime, surviving heat and radiation strong enough to bake most life forms. If the predator kills the Vy'drach, its hide is made into armour that absorbs heat, plasma and acid to a degree. Depending on the clan female and male Yautja are normally the same size sometimes the females are larger and sometimes the males are larger. The average heights are between 7.5 and 8.5 feet. (2.28 to 2.59m) They are 250 to 350lbs [113.3 to 158.7 kgs] average, most of which is purely muscle.
The Yautja circulatory system can be divided in to 3 circulations:
- 1. From the heart to the lungs
- 2. From the heart to the body
- 3. From the heart to the brain
In the Yautja circulatory system the brain has a separate circulation. This allows for a higher blood pressure in the rest of the body without damaging the fine network of blood vessels in the brain. This allows the Yautja to live with blood pressures that would normally kill a human.
The ability to create and survive such high blood pressure has certain advantages. The blood can be transported through the body faster and thus oxygen and other nutrients are transported quicker and waste products are removed faster.
This special circulatory system is part of why Yautja are so strong. It allows the organs and muscles to work harder and thus increase the muscles capacity.
The Yautja 5-part heart consists of 2 auricles and 3 ventricles. The blood is pumped from the right side of the heart (seen on the left of the heart schematic in blue) through the lungs. From there it goes back to the heart and into the left auricle (seen on the right of the heart schematic in green). From here it goes in to the 2 ventricles that are connected to it. One pumps it into the body and the other pumps it into the brain at a much lower pressure. When the blood has gone through the body and the brain it goes back to the right side of the heart and the cycle starts again.
The Yautja skeleton is stronger than our own, although the material it's made of isn't stronger than the material our own bone is made of. The yautja skeleton is stronger however because of its firm build. The bones are much thicker than our own and also much more compact which makes them heavier.
Yautja don't seem to have the problem of calcification which makes bones more fragile. This is partially because the oxygen rich blood allows the bones to reinforce their structure naturally, and also because their body uses more carbon in making the bone which makes it just as flexible as, and stronger than, human bone tissue, but about 3-4 times more dense and 5-6 times more heavy.
The reason Yautja are much stronger is due partially to the fact that the muscles have a much more efficient nutrient and waste product transport, as well as the much higher gravity on there home planet, And that the muscle fibers are prismoidal and triangular as opposed to a humans round muscle fibers. This makes more muscle able to fit in the same amount of space, and due to the larger size attributes to the greater strength.
The greater strength is also created by the higher percentage of muscular tissue per kg of body weight and the fact that Yautja are bigger then humans.
The Yautja nervous system is almost a replica of human nerves other than DNA and a few structural changes. The nerves use a form of organic fiber optics that allow chemical and electrical signals to travel at speeds up to 20 times faster than a human. Also instead of remaining relatively close enough for signals to take place, the nerve endings grow past eachother and intertwine, allowing for much faster communication.
An interesting thing of the Yautja is their unique DNA structure. Instead of a double helix, The yautja have a triple helix dna form. the advantages and disadvantages of this are unknown. Also instead of 4 base pairs like humans, they have 5 base pairs in their DNA. These differences may have unknown advantages or disadvantages.
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