Alien vs. Predator (2004)
a.k.a. AVP
Though set on Earth, the basic story looks to have been lifted from the first AvP comic mini-series published by Darkhorse years ago. After Sanaa Lathan helps one of the Predators defeat an alien, and gives him back his weapon, the Predator lets her tag along, and even fashions some hunting gear from the alien’s carcass. The two make their way to this chamber full of facehugger eggs, which the Predator destroys by dropping his exploding wristwatch (remember the first two movies?) into the middle of the room. The two of them barely make it out of the underground pyramid before the predator bomb incinerates everything — luckily that motorized rope-sled lowered by Weyland’s company came with an “emergency-surface-NOW!!!” setting.
Up on top of the ice, Sanaa Lathan and the last surviving Predator battle the last surviving alien: the Queen. The Queen kills the Predator, but not before he helps Sanaa Lathan dispatch the Queen. In a WTF? climax that shows just how little the flick understands Alien, the two tie one of the Queen’s chains to this water tower left over from this whaling village built on top of the Predator’s pyramid, then kick that over the ice, dragging the Queen to the bottom of the ocean. (So we’re now supposed to believe that aliens — capable of living in the depths of space and chewing through steel like butter — can’t get out of a trap like that?)
The Predators who didn’t participate in the hunt return to retrieve the body of the last hunting Predator. They give Sanaa Lathan the Predators retracting-spear thing, then leave her alone and alive. In space, the last Predator’s body is laid out solemnly yet as we zoom in, a chest-bursting alien erupts out of him — this one with distinctly Predator-looking features.
— Thanks to Ari Rottenberg!
Preceded by:
Alien³ (1992)
Followed by:
Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007) We need a spoiler!
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