AVP: Alien vs. Predator is a 2004 horror film about an archaeological expedition on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica where a team of archaeologists and other scientists find themselves caught up in a battle between the two legends.
If you’ve ever felt like exploring a pyramid but didn’t fancy trekking through a jungle or braving a desert, the pyramid located beneath Bouvetøya, a small island one thousand miles north of Antarctica is the place to go. However you might end up discovering that some secrets should remain buried. Forever.
Pre-dating written history, this pyramid is hidden beneath the ice of an abandoned whaling station. It might never have been discovered either if it hadn’t been for an energy bloom caused by its alien creators. Who are they? The Yautja, but you know them as “Predators” thanks mostly to none of the films choosing to identify their species outside of being noted as an extra-terrestrial presence.
Anyway, this pyramid plays into mankind’s curiosity for the unknown, something that certainly is the driving force we see for the billionaire industrialist and founder of Weyland Industries, Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), who is willing to risk his own life embarking on the expedition with terminal lung cancer and generally refusing all expert advice to turn back (This blinkered drive to seek out the unknown can also be seen in the alternative timeline of Promethus, which originally would have tied the film into the Alien saga, though series originator Ridley Scott shot down screenwriter Damon Lindelof’s attempts, having little interest in the film, even going as far to change the character’s name to Peter Weyland).
Despite Scott clearly wanting to distance the Alien saga from this offshoot, when it came to writing the script, AVP director Paul W.S. Anderson was keen to keep his film close to the source material. However, he was faced with setting it years before the events of Alien, which in Dan O’Brian’s original script had featured an alien pyramid that didn’t make it into the 1979 Alien film, even though it would provide the key inspiration for this setting. Anderson explained:
“Originally, when they were going back from the derelict ship to the Nostromo, they were going to find this pyramid and there was the suggestion of a civilisation that was somehow tied into the Alien eggs. The concept was always stuck in my mind – Aliens in a pyramid.”
Anderson, like Lindelof’s script for Promethus, openly admits to also drawing inspiration from Erich Von Daniken’s book Chariots of the Gods. This theorised that the similarities between the Egyptian, Cambodian and Aztec pyramids were due to them being built by aliens, which we see in the film through flashbacks, in particular the Mayans who in awe of the technological advanced Yautja viewed them as gods.
Anderson molded Von Daniken’s theories into this world by having them be willing sacrifices to enable the hunt to take place every 100 years as a rite of passage against the Alien Xenomorphs, their numerous advantages being viewed as the ultimate prey to hunt. Anderson’s alternative history further presents the idea that the Yautja are also responsible for the end of the Mayan civilisation.
The Bouvetøya pyramid seen in AVP: Aliens Vs. Predator really serves several purposes in terms of world-building. Not only does it provide a location where the two icons can be brought together easily but also provides a first contact much earlier than we had at this point ever seen. The comics had initially brought them together favouring a futuristic timeline more associated with the Alien saga.
Either way, the construction of this pyramid though really ties in well with Anderson’s love of functioning locations. That’s certainly highlighted in areas like the sacrifice chamber but more so in how the temple comes to life when the group enters the hall with the alien queen being defrosted (like a turkey) by the flame jets. She is stimulated into laying eggs by bolts of electricity, which fire from the walls with the eggs in turn landing on a conveyor belt, transporting them to the sacrifice chamber ready to start the Xenomorph birth cycle. Looking at the design of this set we can also see a subtle nod to the layout of the cryogenic sleep pods onboard the Nostromo in Alien while the more eagle-eyed viewer will note that the drainage grate symbol is very reminiscent of the Alien 3 poster.
One must take a step back from the problematic plot though to realise just how well thought out the film’s set’s construction are. Much like The Hive in Resident Evil, here no space is without purpose, highlighted in the hologram schematics from the Yautja warrior’s gauntlet with Anderson also giving himself the option of moving around the temple quickly by zooming into the hologram and blurring the image into reality. Cool stuff.
Once inside the pyramid the film is easy to view as being similar to Stephen Sommers 1999 remake of The Mummy in that its a structure filled with traps and hidden passage ways, not to mention secrets to be uncovered by deciphering the hieroglyphics. The revelation of their meaning comes of course far too late to provide warning to the unwitting explorers of this particular group. As such, it’s hard to not view the film as being more of an adventure film than a sci-fi horror film, something that remains unexplored for both franchises. It’s even more a shame that the group we are exploring with are too annoying / disposable to appreciate the adventure aspect this location provides. No thanks to the script.
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For all the secrets hidden inside its walls, the one that is never really explained as it should is how the Yautja planned this hunt, especially considering how its located beneath an abandoned whaling town – another effectively used location Anderson clearly drew inspiration from John Carpenter’s The Thing. Should we assume that the energy bloom was their way of luring in potential hosts to enable the hunt? It’s especially hard to say considering how the human cast seem to be constantly interfering.
The pyramid on Bouvetøya is a well-designed and produced movie location, though sadly one whose inner workings are lost on the audience more distracted by the character flaws of the group lumbering about it than the intricacies of where discovery more about where they are. However, we can look a little deeper and wonder what kind of film it could have been if it had used this set better.