Antarctica Queen (Alien vs Predator)
Posted by Darkness on May 15, 2023 (Updated: 06-Sep-2023)
Queen Alien
The Alien Queen appears in the 2004 film Alien vs Predator. She had previously been captured by Predators and held in a pyramid under Bouvet Island in Antarctica. The Predator used her to breed Xenomorph which they would later use as a rite of passage for young Predators. During a hunt in 2004, the Queen escaped and battled Scar Predator and Lex but she was assumed to be dead after being dragged to the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean.
Characteristics
The Queen seen on Antarctica is the longest living Queen ever encountered and the Predators had been keeping her chained in the underground pyramid for thousands of years. She is also the largest Queen ever seen, due to her longevity.
Story
For hundreds of years, Predators have been using an underground pyramid under Bouvet Island, Antarctica as a hunting ground for young Predators to prove their worth. In 2004, the Predators burn a hole in in the ice to an underground pyramid which catches the attention of Peter Weyland. He organises an expedition to investigate it. As they explore the pyramid, Connors steps on a pressure plate in the floor which brings the Queen from a cryogenic sleep somewhere within the pyramid.
A chained Queen is given electric shocks and forced to lay eggs. The eggs are transported to the Sacrificial Chamber and as the pyramid moves, some of the team are trapped. The eggs unleash the Facehuggers.
The Queen is given electric shocks.
During this time, the Xenomorphs emerge and create a hive. Some members of the team are killed while others are dragged back to the hive which now contains numerous eggs. The Queen summons her Xenomorphs to her and they deliberately injure her so that the acid would disintegrate the chains binding her. She is freed and rampages through the pyramid in pursuit of Lex and Scar.
Later, the Scar Predator leaves his self-destruct device in the hive as he and Lex escape. The subsequent blast destroys all the Xenomorphs and Alien eggs. On the surface, the Queen breaks free from the ice and battles the Predator. Scar manages to injure the Queen but the Queen fatally impales him with her tail. After tying her chain to a water tower, Lex manages to push it into the icy ocean which drags the Queen to her death.
The Queen impales Scar Predator.
Behind-The-Scenes
An ADI crew member spraying the Alien Queen.
Before ADI was chosen to handle the special effects, Edge FX pitched for the project and used artwork from conceptual artist Constantine Sekeris in their bid. In his design, the Queen was a four-legged creature and more insect-like than previous Queens. The ideas were thought to be too far from what had come before so ADI were chosen to handle the effects.
ADI changed the Queen’s design to give her a more streamlined appearance and her size was increased to 6 metres tall. The protrusions on her legs were removed, as were the spines on her head. Her waist was made narrower because there was no need for any puppeteers in her chest. The Queen had 47 points of hydraulic motion. The Queen was initially planned to have spines along the top of her head crest. The spines were still there in the film but not as pronounced as they were in the original designs.
To meet the short build deadline, the sculpting process was expedited by using a casting of the queen head from Alien Resurrection instead of starting completely from scratch.
The first Queen sculpture completed was the quarter-scale miniature, which was scanned and output to a full-scale rigid foam copy. That form was then given a further “punching up” of detail. A third-scale wax version was also made from that scan and was detailed similarly. The puppet was used mostly in shots of the captive Queen in her chamber, rising out of the deep freeze, and later being forced to lay eggs, subsequently going crazy and breaking free of her restraints.
Alien Queen
The hydraulic Alien Queen’s movement controls were divided as follows:
- One puppeteer handled the movements of the face and jaw (and inner jaw).
- Another worked the gross movements of the neck and head.
- One controlled the torso.
- The lips were radio-controlled by another puppeteer.
- Each of her large arms required a separate operator.
- One person controlled the broad movements of her pair of smaller arms while others controlled the fingers on those arms.
- The back spines were operated by another puppeteer.
- Finally, one person manned the control computer monitoring the electrical and hydraulic systems, activating any pre-recorded movements, and was in charge of the failsafe safety system.
- If required by the scene, additional crew members handled drool, blood, and steam functions as well as moving her along on a dolly track.
The quarter-scale sculpture of the Alien Queen’s egg sac began as a small 8-inch maquette which was sliced into cross-sections. Traced outlines of these cross-sections were enlarged via the computer and acted as stencils for a plywood infrastructure.
In some of the later scenes where the Queen battles Scar and Lex and especially in the full-body shots, CGI was used for the Queen.
Trivia
- It is unknown how long the Queen has been in the pyramid but flashbacks reveal the Predators have been coming to Earth for hundreds of years. It’s possible the Queen is thousands of years old.
- This is the largest Queen ever seen in the films or comics. This is due to the fact, that she is possibly thousands of years old.
Gallery
