Gunnison Xenomorph (AvP Requiem)

Posted by Darkness on May 15, 2023 (Updated: 06-Sep-2023)

A number of Xenomorphs appear in the 2007 movie Aliens vs Predator Requiem.

Appearance

The appearance of the aliens seen in Colorado are a mixture of Xenomorphs seen in Hadley’s Hope on LV-426 and the ones seen in Antarctica. They feature a ridged head like the ones in Hadley’s Hope but their body is the same as the Antarctica aliens.

Behaviour

The initial Xenomorphs were created from Facehuggers while Xenomorphs seen later were created when the Predalien impregnated women which caused multiple Chestbursters to emerge and grow very quickly. There don’t seem to be any differences between the two Xenomorphs in appearance or behaviour. The reason they have ridged heads is not really explained. We always believed the ridged-head aliens in Hadley’s Hope were a result of old age but the Xenomorphs in Colorado were quite young.

One interesting thing to note is that in the high school swimming pool, a Xenomorph appeared to eat its victim with its inner jaw which hasn’t really been seen before.

Story

After the incident in Antarctica, the Predator ship leaves with Scar’s body. A Predalien Chestburster quickly emerges and grows into an adult. It rampages through the Predator spaceship killing multiple Predators. The chaos causes the ship to crash in Gunnison, Colorado which releases several Facehuggers and the Predalien. All Predators are killed and a lone Predator – Wolf – is tasked with the mission to clear up the mess.

Wolf grabs two Xenomorphs in the sewer.

Facehuggers attack a father and son who are hunting in a forest as well as several homeless people in the sewers. Wolf lands on Earth, starts removing the evidence and begins tracking the Xenomorphs. It leads him to a sewer where he kills two aliens but the Predalien attacks and they disappear into the town. Wolf pursues them to the Power Plant and the battle causes a citywide blackout.

Ricky and Jesse meet at the high school swimming pool but are met by Dale and his friends. When the power goes out, a Xenomorph enters the pool and kills Dale’s friends and the others escape. Another alien attacks the O’Brien’s in their home which kills Tim and Kelly and Molly escape. At the local diner, Carrie is attacked by Xenomorphs and the Predalien.

A few of the survivors meet at the sporting goods store to collect weapons. The National Guard arrive in the town but a swiftly killed by the Xenomorphs. Wolf captures Dallas in the store to lure out the aliens. A few Xenomorphs arrive and Wolf dispatches them. Dale is killed in the battle. The remaining survivors head to the hospital to escape in the helicopter there. The hospital is overrun with Xenomorphs and the Predalien has impregnated numerous pregnant women to create more Xenomorphs.

Wolf arrives at the hospital and kills more aliens. Wolf is attacked by another alien and is sent down an elevator shaft. The survivors reach the roof and battle more Xenomorphs before escaping on the helicopter. Wolf and the Predalien battle before the military drops a nuclear bomb on the town, killing every person and every creature.

Behind-The-Scenes

Tom Woodruff & Gina Holden

Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI) returned again to do the special effects for AvP Requiem. A large amount of money was spent on designing the Predalien and Wolf so ADI could only redesign the heads of the standard Alien warriors. They began inspecting a casting of the head from Aliens. The goal was to capture the essence of that sub-surface sculpture but with greater detail than what Tom Woodruff created 20 years ago on Aliens under Stan Winston.

The rest of the alien was generated from the original molds of the Alien Resurrection alien, as it had for AvP. The neck, however, was redesigned and refined. It had to hide the performer’s head but allow him to have vision and to breathe. Sculptor Mike O’Brien was tasked with the redesign and used castings of the Queen Alien from AvP as a reference. He captured the strong design lines and preserved the biomechanical nature of the Xenomorph but still allowed the actor to see and breathe.

It’s estimated that 460 out of the 500 visual effects shots were created by the Strauses’ own company Hydraulx. CGI was used for the aliens’ tails and inner jaws while in the previous film, it required puppeteers to control them.