Alien or Predator?

[OmegaZilla]

Hey, what do you pretend, a lot of bullets bounced off them in Aliens and the Runner survived a ton of molten lead upon it. They are pretty resistant indeed, I bet a stone wall ain't something dangerous for them.

[BANE]

The bullets that bounced off them in Aliens were small arms fire from a pistol. However, the molten lead thing...that's mainly heat and pressure resistance spread over the entire body. Aliens are good at that resistance, making them extremely hard to kill without a gun. Throwing them through a several foot thick stone pillar is quite concussive, but given what the aliens have been able to survive (i.e the molten lead thing) I can buy that it survived that...

[MadassAlex]

Thing is that Aliens are stronger than Predators and have natural weapons left without their tail.

In the Alien films themselves, the tail was only used as a weapon by the Queen. And Spike only used it for parrying.

Everything we've seen makes it clear that they use the inner jaw for the killing blow and hold their prey in place in order to land it.

CQC combat is the Alien's game. A Predator with just a knife shouldn't get their hopes up. I daresay even the Brothers Strauss would have a Predator die against an Alien in that situation.

[BANE]

The Predator has superior strength to an Alien and is larger. The Alien films rarely show the alien fighting in close quarters: usually it grabs people and they're too scared to move. No one ever even tries to escape when that happens. The only instance we see of an Alien actually fighting a human in CQC is in Alien 3 vs. Dillon (spelling?). And Dillon survives for a long time, getting his face scratched slowly away. That doesn't seem like a very good CQC fighter. The original predator fought Dutch, a man several time Dillons' physical superior, in CQC, and absolutely destroyed him. He didn't even look as if he was trying! The hunter was nonchalantly throwing blows at Dutch so as to inflict maximum pain and enjoy the victory. If he had been putting 100% brutal force and effort in, with unrelenting blows, Dutch would have been dead VERY quickly.

What can be concluded from this? The predator is 1) larger (i.e taller and heavier), and 2) stronger (the alien tail is pretty strong, though...but arms and legs on a predator are definitely stronger). And if the xenomorph tries to headbite him, it would have to get in close, which the predators' superior strength could easily remedy.

[MadassAlex]

Yet, in Alien 3, we witness the Alien bounding up walls at blinding speeds with one arm, using the other to carry their host up shafts. It also leaps out of ten tons of molten lead at high speed. That is ridiculous strength. A Predator could not do those things.

Also, the whole breaking down steel doors thing. One can do it.

Note that the lead chamber was a very confined space as well. It wouldn't have had the room it would usually have to neutralise prey.

I think we should also note that the Aliens never lost a hand-to-hand engagement in their own films.

[Lar'ja Thwei]

Hey, what do you pretend, a lot of bullets bounced off them in Aliens and the Runner survived a ton of molten lead upon it. They are pretty resistant indeed, I bet a stone wall ain't something dangerous for them.

The Molten Lead could have had a different affect because they are, well, aliens. Vasquez did destroy a Warrior's face with a pistol, yeah she was close to him but still. Now a Rage-filled big ass predator grabs a VERY slender creature, with a big head, by his foot. Then swings him around in circles all while his head is bashing through a 2 foot STONE WALL.. Thats got to be worse than a few up close pistol shots. Then theres the tackling through a wall. Even if it didn't kill the alien (WHICH IM PRETTY SURE IT WOULD), there has got to be some kind of severe damage to him.

[BANE]

Yet, in Alien 3, we witness the Alien bounding up walls at blinding speeds with one arm, using the other to carry their host up shafts. It also leaps out of ten tons of molten lead at high speed. That is ridiculous strength. A Predator could not do those things.

Also, the whole breaking down steel doors thing. One can do it.

Note that the lead chamber was a very confined space as well. It wouldn't have had the room it would usually have to neutralise prey.

A predator climbs up trees and poles with far larger (heavier) people to hang them by their feet. The people the predator hunts are, I guarantee you, heavier (because they're far stronger) than anybody the alien deals with. So that point is moot. Also, the build of the alien allows it to swim better than a predator. I bet they swim like an alligator, using they're tail to propel them up and out of the water to incredible height (sharks do this too). So the tail is probably the strongest part of the alien. Also, the steel door thing doesn't really denote strength, just weight. A fat guy could break down a door if he ran at it with his massive weight.

All I can say is, the alien is rarely in hand to hand fights. It always grabs people and they're too scared to do anything about it.

[MadassAlex]

We tend to see Predators dragging their slain enemies, though. Aliens just lift 'em up and they're gone. Hell, in the first two films, Aliens grab prey and just descend directly upwards without a hitch. Either they have insane strength or can fly. Your call.

[BANE]

I have no idea how Kanes son did it...probably with the chains, but who knows. In Aliens, they probably use a combination of the tail and hind legs, because (in both instances) both "hands" are occupied with grabbing prey. If they mainly used the tail, that would indicate an extremely strong tail, thus fitting in to my theory on how the Alien 3 alien managed to escape at such speeds from the lead. If this is true, then, as I said, its the tail that's doing all the heavy lifting. This is backed up in AvP when the tail solely lifts up the predator after stabbing it. Eliminate the tail, and really...

[OmegaZilla]

The Molten Lead could have had a different affect because they are, well, aliens.

*Shrugs* Phisics are always phisics, no matter how you put it.

[MadassAlex]

And if the tail is that strong, what makes you think the rest of the body is any weaker, considering the conceptual basis of the Alien?

That's like me saying that we only have proof that a Predator's right arm is strong and that their left arms have less dense muscles. It's quite a leap to justify an argument.

[BANE]

The thing is, we never see the alien do anything with its arms, really. All the heavy lifting, if my hypothesis is correct, is done with the tail.

And we see the predator do heavy lifting with both arms, so your thought concept is unfounded.

[OmegaZilla]

In Aliens, one of them lifts Dietrich with an arm. Another violently pulls down Hudson with an arm. In Alien3 the Runner Alien lifts up a guy with both arms bringing him to the air ducts.

[Vulhala]

We also see an Alien open the doors of an APC with it's bare hands. I don't imagine they were designed to be easily pulled apart once in motion.

[BANE]

In Aliens, one of them lifts Dietrich with an arm. Another violently pulls down Hudson with an arm. In Alien3 the Runner Alien lifts up a guy with both arms bringing him to the air ducts.

I'll attack those in order:

1) While its tail and hind legs were attached to the hive wall.
2) Not necessarily with one arm. Besides, it pulled him down. If I took the footing out from underneath the great Khali, I could yank him down. Gravity is a wondrous thing.
3) Again, without the tail and legs to secure itself and pull it back up into the duct once it grabbed Superintendent Andrews, it would have been screwed.

We also see an Alien open the doors of an APC with it's bare hands. I don't imagine they were designed to be easily pulled apart once in motion.

It doesn't pull it apart, just stops the motion. And they weren't moving very fast, the doors.

Its all in the tail and/or hind legs. (probably tail: we see it swimming with the tail in A:R (just remembered), and with it it managed to propel itself many feet out of the water).