Alien vs. Predator Trivias

Alexa's "warrior" marking on her left cheek disappears in overhead shots.

When Lex asks Sebastian how to say "scared shitless" in Italian, he replies "Non vedo l'ora di uscire da questa piramide con te, perché mi sto cagando addosso." Translated, this literally means "I can't wait to get out of this pyramid with you, because I'm shitting myself."

Around the time of the film's release, it was reported that at a special industry screening director Paul W.S. Anderson said that the film was always planned as an R-rated movie and shot that way, but only three weeks prior to release the studio changed that by severely cutting the film for a lower PG-13 rating. This account has been heavily disputed by original "AVP" writer Peter Briggs. It was later revealed that this "press-screening" never took place, and was only an internet rumor started by fans. Anderson has claimed in interviews that the film seen in theaters is the version he intended audiences to see.

When Alexa and the Predator are running from the explosion, across the whaling station, her "shield" changes hands.

The words "alien" and "predator" are never said in this movie. Aliens are called "things", "creatures" and "serpents". Predators are referred to as "hunters".

The design in the center of the floor in the sacrificial chamber is almost identical to the artwork of the _Alien3 (1992)_ poster.

The full moon for October 2004 would be on the 28th, not the 10th.

The shot of the team approaching the top of the pyramid, with their flashlights, taken from inside it references the shot of the of the Nostromo's expedition team walking up to the entrance of the derelict.

The readout of the predator ship at the beginning of the film, is shown reflected in the visor of the predator mask, as the readouts of the Nostromo in Alien (1979) were reflected on the space helmets.

The large pulley and winch setup for lowering equipment and people down the ice tunnel completely disappears when the equipment sled comes rocketing back out. If it was in place, the sled would have slammed right into it.

At the beginning of the film in the satellite control station, the technician has a "drinky drinky" bird among the Tweety Pie dolls. These are the same birds that were seen on the dining room table in Alien (1979), and also in the abandoned prison canteen at the end of _Alien3 (1992)_

Icebreakers have round prows, not angled ones.

The first film in the "Alien" franchise to not feature Sigourney Weaver, who has said in interview the idea of the crossover "sounded awful".

The heroine calling an Alien an "ugly mother..." is a reference to the two previous Predator films, in which both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover refer to the Predators as such.

The film gives confusing and inconsistent accounts of the geology of the area around the pyramid. It is supposedly buried under 2,000 feet of ice on an island, yet the pure-ice tunnel leading down to it begins at sea-level (as proved by the existence of the whaling station at the upper end). The whaling station is thus supposedly built on ice instead of rock; this is a ludicrous proposition as it would only be constructed in a region where ice melted enough each summer to allow whaling ships to dock. Anything built on ice that thaws significantly each year would not last 100 years. This arrangement also places the pyramid and a large amount of ice below sea-level; the buoyancy and natural flow of the ice pack makes this highly unlikely and not is not something that could be accurately described as an island in the first place. Further confusion is caused by the scene at the end of the film in which a large tank falls into the water and plunges hundreds of feet towards an unseen ocean floor, supposedly directly offshore.

The black & white movie playing in the beginning of the film is another popular monster face-off, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).

The altars where victims were placed in the Chamber of Sacrifices of the pyramid is arranged exactly the same as the hibernation pods in the original Alien (1979) movie.

The story is set in October (summertime in Antarctica). It should therefore be daylight on the surface, and yet it's dark as night.

Paul W.S. Anderson rewarded hardcore Alien and Predator fans by scattering references to the individual franchises with his film. The opening shot of the movie is a silhouette of the Alien Queen from Aliens (1986), before being completely revealed as a Weyland Satellite.

When the Predator and Alexa turn around after the whaling station falls into the ground, the shot of them is reversed (notable by the marking and pressure tubes on the predators helmet).

After the opening credits are shown, SFX designers Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis have brief cameos as technicians who discover the heat bloom coming from the pyramid.

The second Predator is killed by an Alien when his head is punctured by the Alien's inner mouth. When the shot changes and the Predator tilts his head back there is no wound.

The scene in which Weyland's team discovers the sacrificial chamber inside the pyramid was originally longer than seen in the theatrical cut. After Rousseau and Thomas discuss the hole in the corpse's chest, Sebastian finds a calcified facehugger. Lex and Sebastian then theorize as to what the creature's origin could be.

First Predator movie to feature a left-handed predator.

Alexa is wearing only a thin sweater (and no hat) after the Alien burns her jacket, yet she doesn't even shiver while outdoors in Antarctica.

The drawings that Paul W.S. Anderson used for his original presentation to 20th Century Fox were done by Patrick Tatopoulos.

The captions show the icebreaker approaching the island/pyramid from the Ross Ice Shelf. The island is in fact on the opposite side of the Antarctic continent.

The character of Verheiden was named after comic book writer Mark Verheiden, creator of the first Aliens vs Predator comic series and first story ever involving both species. It was released prior to the infamous alien "skull" in Predator 2 (1990), contrary to popular belief.

After the collapse of the whaling town, the "T" shape on the Predator's mask is backwards.

This is the first Alien film, and also the first Predator film, to get a rating other than R.

Despite detailed satellite imagery of the pyramid, the expedition is surprised to find a whaling station at their intended drilling site. They must have missed this, as well as the large ship-worth bay it was undoubtedly located on: despite their haste, they choose a more remote anchorage that required a land journey over some significant elevation.

At one stage Peter Weller was attached to do a cameo as John Yutani, the other half of the infamous "Weyland-Yutani" Company from the "Alien" films.

Sebastian refers to "the Long Count" while describing a calendar that he refers to as "Aztec". The Long Count was a feature of the Mayan calendar system; the Aztec calendar, although based on the Mayan, didn't use the Long Count.

Screenwriter Shane Salerno was the last writer and "closer" on "Alien vs. Predator". He worked on the film for 15 months, including prior to production, through filming in Prague and all the way through post production without receiving the co-screenplay by credit that 20th Century Fox recommended him for to the WGA. Shane has a co-screenplay credit on the novelization of the film, dozens of magazine articles, and many of the original theatre posters.

It is said by one of the team that the whaling station is directly above the pyramid. However a geographical survey (as well as the obvious in-story shots) show that the ice tunnel slopes gently down towards the pyramid entrance, therefore not on top at all.

The role of Max Stafford was written specifically for Colin Salmon.

Graeme Miller's description of the aurorae as being caused by protons and electrons in the atmosphere is inaccurate. Aurorae are caused by the interaction of high energy particles (usually electrons) with neutral atoms (oxygen, nitrogen...) in Earth's upper atmosphere. However, as a chemical engineer, his knowledge of atmospheric photochemistry may be expected to be somewhat rusty.

The Alien Vs. Predator story crossed over virtually all forms of media before becoming a feature film. There was a successful comic book series, toy line, multiple video games, sound track (of the PC game) and even a card series.

When Alexa Woods is climbing the Lho La ice fall in Nepal, she's about 10 body-lengths from the top edge. From the moment she answers the phone she reaches the top in about six steps. You can't take steps longer then your body.

When one of the explorers is searching the whaling compound and walks past a door to a building, there is a shot from within the building in which the red light from the guy's flare comes through the crack in the door to form a flat vertical beam that's picked up by the dust/snow from inside the room, just like the blue-green scanner from the salvage scene at the beginning of Aliens (1986).

When Alexa is climbing the Lho La ice fall in Nepal, you can see a overview of the edge where is climbing to. There is nowhere a helicopter too be seen, yet after 30 second (duration of the phone call) the helicopter manages to land, turn off the engine (spinning down rotors takes much more than 30 seconds), and let Maxwell Stafford out of the helicopter and walk towards the edge to meet Alexa.

When Charles Bishop Weyland is sitting in his office on the ship, we can very briefly see him playing with his pen in a similar manner to the way the android Bishop (also played by Lance Henriksen) is playing with a knife in Aliens (1986).

During the first battle, when the Alien falls to the ground after the Predator kicks it through a pillar, a wire can be seen holding its tail up.

The character played by Lance Henriksen, Charles Bishop Weyland, is a co-founder of the Weyland Yutani Corporation. This is "the company" referred to in the earlier "Alien" movies. The Bishop Android from Aliens (1986), and Bishop II from _Alien3 (1992)_ were also played by Lance Henriksen.

The legs of the practical and computer-generated Aliens don't correspond. The practical ones have human-like joints and feet, while the CG versions have an extra joint at the ankle and much longer toes.

AVP had both the shortest filming & post-production schedules of any "major studio" film in 2004, filming was given 2 1/2 months while post-production was given just 4 months to complete.

When the first-killed Predator is thrown to the ground, its extended wrist blades bend when they hit the ground, revealing that they are actually made of rubber.

A title near the beginning of the film identifies the ice cutter transporting the exploration team as "The Piper Maru". The ship's name comes from episode 3.15 of "The X Files" (1993). The X-Files episode was named after Gillian Anderson's daughter.

The characters correctly predict that the walls will move every 10 minutes, because the Aztec did everything in multiples of 10. However, the Aztec would not have known how long a minute is.

The theatrical trailer includes soundbyte samples from the original trailer for Alien (1979) and Bret (Harry Dean Stanton) screaming

When Alexa and the Predator are shooting up the tunnel, she isn't wearing the Alien head on her hand. She is clearly holding on with both hands. As they are thrown on the surface, the head reappears.

Except for scenes with stand-ins, Ian Whyte played all of the Predators.

The Predator cuts off the tip of the Alien's tail, spewing green acidic blood, and then tosses him through a column and into another room. As the Alien flies in slow motion, you can see that there is no blood on his stump, but immediately after, it's covered again.

Was rumored to be in development ever since a skull from the title characters in the Alien film series appeared in the spaceship trophy room in Predator 2 (1990).

Sebastian erroneously says that the Aztec calendar was metric (based on 10). It was in fact vigesimal (based on 20) with twenty days in 18 "months".

Paul W.S. Anderson stepped down from directing both Mortal Kombat: Devastation (2006) and Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) to write and direct this film, though he does remain as producer to the other movies.

Alexa looks at her GPS watch to determine her position. GPS relies on having direct line of sight to orbiting satellites and would not work deep underground.

In an interview, director Paul W.S. Anderson said that Arnold Schwarzenegger offered to reprise his role as Dutch Schaeffer (from Predator (1987)) at the end of this movie as a cameo, but only on the condition if he lost the election for Governor of California.

At Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated, the workshop crew nicknamed the 3 Predator characters Scar (main Predator), Celtic, and Chopper.

There's a shot where the heroine pulls her self up a cliff. It's filmed exactly like the shot in Alien (1979) where Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) does the same, looking for the Alien. In both shots the characters are sweating heavily and one of their hands in front of their faces can be seen.

The animatronic Queen was controlled by a motion-control rig which could save her movements digitally. So, if the Queen made a nice looking move in rehearsal, the move could be replayed verbatim in front of the camera.

In the official "AvP" theatrical trailer, there's a brief shot of the prison planet Fury 161 from _Alien3 (1992)_ .

The Morse code picked up by the satellite at the beginning of the film spells out the words, "Whoever wins, we lose". This is, of course, the tagline used to promote the film

The green glow stick dropped down the shaft contains the fluorescent liquid used by the effects departments of all the Predator movies as the Predators' blood. According to director John McTiernan, on Predator (1987) they stumbled on the effect after unconvincing attempts to make the blood look orange forced the crew to look for alternatives.

Gary Busey was also approached to play John Yutani.