Alien Vs Predator (1989)

In 1990, an insider gag became softshell canon when a Xenomorph skull from the Alien franchise was plainly visible on the trophy wall of a Predator spaceship. This wasn’t just grabbing whatever was lying around Stan Winston’s shop and tacking it up on set. It wasn’t like there was a leftover skull from Aliens; the prop was specifically built for Predator II. The studio would have known all about it.

This had been a fan theory almost since the first Predator movie hit the silver screen in 1987. These two very different franchises seemed to mesh unusually well together. In the first movie, it was established that the Predators had been hunting humans for some time, and it was likely they would continue to do so into the far future.

But what kind of future? If it had been say the Star Trek future, they would have just been another bunch of warrior-race assholes the Federation had to occasionally deal with. If it had been something like the Warhammer future, it would be the same deal, just somebody else the God-Emperor was trying to genocide. Nothing really special either way.

But in the Alien universe, where humanity is the new kid on the block, just starting to branch out and create colonies, they fit in without losing their mystique. We don’t really know our way around this new neighborhood. There are plenty of nasty surprises that we don’t know about or how to deal with. This is a future that isn’t separated from our present by all that much. They aren’t a bunch of utopian space communists or gigantic gene-engineered religious fanatics, they are blue collar slobs trying to get through the day or Jarheads out on float dreaming of all the girls they are going to bang on liberty. It’s a future with people we understand.

It’s a future where we, the human race, are still connected to the primal and the primal is at the core of both the Predator and Alien franchises.

The very first crossover is in a now demi-canonical comic book mini-series from Dark Horse starting in late 1989 and running through early 1990. Alien Vs Predator – its name is what it is!

In 1989, Dark Horse Comics had survived the first big comic book crash and was now carving out a reputation as the grown-up alternative to Marvel and DC. They had scored big with their Aliens and Predator licensed series, both treated with a seriousness that shocked fans used to throwaway tie-ins. When editor Randy Stradley realized the Predator skull gag in Predator 2 could actually be turned into canon, he green-lit a crossover. It was the first time two major film monsters met outside of parody—and it worked.

The Plot: The central theme is a coming-of-age story. There is a newly opened human ranching colony on Ryushi, a planet owned and operated by the Chigusa corporation. Using a company that wasn’t Weyland-Yutani was some serious world-building back then. They ranch the hell out of some kind of buffalo-rhino called a Rynth.

The colony’s administrator is named Michiko. She’s young and experienced, a lot more comfortable with a balance sheet than with people. She isn’t really connecting with the colonists, but then again, she isn’t really trying either — not at first. But as she starts making an effort to get to know the ranchers, she goes from a Tokyo city girl to an American frontiersman. Which works as a background.

In and of itself, this isn’t a bad little story.

However, this is a Predator story.

The Predators had decided to use this colony as a hunting ground. They apparently didn’t know that the murder-monkeys from Sol 3 had set up shop on this planet, not that it would really have mattered all that much to them. Sure we are dangerous to hunt but nowhere near as dangerous what they were seeding the planet with.

The Predators had collected a bunch of Xenomorph eggs from fuck-knows-where and started plopping them down on the ground for some unfortunate critters to find.

An old Predator we would come to know as Broken Tusk is acting as a Master of the Hunt/Scoutmaster/priest for a bunch of young Predators on what appears to be a kind of manhood ritual hunt. They are hunting on Ryushi.

The Xenos are already starting to spread. First through some unlucky Rynths, then some less lucky people. The colonists aren’t completely helpless. These folks aren’t spec ops badasses, but they aren’t lost-in-the-sauce blue collar clock punchers either. Space cowboys kind of land in the middle.

The big problem is that the Predators hadn’t expected there to be livestock pens just chock-full of Alien incubators. They were expecting maybe a dozen or so, but this is now an uncontrolled outbreak.

Broken Tusk is wounded and incapacitated, then found by the humans. They don’t know anything about his species, so instead of killing him they take him to the town infirmary.

The Predators are no help. Without Broken Tusk keeping them under control they start acting like frat bros with a bottomless keg.

When Broken Tusk is finally back on his feet, he kills one of them when he finds a human child’s skull in his trophy bag. There had only been one movie up to that point, but the lore was pretty clear: the Predators have rules of engagement and now, stiff penalties to back up those rules.

Michiko, like Ripley before her, rises to the occasion. She does her best to defend her Colony. However, her company is no better than Weyland-Yutani. They don’t call in the Marines; they want to “study” it first. This wasn’t anywhere near as worn-out a trope as it is today.

The town’s defenses collapse, the Predators are all dead. Michiko and Broken Tusk team up to destroy the hive.

Which they do, but Broken Tusk is mortally wounded in the process. He ritually scars Michiko, marking her as “Blooded.” A girl passing the manhood test wasn’t nearly as annoying back then.

EvilCo consolidated buys out Michiko’s contract (fires her). They move the colonists elsewhere. Michiko opts to stay on this planet that she now is the sole inhabitant of.

It ends with another Predator ship landing, and Michiko joins their hunt.

This comic book proved to be exceptionally popular. 20th Century Fox was beginning the glacial process of combining these two franchises.

Michiko would go on to star in Aliens vs Predator: War (1995), which saw her living among the Predators and later returning to human space when—of freaking course—The Company tried to breed more Aliens.

She’s one of the few original characters from a franchise licensed comic to gain cult-hero status in her own right; a human accepted by the Predators as one of their own.

AVP was massively successful in sales, and it did so because it treated both properties with respect instead of as a cash grab. There was finally an AVP movie which was definitely a cash grab and a successful one. 20th Century, was willing to combine the two but didn’t have anyone to put in charge of it. The two most obvious candidates were James Cameron and Ridley Scott. Cameron was kind of interested but had a ton of other projects on his plate.

Ridley Scott on the other hand HATED Alien versus Predator. While he had not created Alien (Dan O’Bannon did that), nor did he have an ownership stake, he did have a lot of clout and had declared the property within his sphere of legitimate interest.

Scott felt that Alien was ancient cosmic horror, and mixing it with Predator cheapened the brand. You can make a strong argument for that case, however, given how badly Scott has boned up the franchise since his return to it — Disney has decided that it is within their sphere of legitimate interest to ignore the wishes of a cranky 89-year-old.

And so Dan Trachtenberg has been allowed to combine the two franchises, if not the two most sexually suggestive aliens in cinema history. If Badlands does well at the box office, Trachtenberg will likely be given the keys to the Nostromo II.

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