Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007): Film Overview
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) was a science fiction action horror crossover film directed by the Brothers Strause and served as the sequel to Alien vs. Predator (2004). The film followed the aftermath of the first movie's ending, when a Predalien burst from the body of Scar aboard a Predator ship and caused it to crash near Gunnison, Colorado. As Xenomorphs spread through the town and surrounding wilderness, a veteran Predator known as Wolf arrived to contain the outbreak before it could be traced back to his species. The film shifted the crossover from an ancient Antarctic pyramid to a small American town, turning an already deadly conflict into a large-scale infestation on Earth. Its story expanded the crossover continuity by showing how quickly a Xenomorph infection can spread on Earth.
Film Overview
Released in 2007, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem adopted a more grounded and brutal tone than its predecessor while continuing the crossover story established in 2004. Rather than centering the action in a hidden ceremonial site, the film placed the conflict in suburban streets, homes, forests, a hospital, and a sewer system. The crash of the Predator ship allowed facehuggers and Xenomorphs to escape into the surrounding area, where they began infecting humans and building a hive. At the same time, Wolf reached Earth with specialized equipment meant to erase evidence of the outbreak and eliminate every Xenomorph involved. Human survivors became trapped between the Xenomorph infestation and Wolf's cleanup mission, with neither side concerned about protecting civilians.
Plot Summary
The Scout Ship
Scar's body was aboard the Scout Ship that had taken him off Bouvet Island after Alien vs. Predator, and a chestburster tore out of his chest before the crew knew he had been implanted. The creature grew into the Predalien and killed the crew, starting with Bonegrill in the trophy room while he was skinning a Xenomorph head. Bull heard that fight, found the Predalien on another hunter in the corridor, and fired a shoulder cannon. The Predalien moved clear of the shot, the blast opened the hull, and the Scout Ship crashed in the forest outside Gunnison, Colorado.
Bull survived the crash but was too badly hurt to leave the wreck, and Facehuggers from the ship's hold got into the trees while he watched. A self-destruct would have destroyed the wreck and the creatures close to it, but he used his wrist gauntlet to send a distress signal to Yautja Prime instead. The Predalien killed him with a headbite after the signal went out, and that call brought a cleaner to Gunnison.
Outbreak In Gunnison
That night Buddy Benson, a repair supervisor for the Gunnison telephone company, was hunting in the forest with his son Sam. Facehuggers from the crash attached to both of them before they reached Buddy's truck, and the pair never came home. The Predalien and other Facehuggers went down into the storm drains and implanted people living under the town, including a man named Harry. Sheriff Eddie Morales led a search after Buddy's wife, Darcy, reported them missing. The search was called off around 2 a.m., and Deputy Ray Adams stayed out for one last pass along the ridge.
Dallas Howard came back to Gunnison the same day after three years in prison, and Morales met him and offered to ask around town for work. Dallas's younger brother Ricky was delivering for Pizza One when he took an order to Jesse Salinger's house on Watercrest. Her boyfriend Dale Collins and his friends beat Ricky and threw his keys down a storm drain. Dallas went into the sewer with him, and the brothers heard movement in the dark and smelled decay before they climbed out with the keys. Kelly O'Brien also came home that day, from a tour with the U.S. Army, to her husband Tim and their daughter Molly.
Wolf Arrives
The distress signal reached Wolf, an elite Predator cleaner, and he left the mothership in a drop pod that came down in a lake outside Gunnison. He hunted alone to contain the outbreak, rather than as one of the Young Blood hunters from the previous film. At the wreck he found Bull's body, played the recording in Bull's bio-mask, and set the ship to self-destruct so the hull would not stay in the forest. His equipment included a blue dissolving fluid, which he used on Alien remains and leftover gear. Ray Adams found him near the ridge on that last pass, and Wolf killed Ray and skinned him. Morales found the body the next morning with no tracks around it.
Wolf followed the Predalien into the sewers, where two adult Xenomorphs and the Predalien came at him. He killed both adult Xenomorphs, and the fight brought a tunnel down, which let the Predalien escape through the break into the streets. He chased the creatures to the nuclear power plant, where armed townsmen died in the crossfire, and a shot from his shoulder cannon hit the plant and blacked out Gunnison. Morales ordered the town evacuated and called the Colorado National Guard in Colorado Springs.
The Blackout
During the blackout the Predalien caught Carrie as she closed the local diner and implanted several embryos through her mouth, and Darcy found her dead after those embryos tore out of her abdomen. At the high school, Ricky and Jesse were in the pool with Dale and his friends when the lights failed, and an adult Xenomorph in the water killed Mark and Nick. Wolf killed that Xenomorph in the gym and melted the body with the dissolving fluid. Another adult Xenomorph got into the O'Brien house, killed Tim, and Kelly fled with Molly to the sheriff.
Escape From Gunnison
Kelly, Molly, Dallas, Ricky, Jesse, Dale, and Morales took rifles from a sporting goods store while Lieutenant Woods led the 89th Troop Command of the Colorado National Guard onto Main Street, where the unit walked into an ambush and was wiped out. Wolf's fight with the Xenomorphs then entered the store. Dale was killed there, and Wolf locked his damaged shoulder cannons into a handheld plasma pistol. Colonel Stevens of the U.S. Army set an airlift at Gilliam Circle, in the center of town. Kelly treated that call as containment, took Dallas, Ricky, Jesse, and Molly toward the hospital helicopter, and Morales drove the remaining people to the circle in an armored Guard vehicle.
The hospital had been turned into a hive. The Predalien showed traits closer to a Xenomorph Queen and was implanting pregnant women in the maternity ward through its mouth, so the embryos burst from their abdomens. A shuriken Wolf threw at a Xenomorph killed Jesse, the Predalien wounded Ricky, and Dallas took the plasma pistol. Kelly flew the hospital helicopter off the roof with Dallas, Ricky, and Molly while Wolf drove his wristblades through the Predalien's head. An F-22 then carried out a tactical nuclear strike that destroyed Gunnison, killing Wolf, the Predalien, Morales, and the people waiting at Gilliam Circle. The shockwave dropped the helicopter in a forest clearing, where Dallas, Ricky, Kelly, and Molly survived and a special forces team took the plasma pistol. Colonel Stevens later gave that weapon to Ms. Yutani of the Yutani Corporation, for use beyond a world that was not ready for it.
Main Characters
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem featured a mix of civilian survivors, military personnel, Xenomorph creatures, and a single elite Predator hunter. The human cast played a larger role in the town's survival story, while Wolf and the Predalien drove the central creature conflict.
- Wolf (Ian Whyte) - Veteran Predator sent to Earth to contain the Xenomorph outbreak and destroy all evidence of the crash.
- The Predalien - Hybrid offspring born from Scar that caused the Predator ship to crash and became the main creature antagonist.
- Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale) - Ex-convict and one of the main human survivors during the Gunnison outbreak.
- Kelly O'Brien (Reiko Aylesworth) - Returning soldier who tried to protect her daughter after arriving home to Gunnison.
- Molly O'Brien (Ariel Gade) - Kelly's young daughter who became one of the civilians caught in the infestation.
- Ricky Howard (Johnny Lewis) - Younger brother of Dallas and one of the film's central teenage characters.
- Jesse Salinger (Kristen Hager) - Ricky's love interest and one of the townspeople trying to survive the attacks.
- Eddie Morales (John Ortiz) - Gunnison sheriff who attempted to respond to the escalating crisis.
- Darcy Benson (Chelah Horsdal) - Buddy Benson's wife, who searched the woods after her husband and son went missing on a hunting trip.
- Tim O'Brien (Sam Trammell) - Kelly's husband, killed at home when a Xenomorph got inside.
- Ms. Yutani (Françoise Yip) - Yutani Corporation executive seen in the film's closing scene receiving recovered Predator technology.
The Predalien
The Predalien was the film's most important creature and the direct continuation of Alien vs. Predator's final tease. Born from Scar, it combined features associated with both Predators and Xenomorphs, including mandibles and a more hybridized skull structure. In Requiem, the Predalien served as the source of the new infestation and was treated as a uniquely dangerous organism. It was more than a visual hybrid, since its presence directly linked the two crossover films and made the Gunnison outbreak possible. The creature became Wolf's main target and remained one of the best-known hybrids in the wider Alien and Predator mythos.
The Xenomorphs In Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
The film presented the Xenomorph species as an uncontrolled outbreak spreading through a living town rather than a hidden ruin. Once facehuggers escaped from the crashed Predator ship, humans across Gunnison became hosts and the infestation grew rapidly. Xenomorphs moved through forests, rooftops, homes, schools, sewers, and the hospital, showing how dangerous the species became when introduced into a civilian environment. The creatures eventually established a hive and began converting large sections of the town into a breeding ground. Their rapid expansion forced both the human survivors and Wolf into a desperate struggle that never truly restored control.
Wolf And The Predators
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem focused on a very different kind of Predator than the Young Blood hunters of the first film. Wolf was an experienced enforcer whose mission was to clean up a failed hunt, destroy Xenomorphs, and remove all technology and biological evidence left behind. His equipment included advanced plasma weaponry, wrist blades, a whip, mines, and chemical agents capable of dissolving bodies and traces of Alien resin. Wolf operated with far more discipline and tactical awareness than the younger hunters seen in Alien vs. Predator, reinforcing the idea that Yautja society contained specialist roles beyond ceremonial hunting. Through Wolf, the film expanded the image of the Predators as not only hunters but also custodians of secrecy who acted when one of their hunts threatened to expose them.
Gunnison, Colorado
The small town of Gunnison served as the film's main setting and gave Requiem a very different identity from the first crossover movie. Instead of an isolated pyramid beneath Antarctica, the conflict unfolded in recognizable homes, streets, public buildings, and woodland areas. That setting made the outbreak feel broader and more immediate because ordinary civilians with no knowledge of either species were pulled into the violence. The town gradually transformed from a normal community into a quarantined combat zone, then into a place marked for total destruction. Gunnison's downfall emphasized how catastrophic a Xenomorph infestation would have been if it had ever reached a populated area on Earth.
The Human Survivors
The human characters in Requiem were not explorers or specialists drawn into an ancient ritual. They were civilians, law enforcement, and returning military personnel who had to react to an unimaginable situation without preparation. Dallas became one of the group's most active survivors, while Kelly's military background helped the others stay organized as the town collapsed around them. Sheriff Morales attempted to respond through conventional authority, but the outbreak quickly exceeded anything local law enforcement could handle.
Place In The Alien And Predator Timeline
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem took place in October 2004, directly after the events of Alien vs. Predator. Like its predecessor, it has been suggested that it exists outside the main future-set Alien timeline and was usually treated as part of a separate crossover continuity. On the Predator side, the film continued the idea that Yautja operated secretly on Earth and intervened when their technology or hunts risked exposure. On the Alien side, it presented a modern-day Xenomorph outbreak that did not fit neatly with later continuity about humanity's first encounters with the species. Because it followed the 2004 film so closely and continued the Predalien storyline, Requiem was generally viewed as the second and final entry in the original Alien vs. Predator crossover timeline.
Behind The Scenes
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was directed by Colin Strause and Greg Strause, credited as the Brothers Strause. The shoot used practical streets and interiors in and around Vancouver rather than a single pyramid set. Amalgamated Dynamics built the creature work under Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. Ian Whyte performed as Wolf.
Night exteriors were underexposed on purpose, which left much of the Predalien and Xenomorph action hard to read on the theatrical print. Digital work covered the ship crash, swarm shots, and destruction that the suits could not do. Gillis and Woodruff had already handled the 2004 crossover creatures, then redesigned Wolf's armor and the Predalien hybrid for this sequel.
PSP Game Adaptation
Rebellion Developments built a handheld tie-in for PlayStation Portable, and Sierra Entertainment published it in North America on 13 November 2007, ahead of the film's Christmas opening. Players controlled Wolf through sewers, streets, and the hospital as a third-person cleaner hunt, not a scene-for-scene retelling. The campaign stayed on the Gunnison outbreak and used cloaking, vision modes, a plasma pistol, a whip, and laser mines from the movie kit.
The Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem PSP game replaced the rooftop Predalien duel with a fight against a U.S. Apache. After Wolf brought the helicopter down, he left in his ship instead of dying in the nuclear strike. The film puts him on the hospital roof when the bomb hits.
Alien vs. Predator 3 Plans
Requiem left several threads that could have supported Alien vs. Predator 3, including the surviving human characters, the glimpse of Yautja Prime, and Ms. Yutani receiving recovered Predator technology. The ending implied that Predator technology might help push the Yutani side of Weyland-Yutani forward, giving the crossover timeline a bridge toward future corporate weapons research. The Brothers Strause also expressed interest in a sequel, and Liam O'Donnell later developed an unused treatment while working around the Requiem production. That concept reportedly jumped roughly twenty years into the future, moved the story to Africa, involved Weyland-Yutani influence in a regional conflict, and brought back the Alien Queen from the first Alien vs. Predator after she survived beneath the Antarctic ice.
A direct Requiem follow-up never happened because the film was poorly received and the original AvP movie continuity lost momentum. Under Disney and 20th Century Studios, the possibility of another Alien vs. Predator project has become more interesting again, but likely in a different form. Studio president Steve Asbell has suggested that a new crossover would probably not simply be called Alien vs. Predator or repeat the original format, but would instead grow organically from current Alien and Predator characters. Fede Alvarez has also floated the idea of collaborating with Dan Trachtenberg after Alien: Romulus and Predator: Badlands, making a modern AvP more likely to connect with the newer franchise direction than to continue the Gunnison/Yutani cliffhanger directly.
Legacy
Requiem opened on the Predalien bursting from Scar, then Wolf's cleanup in Gunnison. The hive reached a hospital and a nuclear strike erased the town. Ms. Yutani took a recovered plasmacaster in the last shot. Fox did not greenlight Alien vs. Predator 3.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Alien Movies | Predator Movies | Alien Vs Predator Movies
