Predator) is a 2004 science fiction action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon, and Tommy Flanagan.

When the team arrives at the abandoned whaling station, they find a newly made tunnel running directly from the ice’s surface toward the pyramid beneath.

The team descends the tunnel and begins to explore the pyramid, soon finding evidence of an ancient civilization and what appears to be a sacrificial chamber filled with human skeletons that all have ruptured rib cages.

Celtic and Chopper are killed by a Xenomorph (known as Grid), and Weyland buys Lex and Italian archaeologist Sebastian De Rosa enough time to escape from Scar, giving his life in the process.

Once a century, they visit Earth to take part in a rite of passage by which several humans sacrifice themselves as hosts for the Xenomorphs, creating the "ultimate prey" for the Predators to hunt.

Scar activates and detaches a bomb in his wrist module before fleeing with Lex for the tunnel as the Grid and the other Xenomorphs give chase.

Alien director Ridley Scott had talked with Cameron, stating "I think it would be a lot of fun, but the most important thing is to get the story right.

[17] A draft penned by James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox described as "pretty much word-for-word like the Dark Horse comic book" was rejected by producer John Davis, who hoped to give the film an original approach by setting it on Earth.

Paul W. S. Anderson pitched Davis a story he worked on for eight years, adapting the Machiko Noguchi series, and showed him concept art created by Randy Bowen.

[21] Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett received story credit on the film based on elements from their work on the original Alien.

To explain how these ancient civilisations "disappeared without a trace", Anderson came up with the idea that the Predators, if overwhelmed by the Aliens, would use their self-destruct weapons to kill everything in the area.

[27] He chose to set the film on the remote Norwegian Antarctic island of Bouvet, commenting, "It's definitely the most hostile environment on Earth and probably the closest to an Alien surface you can get.

"[28] Anderson thought that setting the film in an urban environment like New York City would break continuity with the Alien series as the protagonist, Ellen Ripley, had no knowledge the creatures existed.

"[28] After the film's release, James Muller, a writer who alleged that the screenplay was copied from one he had written eight years earlier sued the studio, the production company and Anderson for copyright infringement.

Although the Alien films are set hundreds of years in the future, Anderson wanted to keep continuity with the series by including a familiar actor.

"[32] Several hundred actresses attended the auditions to be cast as the film's heroine Alexa Woods, loosely based on the comic and novel protagonist Machiko Noguchi.

[32] Anderson reported in an interview that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was willing to reprise his role as Major Alan "Dutch" Schaeffer from Predator in a short cameo appearance if he lost the 2003 recall election on condition that the filming should take place at his residence.

Actress Sigourney Weaver, who starred as Ellen Ripley in the Alien series, said she was happy not to be in the film, as a possible crossover was "the reason I wanted my character to die in the first place", and thought the concept "sounded awful".

Production designer Richard Bridgland was in charge of sets, props and vehicles, based on early concept art Anderson had created to give a broad direction of how things would look.

[19] Third scale miniatures several meters in height were created to give the film the effect of realism, rather than relying on computer generated imagery (CGI).

Visual effects producer Arthur Windus, claimed miniatures were beneficial in the filming process: "With computer graphics, you need to spend a lot of time making it real.

[37] ADI founders Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr. and members of their company, began designing costumes, miniatures and effects in June 2003.

The practical version required 12 puppeteers to operate,[19] and CGI tails were added to the Aliens and the queen as they were difficult to animate using puppetry.

"[42] Mike Brennan of Soundtrack, however, said it "lacks the ingenuity of the previous trilogy (Alien) and the Predator scores, which all shared a strong sense of rhythm in place of thematic content.

The first featured Paul W. S. Anderson, Lance Henriksen, and Sanaa Lathan, while the second included special effects supervisor John Bruno and ADI founders Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff.

A 25-minute "Making of" featurette and a Dark Horse AVP comic cover gallery were included in the special features along with three deleted scenes from the film.

John J. Puccio of DVD Town remarked that the extra footage contained "a few more shots of blood, gore, guts, and slime to spice things up...and tiny bits of connecting matter to help us follow the story line better, but none of it amounts to much.

[49] The film was released in North America on August 13, 2004 in 3,395 theaters, and grossed $38.2 million in its opening weekend (an average of $11,278 per venue), finishing first at the box office.

[56] Ian Grey of the Orlando Weekly felt, "Anderson clearly relished making this wonderful, utterly silly film; his heart shows in every drip of slime.

"[57] Staci Layne Wilson of Horror.com called it "a pretty movie to look at with its grandiose sets and top notch creature FX, but it's a lot like Anderson's previous works in that it's all facade and no foundation.