This article covers all the known deleted scenes from the 2007 film Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Some of the sequences here never progressed past the early script or storyboard stages, while others were filmed before being cut during the editing process.
Note that sequences initially deleted from the theatrical release of the film but later reinstated in its extended cut are not noted here; details on these scenes can instead be found in the Unrated Edition article.
Loading the Mother Ship[]
A sequence was planned showing the Predators aboard the Mother Ship loading the smaller Scout Ship with vials containing Facehuggers and other supplies before it separates and heads back to Earth, but the scene was dropped before the effects were completed due to budget restraints.[1]
The Predalien's Fate[]
In early versions of the script, the Predalien was actually killed fighting the Predators aboard the Scout Ship and played no further role in the film after the crash.[2] This was changed when it was decided to make the creature's appearance the centerpiece of the film.[3]
Town Meeting[]
After emerging from the sewers, Dallas and Ricky were to bump into a truck driver named Terry, who informs them that Sheriff Morales has organised a town meeting in the high school's gymnasium to discuss the disappearance of Buddy and Sam Benson. All three go along to the meeting, where Morales attempts to allay the townsfolk's fears. However, several of them accuse Dallas of somehow being involved, due to his criminal past.[2]
Although the scene was cut, the truck driver is still listed (unnamed) in the film's credits, indicating his scene was almost certainly filmed.
Skinned Predators[]
The skinned Predators.
Footage was filmed of Wolf discovering Predators that had been skinned by the Predalien and hung from the ceiling inside the crashed Scout Ship.[4] The discovery was to enrage Wolf and spur him on with his mission to destroy the creature.[1] However, in the final film the Predator traits displayed by the Predalien were substantially scaled back, and as a result the scene was re-edited and the footage of the bodies removed.
Despite the removal of the concept, the skinned Predator corpses do actually appear very briefly in the movie — they can be seen in the background behind Wolf when he attaches Bull's Plasmacaster to his shoulder, although their traditionally florescent green blood has been digitally dulled so as to make them far less obvious.[1]
Dog-Burster[]
When the Predalien attacks the homeless people in the sewer, Harry's dog Butch was also going to be impregnated with a Chestburster. The idea was dropped due to budget limitations, as it would mean creating an entirely different Runner adult design for the film.[5]
School Life[]
The script includes a scene where Ricky, Jesse, Dale and Dale's friends are in high school attending a biology lecture. Their teacher, Mr. Thomas, talks about the theory of evolution and "survival of the fittest". The scene is intercut with Wolf exploring the Xenomorph Hive in the sewers, adding additional gravitas to Mr. Thomas' stipulation that stronger species more able to adapt will ultimately emerge victorious.[2] During the lecture, Dale taunts Ricky about his job delivering pizzas, and the two get into a fight. Ricky is sent to the principal, and suspended from school for one week.[2]
Although the scene was cut, Mr. Thomas is still listed in the film's credits, indicating it was almost certainly filmed.
Dallas' Crime[]
The exact nature of Dallas' recent imprisonment is left mysterious in the film, but the script features an additional scene that elaborates on the situation. After collecting Ricky from school following his suspension, Dallas drives his brother home, and during the drive it is revealed that he was actually sent to jail on account of a crime that Ricky committed; Dallas covered for him and ended up serving three years in prison as a result. Ricky resents the fact his brother felt the need to take his punishment for him, but Dallas explains that he simply doesn't want his brother to turn out like him.[2]
Molly's Close Call[]
Another additional scene in the script sees Dale and his friends playing stickball in the street. When Dale hits the ball down a drain, he asks Molly, who is walking past, to try and reach it with her smaller hands. She reaches into the grate and gropes for the ball, and a hidden Xenomorph approaches her arm. Just as the creature is about to strike, Molly grabs the ball and pulls it out.[2]
The Bus Depot[]
The early draft of the film's script contains an additional action scene in the town's bus depot, through which Kelly, Molly and Tim O'Brien (who survives longer in this draft) flee after Karl is killed in the graveyard (as seen in the Unrated Edition). Wolf pursues them, seeing that Tim has picked up Karl's revolver, and stalks the O'Brien's as they move between the parked buses. When he spots them, Wolf shoots a crane overhead, causing the bus hanging from it to swing down, almost crushing the O'Brien's, who then run on to the convenience store where the other survivors are arming themselves.[2]
Carrie's Death[]
The scene where Carrie is impregnated in the diner kitchen was originally longer, starting from the moment where slime drips on her arm as she is throwing the trash into the dumpster — the culprit, the Predalien, was to be seen (by the audience, but not Carrie) on the building's roof, and several shots were to be shown through the creature's point of view. Predalien POV was to be used again when it corners her inside after killing Ritchie, and it would use its "vision" to detect the fetus inside Carrie, the implication being that it targeted her so that the unborn baby would become food for the Bellybursters it implanted.[1]
Kendra & Curtis Part I[]
Kendra and Curtis in the hospital.
A complete sub-plot featuring the characters of Kendra and Curtis was deleted from the film, and as a result the two characters were all but removed from the movie (they still appear very briefly in the background when Dallas is at the diner, and Curtis is still listed in the film's credits). The first scene involving the two children took place in the hospital, to which they had gone so that Curtis could receive treatment for his injured hand. The doctor would have sent them upstairs, where nurse Helen bandaged Curtis' hand. While there, the children see the Predalien looking at the babies in the maternity ward, and when they knock something over it begins hunting for them. They are spared when Helen returns, and the Predalien kills her instead (as is seen in the finished film).[4]
Kendra and Curtis were removed from the film because it was feared yet another plot point involving the death of young children (they were to perish in the nuclear destruction of the town) would be too much for the audience to stomach.[1] Despite this, Curtis' name still appears in the film's credits, while the sequences involving them were included in the movie's trading cards set from Inkworks.
Gun Store Fight[]
A larger fight sequence between Wolf and the Drones inside the gun store was scripted, which would have begun with the survivors fleeing after Earl and Scotty are killed only to find themselves trapped between the two hostile alien species. The fight scene had to be scaled back when it was discovered the filming location was far smaller and more cramped than anticipated.[1]
Morales' Death[]
Morales was originally to die much earlier in the film, in the convenience store where the survivors arm themselves. He was to be grabbed by a Xenomorph from above, hoisted up into the ceiling and ripped in half.[2]
Kendra & Curtis Part II[]
Kelly on the mounted .50 cal.
A later scene showed Kendra and Curtis escaping in a car that they have taken, only for a Xenomorph to land on the roof. They slam on the brakes, throwing it off (a nod to the scene with Ripley in the APC in Aliens), and it lands in front the main characters, who have just armed themselves in the gun store. The group fires at the downed Drone, killing it, before another appears. Kelly jumps on the Browning M2 machine gun mounted on one of the nearby National Guard vehicles and guns the creature down (footage of Kelly firing the .50 cal can be seen briefly in the film's trailer), saving her daughter Molly in the process. Kendra and Curtis then join the survivors.[4]
The Airport[]
The finale of the film was originally to take place at a small municipal airport rather than in the town's hospital. Instead of a medical helicopter, the survivors steal a news chopper to make their escape.[2]
In the Hive[]
The firefight between the survivors and the Xenomorphs in the hospital was to be more extensive, while the confrontation between Wolf and the Xenomorphs immediately after this was likewise going to be two to three times longer.[4] It was also planned to build the entire Hived hospital ward set on stilts, raised two to three feet above ground level, so that the Xenomorphs' acid blood could be shown melting large holes in the floor when they died. This idea had to be scrapped when it proved prohibitively expensive to build such a complex set.[4]
Ricky's Fate[]
A significant change made during filming involved the fate of Ricky, who was originally killed by the Predalien in the hospital; after the creature impaled him, it was to tear him in half, much like Bishop in Aliens.[4] A negative audience reaction to the character's death saw the end of the film re-shot to incorporate Ricky's survival.
Wolf's Death[]
In the original script, Wolf dies before the nuclear weapon is dropped on the town — he is simply overcome by a group of Xenomorphs, who tear off his arm before he can activate his Self-Destruct Device. After he is dead, Dallas takes his dropped Plasmacaster.[2]
Rooftop Fight[]
Much like many of the other Aliens vs. Predator fights in the film, the final conflict between Wolf and the Aliens on the roof of the town's hospital was planned to be considerably longer. Aside from general combat between the two species, more specific elements that were removed included Wolf emerging onto the roof literally dripping in florescent Predator blood, indicating his fight against the many Drones inside the building had been savage and bloody instead of the rather one-sided massacre it appears to be in the finished film. The idea had to be dropped because the heavy rain effects almost immediately washed the blood off of the suit.[4] Later, when Wolf and the Predalien finally beat each other to a stalemate, Wolf was to impale the Predalien's head with it's own severed inner jaw rather than his Wristblades, and the blood spilled was to melt off the Predator's left arm.[4]
Nuclear Aftermath[]
The scenes of the survivors in the woods following the helicopter crash were to feature ash, created by the nuclear destruction of the town, falling from the sky like snow, but the production was refused permission to create the effects for environmental reasons.[4]
Alternate Ending: Special Forces Massacre[]
An alternate ending was shot where the special forces team guns the survivors down after Dallas hands over the Plasma Pistol, ensuring there are no witnesses. However, such a downbeat ending was considered needlessly depressing, and so the version with the group surviving was used instead.[4]
Captive Creatures[]
Concept art of the Yutani specimens.
The film's epilogue, where Ms. Yutani receives the Plasma Pistol, originally progressed to show a secret facility where multiple captured Predators and Aliens are being held in suspended animation and studied by Yutani personnel.[5] Like many of the grander shots planned for the film, it was dropped for budget reasons.
Future Hunt[]
Another sequence cut from the film due to budget concerns was a major post-credits scene that would have served as a segue between Requiem and the universe seen in the Alien franchise.[5] In it, the Plasma Pistol handed to Ms. Yutani would have morphed into an image of a spacecraft heading for an alien planet, revealed to be the Xenomorph homeworld, on which a large group of Predators are attempting to capture a "giant winged Alien" dubbed the "King Alien".[6] The idea behind the sequence was to show that the recovered Predator technology is what allowed mankind to reach the stars and colonise space as seen in the Alien films, as well as allowing Weyland-Yutani to acquire so much power.[6] The sequence also would have served as setup for a third Aliens vs. Predator movie, to be set in a similar future time period to the Alien series.[6] As with numerous other scenes, budget restrictions meant the effects-heavy sequence was scrapped early in production.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Greg Strause, Colin Strause, John Davis. Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem audio commentary (2008), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Alien vs. Predator: Requiem script by Shane Salerno
- ↑ Greg Strause, Colin Strause, John Davis, Tom Woodruff, Jr.. The Making of AVPR (2008), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 "AVPGalaxy - AvP Requiem Deleted Scenes". Retrieved on 2014-09-17.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "AvPGalaxy Podcast - Episode #60". Retrieved on 2017-12-21.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "io9 - The third Aliens Vs. Predator movie would have served as a prequel to Alien". Retrieved on 2016-04-23.