The events of Alien vs. Predator are set in 2004 on Earth. As a Predator spacecraft nears the planet, Earth satellites detect a mysterious heat bloom beneath the ice of the island Bouvetøya near Antarctica. Billionaire Charles Bishop Weyland assembles a team of scientists to investigate the heat source and claim it for his multinational communications company Weyland Industries (foreshadowing the Weyland-Yutani Corporation of the Alien film series). The team includes paleontologists, archaeologists, linguistic experts, drillers, mercenaries and a "rough and tumble" female guide named Alexa Woods. As the Predator ship reaches Earth orbit, it blasts a hole down through the ice towards the source of the heat bloom. When the human team arrives at the site above the heat source, an abandoned whaling station, they find this hole and descend beneath the ice. There they discover a mysterious pyramid and begin to explore it, finding evidence of a civilization predating written history and what appears to be a "sacrificial chamber" filled with human skeletons with ruptured rib cages. Meanwhile, three Predators land and kill off the humans at the surface, making their way down to the pyramid and arriving just as the team unwittingly powers up the structure. Several of the humans become trapped in the "sacrifical chamber". An Alien queen awakens from cryogenic stasis and begins producing eggs, from which facehuggers hatch and attach themselves to several of the humans. Chestbursters soon emerge from the humans and quickly grow into adult Aliens. Conflicts erupt between the Predators, Aliens and humans, resulting in several deaths. Unbeknownst to the others, one of the Predators is implanted with an Alien embryo by a facehugger. Through translation of the pyramid’s hieroglyphs, the explorers learn that the Predators have been visiting Earth for thousands of years. It was they who taught early human civilizations to build pyramids and they were worshiped as gods. At regular intervals, they would visit Earth to take part in a rite of passage in which several humans would sacrifice themselves as hosts for the Aliens, creating the "ultimate prey" for the Predators to hunt. If overwhelmed, the Predators would activate their self-destruct weapons to eliminate the Aliens along with themselves. They deduce that this is why the current Predators are here, to hunt the Aliens again. The survivors further reason that the heat bloom from the pyramid was given off to attract humans for the purposes of making new aliens to hunt. The remaining humans decide the Predators must be allowed to succeed in their hunt so that the Aliens do not spread to the rest of Earth. As the battle continues, most of the characters are killed off (including Weyland), leaving only Alexa Woods and a single Predator to face off against the remaining Aliens. The two ally with each other and use the Predator’s self-destruct device to destroy the pyramid, killing the remaining Aliens, except for the Alien queen, and escaping to the surface. The Alien queen emerges and the three do battle in the vicinity of the whaling station. Alexa and the Predator defeat the queen by attaching its chain to a heavy water tower and pushing it over a cliff and into the ocean, dragging the queen down to the ocean floor. The Predator, however, dies from its wounds. A Predator ship suddenly decloaks and several Predators appear. They collect their fallen comrade and present Alexa with one of their spear weapons. As they retreat into space, a chestburster erupts from the dead Predator. It appears to be an Alien/Predator hybrid, as it has the characteristic jaw mandibles of both species.