I thought I would take a break from another Alien Covenant discussion, and try something else on for size. With the Covenant blu-ray only a couple short weeks away, it’s the perfect time to revisit an older home release: Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. A complete mess of a movie, but containing one of the coolest bonus features in any Alien movie home release: the Weyland-Yutani Archives.

The Weyland-Yutani Archives is a fully interactive Alien and Predator educational experience. For this article’s purposes, I am going to focus on the Xenomorph portion of the Archives. But rest assured, the Predator section is just as detailed. There are three sections: Biology, Behavior, and Encounters

When you click on a subject, you get a wonderfully detailed description. If you’ve read the Aliens Technical Manual and/or the Weyland-Yutani Report you get a good idea of what to expect. It’s all written as if you are a Company employee reading classified information. I’m a sucker for this type of thing, and it really captures the vibe of what they are trying to do.

What is even cooler, is that some categories have additional details to them. Click a subject such as Egg, Xenomorph, Discernment, or USCSS Nostromo and you have three other choices to browse: 3-D Illustration, Historical Images, and Fast Data. I’ll show you a sample of each so you get an idea. The 3-D illustration is as described, a computer generated picture of the topic at hand.

The next option is Historical Images. It’s more movie clips than images honestly, giving it a feel as if these were videos sent back to the Company. I wonder what it’s like working for Weyland-Yutani? Good 401k? Health benefits? Do they have a LinkedIn?

Last, but not least is Fast Data. This is a little snapshot of the subject, providing quick facts to impress your friends, coworkers, and strangers online.

I remember digging through these Archives for hours! I had not quite seen anything like it at the time and was blown away by how cool it was. It might not seem like much now, but back then I found it to be quite innovative.

So that is about that. If you haven’t opened up your Requiem blu-ray in some time, hopefully this gave you a reason to do so. Or if you purchased it and never opened, hopefully this also gave you a reason to do so. It’s worth playing around for a few minutes. As always, with any bonus feature, nothing is officially canon. Enjoy it and have fun! And as always, stay frosty..