 | |
| Antarctica | |
| Category: | Continent |
| Galaxy: | Milky Way Galaxy |
| System: | Sol system |
| Planet: | Earth |
| Points of interest: | Outpost 32; Ross Sea; Savage Land; South Pole |
Antarctica is one of the seven continents found on the planet Earth and is located in the Southern hemisphere. It is the coldest of all the continents and also has the lowest human population. It's overall land area is 14,000,000 km2 (5,400,000 square miles), 13,720,000 km2 of which is ice-covered with 280,000 km2 remaining ice free.
In fiction[]
Antarctica was one of several locations featured in the 1980 film Virus by Kinji Fukasaku. In this post-Apocalypic setting, 863 scientists who have survived a virus that has ravaged the world take refuge in Antarctica.
Antarctica was the central setting of the 1981 John Carpenter film The Thing, which was a remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, though this film took place in Alaska, not Antarctica. In the movie, an alien space vessel crash lands on Earth at some time in the distant past and remains inert until an American scientific research team inadvertently lets loose a grotesque alien organism that begins slaughtering all of the workers at the station.
Antarctica on Doctor Who.
Antarctica is seen at the end of the 1998 film The X-Files: Fight the Future where it is revealed that an ancient alien spacecraft has been found beneath the ice and converted into a scientific research facility by the secretive global power consortium known as the Syndicate. FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully went to Antarctica where Mulder witnessed the ship becoming active again and leaving the surface of the planet.
In the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator, Antarctica was the site of an expedition headed up by industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland. Their mission was to locate an ancient underground temple which had been constructed by alien visitors thousands of years earlier. By accessing the ruins beneath the ice shelf, they prematurely awaken several xenomorph eggs, which produce facehugger parasites that attack the expedition members, using their bodies as host incubators for the xenomorph young. As it happened, a clan of extraterrestrials known as Yautjas, or Predators, come to Earth and use the facility as a proving ground, testing their mettle against the Xenomorphs. The movie posits that the Predators visited the site eons ago, bringing the Xenomorphs with them, which they hunted for sport. Antarctica was also referenced in the first film in the series, Alien, in which the main character, Ellen Ripley, attempts to contact a Weyland-Yutani tracking station located on the continent.
Antarctica has been referenced a few times in the Syfy Original Series Defiance. In the year 2013, the Earth underwent radical geological upheaval as a result of terraforming by the Votanis Collective. As such, the once inhospitable frozen tundras of Antarctica became a virtual paradise. By the year 2046, Joshua Nolan had a dream of earning enough scrip so that he move to Antarctica with his daughter, Irisa. He kept a postcard of Antarctica on the dashboard of his roller. Fate however, had other plans. [1]
On the NBC series SeaQuest DSV, the crew of the SeaQuest go the Antarctic polar ice caps to rescue a warden and his prisoner, only to discover several such prisoners cryogenically frozen beneath the ice. The "warden" they rescue is actually Doctor Zellar - one of the disguised prisoners. [2]
Outpost 32 was one of sixty-seven scientific research and containment facilities maintained by the Monarch organization. It was located in Antarctica where the staff studied the preserved and frozen form of a three-headed dragon-like Titan that they classified as Monster Zero.
In 2019, a terrorist named Alan Jonah commandeered a V-22 Osprey and took scientist and co-conspirator Emma Russell, along with her teenage daughter, Madison to the outpost. Jonah and his followers opened fire on the base's staff, and took control of the facility. They began drilling through the ice with the intent of awakening the creature. Jonah wanted to use Doctor Russell's bioacoustics technology, the ORCA, as a means of controlling the monster.
Members of G-Team, who had been working alongside Monarch arrived and the soldiers engaged in a firefight with Jonah's cronies. In the chaos, Monster Zero, also known as Ghidorah, awakened and went on a rampage. A rival monster, Godzilla, had followed the G-Team's flagship, the USS Argo to the outpost and fought with Ghidorah. During the ensuing battle, Monarch scientist Vivienne Graham was killed by Ghidorah. The others managed to escape and Godzilla suffered a sound defeat. [3]
Points of interest[]
- New Imperia
- New Imperia became a capital city located in the Savage Land. It was populated by alien refugees from the planet Sakaar. The region was led by a Red King who, along with insectoid Miek, was also responsible for slaughtering several Sakaarans in an attempt to repopulate Miek's species. The Hulk and other members of the Warbound teamed up with Ka-Zar to overthrow the Red King and defeat Miek. Afterward, Elloe Kaifi of the Warbound was crowned as the Red Queen of New Imperia.
- Outpost 32
- Outpost 32 was one of sixty-seven scientific research and containment facilities maintained by the Monarch organization. It was located in Antarctica where the staff studied the preserved and frozen form of a three-headed dragon-like Titan that they classified as Monster Zero.
- Ross Sea
- The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Ross who visited this area in 1841. To the west of the sea lies Ross Island and Victoria Land, to the east Roosevelt Island and Edward VII Peninsula in Marie Byrd Land, while the southernmost part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, and is about 200 miles (320 km) from the South Pole. The Sub-Mariner swam across the Ross Sea to battle some crab monsters shortly after first encountering his cousin, Namorita. [4]
- Savage Land
- The Savage Land is a tropical prehistoric land surrounded by volcanoes deep in Antarctica It is a tropical preserve hidden from the rest of the world. 200 million years ago, the alien Nuwali created the Savage Land, in Antarctica as one of several planetary "game preserves" for the mysterious godlike Beyonders. The Nuwali stocked the Land with Earthly life of the era, most notably dinosaurs; as Earth's flora and fauna changed over succeeding millions of years
- South Pole
- The South Pole is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of Earth and lies on the opposite side of Earth from the North Pole. The South Pole sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau at an altitude of 2,835 meters above sea level, and is located about 1,300 kilometers from the nearest open sea at Bay of Whales. The ice is estimated to be about 2,700 meters thick at the Pole, so the land surface under the ice sheet is actually near sea level.
Residents of Antarctica[]
Note: This section largely applies to characters who have spent a significant amount of time in Antarctica. It does not necessarily mean that this is their place of birth.
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| R.J. MacReady | Thing, The |
Appearances[]
Films[]
- Alien vs. Predator (2004)
- Godzilla: Final Wars (Partially)
- Gorath
- Thing, The
- Virus (1980) (Partially)
- X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) (Partially)
Television[]
Comics[]
Video games[]
External Links[]
References[]
