Predator (film)

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Predator
Predator DVD Cover
Directed by John McTiernan
Written by Jim Thomas,
John Thomas
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Carl Weathers,
Bill Duke,
Sonny Landham,
Shane Black,
Jesse Ventura
Produced by Joel Silver,
Lawrence Gordon,
John Davis
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date June 12, 1987
Runtime 107 min.
Language English
Budget $18,000,000
IMDb page

Predator is a 1987 science fiction movie that was directed by John McTiernan and released on Friday, June 12. It featured actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, Elpidia Carrillo, Richard Chaves, Shane Black and Jesse Ventura. The jungle scenes for this movie were located in southern Mexico, near Palenque. The movie was filmed in Puerto Vallarta.

The movie blends effectively the '80s hard action movie genre with a healthy dose of sci-fi horror. Energetic and full of machismo, the movie was successful enough (earning $60 million in the United States alone) to generate a sequel, Predator 2, in 1990.

Contents

Plot

The mission begins when six US Special Forces soldiers lead by Major 'Dutch' Schaeffer (Schwarzenegger, naturally) are ordered to rescue a Guatemalan cabinet minister who has been captured by guerrilla forces after his helicopter crashed in the jungle across the border.

Along with CIA man Dillon (Weathers), the team is dropped behind the border and begins looking for traces of the minister and his escort. Instead they find the crashed chopper, which appeared to be a "reconnaissance bird" rather than transport, as well as traces of a dozen rebels being followed by several men with American equipment.

Shortly thereafter, they discover three dead US soldiers hanging from trees, all of them mutilated horribly. The search and rescue mission continues, and they soon discover the guerrilla post and the hostages being held there. The team attacks and destroys the guerilla base but all the prisoners are already dead and turn out to be CIA men (Dillon made up the cabinet minister story).

With all guerrillas killed and a female prisoner, Anna (Carrillo), in their hands they make for a pickup point. As they move through the jungle they are stalked by something that they are unable to see.

The creature attacks and kills Hawkins (Black) and Blain (Ventura) before vanishing into the jungle using active camouflage. However when Mac (Duke) catches Blain falling to the ground with the corner of his eye and rushes to him, he sees the predator and the Predator glares at him flashing his yellow eyes. Mac starts shooting at the predator whilst screaming with fear at the same time. Then the other soilders turn up and also start shooting, but as they attempt to kill it by saturating the jungle with bullets, they succeed only in slightly wounding the Predator.

They mount a defensive position with claymore mines, flares and trip wires.

Meanwhile as the Predator is healing itself we are given a glimpse into the motives of the creature when it pulls out a human skull, dragging one finger gently across the forehead as though it were admiring it's new-found trophy. The Predator attacks once again in the night and destroys the defensive position. The creature steals the body of Blain without alerting anyone or setting off any of the traps. Early in the afternoon, the soldiers once again mount a defensive position, this time by preparing a net in an attempt to capture the "killer". The creature falls into the trap but breaks free by firing its shoulder cannon. Another cannon shot destroys a branch that swings down and injures a soldier gravely.

The predator escapes once more and later goes on a killing rampage that finishes all of Schaefer's men with the exception of himself and the female prisoner. Knowing the predator won't kill unless a victim is armed, Schaefer kicks a gun out of the girl's hands and tells her to "Gooo!! Get to the Choppa!!"

Schaefer escapes the creature and falls off a cliff into a huge river. Thinking he escaped, Schaefer desperately scrambles through the mud-covered ground upon hearing the Predator land seconds behind him . Knowing he can't escape in his condition he resigns himself to a fatal end by huddling against a mass of thick branches and logs but as the creature gets closer it merely pauses. It doesn't see him and walks away because the Major is encased in cold, lead-based mud shielding himself from the creatures infra-red vision.

Schaefer waits until the creature is out of his sight and then begins preparing weapons. After nightfall, Schaefer sends a war cry that is heard by the creature. The ensuing showdown ends with Schaefer being wounded and the Predator activating a nuclear self-destruct device that leaves a large amount of jungle burned. The rescue team arrives and pulls Schaefer and the prisoner girl out of the jungle.

Details

The original alien was going to be a more insect-type like creature, and was going to be played by Jean Claude van Damme, but it was decided that it wasn't scary enough and was re-designed. Van Damme got himself fired from the production, apparently because he didn't like his role.

The revamped alien hunter (played by the late Kevin Peter Hall) is equipped with an impressive line of weapons including a shoulder mounted plasma cannon (plasmacaster), metal armor, wrist computer system, survival kit, wrist mounted double edged blade, cutting tools, and a cloaking device that bends light rays and render the creature almost invisible.

An interesting fact about Predator is that three of the movie's stars went on to become governatorial candidates, two of whom won.

There is also a series of novels, comics, computer games, and a movie that connects Predator with the Alien series, called Alien vs. Predator. An arcade game in the series features a fighter based off Schwarzenegger's character.

The line "Run! Go! GET TO THE CHOPPER!" (also spelled as "GET TO DA CHOPPA!") has become popular on the Internet, and has been used a lot recently by SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt.

  • The helicopter pilot at the end is the man who plays the predator, actor and mime artist Kevin Peter Hall
  • The Predator in this Film appears as a secret costume in the video game Predator: concrete Jungle

External links


See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:


Alien movie series
Alien | Aliens | Alien³ | Alien: Resurrection
Cross-overs
Alien vs. Predator
Relating to the Alien universe
Bishop | Ellen Ripley | LV-426 | Nostromo | The Derelict | United States Colonial Marines | Weyland-Yutani | Xenomorph | Yautja
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