Predator (film)
Tagline:
Nothing like it has ever been on earth before.
It came for the thrill of the hunt. It picked the wrong man to hunt.
Soon the hunt will begin.
Nothing like it has ever been on Earth before. It came from another planet for the thrill of the hunt. It picked the wrong man.
In a part of the world where there are no rules, deep in the jungle where nothing that lives is safe, an elite rescue squad is being led by the ultimate warrior. But now, they're up against the ultimate enemy. Nothing like it has ever been on earth before. It kills for pleasure, it hunts for sport. But this time, it picked the wrong man to hunt.
We cannot see it, but it sees the heat of our bodys and the heat of our fear
In this movie,
Arnold will experience every meaning of the word '' Pain ''.
Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator, the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the Predator an agile, ninja-eqsue hunter. When compared to Schwarzenegger, Weathers, and Ventura, actors known for their bodybuilding regimes, it became apparent a more physically-imposing man was needed to make the creature appear threatening. Jesse Ventura's autobiographical book also alleges Van Damme intentionally injured a stunt man. Eventually, Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by the late actor and mime artist Kevin Peter Hall. Hall, standing at an imposing 7 foot 2, had just finished work as a sasquatch in Harry and the Hendersons.
The Predator was originally designed with a long neck, a dog-like head and a single eye. This design was abandoned when it became apparent that the jungle locations would make shooting the complex design too difficult. Originally, the studio contracted the makeup effects for the alien from Richard Edlund's Boss Film Creature Shop. However, problems filming the alien in Mexico resulted in the makeup effects responsibilities being given to Stan Winston. According to former Boss Films make-up supervisor Steve Johnson, the makeup failed because of an impractical design by McTiernan that included 12-inch length extensions that gave the Predator a backward bent satyr-leg. The design did not work in the jungle locations. After six weeks of shooting in the jungles of Palenque, Mexico, the production had to shut down so that Winston could make a new Predator. This took eight months and then filming resumed for five weeks, ending in February 1987. Winston said the creature's famous mandibles make-up was originally an idea of noted film director James Cameron.
Released on June 12, 1987, Predator was #1 at the box office in its opening weekend. Its opening weekend gross of $12 million was second to Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987. Critical reaction to the film was generally favorable, with reviewers crediting McTiernan for its breathtaking pace and nonstop action and Schwarzenegger for delivering a fine performance.
Budget $18,000,000
Gross revenue $60,000,000 (US)
Plot
The film begins with a mysterious spacecraft entering the Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, on the coast of Guatemala, a US Army Special Forces unit, led by Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is ordered by General Phillips (R. G. Armstrong) to rescue presidential cabinet ministers kidnapped by guerrilla forces in Val Verde. Dutch's old army buddy and CIA agent, Major George Dillon (Carl Weathers), joins the team. They travel by helicopter to their destination within the jungle.
They are dropped behind the border where they find a downed helicopter as well as traces of rebels being followed by U.S. soldiers. This unusual situation is noted by the team and they soon discover slain U.S. soldiers hanging from a tree, all of them skinned and mutilated. Dutch reads the dog tag of one of the victims and realizes it to be his friend, Lieutenant James Hopper, a Green Beret squad leader stationed in Fort Bragg. He questions Dillon as to why Hopper's unit was in the jungle and Dillon denies knowing what had taken place. Dutch asks Billy (Sonny Landham), an American Indian and the tracker of the team, what happened to Hopper and his men. Billy can't find a good explanation for the incident.
Later, they find the guerrilla post, including multiple rebels and Soviet military advisers. The team attacks and destroys the base with little effort and with no casualties on their part, but the prisoners were marked as members of the CIA and assassinated in advance. Dutch, with intelligence from his team members following the attack, learns that not only was the "cabinet minister" story false, but the slain U.S. soldiers they'd discovered had been ordered to attack the base before disappearing. Dutch angrily confronts Dillon. Dillon tells Dutch that he used him "to get the job done" and that Dutch and his team were "expendable assets". With a female prisoner, Anna, (Elpidia Carrillo) in their custody, the whole group proceeds to their Rendezvous point for extraction near the border. As they move through the jungle, they are unknowingly stalked by an unseen creature who views the group in infra-red and records certain phrases they speak.
The group halts when Billy believes he sees a mysterious presence within the trees. While Dutch tries to figure out what Billy is looking at, Anna attempts to escape. Dutch orders Hawkins (Shane Black) to capture her. Hawkins catches up and tackles Anna. He tries to calm her down when he is suddenly slaughtered by the stalking creature, who takes Hawkins' body. Poncho (Richard Chaves), a Chicano and the interpreter/translator of the group, asks Anna in Spanish what happened and she responds by saying, "the jungle came alive and took him."
While
searching for Hawkins' body, Blain (Jesse Ventura), armed with a minigun, is shot
and killed by the creatures' Plasma caster. When Sergeant "Mac" Eliot
(Bill Duke) rushes to assist his fallen comrade, he sees what appears to be a
large, transparent creature with flashing eyes. Mac starts screaming and opens
fire. When he runs out of bullets, he arms himself with Blain's minigun and continues
firing. The remaining members of the unit join him in a "mad minute",
saturating the jungle with bullets. To their amazement, they are unable to find
any bodies and cannot locate Hawkins' body. Dutch tells Poncho to put Blain in
a body bag, but Mac assures Dutch that he will do it to honor his vanquished friend.
Anna figures they managed to wound the creature when she finds its glowing green
blood on a frond.
That night they decide to set up a "night defensive position" with claymore mines, flares and trip wires. Later, the flares go off and Mac wrestles with what he believes to be the creature that killed his friend. When using a flashlight to examine the kill, the group sees that it was a wild boar. The team finds it funny at first, but stop laughing when they see that the creature used the convenient distraction to come into the camp and make off with Blain's body. Now the remaining team members begin to realize they are dealing with a powerful alien creature.
Dutch decides to lay a trap for the Predator knowing now that they are all being hunted. While they are awaiting the Predator, Anna recalls a local legend of villagers disappearing in particularly hot years, much like this one, until their mutilated bodies are discovered. She says that the village women refer to whatever killed them as the "Demon who makes Trophies of Men." Dutch walks out into the clearing to get the creature to move and expose itself. Suddenly, the creature is sent into the air inside a net, but escapes using its Plasma caster, blasting a log off a tree that swings down and seriously injures Poncho.
Mac and Dillon pursue the Predator claiming they want "payback" for their lost comrades. They agree to take down the Predator together, planning for Dillon to sneak up behind the Predator and flush him toward Mac for the kill. However, they are out-smarted by the Predator. The Predator blasts Mac in the head, killing him with its Plasma caster. Dillon gets his arm blown off and is finished off with the Predator's wrist blades.
Dutch, Billy, Poncho, and Anna struggle through the jungle towards the extraction point. At a huge log bridge, Billy stays behind to make a suicide-stand against the Predator, which buys the survivors some time. The Predator kills Billy easily and catches up with the rest, killing Poncho and slightly wounding Dutch. Aware that the Predator will not kill an unarmed person because it would be "unsporting", Dutch denies Anna from using a gun and tells her to "get to the chopper."
Although wounded, and with the creature on his tail, Dutch escapes by sliding off a cliff, dropping into a river, and falling down a waterfall. He swims to land and puts his face in mud, thinking he has escaped. The Predator splashes in the water behind Dutch. Dutch quickly crawls through the mud, covering his body, to a cave-like area with tree limbs and waits for the Predator to kill him. The Predator emerges from the water and Dutch finally sees the Predator without the use of its cloaking device. The Predator doesn't appear to see him. Once the Predator leaves, Dutch realizes the Predator couldn't see him because he was covered in mud. The mud blocked the heat from his body and made him invisible to infrared vision.
Dutch, lacking firearms and utilizing his newfound camouflage, prepares for a showdown with the Predator. He creates a variety of primitive weapons, including bow and arrows, two spears with knife blades on the tips, and two M203 grenades, converting the shells into improvised explosive arrows. As Dutch arms himself for battle, the Predator cleans the skulls of his victims to display as trophies. After nightfall, Dutch starts a large fire and lets out an intense war cry and awaits the Predator's arrival.
Dutch, hiding atop a tree, surprises the Predator using a modified explosive-tipped arrow that damages the Predator's cloaking device, therefore making the Predator visible. The Predator, enraged, fires his plasma caster all over the jungle trying to flush Dutch out into the open. Dutch falls from the tree and runs for cover while being shot at by the Predator.
Dutch gets his pair of spears and throws one at the Predator, who roars in agony. He follows a trail of the Predator's blood into a cave. The trail of blood stops and he senses the Predator sneaking up behind him. He grabs a pouch of gunpowder hung around his neck, lights it, and throws it over his shoulder. It explodes and Dutch runs and jumps, grabbing hold of a tree branch, but it breaks off because of a blast from the Predator's Plasma caster. Dutch falls into a pond below, washing away the mud.
The Predator corners Dutch. The two face each other and the Predator decides to remove its high-tech weapons in favor of a "fair fight" in hand to hand combat. The Predator casts off its Plasma caster and its Bio mask, showing its true face. A fight follows where, because of the huge difference in size, Dutch seems to be getting the worse of the fight. However, Dutch tricks the alien into following him into a booby trap, springing a huge log which crushes the Predator. The Predator is mortally wounded and covered in its own glowing green blood. The Predator activates a self-destruct Device attached to its wrist and begins to mimic a maniacal laugh patterned after Billy's laugh, which the Predator heard earlier when Hawkins told Billy a dirty joke. Dutch runs for cover as the Predator self-destructs and a massive explosion ignites the jungle.
As
dawn breaks the rescue helicopter with General Phillips and Anna arrives on the
scene, which shortly before had been hidden by a mushroom cloud, and encounters
Dutch standing alone on the scorched plain. Flying back to safety, Dutch stares
at the jungle in mournful silence.
Music
The soundtrack was composed
by Alan Silvestri, who was coming off the huge success of Back to the Future in
1985. Predator was his first major action movie and the score is full of his now
familiar genre characteristics: heavy horn blasts, staccato string rhythms, and
undulating timpani rolls that highlight the action and suspense. Little Richard's
song Long Tall Sally is featured in the helicopter en route to the jungle. Mac
also recites a few lines from the song as he's chasing the Predator after it escapes
from their booby trap.
The minigun used by Jesse Ventura fired blanks, producing
minimal recoil. It was powered by a remote generator, with the cord concealed
beneath Ventura's pants.
Jesse Ventura was delighted to find out from the
wardrobe department that his arms were 1" bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger's.
He suggested to Schwarzenegger that they measure arms, with the winner getting
a bottle of champagne. Ventura lost because Schwarzenegger had told the wardrobe
department to tell Ventura that his arms were bigger.
Due to health and safety
regulations, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not allowed to light his cigar inside the
helicopter near the beginning of the film. As a result the glow was added optically
in post-production.
During the closing credits, Shane Black is seen prominently
displaying a copy of Sgt. Rock #408 (Feb. 1986). In the DVD commentary, John McTiernan
notes that at the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger had an adaptation of Sgt. Rock in
production, and that's why the comics were on set, so he could read them. He described
the scene where Dutch walks up to Billy, who senses the Predator's presence out
in the bush, as a "Sgt. Rock moment".
Supposedly, Jerry Goldsmith
was originally approached to score the film, but was unavailable.
An attempt
was made to get shots of the Predator swinging from tree to tree using a monkey
in a red special-effects suit. However, the monkey kept removing the suit and
the idea was abandoned.
The studio would not allow John McTiernan to shoot
this film in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen due to the complexities of the optical
effects. As a sly sort of retaliation, the director added an anamorphic version
of the film's opening 20th Century Fox logo, which looks noticeably stretched
on screen.
Two waterfalls are used in the climax of the movie, both near Palenque,
Mexico. The first is Misol Ha, just outside the village (beginning and end of
the sequence), and the other is Agua Azul about an hour's drive away (the middle
part of the sequence).
During an episode of Mythbusters, they discovered that
covering yourself with mud does not conceal your body temperature. After a short
time, the mud on your skin becomes warmer.
US
Army Special Forces Weapons
Dutch was armed with the M16A1 Assault rifle with
a M203 grenade launcher attached.
Dillon, Hawkins, and Poncho were armed with
the MP5A3 Submachine Gun. Poncho also had a M32 MGL grenade launcher.
Mac
was armed with the M60E3 machine gun.
Billy was armed with the M16A1 rifle
with a Mossberg 590 Pump action shotgun attachment.
Blaine carried a hand-held
M134 Minigun, which he referred to as "Old Painless," fed from a backpack
ammo box.
For Predator weapons see Yautja
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Dutch
Carl Weathers - Dillon
Elpidia
Carrillo - Anna
Bill Duke - Mac
Jesse Ventura - Blain
Sonny Landham - Billy
Richard Chaves - Poncho
R.G. Armstrong -
General Phillips
Shane Black - Hawkins
Kevin Peter Hall - The Predator
/ Helicopter Pilot
Steve Boyum - Hostage Executed by the Russian
William
H. Burton - Guerilla Soldier Shot Down from Tree
Henry Kingi - Guerilla Soldier
Blown Up in Van
Sven-Ole Thorsen - Russian Officer
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