PREDATOR (FILM)

'''Predator''' is a 1987 science fiction, action and horror film directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura. It grossed $60 million in the United States, generating the sequels ''Predator 2'' in 1990 and ''Alien vs. Predator'' in 2004.

Contents

Background

Story

Cast

Production

Plot theme

Related media

References

External links

Background

The film ''Predator'' utilizes a story of the hunter becoming the hunted. The creature, named "Predator" (known in spin-offs as being of the species Yautja), is an alien humanoid with advanced technology and a penchant for hunting difficult game. With interstellar travel capability, multi-spectrum vision enhancement and a light-bending armour suit with weapons, the Predator creature is supposedly able to travel anywhere, hunt anything and usually succeed. Much of the Predator's history and motivation are left open to the viewer, but after the success of this film, a franchise was created with a detailed back story on the creature, complete with a battle-based society where young Predators are trained within a galaxy of fierce beasts documented in the third movie of the series ''Alien vs. Predator'' (2004).
''Predator'' was the first of the series, as the creature descends on earth interested in hunting exotic game (in this case man). In background information released after the film, the Predator scans the earth's broadcast frequencies and chooses Central America as a location. A U.S. Special Forces unit is also en route to the same location, and during their operations stumble upon the Predator hunting humans. The military unit possesses significant weapons, which attracts the creature's attention. During the film's final conflict, only one American is left (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a cat-and-mouse game begins with each adversary hunting the other.

Story

The film begins with a mysterious spacecraft entering the Earth's atmosphere. 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 a cabinet minister. Dutch is informed they will be on their own. CIA agent Major George Dillon (Carl Weathers) joins the team and they travel by helicopters to their destination within the jungle.
They are dropped behind the border where they find a crashed helicopter as well as traces of rebels being followed by U.S. soldiers. The unusual circumstance is noted by the team. They soon discover the slain U.S. soldiers hanging from a tree, all of them skinned and mutilated. Dutch recognizes the dog tags of one of the victims to be his friend Hopper, a Green Beret squad leader stationed in Fort Bragg, and questions Dillon as to why they were in the jungle. Evidence from the pitched battle puzzles the team.
They find the guerrilla post, including multiple rebels and Soviet military advisers. The team attacks and destroys the base with little effort, but the prisoners were marked as members of the CIA and assassinated in advance. Dutch puts together the intelligence items gleaned from his team members immediately following the attack, learning that not only was the "cabinet minister" story false, but the slain U.S. soldiers they discovered had been ordered to attack the base before disappearing, and angrily confronts Dillon who states that Dutch and his team are expendable "assets". With the 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.

The group halts when its tracker Billy (Sonny Landham) is disturbed by a mysterious presence hiding within the trees. When Anna attempts to escape, Hawkins (Shane Black) chases her but is killed by the stalking creature using an energy weapon.
Blain (Jesse Ventura) is killed moments later while searching for Hawkins' body. 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. Eliot starts screaming and immediately opens fire and is joined by the remaining members of the unit. In what is known as a "mad minute", all members of the team saturate the jungle with bullets. They stop firing and to their shock, are unable to find the body of the predator following them. The team cannot locate Hawkins' body but takes Blain's body with them. What they did not know, but is known by Anna, was that they had only managed to wound the creature slightly in the leg.
That night they decide to set up a "night defensive position" with claymore mines, flares and trip wires. Later the flares go off and Eliot wrestles with what he believes to be the creature but upon using a flashlight, sees that what he has actually killed with his bare hands is a wild boar. Meanwhile, apparently the creature has come into the camp and made off with Blain's body. Now the remaining team members begin to realize they are dealing with an unknown alien creature. When questioned at daylight, Anna recalls a local legend of villagers disappearing until their mutilated bodies are discovered. She says that the village women name the creature the "Demon who makes trophies of men." Dutch decides to lay a trap for the creature knowing now that they are all being hunted. After the various traps are set, Dutch walks out into the clearing to get the creature to move and expose itself. Suddenly a huge thing trips a net trap, but the creature struggles free, shooting in all directions and causing a dead fall log to swing down and seriously injure Poncho (Richard Chaves).
Mac and Dillon pursue the predator claiming that they want "payback" for their lost comrades, only to find the creature waiting for them as they are killed by its advanced weaponry. Dutch, Billy, Pancho, 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 creature kills Billy and catches up with the rest and kills Poncho and slightly wounds Dutch. Realizing that the predator will not kill an unarmed person as long as there is more dangerous game to be hunted down, Dutch refuses to give Anna a gun and tells her to flee towards the extraction location.
Although wounded, and with the creature catching up, Dutch escapes by sliding off of a cliff and dropping into a huge river eventually going over a large waterfall and crawling out through the mud at the water's edge. The predator continues his pursuit, landing in the water seconds behind him. Covered in mud, Dutch finally sees the creature when the advanced technology that warped visible light is damaged and he realizes he cannot be seen by the creature's infrared vision and the creature goes to where he had left Billy's body so that he could prepare his human trophy. Meanwhile Dutch, lacking firearms, prepares to fight the creature by creating a variety of primitive weapons including spears and bow and arrows. As Dutch arms himself for battle, the predator cleans the skulls of his victims to display as trophies. The scene is set for the final showdown between the two.

After nightfall, Dutch starts a large fire and lets out an intense war cry and awaits the creature's arrival. Dutch surprises the creature using a modified explosive-tipped arrow once again making the creature visible and the creature fires his plasmacaster all over the jungle trying to flush Dutch out into the open. This action is successful and the predator corners Dutch. The two face each other and the creature decides to remove his high-tech weapons in favor of hand to hand combat. The creature casts off its firearms and its mask, showing its true face and a fight follows where because of the huge difference in size, Dutch seems to be getting the worse of the fight. But, Dutch tricks the alien into following him into a booby trap, springing a huge log which crushes the predator.
The creature, now mortally wounded, activates a self-destruct device attached to its wrist and begins to mimic a maniacal laugh patterned after Billy's voice which the creature had copied. Dutch immediately runs for cover as the creature self-destructs and a large explosion ignites the jungle. At dawn the rescue helicopter with General Phillips and Anna arrives on the scene and encounters Dutch standing alone on the scorched plain. Flying back to safety, Dutch stares at the jungle in mournful silence.

Cast

★ Arnold Schwarzenegger as Maj. Alan "Dutch" Schaefer

★ Carl Weathers as Col. Al Dillon

★ Elpidia Carrillo as Anna

★ Bill Duke as Sgt. Mac Eliot

★ Jesse Ventura as Sgt. Blain Cooper

★ Sonny Landham as Billy Sole

★ Richard Chaves as Jorge "Poncho" Ramirez

★ Shane Black as Rick Hawkins

★ R. G. Armstrong as Maj. Gen. Homer Phillips

★ Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator and end scene helicopter pilot
''See also List of characters in the Predator series''

Production

''Predator'' was originally titled ''Hunter'' (in behind-the-scenes pictures, this moniker can be seen on the film equipment). If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It Ian T Haufrect ''Predator'' was John McTiernan's first studio film as director. The studio hired screenplay writer Shane Black to not only play a supporting role in the film, but to keep an eye on McTiernan due to the director's inexperience. According to the Special Edition 2-Disc DVD, both director McTiernan and Schwarzenegger lost 25 pounds during the film. Schwarzenegger's weight loss was a professional choice. McTiernan lost the weight because he avoided the food in Mexico due to health concerns.
Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the alien hunter, 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. I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up Jesse Ventura Eventually, Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by the late actor and mime artist Kevin Peter Hall.
The film's creature 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. Special effects director Stan Winston said the creature's famous mandibles make-up was originally an idea of noted film director James Cameron (''Aliens'', ''Titanic'').
The minigun used by Blain's character (Jesse Ventura) fired blanks, producing minimal recoil. It was powered by a remote generator, with the cord concealed beneath Ventura's pants.

Plot theme

There are a number of parallels between the plot of ''Predator'' and the plot of the ancient Anglo Saxon poem ''Beowulf''^[1]. In both stories, a group of elite foreign warriors arrive in an area suffering the depredations of a mysterious, almost invisible monster that has defeated native warriors on their own ground — in ''Beowulf'', the great hall Heorot; in ''Predator'', the jungle. The warriors' weapons and tactics prove ineffective against the monster, who is protected by near-invincibility (Grendel), and near perfect stealth(Predator). Picking off the warriors one by one, the monster takes, or returns to steal, the corpses of its victims, to keep as trophies.
At one crucial point in the original script, the Predator flees the warriors after being wounded in the arm (in the final film, the monster has been wounded in the left thigh). In ''Beowulf'' the monster's arm is torn from his body by the hero, Beowulf. In both stories, the hero discards some of the potent weapons with which he has been equipped (firearms in ''Predator''; the legendary sword Hrunting in ''Beowulf'') when he realizes they are useless against the monster, and in the end he is protected by his own special armour (simple mud, in the ''Predator'' version). Ultimately, the hero uses ingenuity and cunning to protect himself and outwit the monster.

Related media

''Predator'' has inspired a number of comic books, video games and popular anecdotes within the media. A range of Predator comics expanded the mythology, detailing encounters with the alien creature at different points in history. '' is a third-person action-adventure video game released in 2005. Sci-Fi and cyberpunk writer John Shirley authored the Predator novel ''Forever Midnight'' in 2006 for DH Press. It fuses a futuristic interplanetary story with the ''Predator'' mythology. There is also a series of novels, comics, computer games and a film connecting ''Predator'' with the ''Alien'' series titled ''Alien vs. Predator''.

References

1. BEOWULFIANA:MODERN ADAPTATIONS OF BEOWULF

External links

★ IMDB - ''Predator'' page