OK time for a bit of blog revisitation (or just an excuse for a rewrite!) as I recently watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger action classic, Predator again I thought I might aswell update my original review of it (back in 2013).
So without further delay let's gear up and take another look at this sci-fi action thriller from the 1980s and see just how well it still stacks up
And yep the usual warning applies:
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
Right so the film begins in Central America, where Major "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnie) arrives with his elite force team, and he is given the mission to rescue a presidential cabinet minister who has been abducted by guerillas. Dutch is also accompanied by an old friend of his, Dillon (Carl Weathers) a former military man, who now works for the CIA. Dutch and his men are dropped in the jungle where they start their hunt and they soon come across the wreckage of a crashed helicopter. They also find the bodies of soldiers who have been skinned alive, and Dutch finds the tags of a soldier named Jim Hopper, who Dutch knew from Fort Bragg. Later on the men soon find the guerilla base, which they storm and kill the soldiers and capture a woman, named Anna (Elpidia Carrillo). Dutch is enraged when he finds out that there was no cabinet minister and it was a set up by Dillon, who reveals it was his men that were in the chopper that got hit, and that he was ordered to go in and find out who killed his team. As the team make their way towards their extraction point, they are watched by an unknown creature up in the trees, which uses thermal imaging to track them.
As Dutch's team move deeper into the jungle, one of Dutch's men, Billy (Sonny Landham) is aware of something watching them in the trees, but he can't see it, after he shrugs it off, Anna tries to escape, and one of the team, Hawkins (Shane Black) chases after her. When Hawkins catches up with Anna, the unknown creature, arrives out of the blue in camoflauge and kills him and drags his body away, leaving Anna unharmed. Dutch orders his team to search for Hawkins, however as they look around, one of the men, Blain (Jesse Ventura) is killed by the creature. Another one of the team, Mac (Bill Duke) witnesses the camoflaged creature stand over Blain, and then runs off when Mac opens fire with Blain's minigun and he is soon joined by Dutch and the others but there is no sign of the creature afterward. Later that night, Dutch has his men set trip wires to detect any movement from the creature, and they have also put Blain in a body bag. However one of their trip wires is set off and Mac is attacked by a wild boar, which he kills with his knife, but as the men arrive they look around and see that Blain's body is gone.
The next day Dutch realises that the creature, is hunting them like a Predator (I'll call him that from now on!) and is using the trees for cover. Dutch forces Anna to tell them what she knows, and she tells them that it uses the trees to camoflauge itself and the predator always attacks during the hot summers in the jungle, and also that when Mac opened fire on the predator, there was luminous green blood on the trees. Anna also says that the Predator likes to hunt for sport and in the past they often found men skinned and even worse, and the locals said it was "the demon who makes trophies of men". Dutch then has his men set another trap using trip wires camoflauged with leaves and also a large net to capture the predator.
Soon enough the predator takes the bait as it is captured in the net, but it uses its laser weapon to free itself, and in the process, a large log of wood crashes down, hitting one of the team, Poncho (Richard Chaves) in the chest, leaving him badly wounded. Mac, now almost deranged goes off after the Predator, and Dillon follows him, telling Dutch to go to the extraction point. However soon enough the Predator tracks both Mac and Dillon and kills them both, and as Dutch hears Dillon's cries from far away, Billy drops his gun and makes a stand against the Predator, while Dutch struggles on with Poncho and Anna. Soon enough we hear Billy's final screams as he too is bumped off by the Predator, who soon catches up with Dutch, and kills Poncho, and shoots Dutch in the arm who flees for his life and as the Predator bares down upon, Dutch slips into a ravine and into the waters below.
As Dutch wearily swims to the shore, he slumps face down in the muddy shore, when there is a splash noise and the Predator slowly emerges from the water. However now that Dutch is covered in mud, its disguises his heat signature from the Predator who can no longer see him, and moves off elsewhere. Dutch later on sets a series of traps, makes up weapons, and covers his body in more mud and lights a torch, and gives a big war cry to altert the Preadtor as the two of them prepare to do battle for the last time.......
THOUGHTS
Even though it received a mixed reception on its release, Predator has deservedly gained a better reputation as a film as time has passed. And as an action film it is terrific, and there are plenty of suspenseful set pieces, especially once the Predator starts to hunt down the men in the jungle and starts off as a near inivisible presence with its camoflauge.
And one of the best things about the film is the Predator itself, as it really is one of the best sci-fi baddies in the modern cinema. The Predator in many ways is one of the most formidable and fearsome enemies in any film, especially with its ability to disguise itself, and also the brilliant and rather creepy use of thermal imaging throughout and the terrific sound effects used for the Predator's heartbeat also add to unease of the film.
The Predator is also an interesting enemy, as unlike for example the aliens from the Alien franchise, (who basically just shag and kill!) it hunts and kills for sport, yet the Predator will not kill unarmed people. As Dutch at one point realises in the film, as Anna is about to pick up a gun, he tells her not to as it didn't kill before as she wasn't armed, and he says "no sport!". So the Predator to a lesser extent is something of a moralistic antagonist, as it does have a sense of respect to its foes, as it shows to Dutch at the end as it challenges him in hand to hand combat, rather than just kill him. The Predator's behaviour and attitudes would later be expanded on further in the underrated sequel Predator 2.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: explicit language and some spoilers ahead!)
As for the cast, well things are pretty good here, and Arnold Schwarzenegger puts in a pretty good performance by his own standards as Dutch, who he plays largely just straight laced and no nonsense but he still enjoys some good one liners.
And Arnie's highlights include the scene at the start where Dutch meets up with Dillon (who he hasn't seen for years) and he says to him "Dillon! You son of a bitch!" and the two of them lock hands in a quick arm wrestle. And during the wrestle Dutch grins saying "What's the matter? The CIA got you pushing too many pencils?!" and as Dillon struggles to keep up the wrestle, Dutch says "Had enough?" and Dillon laughs and gives in "OK! OK!".
Arnie also has some good wisecracks in the scene where Dutch and his team storm the guerilla camp and take them out. And during the scene Dutch has a couple of good one-liners, the first of which is when he throws a knife into one of the guerilla's chests and Dutch quips "Stick around!" and then he kicks down the door to one of the huts where there are a few guerillas and he says "Knock, knock!" and shoots them. Class.
Then there is the scene where after Dutch's team take out the guerilla army, Dutch learns that from Mac that the mission wasn't what it appeared to be and he confronts Dillon. And in the scene Dutch grabs Dillon and pushes him against the wall shouting "You set us up!! It was all bullshit! All of it! The cabinet minister, the whole business!". And as Dillon tells him the truth, Dutch looks at him with disgust saying "So you cooked up a story and dropped the six of us in a meat grinder! What happened to you, Dillon? You used to be someone I could trust!".
Another good scene is when Dutch questions Anna and warns her "No more games!" and she suddenly speaks in English and tells him what she knows of the Predator. And then Dutch takes out his knife and says to Anna "Anna, this thing is hunting us, all of us" and he cuts her bonds loose and as Dillon protests, Dutch says "Dillon we make a stand now, or there will be no left to reach the chopper!". And as Anna says the Predator was wounded as its blood was on the leaves, Dutch says "If it bleeds, we can kill it".
And later there is the scene where Dutch tries to escape with Poncho and Anna and she goes to pick up a gun but Dutch warns her "No! It didn't kill you because you weren't armed. No sport!". And after that comes the classic moment where the Predator shows up and kills Poncho and then Dutch stops Anna from using a machine gun and instead he shoots at the Predator, who fires its plasma gun at his shoulder, causing Dutch to fall to the ground. And Dutch yells to Anna "Run!! Go!!! GET TO DA CHOPPER!!!!".
And last of all there is Dutch's big showdown with the Predator where (SPOILER!!) the creature takes off its helmet and reveals it ugly mug leaving Dutch to look in surprise and say the great line "You are one ugly motherfucker!". And during the fight scene Dutch tries to hit the Predator with a log of wood but its easily breaks it in half leaving Dutch to say "Bad idea!" before the Predator dishes out his brutal beating to Dutch.
Carl Weathers next up is really good as Dillon, the CIA agent who accompanies Dutch's team on the mission into the jungle but it turns out he has something of a hidden agenda.
Weathers best moments include the opening scene where Dutch is being briefed by General Phillips (R.G. Armstrong) and Dutch asks "Why do you need us? What about the regular army?" and Dillon from the background says "Because some damn fool accused you of being the best!" and the two of them lock in a friendly arm wrestle, which Dillon loses!
Then there is the scene where Dillon and Dutch's team are being flown into the jungle and while onboard the chopper one of Dutch's team, Blain, spits on the floor while chewing tobacco but the spit lands on one of Dillon's boots. So Dillon leans forward to beckons Blain to move forward to speak to him and Dillon says "That's a real nasty habit you got there!" and Blain simply smiles and sits back. And as the team are getting ready to drop, Dillon looks down below and says "I never knew how much I missed this, Dutch!" and Dutch says "You never were that smart!".
And one of Weathers best scenes in the film comes when Dutch confronts him over the cover story that brought to the jungle. And Dillon angrily says to Dutch "Look, we've been looking for this place for months. My men were in that chopper when it got hit! Hopper's orders were to go in and get my men and he disappeared!". And as Dutch says "What happened to you, Dillon? You used to be somebody I could trust!" Dillon coldly says "I woke up, why don't you? You're an asset, an expendable asset and I used you to get the job done, got it?!".
Another good scene for Weathers is when Anna speaks in English to Dutch and tells her what she knows about the Predator and how it changes colours "like the chameleon". And this prompts Dillon to scornfully say "You saying that Blain and Hawkins were killed by a fucking lizard?! That's a bullshit psyche job! There's two to three men out there at the most. Fucking lizard!".
And lastly there is the scene when Dillon goes after Mac to help him kill the Predator and as Dutch is about to go, Dillon stops and says "Hold it, Dutch, I'm going after Mac". And Dutch says "That's not your style, Dillon" and Dillon says "I guess I picked up some bad habits from you, now get your people the hell out of here!". And as Dutch says to him "You can't win this, Dillon" Dillon says "Maybe I can get even!" and Dutch then throws another machine gun and Dillon says "Just hold onto that damn chopper!".
Up next is Bill Duke who is excellent as Mac, one of Dutch's team and a badass soldier (Duke previously appeared in another Arnie action flick, Commando, as a rogue green beret).
Duke has some pretty good moments in the film aswell that include the scene where Mac has a beady eye on Dillon and as they work their way through the jungle Mac confronts Dillons quietly. And Mac warns him "You're ghostin' us, motherfucker! I don't care who you are back in the world, you give away our position one more time, I'll bleed ya, real quiet. Leave ya here. Got that?!".
Then later there is the scene where Dillon angrily speaks in Spanish to Anna, shortly after she has been captured and Mac calls out to him "Dillon!" and Dillon turns around and Mac says "Over here". And Dillon walks over to him and Mac quietly says to him "Turn around" and Dillon asks why and Mac looks up to the trees to make Dillon turn away and Mac then takes out his knife and sticks it on Dillon's shoulder, who spins around to find that Mac has stabbed a scorpion that crawling up Dillon's back. And Dillon looks at him and says "Thanks" and walks away leaving Mac to quietly say "Anytime" and he squashes the scorpion with his boot.
Another good scene comes when after Blain has been killed, Mac sadly walks over to his body and he drinks the last of his whisky flask and he places it on Blain's body and he says softly "Goodbye bro" and covers him over. And this is followed by the scene when Dillon asks Mac "Who hit us today?" and Mac says "I don't know, I only saw one of them in camoflague. Those eyes they disappeared". And Dutch asks Mac "What was that?" and Mac repeats "Those eyes, they disappeared. I know one thing, Major, I drew down and fired straight at it. Capped off two hundred rounds in the minigun, full pack. Nothing... Nothing on Earth could've lived. Not at that range".
And lastly is the scene when after the team try to trap the Predator in a net and its escapes, Mac runs after the Predator shooting his machine gun and yelling "I got you, motherfucker! I got you!! I'M COMING!!!". And Mac starts to lose it as he chases the Predator he sings a few lines from Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" and he repeats "I'm gonna have me some fun tonight!" over and over. And later Dillon joins Mac as Mac pulls him into his hiding place and he quietly says to Dillon that he can see the Predator "Over there, past the trees. You see it? I see you!". And Dillon eventually sees the Predator from afar and he tells him his plan to kill the Predator and Mac says "I gotta score to settle" and Dillon says "We've both got scores to settle".
Elpidia Carrillo does pretty well in her role as Anna, a female guerilla who Dutch's team capture but she eventually ends up helping them to fight against the Predator.
And Carrillo best and most memorable scene comes when she tells Dutch and the others about the appearances of the Predator in the jungle over the years. And she says "When I was little, we found a man. He looked like - like, butchered. The old woman in the village crossed themselves... and whispered crazy things, strange things. "El Diablo cazador de hombres." Only in the hottest years this happens. And this year, it grows hot. We begin finding our men. We found them sometimes without their skins... and sometimes much, much worse. "El cazador trofeo de los hombres" means the demon who makes trophies of men!".
Jesse Ventura is also pretty good as the veteran badass soldier, Blain, and good friend of Mac (Ventura himself was a professional wrestler, and later a politician, so this film had no shortage of future politicians!).
Ventura has quite a few good moments and some good one liners aswell that include his first scene where Blain offers chewing tobacco to the other men and they all turn it down. And Blain says disgruntled "Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here! This stuff will make you a god damned sexual Tyrannosaurus, just like me!".
Then later is the scene when during the fight against the guerillas, Blain is joined by Poncho and Blain looks above him at a guerilla in a fortified position and he says "Son of a bitch is dug in like a Alabama tick!". And Poncho looks at Blain and sees his arm is bleeding and says to him "You're hit! You're bleeding, man" and Blain says "I ain't got time to bleed!" and Poncho says in response "OK" and fire his grenade launcher a few times at the guerilla's direction and he says "You got time to duck?!".
And lastly there are two more good moments from Ventura that include the scene when Blain and Mac take a rest in the jungle to take a bit of whisky. And Mac says how they have seen some badass bush in their time but this is something else and Blain says "I hear you. This shit is something, makes Cambodia look like Kansas!". And Mac hands Blain his flask saying "A little taste of home" and Blain says "You lose it here, you're in a world of hurt!".
And finally there is the scene where after the Predator has made its first kill (Hawkins) that Blain cautiously moves through the jungle woods with his massive minigun aimed he sees a rustle in the bushes ahead. And Blain cocks his minigum and says "Come on in you fuckers! Come on in. Old painless is waitin!" but it turns out just to be a racoon and Blain just smiles but out of the blue he is killed by the Predator.
Sonny Landham is also pretty good as the native American member of Dutch's team, Billy who is an excellent tracker and is the first to sense there is something very wrong in the jungle. Landham was said to have brought a personal bodyguard with him to the production, not to protect himself but to protect everyone else form him as he liked to get into fights! Landham also later in his career attempted to become a political candidate but was unusuccessful (probably just aswell!).
Landham's good scenes include the scene where Billy tries to track down the traces of what happened during the fight involving Hopper's men. And Billy says "There was a huge firefight and shooting in all directions" and Dutch says to him "I can't believe Jim Hopper walked into an ambush" and Billy says "I don't believe he did. I can't find a single track". And Dutch asks about the rest of Hopper's men and Billy says "There's no sign, sir. They never left here. Hell, it's like they just disappeared".
And lastly I will mention Landham's most memorable scene when Poncho looks over to Billy and says "Billy, you know something what is it?" and Bill says "I'm scared, Poncho". And Poncho nervously says "Bullshit! You ain't afraid of no man!" and Billy says "There's something out there waiting for us, and it ain't no man" and he get's and looks to the others and says "We're all going to die".
Richard Chaves next up is also very good as Poncho, another of Dutch's team who get's some fun one-liners aswell in certain moments but he provides a pretty good performance dramatically speaking aswell.
I will quickly mention one or two of Chaves scenes that include his first where Dutch and his men are on the chopper flying to the jungle. And Blain offers Poncho some tobacco and Poncho says "Get that stinking shit out of my face!" and after Blain says the tobacco will make you a "goddam sexual Tyrannosaurus!" Poncho holds up his grenade launcher and says "Strap this on your sore ass, Blain!" causing Blain to laugh out loud.
And then there is the scene when Dillon asks Poncho to ask Anna what she saw when Hawkins was killed and Poncho asks her again in Spanish. And Poncho replies to the men "She keeps saying the same fuckin' thing! The jungle came alive and took him!" and he looks to Billy and says "Billy, you know something, what is it?" and as Billy says that he is scared, Poncho says "Bullshit! You ain't afraid of no man!".
And last of all is the moment where during the night, a wild boar sets off a flare set up by Mac and the boar attacks Mac, who kills it with his knife and the others arrive to find Mac stand over the bloodied corpse of the boar. And Poncho looks down and says "Jesus! You killed a pig...you think you could have found something bigger?!" leaving Mac offended and angry yelling "Fuck you, Poncho! Fuck you!".
And second to last is Shane Black as Hawkins, who is noteworthy as he at the time had written the screenplay for Lethal Weapon, and would later go on to write further screenplays for movies such as The Last Boy Scout and direct and write the underrated Kiss kiss, bang bang.
Shane get's some funny lines in the film as well, which probably no doubt he had a hand in writing, as he tells some rude jokes about his girlfriend. And the first one of those is during the chopper flight to the jungle where Hawkins tells Billy one of his dirty jokes and he says "Hey Billy. Billy! The other day, I went up to my girlfriend, I said, "Y'know I'd like a little pussy". She said, "Me too, mine's as big as a house!" and Billy looks at him blankly.
And later there is of course his second pussy joke where Hawkins after the firefight with the guerillas has ended, goes up to Billy and says to him "Billy. Billy! The other day, I was going down on my girlfriend, I said to her, "Jeez you got a big pussy. Jeez you got a big pussy." She said, "Why did you say that twice?" I said, "I didn't.". And again Billy looks blankly but Hawkins explains "You see, cos of the echo" and he runs leaving Billy to contemplate the joke, which he finally gets and laughs out loud (something the Predator records on its thermal imaging).
And last of all is Kevin Peter Hall as the Predator, who does a brilliant job as the film's main antagonist, a fearsome alien warrior that hunts men for sport. At 7 foot and 2 inches in height, Hall was without a doubt the best choice for the role, and he does a great physical job in potraying the predator, in what was apparently a very heavy body suit which weighed about 200 pounds! Ironically the film makers had cast Jean Claude Van-Damme as the Predator originally (it was early on in his career!) but the suit he wore for the creature was simply too daft and silly looking so they scrapped it to redesign the creature.
Hall himself briefly appears in human form in a small role as the chopper pilot at the end of the film which circles the jungle when they try to find Dutch below. Hall later sadly died in 1991 just at the age of 35 due to complications from contracting AIDS after a blood transfusion, not too long after the release of Predator 2.
DIRECTOR, SPECIAL EFFECTS AND MUSIC
Moving onto the director, John McTiernan does an excellent job here with Predator and even though it was only his second film feature, he already showed his adaptitude for making action films with this one as he more than confidently handles the film's tense action scenes. McTiernan also expertly cranks up the suspense as the film goes on and does a great job at not revealing the Predator too soon to its audience.
As for the film's special effects they are also great and R/Greenberg Associates were the digital studio agency behind them. The effects featured in the film are very effective especially the use of the Predator's thermal imaging, invisibility and the laser effects used for the Predator's plasma weapon. The film also even appears to pay homage to John Carpenter's The Thing in its opening sequence where we see the spaceship drop what appears to be some sort of pod off to Earth that contains the Predator, which is a good optical effect in itself. Stan Winston, who designed the Predator creature also does a terrific job in bringing the alien warrior to life and he was brought after the first creature design was rejected as it looked too silly.
Getting onto the film's music score by Alan Silvestri, its an excellent one and it features a very memorable theme tune. Silvestri's score in general is also quite effective in terms of building suspense as its something the composer does very well. Silvestri also neatly builds in the use of tribal like drums to add to the film's atmosphere in the jungle. The score however does solidify the formulae for his future scores with their frantic build ups and it could rarely be accused of being that subtle but for any of its faults its still one of Silvestri's best.
FLAWS
As for Predator's flaws......yeah OK its not entirely perfect but then again most films aren't.
So its flaws....well for starters I think the story itself is pretty thin as its just a bunch of badass special forces soldiers taking on a near invincible alien and when you think about it, its just a retread of Aliens (well except with just one alien). The characters however are actually mostly well drawn out and that in a way helps make up for the thin plot in itself but yeah it won't win any awards for originality as such.
In terms of the plot there are also one or two silly moments such as just how effective would mud be for disguising a human's heat signature??? Would it actually be that effective??? Well I'm certainly not an expert on the subject but from what I have read on the Internet it suggests that mud on its own would not be sufficient to cover up a heat signature, it may at first do so if it is cold but once your body heat rises the mud itself would no longer be as effective.
And further to that note its also worth mentioning that in the scene where Dutch swims ashore and lies face down in the mud that only half his face is covered in it. However after the Predator dives into the water, Dutch then clambers his way over to some tree vines to cover himself and then we see the mud has completely covered his whole face! Its like Dutch decided to smear a bit more all over his face as if it was some sort of pre-emptive measure so the Predator wouldn't see him even though of course Dutch had no idea about this. And even though Dutch covers himself in mud, his eyes are still visible so wouldn't the Predator somehow be able to detect them?! Well maybe not, who knows??? It might get confused right enough by a pair of darting eyes on its thermal imaging right enough!
And lastly it seems a bit unsporting of the Predator in its last moments to activate its self destruct device rather than just accept the fact that it had been defeated by Dutch. Its like a baby that didn't get its way and decided to chuck the toys out of the pram and it seems like the Predator has no honour in accepting his opponent had won. And this appears to be a bit contrary to the events of Predator 2 (SPOILER FOR THAT!) where Danny Glover's character succeeds in killing the Predator in that and then he is surrounded by a whole group of them but instead of killing him, one of them gives him a trophy, which is an old flintlock pistol. But this Predator thought "sod that I'm just gonna take him with me!". Dick.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum Predator is a highly entertaining, tense and suspenseful action film and it feaures some great special effects, action scenes, a fine music score and it introduced one of cinema's most fascinating and interesting hostile aliens. The film is well acted for the most part and very well directed and the use of the jungle also contributes well to the film's mystery and sense of unease. And after nearly 30 years, Predator is a film that is still well worth watching and it stands for me easily as one of the best action films from the 1980s.
And so I shall leave it there and be back sometime soon with some other review or another.
Till then bye for now!
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