35th anniversary of "Predator" - June 12th

Predator (1987), directed by John McTiernan.



Human hunters go on safari and take trophies. Why shouldn't aliens do the same, taking the whole planet as their preserve? Paying special attention to the top predators they find there.

Critical reviews were mixed on this one but it soon found an audience and has since been loved as one of the best science fiction action films, powered by sweat and testosterone. After a troubled history on home video the UHD corrects the previous image quality errors.

With a rewatch the writing and editing are impressive. Elements that please fans:

• That is some dense jungle.
• The choppers suggest Apocalypse Now (1979), journeying into the Heart of Darkness.
• We have the first-time pleasure of figuring out the alien, what it is doing and how it remains invisible...
• ...when it occurs to us that some of those jungle sounds we have been hearing -- the weird bone-chattering -- is something worse than we imagined.
• Our squad has the subliminal intuition that they are watched and followed. Billy, fingering his medicine bag: "There's something in those trees", but he can't see it.
• The assault on the enemy camp is overblown action excitement with the rebel soldiers merely targets to kill in inventive ways. A place for the action hero quips.
• When we hear the alien playing back the voices we just know they will be used for a trap... but does that actually happen?
• We see the elegant pattern: the rebels are bad but our guys are badder, but -- oh, no -- the alien is worse. Further: it is drawn to our people because they are badder.
• Clearing the jungle with non-stop machine-gun fire is an audacious scene. (The director said it was meant to be a spoof on firearms porn, but I note he has a lot of shooting in his films).
• It becomes a The Lost Patrol (1934) story as they are picked off one by one.
• The captive Anna knows what is going on and Billy delivers shamanistic insights: "There's something out there waiting for us and it ain't no man. We're all gonna die".
• It could have ended with the last man standing's escape, but we have a whole other act when Arnold fights back.
• In his last moments the alien must be thinking: "Better nuke this guy; it's the only way to be sure".

Other, more pedantic notes:

• Not to take anything from RG Armstrong (the General), but some faces just become too familiar. I remember thinking the same thing about Ned Beatty and Barbara Hershey in other films.
• You can't actually carry around the "Old Painless" Minigun. It takes a weightlifter just to hold it and they omit the hundred pounds of batteries needed to operate it. The barrel rotation is slowed down for film use but even then all the ammo would be fired in a few seconds.
• Poor scorpion (real), poor pig (fake).
• Fluorescent green blood: how convenient!
• The alien's medical tools are chromed just like ours. (They are actually veterinarian instruments).
• Is it my imagination, or do we get to hear the soundtrack through the alien's distorted audio gear? Sort of jungle drumming.
• Two future governors.
• Hawkins (big glasses, first to die) is played by Shane Black who has since had success as a screenwriter and director. I've enjoyed his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) and The Nice Guys (2016).
• Is that a Lady Bic razor?
• When it gets to 1-on-1 Arnold does a vast amount of building and weapons making in one day.
• In the alien's final moments the playback of Billy's laughter turns maniacal.

Big score by Alan Silvestri. Photographed by Donald McAlpine (Breaker Morant (1980), Tempest (1982), Patriot Games (1992), Clear and Present Danger (1994)).

Creature effects by Stan Winston, who was brought in when they couldn't make the original effects work.

The director's commentary track rambles a bit but also gives good information on the production. He says casting Carl Weathers was essential, giving Schwarzenegger an experienced actor to play against and learn from. McTiernan rewrote the character to redeem him from being a simple "evil CIA man".

Available on Blu-ray and UHD. My thumbnails are from the UHD and the color saturation of the images is not right, a limitation of the software used to get the screenshots.

Carrying a minigun through the jungle seems rather impractical, too.  A phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range would have sufficed.

I like that the Predator easily overmatches him.  Both come out winners of the match.

One of my favorite scenes is when Anna recounts the legend of the "demon who makes trophies of men". Scenes where someone tells some kind of legend or story (that we know is true even if the characters don't) always appeal to me




also IMO the sequel is almost as good