Predator (film)

Predator
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John McTiernan
Written by	Jim Thomas John Thomas
Produced by	Joel Silver Lawrence Gordon John Davis
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Carl Weathers Elpidia Carrillo Bill Duke Jesse Ventura Kevin Peter Hall
Cinematography	Donald McAlpine
Edited by	Mark Helfrich John F. Link
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production company	Davis Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	June 12, 1987 (1987-06-12)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$98,267,558

Predator is a 1987 science fiction horror film directed by John McTiernan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Kevin Peter Hall. The story follows an elite team on a mission to rescue hostages from a guerrilla group in Central America. Unknowingly, the group is hunted by an extraterrestrial life form, the Predator. Reaction to the film was generally favorable, and the film grossed $60 million in the United States. The film also generated two sequels, Predator 2 (1990) and Predators (2010), and two crossover films with the Alien franchise, Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

Plot

The film opens with a mysterious spacecraft entering Earth's atmosphere, then focuses on the coast of Guatemala, where a joint task force, led by Major Alan "Dutch" Schaeffer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is assigned to rescue a presidential cabinet minister kidnapped by guerrilla forces in Val Verde. Dutch's old military buddy and now CIA officer, George Dillon (Carl Weathers), steps in as a liaison. The team is then inserted by helicopter to their destination within the jungle.

As they progress, the team finds the wreckage of a downed helicopter and later the remains of several skinned bodies. They are identified to be an Army Special Forces team, whose presence in the country mystifies Dutch. They soon make their way to a heavily defended rebel encampment and take out its inhabitants in short order, except for a girl named Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) whom they take prisoner. Dutch is enraged to discover the rescue mission had been a setup to get his group to destroy the camp, after Dillon confesses that the men they found earlier disappeared in a failed rescue mission of two CIA agents.

As the team make their way to the extraction point, they are observed from afar by an unknown creature using thermal imaging. After two members of the team are mysteriously slain, the survivors become aware that something in the jungle is stalking them. Anna delivers insight into the creature, which has apparently become a local legend for hunting humans as trophies. Despite attempts to track down and trap the creature, the team is slowly killed off one by one, until only Dutch and Anna remain. Realizing the creature only kills those possessing weapons, a wounded Dutch sends Anna unarmed to the extraction point. Dutch narrowly escapes the creature - revealed to be a masked, bipedal alien - by accidentally covering himself in mud, which hides his body's heat signature.

Dutch confronts the creature one last time, using more mud as camouflage and a number of improvised weapons and traps to kill it. The creature, hearing Dutch's war-cry, arrives, but despite having its cloaking ability disabled in an attack, manages to capture him. Then, in a display of chivalry, the creature challenges Dutch to a final duel in hand-to-hand combat, unveiling its monstrous face and discarding its electronic weaponry before brutally beating him. Once cornered, Dutch manages to drop the counterweight from one of his traps, which falls and crushes the creature. As Dutch asks the mortally wounded alien what it is, the creature mimics his question (in garbled English) and then activates a time bomb on its wrist device while laughing maniacally. Dutch runs for cover as a massive explosion destroys the creature and nearby jungle. Anna and the rescue helicopter finally arrive to pick up Dutch and head back to base.

Cast

The main cast of Predator. Left to right: Blain, Hawkins, Dutch, Mac, Dillon, Billy, Poncho.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan "Dutch" Schaeffer: Dutch, referred to as "Delta 5," is the deputy director of the team, which is a joint Delta Force/ CIA SOG task force. He is a former Green Beret who served together with Dillon in Vietnam.
• Carl Weathers as Agent George Dillon: Dillon is a former ODA teammate of Dutch and current CIA agent, sent along with Dutch's team as the mission director. He is no longer a regular field agent, so he is out of practice.
• Elpidia Carrillo as Anna: Anna is a guerrilla, captured by Dutch's troops following a battle with the rebels. She later tells them of an "old demon" that during hot summers attacks people from violent areas who are later found skinned and hollowed.
• Bill Duke as Mac Eliot: Mac is a close friend of Blain's; they served in Vietnam together and were the only two members of their platoon to make it out alive after a night-long battle. He is hostile towards Dillon, stating that he'll kill him if he hinders the group.
• Jesse Ventura as Blain Cooper: Blain fought alongside Mac in the Vietnam War and were the only members of their platoon to survive a night-long battle. He often chews tobacco, and wears a battered old cowboy hat. His weapon of choice is a modified M134 minigun he calls "Ol' Painless," but he also carries a submachine gun when he needs to be stealthy.
• Sonny Landham as Billy Sole: Billy is a Native American tracker. He is generally very quiet, and Hawkins constantly attempts to make him laugh.
• Richard Chaves as Jorge "Poncho" Ramirez: Poncho is a Chicano, who speaks fluent Spanish, and shows a sarcastic wit.
• Shane Black as Rick Hawkins: Hawkins is the team's radio operator and technical expert. He tells sexual jokes, though he usually has to explain them, and reads comic books.
• R. G. Armstrong as Major General Homer Phillips: Phillips is the coordinator of the mission, who assigns the team based upon their reputation.
• Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator: The Predator is a member of a warrior race which hunts aggressive members of other species for sport, uses active camouflage, a plasma weapon and can see the infrared spectrum. Hall also plays the end scene helicopter pilot. He reprised the role in Predator 2.

Production

Development

For a few months, following the release of Rocky IV, a joke was making rounds in Hollywood. Since Rocky Balboa had run out of earthly opponents, he would have to fight an alien if a fifth installment of his boxing series were to be made. Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas took the joke seriously and wrote a screenplay based on the joke. The Thomas script for Predator was originally titled Hunter. It was picked up by 20th Century Fox in 1985, and turned over to producer Joel Silver who, based on his experience with Commando, seemed the right choice to turn the vintage science fiction pulp storyline into a big-budget film. Silver enlisted his former boss Lawrence Gordon as co-producer and John McTiernan was hired as director for his first studio film.

According to the documentaries included on the Region 1 release of the special edition, the original monster suit was vastly different from the final product, designed by Stan Winston. Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally slated to play the creature, but allegedly made claims that the suit was "too clumsy and too hot". The original monster was a disproportionate, overweight creature with a duck-like head. It was nowhere near as agile as the creature portrayed by Kevin Peter Hall. After Van Damme was removed from the film and subsequent financial troubles with the studio nearly caused the project to shut down, McTiernan consulted Stan Winston. While on a plane ride to Fox studios alongside Aliens director James Cameron, Winston sketched monster ideas. Cameron suggested he had always wanted to see a creature with mandibles, which became part of the Predator's iconic look.

Casting

Kevin Peter Hall as the Predator

Silver and Gordon first approached Arnold Schwarzenegger with the lead role.

Schwarzenegger said, "The first thing I look for in a script is a good idea, a majority of scripts are rip-offs of other movies. People think they can become successful overnight. They sat down one weekend and wrote a script because they read that Stallone did that with Rocky. Predator was one of the scripts I read, and it bothered me in one way. It was just me and the alien. So we re-did the whole thing so that it was a team of commandos and then I liked the idea. I thought it would make a much more effective movie and be much more believable. I liked the idea of starting out with an action-adventure, but then coming in with some horror and science fiction."

To play the elite band of mercenaries, both Silver and Gordon, with co-producer John Davis, searched for other larger-than-life men of action. Carl Weathers, who had been memorable as boxer Apollo Creed in the Rocky films was their first choice to play Dillon, while professional wrestler and former Navy UDT Jesse Ventura was hired for his formidable physique as Blain. Native Americans Sonny Landham and Richard Chaves, and African-American Bill Duke, who co-starred alongside Schwarzenegger in Commando, provided the ethnic balance. As a favor to the writer of Joel Silver's blockbuster Lethal Weapon, the studio hired screenplay writer Shane Black not only to play a supporting role in the film, but also to keep an eye on McTiernan due to the director's inexperience.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator creature, the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the Predator an agile, ninja-esque hunter. When compared to Schwarzenegger, Weathers, and Ventura, actors known for their bodybuilding regimens, it became apparent a more physically-imposing man was needed to make the creature appear threatening. Additionally, it was reported that Van Damme constantly complained about the monster suit being too hot, causing him to pass out. He also had allegedly voiced his reservations on numerous occasions regarding the fact he would not be appearing on camera without the suit. Jesse Ventura's autobiographical book also alleges Van Damme intentionally injured a stunt man. Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall. Hall, standing at an imposing 7 foot 2, had just finished work as a sasquatch in Harry and the Hendersons.

Filming

Commitments by Schwarzenegger delayed the start of filming by several months. The delay gave Silver enough time to secure a minor rewrite from screenwriter David Peoples. Principal photography eventually began in the jungles of Palenque, Mexico, near Villahermosa, Tabasco, during the second week of April 1986, but the film overall was filmed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Much of the material dealing with the unit's deployment in the jungle was completed in a few short weeks and both Silver and Gordon were pleased by the dailies provided by McTiernan. On Friday, April 25, production halted so that Schwarzenegger could fly to Hyannis Port in a Lear jet chartered by Silver in order to get to his wedding on time. He was married on April 26, 1986, to Maria Shriver, and honeymooned for two weeks in Antigua, while the second unit completed additional lensing. The production resumed filming on May 12.

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. In an interview, Carl Weathers said the actors would secretly wake up as early as 3:00 a.m. to work out before the day's shooting. Weathers also stated that he would act as if his physique was naturally given to him, and would work out only after the other actors were nowhere to be seen. It was reported that actor Sonny Landham was so unstable on the set that a bodyguard was hired; not to protect Landham, but to protect the other cast members from Landham.

According to Schwarzenegger, filming was physically demanding as he had to swim in very cold water and spent three weeks covered in mud for the climactic battle with the alien. In addition, cast and crew endured very cold temperatures in the Mexican jungle that required heat lamps to be on all of the time. Cast and crew filmed on rough terrain that, according to the actor, was never flat, "always on a hill. We stood all day long on a hill, one leg down, one leg up. It was terrible." Schwarzenegger also faced the challenge of working with Kevin Peter Hall, who could not see in the Predator suit. The actor remembers, "so when he's supposed to slap me around and stay far from my face, all of a sudden, whap! There is this hand with claws on it!" Hall stated in an interview that his experience on the film, "wasn't a movie, it was a survival story for all of us." For example, in the scene where the Predator chases Dutch, the water was foul, stagnant and full of leeches. Hall could not see out of the mask and had to rehearse his scenes with it off and then memorize where everything was. The outfit was difficult to wear because it was heavy and off-balance.

Special effects

R/Greenberg Associates created the film's optical effects, including the alien's ability to become invisible, its thermal vision point-of-view, its glowing blood, and the electrical spark effects. The invisibility effect was achieved by having someone in a bright red suit (because it was the farthest opposite of the green of the jungle and the blue of the sky) the size of the Predator. The red was removed with chroma key techniques, leaving an empty area. The take was then repeated without the actors using a 30% wider lens on the camera. When the two takes were combined optically, the jungle from the second take filled in the empty area. Because the second take was filmed with a wider lens, a vague outline of the alien could be seen with the background scenery bending around its shape. For the thermal vision, infrared film could not be used because it did not register in the range of body temperature wavelengths. The filmmakers used an inframetrics thermal video scanner as it gave good heat images of objects and people. The glowing blood was achieved by green liquid from glow sticks used by campers and mixed with personal lubricant for texture. The electrical sparks were rotoscoped animation using white paper pin registered on portable light tables to black and white prints of the film frames. The drawings were composited by the optical crew for the finished effects. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Music

Untitled

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. Silvestri returned for the sequel, making him the only composer to have scored more than one film in either the Alien or Predator series.

In 2003, Varese Sarabande released the soundtrack album as part of its limited release CD Club collection; the album also includes the Elliot Goldenthal arrangement of the Fox fanfare used on Alien 3.

1. "Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare" (Alfred Newman - arrangement by Elliot Goldenthal 1992) (0:27)
2. "Main Title" (3:51)
3. "Something Else" (3:34)
4. "Cut ‘Em Down" (1:56)
5. "Payback Time" (2:09)
6. "The Truck" (4:22)
7. "Jungle Trek" (1:47)
8. "The Girl’s Escape" (6:00)
9. "Blaine’s Death" (2:47)
10. "He’s My Friend" (1:26)
11. "We’re All Gonna Die" (3:32)
12. "Building a Trap" (3:02)
13. "The Waiting" (3:27)
14. "The Hunt Is On" (4:51)
15. "Dillon Is Disarmed" (2:07)
16. "Billy Stands Alone" (2:34)
17. "Battle Plans" (9:24)
18. "Wounded Predator" (4:14)
19. "Hand to Hand Combat" (3:12)
20. "Predator’s Big Finish" (3:42)
21. "The Rescue and End Credits" (4:44)

Reception

Box office

Released on June 12, 1987, Predator was #1 at the US box office in its opening weekend, with a gross of $12 million that was second to Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987. The film grossed $98 million, of which $60 million was from the US box office.

Critical response

Initial critical reaction to the film was mixed with some critics focusing on what they perceived as a lack of story and excitement. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times described it as "grisly and dull, with few surprises". Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the film is "a rather pointless thing when you get down to it, has little of the provocative intelligence that was found in The Terminator. But at least it's self-propelling in terms of suspense and cheap thrills". Dean Lamanna wrote in Cinefantastique that "the militarized monster movie tires under its own derivative weight". Variety wrote that the film was a "slightly above-average actioner that tries to compensate for tissue-thin-plot with ever-more-grisly death sequences and impressive special effects". Michael Wilmington wrote a negative review focusing on the story, proclaiming it as "arguably one of the emptiest, feeblest, most derivative scripts ever made as a major studio movie".

Among the positive reviews, Roger Ebert praised the film stating that, "it has good location photography and terrific special effects, and it supplies what it claims to supply: an effective action movie" but still noted that "the action moves so quickly that we overlook questions such as why would an alien species go to all the effort to send a creature to earth, just so that it could swing from the trees and skin American soldiers? Or, why would a creature so technologically advanced need to bother with hand-to-hand combat, when it could just zap Arnold with a ray gun".

Reaction to the film has warmed with time. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly named it the #22 greatest action movie of all time. The magazine also ranked the film 14th on their "The Best Rock-'em, Sock-'em Movies of the Past 25 Years" list. In 2008, the film was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. Predator was on the ballot for two of the American Film Institute's 100 series lists. These lists included AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies, and the Predator was a candidate in the villains category for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains. C. Robert Cargill of Film.com ranked it the seventh best film of 1987, calling it "one of the great science fiction horror films, often imitated, but never properly duplicated, not even by its own sequel". Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 76% "Fresh" rating based on 38 critical reviews, reporting a ratings average of 7 out of 10. However, on Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of only 38 based on 11 reviews, with the review opinions summarized as "generally unfavorable".

Release

The Blu-Ray release is set for the 29th June 2010 in the United States and will be coming out in the Ultimate Hunter Edition.

External links

• Predator at IMDb
• Predator at AllMovie