Predator (1987)
Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan and written by brothers Jim and John Thomas. It is the first installment in the Predator franchise. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of an elite paramilitary rescue team on a mission to save hostages in guerrilla-held territory in a Central American rainforest, who encounter the deadly Predator (Kevin Peter Hall), a skilled, technologically advanced alien who stalks and hunts them down. Predator was written in 1984 under the working title of Hunter. Filming ran from March to June 1986 with creature effects devised by Stan Winston; the budget was around $15 million.
20th Century Fox released the film on June 12, 1987, in the United States, where it grossed $98.3 million. Initial reviews were mixed, but the film has since been considered a classic of the action and science fiction genre and one of the best films of the 1980s.
The success of Predator launched a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It spawned three direct sequels: Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010) and The Predator (2018), and a prequel titled Prey (2022).
Plot.
An alien spacecraft deploys a shuttle to Earth, where Vietnam War veteran Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer and his military rescue team, consisting of Mac, Poncho, Blain, Billy, and Hawkins, are tasked with rescuing a foreign cabinet minister and his aide from insurgents. CIA officer Al Dillon, a Vietnam War buddy of Dutch’s, is assigned to accompany the team over Dutch’s objections. En route, the team discovers the wreckage of a helicopter and three skinned corpses. Dutch identifies them as Green Berets that he knew and becomes suspicious of Dillon’s intentions. The team reaches the guerilla camp and witnesses the execution of a hostage.
They mount an attack, killing most of the rebels and several Soviet intelligence officers. Dutch confronts Dillon, who reveals their true mission was to stop a planned Soviet-backed invasion and that the CIA sent the Green Berets weeks earlier for the same mission. The only surviving guerilla, Anna, is captured. Learning that more rebels are coming, the team chooses to trek to the extraction point. They are followed by an entity employing a cloaking device and thermal imaging technology, but a spooked Billy glimpses it while Anna attempts an escape.
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Hawkins catches her, but the creature attacks and kills him while sparing Anna. Dutch organizes a search party, but Blain is killed by the creature’s plasma cannon. Enraged, Mac provokes everyone to blindly fire their weapons into the jungle, unknowingly wounding the creature. As the creature administers first-aid, the commandos regroup and realize they are being hunted. Dillon believes two or three guerrillas are responsible, but Billy is adamant that their pursuer is not human.
Development.
Following the release of Rocky IV, a joke circulated in Hollywood that since Rocky Balboa had run out of earthly opponents, he would have to fight an alien if a fifth film were to be made. Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas took the inspiration from the joke and wrote a screenplay based on it. The Thomas script for Predator was originally titled Hunter. The original concept, centered on a plot of “what it is to be hunted,” concerned a band of alien hunters of various species seeking various targets; that concept was eventually streamlined to one extraterrestrial hunting the most dangerous species, humans, and the “most dangerous man,” a combat soldier. Additionally, the setting was chosen as Central America for having constant special forces operations during that period.
As the Thomas brothers were first time screenwriters with little credibility in Hollywood, they struggled to attract attention for their proposed film, and eventually resorted to slipping the script under the door of 20th Century Fox producer Michael Levy (who would go on to serve as executive producer on the film’s sequel, Predator 2). Levy then brought the screenplay to producer Joel Silver who, based on his experience with Commando, decided to turn the science-fiction pulp story line 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. At one point, New Zealand director Geoff Murphy was also considered to direct.
Casting.
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.
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, Chiapas, Mexico, during the last week of March 1986, but most[citation needed] of the film was shot in Mismaloya, 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.RELATED:
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On Friday, April 25, production halted so that Schwarzenegger could get to his wedding on time, flying to Hyannis Port in a Learjet chartered by Silver. Schwarzenegger was married on April 26, 1986, to Maria Shriver, and honeymooned for only three days while the second unit completed additional filming. The production resumed filming on May 12 and ended in late June 1986. Both McTiernan and Schwarzenegger lost 25 pounds during the film.
Box office, Home media.
Released on June 12, 1987, Predator was No. 1 at the US box office in its opening weekend with a gross of $12 million, which was second to only Beverly Hills Cop II for the calendar year 1987. The film grossed $98,267,558, of which $59,735,548 was from the US & Canadian box office. $38,532,010 was made in other countries. Predator was released on DVD on December 26, 2000. The film was later released on Blu-ray on April 15, 2008. Predator was released on Blu-ray 3D on December 17, 2013. Predator was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on August 7, 2018. Cast:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan
- Carl Weathers as Al Dillon
- Elpidia Carrillo as Anna Gonsalves
- Bill Duke as Sergeant Mac Eliot
- Richard Chaves as Jorge “Poncho”
- Jesse Ventura as Blain Cooper
- Sonny Landham as Billy Sole
- Shane Black as Rick Hawkins
- R. G. Armstrong as Major General Homer
- Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator Helicopter Pilot
- Peter Cullen supplies the Predator’s voice
- Sven-Ole Thorsen as Soviet Military