PREDATOR (1987) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

predator (1987) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   107 minutes

Released         |   12 June 1987

cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger ... Dutch
Carl Weathers ... Dillon
Elpidia Carrillo ... Anna
Bill Duke ... Mac
Jesse Ventura ... Blain
Sonny Landham ... Billy
Richard Chaves ... Poncho
R.G. Armstrong ... General Phillips
Shane Black ... Hawkins
Kevin Peter Hall ... The Predator / Helicopter Pilot
Peter Cullen ... The Predator (voice) (uncredited)
​Sven-Ole Thorsen ... Russian Officer (uncredited)

director

​John McTiernan

writer

Jim Thomas ... (written by) &
John Thomas ... (written by)

cinematographer

​Donald McAlpine ... director of photography

music

​Alan Silvestri

film editor

​Mark Helfrich
John F. Link

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​98,267,558 ​

Australia                 $​​​​​​1,326,911

North America       $​​​​​​​59,735,548

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movie minutiae

​Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast to play the Predator, the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts to make the Predator an agile, ninja-Raquel Hunter. He was dropped for being too short, at 5'9"(Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team are bodybuilders who are between 6'2" and 6'5"). 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. Additionally the original design for the Predator was felt to be too cumbersome and difficult to manage in the jungle and, even with a more imposing actor was felt to not provoke enough fear. Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall.

​The studio's insurance company would not agree to insure the production unless a bodyguard was hired for Sonny Landham (Billy) - for the sole purpose of protecting people from Sonny. The bodyguard followed Sonny everywhere to ensure he didn't get into a fight, since he was well known to be violent and short tempered.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Duke both previously starred in another 20th Century Fox action film COMMANDO (1985) which in that film John Matrix (Arnold) is a retired elite commando and Cook (Bill) is a renegade Ex Green Beret.

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related movies

THE PREDATOR (2018)

PREDATOR (1987) MOVIE IMAGES

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PREDATOR (1987) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.

PREDATOR (1987) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 12 June 2016

​​Pop Movee Rating

PREDATOR is, arguably, the perfect action film...

Take a hefty dose of testosterone, cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, create a seemingly invincible enemy and set it in the hot steamy jungles of a South American country and you have the ingredients that made Predator. To top it off, John McTiernan, who was in his prime as a movie maker at the time he made PREDATOR, handled directing duties in the film, adding to the impressive resume that now boasts some of the greatest Action genre entries of the 1980s. (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990) & DIE HARD (1988) to name a couple.)

Like all good films, PREDATOR is a success because of its screenplay. Written by Jim and John Thomas, the film’s premise sees an elite military force despatched to the jungles of South America to rescue an important foreign government diplomat.

PREDATOR opens in such a clever way that viewers understand clearly in the first few minutes about what the end-point of the movie will be...

An alien spacecraft enters the Earth’s atmosphere at just about the point where Major Dutch Schultz (Schwarzenegger) and his team have landed after being called into action by friend and former colleague Dylan (Carl Weathers). Other members of the team include Blaine (Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura), Mac (Bill Duke), Billy (Sonny Landham) and Poncho (Richard Chaves).

Writer and Director Shane Black also appears in the film in a supporting role as Hawkins. Black wrote some of the most successful Action films of the late 1980s and early 1990s and has, subsequently, become a Director of note with credits including IRON MAN 3 (2013) and THE NICE GUYS (2016).

In a twist of irony, Black is resurrecting the franchise with his 2018 movie THE PREDATOR.

Besides the alien spacecraft in the opening credits, the first third of PREDATOR plays out like a conventional Action film, coming to a head when Schultz and his team locate a rebel compound and take it apart in a hail of machine gun fire and hand grenades.

Realising that he’s been duped by Dillon into rescuing CIA agents (not local government officials), Schultz takes matters into hand and decided to bring along a captured rebel woman, Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) to help the team navigate their way to their pick-up point.

It’s at this point that PREDATOR turns into a great film, as Schultz and his team come to realise that something in the jungle is hunting them. One-by-one, the team are confronted by Kevin Peter Hall’s 7 ft tall alien that has the ability to camouflage itself and is armed with an array of advanced alien weaponry.

The film’s final Act brings everything together and is one of the ultimate Action on-screen slugfests as Schultz decides to take the Predator head-on with primitive jungle warfare and bare-knuckle fist fighting.

McTiernan’s management of the action is second-to-none and the balance he and his editing team of Mark Helfrich and John F. Link establish across the film’s three Acts allow the story to seamlessly unfold punctuated by a series of set-pieces that keep the action moving at breakneck pace.

The reveal of the Predator creature in the Final Act helps to heighten the action and, while it’s not as terrifying as the Alien Xenomorph, echo the same sort of scenario that confronted Ellen Ripley at the end of James Cameron’s ALIENS (1986) the year before...

An overwhelmingly superior adversary whose genetically inherent desire to kill is not as great as a human’s desire to live!

Unlike Ellen Ripley, Dutch Schultz is a trained military professional and his jungle survival skills ultimately give him a home turf advantage over the Predator!

John McTiernan has commented that PREDATOR is a “Popcorn action, adventure”.

It’s hard to disagree with his assessment, but there’s more to PREDATOR that just surface-level action...

The film’s screenplay calls into question US involvement in South American politics at a time when Ronald Reagan’s government had been mired in the messy Iran-Contra affair that saw money from Middle Eastern arms sales diverted to funding rebels in Nicaragua.

PREDATOR is not a “political” film by any stretch, but neither was it oblivious to what was happening in the real-world activities of its fictional setting.

There's also an underlying sense of patriotism and camaraderie that weaves its way through the film’s narrative..

The idea of men sacrificing themselves in the protection of their country is significant, but so are the ideas of institutional betrayal and individual expendability.

Schwarzenegger does a great job of conveying both anger and dismay when he comes to understand that Dillon has sold them all down the river. What’s even more galling is that Dutch and his men are the second team that have been sent to try and recover Dillon’s CIA colleagues.

PREDATOR is an taut, visually-impressive Science Fiction Action film, but, like all good Sci-Fi, it doesn't miss an opportunity to have its say about the socio-political concerns of the day.

PREDATOR (1987) USEFUL LINKS

Predator (film) - Wikipedia
​Predator (1987) - IMDb​
​Predator (1987) - Rotten Tomatoes

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