Predator (1987)

June 12, 1987

June 12, 1987

Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action horror film directed by John McTiernan and written by brothers Jim and John Thomas. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Dutch Schaefer, 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 extraterrestrial who stalks and hunts them down. Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, and Shane Black are supporting co-stars.

Predator was written in 1984 with the working title of Hunter. Filming ran from March to June 1986 with creature effects devised by Stan Winston and a budget of around $15 million. 20th Century Fox released the film on June 12, 1987, in the United States, and it grossed $98 million worldwide. Initial reviews were mixed, but the film has since been considered a classic of the action and science fiction genres and one of the best films of the 1980s, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

The success of Predator launched a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It spawned four additional films: Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010), The Predator (2018), and Prey (2022). A crossover with the Alien franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator films Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). Schaefer would return in the video games Alien vs. Predator (1994) and Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020), with Schwarzenegger reprising his role in the latter.

Storyline

An extraterrestrial spacecraft deploys a shuttle to Earth. Sometime later, Dutch and his elite paramilitary rescue team—skilled mercenary Mac, explosives expert Poncho, the macho Blain, expert tracker Billy, and jokester Hawkins—are tasked with rescuing a local cabinet minister whose helicopter was shot down in a Central American jungle. Dutch's old friend and Vietnam War ally Dillon, now a CIA agent, accompanies the team to oversee the mission.

The team find the helicopter wreckage and traces of guerilla soldiers, as well as three skinned corpses hung high in the trees nearby. Dutch identifies the corpses as Green Berets, and becomes suspicious of Dillon's intentions after learning the helicopter was outfitted for surveillance. Dutch's team attacks the guerilla camp, killing the soldiers and their Russian military allies, and learning the hostages were CIA agents. Dillon admits the cabinet minister story was a lie to convince Dutch—who refuses to use his team for assassinations—to eliminate the camp and prevent a Soviet-sponsored invasion. Dillon also discloses that the original mission team disappeared and the Green Berets had been sent to find them. Dillon takes a surviving guerilla, Anna, prisoner, and the team travels towards the extraction point.

Unbeknownst to the team, a technologically-advanced, humanoid predator has stalked them since their arrival, remaining invisible with a cloaking device, and using thermal imaging vision to see their body heat. Billy senses the presence of something inhuman, but cannot confirm his suspicions. Anna flees while the team are distracted, and although Hawkins catches her, he is killed by the predator while Anna is spared. While the team searches for Hawkins's body, the predator kills Blain. Mac glimpses the predator's cloaked form and, enraged at Blain's death, provokes the team into blindly firing their weapons into the jungle, wounding the predator. The team makes camp for the night, booby trapping the perimeter. A wild boar triggers a trap, and the predator uses the ensuing confusion to steal Blain's corpse.

The following day, Dutch deduces that the predator is stalking them from the treetops. Dutch releases Anna, needing her to work with them to survive. She recounts local folktales of a monster who kills men and takes trophies from their corpses, typically when the weather is hottest. The team boobytrap the treetops to force the predator into a net, but it is able to escape and Poncho is injured. Mac and Dillon, who wants to make amends to the team, pursue the predator, but they are outmaneuvered and killed. The predator soon catches the survivors, killing Billy and Poncho. Realizing the predator only attacks those it considers a threat, Dutch warns Anna to relinquish her weapon and run to the extraction point. Dutch distracts the predator before falling from a cliff into a waterfall and washing up on a muddy shore. The predator pursues Dutch, but is seemingly unable to see him, and leaves to collect the skulls of the others as trophies. Dutch concludes that the mud masked his body heat, making him invisible to the predator.

Seeking to avenge his team, Dutch creates makeshift traps and weapons. As night falls, he covers himself in mud and cries out to draw the predator to him. Dutch uses his invisibility to wound the predator and disable its cloaking device, but falls into a river and his mud camouflage is washed off. The predator removes its weapons and mask—revealing a monstrous visage—to face Dutch in hand-to-hand combat. Easily overpowered by the much larger creature, Dutch attempts to goad it into a trapped tunnel, but the predator suspects his plan and goes around it. Dutch triggers the trap himself, releasing its counterweight, which crushes the predator. Mortally wounded, the predator activates a wrist-mounted self-destruct device. Dutch flees, barely escaping the enormous resulting explosion that razes the area.

As dawn breaks, the extraction helicopter arrives with Anna to collect the exhausted and traumatized Dutch.

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