The Predator (2018)

September 6, 2018 (TIFF)September 14, 2018 (United States)

September 6, 2018 (TIFF)
September 14, 2018 (United States)

The Predator is a 2018 American science fiction action film directed by Shane Black, who co-wrote the script with Fred Dekker. It is the fourth installment in Predator franchise, but counting the Alien vs. Predator crossovers, the sixth film overall, and is set between the events of Predator 2 (1990) and Predators (2010). Black had a supporting role in the original film, while John Davis returns as producer from the first three installments. The film stars Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Alfie Allen, Yvonne Strahovski, and Sterling K. Brown. It follows a group of PTSD-afflicted soldiers and a scientist who must team up to fight off an invading pair of Predators and discover their plans for mankind.

Talks of a new Predator installment began in June 2014, with Black being confirmed as writer and director; much of the cast signed on between October 2016 and January 2017. Filming took place in British Columbia from February to June 2017, with the climax being re-written and re-shot in July 2018 following poor test screenings.

The Predator premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 14, 2018, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $160.5 million worldwide against an $88 million budget. A short film, titled The Predator Holiday Special, was released with the film's home media release on December 18, 2018.

Storyline

A Predator ship crash-lands on Earth. U.S. Army Ranger sniper Quinn McKenna and his team are attacked by the Predator while on a hostage retrieval mission. Quinn incapacitates the Predator and has parts of its armor sent off by mail to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. Government agent Will Traeger has Quinn captured and held for examination. Traeger also takes the Predator to a lab for experimentation and observation, recruiting evolutionary biologist Casey Bracket to study it, who discovers that the Predator's genetic makeup contains human DNA. The Predator awakens, breaks out of its restraints, and kills the lab workers and armed guards, but spares Bracket, the only unarmed person, before escaping.

Quinn is bussed off with a group of other captives, including former Marines "Nebraska" Williams, Coyle, Baxley, Lynch, and Army helicopter pilot Nettles. Witnessing the Predator's escape from the lab, they hijack the bus. Taking Bracket with them, they head over to Quinn's estranged wife, Emily, where he unexpectedly finds the Predator armor he'd previously mailed to a PO box. This was because he hadn't paid for the PO box so the postman had delivered it to her house. However, Rory, Quinn's autistic son, has gone trick-or-treating in the armor in hopes of avoiding detection from bullies.

Quinn and the others find his son in time to stop a pair of Predator Hounds from ambushing the boy. Quinn blows one up by shooting a grenade into its mouth; Nebraska unintentionally lobotomizes the other dog after shooting it in the head. The Predator chases them into a nearby school and they start to give the Predator's armor back when a larger, more powerful Predator arrives and engages the first in combat. The group flees, and the second Predator kills the first before setting out to retrieve the lost technology.

Bracket concludes that the Predators are attempting to improve themselves with the DNA of humans and, presumably, other planets' inhabitants. She also suggests that Rory's autism enables him to translate and understand Predator technology. The team flees to an abandoned barn, but Traeger finds and captures them, and shares his theory that the Predators anticipate that climate change will end their ability to retrieve human DNA for further hybridization, and as such are scrambling to retrieve samples before it is too late. Seeing Rory drawing a map to the spaceship, Traeger takes the boy to the ship. The team escapes and goes after him with the help of the now docile, brain-damaged Predator hound.

Once everyone has arrived at the crashed ship, the second Predator arrives, kills Lynch by shooting him in the head, and explains through translation software that it will destroy the ship to keep it out of their hands and then give them all a head start before it hunts them down. The Predator quickly kills several of Traeger's soldiers while mortally wounding Baxley and Coyle, who then kill each other in an act of mercy. Traeger tries to use a Predator weapon on the alien but accidentally kills himself instead.

The Predator takes Rory, assuming his autism as an advancement in human evolution which makes him a worthwhile subject for hybridization, and flies away in his ship. Quinn, Nebraska, and Nettles land on the ship's exterior, but the Predator activates a force field that slices off Nettles' legs, and the latter falls off the ship to his death. Nebraska sacrifices himself and slides into the ship's turbine, causing its engine to explode and crash into the forest. Quinn sneaks into the ship as it crashes and attacks the Predator. After the crash, Bracket arrives, and the three manage to overpower and kill the Predator with its weapons. They pay their respects to their fallen comrades with trinkets representing each one before heading off.

Later, Quinn and Rory are seen in a science lab watching the opening of cargo found on the Predator's ship, which a scientist indicates was left behind intentionally. A piece of technology floats out and attaches itself to a lab worker, working as a transformative "Predator killer" suit before deactivating. Realizing the first Predator was trying to pass it on to humanity for a fair fight against the larger Predators, Quinn indicates he will be the pilot to operate the suit.

Also See

Sound Effects Used

Image Gallery

Audio Samples

External Links