Retro Geek Film Throwback: Predator

When I was a child, I remember having a copy of Predator in the form of a beta-max video tape in my house. My father had bought it because he liked the movie for its military action sequences and I decided one day to ask my mother if I could watch it. She said yes and from then on I was hooked. To this day, Predator is one of my favourite movies ever.

Predator stormed theatres on June 12, 1987 and it thrilled moviegoers looking for a great action and sci-fi film. Many people from my generation including myself see it as absolutely perfect. Predator is essential viewing for any sci-fi or comic book fan and still holds up pretty well to this day. Recently, there have been rumours that Hollywood plans to remake this classic with Shane Black at the helm and to this, I shake my head. Predator is too great and too ahead of its time to be remade.

Not yet at least.

Predator was released in 1987 and revolves around a giant, eight foot alien that comes to Earth to hunt only the toughest humans. At first the movie starts as a typical military operation flick with Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) leading his team of commandos to rescue some government officials held hostages by guerrillas in the South American rain forest. The first part of the movie involves Dutch and his team investigating a crash site, the site of a firefight and then finding and annihilating the guerrillas. This part of the movie also has a surprising amount of sub-plot surrounding the other team members.

However, the movie turns into a crazy sci-fi adventure when the alien predator is introduced and starts picking off members of the team. Dutch and his commandos can’t seem to figure out what is happening as people are relentlessly slaughtered and then dragged off. By this time, both Dutch and the viewers at home still only get small hints of what exactly is going on. We are shown glimpses of the world from the predator’s eyes, the outline of its hand and the blurry outline of its body, so it’s not too much to go on.

[blockquote]”Nothing like it has ever been on Earth before. It came from another planet for the thrill of the hunt. It picked the wrong man.”[/blockquote]

The first big reveal in Predator comes when it shows just a fleeting glimpse of its true form to one of the team. Dillon (Carl Weathers) is first one to see it and at that point he goes a little crazy and decides to chase after it without the rest of the team. The action is fast and furious from this point on as the rest of Dutch’s team is eliminated and he tries to figure out a way to kill the alien. Dutch and the predator play a game of cat and mouse; he manages to injure the predator but he is also hurt and finally cornered. The two have their final showdown and the alien is revealed and unmasked for the first time for everyone to see. The fight between the two is classic and its a rare event to see Arnold Schwarzenegger being thrown around like he’s the weakling for once.

With it’s popularity (the film grossed almost $100 million with a budget of only $15 million), Predator has become a classic because it spawned into different mediums than just film; video games, comics and novels. Schwarzenegger was also the only believable choice as someone that could go up against the predator and actually stand a chance against the alien. There is never a boring scene; there is always action or plot being revealed. Predator is full of larger than life characters like Dutch, Dillon, Blaine (Jesse Ventura) and others. There are jokes thrown in and some classic one liners. For a film that’s just celebrated its twenty-seventh anniversary, it still holds up well as far as films go. This movie literally has everything which makes Predator perfect and it’s a fantastic film to remember in our Retro Geek series. If you haven’t seen it for a while, make sure to revisit it for nostalgic purposes, or introduce someone new to it.