Movie Review – Predator (1987)

“If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

Back in 1987 the world was introduced to Predator, an action-adventure / horror / sci-fi film depicting an alien warrior who visits Earth for the purpose of hunting the fiercest creatures on the planet . . . . human beings.  This alien warrior, the Predator, is armed with powerful weapons, incredible strength, and a camouflaged suit that makes it nearly invisible to the human eye.

Directed by John McTiernan and with music composed by Alan Silvestri, Predator stars action superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, the leader of an elite group of soldiers.  Co-starring in the film are Carl Weathers as George Dillon, Jesse Ventura as Blain Cooper, Bill Duke as Mac Eliot, and Kevin Peter Hall as the Predator.

Predator begins with an alien spaceship approaching planet Earth.  From that spaceship drops a pod that lands in the jungles of Central America.

Some time later, a helicopter carrying a team of special forces soldiers lands on a coastline in Central America.  Led by Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the team of soldiers includes Mac Eliot (Bill Duke), Blain Cooper (Jesse Ventura), Billy Sole (Sonny Landham), Jorge “Poncho” Ramirez (Richard Chaves), and Rick Hawkins (Shane Black).

General Phillips (R.G. Armstrong) meets with Dutch and informs him of the situation.  It turns out that a presidential cabinet minister was recently in the area when he was suddenly attacked and captured by guerrilla forces.  It’s also believed that the prisoners are going to be executed by the guerrilla forces as well.  The person who recommended Dutch’s team for the mission was George Dillon (Carl Weathers), Dutch’s old friend who now works for the CIA.  Dillon explains that he’ll be going into the jungle with Dutch’s team to oversee the mission.

The special forces team uses a pair of helicopters to fly into the jungle.  The soldiers have different ways of preparing themselves for the mission, from chewing tobacco to telling jokes to readying their weapons.  When they arrive at the insertion point not too far from where the hostages were abducted, the helicopters hover in the air and the soldiers rappel down ropes to the ground.  The team is now on their own.  There is no back-up for this mission.

It’s not long until the soldiers locate the helicopter that was shot down by the guerrillas.  The wreckage still hangs in the tree branches, and inside of the helicopter are two dead pilots.  Billy Sole scouts the area and notices that a team of guerrillas took two hostages through the jungle.  Billy also notices that a small team of soldiers wearing American combat gear followed the guerrillas.  Dutch questions Dillon about that discovery, but the CIA man claims to know nothing about any other American soldiers in the area.

The team continues with their mission of tracking the guerrillas and rescuing the hostages.  At one point Billy stops to get a drink of water when he notices something in a nearby tree.  He climbs the tree and discovers three dead humans, all of them skinned and hanging from a tree branch.  Three more skinned bodies are discovered nearby.  Dutch is tossed one of the dog tags and he recognizes the name of the solider.  Not only are these dead men the team of American soldiers that was recently in the area, but some of them were friends of Dutch.  Knowing the horrible method of execution that the guerrillas used on their friends, the team of soldiers sets out for some revenge.

“Payback time!”

The soldiers continue tracking the footprints of the guerrillas and eventually locate their heavily guarded camp.  The soldiers sneak into position and then launch a surprise attack on the guerrillas.  All of the enemy fighters are killed in one way or another, from gunshots and grenades to knife attacks.  It’s a one-sided battle for the American soldiers.  Although the hostages (they were really CIA men) were killed by the guerrillas, the team discovers a woman, Anna (Elpidia Carrillo), and they take her prisoner.

At the end of the battle, Dillon is thrilled to recover so much intelligence information inside of the rebel’s camp.  Dutch becomes enraged and thinks that Dillon set up his team and intentionally sent them into a slaughter, doing the CIA’s “dirty work.”  Dillon admits to the lies as it was deemed by the government to be more important to find a way to stop these rebels and guerrillas forces before they would launch an invasion.  He reveals that his CIA men were in the helicopter when it attacked, and the previous team of Americans was sent in to rescue them.  When they disappeared, Dutch’s team was sent in to do the job.

The mission is complete and now it’s time to head out to their extraction point.  Their current area is still “too hot” for the helicopters as more rebel forces are closing in on their position.  They now have to make their way down a valley and to the new extraction point, a place at least a day away on foot.

During the battle with the rebels and its aftermath, an unknown creature had been observing it.  This creature moved through the trees and used thermal imaging to watch the humans fight each other.  The creature also hears occasional human chatter and it imitates it, though it’s clear that the creature cannot speak the language clearly.  When the humans leave the area, so does the unknown creature.  Some of the soldiers have the sensation of being watched, as if something isn’t right in the jungle, but nobody can see the threat.  It’s almost as if it’s invisible.

Later into the march, Billy knows that the team is being tracked.  He’s concerned though as this is no ordinary man.  This is something different, something far more dangerous to the team.

As Dutch is talking to Billy, Anna makes a run for it and tries to escape.  Hawkins runs after the woman and eventually grabs her.  As he is holding the woman captive he’s attacked by the Predator (Kevin Peter Hall).  The Predator is using an active camouflage suit that renders it virtually invisible.  The creature makes a bloody attack on Hawkins and then drags his body through the jungle.  Anna doesn’t try to escape again.  The team finds her terrified and covered in Hawkins’s blood.  Anna only tells them that the jungle came alive and attacked him.  Poncho finds bloody remains nearby, but it’s impossible to tell if it’s their friend or not.

The team is now on guard after the attack on Hawkins.  When Blain is checking out an area, the Predator attacks and kills him next.  The big man easily goes down after being hit a couple of times by the Predator’s advanced weaponry.  Mac is the first one on scene and actually sees the Predator in the distance.  He opens fire on the creature as it flees into the jungle.  The other soldiers rally at Mac’s side and they unleash their full firepower into the jungle.  Nobody kills the Predator, but one of Mac’s bullets hits it in the leg.  The creature leaves behind a small patch of glowing blood on a leaf.

The Predator finds a secluded spot in the trees and uses a first aid kit to treat his gunshot wound.  The end of the process is painful and it causes the Predator to let out a horrific scream.  The soldiers hear this and grow more concerned about the new kind of enemy.

After the death of Blain, the team sets an alarm system around a perimeter.  They wait there and set an ambush in case the creature returns.  That night something trips one of the alarms and Mac attacks it with a knife, but it turns out that he killed a wild hog and not the Predator.  As they laugh about this they discover that Blain’s body is missing.  Somehow the Predator sneaked through the camp and made off with their teammate’s body.

Dutch realizes that the creature is using the trees to elude them and their traps.  To catch it they decide to make a series of camouflaged traps, hoping that the creature will carelessly trip one of them.  As they sit and wait for the creature to return, Anna tells them more about their foe.  According to her village, the creature is known as “El Diablo cazador de hombres.”  She claims that this is a creature that only arrives during the hottest of years, just like this one.

Just as Dutch steps out to investigate a sound, the Predator attacks the camp.  It triggers a trap that instead severely injures Poncho, and then it runs away.  Both Dillon and Mac see it flee, and the two soldiers chase after it.  The two of them work together to attack the Predator, but the creature easily kills both of them.

Dutch leads Anna, Poncho and Billy out of the area and to the extraction point where the helicopter will meet them.  When they hear the commotion behind them, Billy chooses to stay behind and face this creature.  He pulls out his knife and waits for it on a log bridge.  Moments later he’s also killed by the Predator.

The Predator then attacks the trio as they’re tying to escape.  Poncho is killed and Dutch is injured.  He yells for Anna to run and to “. . . get to the chopper!”  Dutch then flees from the Predator by falling over the edge of a waterfall.  He survives the fall and crawls to the shore, building up a layer of mud on him by accident.  When the Predator pursues him through the water and then to the shore, Dutch accepts his defeat.  He sits on the edge of the water and waits for the Predator to kill him.

But he doesn’t.

In fact, the Predator doesn’t even see him.  After the Predator’s camouflage suit fails after being in the water, the space creature is forced to deactivate it, disabling his cloaking ability and making him much more vulnerable.  The Predator then looks around for Dutch, but the thick layer of mud on Dutch masks his heat signature.  Dutch realizes that as long as he’s covered in mud and staying still, he can “hide” from the Predator.  The creature is unable to find Dutch, so it walks into the jungle.

Instead of using this camouflage trick with the mud and safely fleeing from the Predator, Dutch decides to stay and fight.  He makes a lethal trap and builds a bow with explosive arrows.  Dutch coats himself with more mud and then lets out a barbaric war cry to attract the attention of the Predator.

While Dutch was preparing for battle, the Predator was busy polishing skulls from its victims.  Apparently it collects its victims’ skulls, whether this is just for souvenirs or some sort of rite of passage for its species.

The battle begins when the Predator arrives after hearing Dutch’s “invitation” to combat.  Dutch uses his tricks and new knowledge about his opponent to his advantage, and he initially has the upper hand.  That changes though after Dutch falls into the water and his mud washes away.  He’s quickly captured by the Predator, but he’s not killed.  The Predator chooses to remove his mask and make this a fair fight to see who really is the better warrior.  The two of them fight and the Predator is clearly the stronger warrior.

Just as the Predator is about to close in and finally kill Dutch, he steps underneath one of Dutch’s traps.  Dutch releases a counterweight and the heavy stone lands on top of and crushes the Predator.  It’s a mortal wound.  The space creature is still alive but won’t be for longer.  Dutch can only watch as the Predator activates a self-destruction weapon as one final blow.  The creature just sits there and laughs as Dutch realizes what’s about to happen.  Dutch runs through the jungle and barely escapes from a massive explosion, one that resembles a miniature atomic explosion, mushroom cloud and all.

Predator ends with Dutch finally making it to the helicopter.  Anna is already on board.  As the helicopter flies away, Dutch sits back and thinks about the loss of his friends.

So is 1987’s Predator a good movie?

Absolutely!

This is a fantastic action film with enough violence, one-liners, and memorable moments to make it a classic film.

Predator is one of those battle of the heavyweights types of movies.  It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, arguably THE biggest and toughest movie star in that time period, versus a big, bad warrior alien.  I mean, who out there at that time wouldn’t want to see a fight like that?

As a whole, Predator is a great action / science-fiction movie from start to finish.  The movie begins with a small group of soldiers out in the jungle.  All of the soldiers are badass warriors, and all of them are great characters.  After the soldiers complete a very one-sided battle against a bunch of guerrillas, the movie transitions into more of a monster / horror movie as the Predator hunts them down one at a time.  The final segment is the intergalactic battle of the heavyweights as Schwarzenegger’s character has the fight of his life against the Predator.

Is Predator perfect?

No, there are a few glitches with the story and the setting.  My biggest problem is that the movie tends to keep switching between night and day a little too quickly in the second half.  Those issues can be overlooked though as you’ll be too busy quoting memorable lines from earlier in the film.

Predator (1987) – movie trailer

Fans of action, sci-fi and Schwarzenegger films will feel right at home with Predator.  Needless to say, this is simply a great movie that has a strong fan following.

Poncho – “You’re hit.  You’re bleeding, man.”
Blain – “I ain’t got time to bleed.”

———————-

Billy – “I’m scared, Poncho.”
Poncho – “Bullshit. You ain’t afraid of no man.”
Billy – “There’s something out there waiting for us, and it ain’t no man. We’re all gonna die.”

———————-

Dutch – “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

———————-

Dutch – “Get to the chopper!”

———————-

Dutch – “What the hell *are* you?”
The Predator – “What the hell are *you*?”