Predator [M]

A specialist military rescue unit is called in by the CIA to recover a cabinet official being held hostage by insurgents in the jungles of Val Verde. A six-man team lead by the butch and fearless ‘Dutch’ Schaefer, they take the job without qualms. But things take a turn when they discover that their mission is a front for another military operation. Tensions continue to skyrocket when mutilated bodies are found in the jungle and it becomes apparent that what killed them was no human or native beast. Soon the team are fighting for their lives as they make their way out of the jungle, pursued by an unknown, unseen, and unfathomable predator. 

Yes, yes it has taken me this long to see Predator. This is one of those classics that everyone knows; it’s been rebooted, fused with the Alien franchise, sampled or referenced in numerous films about movie buffs and nerds, and is possibly home to some of the most iconic and butch one-liners ever! The most famous of which being Arnie’s response upon seeing the face of his foe for the first time: “you’re one ugly motherfucker.” Classic. An interesting fusion of the jungle war movie and science fiction thriller, Predator stands as an iconic action movie that gains its status from the delight in cult audiences that it inspires, even in modern audiences. 

A specialist military rescue unit is called in by the CIA to recover a cabinet official being held hostage by insurgents in the jungles of Val Verde. A six-man team lead by the butch and fearless ‘Dutch’ Schaefer, they take the job without qualms. But things take a turn when they discover that their mission is a front for another military operation. Tensions continue to skyrocket when mutilated bodies are found in the jungle and it becomes apparent that what killed them was no human or native beast. Soon the team are fighting for their lives as they make their way out of the jungle, pursued by an unknown, unseen, and unfathomable predator. 

This movie can actually be summed up in one word: macho! Just, all the machoness! There’s so much manliness, testosterone, and machoness that it’s enough to give a girl internal bleeding! Between Arnie’s biceps, which have their own orbit, the crude vagina jokes, and the tobacco-chewing cowboy who should be on the packet of an energy drink, it’s pretty full on! Essentially, the movie is pretty much Alien just set in the jungle and the fusion of the war movie with the science fiction thriller worked quite well. 

The real star of the show though is the Predator, who brings a level of grace and beauty to this otherwise muscly and beefy flick. Like the villain in Alien, the Predator has this wonderful gracefulness to it that can almost been seen as feminine: slender and soft, but lethal. Whilst the special effects are a bit dated, they still get the job done and the use of infrared to show the perception of the Predator was a really good method of building suspense as well as making this hunter different to all others. 

As far as performances go, there really isn’t all that much to comment on because it really is a bunch of guys trying to outman each other, the screenwriter had a fairly easy job with the dialogue, money for jam really, it’s the arc of the story and the constructions of the scenes that keep arses in their seats. 

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpida Carrillo, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Sony Landham, Richard Chaves, R.G Armstrong, Shane Black, and Kevin Peter Hall, Predator is an exciting and overly macho movie filled with action, gore, suspense, action, warfare, explosions, and action. It’s definitely a movie that every film nerd should see because so much of it creeps into popular culture.