My Favourite Movies: Predator

In my 20’s I was a HUGE fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. If he was in a movie it was pretty much a certainty that I’d go and see it – no matter the genre and no matter the story. OK, I did draw the line at Twins and only saw Kindergarten Cop on video but the point stands.

In Predator Arnie played ‘Dutch’ a US Special Forces veteran and leader of a crack rescue team called into bring back a cabinet minister and his aide from inside rebel held territory in Central America. Along for the ride is CIA operative Dillon played by Carl Weathers. Quickly it transpires that not everything is at is seems. For one thing Dutch’s team are not the first who have been sent into the meat grinder. A previous team who had disappeared in mysterious circumstances are stumbled upon – dead and skinned. Determined to extract vengeance on the rebels Arnie and crew do what they do best and kill everyone except for a girl who they take along with them as a possible informant. Before they get too far from the recent action one of the team is killed when ‘the jungle came alive and took him’. It’s clear that something – rather than someone – is hunting the team and picking them off one by one. Despite all of their skills they seem helpless against an enemy they can’t see and can barely conceive. Until that is it is wounded in a firefight. As Arnie/Dutch rightly saws: ‘If it bleeds, we can kill it’…… Hopefully before it manages to kill every last one of them!

OK, this is a film without much in the way of plot, without a great deal of subtlety or character development. Its premise, whilst not exactly ridiculous is hardly original – a bunch of people being hunted by a deadly dangerous creature (usually either a crazy human or a supernatural beastie but, in this case, an alien). The acting, such as it is, is often wooden and most definitely minimal. It is most assuredly not a thinking person’s movie. But put all of this aside and what you have left is a fun film. The alien, as in all the best movies, isn’t seen much if at all for the first ¼ to ½ of the film. You know that something weird is going on but not exactly what. When you do finally see it/him he’s pretty damned cool with sophisticated weapons and what appears to be a warrior culture deeply embedded in everything he does. It’s certainly the kind of creature you want to know more about – which is great! As in the interminable slasher movies of the time the good guys are dispatched in a variety of particularly bloody ways that can’t help to make you cringe. Arnie’s fight with the alien is fairly clever and nicely staged although the end is frankly silly though laughable (in a good way) at the same time. As I said, a fun, fun film – if you like that kind of thing anyway!