Rambo meets Alien in this terrific science-fiction thriller from 1987, directed by John McTiernan just a year before Die Hard made him Hollywood's most sought-after director of action-packed blockbusters. Arnold Schwarzenegger leads an elite squad of U.S. Army commandos to a remote region of South American jungle, where they've been assigned to search for South American officials who've been kidnapped by terrorists. Instead they find a bunch of skinned corpses hanging from the trees and realize that they're now facing a mysterious and much deadlier threat. As the squad is picked off one by one, Arnold finds himself pitted against a hideous alien creature that's heavily armed and wearing a spacesuit enabling the creature to render itself invisible. The title says it all in describing the relentless, escalating action that follows, maintained by McTiernan with an abundance of visual flair. The film's special effects are still impressive, and stunning locations in the Mexican jungles create a combined atmosphere of verdant beauty and imminent danger. The plot doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, but the movie's so exciting and tightly paced that its weaknesses seem irrelevant. --Jeff Shannon
DVD features A legion of Predator fans will be grateful for the wealth of extras included on the collector's edition DVD. It's pretty standard stuff, however, mostly comprised of materials from the film's original 1987 making-of documentary, with new interview clips (featuring Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Shane Black, and others) provided for retrospective history. John McTiernan's laid-back commentary is interesting primarily for his perspective on the production's troubled history; his appreciation of the cast; the deliberately "pornographic" gunfire scenes (intended to please studio executives with its sheer excessiveness); the laughable failure of the first (and immediately abandoned) Predator design; Schwarzenegger's weight loss (partially due to a nasty case of diarrhea); and various anecdotes relating to the challenges of filming in the jungles of Mexico. The text commentary is best reserved for devoted fans and film students, covering a wide range of behind-the-scenes details regarding stunt work, armory and ordnance, sound design, cinematography, and other primary aspects of production. The featurettes are brief and fairly routine, covering such areas as makeup, Schwarzenegger's leadership qualities on the set, preliminary special-effects tests, the modified gatling gun nicknamed "Ol' Painless," and a tribute to creature actor Kevin Peter Hall, who died in 1991. While most of this material was previously released on a European DVD, its region 1 debut was well-timed to coincide with the late-summer 2004 release of Alien vs. Predator. --Jeff Shannon
2.
Sent to eliminate a gun running camp in Central America, United States Major Dutch Schaeffer and his commandos get more than they bargain for when they cross paths with a mysterious assassin.
As members of their unit begin to disappear, Dutch, Dillon (Carl Weathers), Blain (Jesse Ventura) conclude that whatever is hunting them is not of this earth. Every attempt at a tactical defense is a defeated for Dutch and company and it is only in the end stretch of their race to safety that they’re suspicions are confirmed and they encounter the alien nimrod face to face.
A summer box office smash, 1987’s PREDATOR re-ignited an old trend of movies depicting aliens invading earth (it began decades earlier with films like WAR OF THE WORLDS and INVADERS FROM MARS). McTiernan does a miraculous job of directing the "invisible" Predator. Furthermore, the special effects which are both stunning subtle, never boisterous, make PREDATOR a contemporary sci-fi even amongst today’s techno thrillers.
3.
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this action-packed adventure story of fighting men pitted against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful than their fiercest weapons. Recruited by the CIA to rescue hostages held by guerrilla fighters in a Central American country, Schwarzenegger and his men encounter an enemy unimaginably more deadly than any on Earth--because the Predator is not of this Earth.
4.
The ultimate hunter meets the ultimate adversary...in the ultimate Collector's Edition DVD! Arnold Schwarzenegger wages an all-out war against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful and deadly than any on Earth-because the Predator is not of this Earth. Now, you can explore the depths of the Predator jungle with this all-new 2 disc set packed with over five hours of out-of-this-world extras, including an in-depth commentary, director's commentary, never-before-seen footage, revealing featurettes, and more!
5.
Although it was only made in 1987, Predator is already the kind of film that has action fans sighing, "They don't make 'em like that any more". Few later films can equal its testosterone-fuelled scenario, its graphic violence or its genuinely unnerving sense of danger. An alien big-game hunter comes to Earth to hunt the meanest, most dangerous creatures on the planet. Naturally, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his astonishingly muscle-bound team of marines are prime targets. The premise has a compelling Zen-like simplicity and the correspondingly minimalist script consists, for the most part, of the statuesque soldiers snarling one-liners at each other ("I ain't got time to bleed", "If it bleeds we can kill it") in between firing unfeasibly large weapons.
Director John McTiernan emphasises the claustrophobic confines of the jungle setting, allowing tension to build for the film's first two thirds by keeping the titular hunter concealed from both its prey and the audience. Composer Alan Silvestri's nerve-jangling percussive score racks up the tension yet further. When the creature does show its handiwork the results are horrifically gory, and, thanks to the film's insistently realistic tone, all the more terrifying. By the final act, a memorably mud-caked Arnie must discard all his high-tech weaponry and fight hand-to-hand against creature effects wizard Stan Winston's classic monster; McTiernan's action choreography ensures that the outcome of this hard-fought duel is never a foregone conclusion.
On the DVD:Predator at last gets the DVD release it deserves. Its previous incarnations used the bowdlerised TV edit; but this two-disc set restores the full theatrical cut, with skinned corpses aplenty and Carl Weathers' lopped-off arm among other messy delights. Not only that, but the sound options are now ultra-vivid Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1, though the anamorphic picture is still grainy in some of the darker scenes. John McTiernan provides a decent director's commentary, but much more fascinating information can be had from a text commentary option.
On the generously filled second disc there are seven short behind-the-scenes featurettes (including one dedicated to "Old Painless" the Gatling gun) plus a retrospective documentary, "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It", which includes both old and new interviews with many of the cast and crew. There are also outtakes and a deleted scene, special effects segments, camouflage tests and a text profile of the creature and its weaponry, plus a photo gallery. --Mark Walker
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