Predator

In the dense jungle of an unnamed Central American country – filming was mainly done near Puerto Vallarta in southwestern Mexico – the adrenaline-pumped, action-packed clash plays out between Dutch’s hand-picked squad and “the demon who makes trophies of man“, an alien big-game hunter, member of the elusive “Yautja” race whose unmistakable look provided by special makeup effects creator Stan Winston (apparently inspired by a painting of a Rastafarian warrior), immediately elevated it to the level of enduring icon of cinematic sci-fi horror.

At any rate, the main credit for the film’s undeniable success doesn’t lie exclusively in the Thomas brothers’ screenplay. The plot’s originality is relative, after all – just consider its similarities to “Without Warning” (1980) – although the idea of turning a team of highly-trained soldiers into the ones being hunted is a rather appealing element, as is the Crichton-esque theme of wild nature coming up against futuristic technology. Rather, the film’s success is also (and mainly) due to the felicitous choice of having been entrusted to a director capable of handling an action thriller like few others. In fact, during the late ’80s to early ’90s, McTiernan had a solid track record of taking brainless, muscle-bound action-hero movies and instilling a personal style, elevating them above their intrinsic simplemindedness and guiding them to the shores of intelligent entertainment.

Tense, engaging, accompanied by a fitting main theme, “Predator” is a film that just doesn’t let up, offering a hard-to-forget cast of over-the-top characters: Jesse Ventura’s Blain, a wise-cracking giant (“I ain’t got time to bleed“; “This stuff’ll make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus, just like me“) wearing an MTV tank-top and packing an M134 Minigun(!); Sonny Landham’s Billy, a native American with hyper-acute senses; and obviously Arnie’s Dutch, forced to splatter himself with mud from head to toe and assemble a paleolithic arsenal on the fly to combat the alien menace.

The elevated testosterone level and the moronic baseline Manichaeism are further blunted by a healthy dose of humor. The excellent editing by Mark Helfrich and John F. Link, along with the superb cinematography of Donald McAlpine – whose bright colors and deep fields splendidly convey the muggy tangle of the green hellscape – all contribute to the spectacle of the final result.

Launching a franchise, McTiernan’s film will “boast” numerous sequels – starting with the urban “Predator 2” (1990) – and a pair of spin-offs.