‘The Predator: The Hunt’ | Remember the classic ‘The Predator’ (1987) – which turns 35 in 2022

This Friday, August 5, fans were honored and can finally experience the latest copy of The Predator franchise, titled Prey in the original. It’s the first time a movie in the franchise hasn’t been given the title Predator in the original – because here in Brazil, officials couldn’t avoid it and loaded up a Predator: The Hunt. And for the first time, the franchise will also bank on more minimalist content, avoiding cinemas and orchestrating its debut for streaming platforms. Yes, it’s a brave new world, but the decision by Disney (now owner of 20th Century Studios) has more to do with the underperformance of the latest intergalactic hunter films – especially the 2018 film.

The new film, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, goes back 300 years to show one of the first Predator “hunts” on Earth, facing a Comanche tribe, known to be Native Americans with a lot of experience and talent for hunting. In particular, it is a story of growth and overcoming of young Naru, character of native Amber Midthunder. In honor of the new feature film of one of pop culture’s most beloved villains, the rasta-haired alien, who has already garnered acclaim from the trade press, we’ve decided to turn back time too. , but only 35 years in the past, to revisit the creature’s first appearance on the big screen – which culminated in the smash hit The Predator (1987), an action vehicle for brawny Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Will you face it? The brucutus team led by the greatest of them all: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Predator (1987) is one of the most iconic films of the 80s and certainly one of the most significant of the great Schwarzenegger’s career. In the plot, the Austrian star is the leader of an elite military team, the guy who completes the missions no one else could or would be mad to try. Of course, on this team we’ll have all kinds of brutal brucutu, the ones that scare just by looking, from the likes of Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, Sony Landham, Bill Duke, Shane Black and Richard Chavez. Their task is simple: rescue the crew of a helicopter that crashed behind enemy lines in a Central American country and contained a high-ranking officer. Until then, the plot resembles Escape from New York (1981).

When they arrive at the scene, they realize that the passengers of such a downed helicopter have been killed in the most brutal and sadistic way possible, skinned alive and hung upside down in the woods. They blame the savage act on enemy rebels, which they quickly put an end to – then The Predator takes on the outlines of Rambo 2 – The Mission (1985). But all is not well for this team of tough guys, and as they take a survivor taken hostage by the guerrillas with them, they also come across a supernatural entity in the forest – which the prisoner in her cunning calls “the devil”. The interesting thing about The Predator is the mystery it creates about the creature. Those who watch the film for the first time knowing nothing about it, can imagine several possibilities, but never really what the story will present.

Lost in the jungle. Arnold’s crews face a supernatural threat in the forest.

The unknown about the true identity of the being stalking them is one of the most electrifying elements of the film. Is it really the devil? Is it a folk entity from the jungles of Central America? Will it be an undercover enemy super spy? This mystery is completely eliminated in the sequels, as we already know exactly what to expect from the threat. Here in the original, however, the creature is not really revealed until the third act of the story. What happens is that at first glance, the forest “comes to life” and eliminates one by one the commands in action, in the most violent way possible. In the end, only the protagonist of Schwarzenegger and the young prisoner remain (role of Elpidia Carrillo). The hero then performs a melee with the creature, without resorting to weapons.

The screenplay for The Predator (1987) was written by brothers Jim and John Thomas. And the idea for the story grew out of a play about Schwarzenegger’s ’80s on-screen rival Sylvester Stallone and his most famous character of his career, Rocky. Someone jokingly said, “Who does Rocky miss? All I can think of is ET – The Extra-Terrestrial”. Thus was born the concept of a man in a fight to the death with a creature from another planet. But other elements would be inspiring for this plot. The first of these was the hit Aliens – The Rescue, released the previous year and cited by the writers themselves as one of their biggest influences in creating The Predator. The resemblance is easy to grasp: a group of strong, brave, and armed to the teeth marines, facing an alien creature (in the case of the aliens, several) and being taken out one by one. In Predator 2 – The Hunt Continues (1990), also written by the duo, they pay homage to their creation by placing the skull of a xenomorph inside the Predator’s ship. And of course Alien vs. Predator would be its own highly successful franchise, spawning toys, games, comics, and even eventually movies.

Have fun watching:
“You are a dirty asshole! shot “Wow, you’re very ugly” in the dubbed and also classic version.

The second influence admitted by the screenwriters is another Stallone film, the aforementioned Rambo 2 – The Mission (1985), where a guerrilla survives in the forest against all kinds of enemies. In fact, one of the first ideas for the script would have Schwarzenegger’s character just as alone on his rescue mission, encountering the creature and then having to face it. The idea was discarded because it needed to be demonstrated how deadly this adversary could be, and the best way was to eliminate several “Rambos” one by one, until the strongest of them remained. This idea, by the way, had already become the first treatment of the script, rejected by Arnold and rewritten by the Thomas brothers.

Another of the ideas discarded in earlier treatments of the scenario was the existence of multiple predators to deal with commands. As if one wasn’t enough. Again, this plan was scrapped in favor of presenting a massive single Predator threat. The concept will remain in Thomas’s mind, however, and will see the light of day in Predator 2 (1990). After that, the other movies always brought more than one intergalactic hunter into their plots. The third abandoned idea was to have a Native American (or native) character as the protagonist. This idea will eventually be adapted to the character of Billy (Sony Landham), one of the important secondary characters of the film. And now, as we know, the new The Predator: The Hunt brings a whole cast of that bloodline.

This wild idea of ​​an initially speculative script went door-to-door in major Hollywood studios, still sold as “Alien – The Eighth Passenger (1979) set in the jungle”. Eventually, the text would fall into the hands of 20th Century Fox and become one of their hottest properties. The next step was to find a production commander. Although Geoff Murphy (Freejack – The Immortals) was the first choice and was linked to the project for a time, The Predator ended up in the hands of newcomer John McTiernan, who then had nothing but horror cult Mortal Delusions (1986). time. The Predator was his second film, and McTiernan did such a good job that he would soon become Fox’s golden boy, being chosen the following year to direct Die Hard (1988), another action classic. The filmmaker will go on to other great titles such as In Pursuit of Red October (1990), The Last Great Hero (1993) and Die Hard – Revenge (1995).

Although the idea sold to McTiernan is the meeting of “Rocky (or Rambo) with Alien”, the director likes to think of his film more like the classic King Kong (1933). According to the filmmaker, he would describe The Predator as follows: “A band of men arrive on an island and sink deeper and deeper, and there they come across what they were chasing, which turns out to be much bigger than they didn’t mean, causing them to turn around and flee.

For the main role of Dutch, the leader of the death squad, the Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger quickly entered the scene. The great universe of the ex-gentleman comes from landmark works of his career, such as the two Conans, The Terminator and Command to Kill. The action actor, who had achieved star status, took on the project because he envisioned it as a take on a classic he loved and had always thought of doing something similar: Westerns. Seven Men and a Destination (1960). According to Arnold, “It’s a movie about a group of guys who have to work together.” A curiosity is that during the filming of The Predator, Schwarzenegger had another project along the same lines in development, the film adaptation of the DC comics Sergeant Rock. The character is a war hero, platoon leader. The character’s comic book even appears in The Predator (1987), read by Hawkins (Shane Black). The comic book character’s film would not succeed.

With a budget of around $15 million, The Predator would become the second-biggest opening weekend when it debuted in 1987, recouping almost all of its value – $12 million in cash. The Predator was just behind Beverly Hills Cop 2, which opened nearly a month earlier and grossed $26.3 million in a single weekend. The Predator ended its run on the world’s big screens with $98. 2 million, ensuring its absolute success. The film would still be nominated for a Special Effects Oscar – but it would lose the award to The Strange Journey, produced by Steven Spielberg. Other than that, it was included in the American Film Institute’s 2001 list of America’s 100 Most Electrifying Movies. Today, 35 years after its release, its legacy continues to bear fruit with the saga’s latest and most lauded chapter, while The Predator (1987), the original film, remains a still much-loved modern classic. and we are talking about. The test of time is the true price of art.

Ps: The Predator: The Hunt and The Predator (1987) are both available in the Star+ collection.

Don’t forget to watch: