In 1987, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the action-horror movie Predator and it spawned one sequel, two crossovers with the Alien franchise, a line of comic books, and two more sequels over 20 years after the first movie hit theaters. With Predator, the love of the monster was so great that the movies kept coming. However, as beloved as the first Predator movie was, it was not without its problems. The movie was not meant to create a monster that would become a huge horror icon. It was an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, pure and simple. While the problems existed, none of them really lowered the enjoyment factor. However, as the sequels mounted, the problems started to become cumbersome and hampered the later movies from ever achieving the greatness of the original film.
The Predator Is Picky About Its Victims
The Predator came to Earth to find creatures that make good rivals, systematically hunting them down for sport. When it arrived, the first people who it took out were the CIA special ops team, which was sent in to save some hostages held by insurgents in Central America.
However, the insurgents had weapons and seemed like really bad guys. They were there the entire time with hostages before Dutch and company showed up to try to save them. The Predator never once tried to take out any of them. Why did the Predator completely ignore these heavily armed men for so long?
For A Hunter, Predators Make Too Much Noise
If there is one thing that the movies have made clear, it is the fact that the Predator is a specialized hunter for sport. They have tons of experience hunting and traveling across the galaxy looking for their next game. With so much experience, they are known as some of the best hunters to ever exist.
With that said, when the Predator attacked someone in the first movie, it made a clicking sound. If a Predator is a master hunter, why would it give so much warning when it is attacking? Later in the first movie, the Predator lifts Dutch from behind, slams him into a tree, and walks off. It seems like this Predator was less of an experienced hunter and more of a sloppy slasher horror movie villain.
Predators Are Not Invisible
The armor that the Predator wears is extremely high-tech. One of the gadgets allows the Predator to basically camouflage itself. This is shown pretty well in all of the movies — the Predator stands by some trees and blends in with the foliage much as a chameleon would.
However, this is camouflage and the Predator is not invisible. This means that the moment in the first movie, when the Predator goes close to Dutch and sets a trap, makes no sense at all. The Predator is only camouflaged, so when it walked up next to a trained CIA special ops soldier and then set a trap right next to him, Dutch should have been able to see it.
Dutch Is Barely Injured By The Predator’s Canon
The Predator has a giant canon weapon. The thing blew a blast so powerful that the Predator ripped a hole in Blain’s chest. The weapon then blew the arm off of Dillon. Not only that, but the force of the weapon was so powerful, that when Dillon’s arm fell to the ground, it continued to fire his weapon in rapid-fire shots, even when the finger slipped right off the trigger.
However, the most ridiculous moment happened when the Predator fired at Dutch and hit him. The same weapon that dismembered his team left him with a flesh wound. There is the argument that the blast hit Dutch’s weapon and not him, but something that powerful should have done more than leave a small cut.
Dutch’s Heat-Masking Mud Bath
Possibly the coolest moment in the first Predator movie happened when Dutch realized the Predator could only see its targets by reading the heat coming off of their bodies. So, Dutch decided to cover his entire body in mud. When the Predator passed by him, Dutch actually said out loud that it couldn’t see him so that the audience would understand what was going on.
However, this scene didn’t make much sense. For one, Dutch had his eyes open and was watching the Predator walk by, so there should have been some heat coming from his eyes. Secondly, there is still a normal human being under the mud, so there would still be a change in the heat signature compared to what was around him. Though the Predator scene still works today, it made no sense.
Alien Blood
There is some interesting information about the Predators’ century-long hunt for Xenomorphs, which played out in the two Alien vs. Predator movies. The blood of the Predators neutralizes the acidity of the Xenomorphs’ blood. This explanation from the comics and novels is interesting, as it reveals something from the first Alien vs. Predator movie that made no sense.
In the movie, a Predator took the blood from a Xenomorph and marked itself with it. The blood did not eat through its body as it should have, which meant that something about the Predator’s own physiology stopped it. While the books explained this reaction and hardcore Predator fans knew about it, the movie ignored it.
The Predators Are Ill-Prepared Fighting Xenomorphs
As we see in the Alien vs. Predator movies, the Predators have been hunting the Aliens for years. If the hunting has been going on for centuries, as the story reveals, then it seems ridiculous that the Predators in the movies are so ill-prepared to battle the Xenomorphs.
It is clear that the blood of a Xenomorph is acidic and, in the first movie, the blood of a Xenomorph dissolves the wrist blades of the Predator hunting it. Though these are teenage Predators on an initiation hunt, shouldn’t more experienced hunters have prepped and trained them? In the comics, their weapons and armor are acid-proof, but this isn’t the case in the movie.
The Inconsistent Code Of Honor
In Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, there is a moment that betrays the entire premise of the Predator as a hunter. Everything that led to this, as well as the movies that followed, showed the Predator has a distinctive honor code. The Predator will not attack someone who is unarmed and not given a sporting chance of survival.
In Predator 2, The Predator let the little boy with a toy pistol live. In the first movie, Dutch mentioned the Predator would not attack anyone without a weapon to defend themselves. However, in Requiem, the Predator shoots someone in the head from 200 meters away without giving the target any warning that it was even there.
Are The predators Primitive Or High-Tech Hunters?
Most of the movies concerning the Predators have shown that they possess an arsenal of impressive weapons and gadgets. They have spacecrafts that have cloaking devices, armor that can camouflage them, and gadgets that can translate languages. They also have been genetically testing their own species using the DNA of the superior species they have hunted.
However, in Predators, the hunted have all been abducted and dropped onto a foreign planet that is used as a game reserve where the humans are pitted against the Predators in a battle to the finish. However, in this movie, the Predators are all primitive beings. Either they are very young Predators with no previous knowledge of how to hunt, or the movie doesn’t understand the superior beings that they really are.
The Unlimited Ammo
There is a huge problem in both Predator and Predators. In the first movie, the elite mercs dropped into a Central American jungle with the ammo they had on their persons. In the third movie, the group of soldiers dropped onto an alien planet with only the weapons they had on hand at their disposal.
Now, look at the battles in both movies. In the first one, they opened fire on the insurgents and went on a two-minute shooting spree. Later, when the Predator was hunting them, they fired relentlessly into the trees without stopping. The same thing happened on the alien planet and they never ran out of ammunition. There were no backup supplies and they had nowhere to go to reload, yet never stopped shooting, one of Predator’s worst tropes.
Why Did McKenna Swallow The Tech?
The Predator created almost more questions than the previous movies added together. One thing that really made no sense about The Predator was the scene when McKenna finds the Predator mask and cloaking tech.
McKenna mails the mask back to his own post office box, but it gets delivered to his son before he can even arrive back in the United States. McKenna then swallows the cloaking tech so that the government can’t obtain it. However, it doesn’t really make much sense to swallow a piece of high-tech equipment when he could’ve used it himself.
Why Did The Good Predator Turn Bad?
When the good Predator arrived on Earth, he was there to help humans. His species were using DNA from every other species that they hunted in order to genetically engineer more savage creatures. The good Predator wanted to help the people of Earth by bringing them a special weapon to aid in their battle.
With that said, the minute that the Predator’s ship arrived, he began to slaughter humans. He took out so many humans that when he was finally taken down and captured, he looked nothing like a savior. This was supposed to be a good Predator, but it eliminated more humans than the bad one. Also, if it was here to help and the big wigs knew it, why did they try to sedate him only to anger him further?
Where Did The RV & Helicopter Come From?
Now, the answer to this question involves reshoots and the fact that entire portions of the script were changed. There is a point in The Predator when the Loonies are on the run from the bad guys in the government. These government ops are just there to find out everything that they can to capture and maybe eliminate the Predator, and also perhaps eliminate all of the Loonies and the good doctor to ensure that there are no witnesses.
The Loonies went on the run and then immediately drove off in an RV. Considering the fact that they just escaped from a prison bus, where did this RV come from? Sure, people can claim that they stole it, but then later, the government captured them. When they escaped and needed to get to the Predator, some of them disappeared for a few minutes and then showed up with a news helicopter – but how and where did they get it? This entire part of the movie was disjointed and made no sense.
The Predator Dog Turns On Its Master
One of the most interesting aspects of The Predator was the introduction of the Predator dogs. Much like the Predators, these dogs are horribly vicious and disgusting-looking creatures. So, when the Predator sends its pet dogs out to capture its prey, it is obvious that they are loyal to their master. However, when the Loonies try to escape, one of the Predator dogs is shot in the head.
Nebraska shoots the dog point blank in the head and it not only lives, but suddenly it wants to become friends with the people who shot it. There was also a moment when they locked him in a U-Haul truck and it still joined up with them later, turning on its masters.
Rory And His Condition
One of the biggest problems with The Predator was how the movie treated Rory, the son of McKenna. To make Rory an important part of the movie, it was decided that he should be on the spectrum. While this was an interesting idea, The Predator didn’t portray the disorder correctly and instead turned it into a superpower for Rory.
The movie thus exaggerated everything about the condition. Individuals with Rory’s condition have a negative reaction to loud noises, which was shown in the school, but the condition mysteriously disappeared when bullets started flying. Also, when someone bullied Rory, he shot a cannon blast into the house and took the guy out before walking off like he was proud of it.
Casey Pops Up Out Of Nowhere
Though Casey’s character was meant to be extremely intelligent in The Predator, she also acted as a typical damsel in distress. When she did eventually start to fight back, audiences realized that she wasn’t defenseless. However, at other times, she just sat around so the Loonies could make bad jokes and McKenna could try to save her.
However, one of the biggest problems with the movie came during its ending. The final battle started on Halloween when the Predator attacked. McKenna jumped onto the Predator’s spaceship and it crashed in the forest. After this, Casey miraculously showed up to help. However, given where she came from, it makes no sense that she could have been able to arrive so quickly.
Why Didn’t The Good Predator Use The Special Armor?
The final scene in The Predator showed that the good Predator came to Earth to deliver humans a new specialized armor that would help them take out the bad Predators when they arrived to wage war. This battle was due to the fact that global warming was destroying the planet and the Predators wanted to get more test subjects for their DNA testing before this happened.
However, if the renegade Predator is on the run from its own people, why didn’t it wear this new armor to ensure its survival in case the bad guys showed up and started to hunt him down? Using the armor, he could have survived the attacks by the U.S. military as well.
Baxley’s Strange Tourette’s Case
While The Predator’s depiction of Rory’s condition was extremely offensive and insensitive, Baxley’s Tourette’s was something straight out of an ’80s comedy movie. Thomas Jane’s character had a tic that caused him to say extremely inappropriate things – especially about Casey.
It was highly offensive. However, what made even less sense was the fact that Baxley got his Tourette’s due to his experiences in the war, and mostly because of the fact that he encountered friendly fire in Iraq. If his Tourette’s was caused by his experience during the war, why was it suddenly cured when he was back in a war – this time against a freaky alien?
Why Are They Called Predators?
One of the best moments in the movie came when the Loonies and Casey are talking about the Predator. Casey was talking originally to the scientists who wanted her to help them out with the Predator. He tells her that the alien creature is a Predator, but when he explains what it does, she tells him that isn’t a predator, it is a hunter.
When she meets the Loonies and McKenna, she mentions that they called it a Predator, and they say the exact same thing to her – it isn’t a predator, it is a hunter. A predator is something that preys on others but a Predator in the movies hunts for sport, so the names of these creatures make no sense at all considering what they are.
Wrong Name On Dog Tag
Dutch and his team did not want to take the mission, to begin with – they were always able to pick and choose what missions they took and named their conditions. However, when it came to this mission, Dutch agreed to take his team on it despite the fact that none of his conditions were met. Part of this was due to the fact that they were on a rescue mission to save soldiers that included a friend of Dutch’s – Jim Hopper.
When Dutch and his team found Jim’s body, Dutch said that he knew it was Jim. When the dog tag was shown to him, it proved that he was right. However, when looking closely at the dog tag, it doesn’t say “Jim,” “James,” or even the initial “J.” Instead, it read: “C.E. Hooper.” In the novel that is based on the movie, it read “J.S. Davis.” It sounds like the name was changed mid-production.
