Plenty of things from the Predator franchise have become ingrained in the public consciousness
over the decades, but there's a lot that's still unknown about these deep space big game
hunters, and plenty of things we do know that remain confusing.
We're here to help sort it out.
There's a lot we don't know about the Predators.
For example, the word "predator" is just what earthlings call these monsters.
"We took a vote.
'Predator's' cooler, right?"
Their language in the movies appears to be a collection of clicking noises represented
through a complex series of dashes in writing, so we're never quite sure what they prefer
to be called.
That said, the Predator expanded universe has revealed in the past that they're an alien
species known as the Yautja, or the Hish-Qu-Ten.
According to the lore, that latter name is "alien" speak for "The People Who Take Territory."
Whatever you want to call them, there are a handful of broad traits they share that
come up throughout each film.
First of all, the race seems to be guided by a desire to hunt for sport.
Often they'll seek out whatever passes for the greatest warriors in a given area and
stalk them as trophy game.
"This thing is hunting us.
All of us."
They've even been known to pass on human beings that don't pose an immediate threat or challenge,
hinting that they might be guided by a twisted sense of honor or sportsmanship.
They also seem to typically hunt in units of no more than three.
When they arrive at their hunting grounds, they're ready for combat, with elaborate armor
designed to help them track prey and turn invisible, and a helmet that allows them to
see heat signatures and other highly specific filters on the visual spectrum.
If you do manage to get through that armor, you'll be greeted with bright green luminescent
blood, assuming they don't self-destruct first.
Not much is known about the Predators' place of origin.
They're advanced enough to travel the galaxy but they've also shown signs of having a singular
home world with its own distinct culture and hierarchy.
However, none of that is really explained to any of the human beings that encounter
the Predators, they're often too busy running for their lives to swap stories.
Instead, humans typically deal with the warrior class of the Predators, those that are brave
enough to put boots on the ground and collect human trophies.
"He's on safari.
Lions.
The tigers.
The bears.
Oh my…"
"Trophies."
The Predator species has a sort of tribe mentality, and they're not above having conflicts amongst
themselves.
In short, part of what makes the Predators so scary is the fact that humans don't quite
know where they come from or what exactly they want other than to hunt them down and
dispatch them with extreme violence.
The first time we see Predators encountering humanity is in 1987, in the jungles of Central
America.
The first Predator film sees U.S. Special Operations Forces veteran Major Alan "Dutch"
Schaefer lead a group of five highly trained commandos and an old friend from the CIA on
a daring mission against some guerrilla troops.
On their way to the extraction point, the group of mercenaries finds itself stalked
by something that picks them off one by one.
Despite their training, they are simply no match for their bigger, stronger, and more
technologically advanced opponent.
However, the armor starts to crack when Dutch realizes that the creature seems to be hunting
for sport, when he sees it ignore an unarmed female captive.
"Run!
Go!
Get to da CHOPPA!"
Dutch also discovers a strategic advantage in the midst of battle.
When he's knocked into the mudbank of a river, the Predator has a tough time seeing him because
being covered in cold mud has reduced his heat signature.
Armed with some camouflage and makeshift traps, he engages the creature once more.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Through a series of clever strikes and brute force, Dutch is able to damage the Predator,
who responds by taking off its mask in an apparent show of respect for a worthy opponent.
"You're one ugly motherf---er."
Facing off one final time, Dutch manages to capture the creature in a trap, forcing it
to set off a self-destruct bomb to eliminate any trace of its failed hunt.
The Predators return years later for 1990's Predator 2.
After witnessing the heroism of police Lieutenant Michael R. Harrigan, this new Predator proceeds
to hunt the cops and robbers in his orbit.
Harrigan unknowingly tracks the monster before encountering Agent Peter Keyes, who informs
him that the U.S. government is aware of the extraterrestrial threat.
"A f---ing alien!"
Keyes reveals the bout with Dutch in Central America was only the latest in a string of
encounters in combat zones.
After discovering that the Predator feeds on animal meat, the feds set up a trap for
the Predator at a slaughterhouse, thinking they have the upper hand by masking their
heat signatures.
However, the Predator switches to a different view on his helmet and tracks their flashlights.
With any advantage they might have had now kaput, everyone but Harrigan is killed.
Eventually, Harrigan chases the Predator to its ship and engages it in single combat.
After he scores a narrow win, several more Predators uncloak themselves and collect their
dead comrade's body.
They present Harrigan with an antique pistol as a trophy for besting their champion and
allow him to leave the ship unharmed before they take off in defeat.
This is where things get complicated.
The same year fans caught a brief glimpse of a Xenomorph skull in Predator 2, Fox, which
owned both the Alien and Predator movie franchises, licensed a series of crossover comic tie-ins
that eventually led to the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator.
Though not well received critically, AvP provides perhaps the biggest glimpse into the culture
and the purpose of the Predators.
In the film, a group of scientists led by industrial tycoon Charles Bishop Weyland discovers
an underground pyramid some 2000 feet beneath the ice in Norway.
Weyland leads the team on an exploratory mission just as a trio of Predators arrive at the
entrance to the pyramid.
Through their exploration, they learn that the Predator species created the Xenomorphs
from early humans, who had worshiped the invaders as gods and allowed themselves to be transformed
into the 'ultimate prey'.
Every 100 years the Predators return to create and hunt the human sacrifices-turned-Xenomorphs
in a rite of passage for their species.
Two of the trio sent on the 2004 hunt die quickly, while one manages to eradicate this
century's Xenomorph threat by befriending a tough-as-nails woman named Alexa Woods.
As a slew of Predators that had been surveying the conflict appear, they too offer her a
weapon as a trophy for her successful fight and leave with their fallen comrade, presumably
back to their planet.
However, as soon as they leave the dead Predator alone, a Predator/Xenomorph hybrid emerges
from its chest to terrorize the ship full of hunters before it even leaves Earth's atmosphere.
Alien vs. Predator was followed by a sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, but there's
an ongoing debate over whether these films count as canonical for either franchise.
When Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise for the prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant,
he completely ignored the AvP story of the Xenomorphs' origins.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem picks up right after the events of AvP.
With a hybrid onboard that we will refer to as the "Predalien", the ship from the end
of the previous film crash-lands in Colorado.
A lone survivor sends a signal to the Predator homeworld warning them that the Xenomorph
threat persists.
One hunter takes it upon himself to go to Earth and eliminate them.
Unfortunately, the sequel focuses heavily on the members of the small Colorado town
where the Predator and Predalien have their conflict.
As a result, it doesn't do much to further the story of the species other than to highlight
the lengths the Predators will go to in order to claim victory over the Xenomorphs.
The movie's climax sees the Predator facing off against the Predalien in single combat.
Both of them inflict mortal wounds on the other before the government drops a tactical
nuke on the small town that's now overrun with aliens, and that's that.
The film ends with the Predator's plasma blaster falling into the hands of Weyland's corporate
partner, Yutani, who declares that the world simply isn't ready for this kind of technology
to be unleashed on human beings.
Set days before Halloween in 2018, The Predator kicks off as a group of soldiers is attacked
by one of the alien creatures during a mission on foreign soil.
U.S. Army Ranger Quinn McKenna manages to survive and mail himself some of the creature's
armor as proof of its existence.
He's debriefed and held captive with a ragtag group of other soldiers when the Predator
in question wakes up, and it's definitely not thrilled to find itself in a government
lab.
The Predator quickly escapes, prompting the soldiers to steal a prison bus and set off
on a mission to retrieve the mailed armor.
When they arrive at McKenna's house, they find his son took the armor to wear as a makeshift
Halloween costume.
With the Predator on their tail, they track down the boy and retrieve the armor.
Eventually the Predator catches up and forces them to surrender the items, only to be killed
when a larger Predator suddenly shows up.
This new, beastly-looking alien reveals through a voice translator that the species has stepped
up its hunting game and is now collecting DNA of other species to create stronger hybrids.
It's theorized in the film that, because Predators like a warm climate, global warming is hurling
humanity toward becoming the most attractive new hot spot for invasion.
It also turns out that the original Predator that attacked McKenna and his gang was delivering
a mysterious package to humanity, and that it also carried a shocking amount of human
DNA in its own genetic code.
The film ends with McKenna and a group of scientists realizing that the package the
Predator delivered was left on purpose.
Inside is a suit designed to fit on a human body, one that looks like it's made for the
specific purpose of combating Predators.
It doesn't take long for McKenna to call dibs on the new tech, meaning humanity is now prepared
to fight fire with fire the next time the Predators come a-hunting.
"That's my new suit, Bubba."
2010's Predators begins when a group of soldiers from all around the world wake up to find
themselves falling from the sky.
After realizing that they're dealing with Predators, the group of strangers deduces
that they've been hand-picked as some of Earth's greatest warriors and brought to some kind
of intergalactic game preserve.
"And we're the game."
Their theory is proven right when they discover a madman who has survived on the new planet
for what he calls "ten seasons" by scavenging and hiding.
He also reveals that there is a blood feud between the normal-looking Predators that
fans have seen in previous movies and new, larger Predators.
It seems that the Predators' DNA splicing eventually went awry, causing a rift among
the species.
While it seems that the Predators use the game preserve to sharpen their hunting skills,
it's also possible that the technology brought to Earth in The Predator made it so the planet
is no longer a viable hunting ground, which clearly hasn't stopped them from bringing
the hunt to their own turf.
Sadly, although two members of the party defeat the monsters, they fail in their mission to
get off the planet and back home to safety.
As a result, no one on Earth knows about this new strategy of kidnapping humans to hunt
off-planet, meaning McKenna's cool new suit may be useless to save humanity after all.
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