If you happened to stumble upon any of the numerous Predator films without
seeing all the ones that came before, you might come away confused. Here's
what each entry in the "Predator" series means in the context of the franchise,
including what it adds to the bigger-picture mythos.
"Predator" follows an elite team of mercenaries on a rescue mission deep in the heart of a
guerilla-controlled area in Central America. The team, led by ex-special forces Major
Alan "Dutch" Schaefer, quickly finds unexpected helicopter wreckage, a slew of skinned corpses,
and evidence of a killer that leaves no tracks. They make quick work of a group of insurgents,
taking one unarmed female insurgent, Anna, captive.
As the mercenary team moves forward, the unseen foe starts to pick off members one by one.
"You ain't afraid of no man!"
"There's something out there waiting for us. And it ain't no man."
Anna tells Dutch of a local legend: a creature that hunts humans for sport.
Eventually only Dutch and Anna remain, and Dutch realizes the creature only targets armed prey:
he sends Anna off alone so she'll be safe from its attacks.
Dutch becomes covered in mud, discovering that the mud allows him to hide from
the entity as it moves on. Dutch is able to damage its cloaking device,
but he is still overcome by the creature, AKA the Predator, more accurately known as a Yautja.
It drops its armor and weapons for a fair fight, and Dutch nearly loses before
catching the Predator in a trap. The fallen Yautja activates a self-destruct device.
Dutch narrowly escapes, fleeing just before the creature's self-destruction.
As our introduction to the species, "Predator" demonstrates a number of characteristics of
the creature. Visually, they're adorned in seemingly light but powerful armor,
and have menacingly tough alien bodies.They have a high-technology spacefaring civilization
with an advanced and distinct language, deadly weapons, cloaking technology,
and they're smart, strong, adaptive warriors who can spot and create traps.
The Yaujta are here killing armed prey for sport, often hunt alone,
skin their quarry, and take trophies. If their hunt fails and they're facing death,
they'd rather kill themselves than lose. At this point in the franchise,
we can only infer that such a hunt was the Predator's sole motivation for traveling to Earth.
From the film we learn that the Yautja actually enjoy the challenge, and also exhibit a menacing
joy in getting that last one-up kill on their prey. The film effectively set the
tone for every subsequent portrayal of the entity, and its legacy affects the series.
The film received mixed critical reviews in its day but its box office success was undeniable,
netting $98 million on a production budget of $18 million.
The film cemented the Predators as an iconic movie monster species, fueling
20th Century Fox to greenlight numerous direct and spin-off sequels over subsequent decades.
The second film shifts the action into urban territory. A gang war brings the involvement
of LAPD Lieutenant Mike Harrigan and his team. The cops barge into a hideout to find a Colombian
gang slaughtered, and Harrigan follows the panicked survivor to the roof to see the vague,
transparent silhouette of a large, semi-invisible man. At his precinct,
Harrigan is introduced to Special Agent Keyes, the leader of a task force investigating the cartels.
That night, another gangland killing is interrupted by the Predator. Harrigan and his team
investigate the scene of the crime and find an alien spear. Keyes enters and threatens Harrigan
to stay away, but Harrigan returns and pursues the Predator. He's captured by Keyes' team,
who explains that the Predator is a camouflaged alien hunter who prowls areas with armed conflict.
"Drawn by heat and conflict. He's on safari. Lions, the tigers, the bears. Oh my."
"Trophies."
Keyes' team sets a trap, but they're easily overcome by the Yautja, and Harrigan pursues the
alien himself. The fight between the Predator and Harrigan continues downward into tunnels
beneath the city, where Harrigan discovers the Yautja spacecraft and its skull-adorned
trophy room — which happens to include a skull that looks like it belongs to a Xenomorph from
the "Alien" franchise. He manages to kill the Yautja with its own weapon, causing a group
of Predators to appear, collect the fallen alien, and present Harrigan with a trophy.
"Predator 2" made a number of important leaps for our understanding of the mythos of the Predators.
First, it widened the scope of the types of warrior-combatant prey we know Predators hunt, and
showed that they're as willing to hunt in crowded city centers as they are in remote combat zones.
While the film added new weapons to their arsenal, it also shows that lone-hunter Yautja don't travel
to a planet unobserved. Other hunters will take the body of a fallen comrade 'home'
upon its failure to self-destruct, a unique evolution of their culture that
adds significant ritual to their hunts. The film also explains the species' propensity
to travel to this planet to hunt humans for sport, particularly in combat zones,
and that at least some groups in the government are aware of the predation.
Finally, in showing the ship's trophy room and the Xenomorph skull within it,
it suggests that the "Alien" and "Predator" worlds take place in the same universe,
and that the Yautja hunt Xenomorphs too, the first cinematic introduction of that concept.
"Predator 2" added to the Yautja's weaponry and tactical prowess, implicitly provided
the intellectual underpinning for the "Alien vs. Predator" spin-off films and evolved our Yautja
cultural understanding: showing their entire alien civilization is built around the hunt.
Despite the film's current cult classic status,
"Predator 2" suffered mostly negative reviews in its day and fared much more poorly at the
box office than its predecessor. The film's relatively lackluster performance at the time
effectively paused the franchise until the "Alien vs. Predator" spin off franchise hit in 2004.
In short, "Predator 2" proved mighty influential in its cementing many aspects of Predator lore,
but its relative lack of success paused the individual franchise for some time.
In 2004's "Alien vs. Predator," wealthy industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland
assembles a team to investigate a mysterious heat signature beneath an island north of Antarctica.
Meanwhile, a Predator ship reaches Earth's orbit and fires an energy beam straight at the heat
signature's location, creating a 'tunnel' to its source: an ancient pyramid. The team
finds the tunnel as well as evidence of ancient humans in what seem to be sacrificial chambers.
The team unintentionally activates devices within the pyramid,
reanimating a Xenomorph Queen from stasis, who produces a host of Xenomorph eggs.
Facehuggers attach to humans trapped in the sacrificial chamber, quickly maturing into
adult Xenomorphs. Conflict erupts and escalates between the Xenomorphs, humans, and the Yautja,
and one of the Yautja — known as "Scar" — finds himself attacked by a facehugger.
Hieroglyph translations reveal that Predators have been visiting Earth for thousands of years and
were once worshipped as gods. They periodically return as part of a hunting ritual where humans
are sacrificed to produce Xenomorphs as prey. Weyland team guide Lex and Scar form an alliance,
planting Scar's self-destruct device in the Xenomorph hive to destroy the
remaining Xenomorphs and eggs. The Queen survives, but the pair ultimately defeat her,
although Scar dies from wounds received in battle. A Predator ship uncloaks,
and the Yautja present Lex with a spear, then take Scar's body before ascending. The film
ends as we watch a Predalien, a combination of Predators and Aliens, burst from his chest.
"Alien vs. Predator" is notably the first film to establish that the
Predators have been hunting on Earth for thousands of years. And more than that,
they were instrumental in the earliest human civilizations'
and were a major factor in the development of early human culture and, possibly, religion.
We also find out Earth is at least one special location where Yautja
rites of passage were conducted to facilitate the Xenomorph hunt.
Long treated as non-canon, the two-film "Alien vs. Predator" series introduces a variety of
aspects to both "Predator" and "Alien" mythos. While "Predator 2" suggested the two species
share the same universe, it took a detail in 2018's "The Predator" to subtly reinforce it.
In that movie, Casey Bracket is shown the Alien tail Combi-spear crafted for Lex in
"AVP," implicitly confirming their canonicity in the official "Predator" universe. Though,
given Ridley Scott's antipathy towards the crossover and the "Prometheus" and "Alien:
Covenant" detail differences, it's safe to say they're not canon in the "Alien" franchise.
Additionally, despite its critical detractors, the film performed quite
well at the box office with $172 million worldwide on a $70 million budget,
breathing new life into the "Predator" and "Alien" franchises. That said,
its influence is nonetheless still controversial — for "Predator" purposes we can safely say
that the current state of the franchise validates its additions to Predator lore.
"AVP: Requiem" begins exactly where "AVP" left off, with a hatched Predalien emerging
from Scar's fallen body, rampaging through the craft and crashing it outside a Colorado town.
The ship's distress signal is received by the elite Predator Wolf, who travels
to Earth to eradicate the Predalien and any facehuggers that escaped. On Earth, a number
of facehuggers find hosts, while Wolf lands and starts to clean up evidence of the alien menace.
Wolf tracks a number of Xenomorphs into the town sewers, and several escape into the town above.
Meanwhile, several humans regroup at a local sporting goods store. Wolf and
Xenomorphs enter and battle inside the store as the surviving humans escape.
The survivors contact the military and are directed to the center of town for evacuation.
The human survivors split off, with some moving to use the hospital's helicopter to escape the area.
The hospital splinter group finds the building overrun by Xenomorphs and the Predalien,
and Wolf arrives to kill a number of the Xenos, losing a blaster in the process. The humans grab
the blaster, and conflict rages between them, the Xenomorphs, and Wolf. The human survivors fight
their way to the roof, board the chopper, and take off — all while Wolf and the Predalien engage in
final combat on the roof, mortally wounding each other. Meanwhile, the military has lied about
evacuation and instead bombs the city to eliminate the alien threat. The shockwave crashes the
escaping hospital helicopter, where the remaining survivors are rescued by awaiting military forces.
Soon, Wolf's recovered plasma blaster is presented to a woman named Ms. Yutani.
Building directly off its predecessor, "Alien vs. Predator:
Requiem" shows that Predators will call on the assistance of others in case of emergency,
and that the species will sometimes attempt to clean up evidence of their activities.
Additionally, they seem intent on preventing Xenomorphs from escaping to dominate a planet. We
also see Wolf use weapons that we have not seen in use by other Yautja, including the Yautja Whip,
laser mines, and the Power Punch Glove that amplifies the Predator's punching power.
Finally, we see an extraterrestrial plasma pistol given to Ms. Yutani
of the Yutani Corporation. The company's 2099 merger with the
Weyland Corp produced the Weyland-Yutani Corporation we see in the "Alien" films.
Like "AVP," whether or not 'Requiem's' contributions
are canon hinges entirely on the overall status of the spinoffs.
The film was overall received more poorly than any other "Predator" film,
yet it earned a higher profit margin than the preceding spinoff at a $128
million take on a $40 million budget. The near-universally poor critical reception
put the directors' plans for a third spinoff on indefinite hold. Nonetheless,
its contributions to Yautja weaponry and culture have stayed with the franchise.
"Predators" begins with mercenary Royce waking up while parachuting into an unfamiliar jungle
alongside several other humans. As it turns out, they're all armed and lethal killers,
except for one, a doctor named Edwin. When night comes, they see an alien sky, for the first time
realizing they're no longer on Earth. The makeshift teammates soon find themselves
attacked by four-legged extraterrestrial beasts before a whistle calls them off.
The team discovers a captive Predator, but are soon attacked by three massive "Super Predators,"
known as the Tracker, Berserker, and Falconer. The human team flees, and eventually encounter
Ronald Noland, a lone U.S. soldier who survived on the alien planet by looting and hiding.
Noland reveals the planet is a Predator game reserve where Yautja train against deadly
warriors and creatures. There, the Predators hunt in threes, and the smaller and larger Yautja feud.
"The larger ones hunt the smaller ones it's some kind of
blood feud I guess, been going on for a long time."
Conflict between the Predators and the humans eventually kills Noland, several team members,
and the Tracker and Falconer Yautja. Edwin becomes injured and Isabelle refuses to leave him, but
Royce moves on to free the captured Yautja in hope of escape. The smaller Yautja activates
a ship and programs its return to Earth. The Berserker arrives, kills the smaller Yautja,
and blows up the ship. Royce returns for the others and discovers Edwin has revealed himself
to have been a serial killer back on Earth. Knowing Edwin's far more than an innocent doctor,
Royce uses him as grenade-trapped bait. The Berserker triggers the trap, and Royce and
Isabelle kill it. The film ends with the pair looking at the alien sky as more parachutes fall.
"Predators" adds a large array of elements to the mythology of the Predator universe.
First, and perhaps most notably, is that the Predator species has two distinct
subspecies with a long history of antagonism and a considerable size difference. The smaller group is
often referred to as the Jungle Hunter Clan, while the Super Predators are larger and more muscular.
We also learn that while Jungle Hunter Yautja
frequently travel across the galaxy to hunt various prey, Super Predator Yautja
have a planet of unknown location where they regularly deposit and hunt dangerous species.
This is also the first instance in the film series where Yautja are seen hunting with
quadrupedal animals, a facet of their hunting culture that hasn't yet been shown on screen.
Finally, there's the case of Edwin — the Yautja have long been known to hunt armed combatants
in combat zones, situations where predation is easily visible for a Predator to track,
find, and hunt armed prey. With Edwin, we discover that the Predators' methods of reconnaissance
are much more sophisticated, as they were able to discover that he was a killer,
despite his methods being less visible than the armed combatants that Predators typically hunt.
With "Predators," Fox reinvigorated the franchise,
reorienting it away from the "AVP" spinoffs and towards new individual "Predator" outings.
The film added a lot to the mythos: an entirely new race of Yautja, a game reserve planet,
a new level of detail in the Yautja's search for deadly combatants, and hunting animals.
The film grossed $127 million on a $40 million budget and received the most
acclaim in the film franchise since the 1987 original. Super Predators have not
appeared in a subsequent film, but the film's cinematic sequel "The Predator"
does contain a massive Predator with genetically modified DNA. It's unclear,
however, if there is a connection between the Super Predators and that film's massive Yautja.
"The Predator" opens with one Yautja ship fleeing another before crash landing on Earth,
interrupting Army Ranger Quinn McKenna's mission. The alien attacks his team before he
incapacitates it with its weaponry and flees with
Yautja armor. McKenna manages to send the technology home. When he returns,
he's interrogated by agents from Project Stargazer and put on a military prison transport.
Biologist Casey Bracket arrives at a Stargazer research
lab to investigate the captured Predator body and the inexplicably spliced DNA its body contains.
The Predator wakes up, rampages, and flees. McKenna and other soldiers
hijack their prison transport, meet up with Bracket, and proceed to McKenna's house.
They discover that McKenna's autistic son Rory had found the Yautja armor and left the house
actually wearing it. McKenna and the soldiers eventually find the boy before the Predator,
and the three attempt to give the Predator its armor back before a larger,
more powerful Predator emerges and kills the first. The humans flee, and Bracket
gathers that the Predators may be attempting to improve themselves through genetic engineering.
"If I'm right, it means they're trying to upgrade themselves."
The group is discovered and interrogated by government agent Will Traeger and his agents,
who have taken Rory upon discovering that he gained knowledge of the aliens. McKenna and
the escaped soldiers ambush Traeger's agents before being ambushed by the larger Predator
in turn. The larger Predator takes Rory to his ship, seeing his unique mind as an adaptation
worthy of genetic incorporation and attempts to take off before McKenna's allies ground the ship,
and the Yautja is killed with its own weapons. The film ends with the discovery that the first,
smaller Predator was transporting a human-sized piece of advanced 'Predator' armor to Earth,
labeled a 'Predator killer' suit.
"The Predator" reveals that at some point the Yautja species
began genetic engineering to incorporate the strengths of other species into their DNA.
The two Predators we encounter are both genetically engineered but have wildly
different attributes. Additionally, the film implicitly folds "Alien vs. Predator"
into the "Predator" franchise through its highlighting a weapon exclusive to that film.
We also discover that the human/Yautja hybrid was on a mission to deliver the advanced,
human-sized 'Predator Killer' armor, presumably to give humanity an advantage against a possible
future invasion. The reason for this gift may be due to sympathies resulting from that specific
Predator being partially human, but we at least know that the intentional hybridization of the
Yautja species is yet another major development in the Predator mythos.
"The Predator" is notable for its intriguing suggestion that the Yautja may be interested
in the future of humanity on a larger scale beyond the hunt,
including potential genetic incorporation.
The film was a relatively modest success by Hollywood standards, delivering a $159
million global box office on an $88 million budget. Critically, it wasn't as successful,
with a rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. Believe it or not, this still makes it the third highest
rated film in the entire series. Overall, we have yet to see the full impact of the film's legacy,
including the genetic engineering and the potential for a larger Yautja threat,
but its contribution to their cinematic mythos is definitely worth thinking about.
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