Mike Harrigan

Detective Lieutenant Michael R. "Mike" Harrigan is the main protagonist of Predator 2. He was an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department and head of a small team at the Alvarado Precinct during the gang wars of 1997. His investigation of severe gang violence led him to cross paths with that of a Predator in the city hunting the same gangs for sport.
He is portrayed by Danny Glover, who also played Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon films, Barbatus in Antz, Miles in Barnyard and Winston in Alpha and Omega and Detective David Tapp in Saw.
==Background==
According to himself, Harrigan grew up on the streets of Los Angeles with his close friend Danny Archuleta, and the two eventually joined the police force and went through training together. At one point, he was also good friends with fellow officer Phil Heinemann, but when the latter was promoted their friendship fractured as a result of their conflicting ideals and methods.
During his eighteen years of service with the LAPD, Harrigan was credited with destroying eleven police patrol cars in the line of duty, as well as a city bus and a streetsweeper in undisclosed incidents. He also received ten commendations for valor in the line of duty and held the best felony arrest record in the history of the LAPD. Harrigan's dedication to his duty unfortunately cost him a marriage and several long-term relationships.
==Biography==
===Mysterious Assailant entered the scene===
At the beginning of the movie, when two motorcycle officers were gunned down after inadvertently stumbling into a drug deal, Harrigan and his team rushed to the scene. Harrigan single-handedly assaulted the Colombian Scorpions, pursuing them into their stronghold and sending their leader, El Scorpio, plummeting from the building's roof. However, the rest of the gang members had already been slaughtered by the City Hunter, whom the police officers mistakenly believed to be some previously unknown hitman, possibly working for the Colombian's rivals, the Jamaican Voodoo Posse.
Following the shootout, Harrigan was warned by his superiors, Deputy Chief Heinemann and Captain Pilgrim to stay out of the investigation into the drug gangs, which was being taken over by Special Agent Peter Keyes of the DEA. Harrigan was also introduced to his cocky new partner, Jerry "The Lone Ranger" Lambert.
Harrigan's team later rushed to the scene when drug kingpin Ramon Vega was executed by several Jamaicans, who were themselves then killed inside Vega's apartment by the City Hunter. However, they were quickly removed from the crime scene by Keyes and his people. Suspicious with Keyes’ mysterious agenda, Harrigan formulated a plan to sneak back into the apartment later that night once Keyes' team had left, but Archuleta arrived first and became the City Hunter's next victim.
===Hunting his friend’s killer===
Now determined to find and kill Archuleta's murderer at any cost, Harrigan met with the leader of the Jamaican gang, King Willie, hoping to find information on the mysterious killer stalking the city. Moments after their unproductive meeting, King Willie also fell victim to the City Hunter. Harrigan next found himself being stalked by the Predator at the cemetery where Archuleta had been buried, the hunter leaving a piece of Archuleta's necklace hanging in a tree for Harrigan to find.
When evidence began to point to the killer being based in the city's slaughterhouse district, Harrigan asked Detectives Cantrell and Lambert to meet him so that they could investigate; upon reaching the meeting place, a Metro station, Harrigan discovered to his horror that the killer had struck again, killing several civilians and butchering Lambert. However, Cantrell was spared, which Harrigan deduced was due to her being pregnant. The Lieutenant took off in pursuit of the Predator but was apprehended and captured by Keyes' men.
===Learning about nature of the killer===
From Keyes, Harrigan finally learnt what he was dealing with — an extraterrestrial that killed for sport and honor and possessed incredible technology. Far from being in the DEA, Keyes was actually the head of the OWLF, a secret government taskforce seeking to capture the creature for study and had set a trap for it inside the slaughterhouse where it was known to feed. Despite Harrigan's warnings, Keyes's capture team was slaughtered, forcing Harrigan to escape from custody and face the Predator himself. While initially gaining the upper hand, the City Hunter soon rallied itself and almost killed Harrigan, before Keyes intervened, at the cost of his own life, giving the detective a chance to escape. The battle moved up to the building's roof, through Ruth Albright's adjacent apartment, and finally into the tunnels beneath the city, where Harrigan discovered the City Hunter's Mother Ship.
===Final Showdown===
On board the vessel, Harrigan discovered a trophy cabinet containing the skulls of the myriad creatures the Predator had stalked and killed, including a Xenomorph Warrior. Inside the ship, Harrigan and the City Hunter faced off in a final hand-to-hand duel that began by the City Hunter, with Harrigan ultimately killing the City Hunter with its own Smart-Disc. With the hunter defeated, Harrigan suddenly found himself surrounded by several more of the creatures. Exhausted, he resigned himself to his fate. However, the leader of the Predators, Greyback, honored Harrigan with an antique flintlock pistol and, gathering their fallen comrade's body, the Predators left aboard their ship as Harrigan fled from the exhaust.
After reaching the surface, Harrigan was confronted by Keyes' senior officer, Garber, furious that the detective had killed the creature they sought to capture. Looking at the flintlock in his hand, Harrigan assured him he would get another chance.
==Trivia==
*Patrick Swayze and Steven Seagal were both considered for the role of Mike Harrigan before Danny Glover was cast. Swayze decided to star in Road House instead and director Stephen Hopkins couldn't take Seagal seriously.
*When Harrigan says "you are one ugly..." and the creature interrupts him to finish the sentence, it does so in a Germanic accent (like Dutch in the previous film), which indicates that it must have studied what happened in Predator.
*In the novelization, Harrigan doesn't kill the Predator but severely wounds it with the Smart Disc at which point the Elder Predator and other Hunters arrive at which point City Hunter willingly allows the Elder Predator to decapitate it.
*In the scene which Harrigan gets blamed by Deputy Chief Heinemann for Danny's death. Harrigan's profile as a Los Angeles police officer on the computer monitor reads as followed: Violence prone. Obsessive/Compulsive personality. History of excessive physical force incidents. Aggression level 40% above average and they has been a officer of the LAPD for 18 years. This means Harrigan joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1979.
*He is similar with Clovis, the cat protagonist of the 1992 film Sleepwalkers, as both have lived among the police, had their close friends (Danny Archuleta for Harrigan and Andy for Clovis) killed by the main antagonist, and later, get their revenge.
**Unlike Clovis, however, who avenged the death of his close friend with the help of numerous friends, Mike ended up having to kill the main villain in the end. Also, Harrigan is an actual police and Clovis is merely the pet of Andy who happened to be in the police.
*Danny Glover previously worked with Gary Busey (Peter Keyes) and Steve Kahan (Sergeant) in Lethal Weapon.
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