Predator

## Summary

**Predator** is an action packed horror movie with Soliders in the junge trying to fight an Alien hunter.

## Story

Maj. Alan "Dutch" Schaffer and his team of Army Special forces units were on a mission from a CIA agent named George Dillon in a jungle in South America to discover what has happened with a previous team that failed in thier mission. After defeating an enemy military camp, they soon find out that they are being stalked by a strange Alien Hunter who skins humans and collects their skulls as trophies. It will take their determination and skill to survive against this new fresh threat.

## Johnny's Review

### General Thoughts

Up until Friday, I only saw bits and parts of this movie, and only the climatic events. I haven't seen the entire movie.

### Story

The Story is similar to *Aliens*, it's not solely an action movie, and not solely a horror movie, it is somewhere in between. Personally, I am not fan of horror movies since they are quite boring and a bit spooky sometimes (depending on the movie). Like Aliens, it does both movie genres good justice.

**Grade:** A

### Character Interpretation

The characters in the movie are supposed to be in the military, but what they do for the majority of the movie is set up improvised traps, something that is surprisingly impractical for these kind of soldiers to do. However, in the beginning they do a good job of being in a stealth operation and even going into an enemy camp and shooting it up (a classic action movie cliche)

**Grade:**C

### Actor Portrayal

Virtually all of the actors in this movie did a great job ortraying their military characters and even being out the individual personalities of each, especially Shane Black's character (who is supposed to be a nerd) and even Sonny Landham's character (wo is assumaby a Native American). All-n-all they did a good job.

**Grade:**A+

### Final Thoughts

Eventhough it was only recently I saw the entire movie, but I have to say it was worth it, yes it was impractical in some spots, but very enjoyable, even more so than the recent versions.

**Overall Grade:**B+

*Note:*For classic movies, I will put in some fun facts about the movie as well as some movie mistakes.

## Fun Facts

* The Minigun used by Jesse Ventura's character (Blain) had to be modified multple time in order to make it practical for mobile combat use.
* In between development, some of the actors would do weight training early in the morning, Carl Weathers on the other hand would wait until everybody is done to his own exercise routine.
* The movie also saw some of the actors getting into some bad habits.
	+ Jesse Ventura: Him taking up chewing Tobacco helped him get the role of Blain.
	+ Carl Weathers: When he met Arnold Scwarzenegger, he was offered a Cigar, after saying no a few times he eventually said yes. After his first Cigar, Scwarzenegger gave him a box of Cigars, making him a Cigar Smoker.
* The Predator's blood was a mixture of Moutain Dew, Hydrogen Peroxide in Phthalic ester (the same chemical found in Glow Sticks) and KY Jelly.
* Shane Black had some wardrobe distastes for the movie. First, he hated the glasses he had to wear for his character and opted for the special issue ballisitc glasses worn by actual soldiers on the field, but John McTiernan (the director of the movie) wanted him to be as geeky as possible. He even turned don to wear a Maroon Beret for his character, but later regretted the decision.
* Jean-Claude Van Damme was the first choice for the role of the Predator. But because he was shorter than most of the other characters. He was let go and replaced by the much taller Kevin Peter Hall.
* Arnold Scwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura had a contest regarding to the measurements of their arms. Ventura always thought his arm was about 1 inch bigger than Scharzenegger's. But when it turned out that Schwarzenegger's was bigger, he was received a bottle of Champagne.
* The entire cast had to endure an extremely harsh environment of the Jungle: Oppressive heat and humidity, poisonous bugs and other animals and even dangerous plants. The night scenes on the other hand were almost the opposite, very cold. This was especially hard on Schwarzenegger as he had to wear pottery clay all over his body (which in the movie was supposed to be mud so his character's heat signature can be hidden). At times, Scwarzenegger's body temperature dropped and was almost hypothermic. They tried to use heat lamps to warm him up, but it would also dry out the clay. Scwarzenegger even tried drinking something called Jagertea (which is tea mixed in with Schnapps) where he hoped that it would put enough alcohol in his body to keep him warm but not so much where he gets drunk, unfortunately it only did the latter.

## Movie Mistakes

* In one scene, there wasa Boa Constricter on a tree, a Jungle animal indiginous to the Jungles of Southeast Asia, not the Amazon where the movie took place.
* Mac (Bill Duke) was seen shaving and cut himself while doing when he hears the Predator. Soldioers are told to not shave in an environment such as the jungle due to the risk of contracting a deadly disease.
* The blades used by the Predator to Impale Dillon (Carl Weathers) would've done so much internal body damage that Dillon wouldn't be able to scream as he did in the movie as his diaphragm and his lungs would've been severely damaged.
* The famous shootout in the jungle (after Blain's death) would be very impractical for the soldiers would do. They would (more likely) actively persue.
* The soldiers throughout the movie would wear inconsistant clothing, such as just their vests to all of a sudden full camoflage clothing.
* Contrary to Popular belief. Covering yourself with mud would not hide your heat signature.
* As stated before, the soldiers in the movie impractically practice using the knowledge of setting up improvised traps. This was common for US Soliders that were in Vietnam to defend their positions, but these soldiers more than likely didn't fight in Vietnam since the USA ended their involvement in the early 1970's nearly 20 years before this movie took place.