Franchise Flashback: Predator

So easily one of our absolute favorite movies here at Everything Action is Predator, a movie so manly it’s one step away from just injecting testosterone directly into your neck.  From what I’m hearing, the new sequel, Predators, does a good job of capturing that same attitude.  I’m definitely excited to see the new movie because the Predator franchise has been a little lacking to say the least.

Predator (1987): A Delta Force rescue team is called in the jungles of Central America by the CIA to help rescue a Presidental cabinet minister, whose helicopter crashed and the passengers kidnapped by rebels.  Leading the Delta Force team is Dutch and he joins his old buddy Dillon, now working for the CIA, and the team heads into the jungle.  They discover the wreckage of the helicopter and also the bodies of a Green Beret squad, skinned and hanging from the trees.  Making their way to the rebel village the team destroys it and kills the entire rebel squad but finds no signs of the minister.  Dillon admits the job was to a lie to get the village cleared so that operations in the area could continue.  Taking the only survivor of the attack, a rebel woman, the team heads for their extraction point but begin to get taken out one by one by a mysterious, invisible alien.  Trying their best to kill it, the team is reduced down until just Dutch and the woman, Anna, are left.  Dutch tells Anna to get to the extraction chopper and then leads the Predator away.  Barely escaping by having his body heat blocked by mud, Dutch fashions some primitive traps and weapons and makes a final stand against the Predator.  Crushing the alien with a log trap, Dutch barely escapes it’s failsafe device, which causes a nuclear explosion, and gets rescued by the chopper.

Predator 2 (1990): Ten years after the incident in Central America, another Predator arrives in Los Angeles, where a vicious street war is raging between the Colombians, Jamaicans and the police.  Lieutenant Michael Harrigan and his team are engaged in a shootout with a Colombian gang when gang retreats into a building.  Explosions and gunfire come from inside and when Harrigan and his team enter, they find all the gang members killed.  Returning to the station, Harrigan finds out that a federal task force is investigating the cartels, led by Special Agent Peter Keyes.  Harrigan is also getting a new team member, Jerry Lambert.  Members of the cartels continue to be killed in brutal ways and the team suspects something is up when they find a Predator weapon embedded in an air conditioner at one of the crime scenes. Two of Harrigan’s officers are killed by the Predator.  Harrigan catches the Predator in the middle of removing one of the officer’s spine and skull as a trophy and he gives chase, only to be caught by Keyes and his men.  Keyes reveals that his team is actually trying to capture one of the aliens.  Heading into a building where the Predator has been stealing food, Keyes and his team wear thermal suits and are armed with liquid nitrogen guns.  The Predator, unable to see the team in infrared, switches to ultraviolet and kills everyone but Keyes.  Keyes and Harrigan pursue the Predator to the rooftops.  Keyes tries to use his liquid nitrogen but is killed by the Predator’s disc weapon.  Harrigan manages to force the Predator over the edge and it tries to self destruct, but Harrigan cuts off it’s arm with it’s own disc.  The Predator falls but survives and flees into a basement.  Harrigan follows and discovers the Predator actually fled into the Predator spaceship.  Harrigan battles and kills the Predator but a group of elder Predators materializes.  Respecting Harrigan’s win, they present him with an antique pistol and then allow him to leave.

Alien vs Predator (2004): A research team led by billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland heads to Antartica to investigate a mysterious heat signature that was detected by satellite.  Heading down a shaft near an old whaling station, the team finds an ancient pyramid.  On the surface a team of three Predators arrives and kills everyone and then follows the team into the temple.  Finding what appears to be a sacrificial chamber, the team finds a box of mysterious weapons.  Taking them seemingly activates a power source causing the pyramid to shift and Alien eggs to hatch.  Several of the team members are attacked by face huggers, which causes full grown Aliens to start running around the temple, battling the Predators and killing the team members.  Eventually it comes down to team guide Alexa and a single Predator.  Alexa manages to kill one of the aliens and gains the respect of the Predator, who makes her some weapons out of the alien carcass.  The two decide to use the Predator’s self destruct device to blow up the pyramid and escape to the surface.  However, the Alien Queen bursts out and chases them across the ice.  Alexa and the Predator manage to tie the Queen to the chain of a water tower and topple it over a cliff, pulling the Queen into the chasm.  The Predator is mortally wounded and dies and his body is collected by group of Predators who just arrived in their ship.  They take the body on board and give Alexa a spear as a sign of respect.  However, the dead Predator was face hugged and a chestburster busts out that has characteristics of both the Alien and Predator species.

Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007): Directly following AVP, the Predalien grows to maturity and wrecks havoc on the Predator ship, causing it to crash outside of the small town of Gunnison, CO.  The Predators are all killed and the Predalien and some facehuggers escape.  A father and son and some homeless people are all facehugged and adult aliens grow out of them.  A distress call from the Predators is answered by a Predator on their homeworld and he arrives on Earth, erasing all evidence of the Alien presence and the following and killing several Aliens in the sewers of the town.  The Aliens escape into the streets and start attacking the townspeople.  A group of survivors meets up in sporting goods store to get weapons and try to escape the town.  The national guard arrive but are all killed by Aliens.  The Predator and Aliens battle into the sporting goods store and the group retreats.  The Predators shoulder cannon is damaged but he turns it into a pistol.  The human group manages to get into contact with the Army, who claims they are evacuating at the center of town.  Soldier mom Kelly isn’t buying it and the group splits into two, with Kelly leading one group to the local hospital to take it’s helicopter and the other group heading to the evacuation point.  The hospital is infested with Aliens as the Predalien had been pumping embryos into the pregnant women there.  The humans manage to get into the helicopter while the Predator and Predalien battle.  The Army’s “rescue” turns out to be a bomber armed with a nuke that destroys the entire town and causes Kelly and the others to crash their chopper.  They are rescued by the military and the Predator’s pistol, which the survivors stole, is taken and presented to a Ms. Yutani.