Welcome back, Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Ary, and this is the ultimate history of the entire Predator franchise. So, the series began with the really simple idea. What if an alien hunted Arnold Schwarzenegger in the jungle and then it evolved from there into a decade-spanning cinematic universe that's part action, part horror, part dudes just hanging out together? So, we're going to dive deep into the mythology of the Predator species and also the real-life behind-the-scenes stories of how they came to be because that's just as interesting.
So, let's get started and go all the way back to 1985. One of the biggest franchises in Hollywood at the time was Rocky. And after Rocky 4, Sylvester Stallone's title boxer had already beaten Apollo Creed, Mr. T, and even communism. So, a joke started going around town that the only opponent left for Rocky to fight was an alien.
Two screenwriters, brothers Jim and John Thomas, took that to heart and started a screenplay called Hunter. The idea was that a team of alien hunters would go after various dangerous species. Now, eventually that was streamlined into a single alien hunter going after the most dangerous game of all, Peris. No, not Pumas. Man, man is the most dangerous game. And the Thomas brothers set the story in Central America, which was constantly in the news at the time because of its violent conflicts.
Eventually, Joel Silver was brought on to produce. Now, Silver was known for his big action movies like Lethal Weapon and Commando. Silver showed the script to the star of Commando, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Arnold didn't like that the film was basically just him versus a single alien, and that was it. The script was changed so that instead Arnold was part of a team of elite commandos. So between Joel Silver, Arnold, and these new characters, the sci-fi horror became a hybrid.
For the first half of the film, it's basically just a straight-up action war film. This actually worked in the story's favor because it reflects a major theme in the Predator series, that humans are basically violent monsters, no different than the Predators. Not only that, but it lured audiences into thinking that they were watching another macho 80s shoot 'em up before things go completely off the rails. It's similar to what Robert Rodriguez and Quinton Tarantino did a decade later with From Dust Till Dawn, which starts off as a typical Tarantino crime film before suddenly becoming a gory vampire movie.
Now, Predator is one of the greatest action movies of all time. The film established a formula that several others in the series have used. The Predator stalks a group of people, often soldiers or law enforcement or other kinds of hunters in their own right, but one by one, it takes them out until it has an extended battle with the last man or woman who's standing. Eventually, Arnold defeats the monster by combining his brawn with his brains, using mud to hide himself from the Predator's thermal vision. Defeated, the Predator uses a self-destruct sequence on his wrist to blow himself up like a form of alien sepuku.
Predator was released on June 12th, 1987 and was number one at the box office. While it had mixed reviews, it made nearly $100 million off a budget of less than 20 million. So, 20th Century Fox immediately green-lit a sequel. The sequel would also expand the mythology of the yacha and show that the predator wasn't a psychopathic serial killer, but part of a cultural tradition of hunting. The storyline moved from a real jungle to an urban jungle, an exaggerated dystopian version of modern Los Angeles, and it featured a new cast including Danny Glover.
Predator 2, while it expanded the predator lore, wasn’t the hit the first one was. It faced tough competition and didn’t perform as well at the box office. Despite that, it continued to develop the world of Predators, introducing new ideas and setting the stage for crossovers and more sequels down the line, including the Alien vs. Predator films and further expansions into comic books and video games.
The franchise took a few creative detours including the crossover series with the Alien franchise, which created mixed reactions among fans but expanded the universe further. Prey, a later installment set in the early 1700s, returned to the idea of indigenous warriors taking on a predator, reviving the franchise with a fresh take and was critically acclaimed.
The history of the Predator franchise shows its growth from a simple concept to a sprawling universe of films, comics, games, and much more, all exploring the dynamic and often terrifying presence of this iconic hunter.