Predators

Dir: Nimród Antal

2010

***

A Predator sequel that was to be linked to the original series and not the AVP films and directed by none other than Robert Rodriguez seemed too good to be true, and in many respects it was. Funnily enough though, Predators had been in development (sort of ) since 1994, just four years after Predator 2 came out. Rodriguez wrote an early script for the film for 20th Century Fox while he was working on Desperado back in the mid-90s. Rodriguez presented the script to the studio, but was knocked back when they realized that the budget would be too large. Fifteen years later, the studio called him back. The Spy Kids director recalled the phone call in an interview “'Hey, we want to redo this franchise and we found your old script. This is where we should have gone with the series! We want to move forward.” And that was that. Rodriguez updated the script somewhat but it was essentially as it was back in 94. The film was produced at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios as opposed to 20th Century Fox so that Rodriguez had more creative control over the film but he decided not to direct the film himself and instead asked the brilliantly named Nimród Antal to helm the movie. Rodriguez and Antal expressed that they wanted this film to be a sequel only to the original Predator while not necessarily discounting Predator 2). However, they wanted to distance the film from the first two Alien vs. Predator (AVP) films. Antal stated the reasoning behind the decision to dismiss the AVP films was that he wanted the film to be closer in tone to the original Predator film, as the AVP films had taken the Predator series in a too outlandish direction. It is, essentially, an updated reworking of the original film with an ensemble cast of colourful characters. It starts as ominously as the 1987 original. Royce (Adrien Brody) awakens to find himself parachuting into an unfamiliar jungle. He meets several others who arrived in the same manner: Mexican drug cartel enforcer Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov), Israel Defense Forces sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga), Revolutionary United Front officer Mombasa (Mahershala Ali), San Quentin death row inmate Stans (Walton Goggins), Yakuza enforcer Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien) and general practice doctor Edwin (Topher Grace). Upon landing, they discover that all are armed and lethal killers, with the apparent exception of Edwin who is a doctor. None of them know where they are or how they got there. The group follows Royce, who establishes leadership skills and who the group suspects is a former black operations soldier turned mercenary. Arriving at higher ground, they find themselves staring at an alien sky and realize that they are not on Earth. In the jungle they find a plant with a neurotoxic poison that Edwin collects on a scalpel, empty cages, deadfall traps, and a deceased US Special Forces soldier. The party is attacked by a pack of quadruped alien beasts. Royce deduces they are on a planet used as a game preserve, where humans are hunted as game. Cuchillo is killed, and his body is then used as bait to lure the survivors into a trap, which they avoid. The group follows the quadrupeds' tracks to a camp and finds a captive Predator. Their hunters, three larger "Super Predators" known as the Tracker, Berserker and Falconer, attack the group. Mombasa is killed and the rest of the group escapes. Royce confronts Isabelle, believing she knows something about the alien creatures based on her shock of recognition when they encountered the captive Predator. She reveals that she has heard of the Predators before, from a report by the only survivor (Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer - Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character from the first film) of a Special Forces team who encountered one in 1987 in Guatemala. The group next meets Noland (Laurence Fishburne), a solitary American soldier, who has survived on the planet for "ten seasons" by hiding and scavenging from the Predators and their victims. At his hideout, he explains that the Predators hunt in threes and sharpen their killing skills by abducting warriors and dangerous beasts from other worlds and bringing them to the planet to hunt. Noland also reveals that there is a blood feud between the larger Predators and the smaller ones. Royce devises a plan hoping that if they can free the smaller Predator being held prisoner in the encampment, it may take them home using the larger Predators' spaceship. When the group fall asleep, Noland traps them in a room and attempts to use smoke to suffocate them. Having gone mad, he plans to kill them for their equipment and supplies. Royce uses an explosive to break out of the room, attracting the Predators to the hideout. Noland tries to escape and is killed by the Tracker Predator. In the ensuing chase, Nikolai uses two claymores to kill the Tracker, sacrificing himself. As the remaining group flees, they are intercepted by the Berserker Predator. Stans distracts it by attacking it with his shiv, buying time for the others to escape, and is killed when Berserker rips out his spine and skull. As they continue to flee, Hanzo stays behind to duel the Falconer Predator with a katana that he found in Noland's hideout, killing it before dying from his wounds. Royce, Isabelle and Edwin continue to head for the Super Predators' camp hoping to enact Royce's plan, until Edwin is injured by a trap. When Isabelle refuses to abandon him, Royce leaves them both behind and they are caught by the Berserker. Royce frees the smaller captive Predator in exchange to return to Earth. The Predator dons his armor and hacks into the computer of the Super Predators' ship using his wrist computer, and sets a course for Earth. Royce runs to the ship as the Berserker arrives, and the two Predators confront each other. The Berserker kills its foe and uses his wrist computer to self destruct the ship as it takes off, ostensibly killing Royce. Meanwhile, Edwin paralyzes Isabelle using the neurotoxic poison he had earlier captured and reveals that on Earth he was a mass-murderer, and feels that he fits in on this planet among the monsters. Royce appears, never having boarded the ship, and stabs Edwin with his own scalpel, paralyzing him. Royce booby-traps Edwin with grenades, using him as bait to injure the remaining Predator. While an injured and partially paralyzed Isabelle crawls for her sniper rifle, he proceeds to fight the Berserker with an axe. Isabelle is able to shoot the Predator and Royce eventually decapitates it. As Royce and Isabelle rest, they observe parachutes opening in the distant sky. Royce, surmising that more Predators will soon arrive to hunt the new prey, tells Isabelle they must find another way to get off the planet, and they make their way back towards the jungle. Antal and Rodriguez specifically wanted to avoid casting a leading actor who was physically similar to Schwarzenegger, wanting to "go in a very different direction" and reasoning that real-life soldiers are wiry and tough rather than burly. "We thought casting a physically 'Schwarzenegger-esque' character would have done the original film a disservice" although Adrien Brody did put on twenty-five pounds of muscle for the role. The rest of the cast are a great, if not a little cartoonish, collection of misfits and bad-guys. Rodriguez had hoped to have Arnold Schwarzenegger play a cameo role as Dutch, his character from the original Predator film, but this ultimately did not happen. There was also a rumor that Danny Glover might have an unexpected role but again, it wasn’t to be. My favorite character was Danny Trejo’s Cuchillo. It is not uncommon to find Trejo to appear in a Robert Rodriguez film but he actually had to ask this time. According to Nimród Antal, in the script, the character Cuchillo was described as "a guy who looks like Danny Trejo." When Danny Trejo heard this, he called Robert Rodriguez and said, "hey, I heard there's a guy in the script for 'Predators' who looks just like Danny Trejo, and guess what, I look just like Danny Trejo!". The reaction to the film was right down the middle, with half the fans of the original loving the development while also loving the same feel it had to the original. The other half disliked it for the very same reasons but I can’t help but think the film delivered everything that the fans had been asking for since 1987. It came down to either keeping the Predators a mystery or developing their world, and in reality, there wasn’t much of a choice when wanting to continue the story. I liked it, it is no masterpiece and I could never feel about it how I did when first watching the original but that’s fine. I thought most choices (apart from Predator dogs) were good and the film was entertaining throughout, the pop-corn film I suppose I had hoped for.