![]() In the same year that Schwarzengger and Stallone would pioneer the “Geezer Teaser” genre with The Expendables, action movies were in a fallow period. But when the Predator arrives and decimates the commandos, the movie settles into its thesis: these guys may be big, but there’s always something bigger.īy 2010, things had changed. McTiernan spends ample time not only showing us the heroes wreaking destruction but also bragging about their muscles and sexual abilities. Predator both celebrated and undercut these movies, playing like the most over-the-top ‘80s action film for its first half. Big guys like Arnold and Sylvester Stallone carried big guns to make big explosions and drop big quips. After decades of heroes like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, ‘80s action embraced excess. ![]() To fully appreciate the legacy set by the original Predator, one needs to remember the state of 1980s movies. ![]() And yet, it’s that surprising approach which puts Predators above the overheated nonsense of Predator 2 and the misplaced schmaltz of The Predator, making it the only worthy successor to the original film (at least until Prey, which is on Hulu now! ). No one expects a challenge from one of Wes Anderson’s repertory players or the guy from That ‘70s Show. Half of the original’s fun involved watching meatheads like Arnold, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura get torn to shreds by an elite hunter from outer space. Some may argue that this callback captures everything wrong with the later movie. Rather it’s Royce, the decidedly lither mercenary played by Adrien Brody in the 2010 sequel Predators. “Kill me!”įor most people, the above description recalls an iconic scene from Predator, the 1987 action horror classic directed by John McTiernan, but the human I’m describing is not Major Dutch Schaefer, the hulking special forces agent played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Do it now!” he bellows, taunting the hunter. He stands in the center of a trap, ready to lure the hunter into one final showdown. To throw off the hunter’s heat vision, the human has stripped off his shirt and smeared mud over his muscled body. After watching his comrades be hunted and torn down by an alien hunter, the human prey is ready to fight back.
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