Trailer
Plot summary
General Phillips and the CIA agent Al Dillon send Major Dutch Schaefer and his commando team over the border into a Central American jungle to pull a cabinet minister out of rebel hands. On the trail the men find the downed helicopter and three flayed bodies hung upside down in the trees, and the tracker Billy reads signs showing that another group of soldiers passed through ahead of them. Mac finds dog tags bearing the name Jim Hopper, a Green Beret, and Dutch recognizes it. The team takes a terrified woman named Anna along as a prisoner. Unknown to the men, an unseen enemy has been tracking them since their arrival, watching their body heat.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Predator (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator, the intent being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the creature an agile, ninja-like hunter. It was also reported that Van Damme constantly complained about the monster suit being too hot and causing him to pass out.
- While on a plane ride to Fox studios alongside Aliens director James Cameron, Winston sketched monster ideas. Cameron suggested he had always wanted to see a creature with mandibles, which became part of the Predator's iconic look.
- On Friday, April 25, production halted so that Schwarzenegger could get to his wedding on time, flying to Hyannis Port in a Learjet chartered by Silver. He married Maria Shriver on April 26, 1986, and honeymooned for only three days while the second unit completed additional filming.
- The invisibility effect was achieved by filming someone in a bright red suit the size of the Predator, red being furthest from the green of the jungle and the blue of the sky. Chroma key removed the red, and a second take shot on a 30% wider lens filled in the empty area.
- Stan Winston was nominated for an Oscar for Predator in the Best Visual Effects category but lost to the effects team from Innerspace. The same year the Academy gave Rick Baker the Best Makeup Oscar for Harry and the Hendersons, achieved exactly the same way, with the same actor, Kevin Peter Hall, in the suit.
- Hall could not see out of the mask and had to rehearse his scenes with it off, memorizing where everything was. He said of the experience that it was not a movie but a survival story for all of them, the swamp water being foul, stagnant and full of leeches.
- During the shoot, art director Augustin Ytuarte and location manager Federico Ysunza were among the passengers killed in the crash of Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940. A dedication to their memory was later included in the film's closing credits.
