Predator (1987): Plot, Characters, And Lore
Predator (1987) is a science fiction action horror film directed by John McTiernan that introduced the Predator to cinema. The story followed a team of elite commandos led by Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer as they entered the Central American jungle on a rescue mission and gradually realized they were being stalked by an unknown extraterrestrial hunter. The military job turned into a survival fight once the team faced an enemy that used camouflage and thermal vision. The film established many of the core ideas that later shaped Predator culture, including trophy hunting, honor, and cloaking technology.
Film Overview
Released in 1987, Predator mixed military action with science fiction horror and slowly flipped from a commando picture into a deadly manhunt. Much of the film took place in a dense jungle environment that limited visibility and gave the Predator every advantage. Dutch and his team were initially sent to rescue hostages, but after discovering the true nature of the mission and the aftermath of an earlier massacre, they found themselves being hunted one by one. The creature remained largely unseen for much of the story, which increased the sense of tension and mystery. Predator (1987) launched the successful Predator franchise, now consisting of 9 films (including the Alien vs. Predator movies).
Plot Summary
The story began when Dutch and his rescue team were sent into the Central American jungle on a mission tied to missing officials and suspected guerrilla activity. The team included Mac, Blain, Billy, Poncho, Hawkins, and Dillon, a former ally of Dutch who had pushed for the operation. After reaching the target area, they discovered the remains of a previous military unit and signs that something far more brutal than a normal firefight had taken place. They then attacked a guerrilla encampment and uncovered evidence that the mission had involved a covert intelligence objective rather than a straightforward rescue.
As the team moved deeper into the jungle, they realized that an unseen presence was observing them from the trees. One by one, the commandos were killed by a powerful alien hunter that used active camouflage, thermal vision, plasma weaponry, and immense physical strength. Attempts to fight back with traps, gunfire, and explosives failed because the creature controlled the battlefield and struck with precision. Billy sensed the danger before the others fully understood it, and the team's confidence steadily collapsed as their numbers were reduced.
Dutch eventually recognized that the Predator was hunting them for sport and using its technology to isolate and kill worthy opponents. After Anna was spared and Dutch covered himself in mud that masked his body heat, he began to understand the alien's methods and weaknesses. He set a series of improvised traps and lured the Predator into a final confrontation after losing the rest of his team. Although the creature survived several attacks and revealed itself as a towering armored extraterrestrial warrior, Dutch ultimately crushed it with a counterweighted trap. Mortally wounded, the Predator activated its self-destruct device, and Dutch escaped the blast before being recovered by helicopter.
Main Cast And Characters
Predator featured a compact cast of soldiers, operatives, and survivors whose personalities helped define the film's tension and group dynamic. Much of the story's impact came from watching an elite team lose control against an opponent far beyond anything they had faced before.
- Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) - Leader of the rescue team and the film's main protagonist.
- George Dillon (Carl Weathers) - CIA operative and Dutch's former associate who concealed the mission's true purpose.
- Anna Gonsalves (Elpidia Carrillo) - Guerrilla captive who survived the jungle conflict and witnessed the hunters from the outside.
- Blain Cooper (Jesse Ventura) - Heavy weapons specialist known for carrying a minigun.
- Mac Eliot (Bill Duke) - Team member whose growing obsession with revenge intensified after Blain's death.
- Billy Sole (Sonny Landham) - Tracker whose instincts warned the team that something unnatural was following them.
- Poncho Ramirez (Richard Chaves) - Member of Dutch's team who survived much of the jungle pursuit.
- Rick Hawkins (Shane Black) - Radio operator and comic relief within the squad.
- The Predator (Kevin Peter Hall) - Extraterrestrial hunter who stalked the team through the jungle.
The Jungle Hunter
Predator (1987) introduced the Jungle Hunter as a technologically advanced alien warrior who targeted dangerous prey for sport. The creature used a shoulder-mounted plasma caster, wrist blades, a cloaking device, and thermal vision to stalk humans from concealment. It ripped out spines, collected trophies from its kills and appeared to select opponents based on threat, skill, and perceived worthiness. The film also suggested that the hunter followed a code, as Anna was ignored because she was unarmed and not considered part of the contest. These early traits became foundational to later portrayals of the Yautja species across the Predator franchise.
Dutch And The Commando Team
Dutch's team was presented as a highly capable rescue unit made up of experienced soldiers who were confident in their ability to dominate any human enemy. The unit had fought together in Cambodia, and Dutch recently pulled off a rescue mission in Berlin. That confidence made the Predator's attacks even more effective, because the men were trained for conventional warfare rather than a hunt carried out from invisibility. Each member of the squad brought a distinct role and personality, but their teamwork gradually broke down as the alien picked them off. Dutch adapted more successfully than the others because he stopped thinking like a soldier and began thinking like prey forced to become a hunter.
The Jungle Setting
The Central American jungle was the film's main hunting ground, and it worked almost like another weapon for the Predator. Part of the movie took place in the fictional country of Val Verde, also appearing in Commando and Die Hard 2. Thick foliage, oppressive heat, limited sightlines, and vertical terrain allowed the hunter to move above and around the team without being seen clearly. The environment also stripped away many of the commandos' technological and tactical advantages. By the end of the film, Dutch relied on mud, sharpened stakes, counterweights, and camouflage drawn from the terrain itself. This setting helped define Predator as a survival story in which nature and alien technology combined to trap the human characters.
Place In The Predator Timeline
Predator (1987) took place in 1987 and served as the foundational story of the live-action Predator timeline. It introduced the first on-screen encounter between humans and a Predator hunter and established the basic template later films expanded. Later entries built on the idea that these hunters had visited Earth repeatedly and that Dutch's encounter was only one of many such hunts. It remains the live-action starting point for the series, even though later stories such as Prey (2022) were set earlier.
Behind The Scenes
Predator was directed by John McTiernan and shot in the jungles around Palenque and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 1986, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch. An early insectoid suit built for Jean-Claude Van Damme was abandoned after the costume failed on location and Van Damme left the role. Stan Winston Studio then redesigned the hunter in about six weeks. Seven-foot-two Kevin Peter Hall performed inside the finished foam-latex suit.
James Cameron suggested adding the mandibles after seeing Winston's work in progress. The armored silhouette also kept the dreadlock-like appendages that survived from earlier passes. Alan Silvestri wrote the score, including the hunt motif that later films reused.
Novelization
Jove Books published Paul Monette's Predator novelization in June 1987, timed with the film. Monette was working from an early script, so the hunter is a shapeshifter with blue or crimson scales and three-fingered hands. It camouflages by changing its own skin, takes animal forms after touching them, and can even thin into mist. Its kit is a telescoping spear and a contracting web trap, with no plasma caster, wrist blades, or cloaking mesh. Amber blood replaces the film's luminous green, and it skins victims to study humans rather than to hunt for sport.
Billy has a psychic flash of his Sioux ancestors facing another hunter a thousand years earlier. Dutch's briefing happens in fictional Conta Mana, then the team crosses into Guatemala. After the waterfall, Dutch loses his clothes as well as his gear, dips arrows in cyanide from suicide pills, and fights the creature into a cavern behind the falls. The hunter then flees to its ship. Dutch kills it by hurling its own spear through its head, and the damaged vessel explodes because there is no wrist bomb. Anna stops the returning soldiers from shooting Dutch, who they no longer recognize.
Cancelled Comic Adaptation
In February 2020, Dark Horse Comics announced a five-issue miniseries, Predator: The Original Screenplay, from the 1984 draft Hunters by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Jeremy Barlow was to write it, with interiors by Patrick Blaine, inks by Andy Owens, and colors by Candice Han. Issue 1 was solicited for 10 June 2020. No issue shipped. The Predator license moved to Marvel, and Dark Horse dropped the book.
Diego Galindo's cover is the green lizard face, not Stan Winston's Jungle Hunter. That early-script face matches the chameleon scientist in the Thomas draft and in Monette's novel: it changed its own skin, took animal shapes, and wanted to cut humans open. Barlow's issues would have followed that creature through the classified Central American rescue, not the finished 1987 suit.
Video Game Adaptations
Activision put licensed Predator games on home computers in 1987 and 1988, including Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. Those versions came from Software Studios and System 3. Klon built a separate action-platformer for MSX. Pack-In-Video then reused much of that art and music for the Famicom cartridge, released in Japan on 10 March 1988 as Schwarzenegger Predator. Activision published the American NES copy in April 1989 under the subtitle Soon the Hunt Will Begin.
The NES run put Dutch in a side-scroller through jungle stages packed with snakes, birds, squids, and soldiers, not a straight retelling of the Val Verde hunt. He started on fists, then picked up a machine gun, grenades, or a laser, and only the laser hurt the hunter. The Predator appeared as a mid-run boss, and the last fight was against its floating head. Some stages had two exits, one of which skipped several levels. Dutch and the Jungle Hunter both appeared later in Predator: Hunting Grounds.
Legacy
Predator put the Jungle Hunter, the Val Verde hunt, and Dutch Schaefer's mud duel on screen in 1987. Stan Winston Studio built the hunter, and Alan Silvestri wrote the hunt motif later films reused. Predator 2 moved that kit into Los Angeles. Predators put it on a preserve world. The Predator tried genetic upgrades in 2018. Predator: Killer of Killers later stored Dutch with other humans who had killed a Yautja. To make a still from Dutch and Dillon's meeting, use the Predator Handshake Meme Generator.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Predator Movies
