Predators (2010): Cast, Characters, And Lore
Predators is a science fiction action film directed by Nimród Antal that returned the franchise to a jungle setting while expanding the scale of the hunt far beyond Earth. The story followed a group of heavily armed and dangerous individuals who were abducted from different parts of the world and dropped onto an alien game preserve where they became prey for multiple Predators. Instead of a rescue mission or a city investigation, the film was about survival, distrust, and the slow realization that these people had been picked because they were predators too. The movie also expanded Predator lore by introducing a preserve world, rival Predator clans, and new variations of Predator culture and hunting hierarchy.
Film Overview
Released in 2010, Predators served as the third main film in the Predator series and deliberately echoed the structure of the original 1987 movie while adding a larger science fiction premise. The film began with strangers falling through the sky into a hostile jungle, only for them to discover that they were not on Earth at all. Its cast included mercenaries, soldiers, criminals, and killers from different backgrounds, creating a tense group dynamic built on suspicion and competition. It followed Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem by going back to a jungle hunt with a commando-style team, then revealing they were on a preserve world.
Plot Summary
The story began when a group of armed strangers parachuted into a dense jungle with no idea how they had arrived there. Among them were mercenary Royce, sniper Isabelle, enforcer Cuchillo, Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai, Yakuza member Hanzo, death row inmate Stans, RUF fighter Mombasa, and doctor Edwin. The group quickly realized that they had all been selected and transported to an alien world being used as a hunting preserve. As they moved through the environment, they encountered traps, Yautja hunting dogs, and signs that they were being observed and tested.
The humans eventually discovered that they were being hunted by three Super Predators, who were in rivalry with the traditional Classic Predators (similar to the Jungle Hunter). One of the Classic Predators (nicknamed the Crucified Predator) was tied up to a totem pole, displayed as a trophy. The group also encountered Noland, a survivor who had been stranded on the planet for years and had adapted to its dangers in isolation. As Noland betrayed them, several members of the group were killed one by one through direct combat, traps, and sacrificial last stands.
Royce freed the Crucified Predator and made a deal for his ship to take the survivors back to Earth. However, the Berserker Predator fought and killed the classic Predator, and blew up the ship. Internal betrayal also became part of the threat when Edwin revealed that he was not as harmless as he appeared. In the final act, Royce confronted the Berserker Predator, and decapitated the Yautja with the help of Isabelle. With more creatures and new arrivals still coming to the planet, the film ended with Royce and Isabelle preparing to continue surviving on the preserve and search for a way home.
Main Cast And Characters
Predators featured an ensemble cast built around survivors, criminals, and soldiers whose conflicting personalities shaped much of the film's tension. Each character represented a different form of human violence, which fit the idea that the prey had also been predators in their own worlds.
- Royce (Adrien Brody) - Hardened mercenary and the film's central protagonist who quickly took control of the group through experience and instinct.
- Isabelle (Alice Braga) - IDF sniper whose knowledge of the original 1987 encounter helped her understand what they were facing.
- Edwin (Topher Grace) - Seemingly mild-mannered doctor whose true nature was revealed late in the story.
- Noland (Laurence Fishburne) - Long-term survivor stranded on the preserve planet who had adapted to life in hiding.
- Cuchillo (Danny Trejo) - Cartel enforcer who became one of the group's earliest casualties.
- Stans (Walton Goggins) - Violent death row inmate whose unpredictability made him dangerous even before the hunt escalated.
- Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov) - Spetsnaz soldier who fought with heavy weapons and self-sacrificing resolve.
- Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien) - Yakuza assassin who engaged one of the Predators in a memorable sword duel.
- Mombasa (Mahershala Ali) - RUF fighter and one of the abducted human targets on the preserve.
- Berserker Predator (Brian Steele) - Dominant member of the hunting group and one of the film's main alien antagonists.
- Falconer Predator (Brian Steele) - Predator hunter that used a flying drone creature and pursued prey through the jungle canopy.
- Tracker Predator (Carey Jones) - Hunter associated with the tracking beasts used to flush prey from hiding.
- Crucified Predator (Derek Mears) - A more traditional Predator held prisoner by the rival hunting faction.
A Game Preserve Planet
One of the film's biggest additions to the franchise was the reveal that the story took place on an alien game preserve rather than Earth. This concept greatly expanded the scale of the Predator universe by showing that the species did not simply travel to human worlds to hunt. Instead, they maintained an environment specifically designed for stalking and testing dangerous prey. The preserve included jungle terrain, traps, alien creatures, and evidence of earlier hunts. An off-world hunting ground made Predators feel bigger and more openly science fiction than the earlier Earth-bound hunts.
Royce
Royce served as the film's main human lead and brought a colder, more calculating presence than earlier protagonists such as Dutch Schaefer or Mike Harrigan. He was a mercenary rather than a soldier or police officer, and his leadership style was rooted in mistrust, efficiency, and survival. Royce immediately understood that cooperation would be temporary and that everyone in the group was dangerous. That fit the preserve's logic: he was a predator forced into the role of prey. His colder edge matched the film's idea that these people had been selected for a reason.
Isabelle And The Link To The Original Film
Isabelle told the group about a military unit that had fought a similar hunter in a jungle years earlier. She was familiar with stories about that incident, which helped the group identify the species. Through her, the film acknowledged the 1987 hunt without returning Dutch or his team. She survived the hunt with Royce.
The Super Predators
Predators expanded the alien side of the mythology by introducing a more aggressive group commonly referred to as the Super Predators. These hunters were visually and behaviorally distinct from the more familiar classic Predator design. The Berserker, Falconer, and Tracker hunted as a trio. The Berserker led the group and fought Royce in the finale. The Falconer Predator used an aerial hunting drone to scout and pursue prey, while the Tracker Predator relied on Yautja hounds to drive victims from cover.
Noland
Laurence Fishburne's Noland added another layer to the concept of the preserve. He had survived on the planet for years by hiding, scavenging, and learning its rhythms, but the experience had left him unstable and deeply paranoid. Noland gave the audience a glimpse of what long-term survival on the planet looked like and showed how completely it could break a person down. His presence also turned the preserve from a single hunt into an ongoing system that had operated for a long time. Noland became one of the few "human Predators" who wore Yautja gear and adapted their tactics.
Human Warriors As Prey
One of the central themes of Predators was that the human characters (nicknamed the Game Preserve Outcasts) had been chosen because they were themselves hunters, killers, or violent survivors. Soldiers, mercenaries, gang enforcers, assassins, and murderers were all treated as suitable game by the Predators. This gave the film a darker edge than some earlier entries because it suggested that the alien hunters deliberately sought out dangerous personalities rather than random victims. The concept also created moral ambiguity, since many of the people fighting for survival were not heroic in any conventional sense. In that way, the title referred to both the alien hunters and the humans trapped alongside them.
Behind The Scenes
Predators was directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez through Troublemaker Studios, from a screenplay by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. Jungle work was shot in Hawaii, with additional photography in Texas. KNB EFX Group built the Super Predator suits under Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger.
Stuntman Carey Jones performed as the Tracker in a full-body suit. Brian Steele played both the Berserker and the Falconer. The hounds mixed physical animatronics with digital work. Rodriguez had sat on a third-Predator outline for years before Antal took the shoot.
Tie-In Comics
Dark Horse released a four-issue Predators miniseries in June 2010, ahead of the film. Marc Andreyko and Guilherme Balbi told Welcome to the Jungle, in which Navy SEAL Drake is dropped onto the preserve with his team, loses them, and runs into Noland years before the movie group arrives. Drake later traps a Yautja, then the Super Predators kill the captive and the Berserker finishes Drake with a plasmacaster. Backup strips by David Lapham and Gabriel Guzman, collected as A Predatory Life, cover Royce's last Earth job: he is paid to erase a village, a political target, and a friend on the other side, then keeps telling himself he only trusts a reliable, meaning himself.
The official adaptation, Predators: Beating the Bullet, arrived on 14 July 2010 as a 72-page one-shot by Paul Tobin and Vic Drujiniu. It retells the movie through Isabelle's eyes, adding beats around her rifle work and how she reads the hunt.
Sequel Comic
The same month Lapham and artist Allan Jefferson published the sequel one-shot Predators: Surviving Life, also sold as Preserve the Game. Royce and Isabelle are still stranded when a Four-Armed Predator is dropped on them. The hunters gift Royce a bio-mask and armor, and he keeps the mutant in melee while Isabelle kills it with the sniper rifle.
Android Game
Angry Mob Games built a third-person hunt for phones, and Chillingo published it on iOS on 2 July 2010, a week before the film opened. A Mac copy followed on 10 June 2011. Fox Digital Entertainment put the Android build on Google Play and Amazon in November 2012. The player was a clan hunter on the preserve, not Royce or Isabelle, and had to earn membership by killing packs of mercenaries, snipers, and cartel fighters.
The campaign ran thirty-one short stages. The hunter used a cloak, thermal vision, wristblades, a plasma caster, a smart disc, a net gun, and a razor whip, then spent honor points on upgrades aboard the ship. Trophy kills took skulls. Later missions turned into a fight with the Super Predator trio, first the Falconer and Tracker, then the Berserker. Angry Mob later reused that phone combat style for AVP: Evolution.
Legacy
Predators put the Game Preserve Planet, the Super Predator trio, the Crucified Predator, and Noland into the films. The Predator went back to Earth instead of continuing the preserve.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Predator Movies
