Rick Hawkins was the radio operator on the rescue team led by Alan "Dutch" Schaefer in Predator, the 1987 film in which Shane Black played him. A bespectacled soldier who carried the team radio and told crude jokes on the way into the jungle, he flew into Val Verde with Dutch's men to find a missing cabinet minister and took part in the raid on the guerrilla camp. On the march to the border he chased down the escaped prisoner Anna and became the first member of the team to die when the Jungle Hunter killed him and carried his body into the trees.
Biography
Early Life
Hawkins served as the radio operator on Dutch's team, the small rescue unit brought in to recover a cabinet minister whose helicopter had come down in the jungle across the border. The film gave him no background beyond his place on the team, his glasses and his habit of telling jokes to the other men. Like the rest of the unit, he arrived at the American base in civilian clothes, and he wore a tank top and jeans until the team changed into fatigues. The film's end credits listed him only as Hawkins, and he was the only man on the team who wore glasses throughout the mission.
The novelization by Paul Monette gave him the first name Rick and described him as a freckled, blue-eyed Irishman from South Boston who served as both the radioman and the medic. In the novel his boyish face hid a professional soldier who did not worry about his own safety, and he had saved every man on the team at least once. Ramirez called him Puddytat because he had survived so many near misses, and the others regarded him as the team's lucky charm. Among the men he was also known as Irish, and Dutch called him Hawk.
The Flight Into Val Verde
On the night flight across the border into Val Verde, Hawkins read a Sgt. Rock comic book while the other men prepared their weapons and gear. He tried to amuse Billy, the team's tracker, with a crude joke about his girlfriend, and the joke became a running gag between the two men. The team rappelled from the helicopter into the jungle, and Hawkins went down the ropes with the radio and his rifle. In the novelization his joke for Billy was a different one, about how many marines it took to eat a squirrel, and he laughed at it himself when Billy did not.
The Guerrilla Camp Raid
In the jungle the team found the wreck of the minister's helicopter and the skinned bodies of Jim Hopper's men hanging from a tree, and then followed the guerrillas' trail to their camp. During the attack on the camp, Hawkins fired his submachine gun at the guerrillas as the team moved through the huts. The raid killed most of the guerrillas, the hostages were found dead and Anna, one of the guerrillas, was taken prisoner. In the novelization Hawkins fought in the assault group with Dillon, the CIA officer attached to the mission, and set aside his earlier rudeness toward him because he liked a clear chain of command in combat.
Radio Contact At The Camp
After the raid, Hawkins worked the field radio while the rest of the team searched the camp and the documents found there. Through the radio the team learned from aerial surveillance that guerrilla forces were moving toward the camp and that the team was cut off from the planned pickup. Dutch decided that the area was too dangerous for a helicopter extraction and that the team would have to cross the border on foot before the standby helicopters would collect them. The only route out led through a valley to the east, and the team left the burning camp with Anna as a prisoner.
The March To The Border
On the march toward the border, Hawkins carried the radio on his back through the heat and thick undergrowth. When the team stopped after Mac killed a scorpion on Dillon's shoulder, he told Billy a second version of his girlfriend joke. The team did not know that the Jungle Hunter was following the men through the trees. In the novelization he refused to leave the heavy radio behind, although a smaller shortwave set would serve at the landing zone, and the book compared this to the way he had once guarded his portable stereo on the streets of South Boston.
The Pursuit Of Anna
When the team was distracted, Anna broke away and ran into the jungle, and Hawkins went after her. He caught her, knocked her to the ground and held her at gunpoint, but as he spoke to her the cloaked Jungle Hunter came at him from behind. The creature killed Hawkins before he could defend himself and left Anna alive, splashed with his blood. In the novelization Anna saw the creature behind him and tried to warn him, but Hawkins took it for a trick and turned only at the last moment.
The Search For The Body
The team found Anna unhurt and covered in blood that was not hers, and Billy found the remains that the creature had left on the ground. Hawkins's body was missing, and Dutch ordered the men to fan out and find it. During the search the Jungle Hunter killed Blain with its plasma caster, and Mac answered with a long barrage into the jungle that the rest of the team joined. The search ended without the body, and the team began to suspect that it was facing an enemy other than the guerrillas.
The Hunter's Trophy
The Jungle Hunter took the body up into the canopy, where it was later shown hanging in the trees, gutted and skinned in the same way as the men of Hopper's team. The death of Hawkins was the first loss for Dutch's team, and it was followed by the deaths of Blain, Mac, Dillon, Poncho and Billy. In the novelization the creature later tore the spine from his corpse as a trophy at its ship. It also imitated Hawkins's voice before it killed Blain, asking whether he had ever heard of a toothbrush.
Personality & Traits
Hawkins was the joker of the team, and most of what the film showed of his personality came through his crude jokes and his good humor on the flight and the march. He aimed the jokes mostly at Billy, the quietest man on the team, and went on telling them whether or not anyone laughed. His glasses and slighter build set him apart from the larger soldiers around him, but he performed his duties during the raid and handled the radio when the team needed it. In the novelization his death ended the men's belief that their unit could not be beaten.
Equipment & Weapons
The radio was the item most closely tied to Hawkins, and he carried it in a large pack on his back from the landing zone to the place where he died. It was the team's link to the aerial surveillance and to the helicopters waiting across the border, and it was recovered after his death. His main weapon in the film was a Heckler & Koch HK94A3, a civilian rifle shortened and converted to look like an MP5 submachine gun, which several other members of the team also carried. He wore an IMI Desert Eagle pistol in a shoulder holster as his sidearm, although he was never seen firing it.
Behind The Scenes
Shane Black played Hawkins in Predator, which John McTiernan directed for 20th Century Fox from a script by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Black was a young screenwriter at the time and had recently written Lethal Weapon, which was released the same year. McTiernan said in his commentary that he cast Black because he wanted a writer on the set, and producer John Davis later said that the producers had hoped Black would rewrite the script. According to Davis, Black told them that he had been hired as an actor rather than as a writer, and his character was the first to die.
Although Black did not do a formal rewrite, McTiernan said that he contributed material unofficially on set, and in his commentary he called the echo joke on the march, the second of Hawkins's two girlfriend jokes for Billy after the helicopter one, "entirely Shane's joke." McTiernan also said that the Sgt. Rock comic Hawkins read on the flight was a joke on how much Arnold Schwarzenegger resembled the character. Filming took place from March to June 1986, and the film opened in the United States on June 12, 1987. Black later directed The Predator, which was released in 2018, and his role as Hawkins has remained his best-known acting part.
The first name Rick is never spoken in the film, and the end credits list Shane Black simply as Hawkins. The shooting script by Jim Thomas and John Thomas also calls him Hawkins and describes him as the radioman and medic, Irish and street-tough. The full name comes from the Paul Monette novelization, the licensed tie-in book, which introduces him as Rick Hawkins on his first appearance. NECA used the same name in its official description of the 2018 figure, so Rick is backed by licensed material even though the film itself never uses it.
Merchandise
NECA released the first Rick Hawkins action figure as a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive in 2018, as the last entry in its Predator 30th Anniversary line. The figure stood about seven inches tall, had more than twenty points of articulation and used the likeness of Shane Black. It came with a submachine gun, a pistol and a knife, and its radio pack was attached to the body, with a holster for the pistol and a sheath for the knife. It was the first member of Dutch's team other than Dutch to be made by NECA.
The exclusive was limited to 3,000 pieces and sold for $30 in a foil-accented 30th anniversary window box, the same packaging used for the main line. The figure had a new sculpt rather than a reused body, and its glasses were a separate piece fixed to the head. Reviewers noted that the included submachine gun was modeled as a true MP5 rather than the converted HK94 used in the film, and that the pistol looked more like an M1911 than the Desert Eagle Hawkins carried. NECA was making figures for The Predator at the time, which Black directed.
Famous Quotes
- "Hey, Billy. Billy! The other day, I went up to my girlfriend. I said, 'You know, I'd like a little pussy.' She said, 'Me too. Mine's as big as a house!'" To Billy on the helicopter flight into Val Verde.
- "You got it, Major." To Dutch, when ordered to call in the team's position after the raid on the camp.
- "Major! Major, we stepped into some bullshit here!" To Dutch at the camp, after the radio report on the guerrilla forces.
- "Half an hour, maybe less." To Dutch, when asked how long the team had before the guerrillas arrived.
- "Billy! Billy! The other day, I was going down on my girlfriend, and I said to her, 'Geez, you got a big pussy. Geez, you got a big pussy.' She said, 'Why did you say that twice?' I said, 'I didn't.' See, it was 'cause of the echo." To Billy on the march to the border, after Mac killed the scorpion on Dillon.
Conclusion
Rick Hawkins was the radio operator and joker of Dutch's team, a soldier in thick glasses who carried the radio into Val Verde and told crude jokes to Billy on the way. He took part in the raid on the guerrilla camp and maintained the team's radio contact with aerial surveillance and the helicopters across the border. When Anna escaped, he caught her alone in the jungle and became the first man the Jungle Hunter killed. The creature took his body and hung it in the trees, and his death began the hunt that only Dutch survived.
Appearances
- Predator (1987)
- Predator novelization by Paul Monette (1987)
Tag Categories: Predator Universe Characters | Predator Lore
