What Made Predator Such a Big Hit?

[Winter]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, but not quite for the reasons one might think.

Before Predator Schwarzenegger was just starting on his popularity train, coming off the heels of Terminator and Conan the Barbarian. Predator was his next big film and the premise of this film was something that was never really attempted after this film, presenting a movie monster that could threatened and even possibly defeat THE Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sure, Schwarzenegger was beaten in Terminator but he was the villain in that before it was defeated it managed to kill several people, including most of a police station and the deuteragonist and very nearly killed the protagonist. So the idea of Schwarzenegger going up against something that was as tough, if not tough, then him was applying.

And that is what all the marketing was based around, one of the biggest action stars was going to fight a monster. And the movie delivered.

The 3 act structure of the film is rather interesting as all three acts are all different genres. Act one is a standard 80s action movie filled with one liners, explosions and guns, Lots of Guns. And, of course, big men and their ridiculously oversized muscles.

Act 2, however, takes a interesting twist as the film stops being an action movie and instead turns into a slasher movie with the only difference being that the victims are all badass soldiers lead by THE Badass of the Day. And yet with all their weapons and skills, it means nothing to the Predator. Sure, it may not be invincible but even with what Dutch says "If it bleeds, we can kill it" doesn't matter if it kills you first. Two of the heroes are killed with ease by the Predator in the first few minutes of act 2 and the woman who saw it happened (who's a badass in her own right) is clearly in shock for a good chunk of the movie.

And by the end of act 2, everyone in Dutch's team are dead and he's now without any of his weapons and all he has on his side in the monster that killed all his friends.

Act 3 is the show down as the film finally gets to the pay off which is Schwarzenegger vs. The Predator and in the end but instead of being a full on brawl it's a battle of brains vs. brawn as Dutch goes low tech and covers himself in mud to counter the Predator's heat vision. And even then Dutch is STILL not able to best his adversary as it's not long till his cornered by the Predator. And then the two engage in a fist fight which is REALLY one sided as the Predator is clearly stronger then Dutch could ever hope to be but in the end he still beats the monster via one of his traps.

But what's great about this film is that while Schwarzenegger won it almost feels like he lost as all his friends are dead and instead of standing triumphantly after the battle the final shot of the film is Dutch sitting back with a thousand yard stare. There's no badass one liner, no speech of hope and no sense that this is a victory meant to be celebrated, this was a battle to the death and in a way, the Predator won. He has the last laugh of the film, literally and even in the silly end credits where everyone smiles into the camera like this was some sort of sitcom the image of Dutch we get, he's not smiling, but glaring at something behind the camera.

And finally, as of the time this writing, Dutch has not returned to the series and Schwarzenegger has given no real indication that he will return to the role but the Predator? They always come back. It may be a different one but the Predator made such an impact on pop-culture that it doesn't need Schwarzenegger to stand on it's own. You don't even need to title the film to include Predator for the film to be a hit the monster has become the true star of the series.

So, in the end I would say that the success of the series came down to two things, Schwarzenegger's presents and the Predator itself. The film works because of both of them and remove either one from the equation and the film wouldn't have been as good as it was.

[hammerofglass]

I haven't seen the newest one, but of the movies I've seen the first was the only one where the Predator was an adult taking the hunt seriously. Very systematic, very meticulous, targeting the biggest badasses it can find, even giving itself a bit of a handicap to increase the challenge. In the sequels it's younger ones going nuts playing with their toys in a target-rich environment, which just isn't scary in the same primal way.

Edit: Prey does do it the same way. Target has claws, claws only. Target has a spear, spear only. The sportsmanship goes out the window once it realizes it's in actual danger, but an attempt was made.

[McAvoy]

Keep in mind that when Predator first came out it didn't make much money. I am not sure it even broke even until later. So maybe Schwarzenegger wasn't exactly the big draw for the movie as you may think.

It was word of mouth later that got its cult status.

Maybe the fact that the third and fourth movies were crossovers. Then the fifth was OK but the sixth movie sucked some sweaty dirty donkey balls.

Prey is doing good because people who are watching it actually liked it. For the most part at least.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Act 3 is the show down as the film finally gets to the pay off which is Schwarzenegger vs. The Predator and in the end but instead of being a full on brawl it's a battle of brains vs. brawn as Dutch goes low tech and covers himself in mud to counter the Predator's heat vision. And even then Dutch is STILL not able to best his adversary as it's not long till his cornered by the Predator. And then the two engage in a fist fight which is REALLY one sided as the Predator is clearly stronger then Dutch could ever hope to be but in the end he still beats the monster via one of his traps.

This hide and seek aspect of the movie is my absolute favorite of some sort of thing.

I think the indifference at the end has to do with what we don't know about the creature. It stalked them and was obviously an alien, but there was really just no rhyme or reason to what was happening to them as people.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

re: proliferation of Schwarzenegger's career.

Commando was considered a financial success and is a by-the-numbers action film like Rambo, but Terminator was received with mix reviews per wikipedia's critical reception section.

This was the golden age of action movies, whereas the nineties became much more produced and market refined. Schwarzenegger was probably a much more household name by the time of the mid 90's, and that's aside from the fact that he put bodybuilding on the map as a sport and was in George Bush's cabinet so to speak. This was over the course of at least 20 years or something before 1990. The 80's was just a time of pumping out movies, signature of golden ages.

[Durandal_1707]

Do IT!

Do it NAOW

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Do IT!

Do it NAOW

Actually, for me, the first scene of the Matrix has resided on that quote spot in my brain ever since it came out.

[McAvoy]

Do IT!

Do it NAOW

Actually, for me, the first scene of the Matrix has resided on that quote spot in my brain ever since it came out.

Predator for me. Only because I do see the GIF alot on Facebook.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Do IT!

Do it NAOW

Actually, for me, the first scene of the Matrix has resided on that quote spot in my brain ever since it came out.

Predator for me. Only because I do see the GIF alot on Facebook.

Well sorry but it's not even a consistent quote. In the Matrix it goes exactly like that.

I just watched Predator and it, in fact, goes: Come on. Do it now.

[McAvoy]

Do IT!

Do it NAOW

Actually, for me, the first scene of the Matrix has resided on that quote spot in my brain ever since it came out.

Predator for me. Only because I do see the GIF alot on Facebook.

Well sorry but it's not even a consistent quote. In the Matrix it goes exactly like that.

I just watched Predator and it, in fact, goes: Come on. Do it now.

The GIF, only does the 'DO IT NOAW' part of it. Because it's a fun thing to Arnie accent. Same as 'GET TO THE CHOPPA!' quote that makes its rounds.

I assumed the first part of the quote was Do It, Do it Noaw.