team of highly trained Special Forces soldiers, led by Dutch Schaefer (Schwarzenegger), are sent into the Amazon jungle to recover a Peruvian cabinet minister and his aide from guerillas who intercepted their flagging helicopter. From the outset, details are sketchy and the circumstances of the rescue mission depart from standard operating procedure: The predicted location of their quarry is over the border in hostile territory, and Schaefer's team is required to add an outsider to their ranks (Maj. Dillon, played by Weathers).
As they slowly infiltrate the hostile, tropical locale, members of the skilled team sense that they are being followed, though they can find no evidence to support their suspicions. After they easily overrun a guerilla camp where the cabinet minister is said to be located, Schaefer uncovers information that suggests that the purpose of the mission was different from what he and his men were told. Furious, but determined to reach the rendezvous point without encountering significant opposition, Schaefer and his crew double-time it through the jungle. Unfortunately, their collective suspicions are ultimately confirmed when, one by one, the soldiers are mysteriously killed by an unseen force.
As Schaefer and his remaining men attempt to hunt their chameleonic adversary, they find to their horror that it is not another team that hunts them, but an extraterrestrial who journeys to Earth to hunt mankind. As Schaefer's team dwindles in numbers, the formidable soldier has to make an important and potentially life-threatening decision: Should he turn and flee, and hope that this otherworldly hunter will give up, or turn and face him down to see who indeed is the fiercest creature in the universe?
A streamlined action masterpiece
As streamlined a story as director John McTiernan ever told, Predator is a film with no fat on it. Returning an eventual $60 million gross on producers Joel Silver and Lawrence Gordon's initial $18 million investment, the film became one of the biggest hits of the '80s and cemented the statuses of all participants involved. Not surprisingly, the commentary track provided by director McTiernan on the recently released two-disc special edition reflects the disjointed, ambitious and ultimately successful effort the filmmakers made, and includes more captivating behind-the-scenes info than you're likely to hear about most big-budget action movies.
The set contains seven featurettes on the second disc alone, as well as deleted scenes, suit tests for the Predator actors in the jungle settings (they were added or rendered in post-production) and a couple of profiles of the creature that detail its weaponry and armor. The best bonus materials, however, are the informative feature commentaries: Film historian Eric Lichtenfield provides text commentary describing the characters' origins and the creation of the plot and science-fiction details, while McTiernan's crotchety recollections of the film reveal the flaws, trials and tribulations the filmmakers endured to get this quasi-masterpiece on screen.
For example, after exposing the truth about his selection as the film's director (he and Arnold had the same agent), McTiernan explains how disastrous the preliminary designs for the Predator were, and how the film's principals were able to creatively redirect their energies to minimize money problems and deliver an on-budget movie. At the same time, he verbally documents how much of the film was shot on the fly and assembled on the quick, from multiple-unit photography that combined actual jungle footage with material collected in Mexico and other locations.
Disappointingly, Schwarzenegger did not participate in this DVD release, either by providing a commentary track or appearing—except via canned footage—in the behind-the-scenes shorts. Though his absence is noticeable, the film, along with its 1984 predecessor The Terminator, stands as a pivotal change for the actor from European oddball-cum-bodybuilder to bonafide action hero. Also, this updated version is much improved from earlier DVD incarnations of the action film, and marks Predator's place among the best action films of the '80s, if not in the history of the genre—even without the governator's seal of approval.
