97 Fun Facts About Predator

In which year was the original Predator released?

Predator opened at number one in the US in June 1987 with $12 million and finished the year twelfth at the domestic box office.

Who directed the original Predator?

John McTiernan had directed only the low-budget horror film Nomads, but it impressed the Predator team enough to win him his first studio film.

What is the surname of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, Major Alan "Dutch"?

Schaefer: Schwarzenegger came back to the role 33 years later, voicing Dutch for the 2020 video game Predator: Hunting Grounds.

What was the script's working title before it became Predator?

Hunter: the writers first imagined a band of alien hunters chasing many species, then narrowed it to one creature stalking combat soldiers.

Which sibling screenwriting duo wrote Predator?

Jim and John Thomas, then unknowns, resorted to slipping the script under the door of a Fox producer; they later wrote Predator 2 as well.

Which martial-arts star was originally cast as the Predator before being replaced?

Jean-Claude Van Damme lasted only briefly in the suit, and the crew still give clashing accounts of his exit, from being too short for the monster to rows over wearing it.

Which 7-foot-2 actor ultimately played the Predator?

Kevin Peter Hall does show his face in Predator: out of the suit, he plays the pilot of the rescue helicopter at the end of the film.

Which effects artist created the final Predator creature after the original design was scrapped?

Stan Winston already knew the film's star: he had built the robot effects for The Terminator, and was called in when the first creature failed on set.

Which director, sitting beside the effects artist on a plane, suggested giving the Predator mandibles?

James Cameron saw the effects artist sketching monsters on the flight and said he had always wanted to see something with mandibles; they went straight into the design.

Who composed Predator's score?

Alan Silvestri came to the film fresh from Back to the Future and returned for Predator 2; his themes were revived again for Predators in 2010.

Which Little Richard song plays in the helicopter as the team flies into the jungle?

'Long Tall Sally' plays in the helicopter, and Mac later recites its lyrics while chasing the creature through the trees.

Who plays CIA agent Al Dillon, Dutch's old Vietnam ally, in Predator?

Carl Weathers won the part on the strength of Apollo Creed, his boxer in the Rocky films; the casting director said she loved him in them and knew he would be great.

What name did the internet give the arm-clasping greeting between Dutch and Dillon?

The 'Epic Handshake' became an object-labelling meme, with the two clasped arms standing for parties agreeing on something.

Jesse Ventura plays which heavy gunner on Dutch's team?

Blain Cooper hauls the minigun nicknamed Ol' Painless; the casting director wanted real veterans, and Ventura was a Navy man turned pro wrestler.

Predator's Jesse Ventura later served as governor of which US state?

Ventura governed Minnesota from 1999 to 2003; Schwarzenegger became governor of California later in 2003, making Predator the rare film with two future governors in its cast.

Which Predator cast member ran unsuccessfully for governor of Kentucky in 2003?

Sonny Landham, who played the team's tracker, mounted a Republican bid for Kentucky governor in 2003 that went nowhere; his co-stars Ventura and Schwarzenegger both actually won governorships.

Which member of the original Predator cast went on to direct the 2018 sequel The Predator?

Shane Black had just sold his script for Lethal Weapon when he took a small part as the team's radio operator; he co-wrote the 2018 film as well.

Which team member is the first to be killed by the Predator?

Hawkins is the first to die, killed after catching the fleeing prisoner, who is spared; Blain falls next.

Bill Duke plays which sergeant, who provokes the team into blindly firing into the jungle?

Bill Duke plays Sergeant Mac Eliot, who glimpses the cloaked creature and, enraged at the death of his friend Blain, sets off the wild volley into the trees.

Which expert tracker on Dutch's team is the first to sense something inhuman in the jungle?

Billy, the team's tracker, feels the creature's presence long before anyone sees it; he later throws down his gear and waits alone to face it, buying the others time.

Which character in Predator recounts a local legend of a demon that makes trophies of men?

Anna, the captured guerrilla played by Elpidia Carrillo, knows the tale from her village, where it is told of the hottest summers; she alone leaves the jungle with Dutch.

Why does the Predator spare the guerrilla prisoner?

It only attacks those it considers a threat, meaning the armed: Dutch realises this and tells the prisoner to drop her weapon and run for the extraction point.

What does Dutch cover himself in to hide from the Predator's thermal vision?

Mud: Dutch finds the trick by accident, when he crawls from a river onto a muddy bank and the Predator walks straight past him.

Predator is set in which region?

The story is set in a Central American jungle; the writers chose the region because US special forces were running operations there at the time.

Most of Predator was actually filmed near which Mexican resort city?

Puerto Vallarta: its jungle was so dry and brown during the shoot that crews trucked in plants and watered the locations daily to keep it green.

Roughly how much did Predator gross worldwide on its original 1987 release?

Roughly $100 million, $98 million by the trackers' count: enough of a return to launch a franchise of sequels, crossover films, comics and games.

Predator received a single Academy Award nomination, in which category?

Best Visual Effects was a two-film race that year, and Predator's creature and shimmering cloak lost it to Innerspace.

What colour suit was worn on set to create the Predator's cloaking effect?

Red stood out most against the jungle's greens and the blue sky, so the suit could be matted out of the shot and the gap filled with background footage.

The Predator's glowing green blood was made from glow-stick liquid mixed with what?

The luminous blood was glow-stick fluid mixed with K-Y personal lubricant; the suit's electrical spark effects were rotoscoped by hand on light tables.

Producer Joel Silver came to Predator fresh from which earlier Schwarzenegger hit?

Commando: Silver had produced the 1985 hit, and the casting team liked Bill Duke in it so much that he was brought along to Predator too.

Jesse Ventura titled his 1999 memoir after which line he delivers in Predator?

I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: his character shrugs off a wound with the line, and Ventura reused it for the memoir he published in his first year as a governor.

Predator's shoot paused in April 1986 so Schwarzenegger could fly east to marry whom?

Maria Shriver: the wedding was at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on April 26, 1986, and the groom was back on the jungle set within days.

What does the dying Predator do after Dutch's trap crushes it?

Sets off a self-destruct device: the bomb on its wrist levels the jungle around it, and Dutch only just outruns the blast.

Who provided the voice of the Predator?

Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, had strained his throat roaring as King Kong, so he gave the Predator a quiet clicking growl instead.

Predator 2 (1990) moved the hunt from the jungle to which city?

Los Angeles: the sequel swaps the jungle for a city sweltering in a heat wave, where the Predator hunts amid a war between rival drug gangs.

Who stars as the police lieutenant hunting the creature in Predator 2?

Danny Glover plays Lieutenant Mike Harrigan; Schwarzenegger declined to return, so the sequel needed a new hero.

Which famous Easter egg appears among the trophy skulls aboard the Predator ship in Predator 2?

A Xenomorph skull from Alien: the trophy-case gag hinted at a clash of the two monsters, which reached cinemas in 2004 as Alien vs. Predator.

Who leads the group of abducted killers in Predators (2010)?

Adrien Brody plays the mercenary Royce, who reluctantly takes charge of the group; the plural title was a deliberate nod to Aliens.

Which filmmaker wrote a third Predator script as early as 1994 and eventually produced Predators?

Robert Rodriguez wrote his Predators script in 1994, but Fox did not greenlight the project until 2009, with Nimrod Antal directing and Rodriguez producing.

Prey is set how long before the original Predator?

300 years, near enough: the prequel drops a Predator onto the Great Plains of 1719, where a young warrior named Naru sets out to protect her camp from it.

Prey's heroine Naru belongs to which nation?

Naru is Comanche, and after filming in English the cast re-recorded the whole film in the Comanche language, so viewers could choose either version.

Who directed Prey and then Predator: Badlands?

Dan Trachtenberg developed Prey under the code name Skulls, which hid for a time that it was a Predator film at all.

Prey skipped cinemas in the US and premiered on which streaming service?

Hulu said Prey drew the biggest premiere audience in its history up to August 2022, ahead of every film and series it had launched.

Which actress plays the android Thia in Predator: Badlands (2025)?

Elle Fanning plays Thia, the damaged android who allies with Dek, an outcast young Predator; for once in the series, the Predator is the hero.

Thia, the android in Predator: Badlands, was built by which fictional corporation?

Weyland-Yutani, the ruthless company of the Alien films, built Thia, one more thread tying the two series together after their crossover films.

By what name is the Predator species known in comics, novels and later films?

Yautja was coined in a 1994 tie-in novel and used by comics and fans for three decades before the films finally adopted it in 2025.

In Killer of Killers (2025), the pilot Torres fights a Predator during which war?

World War II: Torres, a Navy pilot, is one of three warriors from different centuries, with a Viking raider and a ninja, whom the Predators later force into an arena together.

Which line from Predator became permanently attached to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who later reused it in ads and TV?

'Get to the chopper' came back in 2017 as half of his firing line on The New Celebrity Apprentice: 'You're terminated. Now, get to the chopper.'

Which video game featured the Predator as a playable outfit and hidden enemy in 2021?

Fortnite hid the Predator as a cloaked boss at Stealthy Stronghold in early 2021, and players who beat it unlocked its outfit.

Which Aliens actor returned in Alien vs. Predator (2004) as the billionaire who funds the expedition?

Lance Henriksen: the director wanted a familiar face from Aliens, in which Henriksen had played the android Bishop.

Which company released a side-scrolling Predator video game the year the film came out?

Dutch later returned as a playable character in Predator: Hunting Grounds, with Schwarzenegger voicing him.

In Predator 2, the elder Predator hands Harrigan what antique weapon as a trophy?

The elder gives Harrigan a flintlock pistol engraved 'Raphael Adolini 1715', hinting that the hunters have visited Earth for centuries.

Who plays Peter Keyes, the federal agent trying to capture the creature in Predator 2?

Gary Busey plays Peter Keyes, whose team tries to trap the Predator in a slaughterhouse wearing heat-masking suits, and is wiped out.

Alien vs. Predator (2004) is set on Bouvetøya, an island roughly 1,000 miles north of where?

Antarctica: the film buries a pyramid deep beneath the island's ice, an arena where young Predators hunt Aliens as a rite of passage.

Which publisher announced in July 2020 that it had acquired the Predator comic-book rights?

Marvel Comics announced on 2 July 2020 that new Alien and Predator stories would start in 2021, ending a Dark Horse run that began in 1989.

Which prequel short for Predators aired as a TV and cinema advertisement before the film's release?

The Chosen, a prequel short, ran as a TV and cinema spot; the 2010 home-video release also included the shorts Moments of Extraction and Crucified.

The actor inside the Predator suit wore another creature suit in which 1987 film?

Harry and the Hendersons put the same performer in a Bigfoot suit as a friendly giant who moves in with a family, and won the makeup Oscar; in Predator he was the killer.

How did Predator's first-time screenwriters get their script to a 20th Century Fox producer?

Slipped it under his door was the last resort of two brothers with no Hollywood credits. He took it to Joel Silver, who turned the pulp story into a big-budget film.

What had to run constantly on Predator's Mexican jungle location during the shoot?

Heat lamps stayed on all the time because the shoot was freezing cold. The crew also worked on slopes that were never flat, standing all day on a hillside.

What did Arnold Schwarzenegger ship to Mexico for daily use before Predator's cameras rolled?

Gym equipment let him train intensively every day, usually alongside his co-stars. One co-star admitted to sneaking in extra workouts at 3 a.m. before the day's filming.

Jesse Ventura came to Predator from professional wrestling, where he was known by which nickname?

The Body was the ring name for his bleach-blond beach bully persona. He even picked the surname Ventura off a map to suit the character.

Which colour did Predator's makers first try for the creature's glowing blood, without success?

Orange was tried first and the attempts failed. The final glowing mix looked bright on camera but faded fast, so it had to be reapplied between takes.

Which action classic did Predator's director make next, releasing it the following year?

Die Hard followed one year after Predator, and its director later returned to make the third film in that series.

Which signature weapon do the Predators typically carry mounted on one shoulder?

A plasma cannon is the species' typical ranged weapon, alongside an array of blades. The more primitive Predator of Prey fights without one, relying on spear tips and arrows.

Dutch identifies three skinned bodies hanging in the trees in Predator as which elite troops?

Green Berets had been sent in to find an earlier team that vanished, a fact Dillon hides until Dutch catches him in the lie.

Which animal blunders into the booby traps around the team's night camp in Predator?

A wild boar sets off the trap, and the Predator uses the confusion to slip in and carry off the corpse of a fallen team member.

Which other Schwarzenegger film, released the same year as Predator, also featured Jesse Ventura?

The Running Man made it two Schwarzenegger films in one year for Ventura, who had been hired for Predator on the strength of his formidable physique.

Part of the Predator's look was inspired by a painting of what in producer Joel Silver's office?

A Rastafarian warrior in the painting struck the designer, and its locks went straight onto the creature. The suit performer, trained in mime, added tribal dance moves.

Schwarzenegger recommended Predator's creature designer after working with him on which film?

The Terminator had brought the two together three years earlier, and the designer's studio went on to build the Predator suit and its mechanical face.

Predator's composer was coming off the success of which 1985 blockbuster?

Back to the Future had been a huge hit for the composer two years earlier, and he came back to score Predator 2.

Which TV critic gave Predator a thumbs down, calling it a stale mix of Rambo and Alien?

Gene Siskel did praise Schwarzenegger's humor and the creature's air of mystery, while his on-screen partner wrote that the film moved at a breakneck pace.

Predator lost its only Academy Award nomination to the team behind which other film of that year?

Innerspace took the award, after the Academy had struggled to decide whether the Predator was a makeup creation or a camera trick.

Predator's shimmering cloak was reportedly inspired by what, described by one of its screenwriters?

A dream of a chrome figure inside a reflective sphere, visible only when it moved, gave the film its cloak. The crew recreated it by filming each shot twice.

What did Predator's crew use to cool the foliage so actors stood out on the thermal camera?

Ice water was poured over parts of the set because the hot surroundings made human figures difficult to see. Infrared film had been ruled out for missing the right wavelengths.

The Predator's uncredited voice actor had earlier supplied the roars of which famous movie monster?

King Kong's roars had left his throat raw, so for the Predator he chose a quiet clicking growl instead, modelled on a dying horseshoe crab he once saw on a beach.

Dutch's team is told its mission in Predator is to rescue which official from a downed helicopter?

A cabinet minister is the cover story Dillon invents, because Dutch refuses to use his men for anything but rescues. The real captives turn out to be intelligence agents.

Which foreign power has military men at the guerrilla camp Dutch's team raids in Predator?

Soviet Union advisers at the camp are the real reason for the mission: Dillon wanted it destroyed to prevent an invasion they were sponsoring.

Dutch insists in Predator that his men are a rescue team and will never carry out what?

Assassinations are the one job Dutch turns down, which is why his old friend has to trick him into wiping out a rebel camp.

What do Dutch's men rig in the treetops to try to capture the cloaked Predator?

A net does catch the Predator for a moment, but it tears free, and one of the men is injured in the chaos.

Where does the Predator wear the self-destruct device it triggers at the end of the original film?

On its wrist sits the device, which the species sets off when immobilized or near death to erase all evidence of its presence.

According to village folktales in Predator, when does the trophy-taking monster typically come?

Once it turns hot, the tales say, a monster kills men and takes trophies from their corpses. The sequel kept the idea by setting its hunt during a severe city heatwave.

Which makeup artist bid to build the redesigned Predator, lost out, yet won an Oscar that same year?

Rick Baker missed the Predator job but took the makeup Oscar for a creature built the very same way: a performer in a suit with a mechanical face.

Which nickname does Richard Chaves's explosives specialist, Jorge Ramirez, go by in Predator?

Poncho is among the last of the team to fall, and the actor behind him had served a real tour of duty in Vietnam as an infantryman.

Bill Duke, one of Dutch's men in Predator, went on to direct which 1993 comedy sequel?

Sister Act 2 was a change of pace for a director whose earlier crime film A Rage in Harlem had competed for the top prize at Cannes.

In which multiplayer video game did Arnold Schwarzenegger return to voice Dutch decades later?

Predator: Hunting Grounds pits one player as the creature against a four-person fireteam, and its tapes reveal what Dutch did in the decades after the film.

The Predator joined which fighting game as a downloadable guest character, opposite an Alien?

Mortal Kombat X added the Predator as a guest fighter, and a military shooter series once hid the creature as a surprise reward on a ruins map.

The Predator stalks players in a bonus mission called The Hunt in which Tom Clancy game?

Ghost Recon Wildlands ran the mission as a live event from December 2017, sending squads into the Caimanes district to fight the creature.

Which adult animated series licensed a Predator to play the new partner of a character's ex-wife?

Rick and Morty opened its seventh season with the gag: a private detective hired to tail an ex-wife turns out to be a Predator who is dating her.

Which actor plays Noland, the soldier who has survived alone for years, in Predators (2010)?

Laurence Fishburne plays the scavenger who shelters the group in his hideout, then tries to suffocate them with smoke as they sleep.

In Predators (2010), where do the abducted killers eventually realise they have been dropped?

On another planet is the answer the sky gives them, with unfamiliar moons overhead. The place turns out to be a reserve stocked with prey taken from Earth.

Which actress stars as Naru, the healer who longs to hunt, in the Predator prequel Prey?

Amber Midthunder leads the prequel, and she and the cast later re-recorded their roles for a full dub in their characters' own language.

What kind of animal is Sarii, who sets out with Naru in the Predator prequel Prey?

A dog named Sarii follows Naru into the woods, is caged with her by French trappers, and is later sent to fetch her brother.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem brings the creatures' fight to a small town in which US state?

Colorado is where a Predator ship crashes, outside the town of Gunnison, letting loose a hybrid of the two species known as the Predalien.

What is the name of the young runt, cast out by his clan, who leads Predator: Badlands?

Dek sets out to win his clan's respect by killing an apex beast, and he teams up with a damaged android along the way.

Predator: Killer of Killers opens in the year 841 with a Predator ambushing a clan of which people?

Vikings led by a mother seeking revenge are the first prey of the anthology, which was the franchise's first animated film.

Which actress plays Alexa Woods, the guide at the centre of Alien vs. Predator (2004)?

Sanaa Lathan beat several hundred actresses to the role, and flew to Prague to start filming just one week after she was selected.

Predators (2010) filmed its faraway setting in Austin, Texas and which other US state?

Hawaii supplied the rainforest for a shoot that began in September 2009 and wrapped after only 53 days.