Predator

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Wahn ahgly mahtherfahker.

Anna: When I was little, we found a man. He looked like... like, butchered. The old women in the village crossed themselves... and whispered crazy things, strange things. "El Diablo cazador de hombres." Only in the hottest years this happens. And this year, it grows hot. We begin finding our men. We found them sometimes without their skins... and sometimes much, much worse. "El cazador que hace trofeo de los hombres" means the hunter who makes trophies of men.

Dutch: If it bleeds, we can kill it!

Predator is a franchise of films and comic books that detail individual encounters with an impossibly cool alien species with advanced technology, including a personal invisibility field. Although the human characters of the first two Predator films don't realize it, the creature likes to hunt aggressive members of other species for sport... and humans fit quite well in this category...

Since the inception in 1987, the Predator has appeared in a large number of movies, comics, novels, video games and other media. Following an extremely successful comic crossover, many of these works pit the Predator against the Alien to the point that the two are forever linked in the public mind (this trend began in Predator 2, which included a xenomorph skull as an Easter Egg, and was eventually canonized in film). Beyond humans and xenomorphs, multiple comic series have established that the Predator's third favorite prey includes superheroes (which rarely works out).

Not a direct opposite of Prey, until August 2022 when a movie of that name joined the franchise.

Predator (1987)

In 1987, Major "Dutch" Schaeffer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his elite "rescue" squad were sent to rescue a cabinet minister in a Banana Republic, and after slaughtering the guerrillas, they discover the hostages were actually CIA agents, and their employers have lied to them. But all of that takes a back seat once a mysterious, invisible enemy with weapons not of this Earth starts killing off Schaeffer's team one by one...

What made the first film such a successful piece of cinema were its groundbreaking special effects, big-budget action sequences and unique premise. Considered the manliest movie ever made, it's hard to argue: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers (of Rocky fame) and Jesse Ventura took major roles, and were all very big, strong guys who were prone to bleed and sweat (though they ain't got time to bleed). On the other hand, the emphasis on big, sweaty men being sweaty with each other in the jungle makes it one of the most Ho Yay films of all time, perhaps second only to Schwarzenegger's own Commando.

Predator 2 (1990)

Ten years after the first movie (although the movie is from 1990), Los Angeles is under a Heat Wave, and a war between Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels is running wild. LAPD Lt. Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) discovers something is killing members of both factions... and after meeting a fake DEA task force, he discovers that the thing is an alien, and they have been waiting for one to reappear since previous events in Central America (and apparently, they know how to dance).

Predator: Concrete Jungle

The first (and, to date, only) video game focusing solely on the titular creature, released in 2005 for the XBox and PS2. The game follows a lone Predator, who, after failing a hunt in 1930's New Way City, is exiled by his clan to an alien planet, where he is left to survive on his own. A century later, the clan retrieves the Predator (now nicknamed "Scarface") and offers him a chance to reclaim his honor by going back to Earth and killing Hunter Borgia, the son of the leader of an Irish mob (who scarface killed during the failed hunt) who has rewritten history by utilizing alien technology left behind during the previous hunt. Scarface must battle various mob factions and retrieve the lost technology as the player progresses through the game, as well as collect trophy skulls and complete optional missions. The game featured a number of unlockable items and costumes, as well as many references to the Alien and Predator franchises.

Predators (2010)

Eight ultra-badasses and one doctor from all around Earth are abducted and dropped onto a game reserve planet for hunting by a larger and more aggressive species/clan of Predators. They must find out what it is they are fighting and how to get off this planet, all without going for each other's throats.

Produced by Robert Rodriguez, the film acts as a sequel only to Predator and Predator 2 (moreso the former). Rodriguez says he hopes to reinvent the series so that people will forget about the Alien vs. Predator movies.

The Predator (2018)

A Predator crash-lands on Earth and black ops soldier Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) barely escapes with his life and some of the alien's belongings, which he sends home. McKenna is deemed crazy by the government and put on a bus to a military insane asylum. However, the alien equipment turns out to be far more important than he could have expected, with both the marooned Predator and a second "ultimate" Predator, who's been upgrading itself with the DNA from other species across the stars, soon hunting him to retrieve it.

Directed and co-written by Shane Black, who was in the first film's cast.

Prey (2022)

In 1719, the Comanche Naru (Amber Midthunder) aspires to be a great warrior, and takes the 'Thunderbird' she saw as a sign she is ready to become one of her tribe's hunters, not knowing it was actually a Predator dropship leaving one of the alien hunters to discover the best game to seek during the colonization of the Northern Plains.

Alien vs. Predator Series

The concept of the xenomorph Aliens and the Predator facing off was hinted at in the second film with a xenomorph skull in a predator trophy room. The Predator comics by Dark Horse are popular, and took part in many Intercontinuity Crossovers. This, in turn, lead into two film crossovers.

The comic series Aliens vs. Predator takes place in the Alien universe. The plot is centered on a desert planet onto which the xenomorphs are seeded in preparation for a hunt by novice Predators. Later issues followed a human character as she attempts to live in, and eventually escape from, a Predator space ship. The original comics were very popular and critically acclaimed. The video games, mostly entering the Beat'Em Up or First-Person Shooter genres, earned many fans too. Later film adaptations... well...

In Alien vs. Predator, a predator ship arrives in orbit and activates a temple pyramid hidden in the Antarctic. The heat signature attracts some human scientists who lead an expedition and discover a bizarre labyrinth. What they eventually learn is that this place is a proving ground for Predators to hunt one of the most dangerous of prey, the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise.

While the movie was based off of two R-rated film series, this movie was PG-13, and as a result, it wasn't quite the bloodbath fans were hoping for. That said, it has its fans and the film was popular enough to warrant a sequel.

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem follows events from the previous film, and features a predator/alien hybrid leading an invasion of Earth. Despite this movie being rated R, it has very little of what made any of the two creatures entertaining and is considered one of the worst films ever made in some fans' eyes. But of course it has its fans as well, who swear the first Alien vs. Predator was actually worse. The fans of both films aren't really mutually exclusive to begin with. Either way, the Alien vs. Predator franchise of films never ended up being what everyone wanted them to be. At least to the fans of the Alien vs. Predator mythology.

Video games

The Other Wiki has a list.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Predator franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

Tropes used in multiple Predator films

  • Alien Blood: "If it bleeds, we can kill it." A very bright, phosphorescent green too.
  • Ammunition Backpack: Blaine and Nikolai's miniguns in the first and third movies, and the nitrogen guns Keyes' team uses in the second movie.
  • BFG: Ol' Painless. Also lampshaded in the second movie: when selecting from an array of firearms (including an oversized shotgun), Harrigan discards most of them, saying they are too small.
  • Blood Knight: The whole reason the Predators institute their hunts in the first place.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Manpack miniguns which should run dry in seconds even with the Ammunition Backpack, and sawed-off pump shotguns that somehow hold at least nine shells.
  • Call Back: In the movie Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, one of the characters tells another to "get to the chopper" while on the hospital rooftop, obviously a reference to the famous line "get to da choppa" from Predator, only in this movie it was, ya know, without the accent.
  • Chameleon Camouflage: The Predator's camouflage armor worked this way.
  • Covered in Mud: The standard method of avoiding thermal detection.
  • Crazy Prepared: The Predators seem to have equipment to deal with almost every situation, and when they don't, you can expect this will be corrected in the next generation; the Predator from the first movie had a medical kit in case he would be shot; the one from the second movie had a multiple vision visor in case humans would figure out a way to escape his heat vision; the ones from the Alien vs. Predator movies had equipment treated to resist Xenomorph's blood and an acid used to remove tracks of their existence; the ones from Predators had a self-destruct function in their ship activable remotely should the humans try to steal it to escape the planet; and the list goes on.
  • Creepy Souvenir: Predators keep the skulls of the humans they kill.
  • Daylight Horror: Mostly in the first and third movies. The Predators use their cloaking devices to hide in broad daylight, killing their prey in gruesome ways.
  • Developing Doomed Characters: Both Predator and Predators spent quite a long time with only the humans.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Subverted in the first movie, where Hawkins' explanation of his joke is the punchline.

Hawkins: Billy. Billy! The other day, I was going down on my girlfriend, I said to her, "Jeez you got a big pussy. Jeez you got a big pussy." She said, "Why did you say that twice?" I said, "I didn't." ... see, 'cuz of the echo.

  • Egomaniac Hunter: For all their vaunted honor code, this is what the Predators really are when you boil it down: a race whose sole drive is to explore the galaxy, find the nastiest critters they can, then kill them to prove their own toughness and be able to brag about what Badasses they are.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Yautja typically do not hunt the weak, helpless and/or innocent. In the Expanded Universe, Predators without honor are hunted, their bodies dismembered and desecrated, and their heads disposed of, as opposed to being kept as a trophy. It's also shown that they check their targets: one identifies a toy gun in the second film, and refrains from killing a pregnant woman, even though she had been armed moments earlier.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Billy in Predator, Jerry Lambert in Predator 2, and Hanzo in Predators.
  • Humans Are Special:
    • Humans aren't as strong and their technology is far behind Predator tech but they are tenacious and clever enough to be considered excellent game. See the below trope as well.
    • The expanded universe goes even further, saying that only the most experienced and honored Yautja hunters are allowed to ask permission to seek out worthy human prey. Keep in mind, Yautja hunt Xenomorphs as a first blooding.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: One of the reasons the Predators seem to enjoy hunting humans is that our sheer lack of physical prowess and technological advantages compared to them, means we have to resort to being very ingenious when it comes to finding ways to track down and kill our opponents. In short... we cheat.
  • Humans Are Warriors: The reason why the Predators sees the humans as excellent game.
    • And playing back into the above, the reason why Predators in the expanded universe only allow their best warriors to very selectively hunt a handful of humans. It's implied that the Yautja as a race are aware that if they just go around slaughtering any humans they come across, the resulting Human/Yautja conflict would be devastating... for the Yautja.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Yautja hunt many life-forms that are intelligent and can give them a worthy hunt through ingenious methods of combat or survival.
  • Inescapable Net: The nets in the series are quite effective, but that's also because they automatically contract on the target and are apparently made out of something like piano wire, so targets are less incapacitated and more cubed.
  • Invisibility Flicker: The Predator does it while cloaked.
  • The Ketchup Test: Possibly justified, considering Predators bleed flourescent green.
  • Kill'Em All: Most movies end with anyone of nominal importance being killed, except for the lone survivor.
  • Laser Sight: Pretty much any time the predator uses its Shoulder Cannon.
  • Lock and Load Montage: Dutch preparing primitive weapons and covering himself with mud in Predator, and Harrigan strapping on and preparing his weapons in Predator 2.
  • Machete Mayhem: That knife is used at least once per movie.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender/Sorting Algorithm of Mortality: Predator, Predator 2 and Predators all have casts filled with numerous Badass men... and a lone Badass woman. No prizes for guessing which characters are guaranteed to survive. Averted by the Alien vs. Predator films which both have multiple female roles, allowing some of them to become victims too.
    • Not quite, Anna is hardly badass, which is pretty much the reason the Predator doesn't attack her.
  • More Dakka: Spades of it, in fact.
    • Predator. After Blaine is killed, there is potentially the most Dakka in one scene in cinema history.
    • Predator 2. When the Predator attacks the Jamaicans in the Columbian drug lord's apartment they unload a huge amount of firepower.
    • Predators has it in spades.
  • Neck Lift: A predator does it to Dutch in Predator and to police officer Leona in Predator 2.
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: The Predators only hunt those who would make good sport, and will not harm those who are clearly not fighters: sick, elderly, young, with child, etc. However, they tend to make exceptions if the siutation demands it, as their hunting code is not usually done out of compassion.
    • The sick guy in Alien vs. Predator was ignored at first, but the Predator was willing to kill him when he just wouldn't back down. Then again, most creatures would get pissed if you lit them on fire. He didn't seem to pose a challenge for a race that prides itself on hunting strong prey. Unfortunately for our intrepid human, showing the cunning to improvise a weapon elevated him to "worthy kill".
    • There was also the dude that stumbled across the Predator in the woods in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, but then again, that wasn't a question of killing for sport so much as it was a question of leaving no witnesses. After all, his code-name, besides fans calling him Wolf, was "The Cleaner".
    • The wolf/dark/large/evil Predators from the Rodriguez sequel seem to have no qualms whatsoever with killing innocents, not even completely paralyzed ones... Possibly one of the reasons why the 'classic' Predators are at war with them. Although since their victims are the worst of humanity, it is more justified.
    • Worth noting that it isn't not out of any compassion on the Predator's part, it's just no fun to kill something that doesn't fight back. Remember, these are the guys that, once defeated, attempt to blow themselves up along with the person that beat them, which doesn't exactly scream "honor".
      • You mean they erase all trace of themselves and their technology, and prevent themselves being made into trophies? We see in the second movie that if their technology can be retrieved they have no problem leaving you alive if you win.
  • Night Vision Goggles: The Predator mask can see in several vision modes, but not the visible spectrum. Interestingly, the director went to the effort of getting hold of a real infrared camera for the Predvision sequences... And found it was practically useless in a steaming tropical jungle, hence the false coloured Predvision in the actual movie.
    • The first movie also displays this, kind of. When the Predator takes off his mask for the final battle, we see a shot from his point of view as the previous black-with-highlighted-creatures view becomes red with heat, though he can still make out his target. The mask must filter out the ambient heat to make it easier to see.
    • The Men in Black in the second movie realize that the Preds can see in heat mode... but they assume that they can ONLY see in heat mode. It... ended badly. Had they realized that there was a creaky staircase in the slaughterhouse, things might've gone differently. The Predator can hear perfectly well and wouldn't have switched to its other vision modes if they had replaced the staircase earlier.
  • Noble Demon: The Predators might fall under this, especially the one in the second movie and the Classic Predator in the third.
  • Not of This Earth: Each film has the protagonists recognize what they're dealing with via some sort of contact (the Predator's blood in the first, the non-earthly composition of its spear weapon in the second and the reveal of the Alien Sky in the third).
  • No Waterproofing in the Future: The Predator's cloaking device fails after he falls in a river (first movie) and while walking in water and under water sprays (second movie). Possibly caused by the myriad extra reflections caused by water, rather than actually shorting out.
  • Oh Crap: In the first film by Dutch, just as he realizes the Predator isn't going to walk into his trap. In the second by the Predator, no less, just before Harrigan cuts its hand (with the self-destruct) off.
  • Outrun the Fireball: In the first movie, it's the Predator's Self-Destruct Mechanism. In Predator 2, the ship's take-off exhaust (and a Shout-Out to the first movie's scene). In Predators, the team has to outrun the blast caused by Nicholai's heroic sacrifice.
  • Phrase Catcher: The unmasked creature warrants the comment "You're one ugly motherfucker!". This is referenced in the first Aliens vs. Predator when a character uses the same line on a Xenomorph. By then, she had done an Enemy Mine with the Predator, so refrained from saying such to him.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
    • Predator: Dutch (after knocking down a door): Knock knock!
    • Predator 2: Harrigan: That's right motherfucker, SHIT HAPPENS!
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Predators, of course.
    • Predator: Dutch: "He didn't kill you because you weren't armed. No sport."
    • Predator 2: After Harrigan kills the Predator, other Predators appear, but don't kill him. Instead, one of them tosses Harrigan a gun from 1715... taken as a trophy during a previous hunt. Also note that the protagonist Predator is an honorable warrior who does not murder children or pregnant women, even if they are an armed threat to it.
  • Retractable Weapon: All Predators use a pair of retractable wrist-blades. The one in Predator 2 and subsequent media has a retractable staff/spear.
  • Scary Black Man: Mac in the first film. Double subverted in that, for most of his screen time, he's scared shitless himself... but after his Heroic BSOD, he's downright terrifying. Played straight in Predator 2 where the main character is a Scary Black Man, not to mention the Jamaican gangsters. Their leader King Willie is also a Scary Black Man, but more because his Voodoo belief and behavior that physical strength.
  • Self-Destruct Mechanism: Played straight in Predator, subverted in Predator 2 when Harrigan stops the countdown by cutting the device in half.
  • Sore Loser: The Predator himself in the first two films. Upon being beaten, both attempt to self-destruct and take out their defeaters in the process, complete with an Evil Laugh and a sarcastic "Shit happens!" respectively.
  • Unusual Weapon Mounting: The Predator's iconic laser-aimed shoulder-mounted Plasmacaster. The laser sight in the Predator's mask guides the servo-turret mount, meaning that the Predator can aim and fire while keeping its hands free.
  • Villain Based Franchise: Though the Predators do have a personal code of honor, that code is more a combination of hunting practicalities (don't kill pregnant females lest there be no prey left to hunt) and bragging rights, and so they are truly the villains of the piece. The plot of the series boils down to "Predator comes to a technologically inferior society of sapient beings to kill them for bragging rights." Furthermore, the Expanded Universe reveals that Predators actually breed Aliens on purpose, and have deliberately scattered them across the galaxy.
  • Visible Invisibility: The Predator's cloaking device makes him less visible, not invisible. It is easier to see in motion and it also shorts out very easily.
  • Wingdinglish: The display on the Predator's Self-Destruct Mechanism is in unreadable alien numbers, but it's very obviously a countdown.
  • World of Badass: Even the women are manly!
  • World of Ham: Naturally.
  • Worthy Opponent: Happens to both Schaeffer and Harrigan when their respective Predator foe acknowledges their combat ability. It ends up with the Predator removing its mask and armor and challenging them under more even circumstances. For Schaeffer, it was outsmarting the Predator with the mud-smear and taking down his cloaking device. For Harrigan, the only reason the hunter selected him was seeing him pull off a one-man takedown against a gang of better-armed thugs. Explicitly shown with the other Predators' reaction to Harrigan after he manages to take the one hunting him down. Also occurs in Predators with Hanzo, who challenges a Predator to a sword/blade fight. The Predator drops his cloaking and weapons.
  • Would Not Shoot a Civilian: As they are an honor bound race of hunters, killing unarmed and defenseless people is a no-no to them, as they provide no sport, and it's simply not a challenge.
  • You Shall Not Pass: Vs. the Predator: Billy in Predator, Jerry Lambert in Predator 2, Nikolai and Hanzo in Predators.

Tropes used in individual movies

Tropes used in Predator

Mac: You're ghosting us motherfucker. I don't care who you are back in the world. You give away our position one more time I'll bleed you, real quiet, an' leave you.

    • Before Dillon goes to fight the Predator:

Dutch: You can't win this, Dillon.
Dillon: Maybe I can get even.

  • Badass Native: Billy and Poncho.
  • Bang Bang BANG
  • Beat Them At Their Own Game: Dutch uses stealth tactics to defeat the Predator, though it isn't enough to win outright.
  • BFG: Blain's minigun "Ol' Painless".
  • Bittersweet Ending: Dutch survives but his entire team is killed (though Anna makes it out too). Even more bitter if you consider that, for one alien dead (and at a high price), others have come to Earth in the past, and more will surely come in the future.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Averted, as the very first person to be killed is Hawkins, a white man. In fact, Blain, another white man, dies second, and the third white guy on the team (other than Arnold) is badly injured after him. The two black guys actually die trying to avenge the white guys, and though they aren't the last guys to die, the two who are die mere minutes after them, so the black dudes basically last as long as everyone but the survivors. They arguably get the most Character Development of the entire cast too.
  • Bond One-Liner: An Arnie staple.
  • Cannot Tell a Joke: Hawkins:

Hawkins: So I said "I would like a little pussy", and she says "me too. Mine's as big as a house!" (Beat) You see, she wanted a little one, but her's was... big as a house.

Dutch: What the hell are you?
Predator: What the hell are you?

    • Also between Dutch and Dillon:

Dillon: You're an asset. An expendable asset. And I used to get the job done, got it.
(later on...)
Dutch: Of course they can't get to us. We're assets. Expendable assets.
Dillon: It comes with the job, and I can accept it.
Dutch: Bullshit. You're just like the rest of us.

  • Magical Native American: Billy senses the presence of the alien long before anyone else does. Justified as he is after all their scout, but Billy's reactions are very different from what you'd expect if an ordinary human enemy was stalking them, indicating that he somehow understands the otherworldly nature of their foe.

Billy: I'm scared, major.
Poncho: Bullshit. You ain't afraid of no man.
Billy: There's something out there waiting for us. And it ain't no man. (cocks his gun) We're all gonna die.

  • The Mockbuster: Robowar, starring Reb Brown of Space Mutiny fame. Oddly, while copying the film almost entirely in visual style and rough plot, it replaced the alien predator with a cyborg The Government had made from Brown's character's war casualty friend, self-loathing but suffering from I Cannot Self-Terminate. Which one could argue in the hands of a proper studio and writers could actually have been better.
  • More Dakka: After Blain is killed, there is potentially the most Dakka in one scene in cinema history. Leads to an Oh Crap moment when they realize that after all that they STILL didn't even wound the Predator.
  • Not So Different: Arnold, upon seeing the wounded Predator, asks "What the hell are you?". It, perhaps just mimicking the sound, asks, "What the hell are you?".
  • The Quiet One: Billy; Mac.
  • Rated "M" for Manly: Hell yeah.
  • A Real Man Is a Killer: Despite being a mercenary, Dutch doesn't think so and turned down numerous high-profile jobs for this reason.

Dutch: We're a rescue team, not assassins.

  • Red Herring: Early on in the film, much is made of the Predator's ability to mimic human speech. Specifically, it is shown analyzing and duplicating Mac's dialogue "Turn around. Over here". Over an hour of screen time later, Dillon hears Mac's voice beckoning him with the exact same words and tone. At this point, the entire terrified audience believes that the Predator is baiting him, only it turns out... it really was Mac after all. The Predator never does use that gambit. Mac just happened to actually be there. After Mac is killed, the Predator taunts him with Mac's "Anytime" dialogue, which he said right after that.
  • Rock Beats Laser Averted! Despite exploiting the predator's heat vision to his advantage, Arnold's low-tech approach fails to beat the alien. It's only when the latter decides to "even things out" by removing its multipurpose helmet and shoulder gun when Arnold manages to beat it. And even then it's more due to dumb luck more than anything.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Hawkins.
  • Sacrificial Lion: Blain, and, well, most of the commandos that aren't Dutch, Anne or the Preadtor.
  • Sanity Slippage: Mac isn't all there during his final confrontation with the Predator.
  • The Scream: Repeatedly, most notable with Billy.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Dillon; Billy.
  • Shirtless Scene: Dillon, Billy, Poncho and Dutch all get at least one.
  • Stab the Scorpion: Trope Namer.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Dutch's expression after the Predator walks around the death trap he was trying to sucker it into.
  • Thousand-Yard Stare: Dutch gives one at the end after everyone in in his squad is killed and the Predator's subsequent suicide.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In this case, a machete. "Stick around!"

Tropes in Predator 2

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: The disc weapon.
  • Action Girl: Leona Cantrell
  • Badass: Lieutenant Mike Harrigan is basically Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in a warzone, and not a hulking Aryan superhuman—and that makes him more Badass. He actually kills the Predator (which Dutch could not do), because he's more Genre Savvy.
    • When he finally wins, the rest of the crew decloaks: "Ok, who's next?"
  • Black Dude Dies First: Averted and played straight at the same time as Harrigan is one of the few survivors, and the only survivor that the Predator had actually been trying to kill.At the same time the first person killed on screen by the Predator is a Black Jamaican Gangster.Also When the Predator attacks a train with Jerry Lambert and Leona and five gang bangers including a single black one as the only armed people on board apart from a white business man. No prize for guessing who the Predator kills first.
  • Blatant Lies:

Harrigan: Co-operation is my middle name.

  • The Cameo: A Xenomorph skull can be seen in the predator ship.
  • Catch Phrase: "______ is my speciality!"
  • Cat Scare: "Birds. Damn birds."
  • Crapsack World: Los Angeles in Predator 2 is a hellhole, with drug gangs openly shooting and killing cops and each other on the streets, nearly every civillian is armed, and the police are just barely able to maintain order. Then the Predator shows up...
  • Cowboy Cop
    • Lieutenant Harrigan
    • Jerry Lambert too—at his old precinct he was even nicknamed "The Lone Ranger".
  • Continuity Nod:

Harrigan: (unmasks the fallen Predator) You are one ugly...
Predator: (grabs his neck) Motherfucker!

  • Deadly Disc: The disc weapon.
  • Dystopia: Gangs running amok. Crime is so rampant civilians have to carry guns. The LAPD is clean (a rarity in action flicks) but frequently outmanned and outgunned.
  • Eureka Moment: Harrigan looks at a trophy display, and suddenly has a realization.
  • Exploitation Film: Wall to wall violence, gratuitous nudity, cheesy over the top acting, Gary Busey? The evidence is all there.
  • Fake-Out Opening: Begins with an overhead view of some woods but then zooms in on the LA skyline.
    • Or, more specifically, the movie opens on what appears to be a jungle, before the viewpoint climbs over a ridge to reveal an entirely different kind of jungle.
  • Fanservice Extra: Teri Weigel, playing a Columbian drug lord's girlfriend, spends almost all her screen time completely naked.
  • Freeze Ray
  • Genre Savvy: Harrigan recognizes a countdown when he sees one.
  • Groin Attack: Leona to fellow cop Jerry Lambert when he won't leave her alone.
  • Harmless Freezing: Keyes plans to use a liquid nitrogen Freeze Ray to capture the title opponent.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Harrigan kills the Predator with his disc weapon.
  • Infant Immortality: Though if it were "no women, no children", both movies would qualify. The Predator doesn't go after "unsporting" or innocent targets.
  • Infrared X-Ray Camera: The Predator is able to see a fetus inside a pregnant woman's womb, making him spare her life.

Keyes: Infa. Red.

  • Ironic Echo
    • The Predator hears a Yardie say "Shit happens!" Later, when it's about to activate it's self-destruct weapon, it tells Harrigan "Shit happens!"
    • Later, when Harrigan stabs The Predator with its own disc, "That's right motherfucker! SHIT HAPPENS!"
  • It's Personal: Invoked by Harrigan. Keyes later in a Not So Different moment with Harrigan.
  • Large Ham: Keyes. What do you expect from a character played by Gary Busey?
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Willie the Voodoo King. He certainly believes in magic, and his divination says that what's after him is not of this earth, but he thinks its a demon and his spells don't even slow it down.
    • That we see, but he must have done Something to be worth taking a skull trophy instead of a skin.
      • Calmly challenging extraterrestrial hunter with only a sword cane definitely qualifies.
  • The Men in Black
  • Next Sunday A.D.: Los Angeles in 1997 is a battleground of Columbians and Yardies.
  • Pocket Protector: Before going in to fight the Predator, Harrigan puts a metal plate in his shirt to protect against its attacks.
    • It is actually a metal insert for his Bulletproof Vest he dons a moment earlier.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: The disc weapon.
  • Remember That You Trust Me
  • Rooftop Confrontation: Lieutenant Harrigan fights the Predator on the roof of a building as part of a running battle with it.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The reporter in the beginning.

Reporter: Oh, fuck this, I'm outta here!

  • Sensor Suspense: While the capture team is in the warehouse, the support team outside keeps track of the team and the Predator inside the warehouse using symbols on a screen. The suspense increases when the creature's movements indicate it can see the capture team and is about to attack them.
  • Shout-Out
    • Before the Aliens vs. Predator films, Predator 2 had a rack of trophy skulls in the Predator ship, including one from a xenomorph.
    • A rather obvious one from Keyes:

Keyes: He's on safari. The lions, the tigers, the bears... oh, my!

Predator: Concrete Jungle

  • Alternate Continuity: The game is a What If story that disregards the events of the films in favor of its own mythology.
  • Continuity Nod: Lucretia Borgia is known by her codename, MOTHER, a reference to the computer system used in the original Alien.
  • Cosmetic Award: Players can unlock various costumes by completing specific objectives in certain missions.
  • Imported Alien Phlebotinum: In Scarface's equipment, which was accidentally left behind on Earth.
  • Super Drowning Skills: If you fall/jump/lean in the water you instantly die, only to reappear seconds later a few feet away from where you descended to a watery doom. Possibly Justified, since with his armor and all, the Predator weighs about half a ton.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Scarface starts out hunting street gangs before being led to their leader, Lucretia Borgia, who is being kept alive through the blood the Predator spilled on her way back in 1930, and then onto her son, Hunter.
  • Timeline-Altering MacGuffin: In Concrete Jungle, Scarface leaves behind several pieces of his clan's technology during a hunt in New Way City. When he is recovered from the planet he was exiled to (a century later), he learns that he unintentionally kickstarted an entire technological revolution that has resulted in cyborgs, flying cars and much more.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Part of the game's charm is that you can do just about any move any of the titular creatures did in the films: taunt them from high-up ledges and watch as they freak out, execute any one of a dozen different finishing moves - while their teammates look on, hang bodies up to scare NPC's or pick off enemies before retreating and watching them freak.

Predators

Has its own page.

Other

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