Predator-a-Thon, Part 2 - Predator 2 (1990)

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Cast: Danny Glover, Kevin Peter Hall, Gary Busey, Bill Paxton, Robert Davi

Country: United States

Production Company: Silver Pictures

Rating: R

Run Time: 108 minutes

I haven't revisited Predator 2 in a long long time. It's been nearly 10 years since I last saw this film. Now that I have revisited the film for my trek through action/horror hybrids during the Halloween season, I am so glad to have rediscovered this incredibly underrated sequel. While lacking the tense build up and unforgettable characters of McTiernan's original, Predator 2 still makes for fantastic action entertainment. The film ditches the "men on a mission" genre of Predator in favor of a "cops and robbers" genre picture.

Many non-action fans disregard this film completely. I don't understand why because Predator 2 is a far more faithful sequel than most other action sequels out there. The biggest issue that most people seem to have with the sequel is that Arnold Schwarzenegger did not return to star and the tone of the film is completely different. Even though I love Arnold's performance and the tone of the original, I think that director Stephen Hopkins and screenwriters Jim and John Thomas gave us nice replacements for those things. Instead of Arnold we get Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) and instead of tense horror we get a dark-satirical tone heavily reminiscent of the cinema of Paul Veerhoven (RoboCop, Total Recall).

Glorious stunt work that only the 80's and 90's could deliver.

The film takes place in Los Angeles, CA in 1997 (7 years ahead of the film's release date). In this 1997 version of Los Angeles, crime has run rampant. Jamaican and Colombian drug lords plague the streets and constantly find themselves in gunfights with police. The film opens with a fantastic scene that drops us right into a massive gun fight in the streets of Los Angeles. Several coked up Jamaicans fire away at police with Uzis and even grenade launchers. However, these drug lords stand no chance against Lieutenant Michael Harrigan (Danny Gover), our hero and protagonist of the film. As Harrigan and several other cops continue to trade fire, several Jamaicans make their way inside of a building in order to reload and get ready for round two with the police. However, an unexpected and invisible intruder breaks in on the Jamaicans' party and proceeds to slaughter all of them. When Harrigan finds the last remaining Jamaican, the Jamaican freaks out when he sees a camoflauged creature standing above Harrigan. As the Jamaican fires at the creature, Harrigan guns him down not knowing about the invisible Predator (Kevin Peter Hall) above him.

Please forgive me for this epic introduction to the film. While I thoroughly enjoy all of Predator 2, the opening action scene is better than anything else in the film. It's a violent, exciting, and lengthy scene that delivers all sorts of bloody mayhem. There are so many excellent action beats and moments in this scene. Danny Glover drives a car while leaning out the side of the front door, Jamaicans hip fire twin Uzis, and cops fly through the air in slow motion as they are fired upon by grenade launchers. Predator 2 gets a 10/10 for the opening scene alone. But alas, there is a plot and more to the film than just this.

Harrigan becomes suspicious of the Jamaicans' slaughter that day. Unsurprisingly, more Jamaican drug lords and cops start dying all throughout Los Angeles. As Harrigan investigates into the killings, he discovers that a team of men led by Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) are on to the Predator's existence. It is than up to Harrigan and Keyes' team to take down the new Predator once and for all.

"Not the lips oh gosh!"

Predator 2 is less about the Predator stalking a single group of people in a limited location and more about the Predator going on a city wide killing spree. It's a shame that the film ditches the realistic tension and survival horror of McTiernan's Predator. The film is played much straighter with fairly typical action scenes and a pretty predictable plot; thereby making Predator 2 a weaker film. However, that doesn't stop the film from being an exciting and action packed thrill ride. There isn't a boring moment in Predator 2. You get far more action scenes, lots of ridiculous characters, and an equally impressive body count with far more kills coming from the Predator. Predator 2 shoots for basic action entertainment and nothing more.

McTiernan's Predator had a first rate cast of action royalty and certified badasses. Even though Predator 2 doesn't have a line up as excellent as Arnold and his pals, the cast is still darn impressive and a great representation of late 80's to early 90's actors. Danny Glover is Harrigan, the bad ass and no-nonsense Lieutenant with a ridiculous laser sight Desert Eagle as his signature hand gun. Instead of playing a safe and by the rules cop like in Lethal Weapon, Glover's character is more similar to his bad ass role in Lawrence Kasdan's 1985 western Silverado. Harrigan breaks rules, risks his life, and plunges head first into the twisting and spiraling murder spree that the Predator leaves in Los Angeles.

Lots of great character actors also pop up in the film. Gary Busey (Under Siege), Bill Paxton (Aliens), Robert Davi (Die Hard), Ruben Blades (Once Upon a Time in Mexico), and Adam Baldwin (Full Metal Jacket) all grace us genre nerds with their awesome presence. It's also worth mentioning that Bill Paxton plays a character in both the Predator series and the Alien series (coincidentally the second installments of each franchise). This officially makes him the only actor to have taken on both creatures in each respective franchise. Talk about a special life achievement. I would be far more thrilled with an accomplishment like that than an actual Academy Award win or whatever.

Mike Harrigan barrels down a bullet strewn street.

Predator 2 explores the theme of the bleak crime ridden city nearing a total breakdown. Many action films of '89 and '90 also explored this theme (The Punisher, Class of 1999, Darkman, RoboCop 2) and integrated it into their plots. Even child friendly films of the time (Tim Burton's Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Back to the Future Part II) touched on the crime ridden city for goodness sakes. However, it is most fascinating to see how similar Predator 2 is to both RoboCop and RoboCop 2. Both films depict a bleak and ultra violent future ripe with media satire, urban decay, and ridiculously oversized hand guns. Predator 2 is very similar to the RoboCop series because it embraces its absurd plot and setting in order to portray a hyper realistic city ripe with crime.

As I stated before, Predator 2 has excellent action scenes. There is a fantastic variety of human on human gunfights and Predator on human massacre scenes. After the opening scene though, the Predator becomes front and center for the rest of the film's action scenes. He slaughters Jamaicans in a high rise, murders thugs and civilians inside of a moving subway train, and even engages in an epic foot chase with Danny Glover spanning roof tops, apartments, an elevator shaft, and even his own spaceship! The Predator racks up the highest kill count out of anyone in the entire film. He kills around 25 or more people; quite the slasher-spree. Eat your ever killing heart out Jason Vorheeves! Even though the drama and mass killings are quite shallow in contrast to McTiernan's Predator, you definitely get your bang for your buck.

Predator 2 heavily expands the mythos of the franchise. We learn that Predator's are drawn to hot locations for their hunts. This explains why a Predator would show up in the hot jungles of Costa Rica and the hot city of Los Angeles. The film also establishes that a Predator won't kill a pregnant woman even if she is armed with a weapon or hurt a child with a toy gun. This proves that Predators only honor a clean death devoid of innocent loss. The Predator also uses far more weaponry than in the first film. His varied arsenal includes a retracting razor net, a spinning smart blade, a telescopic spear gun, and even rocket flares.

I love ridiculous moments like these.

However, the Predator does do some bizarre and odd ball things in this film. For starters, the Predator is always in the right place at the right time. Whenever a conflict arrises between cops or thugs, the Predator is there to slaughter everyone to death. This "right place at right time" aspect was more believable in Predator because the Predator was constantly hunting the same small group of men in a jungle. Now the Predator has all of Los Angeles to hunt in and somehow always pops up whenever the most dramatic scene takes place. That's quite a coincidence. He must have read the script.

The Predator also toys with his prey. When Danny Glover goes to visit his dead partner's grave, the Predator stalks him there and leaves his dead partner's necklace on a tree nearby. Why would the Predator toy with someone like this and not just fight them? It feels very out of character in contrast to the Predator established in the first film. The worst aspect of this new Predator is that he actually curses at opportune moments (once again, because he has read the script). When Glover walks up to the downed Predator, he starts to quote Arnold's famous line from the original, "You are one ugly..." Just than the Predator grabs Glover's throat and screams, "Mother f*****!" He even shouts, "S*** happens!" when Glover and him hang on the side of a building. I know that the Predator can record human dialog in order to play it back to throw off his prey. But this finishing off of other character's sentences and dropping one liners is just ridiculous.

Predator 2 is most infamous for an awesome blink and you'll miss it easter egg moment. When Danny Glover finally discovers the Predator's ship at the end of the film, he finds a wall of skull trophies. The skulls range from all kinds of creatures all across the galaxy. But one skull in particular caught everyone's eye back in 1990. Without a doubt, an alien xenomorph skull from the Alien films can be spotted on the trophy wall. This little image of the xenomorph skull in a Predator spaceship was enough to tease fans of an eventual Alien vs. Predator film.

Predator 2's set up of the versus film to be is very similar to the versus film set up in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993). At the end of that film, Freddy Kruger's claw emerges from the ground and pulls Jason's mask down to Hell. This was a teaser for the eventual Freddy vs. Jason (2003). However, it's a real coincidence and a kick in the balls to the fans of these franchises that it took well over 10 years to get both of these versus films made! These two versus films are infamous for being stuck in development hell. Even though fans of these series have their fair share of problems with both of these versus films, Freddy vs. Jason is clearly a far better versus film with more action and gore than the tame Alien vs. Predator (although Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem trumps Freddy vs. Jason as far as gore and kills come).

Hold on to that image audience of 1990. It's all you'll get for 14 years.

Predator 2 is one of the most underrated action films and sequels of the 1990's. The film is jam packed with action, Predator kills, and ridiculous characters that make the film fun and entertaining. As far as sequels go, Predator 2 does a lot to expand the Predator mythos by introducing more weapons and rules than the first film. The film's shortcoming is that it shoots for straight forward action entertainment instead of taking its time like McTiernan's masterful original. But even with these flaws, Predator 2 is an awesome sequel that should not be missed! It's unfortunate that this would be the last Predator film for a whopping 14 years until the awful Alien vs. Predator. It would also be the last good Predator film until 2010's Predators. Fans of the Predator series have not had it easy people.

Rating: 8/10 - An awesome action/horror hybrid that should be held up as high on a pedestal as the Predator holds up his victims' skulls and spines!

Franchise:
Predator (dir. John McTiernan, 1987)
Predator 2 (dir. Stephen Hopkins, 1990)
Predators (dir. Nimrod Antal, 2010)

AvP Spin-Offs:
Alien vs. Predator (dir. Paul W. S. Anderson, 2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (dir. The Brothers Strause, 2007)