All 7 Predator movies, ranked from worst to best
By Daniel Roman
2. Predator (1987)
The original 1987 Predator movie is one of the most iconic sci-fi horror films of all time. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch and Carl Weathers as CIA agent George Dillon. Together they led a team of commandos on a rescue mission into the jungles of Central America, only to find something even more dangerous than drug cartels stalking them from the trees.
There are so many things that make Predator the enduring film that it is. The absolutely legendary score by Alan Silvestri, which remains as good today as it was almost 40 years ago. The smart fake-out structure of the story which spends almost a half-hour convincing us that it’s one kind of movie before shifting gears and having us realize along with Dutch and his team that they’re being hunted. It’s one of Schwarzenegger’s best roles of all time, yet despite how good he and the rest of the cast are, the real star is the Predator itself. The prosthetics used for the alien creature have stood the test of time. While the CGI for the hunter’s invisibility cloaking has come a long way since this movie, the actual alien itself remains one of the most visually stunning in the series.
Predator also has one of the best climaxes of any sci-fi horror movie. After escaping by the skin of his teeth and discovering that mud can hide him from the Predator’s heat vision, Dutch sets a bunch of traps and screams his challenge into the jungle. The Predator comes for him, and the ensuing showdown is tense, long, and makes the alien feel totally unstoppable. Part of the reason many of the other Predator movie climaxes don’t work as well (most just have the humans beat the Predator in a fight) is because this first film gave it an almost Terminator-like ability to keep going. And that makes the sense of terror palpable, because no matter how competent Dutch is, no matter what he throws at it, the Predator just refuses to die.
But as absolutely iconic as the first Predator movie is, it may have just been dethroned as the best in the franchise.