My 'PREDATOR' appreciation thread. - Page 4

This thread must stay alive!!!

shakes his fists in the air

Everything said here is true. Great movie! And whoever posted about the suits worn by soldiers was correct. They indeed have light bending "jumpsuits" made with fiber optic wires. Also, they used this material on troop transports. It looks indentical to the Predator's camo. But, alas, I only saw this on Discovery Channel.

"Looks like you've been poooshing too many paaancils laytley!"

Put it on SUPERBIT!!

??? fill me in here... Are you mad that we don't get to see the predators point of view? Is he misunderstood? just toying

Mike Strassburg: Disable EX/ES/back surround decoding. The surrounds are mono in Predator. (FACT!) Which when using EX/ES, it matrixes together to the back channel and cancels in the surrounds.

Scott,

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try....Mike

What a great thread! I've enjoyed the hell outta reading it. Now I gotta pull out my predator dvd and watch it. See what you guys made me do. Ha HA

In the spirit of keeping this thread alive here are some tid bits I know of predator.

In the scene where Arnold is falling from the water falls, the stunt man actually doing the scene broke both his legs.

At the end of the film, originally Arnold was supposed to duke it out with the predator, but it was decided that no mere man could duke it out with a predator and Arnold had to use cunning to beat him (thank god!)

To make the Predator look less humanoid, originally it was going to be a man in the suit backwards, so his legs would bend like a dinasour/bird but proved too cumbersome and was scraped.

Also, Jean Claude Van Damme originally had the part of the predator, but was afraid it was going to cut into making bloodsport, and Jean Claude purposely kept falling and basically acting like a clutz in the suit and was fired.

Btw, I was just watching one of those hollywood stories and it mentions this, but fails to mention how he actually got the part. I don't really care about Van Damme, but I like to hear stories of how people got their break in hollywood.

When he was trying to get the part for bloodsport, the producer asked who he was, and the only thing Van Damme had to his credit was he was going to be the predator in the next Arnold movie, and that got him the part for bloodsport, but it fails to even mention how he actually got the part of being the predator. Anyone know?

On a side note, my friend had the predator 2 book, and I wouldn't recommend it as a good read, but there are parts throughout the book in italics, representing the predators' 'thoughts' and it's kinda cool to get insight into what the predator is actually thinking.

Sorry to revive this from the dead, but what the hell ever happened to that Predator vs. Alien movie?

Is there a definitive word on a special edition or 5 star edition for this? Or is it all conjectural at this time?

Great thread John! Nice to know so many others like myself really enjoy this movie.

I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking what a neat twist! You are sitting there watching a typical Arnie commando movie and all of a sudden you're shown this weird infrared viewpoint with cool sound effects.

Needless to say one's excitement level perks up and stays in high gear for the rest of the movie!

Pondering whether or not to get the DTS version. With the scaling ability of my RP91 my nonanamorphic version looks pretty good.

My fav part if it has not been menioned already is the "fly in" scene. Where one guy tells the other guy a dirty joke and he doesn't get it! and when Jesse ask if the guys wants some chew. CLASSIC for sure! Sorry, cannot think of the lines of the top of my head.

Reviving a great post, I couldn't wait for a SE so I picked up a used copy of the WS DTS for $11.99
One my favorite movies of all time. A great film transfer considering when it was made, a bit of grain in some scenes but in others the picture is superb.
I would love a SE with some behind the scenes footage.

When my brother from Minnesota came down I had to throw in the fly-in scene in salute of his governor



That right there could be really what made this movie. Predator takes off all his gear and he and Arnold are gonna duke it out. Pretty darn cheesey except that Arnold gets his butt kicked all over the jungle and then winds up getting a lucky shot. It's all about keeping the bad guy cool right up till the end. If this thing had worked 2 special forces teams just to get beat up by Arnold in a macho showdown it'd be in the B-grade cheese bin right now as opposed to sitting in my collection.

Ask and you shall recieve Typed from memory, so please correct my if I missed some words.

Edited in the spoiler for any little ones reading...

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Then the second one later in the movie....
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Hi Ben, just thought I would share a little of what I think. By the way, I like them both. Just like Aliens(actually Alien) for the dark "feel" throughout.



Then we see the single Predator wipe them out. The Colonial Marines escape(well, a handfull do) from 100 or so "aliens." Is the Predator more dangerous than an "alien?" That debate could go on for years....



We are told at the beginning that the Colonial Marines are very tough. And their "macho" attitude(their banter in the ship, apparent lack of fear of their mission, etc...) futher attests to them being very good soldiers. Why show them getting wiped out quickly? This shows us exactly how bad the "aliens" are. The "aliens" are the ones that had their mystique added to.



Well, *I* think this goes along with the fact that the movie was made to be semi-realistic. You mention "modern day M-16," and I think that is correct. Vasquez and Drake also carry a futuristic version of the M-60. I would rather see these plausible versions of future assault weapons, rather than something not feasable. Also Vasquez and Drake did indeed rupture the reactor. This is why they had to get the other drop ship and leave...also why the complex blew up.

On the other hand, the only weapon I found cool in Predator was his cannon. Very cool sighting system. Arnold and his gang used real weapons(M-16/M203,MP5's, etc), which I doubt would do anymore damage than the Marines in Alien. A portable gatling gun is nice(high rate of fire, low accuracy), but I think the Sentry's can get close.



Indeed an impressive sight. How would the Aliens weapons have looked substituted in that scene? Sentry cannons, up-graded "M-16s", and up-graded "M-60s." Most likely would have exceeded what the older weapons in Predator did. Bad comparison, but you used it as the "demonstration of firepower."

This is one of those things that has no answer. It is all in the mind of the viewer, and what the viewer prefers. BUT, I do think Newt should have had her head punctured by a "alien."

Also in defense of "Aliens." Cameron wasn't commanding the budgets then that he is now. Much of the movie had to rely on tricks, and since it was conceived on a grander scale than Predator he did an excellent job with a smaller budget.

You guys are gonna go apeshit when Predator:SE hits region 1 land. You will then be able to:

Marvel at Stan Winston's easter egg anecdotes!
Get bored senseless by John McT's commentary!
See how crappy the original Predator suit looked!

Yes folks, this set has it all (BTW I do love the movie and the SE!).

The only problem I have with Predator? Welllll....even though Van Damme got fired, the role reportedly got him his first Screen Actor's Guild of America card - and subsequently unleashed the 'Muscles from Brussels' on us all. He would've got one eventually, granted, but a black mark against Predator all the same. ;-)

Predator is one of my ALL-TIME favorites. This was the very first DVD I bought. I have since replaced it with the DTS version, which does sound excellent! I have seen this movie--no lie--- at least 200 times over the years. This along with The Fifth Element ranks as "most watched movies" for me.
A scene that really sticks out in my head is when the Predator is chasing Ah-nold after beating the shit out of him. He has his "heat" vision on, and the breathing sounds coming from Ah-nold sounds like he is a child, the sounds pitched a few octaves higher than a mans voice. So basically you have the Predator chasing Ah-nold while we see the heat vision, and Ah-nold sounds very scared....Damn this movie rocks.

I would like to see anything else starring the Predator. I liked the second one, but it didn't have the same "charisma" that the first one did.

Matt

Hey, it is nice to see this thread revived. But where are John Williamson's threads after the thread's resucitation. Common John more commentary will be appreciated.


One question for me. Did Van Damme actually make it to production or was he let go after casting. Did he actually shoot some scenes for the movie. That would be great if they could put those in the SE DVD of this classic.

It is a good thing he left the project. Van Damme would not look as formidable as the actor who actually portrayed the Predator who was over 7 feet tall in real life. Check out the link below for a cool picture of the actual actor who played the predator next to Arnold.

Carlos

http://www.magma.ca/~rsarkar/predkph.html

Thanks Ben! I'm glad you enjoyed my post! I love having good conversation about movies, it's almost as fun as watching them! I'll add some of my thoughts to your reply.



What I was really trying to say was this... Put myself (or you) into a room (or ship) with either of them, and we won't last long. At least dying is fast with the Predator, whereas with the "aliens" you could end up living through a "chest birth." Either option is not pleasant! Though the Predator is clearly more advanced as a species than the "aliens." One of the mystiques about the "aliens" is that we have hardly any knowledge of them. One thing we do know is that they do not need is spaceships/weapons/etc. They seem very capable of spreading life by means of being "hitchhickers" (by that I mean on the derelict spacecraft in Alien). And they are adept at the art of killing without weapons. They just go about it in a different way than the Predator. As they should, Predator hunts...."aliens" infest. I do not know if you read the Alien vs Predator comics, but they are rather good. This is coming from someone that has hardly EVER picked up a comic book. From our posts, I know you like Predator and this would give you much entertainment!

The whole Colonial Marines toughness just has to be determined by what we are given. In this case, we have to "assume" from what is told/shown. It could have been more clear cut (large fight like Dutch and the guys had), but Cameron decided to shoot it this way. Does it make it more cinematic when certain aspects (their toughness) are merely implied rather than blatantly showing the audience? Some movies I think so, but I do not know if Aliens would have suffered showing a Colonial Marines battle beforehand. That's something we'll never know.



True, but how much better can "bullet" firing weapons get? Next step would have been a laser of some sort, but I think that would have made the movie too Trek-ish. For this mere fact, their weapons were as realistic as Cameron could get in 1986. You have to admit, Vasquez and Drake's "M-60s" with the gyrostabilized mount (incedentally, this gun is known as the M56 Smart Gun) was pretty cool back then!

Don't worry, I'm not trying to sway you from Predator to Aliens. I just enjoy these conversations. It is always cool to read how other people interpret the movies they see.

Sorry to resurrect this yet again, but thought I had too. Finally was able to pick a copy up. It's always one of those that I look for in the store, but all they ever have are the fullscreen versions. Finally saw the DTS disk when I was picking up LOTR yesterday. Sweet! Image is grainy, but hey, what do you expect? Sound is killer.

FYI, a little more trivia. You can go see the set where they filmed a lot of the staged scenes in the mountains right near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They definitely used it for the rebel camp that they raided towards the beginning, but I think I recognize some of the scenery from the final Arnold vs. Predator scene. The big pavilion and the chopper from the camp are still there; also a little waterfall and lagoon that can be seen in the firefight (one of the bad guys flies over the waterfall and into the lagoon during an explosion). You can go swimming and bum around, not much else there, but pretty cool nonetheless.

This was my very first DVD purchase! Nuf said!!

I LOVE this film! This is a great example of a film that I could never tire of watching!!

One moment of this film that my friends and I always laugh at ( I'm assuming it's not intended to be funny ) is during the assault on the rebel camp. Arnie is walking near the burned out chopper, a rebel walks in front of him, and Arnie just unloads his weapon completely into him. Arnie then takes a couple steps, lifts his weapon and fires maybe one, maybe two rounds (tops!) - then it cuts to a slow motion shot of like 3 rebels getting getting hit and falling backwards.

We are always laughing at that part. I'll try to dig up a timecode if that helps

~Jason

You know, I just picked this new DTS copy yesterday.. Totally excited about the price..(got it at Sams Club) and moreso because I finally got one of my favorite movies off my wishlist. I actually went to do a search in movies and realized this thread was active on the first page!! God, good to know everyone appreciates this flick as much as me.
Lord of the Rings, Predator DTS, and Surviving the Game dvds for 32 bucks.. not a bad night for my collection, or my wallet. My wife says I can still play golf this weekend too!! Hahahaha... Life is good

Da me la arma!
Give me chur weapon!