Fate is a strange thing in this world. Who would have known that two completely unknown scriptwriters sliding a script under an executive’s door would lead to them sitting across from a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger in a bathtub just weeks later? That a clip of a handshake between two extremely large men would be an insanely popular joke used on something called the internet nearly forty years after that? Or that putting a group of testosterone fueled men in the middle of a jungle would end in weightlifting, alcohol consumption, and someone rappelling naked from the top floor of their hotel? Okay, that last one seems kind of obvious. But still. Predator once had the fate of being a straight forward pulpy science fiction tale starring Mel Gibson. It had a different director as well; never giving John McTiernan his first opportunity to direct a large action film, by proxy possibly altering classics like Die Hard and The Hunt for the Red October forever. But fate didn’t have time to bleed. It got to the chopper, stuck around, and pushed all the pencils it needed to. Don’t be scared, Poncho. I’ve only gotten through about a fourth of the awesome one-liners so far. And I don’t plan on calling you ugly. Here is how fate turned a film that had almost no chance of ever being made into the all-time action, horror, and sci-fi classic it is today. This is what happened to Predator.
Brothers Jim and John Thomas were just trying to break into screenwriting when they managed to slip their script under the door of the right person at the right time. The script, titled Hunter at the time, found its way under the doorway of Fox producer Michael Levy. In a stroke of luck that sounds unbelievable, Levy read the script and enjoyed it enough to bring it to famed producer Joel Silver. Silver had just handled the production of Commando and high on over-the-top action fumes, decided to turn the more serious script into a blow-out big budget affair.
The writers originally envisioned Mel Gibson for their script but Fox was thinking Arnold Schwarzenegger instead. The brothers arrived to meet Schwarzenegger at the gigantic Beverly Hills home of one of the producers families, where the Austrian Oak was awaiting them fully naked and in a bathtub. He was of course smoking a stogie, probably tapping the ashes in the tub bubbles alongside him. The writers originally balked at the idea of hiring Conan for their film and this moment had to feel like utter Hollywood insanity. But the two were won over by Arnie’s charisma and vision for the character. They won him over by telling him it would be more of an everyman role for the actor, where he would rise out of the swamp to take on a formidable alien warrior without any armor or weapons. I probably would have made a “stop looking at me, swan” Billy Madison joke and ruined the whole thing for everyone but thank God I wasn’t there and everything turned out great.
Freshly hired director Geoff Murphy, who would go on to direct Steven Seagal in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory was against the hiring of Schwarzenegger from the jump. Joel Silver finally put his foot down and told Murphy that whether he liked it or not, Schwarzenegger would be the star of the film should his current movie, Commando, hit at least $20 million at the box office. It did and Arnold was given both the role and the right of first refusal of any director. So he had Murphy fired.
Enter Nomads director John McTiernan, taking over on his second-ever feature film. McTiernan was intrigued by the fun of the script but wasn’t happy with its original ending. The moment featured Dutch boarding the Predator spacecraft and reacting to gnarly human trophies, saying to himself, “Even the f*cking Nazis didn’t do this.” McTiernan thought it was creepy in the wrong kind of way and didn’t fit the tone. To be fair, though, Predator has more than a few horrific moments of its own. It’s hard to imagine that would been the thing that took it too far. Lucky for McTiernan, they didn’t end up with time to film the extra scene anyway.
Though initially Predator was going to be a more singular affair, Schwarzenegger particularly liked the idea of working with a team of his equals. So they surrounded him with men that could believably hold their own on screen next to him. Behold the great Carl Weathers, fresh off his Rocky franchise fame, Bill Duke (who had just worked alongside Arnie in Commando, where Arnold “eats Green Berets for breakfast”), Jesse Ventura, and Sonny Landham. When it came to Weathers, the studio was iffy on paying his salary. McTiernan lobbied though, knowing his talents would sharpen Schwarzenegger’s. He was right. Arnold would watch the way Weathers handled himself on set and soaked in all the information he could from the actor. Ventura was such a larger than life character that McTiernan had to tell him to calm down and relax because he was coming off as unbelievable. Sonny Landham came with a reputation. In fact, legend has it that the insurance company behind the film wouldn’t allow them to hire Landham unless they had a personal body guard on set with him at all times. Not for his protection. But for everyone else’s. More on that later.
A lot of the actors were allowed to riff on set using their natural over-the-top personalities. In a moment of Hollywood savvy, producer Joel Silver offered hot-at-the-time Lethal Weapon writer Shane Black the chance to do some work on the script. When Black said, “no thanks,” Silver told him to come to Mexico anyway, and he would throw him in the movie as an actor. He did this knowing that once Black was on set, they could trick him into writing lines for the actors anyway. Black takes no credit, however, saying that the studio did what it always does, which is have a handful of writers rewrite the script only to go back to the original script at the end of the day.
The boots on the ground production began with a week-long boot camp in Mexico. The actors were forced to run on grueling terrain and overcome obstacles that included everything from fire ant attacks to a real-life drill sergeant dressing them down with insults as though they were grunts. Schwarzenegger reveled in it. McTiernan, however, was having a different kind of grueling experience entirely when he arrived and realized the local area in Puerto Vallarta didn’t have any jungle for them to shoot in. He claimed that the location was chosen only because a producer had a home in the area and wanted to do some remodeling.
Then there was the food poisoning. McTiernan had been wary of the local foods and lost twenty-five pounds on set as a result. Meanwhile, others partook in the offerings around them, and many of the very large cast members ended up in the woods with dueling bouts of nausea and diarrhea. An experience that has to be right up there with working on the hottest, smelliest days of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shoot. Schwarzenegger himself had a case of instantaneous diarrhea and vomiting while on set and ended up needing to be put on an IV drip.
The massive egos and competitive nature of the cast led to them spending much of their off time lifting in the gym Schwarzenegger had flown to Mexico. Weathers took it a step further, claiming to his co-stars that he had never worked out and that his physique was God given. To keep up, he would secretly pump up in the middle of the night when none of them were around.
The Predator himself was originally played by a monkey during an immediately failed screen test before the role was later taken on by Jean-Claude Van Damme. But something was lost in translation. According to one of the writers, Van Damme was under the impression he was supposed to be the star actor in the film. When they brought out the hot and awkward suit he was supposed to wear out in the jungle instead, he was understandably pissed off and was eventually fired from the production. In part because the situation was making them all miserable and in part because the 5’9 Van Damme in the terrible suit just didn’t look imposing when on screen with the other actors. If only they knew what Van Damme was capable of at the time, they probably would have let him join the good guy crew. But alas, fate would have its way.
Boss Film Studios had been hired to design a that Schwarzenegger could only describe as looking like a lizard with the head of a duck. When McTiernan and Silver opened the box it came in, they both looked at each other and knew they were in deep trouble. Thankfully, as he so often does in stories like this, the great Stan Winston showed up and saved the day. Winston created the gigantic Predator we know and love today, complete with frightening mandibles thanks to some advice from James Cameron during a flight. Seven foot two actor Kevin Peter Hall was hired to play the character and the rest is history. Though, the new suit also came with its own challenges for Hall and Schwarzenegger. During the ultimate showdown, Hall had to walk through the entire sequence by memory alone, since he couldn’t see through the suit. This resulted in Schwarzenegger taking some real shots to the face during the melee.
John McTiernan’s frustration was also growing, with studio executives constantly asking him for more gun porn to be added to the film. To be fair, it was a weird ask of the studio, especially for a movie that purposefully renders weapons meaningless in a battle that ends up between two creatures, their wits, and their fists. Finally, he agreed to give them what they wanted so that they would go away. But he said he would have to do it on his terms and in one specific moment. They agreed and the result was an ongoing They Live street fight style moment of our characters firing their weapons at essentially nothing for an memorable amount of screen time.
Then there was the issues that came along with Sonny Landham. Watching the actor speak in behind the scenes footage, he seems nothing like the kind of guy a studio would feel the need to hire protection from. But allegedly, alcohol created a very different version of Landham. Multiple accounts from those on the set recall stories of him punching out lighting fixtures in hallways and getting kicked out of multiple nightclubs for laying on the ground and trying to lick women’s legs. There’s even a story about him rappelling from the top floor of the hotel with nothing but his boxers on. And they were on his head. McTiernan explained that his behavior wasn’t intended to be malicious and that he was simply a loose cannon often aimed at himself. Eventually, the crew flew in his playmate girlfriend to help keep him calm and it worked out.
There were some happy delays in filming as well when Schwarzenegger took a flight chartered by Silver to marry Maria Shriver, halting production while second units continued their work on the film. Schwarzenegger only took three days to honeymoon with his new bride before he was back on location and filming.
Schwarzenegger returned, filming wrapped, and the soundtrack to all this was provided by a familiar name today in Alan Silvestri, though it was his first major action movie score at the time. When Predator finally released in June of 1987, all the hard work in the jungle paid off. The film took over number one at the box office in its opening weekend on its way to a haul of nearly $100 million dollars on a $15 million dollar budget. And that’s not beginning to account for the unfathomable amount of money the franchise would bring in over the years.
Critically, some reception was divided, with your usual suspects pushing up their glasses and dismissing it as another brainless macho spectacle. But those who know what’s up rightfully praised the multiple smart moves the production made. From the hiring of Schwarzenegger, to giving him a team of equally formidable human specimens, all the way down to an ending that ditched the weaponry for a good old-fashioned face-off.
Predator’s legacy goes so much further than just another run of the mill 80s action fest. It cemented Schwarzenegger’s reign as Hollywood’s ultimate action hero and launched McTiernan’s entire career. It spawned a franchise that is alive and well to this day, with yet another iteration coming up in Predator: Badlands. Not to mention the multiple crossovers with the Alien franchise, comics, toys, and video games. Predator is one of the most rewatchable films ever and serves as a warm blanket of testosterone from a bygone era. Most importantly, it marked the birth of a now iconic horror and sci-fi monster bound to stand the test of time for another forty years or so. Who’s the ugly mother effer now?
And that is what happened to Predator.
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