PREDATOR; what is, and what may be...

I want to preface this by saying; BEWARE OF SPOILERS. If you haven't seen any of the Predator movies I will be spoiling them. I will also only be discussing information from the Predator movies, as the AVP (AlienVsPredator) movies are their own universe/continuity.

When creating a creature for film, designers don't often go into any sort of insane depth. Most of the time its about what is needed to tell the story and convey character. But when that creature becomes the star of a franchise it tends to take on a life of its own. Each installment becomes a new opportunity for expansion and exploration. Sometimes this works out quite well and sometimes it doesn't. But i always find it interesting.

I think most creature fans can think of examples for this trend. I for one can think of several. One, and probably one of the most obvious examples, being the Tremors films and their step-by-step revelation of the Graboids life cycle. What reveals like that can do is create a greater sense of reality and color the creatures in a more believable fashion. Than again it can go completely wrong. Although I can't think of any case where that's happened. At least not off hand.

One of the most interesting creature franchises to explore its central star is the Predator series. Starting with the original film PREDATOR, and continuing with PREDATOR2 and PREDATORS. The films don't necessarily make it a major point to reveal new details of its creature, at least not until the third where it was a central focus, but when reveals come they are pretty fantastic.

The original; PREDATOR (1987) and its sequels; PREDATOR2 (1990) & PREDATORS (2010).

If you remember, or for those who don't know; PREDATOR was about a group of special forces commandos on a mission in Central America who are hunted by an Extraterrestrial hunter. Over the course of the film its slowly revealed that this hunter can; cloak itself in invisibility, see heat, move through the tree tops with ease, possesses advanced weapons, hunts for sport, and is mortal like you and I. In the final battle between the Predator and the character of Dutch, the Pred actually disarms itself to fight on similar terms as his human prey. Revealing at least some sense of honor. The movie was a smash hit and thankfully continued on.

Sometimes introductions are everything.

Due to scheduling conflicts with TERMINATOR2 Arnold Schwarzeneger was unable to return for the first PREDATOR sequel PREDATOR2. Instead the script was rewritten and Danny Glover was brought in to play a new character in homicide detective Mike Harrigan. This time a new hunter arrives in 1997 Los Angeles and throws itself in the middle of a bloody gang war. This second film wasn't nearly as successful as the first, and was heavily criticized for being so different. While people give the movie a lot of crap I love it. And its probably my favorite of the series, so far. It takes the entire concept and does something fresh with it, as both sequels ultimately tried to do. I remember seeing this movie as a kid, after I had seen the first of course, and just enjoyed the hell out of it. And there is a very good reason for that, it took a creature I loved and expanded his world. You see in PREDATOR2 the Pred isn't just an invisible nightmare, he is a true character.

From the beginning, we know what the Predator is, we know what it wants. And so we move on and enjoy the character. And scene after scene we are treated to something unique. From the initial attack at the start of the film to the raid on the penthouse, to the subway massacre and slaughterhouse confrontation, to the finale on board a PREDATOR SHIP, we are allowed to run with the true star. You see PREDATOR2 takes what we knew and embellishes everything. Not only does the Predator kill worthy prey, but it allows certain prey to live. A boy with a toy gun, an unarmed and terrified girlfriend of a gang member, a woman pregnant with a child. He assesses the situation, and moves on.

In the first film, we saw the Predator use a medical kit, in the second we see how resourceful an injured Pred can be. As it dismantles a bathroom and uses its raw materials to cauterize its wounds. In one scene the Pred is at a disadvantage as government agents make themselves invisible to its heat vision. The Pred realizing something is off, actually cycles through different vision modes in its helmet until it finds one that detects the light being emitted from the agents flashlights.

As the movie goes on, the Preds battle with Harrigan seemingly becomes increasingly violent and desperate. And personnal, as earlier the Predator taunts Harrigan with the necklace of his friend killed by the Pred himself. They move up and down, and through, buildings and finally end up on the Preds ship. While we briefly saw a Predator ship in the beginning of the first film, here we see something very different. The first films ship was slick and silver, here its jagged and red.

Revelations await within.

As Harrigan moves through its corridors the walls glow and pulse, the atmosphere is thick and mist covers the ground. He comes to an open space, pillars stand in a circle matching up with a round dome in the ceilings center. Harrigan continues to explore and discovers the Preds trophy case. Here skulls not only of humans, but of creatures from throughout space. We see for the first time that we are not the only prey. After the final battle Harrigan stands victorious, thinking its over he turns to leave, but before him appears another Predator, and another, and another, soon he is surrounded by an entire clan of hunters. Their leader, an Elder, motions for the others to take their clan-mates body away. They vanish and now Harrigan and the Elder stand face to face. The Elder begins to walk away but stops. He looks at Harrigan. He pulls a 200 year old flintlock pistol from his belt, considers for a moment, and throws it to Harrigan. "Take it". And with that the Elder vanishes as well. The ship activates and takes off as Harrigan runs for safety. In the end Harrigan walks out of the ships launch crater covered in ash.

This is probably my favorite moment in the entire movie. I remember seeing it as a kid and freaking out, loving every second of it. Its everything I as a fan could've hoped for. Not only is there an entire race of Predators but they're out there hunting just about everything you can think of. In this scene we see the culmination of the Predators honor code, as the Elder threw the pistol to Harrigan. A symbol that he is indeed a worthy opponent who has earned his own measure of honor in surviving what few have before. And with two words, we realize that the Predators aren't what we may think they are. Voice imitation has been seen in all three movies, but was always the product of technology. But here, the Elder speaks, and speaks directly. In that moment we see a fleeting appearance of understanding between two warriors.

Not everything is what it seems.

PREDATORS was the long awaited return of the series to the big screen. It was nearly 20 years since PREDATOR2 was released. And the series tragically fell victim to not one, but two, horrible AlienVSPredator movies. And while I still believe its possible to make a great crossover movie with the two franchises it was so fantastic to see the Predator back on screen in his own movie again. This time Adrien Brody came in as the lead, a mercenary name Royce.

New worlds.

In the third movie Royce and a group of killers from across Earth are taken and dropped on a Predator hunting planet. As they attempt to survive they discover they are being hunted by a new breed of hunter, one revealed to be in conflict with the Predators we've already seen. While conflicts between Predators have been explored in comic books and paperbacks, this is the first time the films have introduced the idea. And not only is it a conflict seemingly between clans, but between races. The new stars of this movie, and maybe the franchise, are introduced as the Super Predators. Larger, more brutal, creatures who utilize unique technologies and techniques. The prime Predator species from the previous two films does make an appearance however, but in the form of a beaten and angry prisoner of the Super Predators.

A new conflict comes to the series.

Its through the Super Predators that we gain our biggest insight into this species. As a subspecies they share many qualities with their smaller cousins. But there are also more than a few differences. The most obvious of which beyond their size is their unique facial structure. Which emphasizes the mandibles and elongates the head. The Super Predators also have slightly more advanced weapons which, according to a human survivor, they are continuously upgrading based on their experiences with prey. A standout being a cybernetic "falcon" that flies over the jungles of this new world on the look out for prey and relays anything it finds to its corresponding user.

However Super Predators are not limited to their technology as they seem to take advantage of anything they can find. The single most prominent addition to their arsenal and maybe the entire Predator mythology, aside from the inter-race war, is the addition of the hunting dogs. About the size of a medium to large sized dog, they have large teeth, massive spines going down their back and tusks pushing forward from their neck and face. They are incredibly fast and tough creatures. And also happen to be incredibly obedient as they quickly come when called. A number of people have criticized their design, including Roger Ebert, calling them impractical and strange. But I love them. Its just incredibly unfortunate that they only appear in two scenes in the final film. However if you go back and look at the trailers for PREDATORS you can actually see one in a shot from a scene near the finale. Its likely that they were meant to return but the film-makers ran out of time.

A hunting preserve planet, new tech, hunting dogs, and inter-race war. PREDATORS introduced a number of concepts to the film cannon. And I have to say I welcome them all. The one last reveal, which surprised a number of people occurred in only a single scene. As the humans attempt to turn the tables on the hunters they run into another creature on the planet also brought there against its will. Called the "Stick Man" and "River Ghost", he is quickly killed but in his brief appearance, much like the dogs and Super Predators, he offers a glimpse into the larger Predator universe. A universe where anything could be around the next corner.

Honor Codes. Trophies from across the Universe. Clans. Dogs. The RiverGhost/Stickman. The Super Predators.

Its in that spirit that I make this blog post. You see in the three Predator films we've seen a number of aspects of this species. But there is one question that continues to linger in the minds of many. If all of the Predators we have seen are male, than what do the females look like? What do they do? Where are they? I'm sure these same questions have entered the minds of film-makers, if only for a moment. But so far no one has attempted to answer them on film.

So far its been up to the fans, and apparently in the minds of fans, females need three things; curves, breasts and very little clothing. I won't try to dissect the reasoning behind that. As I'm sure we can all come up with any number of theories.

Only a few of the many fan interpretations of the Female Predator.

A female Predator is something I would be interested to see, if only to finally answer the question of appearance. Bringing them into the franchise would only enrich it, furthering the reality created in the films that much more. With females, much like the newly introduced Super Predators, you would have an entirely new avenue of stories to tell. And the franchise as a whole could go even farther. But before any of that can happen, theres the question of design.

What exactly would a female Predator look like? I think for a basic idea we should look to nature. Immediately we would look at reptiles and crustaceans as the Predators seem to share a number of characteristics with them. Traditionally members of the reptile and crustacean families look almost identical. However no two Predators look the same. Each has their own markings, their own colors, their own crests, they're even different shapes and sizes. If anything Predators have much more in common with humans.

A small number of the Male Predators we've seen in the films so far.

While they may have a several things in common with humans they are incredibly different. Claws, Mandibles, Ridges, Spines, Neon Green Blood, Possibly breathing Methane. These are very unique creatures. But we'll attempt to put them in a framework that seems familiar enough. They are not mammals, or at least they don't appear to be anything close. So the chance of a female Predator having breasts is highly unlikely. As breasts are, biologically, needed to nurse young. Than again, as creatures from another planet, who are probably part of a yet unknown order of animals, they naturally may function under a different set of rules. And the familiar framework is no longer applicable. So than again, maybe breasts are entirely possible. And function biologically as we would expect. However once the young enters the picture an entirely new set of possibilities come up. Maybe female Predators don't give birth, so wider hips may be out of the question. Its possible that Predators hatch from eggs or pods outside of the mothers body. Imagine a nest of Predator eggs ready to hatch.

Which brings up the question; do parents in the Predator species care for their young? We have yet to see any Predator children running around in the films. The absence of both females and children has led many fans to wonder if the young remains with their mother either on a planet or a ship of their own. In nature its not uncommon for females to live in social groups independent from any males. Elephants immediately come to mind. Males will visit primarily to reproduce and will leave soon after. So perhaps, as there are ships filled with male Predators moving from place to place there are also ships filled with females living an equally nomadic existence.

The question of reproduction is a very natural one. The entire ALIEN franchise is built around the concept. Although the methods vary from one film to another. Originally ALIEN portrayed the process in an incredibly fascinating way with the Facehugger acting as a delivery system introducing the embryo into a host to develop. It was a truly alien method of production. I say production because it was never alluded to that something laid the eggs in the first place. The Queen concept wasn't introduced until James Cameron made the Xenomorphs more insect-like creating a hive structure. A reproduction method that was again twisted in the ending of the fourth film, ALIEN:Resurrection, with a more human method of birth. Ultimately I prefer the method seen in the first ALIEN as it was the most interesting and original. And thankfully it looks like the upcoming PROMETHEUS will be taking everything back to a much more unique place. Could the Predators be as alien, although in a different direction? I try to go toward more unique possibilities when it comes to answering these sorts of things.

From the unique to the basic.

My theories are my own. I don't think Predator females have breasts, although it may be possible. Wider hips seems likely if they give birth, either to live young or to eggs/pods. If they do in fact live apart from males, than they may also be larger in size and much stronger. As they not only would be capable of doing everything a male does but also need to protect their young. That is of course, if the young remains with the females in the first place. They may very well birth the children and move on, leaving them to fend for themselves or in the care of others. The question of appearance should also be answered. Traditionally in nature males are physically more colorful and possess more prominant physical features unique to them. This likely isn't the case with the Predators. As a race that now exists throughout space, they have likely moved on from many of these differences. Although either sex may have dominant features the other doesn't. Males could have larger ridges and spines while females have larger mandibles for example. The differences would be amplified even more with the introduction of the Super Predator subspecies. The Super Predators look very different, and females of this group could very likely follow suit. Appearing as different from their primary species cousins as the males.

A species, and a subspecies makes things even more complicated.

Infinitie possibilities, thats what it comes down to. The latest word is that the next Predator movie is probably a few years away as they want to find a way to keep the franchise fresh. Its a good idea. So many times franchises suffer from fatigue because those making the movies simply repeat themselves over and over. So taking time to figure out new ways to approach a concept is the best thing to do. With so many possible stories to tell and so many things to explore I have a feeling the Predator series has many, many, years ahead of it. And I couldn't be happier.