Movie · 1987 · Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Thriller · 1h 47m · R · English
Curator score: 5.1/10 (1.1M ratings)
Soon the hunt will begin.
Overview
A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.1/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.77/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%
Metacritic: 47
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
John McTiernan
Production
20th Century Fox, Lawrence Gordon Productions, Silver Pictures, Davis Entertainment, Amercent Films, American Entertainment Partners L.P.
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, R.G. Armstrong, Shane Black, Peter Cullen, Steve Boyum, William H. Burton Jr., Henry Kingi, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Jack Verbois, Franco Columbu
Where to watch
AMC+, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A lean, muscular jungle thriller that starts as a military action movie and mutates into a creature-feature slasher. Its practical effects, escalating suspense, and iconic cat-and-mouse setup make it a defining genre hybrid.
Best for
fans of 1980s action cinema
viewers who like survival horror and monster hunts
people who enjoy practical effects and creature design
audiences looking for a tense, propulsive crowd-pleaser
Skip if
you want character-driven drama over spectacle
you dislike macho, testosterone-heavy action
you prefer slow-burn sci-fi with heavy worldbuilding
you’re not in the mood for violence and body-count thrills
Overview
Predator is one of the great genre mashups: a hard-charging commando movie that slowly reveals itself as a slasher in camouflage. The setup is simple, but the execution is razor-sharp, with McTiernan staging the jungle as a pressure cooker and turning every sound, shadow, and heat shimmer into a threat.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is the escalation. The film begins with swagger and banter, then strips away confidence one body at a time until the final showdown becomes pure primal survival. The creature design and practical effects still land, and the movie knows exactly when to let silence do the work.
Bottom line
It’s also a surprisingly efficient piece of filmmaking: economical, muscular, and endlessly rewatchable. If you like your action with dread underneath it, this is one of the essential examples of the form.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (4.5★) · 6936 likes
Whoever had the idea to mash-up slasher movies with roided out action movies deserves a Nobel prize
Matt Singer (4★) · 3857 likes
Me, taking my family to the mall the day after Christmas: “We move! Five-meter spread. No sound.”
Me, when the trip to the in laws is going badly: “So you cooked up a story and dropped the six of us in a meatgrinder?“
Me, to my daughter when she says she’s too sick for school then spends the whole day bouncing in bed and screaming: “You set us up. It was bullshit, all of it!”
Predator forever.
DirkH (5★) · 3206 likes
There is this shot in the beginning of this film where Ahnold shakes hands with Carl Weathers. The amount of biceps that fills the screen symbolises everything about this film.
This is from start to finish a professionally made and perfectly executed, testosterone filled muscle movie.
And I frickin' love it!
Framesofnick (4★) · 2400 likes
Men fucking and dying
CosmonautMarkie (3.5★) · 2189 likes
I decided to watch all of the predator movies.
So far this is the only good one
Pros: - Rly good effects- Arnold charisma is very fun to watch - Predator itself is iconic and it’s easy to see why the creature is so popular just based on one movie - Final battle is just a half hour of a dude fighting an alien with no dialogue
Cons:- Girl character has silly trope of “ethnic character explains the mythology of the movie”- Shane Black bad pussy jokes