If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Predator

1987’s Predator is one of those movies that studio executives have desperately tried to turn into a franchise and, time and time again, have failed. The key to the original is its simplicity. It’s not about the lore or about why the alien is on Earth. It’s simply about one man’s struggle for survival in the face of an unstoppable evil.

Arnold Schwarzenegger versus an alien is a premise that sells itself. That alone is enough to make any action movie fan drool, and John McTiernan’s film gets a lot of mileage out of it. Here are 10 fascinating details from the making of Predator.

10 Arnold Schwarzenegger Won A Bottle Of Champagne For Having Bigger Arms Than Jesse Ventura

After meeting Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended him to the producers of Predator for the role of Blain. When it came to shooting, Ventura was ecstatic to hear from the costume department that his arms were an inch bigger than Schwarzenegger’s.

He challenged Schwarzenegger to a bet where they would measure their arms, and the one with the biggest arms would get a bottle of champagne. However, Schwarzenegger won the bet because all along he’d asked the costume department to tell Ventura his arms were bigger.

9 Predator Began Its Life As A Joke About Rocky Balboa Fighting E.T.

The original concept for Predator began as a joke. After a number of Rocky sequels, there was an inside joke around Hollywood that Rocky Balboa had run out of opponents, and he’d have to fight E.T. from Steven Spielberg’s wonderful sci-fi drama in the next movie.

Inspired by this joke, screenwriters Jim and John Thomas wrote a script called Hunter, about an alien hunter tracking down a soldier in the jungle. Originally, the story had a whole group of alien hunters from different species, but it was streamlined to be more focused — and affordable.

8 Shane Black Was Only Cast So He Could Do On-Set Rewrites

Having recently completed the script for Lethal Weapon, which was hot in Hollywood at the time, Shane Black was cast as a supporting actor in Predator, in the role of Hawkins. This was the studio’s way of getting Black in the middle of the jungle so that he could perform on-set rewrites if it was required.

Black didn’t like the glasses he was given to wear as Hawkins. Instead, he wanted to wear ballistic glasses that the military would issue, but director John McTiernan wanted his character to look as much like a dork as possible.

7 Jean-Claude Van Damme Was Initially Cast As The Predator

Initially, the plan was for the Predator to be an agile martial artist with ninja-like reflexes to contrast with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s brute force, and Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast in the role. However, the weight of the costume hindered its wearer’s flexibility, making it difficult to do martial arts.

Van Damme was unhappy with being hidden under a hot costume instead of appearing on-camera, and the producers felt that he was too short anyway, so he left the project and was replaced by the 7’2” Kevin Peter Hall.

6 The Predator Costume Weighed More Than 200lbs

The costume worn by Kevin Peter Hall in the role of the Predator weighed more than 200lbs. Even though Hall stood at over seven feet tall and was, for all intents and purposes, very strong, he needed to be connected to a bungee rig that would allow him to move around more convincingly.

5 Arnold Schwarzenegger Got Carl Weathers Hooked On Cigars On Set

For the scene near the opening of the movie in which Dutch smokes a cigar on the helicopter, the glow of the cigar had to be added in post-production because health and safety precautions prevented Arnold Schwarzenegger from lighting a cigar inside the helicopter. But during filming, Schwarzenegger got Carl Weathers hooked on cigars.

Schwarzenegger is famous for smoking cigars, but as an ex-athlete, Weathers had always stayed away from them. Schwarzenegger offered him one, he caved, and when he enjoyed it, Schwarzenegger gave him a whole box.

4 All The Cast And Crew Got Sick Except For Arnold Schwarzenegger And John McTiernan

Predator was shot in Mexico, and the hotel that the production team was staying in had an issue with the water purification. This led to most of the cast and crew getting diarrhea. The only two people who didn’t get sick were Arnold Schwarzenegger and director John McTiernan.

However, both Schwarzenegger and McTiernan lost 25lbs during filming. Schwarzenegger lost the weight to play a soldier, while McTiernan simply lost it because he avoided the food on location.

3 The Predator’s Blood Was Made With KY Jelly And Glow Sticks

The Predator’s gloopy blood was made by mixing the liquid from the inside of glow sticks into KY Jelly. So, anyone making a Predator fan film can easily recreate the alien’s blood.

This simple recipe meant that the crew could make a ton of it on the set, and there were no complications.

2 The Actors Got Up At Three In The Morning To Work Out Every Day Before Shooting

According to Carl Weathers, the actors would wake up as early as three in the morning to work out and get a pump on before each day of shooting.

Weathers himself would only work out when the other actors had vacated the gym, which allowed him to maintain the illusion that his rippling physique just came naturally.

1 Arnold Schwarzenegger Accidentally Got Drunk While Trying To Heat Himself Up On The Set

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was shooting the scenes in which Dutch is covered in mud to conceal himself from the Predator’s heat vision, he was shivering constantly. The mud he had to wear all over his body — which was actually pottery clay — lowered his body temperature. And the conditions were freezing cold anyway because they were shooting these scenes at night.

Schwarzenegger tried a few different measures to warm himself up, including surrounding himself with lamps, which dried out the clay, and drinking Jagertee, a schnapps mixture, which just got him drunk.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3459 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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