Alasdair Stuart goes into stealth mode to track the Yaujta as we prepare for the next movie in the Predator franchise…

A group of special forces operators are sent deep into the jungle on a deniable operation. But they’re not the hunters, they’re the prey.

The 1987 original that started it all is that rare beast: an early Schwarzenegger movie that’s aged surprisingly well. A big part of that is the simplicity of the plot; a group of big dogs go into the jungle and discover there’s a much, much bigger dog. It’s a varied, fun, engaging cast and the wide variety of terrible things that happens to them. Between Schwarzenegger, the legendary Bill Duke and Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura and the likes of Carl Weathers and Sonny Landham, there’s about 800 pounds of machismo on screen at any given time and it’s all getting its ass absolutely kicked. Oh also look out for Shane Black, writer and director of classics like The Nice Guys and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in an early role as one of the team too.

For a film about very large sweaty men being killed, Predator has some pleasing political depth to it. Carl Weathers’ smooth Dillon is far more aware of the meat grinder the men are being fed into than he first lets on and there are neat echoes of Weyland Yutani throwing the Nostromo crew at the LV-426 derelict. The military element of the movie also drops a lens over this, turning it into something that stands far closer to the Vietnam movies of the time than you might think.

Most of all though this is a grimy, bloody knuckled action movie with some pleasingly gnarly fights  and a great central turn from Kevin Peter Hall as the Predator itself. Schwarzenegger actually feels in danger for one of the perhaps two times in this phase of his career and that gives the movie an added edge that hasn’t blunted over time.

Verdict: Worth it, and given the wild shoot (Bill Hader of SNL worked on this! Somehow! and briefly so did Jean Claude van Damme!) an oral history is overdue. 7/10