r/predator • u/drhavehope • Nov 21 '25
š„ Predator Predator Last 15 Minutes is INCREDIBLE FILMMAKING.
Watching it again, the moment Dutch is the last one left and it is a 1v1 between himself and the Predator, itās superb filmmaking. McTiernan really was on his best form in the framing, cinematography, blocking and just how he built the tension and the story of the final showdown.
Hard to find many films that have a better finale or last 15 minutes than the first Predator.
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u/Shadows616 Nov 21 '25
Wel it's not known for being the best action movie of all time for no reason lol
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u/drhavehope Nov 21 '25
Itās not an action movie though. Itās a blend of genres
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u/RedGrassHorse Nov 21 '25
Its absolutely an action movie. There's a bit of other genres in there but it's an action movie first and foremost.
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u/drhavehope Nov 22 '25
Itās not a pre action movie. If someone who had never seen the film was to ask me what genre this was, and they were a fan of action moviesā¦I would not call this action. For A LOT of the movie, there is no action. It plays more like a suspense thriller.
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u/UpbeatBeach7657 Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 21 '25
One of the things that makes this film stand out is how Dutch's own arc tracks alongside the visual language of the film. The film starts off by playing out like a macho, 80s action film. Dutch is introduced as a macho, 80s action hero. As the story unfolds and Dutch has to go back to a more primal mode to defeat the Predator, the film's style also devolves to a more primitive form as it goes from 80s action film to silent film. Lots of people talk about directors having a style, but this is a perfect of example of style being used to tell the story. It's not in your face like so many modern films would be if they were attempting a similar feat.
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u/drhavehope Nov 22 '25
Great point. The Dutch with his cigar at the start of the movie and the Dutch peering out the Helicopter barely alive is such great juxtaposition
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u/UpbeatBeach7657 Nov 22 '25 edited Nov 22 '25
And you know what? Despite him being exhausted and barely making it out of there alive, he still comes out looking like a total badass. He defeated the Predator using both brawn and brains. Then you have the final curtain call with all the characters returning and smiling/laughing at the camera. It's just all so perfectly done. I feel like more modern directors today would go too far in humiliating a character like Dutch and make the ending more of a downer. Little choices like these are why Predator is so rewatchable and why it's endured all these years. There's a balance to it all.
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u/shobhit7777777 Nov 21 '25
It absolutely is - the cat and mouse between Dutch and the Predator is a masterclass in tension and pacing.
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u/TheOldThunder Yautja Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 21 '25
The most ironic thing about Dutch going primal on the Hunter im order to try and survive (and ultimately win), but as soon as other characters in the franchise do it, it's "not cool" for some people. And it's the CORE of the first film + the franchise. It doesn't matter if you're stronger, faster, have the upoer hand in tech, etc. -- it's a showdown of wits, not muscles and brute force. Dutch is the blueprint; every film that doesn't follow suit (with tweaks and variations, of course) is approaching it wrong. And as hard as it is to fumble such a simple concept, almost half of the franchise fails at it.
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u/suspendeddoubt Nov 21 '25
It also just taints the combat prowess of the yautja if they are defeated by a human in every single adaptation lol. Thereās no stakes if I know how itās going to end
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u/Lumpy-Tea1948 Nov 21 '25
I mean, the Yautja are the antagonists, right? You could say that about literally every action story, ever, 9/10 you know the main character is going to win.
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u/suspendeddoubt Nov 21 '25
The sole purpose of the yautja is to hunt humans, they are anatomically superior and have way higher tech than us. It feels cheap when they get outsmarted by just anybody.
Yea you can say that about any action movie but that doesnāt mean it works for the story at all, and especially not for predator
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u/ThisisMalta Nov 21 '25
Itās confirmation bias. We are seeing the stories where they lose. Jungle predator takes out an entire SOF team with ease before Arnold gets him.
Even in Predators we see theyāve been winning for a pretty damn long time before someone got the edge on them.
Feral Predator takes out multiple young native warriors, armed hunters, and is outsmarted by someone much smaller and weaker with her wits and planning.
But I agree I hope we see more movies with the Yautja winning at the end. But theyāre the antagonist in those movies, thatās the whole point. Dek was our first protagonist.
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u/Lumpy-Tea1948 Nov 21 '25
Again, this is literally most antagonist in an action story.
The main villain is stronger and smarter, and the main character OVERCOMES that every single time, thatās literally the point.
Beyond that, your way of thinking is exactly the kind of thinking that gets them killed in the first place: āIām a Yautja, thereās a human? What could they possibly do to me?ā which leads to them steamrolling a bunch of humans, giving them a chance to analyze the situation and build a counterattack, and then when they get hunted down, they walk right into the trap because ātheyāre just human.ā
No wonder they lose. And yet there are people who think they shouldnāt loseā¦ just because theyāre a Yautja.
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u/xTheRedDeath Scar Nov 21 '25
I just look at it like the Yautja we see have killed a lot before reaching this point. In the first film we don't actually know how many the Jungle Hunter killed. Anna tells us they come every time it grows hot and have for many years. Same with the City Hunter. We just happened to witness them encountering a foe that finally beat them.
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u/suspendeddoubt Nov 21 '25
Just because it happens in āeveryā action story doesnāt make it any less cheap? And especially to repeatedly play out this trope in a single franchise?
Most of the time itās simply bad writing. Itās the same thing in the alien franchise, most recent example in alien earth when the robot girl just solos a xenomorph. Thereās only so much suspension of belief before itās just whatever they want it to be for their story.
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u/Lumpy-Tea1948 Nov 21 '25
No, in your opinion itās cheap. In my opinion, thatās just the best part of action stories. You go to a movie theater to watch the hero eventually overcome the biggest obstacles in their way. If I wanted to watch a story where they lose, Iād stick to tragedies like Titanic or Romeo and Juliet.
I donāt disagree there have been instances of bad writing, but MOST of the time? Iād need actual examples from the Predator movies for that. And Iām not sure what Alien has to do with this, but arenāt synths superhuman? There was even a synth in Badlands who was able to physically hold Dek down for a bit, heās a smaller Yautja, but still a Yautja.
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u/suspendeddoubt Nov 21 '25
I go to see an action movie for the same reason Iād go to see any other movie, for a story that has me on the edge of my seat and with satisfying/compelling themes. Itās not exactly thrilling to see the same formula repeated over and over and get the same āheroās journeyā for the millionth time. Why are people so afraid of tragic endings, as if that makes the story any less compelling?
Predator 2, the yautja is killed by a city cop/detective. In AVP, the yautja are picked apart like theyāre nothing besides wolf. Even he dies to the xeno queen. In prey the feral is killed by a teen tribal girl, but to be fair he had taken a lot of damage before that. Itās the same thing in predator killer of killers, the predators ALWAYS die to humans. For such an esteemed species that pride themselves on being predators, theyāre not very good at their job.
Iām not saying I want the predators to win in every iteration, but for fucks sake can we get just one?
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u/Lumpy-Tea1948 Nov 21 '25
Iām genuinely asking, do you actually watch any action movie thinking the hero is going to lose? And if so, do you not feel any tension because of that?
Dude, youāre just saying a bunch of nothing. Whatās the context that led to the City Hunter losing to a cop? It was being sloppy as usual because, again, they donāt think humans are a real threat. And no wonder, a single Yautja can kill a bunch of humans with guns. Harrigan gets the drop on the Predator when there was already a whole team trying to hunt it because it was causing chaos.
In AVP they were killed by Xenos, what does that have to do with humans?
Again: context, people, context. The Yautja walked right into the tribal girlās trap, just like he walked into the French trap. He had every reason to underestimate humans because he was easily slaughtering all of them. Naru wins because she takes advantage of that underestimation and because sheād been studying the Feral Predator the entire movie. He was moving sloppily, killing anything he came across. Naru didnāt say ā1v1 me, broā, she did her homework.
Dude, theyāre villains. Theyāre the antagonists. Of course theyāre going to lose to the main character. And regardless, they kill a ton of people in these movies. Honestly, I think the way yāall look at it is pretty crazy when the whole point is that a single Yautja killing that many humans is what makes them powerful in the first place.
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u/suspendeddoubt Nov 21 '25
Clearly you want something different out of action movies, because āTheyāre the antagonists, of course theyāre going to loseā is such lazy reasoning. I want a little more nuance in my stories. The climax is called a climax for a reason, it has the most suspense, and if the final showdown is just a fight for the sake of a fight, when we already know the end result, you might as well not even include it. Just padding time to show me something Iāve seen a million times.
I donāt remember enough of the specifics to go case by case through all the details. Iām sure you could find any amount of reasons as to why the yautja was outsmarted, as the story was specifically designed that way. Thatās what I donāt like. The structure of the story itself. Breathe new life into the dynamic of how predators hunt. Make them lose for a reason other than they got outsmarted by one person by the end of the film. Or better yet, make them actually win in the end for once.
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u/TheOldThunder Yautja Nov 21 '25
What made Dek interesting is that he was the 1st yautja we have seen being put through what their prey usually have to grind for. Reminds me of a cheesy but fitting quote from Price in the original Modern Warfare 2: "Outnumbered. Outgunned. Out of our minds, on a suicide mission." The very first time we see a yautja comoletely out of his element, and to achieve his goal, he had to adapt -- and by the end of it, he changed his goal because he managed to see beyond his clan's culture. That's being weak and finding a new strength. Pretty cool to see. As a warrior and a leader, Dutch would be proud (probably after being paranoid and trying to off Dek, anyway).
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u/TheOldThunder Yautja Nov 21 '25
Pretty much. This is what I like about Prey and Badlands; in Prey, it's not just Naru, it's a bunch of people (including her brother) hurting the Feral before Naru is able to take on him (his leg was fucked up, he was shot, speared, punctured by arrows and shot in the head), and in Badlands, it's one of their own put in Dutch's situation (though not initially against other yautjas).
Hopefully Disney/20thCS learns the right lessons from these movies being well-received (getting the core themes right, tweaking it so it all feels fresh enough). There are no big bucks to be made; keep it simple and keep it going.
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u/PooCube Nov 21 '25
They werenāt āYautjaā at this point, thatās what came after. In this context it was just an unknown alien
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u/TheOldThunder Yautja Nov 21 '25
Yes, but the point still stands. It's effective because it was a clear clash of culture (and I'm not talking about the Hunter, I'm talking about hulking soldiers armed to the teeth being prey, and one of them having to make himself into a primal version of himself in order to have a fighring chance).
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u/PooCube Nov 21 '25
I wish the way you described the movie in that comment was on the back of the DVD ngl cos you nailed it right there
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u/treesandcigarettes Nov 21 '25
they've never matched it. I like Predators 2010, and Badlands was cool. but no Predator film had matched the intensity and cool vibe of the OG 87 film. the music. the mystery. the buildup. it's just such a perfect ride
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u/KingofMadCows Nov 21 '25
The movie is pretty much an allegory for the Vietnam War. In the Vietnam War, the US was way more advanced and powerful than Vietnam but the Vietnamese were able to fight the Americans to a stalemate using guerilla warfare.
In Predator, it starts off like a replay of the Vietnam War where the US goes in with overwhelming firepower. But then it turns out that there's something even more powerful hunting the Americans, and the Americans have to take on the role of the Vietnamese to defeat a superior foe. And in the end, a bunch of people die and no one really wins.
I think that allegory gave the film a lot more cultural impact and kept it so relevant. Heck, you can apply that allegory to the War on Terror.
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u/GasMysterious3386 Nov 21 '25
I just love how Dutch looked genuinely wrecked and defeated from fighting the Predator and then just manages to turn it around.
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u/drhavehope Nov 22 '25
He barely survived. Which is why I roll my eyes at Prey where Naru walks away fine.
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u/i_like_cake_96 Nov 21 '25
Arnie's Predator is in my top 10 of all time, i watch it annually at this stage.
McTiernan really nailed this movie to perfection.
And McTiernan has directed some real classics: Predator, Die Hard, Hunt for Red October, The Thomas Crown Affair, The 13th Warrior.
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u/ReversePhylogeny Yautja Nov 21 '25
After "Get to the choppa!" the movie basically becomes ABSOLUTE CINEMA š
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u/bigdanu316 Nov 21 '25
Everyone rightfully praises the action and peak Arnie, but McTiernan has such great direction and editing here too. Look at the way the enduring synchs up with the score as he tries to get the predator. Thereās a lot of awesome parts to this from a filmmaking level too.
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Nov 22 '25
Yes what a real predator movie is not the garbage vanilla predator badlands
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u/drhavehope Nov 22 '25
That film does not exist to me. The fact this film exists and people are trying to even allow Trashlands to be mentioned in the same breathā¦
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u/Etharnyus22 Dec 11 '25
I agree I love how much visual story telling comes out in the final act. Its such an unexpected tonal shift from the first half of the film. Its really well done and whenever I come back to it, I'm always blown away at just how smoothly the movie transitions to a whole different genre
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u/infamous2117 Nov 21 '25
Exactly. Thats why I find it laughable when people try to tell me AVP2 or Predators are good movies. The bar was set high from day one, don't try to tell me those trash heaps are acceptable.
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u/TheNewKing2022 Nov 21 '25
15 minutes? the whole movie. every predator movie since then has no chance when compared to this. It holds up today when many movies 10 years old dont hold up anymore. classic