Predator 2

Predator 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stephen Hopkins
Produced by	Joel Silver Lawrence Gordon John Davis
Written by	Jim Thomas John Thomas
Starring	Danny Glover Gary Busey Ruben Blades María Conchita Alonso Bill Paxton Robert Davi
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Peter Levy
Editing by	Mark Goldblatt Bert Lovitt
Studio	Silver Pictures Gordon Company Davis Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	November 21, 1990
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35,000,000
Box office	$57,120,318[1]

Predator 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film starring Danny Glover. Written by Jim and John Thomas and directed by Stephen Hopkins, the film is a sequel to 1987's Predator, with Kevin Peter Hall again playing the role of the Predator. Despite receiving negative reviews, the film gained a moderate return at the box office.

Plot

In 1997, Los Angeles is suffering from both a heat wave and a turf war between heavily armed Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels. A Predator (Kevin Peter Hall) watches a shootout between the police and Colombians, observing as Lieutenant Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover) charges into the firefight to rescue two wounded officers and drive the Colombians back into their hideout. While the police are ordered to wait for a federal task force to arrive on the scene, the Predator crashes through a skylight and attacks the Colombians. Harrigan and his detectives Leona Cantrell (María Conchita Alonso) and Danny Archuleta (Rubén Blades) enter against orders and find the Colombians have been slaughtered. Harrigan pursues the gang leader onto the roof and shoots him, catching a glimpse of the camouflaged Predator's silhouette, but dismissing it as an effect of the heat. Harrigan is rebuked by his superiors for his disobedience. He is also introduced to Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey), leader of the task force who are purportedly investigating the cartels, and Detective Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton), the newest member of Harrigan's team.

Later that evening, the Predator kills several Jamaican cartel members, while they are ritualistically murdering the Colombian drug lord at his home. Despite being ordered to wait for Keyes, Harrigan and his team enter the penthouse where they find the Jamaicans' skinned corpses suspended from the rafters, noting the similarity to the earlier Colombian massacre. Keyes kicks Harrigan's team out, but Archuleta later returns to continue investigating. He finds one of the Predator's speartip weapons in an air conditioning vent, but is then killed by the Predator. Harrigan vows to bring down Danny's killer, believing they are dealing with an assassin. A forensic scientist finds the speartip does not correspond to any known element in the periodic table. Looking for answers, Harrigan meets with Jamaican drug lord King Willie (Calvin Lockhart), a voodoo practitioner. King Willie tells Harrigan that the killer is supernatural, and that he should prepare himself for battle against him. After Harrigan is escorted away by gang members, the Predator kills King Willie, the latter's head made into a trophy.

Cantrell and Lambert are intervening in a mugging on the subway when the Predator attacks them. Cantrell herds the passengers to safety while Lambert faces off against the Predator and is killed. The Predator is about to kill Cantrell as well, but releases her when his thermal vision reveals that she is pregnant. Arriving on the scene, Harrigan chases the Predator but is stopped by Keyes, who reveals that the killer is an extraterrestrial hunter with infrared vision that uses active camouflage and has been hunting humans for sport throughout military conflicts, the recent one referring to previous events in Central America. Keyes and his team have set a trap in a nearby slaughterhouse, using thermally insulated suits and cryogenic weapons in an attempt to capture him for study. However, the Predator sees through the trap by using his mask to scan through various electromagnetic wavelengths and kills the team. Harrigan intervenes, shooting the Predator several times and removing his mask.

Still alive, the Predator kills Keyes using a throwing disc and escapes to the roof. Harrigan knocks him over the side and finds himself on a narrow ledge with the Predator hanging below. The Predator attempts to activate the self-destruct device on his forearm, but Harrigan captures the throwing disc and uses it to sever his forearm and destroy the device. The Predator falls through an apartment window and uses a medical kit to treat his wounds, then flees through the building. Harrigan follows him down an elevator shaft and finds a spacecraft in an underground chamber. Inside the ship, the two face off in a final duel, with Harrigan finally killing the Predator by impaling him with the throwing disc. A number of other Predators appear, collecting their dead comrade and presenting Harrigan with an antique flintlock pistol labeled "Raphael Adolini 1715". Harrigan escapes from the ship as it takes off and reaches the surface just as the remainder of Keyes' team arrives, furious that they were unable to capture the alien. Harrigan knows that the creatures have been on Earth before, and suspects they will soon return.

Cast

• Kevin Peter Hall as The Predator, a member of a warrior race which hunts aggressive members of other species for sport, uses active camouflage, a plasma weapon and can see in the infrared spectrum.
• Danny Glover as Lieutenant Mike Harrigan, an LAPD officer, who is investigating rival Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels. He is very stubborn and often is criticized by superior officers for not obeying orders.
• Gary Busey as Special Agent Peter Keyes, posed as a DEA agent leading a special task force investigating a drug conspiracy as a cover for his attempts to capture the Predator.
• Ruben Blades as Detective Danny Archuleta, a member of Harrigan's team and a long time friend of his.
• María Conchita Alonso as Detective Leona Cantrell, an LAPD cop involved in the Jamaican-Colombian Gang wars.
• Bill Paxton as Detective Jerry Lambert, an LAPD cop, transferred from another precinct into Metro Command. His role is often that of comic relief.
• Robert Davi as Deputy Chief Phil Heinemann.
• Adam Baldwin as Garber, a member of Keyes' task force.
• Kent McCord as Captain B. Pilgrim, an LAPD cop and Harrigan's immediate boss.
• Morton Downey, Jr. as Tony Pope, a journalist who reports the gruesome and murderous homicides left by the Predator. He is constantly criticized by the police for interfering with investigations.
• Calvin Lockhart as King Willie, the boss of the Jamaica Voodoo Posse. He appears to be psychotic because of his voodoo beliefs.

Production

Principal photography began in February 20, 1990 and ended on June, 1990. Due to excessive violence, Predator 2 was originally given an NC-17 rating in the U.S. The film was eventually rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America after being re-cut to its final theatrical length. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who starred as "Dutch" in the 1987 film, was asked to reprise his role in the sequel. Schwarzenegger was outspoken against the sequel's concept, feeling that taking it into the city was a bad idea. Schwarzenegger declined and decided instead to sign on for a different sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The character was rewritten as the role of Peter Keyes.

Returning to the role of Anna in the sequel, Elpidia Carrillo was slated to be in two scenes but was cut back to a brief appearance on a video screen in the government agents' surveillance trailer. Her character is showing damage to the Central American jungle caused by the explosion at the conclusion of the first film.

In Predator 2, the main Predator was designed to look more urban and hip than its predecessor. Design changes included tribal ornamentation on the forehead, which was made steeper and shallower, brighter skin coloration and a greater number of fangs.^[3]

Reception

The film received mostly negative reviews, though reviewers were generally impressed by the casting of Danny Glover as an action hero. The reviewers for the Washington Post were split: Rita Kempley enjoyed the movie, noting she felt that it had "dismal irony of RoboCop and the brooding fatalism of Blade Runner", and felt Glover "brings an unusual depth to the action adventure and proves fiercely effective as the Predator's new nemesis."^[4] Desson Howe felt the film was "blithely unoriginal" and numbingly violent, but also praised Glover's ability to bring warmth to the center of a cold movie.^[5] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film "an unbeatable contender" for the "most mindless, mean-spirited action film of the holiday season."^[6] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert, in giving the film two out of four stars, suggested that it represents an "angry and ugly" dream; he also felt that the creatures' design had racist undertones where "subliminal clues [...] encourage us to subconsciously connect the menace with black males."^[7]

Box office

Released on November 21, 1990, Predator 2 was #4 at the US box office in its opening weekend, with a gross of over $8 million behind the films Dances with Wolves, Three Men and a Little Lady, and Home Alone. The film grossed a total of $57 million, $30 million of which was from the USA.^[1] The worldwide box office revenue totaled $57,120,318 in ticket sales. Although this surpassed the cost of the film's budget, it was considered an overall disappointment in comparison to its predecessor's performance.

Novelization

A novelization of the film written by Simon Hawke was released on December 1, 1990 by the publishing company Jove.^[8] The novelization provided a small amount of information regarding the fate of "Dutch" from the first film. Keyes recalls memories of speaking with the battered Major while infirmed in a hospital, suffering from radiation sickness. "Dutch" is said to have escaped from the hospital, never to be seen again. Furthermore, the novel tells a great deal of the story from the Predator's point of view, such as its humiliation of having its mask removed by Harrigan, and its reasoning for not killing Cantrell due to its discovery of her pregnancy.

Video game

A video game adaptation of the film was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console in 1992. The game was published by Acclaim through its Arena Entertainment label and developed by Teeny Weeny Games, Ltd. In the game players guide Lt. Mike Harrigan as he tracks the Predator through seven levels based on the film, while facing several drug gangs and rescuing civilian hostages before they fall prey to the alien hunter. The game is played in a top-down perspective simulating a third person isometric view, with swarms of enemies who appear through one-way doors scattered throughout the levels. Lt. Harrigan also has to contend with the Predator, both as a boss at the end of each level, and as a time limit. If the player takes too long to rescue a hostage, the Predator will blast the hostage with his tri-laser. If too many hostages are killed — the number depending on the difficulty setting — the game ends and the screen fades to red with the words "You lost too many hostages". Weapons include pistols, machine guns, shotguns and also a few highly advanced Predator weapons like the net, the disc and the spear that the player can pick up and use. Each defeated gang member drops drugs that can be picked up and automatically sent off to the drug squad for points. No sounds or music from the film were used, but still scenes from the film do introduce the levels, which include the streets of L.A., the rooftops, the main city subway, the slaughterhouse district and the predator ship.^[10]

See also

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Predator 2

• Weapons used in Predator 2
• Predator 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Predator 2 at allmovie
• Predator 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Predator 2 at Box Office Mojo