The original Predator

[Graham Kennedy]

Came across this and thought it was interesting.

Many know that the movie Predator originally featured a completely different design of the alien hunter. Not so many have see it. So here it is!



Vaguely insect-like, the creature's body was designed to have limbs in different proportions to a human.



With the helmet off you can see the big insect eyes...



The head was designed to swivel and tilt to almost any angle. The hunter could keep his body still whilst turning his head to look straight up, directly behind, etc. Jean Claude Van Damme was hired to wear the body suit, as it was thought his agility and martial arts training would give it a slightly alien feel.



Unfortunately Van Damme was not happy with being an uncredited special effect, and quit after two days. Here he is in a red suit used for FX shots of the invisible creature.



Unfortunately, the alien just couldn't move properly. The head motion was jerky and unconvincing. Hanging on wires and standing on stilts, the body model looked fake and rubbery.



It's said that as soon a the director saw the thing taken out of the packing crates, he said "Oh god, we're in a lot of trouble." They tried for a few days, then he shut the entire production down and flew back to the US to meet Stan Winston and said "I need a good monster, fast!"

The result was one of the better creature designs in sci fi history.

[McAvoy]

While I like the look it just doesn't have that look as the ne that eventually made into the movie. It doesn't seem to be as threatening.

[Lighthawk]

It's too inhuman. While it certain is alien, it's more of the horror movie alien type, rather than the action alien the movie needed, if that makes any damn sense. The predator they went with, while you could never mistake it for human, had enough humanish quality that you could make a degree of connection to it, get a feel for what it's thinking. One part in particular that stands out is after it takes the mask off and starts duking it out with arnold, and he lands a good backhand to it's face. The predator pauses a second, and the look on it's face just conveys so much emotion. There wouldn't have been any of that with if they had gone with bug eye there, it's form is so different it would have been impossible to really get any sense of its thoughts or emotions.

[kostmayer]

The first pic looks a bit like a Gorn to me - hard to imagine it would take out a crack team of Arnie Commandos.

[McAvoy]

It's too inhuman. While it certain is alien, it's more of the horror movie alien type, rather than the action alien the movie needed, if that makes any damn sense. The predator they went with, while you could never mistake it for human, had enough humanish quality that you could make a degree of connection to it, get a feel for what it's thinking. One part in particular that stands out is after it takes the mask off and starts duking it out with arnold, and he lands a good backhand to it's face. The predator pauses a second, and the look on it's face just conveys so much emotion. There wouldn't have been any of that with if they had gone with bug eye there, it's form is so different it would have been impossible to really get any sense of its thoughts or emotions.

Makes sense. That the backhand thing you mentioned is absolutely correct. Because I remember when I first saw thinking two things: the Predator is pissed and Arnie is screwed.

[Tyyr]

Conceptually I like an alien alien but for the movie the predator they had worked great.

[McAvoy]

If I remember the Predator 2.0 was much cheaper and simpler to do. Sometimes the cheaper is better.

Also I think this is the only movie where Arnie got his ass handed to him?

[Graham Kennedy]

Hmm, he generally doesn't come out of the Terminator movies very well.

[McAvoy]

True. I knew someone would mention that after I posted that.

[Lighthawk]

It's different though, in Predator he honestly got his ass kicked throughout the whole fight scene, and survived by the fluke of the predator standing under the log that was the weight mechanism for his trap. In the Terminator films he gets banged up a lot, but due to the nature of the character, it's more of a temporary annoyance.

[Mikey]

Hmmm. I agree with LH's take. While this would be better for a true old-school out-in-space SF alien, if it were used it would probably have been characterized to use some sorts of natural weaponry, innate abilities, etc. For the film Predator specifically, I think the hi-tech armory idea works better.

[Graham Kennedy]

It's different though, in Predator he honestly got his ass kicked throughout the whole fight scene, and survived by the fluke of the predator standing under the log that was the weight mechanism for his trap. In the Terminator films he gets banged up a lot, but due to the nature of the character, it's more of a temporary annoyance.

Well apart from the fact that he is destroyed at the end of every movie.

[Mikey]

It's different though, in Predator he honestly got his ass kicked throughout the whole fight scene, and survived by the fluke of the predator standing under the log that was the weight mechanism for his trap. In the Terminator films he gets banged up a lot, but due to the nature of the character, it's more of a temporary annoyance.

Well apart from the fact that he is destroyed at the end of every movie.

...
He got better.

[Sionnach Glic]

I really like the look of this creature, though I agree with the consensus of the others that it's not really the Predator.

It'd look damn cool in another series, though.

[Nutso]

Maybe that thing could have been the insect-like aliens that eventually became the Borg.