This is one of the best action and science fiction films of the 80s: A brutal spectacle full of testosterone, but also intelligence – Cinema News

An excellent booster for Arnold Schwarzenegger, but also much more.

Cinema can be magical because it captures immense moments of the human condition in the most critical situations. It can also be when there is an incredible injection of euphoria, where many of the right people come together in the best possible period. Even though nothing that preceded the project made us imagine anything similar.

A story that tries to cross different genres, a threat slightly derived from other films, a director who started his production with a disastrous feature, an action star waiting to take his last giant step. It’s not the most logical combination to find a classic, but that’s what was achieved with The Predator.

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Invisible threat

One of the most explosive and brutal films of the 1980s is available on Star+. A golden opportunity to enjoy one of the best action and science fiction blockbusters, directed by an always renowned master like John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers.

Schwarzenegger plays Commander Dutch, who leads a group of Vietnam veteran mercenaries on a mysterious CIA mission. They will go to a wild jungle in Central America to investigate the disappearance of some pilots at the hands of a local guerrilla. What these soldiers don’t expect is the appearance of an invisible threat that will begin hunting them.

After the failed attempt at a supernatural neo-noir in Deadly Delusions, McTiernan was lucky enough to be chosen to direct the project by someone who decided to ignore the alarms. Although the biggest beneficiary of the decision was the Predator himself, who acquired a fabulous texture that goes beyond the muscular spectacle that one could expect from him.

The Predator: Survival and cunning

This is an eminently testosterone film, where there are even jokes about giant vaginas from Shane Black (who would end up directing his own film in the franchise). There are many effective action vehicles for Schwarzenegger, but McTiernan adds great sophistication to the direction, maintaining as much of the science fiction component as possible so that it surprises even knowing what we will see next, and adding references to Vietnam to make a powerful parallel with the experiences that the mercenaries live.

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The most interesting thing about a classic like The Predator, which has managed to remain effective over the years, are those nuances that go beyond ultraviolent war. The turns towards a survival cinema where cunning must prevail over muscles (something that the alien enemy respects and that the recent The Predator: The Hunt understood very well) are more adult contributions that McTiernan would also bring to fruition in the even more masterful Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October. Pure action cinema, yes, but going beyond what would have been another Arnold madness with Joel Silver as producer of Command to Kill.

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