MovieChat Forums > Predator (1987) Discussion > The end of Act One is genius

The end of Act One is genius

posted 7 years ago by schlockhorror
4 replies | jump to latest

Enter the Predator, the first time we know there is one. Up until now this was just a grunt movie like Commando, but suddenly there's this POV we've not seen yet as it struts into the final scene. It gazes around and it notices two things: no casualties among Dutch's team, and they've left no survivors. You can sense its excitement at this class prey it has found.

It is impressed.

Finally it scoops up the crushed scorpion and you see its enormous clawed hand. It repeats the sounds it has heard them make: Anytime.

End of Act One.

Classic stuff.

[–] atd8vii (592) 6 years ago

Agreed, I remember back in the day feeling a little chilled when I first saw it’s hand scoop up the scorpion. I knew it was about an alien of some sort, but I was wondering what the hell it was.

[–] Gd5150 (10991) 6 years ago

Yeah and the first time you saw how it was stealth, it was wicked. Nothing like that had ever been done in motion pictures. It was pretty amazing at the time.

Not to mention the movie was and still is badass.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

There is a lot of debate about whether the reveal would have been better had they not shown the alien spaceship at the beginning.

[–] FilmBuff (6678) 5 years ago

I think the shot was well-placed. When I saw this in the theater it seemed that as the movie began, that scene was kind of forgotten. This seemed like a standard Schwarzenegger action film, and only when the Predator finally showed up did you start to realize there was a fantastic element to the film. Then the audience finally has a point of reference for what had been a seemingly insignificant and puzzling, and ultimately dismissed, shot of something falling to the earth. Without that moment, it would almost feel like cheating to suddenly present an extraterrestrial to the audience, a la the vampires in From Dusk 'Til Dawn, but with its inclusion it brings everything into focus.