[7]
Predator‘s screenwriting brothers, Jim and John Thomas, return for this sequel, transplanting the action from the Central American jungles to dystopian Los Angeles. ‘Ah-nold’ is replaced with Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, The Color Purple) and Stephen Hopkins (A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child) replaces director John McTiernan. Glover plays a police lieutenant caught in a battle between dueling drug gangs. Both gangs and the police begin drastically dwindling in numbers when the Predator begins hunting them all. Glover’s investigation is complicated when a secretive federal team arrives on the scene, led by Gary Busey (Silver Bullet), who wants to capture the Predator to utilize its advanced technology.
For a sequel sans its original star and director, Predator 2 works remarkably well. It hits the ground running and offers a steady barrage of action and thrills leading to a satisfying showdown between Glover and the monster aboard its spaceship. The characters are all thinly drawn, but the cast knows exactly what kind of movie they’re in and play the game admirably. Supporting players include Ruben Blades, Maria Chonchita Alonzo, and Bill Paxton (Aliens) as Glover’s fellow cops, Adam Baldwin (My Bodyguard) as Busey’s henchman, and Morton Downey, Jr., as a sleazy tabloid TV news host (pretty much playing himself) who appears throughout the film serving as a sort of Greek chorus. Stan Winston’s creature makeup and effects are, as always, top notch, and Alan Silvestri gives the film tremendous wattage with his percussive, pulse-pounding score. If you measure the film against the original Schwarzenegger film, your mileage will vary. But if you’re just looking for a fun, well-made monster movie, Predator 2 delivers the goods.
With Robert Davi, Kent McCord, and the towering Kevin Peter Hall returning inside the Predator costume.
Sidenote: I was privileged to visit 20th Century Fox during the summer of 1990 as part of UCLA’s Media Workshops. As part of the studio tour, we were shown inside one of the immense sound stages where two sets from this film were still up after filming had recently completed. I saw the highrise penthouse where the Jamaican drug lords were massacred by the Predator — a set covered in fake blood and glass — as well as the Predator’s interior spaceship, which was a remarkably smelly fiberglass set. These sets were right beside several sets for Edward Scissorhands.