35 Years Before Badlands, The Most Underrated Predator Movie Changed The Franchise in 4 Huge Ways

While highly disliked when first released, time has been very kind to Predator 2. In fact, until Predator: Badlands‘ Dan Trachtenberg came around it stayed the best follow-up to John McTiernan’s 1987 original film. The sweaty summer L.A. setting makes the film feel as claustrophobic and dangerous as the dense jungle, Kevin Peter Hall is again intimidating as the title character, Gary Busey is having the time of his life as alien-hunting CIA agent Peter Keyes, and the gang war touch was a nice one. Most of all, though, Danny Glover successfully took on the unenviable task of replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger as the man who would take on a Yautja. His Lieutenant Mike Harrigan is quite different from Schwarzenegger’s Dutch Schaefer, but we still believe he could succeed in such a dangerous battle.

Furthermore, on top of being underrated, Predator 2 was outright important to the franchise. There really is an argument to be made that it influenced further installments just as much as the original film. If not, it came close. Let’s unpack why that is.

4) New Weapons

If one hasn’t seen the original Predator in a while they might remember Dutch’s rescue team getting taken out in a bunch of different ways. But really, there were just the Yautja’s Wrist Blades and shoulder cannon (aka Plasmacaster).

And, while those two weapons are certainly iconic Yautja tools, it was Predator 2 that introduced the Netgun, which entangles its prey with what amounts to many strings of piano wire then grows tighter, the Combistick (its retractable spear), and the Smart Disc. These are all weapons that have continued to have a presence in the franchise. For instance, there was a great usage of the Netgun on a French Voyageur in Prey.

3) The Yautja Show Respect

When a human manages to best a Yautja, the remainder of the tribe gifts the victor a weapon. That was started here, when the elder Predator gives Lt. Harrigan an antique flintlock pistol (which received a fun callback in Prey).

This was done twice more, but not quite in the same context as was done here. First was in Alien vs. Predator, when the Yautja has respect for Sanaa Lathan’s Alexa Woods and gives her a spear so she can help him take on the Queen Xenomorph. Then there was the final scene of The Predator, where the first Yautja’s cargo was revealed to have contained a “Predator Killer” suit they could use to take on other Yautja (it doesn’t make much sense there but don’t worry about it, nothing ever came of it). In short, it’s one of Predator 2‘s best scenes, and turns the Yautja species from bloodthirsty killers into complex beings capable of respecting those they consider prey.

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2) A Change in Setting

This is a pretty simple one. Had they made Predator 2 another jungle set hunt-a-thon it would have come across as entirely redundant. And, while it doesn’t get enough credit for having done so, the film’s transplantation of the action to the crowded city of Los Angeles really works, primarily thanks to smart additions like the hot summer ambiance (where every character looks uncomfortable) and by having the city already gang war-torn.

From here on out, the subsequent movies would take a page out of Predator 2‘s book in terms of location. Predators put the protagonists back in the jungle, but it was an alien jungle. The Predator takes place in multiple locations, e.g. a small town and the forest around that town, Predator: Killer of Killers also takes place in multiple locales, and in that case, it was all over the world across different time periods, and Prey took place on the Great Plains. So, the saga continued to incorporate jungle settings when it could, but it also tried to toss in little nuances to make it seem like it was trying something new.

1) A Very Familiar Skull

The Yautja weapons continued on and the changes in locale continued on, but nothing from Predator 2 was more integral to the franchise’s future than the Xenomorph skull tease. This was to the Alien and Predator franchises what Freddy’s glove bursting from the sand in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday was to the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street sagas.

Of course, we ended up getting two Alien vs. Predator movies. And suffice to say, this tease in Predator 2 was better than both of them combined. But the connections between the Alien and Predator franchises continue with Predator: Badlands. So much so that the final TV spots for the film include the blaring alarm sound heard in the ads for Alien and Prometheus. Here’s hoping we can get the AVP movie we deserve.