New ‘The Predator’ Footage Debuts at San Diego Comic-Con

20th Century Fox and director Shane Black showed off exclusive gory footage from The Predator during Thursday’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, proving that the film works hard to earn that R rating.

In one scene, Olivia Munn’s Casey Breckett, Trevante Rhodes’ Williams and Keegan-Michael Key’s Coyle are sitting in a hotel room. Williams annoys Casey, who tells him to leave her alone. “Morning sunshine,” Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) tells Casey, who is no fan of the nickname. She then grabs a shotgun meaning Coyle won a $10 bet. Quinn tries to get it out of her hand, and Coyle wins another $10. The cast then laugh.

Casey tries to escape the room, but Quinn and Baxley (Thomas Jane) try to stop her. “Eat your p–,” Baxley yells, which catches her off guard and leads to a debate over what he meant.

Quinn tries to get Casey to stay because it is her best chance to stay alive. Casey disagrees, since she knows he has a reputation for getting people killed. Williams does not understand why they are there at all.
Quinn also says they need “to find this thing,” which Casey thinks hunts for sport – something all characters in the Predator franchise usually figure out too late.

In another scene, Quinn and Casey try to hide a young kid as a Predator approaches. They see one Predator through a window, but then another approaches from behind! One of the Predators is smaller than the other, and picks up the smaller one like a toy and throws it. The larger Predator takes the smaller one’s mask off and begins to punch it. Next, it rips the smaller Predator’s head off, with green blood going everywhere.

“What are they, hunting each other now?” Casey says.

Next, Black showed a sizzle reel with more violence, fights among trees, trucks flipping, things blowing up and ships crashing.

“We assume that there’s a faction on the Predator homeworld that’s been bested not once but twice by Earthlings,” Black explained during the panel, describing another scene. “They sent their champions to Earth and they don’t come home. They don’t like that. So, they figured, they want to punch back. There’s a contentious bunch of Predator homeworld and they might not be above ‘roiding, so to speak.”

Black continued, “We devised this idea… It’s an idea but it’s mostly an image, it’s mostly something we had to find visually because you can’t alter the make-up of the Predator too thoroughly. We had to emphasize what the Predators do. They’re fast. They’re deadly. They’re live. They move fast and they hit and they strike and retreat and it’s that feeling of deadly purpose and absolute blood curdling f–g efficiency.”

According to the director, who acted in the first Predator, “These guys move like the wind, they come, they cut you, they leave, and you’re cut when they’re done. They kill you. That’s what we wanted. Just these completely savage brutal creatures and then we got us and R-rating!”

This footage has not been released online yet, but we have seen two trailers from the film, including one released last month.

Although the new Predator film is the first since 2010’s poorly received Predators, it is still a sequel, Black said. It is set after the events of Predator 2.

The Predator opens on Sept. 14.