#8 - “Predator” (1987) with Laramy Wells

Released in on June 12, 1987, up and coming director John McTiernan’s second film introduced action and horror fans to a brand new kind of extra-terrestrial threat. It was a bonafide box office hit when released due to its star-studded macho cast, while solidifying Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rising star power status. Alongside Schwarzenegger, the film cast Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, and Shane Black as a group of commando mercenaries on a rescue mission in Central America who unknowingly encounter an alien creature bigger, badder, and more powerful than they are. The hunter we call…Predator. On this episode Tim Williams and guest co-host Laramy Wells discuss the 1987 Sci-Fi Action Blockbuster - “Predator”. Here are additional behind the scenes trivia that we were not able to cover on this episode: Both McTiernan and Schwarzenegger lost 25 pounds during the film. Schwarzenegger's weight loss was a professional choice while McTiernan lost the weight because he avoided the food in Mexico due to health concerns. Unlike McTiernan, most of the cast and crew suffered from traveler's diarrhea since the Mexican hotel in which they were living had problems with its water purification system. In an interview, Carl Weathers said the actors would secretly wake up as early as 3:00 a.m. to work out before the day's shooting. Weathers also stated that he would act as if his physique was naturally given to him and would work out only after the other actors were nowhere to be seen. The weapon that Blain (Jesse Ventura) is using is a minigun. This is a weapon most commonly mounted on the side of a helicopter and many, many modifications had to be made to make it usable in the film. It was powered via an electrical cable hidden down the front of Blain's trousers. The firing rate was slowed down to approximately one-third the normal rate of fire, both to reduce consumption of blanks, and to make the spinning of the barrels visible on film. It is rumored that Ventura had to wear a bulletproof vest, because of the forceful ejection of spent cartridges, but this is false. Unmodified miniguns eject out of the bottom, with the cases essentially falling out, due to gravity. Close examination of the film, especially the scene in which Mac fires the minigun at the fleeing predator, along with the other commandos, show that the ejection of the minigun was not changed. The "B" camera was given a reel of incorrect film stock, which is why some shots look a lot grainier than others. Sources: Imdb, Wikipedia, All the Right Movies Podcast, and Rotten Tomatoes Send us an email or reach out to us on social media to let us know what you liked, what you loved, what we may have missed, or what 80's movie we should watch next!   Email - [email protected]   Facebook - Moviviews Presents 80's Flick Flashback Podcast (Fan Page) & Moviviews News & Reviews (Group Page) InstaGram - Moviviews