Yeah, yeah, I know. This got severely sidetracked, didn't it - so much so that I'm going to have to go into August to make sure it's finished. In my defence, I had some real life stuff happen to me this month that really messed up a lot of my plans, and it's only now that I'm getting my head back in order. But enough about that, let's get back to the story of man-sized lizard people on a safari holiday on Earth in Predator 2.
It's the "near future" of 1997 in Los Angeles, and the city is gripped not only by an unrelenting heatwave but also by a gang war that's racking up an ever-growing body count. The police force is struggling to even keep pace with the pitched battles between the Columbians and the Jamaican Voodoo Posse, and it's debatable whether Lieutenant Mike Harrigan is helping matters with his gung-ho, aggressive attitude, or making things worse. When the police find a warehouse full of butchered Columbians and no trace of their assailant, however, Harrigan suspects that something bigger is going on - a suspicion that is all but confirmed when a top-secret federal team tries to take over the investigation and shut him and everyone else out. The body count continues to rise - Columbians, Jamaicans, cops and civilians - and it becomes clear that something is using the sweltering streets of LA as its own personal hunting ground. A cat-and-mouse game between Hannigan and the Predator begins as both start to hunt each other - but which of them is the predator and which of them is the prey?
Originally, Predator 2 was meant to have Arnold Schwarzenegger returning as Dutch. The plan had been that he would have been in charge of the government team hunting the Predator, but Schwarzenegger didn't like the direction the film was taking - specifically that it was moving from the jungle to an urban setting - and so the role went to the unforgettable Gary Busey so he could masticate the scenery to within an inch of its life. Backstory involving Dutch escaping from a military hospital where he was being treated for radiation sickness after the end of the previous movie was also cut, but honestly, I think the film is better for having only the barest connection to the first Predator film that was so full of over-muscled hard men, like a bodybuilding convention in the jungle, sponsored by Johnson's Baby Oil.
Danny Glover as Mike Harrigan is a very different protagonist to Dutch and one that works far better in this urban setting than a Special Forces Major ever would have. Yes, if you're feeling snarky and cynical you can make comparisons to Lethal Weapon's Murtaugh, but the important difference between Harrigan and Dutch is that Harrigan is more than a slab of beef coated in mud (not that there was anything wrong with Dutch's slab of beef-ness in the first film; it's just that the story needed to move on from that). Harrigan might not be as big or strong as Dutch, but he's tough and cunning and that makes him just as worthy to be the "big game" for the Predator this time around. He's also more "human" than the near-superhuman Dutch, as we see right at the start that he has a phobia of heights (that we also know is going to come back to haunt him at some point near the film's third act). He is less of an idealised, wish-fulfilment protagonist as Dutch was, and a much more identifiable protagonist for the audience. Although... it would have been interesting to see how Predator 2 might have turned out if the studio's other choices to star, Patrick Swayze and John Lithgow (as Keyes), had been available...
Predator was not originally planned to have a sequel - at least not a cinematic one. Instead, there was a comic book limited series, and when that was a hit, the green light was given to the film sequel. Several scenes from the comic series, particularly the scene in the subway, which is probably one of the best scenes in the film overall between the very concept of half the commuters being armed to the way it was shot, in near-darkness with the almost strobe-like flashes of light from the tunnels being the only illumination as the cloaked Predator methodically slaughters everyone as it makes its way down the car. There have actually been several comic book crossovers with the Predator franchise over the years, most notably with Batman - which resulted in Gotham City being declared off-limits for the Predator race as there's apparently nothing more humiliating in their culture than being beaten but not killed by a man dressed as a bat.
Personally, I enjoy Predator 2 just a little bit more than Predator, as heretical as that might be. I like that the characters are more relatable to the audience, and of course I love all the lore that gets filled in through the course of the film - including of course that one throwaway shot at the film's climax that caught the fans' attention and led to, 14 years later, a rather underwhelming crossover and a worse sequel. There are some pitch-black humour and a ton of new toys for the Predator to wield, which is pretty much essential in a sequel. There are some plot holes as well though - the one that bothers me the most is the revelation of there being a whole hunting party of Predators apparently just chilling in their ship at the end. These guys were apparently happy to just stay in the ship the whole time and let one guy do all the hunting - and we know this because if more than one of them had been out then Keyes' team would have detected them; also if there had been more than one of them hunting then there wouldn't have been the obsessional focus on Harrigan. There also wasn't nearly enough King Willie in the film. But as we know well by now, I tend to fixate on strange details like this, and it doesn't actually impact the film as a whole. Predator 2 is a fun action-sci-fi-horror film and a worthy sequel to the first movie.
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