Deleted scenes
This article covers all the known deleted scenes from the 1987 film Predator. Some of the sequences here never progressed past the early script or storyboard stages, while others were filmed before being cut during the editing process. Despite their removal, several of these scenes were included in the movie's novelization.
Overview[]
The most notable change during the production of Predator was the complete redesign of the titular creature after only a small amount of filming had been completed. Otherwise, relatively little deleted footage is known to exist, although early scripts contain several removed or alternate sequences.
A small number of the film's deleted scenes have been officially released on home video; in such instances, the release(s) on which they can be found have been noted in this article. Where applicable, the names of deleted scenes below have been taken from these DVD/Blu-ray releases.
Deleted Scenes[]
The original Predator[]
A behind the scenes photo showing the original Predator.
Some footage was filmed of the original Predator suit, when the character was being played by Jean-Claude Van Damme. However, this mostly consisted of test shots, as it quickly became apparent the design was unsuitable.[1] Some of this footage can be seen in the film's making-of documentary If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It. As well as differing physically, this early version of the Predator was also armed with a spear-like weapon rather than a Plasmacaster as in the finished film.
Additional men[]
Early drafts of the film's script feature two additional members of Dutch's team, both of whom are killed during the assault on the rebel encampment.[2]
Butterfly[]
The script features a scene where a butterfly lands on the immobile Predator's arm as it watches Dutch and his men move through the jungle. When the Predator moves the butterfly flies away, momentarily leaving an impression of itself on the Predator's camouflage.[3] While footage of this was completed as part of an effects test for the creature, it was not used in the film.
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Trophy making[]
Footage was filmed of the Jungle Hunter mutilating Hawkins' corpse after retrieving it from the tree where it is last seen hanging in the film, presumably to make a trophy. Behind the scenes footage shows Shane Black being dressed with fake blood for this scene.[1]
Surgery on the ship[]
Following Blain's death, the Predator was to be seen returning to its ship to treat its wounds, creating a kind of paste from two small glowing stones and then using it to cauterize its injuries.[2] Likely due to budget constraints, the Predator's ship was cut from the movie before filming, and the Predator merely treats itself with a portable medical kit on a branch. Notably, the concept of a Predator using alien chemicals to cauterize its wounds was revisited in Predator 2, in which the City Hunter does exactly that in Ruth's bathroom.
Hawkins' skin[]
Another scene set aboard the Predator's ship that was removed from the final cut featured the hunter admiring Hawkins' flayed skin, stretched over a frame as it dries. Satisfied with its work, the Predator was to take the skin down, fold it neatly, and store it in a compartment full of skins from all manner of alien creatures.[2]
Chameleon[]
The morning after Blain's body is reclaimed by the Predator, a brief scene, designed to tie in to Anna's description of the Predator ("It changes colors. Like the chameleon"), showed Anna pick up a chameleon from the jungle floor and study it. The scene appears in the film's novelization, where it holds additional significance as the Predator in the book camouflages itself by precisely changing its skin color, much like a chameleon, instead of using a Cloak.[4]
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Landslide[]
In the film, the team elects to make a stand after Blain's body is taken, but originally they were to press onward towards the extraction point, leading to an elaborate action sequence at a deep, sheer-sided river gorge. Coming upon the gorge, the team were forced to carefully pick their way along the top of the cliff.[2] However, the ground is unstable and gives way beneath Dillon's feet; he snatches at Poncho's leg to try and arrest his fall, twisting it and breaking Poncho's ankle, before losing his grip and plummeting over the precipice, becoming tangled upside-down in some vines a hundred feet above the river below. The collapse spreads and Anna almost goes over the edge as well, but is caught at the last minute by Dutch.[2]
Dutch and his men manage to pull Poncho and Anna back up to safety, but Dillon remains trapped below, and so Dutch rigs up a rope so that he can rappel down to him. This leads to a tense sequence in which Dutch tries desperately to reach Dillon as the vines supporting him begin to snap one by one, threatening to pitch Dillon down onto the rocks below. Finally they give way, but Dutch is able to grab hold of Dillon's shirt. His equipment still threatens to drag him down, and so Dutch orders Dillon to drop their radio set, which smashes on the rocks below.[2] Finally, the other men pull them back up, and they retreat from the unstable cliff back into the jungle. This then led to the sequence where Mac and Dillon are killed by the Predator, which originally happened before the mercenaries manage to trap the creature in a net.[2]
Billy's fate[]
In early drafts of the script it was Billy, not Anna, who escapes alive from the jungle before Dutch's final showdown with the Predator. Dutch sends him on ahead to the extraction helicopter before the scene where the Predator is (briefly) caught in the net made of jungle vines.[2] It is also Billy who returns with Philips aboard the extraction helicopter at the end of the movie.[2]
Anna's fate[]
Anna was originally killed by the Predator shortly after Poncho when she fires on the creature with a recovered weapon, but this was changed for filming to have Dutch disarm her, saving her life.[2]
Fleeing the Predator[]
Some footage was cut from the scene where Dutch flees from the Predator after it kills Poncho. After hiding in a gully where he is covered with biting ants, Dutch believes he has evaded the creature and collapses, exhausted. The Predator takes aim at the back of his head with its Plasmacaster, but at the last moment shifts its aim to a tree in front of Dutch, allowing him to see the laser pointer, before it fires, blasting the tree and temporarily blinding Dutch, who crawls away. The Predator continues to follow, deliberately missing with successive Plasmacaster shots, leading Dutch to realize aloud that the creature is toying with him.
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Rescue chopper[]
After Dutch discovers that mud renders him invisible to the Predator, a brief added scene was to show Billy aboard the rescue chopper with Philips, searching the jungle for Dutch. Failing to find any sign, they turn away and head back to base. On the ground, the Predator watches the helicopter fly overhead.[2]
Building a trap[]
The sequence where Dutch constructs his improvised weapons and traps for his final showdown with the Predator was originally longer, showing how he spends a day or more preparing. Additional moments not seen in the film include footage of Dutch removing matches from a watertight compartment in the handle of his combat knife and more footage of him constructing his bundle bow.
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Hunting the Predator[]
In the film, Dutch lures the Predator to him for their final showdown, but in early versions of the script he instead goes hunting for the creature himself after fashioning his bow and arrows. Only after finding the creature's camp does he begin preparing traps for it.[2]
Net trap[]
A Predator weapon cut from the film was a net, made of incredibly fine wire and appearing as a spider's web when deployed. Dutch was to find one such net strung between two trees when hunting for the Predator near the end of the story. When he triggers the trap by hurling a log into it, the net instantaneously contracts, completely shredding the log.[2] This scene is featured in the film's novelization, while the net itself bears obvious parallels to the one fired by the Netgun in Predator 2.
The log jam[]
Originally, Dutch's final battle with the Predator was to take place predominantly within an enormous pile of rotting trees bridging a river, a vast log jam left over from a flood many years before. In contrast to their running battle in the movie, the two opposed hunters were to engage in a tense game of cat-and-mouse through the many passageways and crawlspaces running between and through the fallen trunks.[2] The setting was likely scrapped for budgetary and practical reasons.
Not the only predator here[]
In early versions of the script, Dutch's final showdown with the Predator is further complicated by encounters with several aggressive, terrestrial creatures, including a Jaguar that he is forced to leap down a small cliff to escape and a colony of bats that viciously attack him when he disturbs them.[2]
Vocal mimicry[]
The film's script also features a moment where the Predator mimics members of Dutch's team during their duel to try and lure him into an ambush, almost succeeding until it begins mimicking people Dutch knows to be dead.[2] This scene appears in the novelization.
The Predator's ship[]
The Predator's ship, which it used to reach Earth, was originally set to appear at the climax of the film when it is discovered in the jungle by Dutch.[5] Although this was deleted from the film, Dutch does find the ship in the novelization.[6]
Finishing the Predator[]
In the film, the Predator commits suicide immediately after mimicking Dutch and asking, "What the hell are you?" However, in the script their battle resumes when the Predator rallies itself and begins wrestling with Dutch on the floor. During the struggle, Dutch manages to get hold of the Predator's spear, at which point the creature flees onto its ship and attempts to leave.[2] Before it can seal the access hatch, Dutch hurls the spear through its head, killing the creature and also setting off a devastating chain reaction aboard the ship, which triggers an explosion similar to the Predator's Self-Destruct Device in the film.[2] While the creature's demise was changed for the movie, the original version appears in the novelization.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 John McTiernan, John Davis, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Shane Black, Stan Winston. If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: The Making of Predator (2004), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Hunter script (July 27, 1985 draft) by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
- ↑ Hunter script (April 7, 1986 draft) by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
- ↑ Paul Monette. Predator, p. 146 (1987), Jove Books.
- ↑ Jim Thomas, John Thomas. Predator 2 audio commentary (2005), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
- ↑ Paul Monette. Predator, p. 194 (1987), Jove Books.