The Predator deleted scenes

Film Deleted scenes Goofs Novelization Soundtrack Characters Holiday Special

This article covers all the known deleted scenes from the 2018 film The 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 Predator is notable in that it was extensively altered late in production; most notably, much of the final act was completely reshot and reworked, altering the final third of the film dramatically. As a result of these changes, several characters were entriely deleted from the film, including the allied Emissary Predators, while at least one major action set piece was removed and replaced with the night-time forest hunt that appears in the finished movie. Furthermore, the early rough cut of the movie was deemed "half an hour, three-quarters of an hour too long" according to actor Edward James Olmos, leading to further cuts to reduce its run time (including the deletion of all of the scenes Olmos had filmed).

In the buildup to the film's release, director Shane Black expressed interest in including both the original version of the film and the reworked theatrical cut on the movie's home video release, jokingly referring to the two cuts as "Predator AM and Predator PM" (a nod to the fact that the original finale took place during the day, whereas the reshot version takes place at night). However, he went on to explain that 20th Century Fox was unwilling to invest the money required to complete the many unfinished visual effects in the original cut, and thus the original version would likely not see the light of day.

While most of the original cut remains unreleased, a small number of the film's deleted scenes have been made available 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

A long time ago...

The film originally opened with a block of text summarizing the events of Predator and Predator 2 and establishing that Project Stargazer was established to track Predator activity on Earth. The text went on to explain that Stargazer has been funding a linguistics study at a top American university hoping to translate an alien language detected in transmissions from deep space (as mentioned in the finished film) and that their work has so far deciphered over 50 variations of the word "kill". Finally, just prior to the events of the movie, a transmission was intercepted and translated as "Traitor. Yautja. KILL."

Ark crash

The Arm crashes down in a swamp.

The film's trailers include footage of the Ark crashing in the swamps of the southern United States. The crash in the film is mostly unseen, and the ship is eventually found in a quarry rather than a swamp.

Traeger meets McKenna

McKenna is captured by Project Stargazer personnel.

After arranging to post the Predator equipment he recovered home, McKenna was originally seen exiting the bar and being confronted by Traeger (and several heavily-armed men) outside. Traeger then informs McKenna that he is going to prison.

Availability:

• The Predator Blu-ray

Jogger hitting on Casey

Behind the scenes image of the jogger scene being filmed.

Perhaps the most infamous deleted scene from the film (owing to the controversy it generated during the build-up to release) involved Casey Brackett's original introduction. Before meeting with the Stargazer agents who recruit her, she was to have encountered a man jogging in the park who began aggressively flirting with her, much to her annoyance. The scene was intended to establish Casey's knowledge of evolution and biology, as well as her ability to handle herself when she stands up to the jogger. After them man runs off, the scene would have continued with the arrival of Church and the other Stargazer agents.

The scene was removed during editing when it was revealed that Steve Wilder, the actor playing the jogger, was a convicted sex offender. Despite its deletion from the film, it still appears in the film's novelization.

Rory's flashback

The scene where Rory opens the package containing Predator equipment sent by his father originally began with a flashback to when he was younger, in which his mother and father are seen fighting over the fact McKenna is upset that his son is not more like him.

Rory plays spaceship

Rory plays with the Predator tech.

The film's first trailer showed footage of Rory playing with the Kujhad in his basement, edited to imply he was controlling the crashing Ark. However, this footage of Rory does not appear in the finished film.

General Woodhurst

Actor Edward James Olmos in costume as Woodhurst (right), alongside Boyd Holbrook (McKenna) and his wife Tatiana Pajkovic.

Originally, Traeger was not the man in charge of Project Stargazer, which was instead under the command of General Woodhurst of the United States Army. Several scenes of Traeger reporting to Woodhurst as the story progressed were shot, but the Woodhurst character was ultimately removed from the film during post-production when the movie was judged to be too long.

Like father, like son

The scene where Casey is looking through the tablet at the Stargazer lab originally included a moment where she finds a picture of Peter Keyes on the device, whom Traeger labels one of the founders of Stargazer. She would then have looked up to see Sean Keyes, and noted the family resemblance — Sean Keyes was played in the film by Jake Busey, whose father Gary played Peter Keyes in Predator 2.

"The audience would have gotten to see my dad and me in the same frame and the tongue in cheek aspect of it, that both of us were of the same age when we filmed the Predator movies."

―Actor Jake Busey on the cut family moment.

Although removed from the film, the extra dialogue appears in the novelization.

Tracking supervisor

Originally, the scene at the U.S. Air Force tracking station featured a female supervisor named Anya Martin, who would have noticed the Upgrade Predator's ship on radar before informing her superiors. In the finished film, this role was taken over by a male technician named Hamlin. However, the Tracking Supervisor is still listed in the film's credits (and would have been played by Françoise Yip, who previously appeared as Miss Yutani in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem), indicating the part was almost certainly filmed. Despite being replaced in the film, the Anya Martin character appears in the novelization.

Lynch goes shopping

The truck-driving arms dealer.

After the Loonies arrive at the motel where they lay low, an additional scene showed Lynch getting into a fight with an aggressive biker outside, whom he quickly subdues. McKenna watches from nearby, annoyed that Lynch is ignoring his orders to keep a low profile, but decides to leave it and goes to get a cup of coffee from a vending machine. Meanwhile, Lynch has moved on to showing off to a girl, entertaining her with card tricks, but is interrupted by a trucker who causes the woman to leave. When Lynch learns that the man is selling weapons from his RV, he goes to check out his stock. This would have explained where the Loonies get all the firearms they use for the remainder of the film.

The first part of this scene, in which Lynch beats up the biker, can be found in the film's novelization, although in the book it is Nettles who gets into the fight, not Lynch.

Availability:

• The Predator Blu-ray

Surveying the house

The Loonies watch McKenna's house.

The scene where McKenna goes home to look for Rory was preceded by another in which he and the Loonies hide in the bushes across the street and surveil the house to see if it is clear. As they watch, Traeger arrives with several of his men to question Emily. The scene appears in the novelization.

Availability:

• The Predator Blu-ray

Job description

"I look up and I catch what falls out of the sky."

Trailers included a sequence where Traeger asked Casey if she knows what his job description is, before clarifying, "I'm in acquisitions. I look up and I catch what falls out of the sky." The exchange was to have happened while Traeger is interrogating Casey at the barn, but the footage was not included in the finished film. It is, however, found in the novelization.

The cryptographer

While McKenna and Casey are being interrogated at the barn, Rory was to overhear Sapir talking over Skype to a cryptographer who is attempting to work out the access code for the Fugitive's missing ship. The man angrily asks why the code is so important given that Stargazer have yet to locate the crashed vessel, but Sapir responds that they would like to get on board as soon as they locate it. The scene appears in the novelization, while the cryptographer is still listed in the movie's end credits, indicating it was filmed.

Attack on Area 52

The attack on Area 52.

Much like in the finished film, the original final act began with the Upgrade Predator attacking the crashed Predator ship, which has been secured by Project Stargazer personnel. However, whereas in the film the ship is still located where it came down, in the original cut it was instead recovered by Stargazer and taken to a nearby military installation, dubbed Area 52. The Upgrade Predator then stages a daylight raid on the site to try and steal the vessel back. Some shots from this sequence appeared in the film's trailers.

Predator menagerie

Concept art of one of the deleted hybrid creatures.

In the finished film, the crashed Predator ship contains the "Predator Killer" suit, which the Fugitive Predator intends to give to humans to help them fight off a planned Predator invasion. However, in the original cut the ship instead contained a collection of genetically engineered Yautja hybrid creatures that the Upgrade Predator intended to unleash upon humanity; the Fugitive steals the ship to try and prevent this, but is shot down in the process and crashes on Earth. Among the specific hybrids mentioned in either the script or early test screenings are the Gekko Predator, Harpee Predator, Preda-pede and Bull Predator, along with a spider/Predator hybrid. The creatures are each fitted with a self-destruct collar to prevent them from being recovered should they be slain.

These hybrids formed the basis of the original third act, in which the Upgrade Predator was to set them loose at Area 52 before fleeing the scene, forcing the human characters to team up and fight them.

Traeger's fate

In the original cut of the film, Traeger was killed by a sniper under the command of General Woodhurst once the Upgrade Predator gets aboard the Ark, with Woodhurst then introducing himself to the main characters as the leader of Stargazer. However, with the removal of the Woodhurst character entirely, Traeger's fate was changed to that seen in the finished movie.

The Emissary Predators

Behind the scenes image of one of the Emissary Predators.

Another major concept removed entirely from the film were the Emissary Predators, a pair of Predators that were working with Project Stargazer against the Upgrade Predator. They were to fight alongside the Loonies during the final act.

The APC chase

Nebraska firing a .50 cal from the top of the APC.

After the Upgrade Predator escapes Area 52, a major action sequence was to take place in which the Loonies, the two Emissary Predators and several of Traeger's men set off in pursuit in a convoy of APCs, having to fight the unleashed hybrids along the way. During the scene, Nebraska would have manned a Browning M2 machine gun to fight off the attacking hybrids. Despite its removal from the finished movie, several shots from this sequence appeared in many of the film's trailers.

Coyle and Lynch's fates

Behind the scenes image of Coyle's original fate.

In the film, Lynch is killed by the Upgrade Predator when it assaults the crashed ship, while Coyle is mortally wounded during the subsequent forest battle and then mercy-killed by Baxley. However, in the original final act both men perished fighting the Predator hybrids — Lynch was killed by one of the creatures, while Coyle was slain by one of the Emissary Predators when he gets in its way.

Rory pilots the Ark/killing the hybrids

During the APC chase, Rory and Casey were to remain at Area 52 and attempt to activate the self-destruct collars on the hybrids from aboard the Ark. They eventually work out how to do this but realize the ship is out of range, and so Rory is forced to pilot the vessel so that they can catch up with the convoy. Despite his difficulty in controlling the ship, they eventually reach the APCs, at which point Casey takes the control module for the collars and ejects in an escape pod to get within rage. As soon as she is, she activates the collars and most of the remaining hybrids are killed. After Casey ejects, Rory loses control of the Ark and crashes the ship.

Casey's Predator moment

Promotional image of Casey standing by the escape pod.

After crash landing in the escape pod, Casey was to be confronted by one final hybrid that had survived its cohorts' destruction. However, as soon as it gets near her its collar would have activated, mortally wounding it, before Casey finishes it off by tearing out its spine.

Killing the Upgrade Predator

In the original version of the film, the explosives used to kill the Upgrade Predator were taken from the self-destruct collars fitted to the hybrids.

Come and get us

McKenna's challenge to the Predators.

Another signature line of dialogue seen in trailers but removed from the film was the original ending, in which McKenna looks up to the sky after the showdown with the Upgrade Predator and calls out, "So come and get us, motherfucker." This is the ending used in the novelization.

The contents of the pod

Brenna Watkins as Newt.

Among the scenes added during the post-production reshoots was the final scene introducing the Predator Killer suit. Two alternate, unused versions of this scene were also shot, each involving a different human occupant inside the Predator pod — one version had Newt in the pod, while the other featured Ellen Ripley, both of whom were hooked up to some form of breathing mask marked with the Weyland-Yutani logo (the mask obscuring their faces).