When you put the words “alien” and “badass” in a sentence, you can’t help but mention the Predator franchise. Sigourney Weaver has her aliens, no doubt, and the universe is jam-packed with worlds colliding and crossing over all the time. What makes the series about a foreign threat attacking specialized forces so iconic? The simple fact that “the best” anything does not exist, but something better can. The Predator seeks a challenge that could potentially compromise his high perch. The soldiers who face him think they have all the skills, but they quickly learn they are ill-prepared and in over their heads.
Underestimating your opponent while overestimating yourself is a dangerous game of risk you don’t want to play. Becoming new and improved is the constant, and anything worthwhile requires a needed and new direction. The Predator movies humanize the frustration and fear of adapting, changing, or something otherworldly. No matter what you’re fighting for, the fight goes on. May the better man, or Predator, win.
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7 Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) - Dallas Howard
20th Century Fox
Shot entirely in the dark, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem gives viewers a shot in the dark. A lone Predator must exterminate a hybrid creature, the Predalien, after it has destroyed his fellow hunters and left behind an infestation of Xenomorphs. Meanwhile, ex-convict Dallas Howard (Steven Pasquale) and a hodgepodge of supporting characters team up to exterminate the encroaching hordes in a small town in Colorado. Howard’s backstory has no redeeming factor or consequence for the plot. His willingness to defend against the creatures is present, but ends up being less palpable and more placeholder in this prequel to the Alien franchise.
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6 The Predator (2018) - Quinn McKenna
Boyd Holbrook plays the Army Ranger in the fourth installment of the franchise. He and his squad are saving a hostage when the Predator crash-lands his ship and interrupts the mission. The alien is temporarily incapacitated with enough time for the government to discover it carries human DNA. McKenna and his team must overcome their PTSD and fight the invaders from overthrowing Earth. Holbrook’s character is more cookie-cutter. It has that sad sarcasm customary to a soldier dealing with the troubled past, but it hits one monotone note against the loud, invasive humor.
5 Predators (2010) - Royce
Former U.S. Special Operations Forces veteran turned mercenary, Royce (Adrien Brody) is joined by the deadliest posse Earth has to offer. They were abducted by Predators to participate in their survival-of-the-fittest death match, preserving their need for hunting game. Brody’s character plays a convincing disgruntled soldier and runs a tight ship on the alien’s planet. His leadership brings fire and brimstone to the dark do-or-die dilemma.
4 Alien vs. Predator (2004) - Alexa “Lex” Woods
A film that feels like it was directed by Ancient Aliens host, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, two of the biggest movie franchises face off after what was promised with that Xenomorph skull in Predator 2. A pyramid used for human sacrifices and as a breeding ground is discovered under the icy landscape of Antarctica by an excavation team and their mountaineering guide, Alexa Woods (Sanaa Lathan). The team unleash the beasts and the two aliens have a space-age battle. Alexa has a good head on her shoulders, earns the trust of a Predator, and uses a Xenomorph exoskeleton as body armor. Alexa holds her own like an ancient warrior.
3 Prey (2022) - Naru
Hulu
Speaking of ancient warriors, the 18th century Comanche Native American warrior, Naru (Amber Midthunder) earns her stripes. She asserts herself to become a hunter in her tribe, learning the ways of survival and hunting. The way they incorporate the indigenous beliefs (Naru treating the Yautja ship lights as the Thunderbird spirit) and lay into the historical depictions (an “us versus them” and “divide and conquer” Old World mentality) is clever and just as primal as the first in the series.
2 Predator 2 (1990) - Michael R. Harrigan
Danny Glover knew when a war was coming. He plays Lieutenant Michael R. Harrigan, who faces a drug war, a turf war, and a one-man (one-alien?) war on the seedy and leveled streets of Los Angeles. The Predator watches Harrigan dispatch guerrillas and gangs on his own accord against his superiors’ protocol, marking him as a worthy opponent. The everyday man tracks down and bests the Predator despite his fear of heights for a rumble in the concrete jungle that showed everyone has a fight in themselves.
1 Predator (1987) - Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer
Mother Nature can be cruel. It can also surprise us with one ugly mother. The horrors of war, the unpredictable leg-up of technologically advanced weaponry, and the tense, watertight action make the original Predator the unequivocal champion of cutthroat trophy-hunting science fiction thrillers. Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) uses his special forces prowess from the Vietnam War to fight the extraterrestrial threat in the South American jungle. Mistakes were made, blood was shed, but natural order was restored for another 107-minute hunting season.
