Wrist blade potential

[Predator755]

As one of the Predator's signature weapons, I want to establish an idea of just how hard, sharp, resiliant, and powerful they are. Some stuff might not classify as cannon though (If its published I ususally consider it cannon myself, unless I really hate it )

In Dark River (This one I despise for its plot, sorry) the Predator was able to punch through 2 inches of APC armor plate with its blades and cleaved through one of the guys skulls. Only part I liked in that entire comic!

In Predator Race War, I really enjoyed how the coroner describes the injuries on the first prison victim, Towers.
"The killer knew what he was doing. Didnt waste and strokes. Three cuts, maybe four-- That's all it took to remove Tower's skull and spinal column. See how the cut marks match both sides of the spine? Some kind of doublebladed instrument was used. This wasnt done with a sharpened file. The instrument that cut Tower's open sliced through his ribs like they were butter. Notice I said sliced, not sawed. I dont even know of anything sharp enough to do that. And even if I did, I can only guess at the strength it would take to cut through 13 pairs of ribs with one swipe."
Little quote from him that I found very informational.
Not to mention earlier the predator had extended only one of his blades and cut right through one of the bars on the cell gate. I dont know too much about metal resistance, but that is significant by any means! You cant cut through something like that with ease, even with an ascetaline torch (Spelling?). In case youre wonder, yes, I have used one of those. Very awesome!

And its no surprise that the things cut through flesh so easily, so I dont consider that so significant. But cutting through metal with ease is!

Any other ideas or opinions?

[Xenomrph]

Well cutting through flesh and bone is impressive if the blade doesn't have to saw through it. Most blades tend to saw through the bone, which leaves distinctive patterns behind on the bone. If someone told me that the person was cut through without any sawing, my first thought would be "the guy used a high-quality katana". But once you realize that it's two parallel cuts made with 2 blades, that's when it gets quite a bit weirder.

[gameoverman]

It's a stabbing weapon, not a slicing weapon..  The jagged edge is for causing damage to internal organs once it's pulled backwards out of the victim.

[Xenomrph]

It's certainly a slicing weapon as well if the Predators use it to remove the skull and spinal column. In fact, that's probably specifically why it's two parallel blades that are just wide enough to remove the spine of just about anything.

[Layorz]

Thats assuming every species they hunt has the same anatomy and skeletal structure as everything else.

[Xenomrph]

Well it's a pretty safe bet that a lot of things they hunt would have a skeletal structure like that; essentially all Earth-bound creatures with an internal skeleton and a skull do, at least. Predators themselves do, too.

Even if other creatures they hunt don't, it's still a very convenient setup for their wristblades (especially when hunting humans) and we know they use them for both slicing and stabbing.

[Jango1201]

It's certainly a slicing weapon as well if the Predators use it to remove the skull and spinal column. In fact, that's probably specifically why it's two parallel blades that are just wide enough to remove the spine of just about anything.

Now for something cannon. In Predator the first movie when the predator corners Dutch his wrist blades expand wide enough to suround his neck. I would assume this suggests some prey may have wider spines or something else.

[Xenomrph]

That part was always really goofy - you can see how the metal basically "splits" to accommodate Dutch's neck, and I always thought it looked retarded.
Maybe it'd have been better had we actually seen the wristblades split wider or something before Dutch was pinned, but as it is in the movie we've got wristblades of one width in one frame, and in the next they can suddenly fit wider. It looks really lame.

[Master Chief]

Of course.  It shows that there is an extension for the blades inside of the gauntlet, specifically designed to pin something down without killing it.  It looks good to me.

[Xenomrph]

I think it'd have worked better had we seen the wrist blades extend and widen on-camera, rather than just *suddenly* be wider.

Think of it like the bit in 'AvP' where the Celtic Predator switches his wristblades around so he can cut the Alien's tail off - it'd have been SUPER-goofy if all of a sudden his wristblades were backwards, and then suddenly switched back after he cut the tail off. Since we see the wristblades switch around, though, it works just fine.

[Jango1201]

I understand what your getting at, but mayby there just wasent a need for it on camera in the directors eyes. Probably one of those "I hope the audience will understand what I'm trying to achieve." But its there clear as day and it leaves us with something to speculate.

[The G-man]

I just think that the fact we didn't see the wristblades expand in pred 1, simply to keep the act of surprise, to scare us for the fact that all of a sudden the predator was there to finish Dutch off.


If they would show the scene where his wristblades expand, it would take too long and we wouldn't be scared/surprised anymore

[Xenomrph]

Well in that case, maybe if we saw the wristblades retract back to the "normal" position after it pinned Dutch, it'd make more sense.

[n3m0]

next scene we do see whristblades retracting... camera actually focuses on that action
it looks pretty much like normal retracting  but i think sound is bit different (mighty be wrong)

[Xenomrph]

Well that was my point, that it's like a normal retraction. If we'd seen it retract from the wacky wider setup we saw used to pin Dutch, it would have made more sense.