It’s no secret than an early draft of The Predator had been making its way around behind closed doors over the last few years. Now that the film’s theatrical release has come and gone and the film is available on home release, we’ve now uploaded the script into our downloads section.
This particular draft is dated April 17, 2016 and is noted as a revised draft. It’s currently unknown just how many drafts of The Predator have been completed but this particular draft features, among many other things, the Emissary Predators and Edward James’ Olmos’ General Woodhurst.
You can also check out scripts for the rest of the Alien and Predator films, including 3 scripts for Alien: Covenant, in our Downloads section. Head on over and give them a read!
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All said, this script runs more like a fan fic than anything else.
Damn shame, I can see what seller was trying to do, misguided as it is in hindsight but I'm buggered if I know what the hell Black was thinking, both this script and the final film are rampantly out of control
predators vs Samurais for example
Ah, so it was.
A Predator ship crashlands in an unlikely location for a Pred hunt. A naive wide eyed UFO chaser who thinks they're going to meet up with E.T. gets mixed up with the shell shocked survivor of a Predator looking for revenge, while the military also tries to capture the Predator. Keep the themes of from the first three movies, but flip the script because now the Predator is the one being hunted and its more dangerous than any before because now there are no rules. The gloves are off.
But no we got Monster Squad by way of MCU crap.
Twasn't directed at you. Just a general comment.
Either Fred Dekker just turns everything he touches to crap or Shane Black lost whatever talent he had in the eighties.
You've just given me a 2010 throwback.
Both PREDATORS and A-Team (2010 remake) were both released Summer of 2010.
Good times.
D-Movie A Team.
I will say the predator plot makes predator's plot seem way better when you go back and watch it..
I can see it.
(Would have preferred a movie with a Long Kiss Goodnight feel over a Nice Guys feel, but that's just me...)
That's essentially the formula that he did.
The Predator's production.
It's just gas.
He took (any) criticism of the movie as a personal attack. Unless you 100% worshipped it, he became militant about the issue. He said he was going to screen write for a movie and that was the last I heard from him before a public meltdown about me posting the article where Decker called fans toxic (without specifying there were ones who weren't). He went absolutely Nuclear.
Oh man, LMAO, if they think this is a "toxic" forum, when is actually one of the best in every aspect, that person is gonna get a heart attack if goes to a place like reddit.
Which could've been so more effective in a better film.
Perhaps if we gave a shit about who's blood it was.
Exactly !
It's such a great idea on so many levels.
There was a few good directing moments though, along with a few really cool ideas
No insult was implied to anyone Hicks.
sense that the re-shoots managed to remove.
But the tone was all over the place even in the script.
I was hopeful that the final product was gonna be better (it was an early draft, after all).. but...no.
It didn't help that the directing and cinematography was... bad and TV-like.
That all the new designs done for the film felt generic
and uninspired and like something out of a cheap looking Marvel Tv Show.
Predator Killer endings felt like a desperate attempt by Fox at getting their own MCU going.
A bad job all around. Ridiculous film.
Oh Freddy Boy, the fans, the fans aren't toxic
From site to site across the galaxy
The deed is done, the script defied all logic
The fault's not ours, it solely lies with thee
Wat. That's some low standards. Things are quite calm in here, next to some other sites.
A certain Predator themed phone application.
Yep.
Spoiler
I wish i could "like" this comment. But there was people defending this? Really? I though the consensus was that the movie was awful right from the script.
What an embarrassing piece of trash. For everyone involved, including its defenders.
I can definately say that was a better movie than the one we got. I think the reshoots were more to do with budget and projected budget to finish effect shots than "audience feedback". I'd say to complete effects for certain scenes including the APC chase (which involved being chased on a road by escaped "Hybrids" exactly as described in leaked ADI images) the Taco stand shoot-out and AREA-52 Starship Trooper-esque/Zulu seige they were looking at another $50 million.
Nowhere was there the night-time "crash landing site" standoff and woodland battle with Upgrade PREDATOR with it being set on fire or the Traeger's and McKenna's men team-up. That was a complete reshoot as Traeger's original death was a mere sniper bullet headshot.
The said Taco Stand shoot-out, Seige at Area 52 with "Ark Hybrids" Emissary Predator and APC to escape the carnage of Hybrids, jeep crashes and Rory "commandeering" the upgrade PREDATOR's ship Flight of the Navigator style (using autism to pilot the ship) happen:
- After the "Traeger and Mercs Barn interrogation of McKenna and Casey" complete with pred-dog with a grenade fetched in its mouth, right up until we see Upgrade running off with Rory to his ship to put him in the capsule.
Ideas and lines of dialogue are more fleshed out
The opening scene shows the PREDATOR homeplanet in a pre-apocalyptic state and the (unfilmed) "ARK" being towed by cables in space "rather than dogfight". We are mesmerised by cargo rather than PREDATOR infighting.
Page 78 the spinal fluid McGuffin is described at the "Barn- Farmyard" scene page 78 (rather than Project Stargazer) between McKenna and Casey (Munn). She says spinal fluid to predator's is like a drug that effects their own reptilian part of their brain within the cerebellum which is attached to a spine. Which also goes into the foreshadowed (but scrapped) hybridisation sub-plot.
The PREDATOR's primal urge to hunt and survive merges with a human's at a reptilian level.
This exchange is more fleshed out and explained than the throwaway Traeger Casey dialogue of the much earlier scene in the final movie "did someone f**k an alien?"
Predator dogs more gory and scene where one of Tragers men mauled by two of them. But other than that identical in the script to the final movie, where even the script has the "labotamised" pred-dog who becomes a walking kit bag, reoccuring comic relief.
After the "barn interrogation" page 103 is where Taco stand shoot-out in Florida to find the "Ark" with hybrids.
Pages 107-120 is the Emissary Predator's introduction at Area 52, reveal of Hybrid Spiders, predator monkeys etc and swinging blue monkey predator's.
Some other notable key differences between the script and the final movie that run parallel but were scaled back or slimed down due to complexity or budget costs against ambitious concepts. Overall the movie is exactly the same as the script, but misses key scene due to (I'd say) budget issues mid-filming.
- I feel the night-time Upgrade PREDATOR battle crash site filmed to replace APC "break-out" was reeled in cause it required less special effects.
- The opening crash scene took place at a Drug Cartel's mansion in Cuba rather than South America, with the mansion (rather than a telecommunication tower) getting wiped out. There was a scene where it was inferred the PREDATOR slained cartel's private army off-screen but heard.
- No (controversal) use of photo stills from previous PREDATOR movies. Instead "helicopter footage of a PREDATOR causing carnage at (non filmed) crash site with Cuban drug lords in Cuba rather than hostage exchange.
- Rory's Halloween segment it was infered he did intend to destroy the stoner's house, killing occupants, with the helmet as he conciously controlled the thing and it was revenge for being intimidated rather than "accident". This also was an early inference that he could control PREDATOR tech.
- Jake Busey's character Keyes was NOT in the script- instead a generic scientist called Cowell
- Page 33 there was mention by Rorry's Mum of "Frankenstein meets Wolfman" as a potential "easter egg" during (Frankenstein or Pirate). As you know Frankenstein Meets Wolfman was a 1943 early "vs" movie and the ALIEN VS PREDATOR of it's day. Great idea for a movie but disappointing critical response. Critics used this 1943 movie to crticise AVP-2004 upon release.
- Page 34 the PREDATOR mask is described as "classic design (sic) as seen in five seperate films". Speaking of which multiple humans don captured PREDATOR masks.
- Edward James Olmos "General Woodhurst" character was there to confirm that Traeger's character was a renegade and a rogue character acting arbitrary from the US Government, citing "not declaring live capture and escape of "fugative" predator. This impartiality character is how McKenna and the Loonies were able to access Area 52 and meet the Emissary predator's who could speak broken english (kind of like fugative who used voice activation at Project Stargazer to open the door).
- Rory's character is more fleshed out to the point where it kind of makes sense why upgrade PREDATOR wanted "spectrum learning". There is a fierce debate in real-life about whether spectrum learning is high intelligence or a disability that hinders an otherwise functioning person. A movie like THE PREDATOR was probably not the best platform for this discussion, especially as multiple lines were cut, but they did try........
- Oh and there was no PREDATOR killer ending or "capsules" or McKenna taking over Project Stargazer or ALIENS references. It was
Spoiler
That's about it.
Anymore detail you might as well read the script.