Rick Hawkins

Posted by Darkness on February 18, 2021 (Updated: 08-Sep-2023)

 Rick Hawkins

Hawkins

Rick Hawkins was a soldier and part of a team of commandos. In 1987, the U.S. military and the CIA hired Dutch and his team for a rescue mission in the jungles of South America. Dutch’s team encounters a Predator who stalks them in the jungle. Hawkins was the radio operator on the team and was always making jokes. Hawkins appears in 1987’s Predator and is played by Shane Black.

Biography

Early Life

Hawkins was born in South Boston, Massachusetts. In 1980, he joined Dutch’s private military team as a radio operator and in the subsequent years, saw action in Angola, Cambodia, Lebanon and Afghanistan. They recently ended a terrorist siege at the Sudanese Embassy in Berlin, Germany. He didn’t have much combat experience as much as other members but he was an expert in radio and communications.

1987 Mission to South America

In 1987, Dutch and his squad landed on a beach in Conta Mana, Central America where Dutch met his former commanding officer General Phillips. He had hired Dutch and his team, Poncho, Billy, Mac, Blain, and Hawkins, to rescue a Guatemalan cabinet minister and his aide. They had been kidnapped by guerrillas and taken to a country in South America. Also, there was Dutch’s old friend Al Dillon. Dillon was now working for the CIA and wanted to go along with Dutch. Dutch objected at first, saying his team only worked alone but eventually agreed that Dillon could accompany them. A helicopter transported Dutch and his team into South America and dropped them off in the jungle.

 Rick Hawkins

Billy was leading the group as he was an expert tracker. Dutch’s team soon discovers the wreckage of a crashed helicopter that had been carrying the cabinet ministers. Billy soon found three skinned bodies hanging in the trees which were Green Berets out of Fort Bragg. The squad pressed on to the guerrilla camp where a number of hostages were being held. The team launched their assault on the camp, killing almost everybody except a woman called Anna who is taken prisoner. Hawkins used the radio to learn that a bigger rebel force was closing in on their position.

Dutch and his squad make their way to the extraction point unaware they are being tracked by an unidentified creature. Billy is the first member to realise something is out there in the jungle that isn’t human. Anna attempts to escape but is caught by Hawkins. The Predator spares Anna but kills Hawkins and drags his body away. We see Hawkins’ corpse hanging from a tree.

Personality and Traits

Hawkins probably stands out the most from the soldiers in Dutch’s team as he was the only member to be wearing glasses. He often made crude jokes in an attempt to make Billy laugh which succeeded in the end. As we saw in the helicopter, he does have fast reflexes. When he was reading a comic book, Poncho threw something at him which he caught immediately.

 Rick Hawkins

Hawkins seemed to treat Anna with a lot more respect than other members of the team. When he stopped her from escaping, it was clear he didn’t want to get too physical with her and tried to calm her down carefully.

Behind-The-Scenes

Shane Black had just finished writing Lethal Weapon when he asked producer Joel Silver for a small acting role in Predator. Black was really brought on the film to do some script rewrites but Black ended up only improvising his jokes. He refused to do full rewrites to the script as he said he was on the film as an actor, not as a writer. According to producer John Davis, he implied that this was the reason he was killed quite early in the film.

To make his character stand out, they gave Black some wire-rim glasses and a red beret. Black said you don’t really wear a beret in the jungle and glasses weren’t really suitable for a soldier. So Black got rid of the beret but kept the glasses.

 Rick Hawkins

Hawkins figure.

Merchandise

NECA released an exclusive 7″ Hawkins figure for  SDCC 2018 in July 2018.

Trivia

  • Hawkins is the first person in the Predator film series to be killed by a Predator.
  • Shane Black is better known in Hollywood as a writer/director rather than as an actor.
  • Shane Black co-wrote and directed the 2018’s The Predator.
  • The comic book Hawkins is seen reading in the film’s credits is Sgt. Rock #408 (February 1986). At the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to a Sgt. Rock film which is why the comics were on set.
  • In AvP Requiem, one of the graves in the graveyard scene has the name Hawkins written on it.
  • Hawkins was known as Dillon in early drafts of the script. Another character was called Hawkins who was killed during the assault on the rebel camp.

Gallery

Hawkins Hawkins
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Comments: 1
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