Quote from: AlienatedPredator on Aug 04, 2010, 12:59:41 PM
So, this has probably been discussed a few times but I watched the movie yesterday for the first time in awhile and was wondering about the frenzied slaughter of humans by the predators:
1. On the surface they walk into the building and just start laying waste to the team. Theory: an homage to the Predator 2 penthouse scene; or standard operating procedure (no humans alive on surface to muck things up), or working up some bloodlust in preparation for facing the aliens? Also, in the flashback from 1904, the UNARMED whaler was about to be killed by a predator. Theory: no witnesses? If they're so concerned about wtinesses, why have the hunts on earth?
2. At some point in the movie, the predators somehow know that enough people had been face-hugged to supply game for all 3 of them (how convenient Alexa chose to leave some in the sacrificial chamber 
); so they systematically go about killing the rest of the team and would have succeeded if Grid hadn't interrupted them. Theory: all humans are potential aliens so must be eliminated (but they didn't seem to operate that way in the flashback scenes and Scar was going to let Weyland live even though he was a potential host). Or, they were just pissed because their plasmacasters had been taken (but Sebastian said they had to kill an alien first BEFORE getting to use the casters, big contradiction)
3. It appears Scar was going to let Lex live even before she killed the alien (again, she was a potential host which contradicts the reasons in the theory from point 2)
So, are there cameras in place all over the pyramid that enable the predators to see what's going on inside - specifically, the sacrificial chamber? Sorry for the rambling nature of this post.
1) The humans are guarding the entrance to the pyramid and they're armed. That's pretty much the beginning and the end of it. The humans are directly in their way, so clearly it's wise to just eliminate them. Makes for an easier exit later, too, if you don't have to worry about the armed humans up top as you leave. After all, who knows if you'll be sprinting away from the temple later and have little time to concern yourself with such things?
2) Sebastian never actually states that they have to kill an alien before getting their guns. I do believe they only targeted the humans to get their guns, but it could also be a way of keeping down the alien population. Consider this...
- The Predators can use wrist computers to scan and see heat signatures in the temple. We see them do this. How they can do this? I don't know. It's unclear, but we see them do it, so they DO know where the humans are (although heat scans wouldn't know them where the aliens are, obviously).
- The minute the Predators see the humans step onto the floor panel that wakes up the queen down below, they start running. Where are they in a hurry to go? Why would that make them rush? Well, I think the hunt ritual seems to have some clear stages to it. The heat bloom starts up some of the machinery in the temple, and humans come to the site to investigate. Once the machinery gears up, the Predators are well on their way to Earth. They fire off the laser that cuts through the ice (this seems to be automated), then drop themselves on the site. (Do they wait until humans travel towards the temple, or do they just go because "it's time" - i.e., it's been 100 years? It's not clear.) The Predators arrive, but don't seem to be in a HURRY until the floor panel is stepped on by humans who enter the temple. At this point, the whole waking-the-queen-and-churning-out-eggs thing starts up. This is when they start running... Where to? Probably to get their guns, I assume. So...
- Heat bloom appears from machinery in temple
- Humans arrive, laser fired off, Predators dropped
- Wen the floor panel starts up the egg-process, the Predators are THEN free to head into the temple and try to get their guns.
- Once they reach the gun chamber, anything goes. Kill any/all aliens that may or may not have been born, mark self, get out alive, win.
I think that's roughly the structure of the ritual.
3) Debatable... who knows? Maybe he would've, maybe he wouldn't have, it probably didn't matter because he knew he was going to blow the whole place up by that point. Why would he have already decided that, you ask? Because he knew he was dead - by the time he meets Lex he's already been impregnated, so I'm sure by then he's already planned to just nuke the whole goddamn site. And if he's gonna do that, Lex being alive or dead becomes a lot less important anyway.
