Predator Equipment

Cloak Generator

The Predator uses its cloak in every movie. The cloak generator is another useful piece of equipment. It allows the Predator to become invisible to humans at will. It’s not total invisibility, however, the device more or less bends light and you can see a silhouette when the cloaked Predator is in motion. It sorta looks like a heat wave effect. The cloak also doesn’t work when the Predator comes in to contact with water. As seen in the picture below, the Predator was following Dutch and ends up in the water. This causes blue sparks to appear and disables the cloak temporarily. In Predator 2, the Predator comes after King Willy in the alley way and walks through puddles. This causes blue sparks to appear and disables the cloak temporarily. The cloak didn’t manage to fool Keyes’ team in Predator 2 either. Keyes managed to capture video footage which showed the cloaked Predator through pheromones.

In AvP and AvP Requiem, the cloak has no effect on aliens making them easily vulnerable. The Cloak Device is also able to cloak weapons – even spears that are being thrown… at least for a little while. In AvP, on the surface, when one Predator was fighting the mercenaries, he threw a cloaked spear at one of them and after a few seconds it materialised. In AvP Requiem, you can see the cloak in use throughout the film. When the Predator exits the ship when he arrives on Earth, you can see the water disrupting the cloak.

In Predators, The Berserker Predators have an improved version of the cloak generator. It appeared to be more resistant to damage than the Classic Predator’s cloak generator. For example, when Mr. Black ran into Classic, blue sparks appeared on the Classic Predator but this did not happen with Mr. Black. Also, when Nikolai shot at the cloaked Tracker Predator at point blank-range with a pistol, the cloak was not disabled. The effect of the Berserker Predators decloaking is slightly different in that they shimmer into view.

Medi-Kit

The Medi-Kit is carried by Predators in case it gets injured. The kit seen in the first Predator movie comprises of numerous tools like instruments and powders which helps the Predator to heal a bullet wound in its leg. From what I can gather, it contains one shrapnel extractor, two wound clamps, one stimulant shot, and one tube of antiseptic.

The Predator in Predator 2 has a much bigger medi-kit than seen in the first movie. The medic kit includes surgical blades, a shrapnel extractor, wound clamps, a spatula, a burner for melting medicine, 2 vials of medicine, a needle and an emergency breathing mask. In the screenshot below you can see the burner dish. In the film, after the Predator loses an arm, it gets out the medi-kit. It fires up the burner and crushes up the bits from the mirror and the tiles into the burner. The silicon from the mirror and the limestone from the tiles combined with the glowing blue liquid it pours on, form some kind of biological mortar. This can be used by the Predator to patch up almost any wound – even his severed arm. The Predator then uses the needle to inject himself in the stomach. I assume this contains another form of medicine. The Medi-Kit was also featured in AvP Requiem. Wolf uses it to heal himself when he’s in the cemetery.

Mask

Vision Modes

The vision modes vary greatly from movie to movie. All the way through the first movie, the main vision was infrared vision which allowed it see anything that was hot. Blue means its cold whereas red obviously means something is hot. The vision mode also allows the Predator’s shoulder cannon to focus on a moving target (which displays a red triangle) for improved accuracy. In addition to that, the vision modes allows the Predator to zoom right in on a target. The Predator’s natural vision can be seen in the picture below. This is what the Predator sees when it takes off its mask to fight against Dutch.

Predator

Predator

Predator 2 introduced four additional vision modes for the Predator as well as the standard infrared vision. What these vision modes are exactly is based purely on speculation. They were all used in the meat locker to find Keyes’ team. Another point to make is that in Predator 1, when the Predator removed his mask, his natural vision was red. In Predator 2, when Harrigan removes the Predator’s mask, the Predator still sees in the regular infrared vision. This is commonly believed to be a film-making error though. In the screenshot below, we can see the regular infrared vision. The lamps in the room show up as heat spots. I’m not entirely sure what vision it is in the screenshot below. The lamps seem to be highlighted in red while everything else is in blue. The next vision mode seems to show metal objects a lot clearer. As you can see below, a lot of the machinery can be made out. I’m not sure what vision mode appears below but one possibility is that it detects radioactivity. If that were true though, why is the orange area located around the middle while two of the corners have dark patches? The final fifth screenshot is ultraviolet as the light from the UV torches show up in this vision mode. The Predator’s hands also shows up when he looks at them and he realises that his cloak is ineffective because of the radioactive dust in the room.

Predator 2

In AvP, for some reason the thermal vision has been changed to red/orange. From the story’s aspect, maybe this was because they were teenagers therefore had different vision modes to older Predators. From a technical aspect, the director changed it because it ‘looked cooler’. Aliens don’t give off any heat so the Predators in AvP have a new vision mode for them. Interestingly, in the video games, the vision mode is known as electromagnetic and it’s red. In AvP, the vision mode highlights aliens in green with a black background making them easy to spot. Also interestingly, Predators themselves can be seen in both the red thermal vision and the Alien green vision. Perhaps a director’s oversight. In the video games, the Predators have a new vision mode for seeing other Predators called Pred-Tech.

On top of these two visions, the Predators also have two more, possibly even a third one. When the Scar Predator picks up Weyland, he looks at his body. He switches from the red thermal vision, to a yellow/green vision which makes his skeleton more clearer. The Predator looks down at Weyland’s body and it’s now a blue vision mode and slightly pink behind his rib cage. And yet another vision mode or a slightly different variant of the previous one, the Predator can tell where the cancer in Weyland has spread as seen in red behind his rib cage.

Following on from Weyland, later in the film, Scar uses his vision modes on Sebastian. The first one is probably the same as the one he used on Weyland. He appears as a blue skeleton but you can seen body organs in pink. He switches to the alien vision or perhaps a variant of that. The chestburster can clearly be seen in green but the human’s skeleton is blue. Does that mean human skeletons appear as blue in alien vision or is it a slightly different variant of it?

AvP

In AvP Requiem, the Wolf Predator uses four different vision modes. There’s the standard blue thermal which is similar to the one in Predator 1 and 2. This makes it easy to spot humans. Then there’s the standard Alien vision which is similar to AvP’s alien vision. Aliens are shows in green but the Predalien is shown in yellow. When the Wolf Predator is in the sewer that shows the tunnel structure of the sewer and each laser trap he places. Lastly, he has a vision mode for detecting where the Aliens have gone.

AvP Requiem

The vision of the new Berserker Predators are extremely similar to the regular Predators. Like them, the Berserker Predators use the standard infrared as well as two additional vision modes. Another point to make is that we also see the natural vision of the Berserker Predators as well, which again, is similar to the regular Predators. In the first screenshot, we can see the standard blue/red infrared vision which all three Berserker Predators use. Notice that the overall look of the vision is the same. For example blue means its cold and red means it’s hot. However, there are noticeable differences. For one the images are a lot sharper and there is a higher contrast. This makes the overall image appear clearer. The Berserker Predators infrared vision mode also displays a red triangle to lock onto targets. Finally, like the regular Predators, the vision mode allows the Berserker Predators to zoom in on an object or target.

The next three shots show the vision used when the Falconer Predator tracks his prey.  From what can be seen it acts as a chemical-sensor and picks up pheromones from where the prey has been i.e. their tracks. The next screenshot shows what the Berserker Predators natural vision looks like. This is what Mr. Black sees when he takes off his mask after decapitating the Classic Predator. Notice that the image is a lot sharper and higher in contrast than the natural vision of the regular Predator seen in the original film. The last screenshot shows the final green vision mode that is used by Mr. Black in the final battle and this vision mode is used to detect vibrations and process them into a distorted image. The sound-detecting mechanisms of this vision mode are shown to be extremely accurate as it is shown detecting and processing vibrations as small as those of a heart beat.

Predators

Audio Analyser

It is seen throughout the movie that the Predator can record voices or sounds it hears and can play them back at any given time. It should be noted that at the end of the movie, when the Predator activates its self-destruct device, it starts laughing or recalls Billy’s laugh without the aid of its mask. This suggests that either this was an error by the filmmakers or the Predator can learn how to make the sounds/voices by himself. In Predator 2, the Predator can play these voices back without the need of its mask. This was evident in the meat locker when Harrigan removed its mask. Harrigan stares at the Predator and says “You’re one ugly mother…” and the Predator regains consciousness and says “…motherf**ker”.

Like the regular Predators from Predator and Predator 2, the Berserker Predators could also record and play back voices. These are also displayed on the vision mode when it is being recorded. The Berserker Predators use the play-back voices to great effect, for example leaving a dead Cuchillo in the middle of a field surrounded with hidden traps, and almost fooling the humans into believing that he was injured and needed help. It is unknown however if the Berserker Predators are also able to play back these voices without the need for their mask like the regular Predators as it was never shown.

The Red Laser

Another feature is the red laser which is beamed from the mask when the Predator locks onto a target within close range. The laser is used with the shoulder cannon for improved accuracy. It can also be used to heat things up and this was shown towards the end of the original Predator when the Predator heats up his wristblades read for battle. The laser features in every Predator movie. In Predators, the creatures also possibly use it to scan objects that is displayed in their vision modes. It’s never really seen, just implied.

Breathing

The last feature of the mask is that it helps the Predator to breathe. It can obviously breathe somewhat in our atmosphere without the mask which suggests the Predator breathes oxygen. Maybe the mask acts as a cleanser or purifier for breathing. (In the comics, the mask adds methane for breathing though this is not canon). This, however, is backed up in Predator 2 when the Predator is on the apartment block just before he falls off. It uses an emergency breathing mask which suggests that it can’t survive too long without traces of something. In this case, it appears the comics could be right about the methane.

Predator

Predator 2

Armour & Weapons Against Acid

In AvP, it’s worth noting that the three Predators’ armour or weapons aren’t resistant to Aliens’ acid. This is proven in the Grid Alien vs Celtic Predator fight. The Celtic Predator cuts part of the Alien’s tail off causing his wristblades to melt. The same thing happens to his armour a little later. It’s pretty strange that Predators have been visiting this place for hundreds of years and they don’t even have acid resistant weaponry. Of course, this could be put down to the fact they were teenagers and the right of passage was supposed to be really difficult. A little too difficult if you ask me.

AvP

Collecting Syringe

In order to effectively search the escapee Facehuggers, Wolf takes a sample of liquid from a smashed stasis tube using a never before seen syringe. After injecting it into his wrist computer, he can then see the Facehugger tracks in the surrounding environment. This search eventually leads him to the sewer’s where the Facehugger have begun breeding.

AvP Requiem

Holographics

The Predators are seen to have advanced red holographic images appearing from their wrist equipment. The Celtic Predator uses this feature when the humans take the shoulder cannons. The holographic contains real-time 3d mapping. How this is done, I’m not sure. In Predators, the Classic Predator uses his wrist computer and shows Royce a holograph of a planetary system.

AvP

Predators

Power Glove

The Power Glove is seen in AvP Requiem. In order to get through tough obstacles and stay one step ahead of the Alien’s, Wolf uses a new addition to Predator equipment the ‘power glove’. This glove which is fused just under the wrist computer can smash it’s way through just about anything, allowing Wolf to quickly get back on track on his pursuit of the Alien hoard.

AvP Requiem

Mechanical Falcon

The mechanical falcon is a new addition to Predators, and is used only by the Falconer Predator, hence its name. It’s not really a falcon but rather a small reconnaissance that the Falconer Predator uses to spy on its prey. It is presumably connected to the Falconer Predator’s vision mode allowing him to see what the falcon sees. It may serve a similar purpose to shoulder cannons as well because during the first battle that took place in the hunting camp; three red lasers were seen targeting the humans. Also the falcon sits in place where the shoulder cannon should be on Falconer’s left shoulder. Overall, the falcon makes a brief appearance in two noticeably scenes.

Predators

Predators