Predator 2

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Template:Infobox Film Predator 2 (1990) is a science fiction movie starring Danny Glover. It is a sequel to the successful Predator which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Apart from suit actor Kevin Peter Hall, the film had an all new cast. The movie was poorly received upon release when compared with the original, although the audience for it has grown since with video and DVD.

Taglines:

• Silent. Invisible. Invincible. He's in town with a few days to kill.
• Hunting season opens again …
• The Ultimate Hunter.
• This time he's coming to a different kind of jungle.
• This Time … Los Angeles, 1997.

Plot

The film is set in 1997 in an unusually high heat wave in Los Angeles coincides with a street war between rival drug gangs armed with military-grade weapons (Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels). A gang war has erupted in the streets after the uncovering of a drug run, with cop Leona (Maria Conchita Alonso) and Danny Archuleta (Ruben Blades) awaiting the aid of professional and hard-trained cop Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover). After an intense firefight between cops and criminals, the injured are rescued from the crossfire, which leads to the criminals withdrawing into a nearby building, where they have set up a supply area and intend to load up. A series of explosions rocks the inside of the building, followed with random gunfire. Harrigan investigates, only to find all but one of the criminals dead, but with no bullet wounds. The last criminal falls to his death, and Harrigan leaves the site with his comrades, but not before witnessing a silhouette among the air of a large person, which he disregards as an effect of the intense heat wave.

Back at the station, Harrigan is introduced to Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) of a federal task force, who appears to be investigating on rumors that members of the Jamaican drug lords aiming to take over the west coast. Later, he is also introduced to a star-transer from another district, Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton), whose carefree attitude coupled with his competence as a cop makes him a valued, if sometimes annoying, ally.

As Jamaican criminals attack at key honchos of the Colombian drug gangs (possibly as retribution from members killed by the Predator that are blamed on them), the Predator takes advantage of a situation and kills every Jamaican criminal on the site, leaving only a prostitute there, who is discovered, repeatedly murmuring "The devil came and took them" in Spanish . Harrigan, having disobeyed orders pending Keyes' overseeing of the incident, is threatened by the federal agent, telling him he is in over his head. Harrigan tells his comrade Danny they will come back later to investigate when no one is around, to retrieve what they think is a speartip of some sort. Danny gets there first, however, and upon retrieving the item, is killed by the Predator.

Harrigan is devastated. He vows to destroy the person responsible for his friend's death, with Leona and Lambert aiding him. He encounters Keyes again, this time threatening him to stay out of his way. Keyes only responds by telling Harrigan that he still has no idea what he's facing. They see a medical consultant, the lead pathologist in the city (although she was left out of the incidents entirely), to explain the origins of the spear tip; she is only able to tell the team that Danny was killed by a killing blow to his heart, boned like a fish, and that the spear tip's molecular structure does not correspond with the elemental table, although it is nearly weightless and cuts like fine steel. Harrigan then manages to set up a meeting with King Willy, the Jamaican drug lord leading the Voodoo Gang. Willy seems to be slightly insane, but insists that the man killing everybody is not of this world, speculating he is some demon, and that he cannot be killed. Harrigan leaves, and Willy is killed by the Predator as well.

Leona believes that the person responsible for the killings is aiming for Harrigan, if only for the fact that Danny was killed only minutes before Harrigan arrived, and that King Willy was murdered only minutes after Harrigan left. She and Jerry are again with the medical officer, who tells Harrigan that the special task force (who incidentally took the surviving prostitute from the gang murder site) deleted everything from the database, except for a piece of evidence that suggests strongly that whoever killed Danny had only recently been in a slaughterhouse. Jerry reveals that it is in that very district that he lost Keyes while trying to track his movements. Harrigan tells them he'll meet up with her and Jerry, pausing in front of a taxidermy shop; perhaps for a moment, Harrigan realizes what he is facing, but it passes. He visits Danny's grave, and upon leaving, finds Danny's necklace on a tree branch (perhaps a challenge from the Predator, although some believe it was a sign of respect).

Meanwhile, as Jerry and Leona make their way to Harrigan, a group of thugs threaten a man, who pulls out a gun. The thugs also produce firearms, as well as half the people in the car, including Jerry and Leona. During a pause in which trigger-fingers are itchy, the Predator attacks. Leona manages to make it past the hunter and push everybody to the forward cars, while Lambert stays behind to battle the Predator. As the subway stops, Leona doubles back to check up on Lambert, only to find that Jerry is dead, and encounters the Predator, who scans her body closely with infrared technology.

Harrigan arrives on the scene and catches wind that Leona is alive but also pregnant. She is taken away. Harrigan meets with another cop, who tells him about the attack. Harrigan concludes inwardly that only people who were brandishing weapons were attacked. He runs down the tunnel that the train came from, just in time to witness the Predator rip Jerry's skull and spine from his body. Harrigan pursues the being by car, only to be stunned and captured by the special task force team led by Keyes.

Keyes reveals his agenda: Black Ops have been following encounter sites of the titular alien Predator-race, trying to find out more about them in the hopes of capturing and studying it. The government is well aware of the situation that occurred in the first film. It has theorized that Predators come from an environment with a much higher temperature (and favor areas of conflict, where their activities can go relatively unnoticed), thus explaining this preference for hunting in LA during the summer. Armed with suits which block out body heat (which is one of the ways the Predator sees), and with weaponry that is intended to freeze and immobilize the creature, they go in to capture him.

However, the Predator has the ability to see in several different spectrums, including one that allows him to track the presence of light fixtures carried by the agents. The Predator uses his advantage and kills everyone except Keyes, as Harrigan escapes custody and arms himself with as much as he can carry. After Keyes is killed, the Predator flees, followed closely by Harrigan, who manages to use the Predator's smartdisk to deactivate the alien's explosive device and sever his arm. The pursuit ends underground, onboard an alien ship.

Upon this vessel, the two have a final battle that ends with Harrigan's use of the smartdisk to kill the Predator. After this, Harrigan becomes aware that there are other Predators onboard, and challenges them as well—but they do not attack. Instead, they take their fallen comrade's body away, and the elder of this tribe gives Harrigan an antique pistol inscribed "Raphael Adolini 1715", evidencing that the Predators had long been visiting Earth to kill for sport.

A Predator comic book story by Dark Horse Comics entitled Predator: 1718 retcons the pistol as belonging to a pirate captain who, as he dies, gifts it to a Predator.

New facts about Predators

Predator 2 established several new facts about the Predators, and actually painted them in a somewhat less harsh light than the previous film. The Predators are something of a noble hunter, and as a code they refuse to hunt or kill any unarmed, ill, or pregnant prey. Also, at the end of the film, after Glover chases the alien back to his spaceship and kills him, he comes face to face with a dozen more Predators as they decloak and surround him. Presumably because their comrade was defeated in a fair match, they let the human leave while attending to the dead Predator, even giving him a trophy in honor of his victory.

At the end of the movie, a Xenomorph skull can be seen in the Predator's trophy collection. In retrospect this could have appeared to be a hint for the upcoming sequel, Alien vs. Predator, but the movie had been made fourteen years prior to AvP. Many people including the writers of Predator 2 believed that Stan Winston indeed put the Alien head in the Predators' skull collection to intentionally connect the two franchises, both owned by 20th Century Fox. However, the first appearance of the mixed franchises, the first comic of Alien vs. Predator, was released by Dark Horse Comics in November 1989, a year before Predator 2 was released.

Also, it is seen that the Predator featured in Predator 2 is somewhat different from that in the first movie, although not just in appearance alone. This Predator uses a different array of weapons to hunt its prey, like spears, spearguns, and smartdisks (although both rely on rather sadistic means of medical treatment, and also make use of wristblades). However, both Predators were in distinctly different environments, which might have called for a change up in weaponry. (It was stated in promotional material that this Predator was younger and chose a densely populated urban area for a more ambitious hunt) Still, many of the tendencies the two had still remain: both cloaked often, did not kill unarmed people, and seemed to understand human speech, to an extent.

Trivia

Image:Trophycase.jpg

• The shot in which the group of Predators uncloaks at the end of the scene is strikingly similar to a shot near the end of The Fog, in which a group of ghosts are revealed. This is possibly a nod to the presumed influence The Fog had on the Predator films, because there are many similarities (a hidden, near invisible enemy that attacks from nowhere, can be anywhere at once, and bludgeons its victims). Another possibility is that this is simply a widely-recognised, effective means of achieving suspenseful cinematography.

External links

• {{{2|{{{title|Predator 2}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• PredatorFans - Predator films fansite
• Predator: The Hunted - fan site; contains all Predator info

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