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| I think they forgot to put a D in that last word. |
So, yes, I did eventually break down and see The Predator on Blu-Ray at the beginning of 2019. I was shopping around in Chattanooga one weekend, saw it for fairly cheap at a Best Buy (it had just come out at that point), and, even though I had a sneaking suspicion I would come to regret it, I said screw it and picked it up. Boy, did I ever come to regret picking it up! Even though I knew all of the stupid details going into it, I still couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. This movie is an utter mess. A lot of blame has to be leveled at Fox, as they forced Black to almost totally reshoot the third act, which comes off as rushed, awkward, and thoroughly underwhelming as a result, but Black and his co-writer, Fred Dekker, also have to take some hits for coming up with ideas that are moronic in and of themselves, trying so hard to throw in witty dialogue, only for it to come off as forced, annoying, and downright stupid 90% of the time, creating characters that you can't connect to for the most part, and ultimately making the movie an overly comedic sci-fi/action flick, which none of the previous Predator movies ever were.
After evading a pursuing spaceship, a Predator crash-lands on Earth, managing to eject in an escape pod in Mexico. Quinn McKenna, a sniper for the U.S. military, is attempting to rescue some hostages from a drug cartel, when the escape pod crashes nearby. Upon finding the pod and some of the Predator's equipment, McKenna and his men are attacked by the Predator himself. Though his men are killed, McKenna manages to incapacitate the Predator with one of his own weapons before fleeing the scene, as a government team led by Will Traeger arrives. Before he himself is apprehended, McKenna manages to have the Predator's equipment sent to his mailbox in the United States. However, because McKenna hasn't paid his P.O. box's dues in a long time, the package is delivered directly to the house in Georgia where his estranged wife, Emily, lives with their young, slightly autistic son, Rory. When he opens the package, Rory takes an immediate interest in the alien equipment and manages to figure out how to work it, which gives the Predator's pursuer a lock on its location. Meanwhile, Dr. Casey Brackett, an evolutionary biologist who's on call should there ever be an encounter with alien life, is taken by Traeger's men to a secret base where the captured Predator is being kept heavily sedated and under examination. Casey is also told that, in their examination, they found the Predator has human DNA in him. Elsewhere, in Chattanooga, Tennessee (I know, right?), McKenna undergoes a psych evaluation, though he knows they're merely trying to declare him insane as a coverup. Following the exam, he's placed on a bus with other government prisoners warranting psychiatric evaluation, a group who call themselves "the Loonies." The arrival of the Predator's pursuer on Earth occurs very close to the lab where he's being kept, and in the confusion and chaos, he awakens and goes on a bloody killing spree while making his escape. Grabbing a helmet kept there, he uses it to find where his gear is before leaving, with Casey in hot pursuit. Seeing the Predator escape from the lab, McKenna and the Loonies create a distraction so they can commandeer the bus, McKenna intent on killing the thing that killed his men. In the ensuing chase, the Predator manages to escape, while Casey ends up shooting herself in the foot with a tranquilizer dart. The men take her with them, and the next night, Halloween, they, the Predator, his pursuer, which is an upgraded Super Predator, and Traeger's team, all clash in a battle to find the crashed ship, which contains something the normal Predator has gone rogue with.
After hiding out with the Loonies in a motel and getting to know some of them better (particularly Nebraska Williams), McKenna convinces Casey to stay with them, telling her that the men working for Project Stargazer had been ordered to kill her because of something she took from the lab. He also decides they need to find the Predator and expose it in order to stay alive. He heads to his house in order to retrieve the Predator's gear, only to find that his son, Rory, has taken it with him as a makeshift costume for Halloween. He also finds the Loonies are initially reluctant to help him, so he leaves to find Rory himself, threatening to kill them all if they do anything to make things worse for him and his family. It doesn't take much to convince them to join him and they soon get caught up in the struggle between the normal Predator and the upgraded Predator pursuing him, as well as the Project Stargazer's search for the rogue's crashed spaceship. All the while, McKenna proves to be a really protective father and bonds closer with his son, promising him they're going to live through this. When Traeger abducts Rory so he can get them inside the spaceship, McKenna, after escaping from the men beating on and interrogating him, uses the cloaking device (which just happened to pass naturally at that very moment, if you get what I mean) to infiltrate the ship himself, save Rory, and take Traeger hostage. The standoff quickly turns into a desperate race to escape from the upgraded Predator, who destroys the ship and gives the humans a translated message about how he wants "McKenna." Unbeknownst to McKenna himself, the Predator is referring to Rory, whom he abducts and takes with him. McKenna, not having this, chases the Predator onto his own ship and, with the help of the Loonies, who all die in the battle, manages to down the ship and finally kill the Predator. Once it's over, McKenna memorializes each of the Loonies, whom he now refers to as his unit, with keepsakes from each of them. The movie ends with him, now fully reinstated as an Army Ranger captain, visiting the new Project Stargazer lab, where it's revealed that what the rogue Predator had with him was a special armored suit called the Predator Killer, meant to protect mankind from future attacks by his own race. Upon seeing the suit, McKenna declares it to be his.
As bizarre as Topher Grace's being in Predators was, I'd argue that seeing Keegan-Michael Key here is equally weird. He plays Coyle, who you learn accidentally fired on his own men and now copes with the trauma by constantly telling jokes... and being really annoying and obnoxious about it. He's not as annoying as another member of the Loonies but still, his jokes wear thin very quickly. He often rags on Baxley (Thomas Jane), the member of the group who has Tourette's, to the point where you'd think they hate each other, but it turns out they're actually quite close, as Baxley was the one man who survived Coyle's friendly fire disaster. Speaking of Baxley, it was nice to see Thomas Jane, as I hadn't seen him in a movie in a while, but I hate that they gave him the usual Hollywood shtick concerning Tourette's, in that he randomly yells obscenities and profane statements, like, "Because fuck cock cock," "Eat your pussy," and, "Fuck me in the face with an aardvark!" (okay, I'll admit, that last one was so over-the-top that it was quite funny). I've learned that Shane Black created the character because he himself has Tourette's, which, fair enough, but I don't get why he decided to go with such a stereotypical depiction of it. And his Tourette's becomes very spontaneous as the movie goes on, becoming nonexistent during the third act, with Coyle even telling him at one point, "Welcome back," making you wonder what the point of his condition was to begin with. In any case, the bond between Coyle and Baxley is truly shown when Baxley is shown trying to calm Coyle down when he's shaken after their first encounter with the upgraded Predator, and when the two of them become mortally wounded in the final battle, they both mercy kill each other with shots to the head.
The member of the Loonies who I really can't stand is Nettles (Augusto Aguilera), a former Huey pilot who's now obsessed with the Bible, often spouting about the end of times and how the Predators are part of it. What makes me dislike him so much is that he's constantly talking and mumbling out loud, even when everyone else tells him to shut up, like when they see the Predator escaping from the lab and he goes on about, "I didn't see it. I want to see it." He's also a little too interested in Casey Brackett, getting closer to her than she would like (he has a habit of not respecting personal space in general) and hitting on her at inappropriate times, like when she's trying to study the vial of fluid she took from the lab. And his death is a prime example of his stupidity, as he gets cut in half by the Predator spaceship's energy shield when the edges close in around him, even though he could have easily jumped up onto it, as Nebraska Williams did. And finally, there's Lynch (Alfie Allen), easily the most forgettable of the Loonies. When he's first introduced, he's said to have blown up half a mountain in Mosul, and he tries to act all badass and cool, saying, "Entropy. That's my game. Things like to fall apart, and I... make it happen... just like that," doing a card trick, but in reality, he does little of note. He tells McKenna of Coyle and Baxley's unlikely friendship, is the first Loonie to be killed by the upgraded Predator when he's taken a sniper post during the standoff between them and Traeger's men, though he manages to alert them before he's done in, and it's revealed he left some explosive charges in the woods to cover their escape, which the group later uses to kill the Predator as he chases after them.
In a completely pointless call back to Predator 2, Jake Busey appears as Sean Keyes, one of the head scientists at the Project Stargazer lab. Though it's never stated outright, you can surmise he's the son of Peter Keyes, his father's role in that film, and you can also see Peter Keyes' name at the bottom of a photo of one of the past Predators if you look carefully. He literally has no purpose other than that, as he does nothing but inquire about how Casey Brackett came to be at the lab and confirms to her that their finding human DNA within the Predator is accurate. I'm not even sure if he died or not, as he gets injured during the Predator's escape and is seen telling Casey to not let him get away, but he's never seen again afterward. The same can also be said of Emily (Yvonne Strahovski), McKenna's estranged wife, who could have easily been removed from the whole film. Other than a moment where she speaks up for what a good soldier her husband is, even if he isn't a good spouse, and keeps Traeger's men from tracing a cellphone call he makes to her, she's a pretty pointless character. In fact, you learn that she mentioned her son has the Predator operating system from the wrist gauntlet, information that finds its way to Traeger, who then targets Rory. Even if she didn't quite know what she was revealing, you'd think she would use a little more discretion, considering that she's being detained by a bunch of men she knows are searching for her husband, at least. Regardless, she's never seen again after the upgraded Predator crashes into her house and attacks Traeger's men, with her running for it in the chaos, but given something McKenna says at the end, you can surmise that she's still alive.
When done well, the Predator films manage to strike a tricky but interesting balance between being fun, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, sci-fi/action flicks but also not making complete jokes of themselves and taking themselves seriously enough to where they generate true suspense and thrills. The original Predator is the perfect example: it is, fundamentally, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's bigger-than-life, macho 80's action movies, with all the one-liners and superheroic moments you'd expect from him in his prime, but it also manages to be a genuinely suspenseful thriller with science fiction overtones. Though would some disagree, the same can also be said of Predator 2: it's much faster-paced and more over-the-top, especially due to its setting in crime-riddled Los Angeles, but it still has that hard edge to it and come to like Mike Harrigan and his team and hope they make it through this situation alive. The Predator, however, gets rid of any notion of taking itself seriously and is little more than a jokey farce for the duration. It may be extremely violent and gory, but there's no tension whatsoever, as few of the characters seem to be taking things seriously, with most of them written as intentionally comedic caricatures who are often more interested in making jokes and trading barbs with each other, usually while being really obnoxious about it. Even when faced with the Predators, their reactions are often so overdone and exaggerated that you can't register any true fear in them. In a similar vein, the revelation that the Predators are enhancing themselves and may be plotting to take over Earth has no weight to it, both in the story's eventual outcome and because the character who gives this exposition, Traeger, is a smartass, gum-chewing antagonist who, upon viewing the dead Predator's corpse, comments, "Fucked that nigga up." And as much as I can get into him as a lead, even Quinn McKenna himself rarely seems completely afraid for his life or for those around him, given his world-weary, snarky attitude. The only time he appears genuinely affected by what's happening is when he's concerned for his son and when he angrily yells at the Loonies to quit laughing at him when he admits he encountered an alien, and even after that, the movie goes back to being almost totally jokey.
More often than not, the humor falls flat and feels really forced, like it's trying way too hard to be clever and witty, even when some of the lines are kind of inventive. Coyle's jokes and attitude wear especially thin very quickly, like his "yo momma" jokes, such as, "Hey, Baxley, if your mom's vagina were a video game, it'd be rated 'E for Everyone,'" and, "What's the difference between five big, black guys and a joke? Baxley's mom can't take a joke." He and the guys also make a bet over whether or not Casey will go for the gun when she wakes up in the motel room, and when they make it to McKenna's home, he comments about a lewd gesture a woman in a painting by Emily is making. In addition, there are instances where they try to milk the humor out of a situation for all its worth, only to beat it to death. When Baxley randomly says, "Eat your pussy," to Casey, it leads into this overly long bit where he and Nettles try to say that's not what he said. Just a couple of minutes later, when Casey tells them the creatures are called Predators and why, they bring up how their description is more of a hunter, something that was already touched on when Traeger first told her they're called Predators (it's meant to be a cheeky reference to how the original movie's title was going to be Hunter). Near the beginning of the climax, when Casey mentions how the Predator they're up against is composed of the DNA of various other species, Nebraska Williams comments, "In the entire universe, yeah?", leading to this exchange: "Galaxy?" "What?" "Galaxy. 250 billion stars. Why go universe? Just saying." And right before that, McKenna describes the Predator as being ten feet tall and Williams chimes in, "Eleven, actually. I used to be a contractor." At that late point, I was grumbling and wishing Black and Fred Dekker would stop trying to show off their clever writing skills.
One thing that really annoys me in a bad sequel is when they try so hard to make cute references to the movies that came before. While The Predator doesn't do that egregiously, the times it does are still cringe-inducing, such as when Casey calls the sedated Predator, "One beautiful motherfucker," when she first sees him, or when Williams yells, "Get to the choppers!", during the sequence where they try to chase the Predator down in the bus. In that latter case, he was referring to motorcycles rather than helicopters but, regardless, I think there needs to be an intervention with the use of, "Get to the chopper!", in pop culture, as it's been said so much it's lost all its meaning (and was it even that cool of a line to begin with?) And finally, if you're going to reference something, get it straight. When Casey is in the lab and is looking through info on the past Predators, she sees an image that was clearly taken from Predator 2, with the agent behind it being identified as Peter Keyes. I'll ignore the question of how anybody could have gotten such clear, up close images of the Predators, as it makes about as much sense as Jason Voorhees have a vrtiaul mugshot in Friday the 13th Part V, but the date on that photograph says 1990. Yes, Predator 2 was released in 1990, but it took place in 1997, something someone else already mentioned to Casey when she was first picked up. Oops!
Besides the dialogue, there are aspects of the story that are either typical and tired, like the aforementioned stereotypical depiction of Tourette's and government interest and cover-up in alien encounters, or freaking idiotic, such as the plot-point of Rory McKenna becoming a target of both Traeger and the upgraded Predator because his autism makes him really intelligent, to where he can figure out how to work alien technology, and also because, according to Casey Brackett, he possibly represents the next step in human evolution. A lot of people were offended by this, with a New York Post review saying that parents of autistic children would be livid, while Emma Stefansky of the website, Uproxx, called it the worst thing she'd seen in a movie that year. Being someone who has a slight case of Asperger's syndrome, I wasn't offended myself; I just thought it was stupid and unoriginal. (Incidentally, it's often suggested that Rory's condition is Asperger's; also, yes, "ass-burger" is spoken several times.) Another really dumb plot-point involves one of the dog-like creatures the upgraded Predator brings with him. When his father and the Loonies save him when the "dogs" attack him, one of them gets shot in the head but survives nevertheless. That Predator Dog later shows up when the characters have taken refuge on a deserted farm, now lobotomized by the bullet and docile, acting like a normal dog, right down to happy panting and a wagging tail. He becomes particularly attached to Casey, who sees him as a valuable specimen, but when Traeger and his team show up at the barn, she gets him to run off by throwing an un-activated grenade, telling him to fetch it. When one of Traeger's men is about to execute Casey, the Predator Dog shows back up with the grenade, which she uses to dispense with the guy. If you think that's dumb, guess what? During the third act, he, again, randomly shows up, after having been locked up in the back of a truck, and brings her something useful during the battle with the upgraded Predator (in this case, an explosive charge), acting like a literal walking deus ex machina. And he's still there at the end of the movie, his ultimate fate unknown. I guess since Casey isn't in the final scene, she adopted him as an actual pet. Speaking of a deus ex machina, McKenna swallows the Predator cloaking device before he's captured at the beginning of the film, and then, just as they're about to go after Traeger following his abduction of Rory, he's suddenly hit with a case of the runs and passes it out his sphincter. Convenient that his body chose that exact moment to decide to expel it.
However, it's the basic plot that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Around the middle of the film, it's theorized that the initial Predator who was captured and then beheaded by the larger, upgraded one went rogue and brought with him something he wanted mankind to have. Why? So we could protect ourselves from the other Predators when they decide we've outlived our usefulness and take the Earth from us, because this particular Predator gave a crap, for whatever reason. I didn't like the idea of there being a blood feud between various classes of Predators in the previous film but, at least in that case, it kept them in character, as it was a tribal thing; this just makes the one Predator a goody two-shoes... supposedly. I say that because, what's the first thing he does when he crash-lands on Earth? Attacks McKenna and his men, skinning one of them and killing the other, before being incapacitated by McKenna himself. And when he awakens in the Project Stargazer lab, instead of trying to communicate with those around him and relay the message that he has something for them, especially since these are the very people he'd want to meet and share this info with, he goes on a violent killing spree while trying to escape from the lab. I kind of figured Predators wouldn't be too good at civil communication and discussion but, talk about defeating your own purpose.
So, the big question is, what is it that the Predator brought for mankind to protect itself with? Throughout the film, you see glimpses of this mysterious pod he has in his ship, which appears to have been destroyed, along with the ship itself, during the climax, but in the epilogue, you learn that it was ejected via a fail-safe and has been brought to the new Project Stargazer lab. As they're examining it, it suddenly activates and slowly opens, sending a message that Rory is able to decode, saying whatever it is is called "the Predator Killer." What is the Predator Killer, you ask? It's the thing that nearly broke Newt Cox when I told him and made him firmly decide, "Fuck this movie." To quote Midnight's Edge, it's essentially the Predator equivalent of an Iron Man suit. It's an armored, turreted, jetpack-sporting, metal body suit with a Predator-like helmet on it. This is what's supposed to defend mankind from an infinite number of possibly invading Predators. Not only is the concept in and of itself stupid, but he just brought one suit, and didn't have the courtesy to bring the design specs so they could build enough for an army. I guess Quinn McKenna's wearing is supposed to be enough of a defense because he's such a badass.
However, not all of The Predator's failings can be blamed on Shane Black and Fred Dekker, as the studio forced Black to drastically reshoot and re-edit the movie following a bad test screening. The third act was almost completely redone from scratch, which explains why the final film's third act feels very choppy, messily edited, and rushed like nobody's business. The original third act took place in the daytime, involved the Loonies and the military teaming up with a couple of more friendly Predators that arrive to battle the upgraded one and some other hybridized Predators, which were originally what the rogue Predator was trying to keep his pursuer from acquiring. The Loonies were all supposed to die in different ways and Rory was actually going to figure out how to fly the bad Predator's spaceship to aid in the battle. Edward James Olmos originally had a role as a general who, while appearing through the film as a whole, took a major part in the final battle, but his part was completely removed when the reshoots occurred, which may explain why Traeger suddenly becomes the expert on the Predators. And, according to some, the ending scene with the Predator Killer was not part of the original cut, so it seems like that may have been a studio mandate and Black and Dekker had to come up with something quick to appease them. You can see various shots of the original third act in the theatrical trailers and making of videos and, while they do look interesting, I don't know if the original would have worked any better, as some of those ideas sound silly in and of themselves. It probably wouldn't have been as choppy, and some of the action from those shots looks kind of cool, but who knows how less stupid it would have made the movie as a whole, especially with more good Predators teaming up with the humans.
Believe it or not, despite all these brickbats I've thrown at it, The Predator does have its good points. First, its healthy budget of $88 million is right up there on the screen, as the production values are high, the cinematography by Larry Fong is nice and lush, and the production design of the Project Stargazer lab, with its white, shiny, sleek look that often has a greenish tinge to it, high-tech equipment, instances of rich, red lighting during the red alert of the Predator's escape, and various pieces of memorabilia referencing the past movies (you see the original Predator's helmet, as well as the Alien-tail spear from AVP: Alien vs. Predator, among others), is top notch. While you don't see much of them, the same goes for the design of the interior of the Predator spaceships, which have a circular, gray-colored shape and look to them, with lots of round edges, high-tech control panels and readouts, and, overall, look about how you'd expect an alien spaceship to look. In short, they're typical, but in a good way. Second, the practical effects and suit work for the rogue Predator are very well-done, right up there with what Stan Winston and his team did in the first two movies and the, admittedly, good-looking Predator suits that were featured in Predators. This rogue Predator really feels like a living, breathing creature when you see him in action, especially when he's massacring everyone in his path while escaping from the lab, as all of his armor has been removed and you get to see almost every inch of him in nicely detailed close-ups. The animatronics for the face are especially well-done and life-like.
This movie also earns its R-rating in terms of gore. Within its first seven minutes, you see a badly skinned man's body hang upside down a tree, only for it get sliced in half below the waist moments later. Throughout the movie, you see plenty of decapitations and exploding heads, limbs torn or bitten off (this is the first movie where the Predators use their razor sharp mandibles and teeth as weapons), people sliced open and spurting blood, bodies getting blown in half, plenty of gutting and stabbing, and brutally violent shootings. You also see more than enough of the Predators' glowing green blood, like when the rogue get his head ripped off, one of the Predator dogs literally explodes from a grenade in his gut, and, at the end of the movie, when the upgraded Predator is completely covered in his blood after the final battle. Unfortunately, a number of the deaths are obviously CGI gore, particularly during the climax because of the reshoots, but when it's practical, it looks really good. And speaking of CGI, the visual effects work on the Predators' spaceships, the brief outer space scenes, the holographic readouts of their equipment, and their abilities, like their cloaking and firepower, all look quite good.
I can't say the same for the CGI creatures, which consist of the eleven-foot tall, upgraded Predator, and his hunting dogs. I like the idea of a Predator who's boosted his strength and physical abilities with the DNA of various deadly creatures on other planets, but I wished they would have gone for more of a practical approach in their execution of him than having him be almost completely digital (they may have been some practical effects work but, for the most part, he's totally CG), as you can tell he's not real. It also doesn't help me like him when, just like in Predators, the classic Predator gets brutally side-lined in favor of him, as he kills him as soon as he arrives, ripping his spine out (I really wish filmmakers would stop doing that in these newer Predator movies). As for the Predator Dogs, I like their design here more than in Predators, as they're big, four-legged, lizard-like creatures, with a face and dreadlocks very similar to the actual Predators, but the CGI could have been integrated a lot better. (The subplot of the one dog getting lobotomized and becoming friendly severely hurts that as well. Yeah, I'm still dumbfounded at the sheer stupidity of that plot-point.)
Staying on the topic of creatures for a bit, I do think that, aside from the one Predator caring about mankind, the Predators are depicted well, for the most part. They're shown to be absolutely savage and brutal, slicing, dicing, clawing, and even biting off limbs and heads when they need to (it's amazing to me that this is the first time they're ever seen doing the latter), and can easily wade through an entire army if they need to. I also like the idea that they're using DNA from the deadliest creatures they come across, including the baddest humans on Earth, to upgrade and enhance themselves, but I don't like how that gets mixed in with the stupid idea about Rory's autism. You also get some nice action with their weapons, like both familiar ones like the classic shoulder cannon and the spiked, Frisbee-like weapon that was first seen in AVP, as well as some new ones like miniature laser cannons in the helmets that react automatically to being fired upon, similar weapons on the gauntlets, sharp projectiles fired from the gauntlets, and harpoon-like cables that can be used both as weapons and to string up potential prey. And while it may be a bit too reminiscent of Star Wars, it's cool seeing the Predator spaceships caught up in dogfights and firing powerful lasers, something you always suspected they might be capable of.
One thing I don't like about the Predators, however, is how all of their equipment seems to be interconnected, such as the helmets and the spaceship operating systems, as it seems like it's guaranteed trouble (heck, the basic situation of a Predator going rogue in and of itself is a good reason why everything being connected like this isn't a smart idea). For example, when Rory is fiddling with the operating system he finds in the wrist gauntlet that was in the mail, he manages to cause the upgraded Predator's spaceship to lose its cloak at inconvenient times, and the rogue Predator is able to connect with his own helmet and find out where it is by using another helmet that's being kept at the Project Stargazer lab. . And finally, even though he never wears a helmet, the upgraded Predator has the same classic "Predator-Vision" POVs, right down to the infrared, data readouts, and video and audio playback. I guess he's either wearing contacts or upgrading your DNA allows your eyes to function in that manner.
As for the setting, some may roll their eyes that it's another movie involving the Predators in a suburban area, which had already been done in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, but I don't mind the idea of it, as it serves as a sort of bridge between the jungle of the original film and the city of Predator 2. Now, would I have preferred the movie to stay in Mexico, since I like that kind of tropical setting? Definitely. However, I think a rural setting like this is a nice one to drop the Predator in. But, while I like the idea of it, especially since this time, it's in basically my neck of the woods, they don't take as much of an advantage of it as in AVP:R. Fortunately, unlike that movie, I can tell what's going on, but it would have been nice to see more of the action taking advantage of familiar environments like the town's sewers, various stores and markets, and inside other people's houses. You get a little bit of it, like the scene on the football field, in the school, in the McKenna house, and at the abandoned farm, but the entire climax takes place in the woods, a large, rocky ravine, and a marsh. Again, good environments, but not much is done with them. Also, the notion of most of the movie taking place on Halloween night is totally superfluous and not used in any significant manner, save as an excuse for Rory to walk around town while wearing the Predator's helmet, which looks ridiculous. Following that trick-or-treating bit, it's dropped entirely, and you could easily forget that it is Halloween night, as you don't get any scenes like pranksters and other trick-or-treaters encountering the Predators or a Halloween party getting crashed in the chaos. In fact, there's a moment during the climax where Traeger says something that makes it seem like Halloween was several days before, even though it's the same night! And finally, as much potential as this setting does have, it does limit the scope of the movie and make it feel like much smaller than it is. AVP:R only had a budget of $40 million, so it's understandable there, but this one had more than twice that much money, so they could have gone bigger with it (which may have been Black's initial idea, given the footage of the original third act).
The movie opens up in outer space, with a spaceship being pursued and fired upon by another ship of the same design. The pursued ship takes several laser blasts to its rear end but manages to evade its pursuer by creating a wormhole up ahead of it, which closes before the other ship can follow. The ship exits the wormhole near the Earth, smashing into an orbiting satellite as it heads towards the atmosphere. Upon coming down through the clouds, the ship's underside hits and skids across mountaintops and plateaus, while inside, the control panels in the cockpit short out and burst with large flashes of sparks. Realizing the ship is going to crash eventually, the Predator flying it ejects a small mechanism from the control panel and places it in his wrist gauntlet, before standing up and heading to the back. He enters and deploys an escape pod that blasts back the way he came for many miles, while the rapidly descending ship continues on (and yet, that ship didn't come down until it reached Georgia).
That night, in the jungles of Mexico, Quinn McKenna is waiting in the undergrowth, wearing camouflage paint and a piece of shrubbery on his head. He keeps an eye trained on the spot ahead of him via the scope of his sniper rifle, when a couple of vehicles pull up at an intersection in the dirt road. Talking with his men, Haines and Dupree, over the comm about their betting on whether or not the hostages they're supposed to help have already been executed by the drug cartel, and asking them to put him down twenty, he sees the driver of the second car to arrive disembark, along with another man. They pull two hostages out and bring them before the two men who were waiting by the other vehicle. McKenna decides to take the shot and trains his cross-hairs on the head of one of the would-be executioners. A loud roar is heard from the approaching Predator escape pod, which McKenna glances at before quickly looking back through the scope and firing, killing the one man instantly with a headshot. Before his comrades can spot and fire on him, the pod slams into the side of an electrical tower, sending it crashing down, with large pieces of it flying their way. McKenna quickly gets to his feet and jumps through the brush behind him, accidentally tumbling down a hillside, as flaming shrapnel rains down around him. He hits the bottom with a loud thud and momentarily blacks out. When he awakens, he attempts to radio his men but gets no reply. He grabs his rifle and heads towards the pod's crash-site just up ahead, as it slowly powers down. Finding some of the Predator's blood around the opening, which is lined with shattered glass, he also finds his helmet and picks it up to inspect it. He hears some rustling behind him and swings around, only to see it's Dupree. Putting his gun away, he asks where Haines is and is told the comm isn't working. He asks Dupree to give him his backpack and places the helmet inside it, as well as one of the wrist gauntlets, which he finds nearby. As Dupree tries to contact Haines, McKenna puts the gauntlet on his arm, when it latches firmly on. Dupree hears the sound of his attempts to contact Haines apparently echoing through the treetops, following by some clicking sounds and a repeat of his earlier conversation with McKenna. They look up at the treetops, when Haines' skinned body suddenly drops, hanging by the feet from one of the branches.
Just as McKenna is trying to process what he's seeing, the Predator materializes on the tree trunk next to Haines' hanging body. McKenna and Dupree open fire but the Predator manages to evade them by jumping through the treetops and points and fires his shoulder cannon at them, which kills Dupree and sends McKenna flying through the air. After landing and sitting up, McKenna sees the Predator's silhouette jump back to the tree next to Haines' body and then jump down to the ground. As he stomps towards him and jumps on a large rock, McKenna crawls towards the Predator, when the gauntlet he's still wearing activates, firing a small, razor-sharp, bladed disc that seriously injures the Predator, and also slices Haines' body completely in half, before sticking in the trunk of a nearby tree. The Predator collapses to the ground and, as McKenna watches, the blood from Haines' corpses drips down on him, making his head and upper torso somewhat visible. His eyes snap open and he glares at McKenna, who gets to his feet, grabs the backpack, and runs for it through the jungle. A helicopter passes overhead and McKenna stops and looks, when the gauntlet activates again, this time shooting out a small orb that he catches in his hand. With that, he gets back to fleeing, as the helicopter comes down in a small field nearby. A small squad of armed men disembark and head toward the edges of the jungle, their rifles drawn. Will Traeger also disembarks, announcing, "Gentlemen, remember, they're large, they're fast, and fucking you up's their idea of tourism," before sending them off. He tells another man that he wants the escape pod, its occupant, and anything else that's obviously alien. The next day, McKenna finds his way to a small village and heads to the local bar. Getting the customers there to leave by showing them his handgun, he tells the bartender that he needs help and has money to pay for it. The bartender asks him, in Spanish, why he should help someone with a pistol, and turns his back on him. When he turns back around, he's surprised to find that McKenna has suddenly vanished. Confused, he walks around the bar and scans the place, when McKenna, invisible due to the Predator's cloaking device, taps him on the shoulder. He watches as McKenna re-materializes, holding the small orb, and is now more willing to help. McKenna puts the money in his shirt's pocket and tells him to mail what's in the backpack to the address he gives him. He then sends the man off and pours himself a drink. As the sound of approaching sirens grows louder, he drops the orb in the glass and swallows it with the drink in one gulp.
The film cuts to Lawrence A. Gordon Middle School in Georgia, wherein McKenna's son, Rory, is sitting in a classroom amid students who are playing chess. As he watches two boys in particular as they play their match, a couple of dickheads out in the hallway decide to pull the fire alarm (these guys are very much of the "dur-hurr" variety in how excited they are over their genius prank). When the alarm sounds, the kids in the classroom immediately get up and file out the door, except for Rory, who stands in place, whimpering, and patting his ears. Unfortunately for him, the two assholes pass by the doorway and see him, as he slumps against the wall and falls to the floor. Walking in, they go for the predictable joke of referring to his condition as "ass-burger," saying they're hungry for one, but when they see that Rory, who's sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth, tapping his hands on his ears and continuously whimpering, is not going to give them any entertainment, they decide to leave. Being the dicks they are, they smack the chess pieces off the various boards on their way out. Once they're gone, Rory gets to his feet and puts all the chess pieces on their respective boards in exactly the same patterns they were in before they got knocked off. After school, he walks home, passing by a yard where a very large pitbull barks at him and temporarily causes him more distress. Arriving home, he finds a note from his mom, telling him she'll "cut" him if he messes up the house she spent fifteen hours cleaning. The doorbell rings and Rory answers it to meet a mailman (Gary Chalk, whose presence is always a major sign that a movie was filmed in Canada), who tells him that Quinn McKenna's P.O. box payments are past due, so his package has been sent directly to the house.
The movie then momentarily cuts to Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, where Dr. Casey Brackett is picked up by several government agents. As she rides in the back of their car, she looks at a file on Project Stargazer, as well as a photo of the pod's crash-site in Mexico and a blurry, black-and-white photo of a Predator. The agent sitting with her confirms that it's exactly what she thinks it is. He also tells her that the Predators have visited Earth before and their visits have been increasing in frequency lately. That night, McKenna is put through a psych evaluation at the offices for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is watched by Traeger and his assistant via a two-way window. It doesn't take long for McKenna to reveal that he knows this isn't actually an evaluation, but rather that they're trying to label him as crazy in order to cover up what happened in Mexico. From his vantage point, it doesn't take Traeger long to figure out that McKenna did, indeed, see something south of the border. Back at McKenna's Georgia home, Rory opens up the package and is shocked when he finds the Predator helmet inside. He then pulls out the wrist gauntlet and sets it on his table. Tapping at it and fiddling with it, it ejects the chip-like object the Predator placed in it before he bailed out of his ship. Holding it and examining it, it suddenly activates and he tosses it on the table, startled, as it projects holographic readouts in the air. Meanwhile, McKenna is escorted out of the building and onto a bus. Pushed inside, he finds that the back of the bus has five other men. Not sure what to make of his fellow passengers, he sits down on a seat to his right. As the bus heads out, McKenna is told he's in "Group 2," meaning, "Group therapy, room 2." Nebraska Williams introduces himself and does the same for everyone else, introducing Coyle, Lynch, Nettles, and Baxley, as well as tells McKenna how each of them ended up in Group 2.
Elsewhere, Casey is transported to the main lab for Project Stargazer, which is built onto a large dam in a mountainside. Once inside, she rides a large elevator down a long, silo-like shaft (the guy at the control panel has apparently been at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland too many times, as he melodramatically intones, "Is it just your imagination, or is this haunted room actually stretching?"; according to the man with Casey, he does this every single time) and at the bottom, the doors open up to the middle of a large corridor, where she's greeted by Sean Keyes. Casey is immediately taken with what she sees in a display case on a wall nearby, which is a spear that she recognizes as being of alien origin. She's equally amazed when she sees another display case containing two Predator helmets and a shoulder cannon and is interested in getting into it. Keyes, however, leads her to something even more interesting, namely a platform overlooking an enormous research lab, the center of which is a real alien creature that's being examined. Traeger appears down in the lab and, turning and seeing Casey, asks, "Dr. Brackett, would you like to meet a Predator?" She and Keyes then go through the decontamination process in a separate chamber, Casey telling him how she came to be there, and once they're dressed in lab coats, they head into the lab. Traeger meets Casey and she asks him why they call the alien a Predator, and when he explains, that leads into her telling him that his description is more along the lines of a hunter; Traeger says they went with "Predator" because it sounds cooler. He goes on to tell her that they found his escape pod but are still looking for the actual ship. He then gets down to why she's been brought there and she's shown some DNA testing results, which are shocking: the Predator has human DNA within him. Looking over the equipment that was retrieved while reviewing all available data on the Predators, Casey notes that his helmet and second wrist gauntlet are missing. Traeger tells her they never found them. She then comes across an image of McKenna in the data and, upon hearing that he was the one who first encountered the Predator, says she'd like to speak with him. Traeger says he's being "evaluated," and Casey, knowing what that implies, says, "Well, before you lobotomize him, I'd like to ask him a few questions."
McKenna, who's fallen asleep, awakens on the bus when the drivers are ordered to change their route to Starkweather Dam. Once they've done so, Nebraska Williams asks McKenna why he's on the bus with them and he, reluctantly, admits that it's because he had an encounter with an alien. As soon as he says that, everyone starts laughing at and jeering him, until he suddenly screams at them to shut up. He adds, "They want to put a lid on it, so here I am, stuck in Group 2, the sequel to Group 1, only stupider." As soon as he's finished, they go back to laughing at him and mocking him, making him rub his eyebrows as he clearly wishes he'd just kept quiet. Out in space, the spaceship that was pursuing the Predator emerges from its own wormhole and slowly approaches Earth. Its pilot, another Predator, communicates back, "Sensors engaged. Scanning for target." At his home, Rory is still fiddling with the chip he found in the gauntlet, figuring out how to work and manipulate the alien technology. As he does so, he unknowingly gives the new Predator a signal to lock onto and he zooms towards the atmosphere, temporarily cloaking his ship, when it re-materializes in the night sky by Rory's fiddling around with the operating system. The ship is picked up by the Air Force on radar, and the general in command of a base orders that NORAD be contacted. Back at the lab, Casey, in her examination of the sedated Predator, mentions a small, see-through container holding vials of a green fluid that she tried to get into earlier but was denied. However, Traeger is made aware of the approaching spaceship, which is heading in their direction. Fighter jets are scrambled, and Rory's continued fiddling with the Predator technology causes the spaceship to again suddenly appear right in front of them. The jets have to maneuver very quickly in order to keep from crashing into the ship. At the lab, the alarm goes off and a red light illuminates the room, as a level two alert is put out. But they learn they may have more immediate concerns than the approaching spaceship, as the captive Predator is coming out of his sedation. His eyes flash open and several men try to hold him down by his arms and legs, but he turns his head to his left and bites into the one man's arm with his mandibles and teeth, making him recoil in pain.
The Predator breaks loose from his bonds and makes short work of those attempting to hold him down, as he grabs a woman to his right and flings her over his body, slamming her into a man on his left. Getting up off the examining table, he uses her as a shield when a couple of security men open fire on him with their assault rifles, while Traeger and his men escape and Casey grabs a discarded rifle for herself. Her attempts to fire cause the shots to ricochet around the lab, injuring Keyes and sending her falling back. She then spies one of the vials of green fluid she was interested in earlier, noting that the container has been smashed open, and grabs one of them, while the Predator slams a security guard onto the examination table and then stabs him in the chest, before swinging at another guard who comes at him from his right, slicing his face open and sending him flying. He throws a long surgical tool right at another security guard, getting him in the left eye, and as he marches away, he effortlessly kills the injured guard on the table by slashing his face with his claws. Casey tries to run back through the way she entered the lab but is forced to strip naked in order to make the decontamination work. As she does, a man gets flung into the window behind her, blood splattering across the glass, and she sees the Predator dispatch another man. He goes to the table containing his equipment and becomes enraged when he sees that some of it's missing, slamming his fist down hard enough to leave a large dent in the table. Casey ducks out of sight when the Predator turns and looks her way. Gathering all the equipment that is there, he manages to imitate the voice of someone who earlier entered in a passcode to activate the large door leading to the decontamination room. He finds Casey as she's cowering down in the room but, while he hisses at her in a threatening manner, he otherwise ignores her and forces open the door leading out of the lab area. Stomping into the corridor, he quickly disarms a security guard who tries to jump him, throwing him against the wall and uses his own rifle to shoot down three more guards who come at him. Spotting the case where several helmets are kept, he smashes the glass and goes for the more advanced helmet. He uses it to connect to his own helmet in Rory's house and pinpoint his address, which is written on a piece of paper hanging on the wall of his room. Translating into his own form of writing, he now has a concrete target.
The bus housing McKenna and the Loonies arrives on the outskirts of the installation, but when they park, the drivers are told that there's been a breach and they're to wait. Inside, soldiers are waging a losing struggle in trying to keep the Predator from escaping, while Casey follows his trail through the base. Stopping at one point, she sees Keyes, injured but alive, back in the lab, motioning for her to follow the Predator, yelling, "Don't let him get away." Casey has no intention of doing so and continues her pursuit. Back outside, McKenna and several of the Loonies see someone get flung off the base's roof and hit the ground hard. They then see the Predator appear on the roof and watch as he runs across it. Baxley takes one look at the figure and immediately figures, "Alien." They realize that McKenna wasn't kidding, as he tells Williams that the Predator killed his men and they have to get moving. Williams tells him, "Brother, it's a bus. It moves." They put a plan into motion, with Coyle making jokes about Baxley's mom, when Baxley gets up, stomps towards Coyle, and grabs him from behind with his handcuffs, dragging him backwards down the middle of the bus. The drivers enter the back in order to restrain Baxley, telling the others to get face-down on the floor. As they walk by, Lynch grabs one man's nightstick, and when they reach Baxley and Coyle, the two of them fight back together. Lynch then makes use of the nightstick, swatting one guy in the back of the leg with it, with McKenna kicking him in the front, causing him to fall back and shoot the bus' ceiling with his shotgun. Baxley and Lynch quickly knock them unconscious, while Nettles, who lifted the keys from the one guard, tosses them to Williams, who unlocks himself before allowing them to pass the keys around. They arm themselves and Williams turns a shotgun onto the one man who's still up front in the driver's seat. Nettles goes a little crazy and starts stomping one of the unconscious guards on the floor, with Coyle having to stop him. They force the driver off the bus and toss the unconscious guards out the back, taking command of it themselves.
Casey runs out onto the roof and follows a trail of the Predator's blood, leading her down to the road that runs along the edge of the dam. In the bus, McKenna asks Williams to chase after the Predator, intending to kill him for what he did to his men, which Williams is more than happy to do, as he whirls the bus around. Casey chases the Predator across a series of walkways, when he leaps up onto a raised walkway near her. She's about to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart, when she, him, and those in the bus are distracted when the spaceship flies overhead, pursued by the two fighter jets. The Predator runs for it and Casey gives chase, trying to head him off and running parallel to him on the walkway beneath his. Those in the bus see this chase going on, which culminates in the Predator jumping off the end of the walkway and tumbling off to the side of the road as the bus approaches. Casey tries to do the same but she lands on the bus' roof. She struggles to keep from falling off of it, as Williams drives right at the Predator as he sprints down the road ahead of them. McKenna leans out the bus' door and points a rifle at the Predator, firing two shots at him, one of which hits near his foot. He swings around and fires a sharp projectile at the bus, hitting its right front tire and causing McKenna to fall out. Casey also fumbles atop the bus and accidentally shoots herself in the foot with a tranq dart. Williams manages to bring the skidding bus to a stop, as McKenna rejoins them. Hearing the sound of approaching sirens, the Loonies try to take cover behind the bus, while McKenna tries to help Casey down. He offers to catch her if she jumps off, but just as she's about to, he gets distracted when he sees a guard appear nearby and joins the others, causing her to crash onto the ground. Spotting a group of motorcycles parked nearby, the men run for them, while up in the sky, the Predator spaceship brushes off hits from the jets' missiles, firing back with a laser turret that easily destroys them both.
The guard approaches Casey and is given instructions by Traeger to kill her and retrieve any contraband. Just as he's about to do so, McKenna comes at him on one of the motorcycles, sideswiping and knocking him to the ground, Williams following that up with a punch while riding his. McKenna helps the groggy Casey onto the motorcycle with him and the group drives off. In another part of the installation, a jeep transporting soldiers is, unbeknownst to the driver, commandeered by the Predator, who jumps on the roof, and quickly kills all the men in the back. After hearing the commotion, the driver asks if everything is okay in the back and the Predator grabs one of the soldiers' severed arm and pushes the hand through the opening to the cab, the thumb in an up position, to convince him that it's all good. The driver goes back to focusing on the road and drives off the grounds, as the Predator settles in back there. Elsewhere, the spaceship has landed in a wooded area and this new Predator disembarks with his hunting dogs, giving them a scent to track before sending them off.
The movie slows down for a bit, as the group seeks refuge in a little motel, waiting for Casey to sleep off the tranquilizer, while McKenna gets to know Williams a little more and learns that he tried to commit suicide, though he never elaborates on why. Casey awakens to find herself in the room with the strange men and it only takes a few seconds for her to go for the shotgun she sees nearby. While Coyle celebrates because he just won a bet, Casey demands they give her cellphone to her. McKenna walks in, telling her she doesn't need the gun, and tries to take it from her. She holds onto the gun as he attempts to pull it out of her hands, when she pulls the trigger. It clicks empty but everyone is amazed that she actually went down that path, with Coyle exclaiming he figured she'd do that as well. With that, McKenna flicks Casey's nose, making her recoil away, and easily takes the gun. Looking at her ID badge and noting that she's a scientist, he asks her what they had her working on at the lab. She runs for the door but McKenna tells her she won't last a day by herself, breaking it to her that the people she was working with now have orders to shoot her, likely because of the vial of liquid she took from the lab. Reluctantly, Casey decides it's best to stay with them, though she warns Baxley, who muttered, "Eat your pussy," when she was at the door, to stay away from her, and is also weirded out when she finds a unicorn Nettles made out of tinfoil and placed near her spot on the bed. When asked why she was at the base, she tells them about how she was on call in case there were ever alien contact and McKenna tells the men they need to find the Predator and expose it in order to stay alive. She also mentions how the Predator appeared to be searching for something when he escaped and McKenna reveals that he took some of his gear and he has an idea where he's heading. Speaking of which, at his home, Rory is surprised when the Predator helmet suddenly activates and, when he places his head inside it, he's assaulted by holographic visions of experiments taking place on the Predator planet, with Predators being experimented on, injected with something that changes and enhances their bodies.
The next night, which happens to be Halloween, Emily McKenna is none too pleased when her husband suddenly shows up. He tells her that he's looking for a package and heads downstairs, to Rory's room, to find he's not there. He's horrified when he finds that the package has been opened and the contents are gone. He tells Emily they need to find Rory, who's out trick-or-treating while wearing the Predator helmet and gauntlet as a makeshift costume. The two of them head back upstairs to find that the Loonies have made themselves at home and are either snooping around in the fridge or inspecting Emily's paintings. Weirded out by this, Emily is told how McKenna's unit was wiped out and that the killer is looking for Rory. He gets the Loonies to back him up, as they try to explain what the Predator is, with Williams throwing out this gem: "You know who Whoopi Goldberg is? It's like an alien Whoopi Goldberg." Rather than incredulous, Emily actually takes a sniper rifle down from the wall, planning to join McKenna in the search, but he nixes that idea and takes the rifle from her. He then finds the Loonies aren't that up to helping him, given that they're fugitives, and he decides to go by himself, but not before warning them, "If you try to split, or draw the Feds, or if you jeopardize my son by your half-assed, yardbird bullshit, I will come back here and I will happily kill every single fucking one of you." Williams decides to go with him and tries to get the others to do the same, but they're reluctant, Coyle saying it's not their fight. Williams then asks Emily if McKenna is the man he thinks he is and she lists his credentials, ending it by saying that what he lacks in being a husband, he makes up for in being a soldier. The Loonies aren't that impressed, with Baxley commenting that it sounds like McKenna can take care of himself. Disgusted, Williams calls them "fucking pussies" and heads out. Nettles is quick to follow, saying it's because he didn't like being called a pussy, and he's followed by Coyle, who has to drag Baxley and Lynch with him, as they'd rather stay behind and watch TV. Outside, in the RV they've now randomly commandeered, McKenna prepares to go look for his son, when Baxley shows up, surprising him and causing him to train his rifle on him, prompting Baxley to throw out the, "Fuck me in the face with an aardvark!" line. He's followed by the rest of the Loonies and they prepare to head out, McKenna telling Williams to find an inconspicuous set of wheels for himself.
Rory is still out trick-or-treating, when he's spotted and recognized by the douchebag kids who picked on him the day before. Ignoring their taunts, he walks up to one house, rings the doorbell, and says, "Trick-or-treat?", but gets no response. Walking away from the house, the owner walks out onto an upper balcony and cruelly throws something, hitting the back of the helmet. This activates a defense mechanism where a small blaster emerges from the helmet's upper left side, locks onto the man, and fires a blast, hitting him right in the torso and sending him flying back, as the house's entire upper portion explodes. Rory gets blasted forward and into the two bullies by the force of it, while the explosion itself is large enough to be seen down the street. Driving in his car, McKenna and Casey stop when they see the flames and McKenna realizes that has to be Rory. Getting to his feet, Rory picks up the discarded helmet and lunges at the two bullies, who run off whimpering. He then drops the helmet back down and walks off. Elsewhere, Nettles, who's driving the RV, overhears on the police scanner a description that fits Rory and he contacts McKenna via a walkie-talkie. When McKenna hears the direction Rory is said to be moving in, he swerves the car down another path. As Rory stops on a football field to catch his breath, Williams joins the search, having commandeered a police car. He asks McKenna over the radio where Rory might be heading, if there's any place nearby that's familiar to him.
On the football field, Rory is startled when the large pitbull he saw the day before crawls through a hole in the fence across from him and heads right for him. Rather than acting threatening, he instead comes off as seeking comfort and companionship, prompting Rory to walk up to him and gently pet him on the side of the head. But then, a snarling creature, one of the Predator Dogs, emerges from behind the stands and stalks across the field towards them. Rory and the pitbull back away, the latter barking frantically. Another Predator Dog appears behind a fence to Rory's left, but at that moment, his father drives right through some hedges and onto the field, hitting the one dog and sending him flying through the air. The car skids to a halt and McKenna and Casey rush out, McKenna taking point in front of Rory and firing at two Predator dogs in front of him. Williams drives onto the field, diving out of the police car, while Nettles drives the RV onto the field as well. Seeing what's going on, Williams rushes ahead, sliding across the hood of McKenna's car, when McKenna asks Casey to take care of Rory. He rushes at the Predator Dogs, firing at them, while Williams fires a grenade launcher, blowing one of the dogs off his feet, while his buddy roars at Williams. Casey takes Rory to safety, as the rest of the Loonies jump out of the RV to join the fight. McKenna runs out of ammo while firing on one of the dogs and simply throws his rifle at him before rushing for the fence and climbing over it. With a roar, the dog gives chase, charging and smashing through the fence and onto the stands. Williams tosses McKenna his grenade launcher, which he catches before rolling underneath the stands, just barely avoiding getting his arm bitten off. He points the grenade launcher at the dog's mouth, when he clamps down on the barrel. McKenna pulls the trigger but nothing happens and he runs for it, as the dog follows him across the top of the bleachers and jumps at him when they both clear it, only for the grenade inside him to blow up, splattering his green blood and guts everywhere (I just now heard him fart before he blew up, too). His disemboweled body hits the ground in front of McKenna, who slips on the blood and takes cover behind the corpse, firing on the remaining dog with a handgun. Three of the Loonies keep him distracted from the front, while Williams sneaks up on him from behind, puts his handgun right to his temple, and fires. Rather than killing the dog, this merely seriously injures him and he gets up and staggers away, while whimpering. A cutaway shows McKenna randomly shoot the clearly dead dog in front of him in the head as well.
Nettles drives the RV back out onto the street and McKenna, carrying Rory, rushes to the vehicle, along with Coyle and Baxley. Casey attempts to take a sample from the dead dog but Williams picks her up and forces her to the RV, ignoring her constant protesting by quietly repeating, "Please shut up." McKenna checks Rory to see if he was injured, as well as notices that his mom is making him cut his hair short now, while Williams placates Casey by taking a piece of the dog's flesh that wound up on McKenna and giving it to her. McKenna has to try to calm down Coyle, who's freaking out over having just encounter some intergalactic hunting dogs, when the escaped Predator suddenly jumps on the roof of the RV. They all train their weapons on him, when Nettles, who's still in the driver's seat, looks out the window and gets grabbed and hoisted up. As he holds Nettles firmly, the Predator fires his shoulder cannon at one of the vehicles on the football field, blowing it up. Having shown what he's capable of, he places his targeting laser on Rory and motions for them to drop their weapons. Much to Nettles' horror as he screams in a panic, they put their weapons on the ground. Baxley's Tourette's picks this moment to come back, as he twitches uncontrollably and yells, "Cock! Cock! Fuck! Dick!" This distracts the Predator long enough for McKenna to grab his rifle and shoot the Predator, causing him to drop Nettles, who tumbles down to the ground. They all rush for the nearby middle school, McKenna following Casey and Rory inside, while the others guard the entrance when the Predator recovers. He jumps down to the road and targets them, prompting them to run as he blows up the school's entrance with a blast from his shoulder cannon. The three in the school are nearly knocked off their feet by the explosion and rush down the hall and up a flight of stairs. Reaching the top floor, Casey tells McKenna how the Predator ignored her at the lab when she was unarmed, while down below, he enters the school. McKenna decides that it might be better to give the Predator what he wants and Rory takes the large chip from the gauntlet and gives it to his father.
They then hear the sound of loud, thudding footsteps and look out the windows across from them to see a large shadow outside. McKenna makes Casey and Rory get behind him, while outside, the Loonies ready the RV for their escape. Inside, they back away from the window, when the Predator appears behind McKenna, grabs him by the throat, and slams him up against the small section of wall between two windows. Casey tries to help but the Predator effortlessly knocks both her and Rory to the floor. McKenna struggles to get free and has to keep his son from putting himself in danger when he grabs a handgun and points it at the Predator. Casey forces Rory to put the gun down, as McKenna pulls out the chip and shows it to the Predator, who looks at it and glances back at McKenna. He takes the chip from him, when something appears outside the window, followed by a large arm smashing through, grabbing the Predator, and pulling him through the wall, McKenna collapsing on the floor. Outside, the Loonies run for cover when the Predator's body come crashing down to the ground and rolls over to a parked car. As the Predator tries to get to his feet, a much larger and bulkier Predator hits the ground in front of him. Stomping over to the normal Predator, whom he towers over, he demands he tell him where "it" is. Defiantly, the smaller Predator fires with his shoulder cannon but misses. Brandishing his wrist blades, he rushes at the large Predator and slashes at him wildly, barely grazing him before he grabs his arm and snaps the blades easily. The humans rush to the RV and watch as the larger Predator easily tosses his smaller counterpart across from him. Everyone rushes into the RV, McKenna having to grab Rory and carry him on (there's a random shot of that pitbull from earlier rushing towards them but he's never seen again afterward), as the larger Predator slams the smaller one onto the roof of the parked car, incapacitating him and ensuring he can't escape. The humans finally all get into the RV, while the large Predator rips the small one's helmet off and smashes his face in with a powerful punch, sending green blood everywhere. He then grabs his head and rips it and his spine completely out, before tossing it aside. In the RV, they try to figure out what just happened, as Casey realizes the new Predator has an exoskeleton under his skin and wonders if the Predators are now hunting each other. Watching the RV drive off, the new Predator contacts others of his species, telling them he's eliminated the "traitor" and is now looking for the stolen cargo. He's asked if there are any human leads and mentions, "Several." As the police drive to the scene, the Predator stomps across the football field, spitting on one of the destroyed cars before activating his cloak.
At the McKenna household, some of Traeger's men have shown up and have taken over, trying to find a lead on McKenna himself, when Emily's cellphone vibrates. Answering it, she learns it's McKenna, who tells her that Rory's fine, and she quickly tells him to be safe before putting the phone in the sink and pouring water on it before the men can trace the call. When she's done, she tells one of the men, "You guys fucked with the wrong family." Elsewhere, Traeger, after being briefed on the new Predator, examines the dead one's corpse and his equipment. He figures this particular Predator was a rogue and the large one was sent to take him out. That's when he's told that, according to something Emily said, Rory has the operating system from the crashed spaceship, which was the chip in the wrist gauntlet. Traeger then decides they need to find Rory in order to find the ship and he and the man with him head out. Elsewhere, the group has taken refuge at an abandoned farm, where Baxley is trying to help Coyle get over a bout of PTSD from what he just saw, telling McKenna this happens sometimes. After having a moment with his son, assuring him that they're going to make it through this, McKenna is called into the RV by Casey when she hits upon something while examining the fluid in the vial she took. She tells him she figures the Predators take the spines of their prey not only for trophies but also to upgrade and hybridize themselves with the DNA of the deadliest creatures on the planets they visit. They then walk out of the RV, and after Casey makes the comment about the autism spectrum possibly being the next step in human evolution, they suddenly hear Nettles panicking and yelling. McKenna tells Casey to get inside, as he and the other Loonies meet Nettles at the entrance to the barnyard. He tells them to relax and yells for Casey, saying that something's been following them. He then reveals what it is: the Predator Dog that Williams shot in the head, which is now docile, whimpering and wagging his tail like a regular dog. Williams decides to try to finish the job but Nettles stops him. Casey comes out of the RV and, seeing and realizing what's going on, says she intends on studying the dog and tells them not to hurt him. But then, they hear a chopper approaching, and when it gets close enough, Nettles is able to see it's not civilian. They're about to arm and defend themselves but McKenna tells them they're not going to start a firefight while Rory's around and tells them to go find a helicopter of their own, along with some pyro. Williams takes Rory into the RV, while the other Loonies rush off to do what McKenna ordered, and Casey has the Predator Dog chase after a grenade that she throws, telling him to fetch. The helicopter lands and Traeger and his men disembark. Meeting McKenna and Casey at the farmyard entrance, Traeger demands McKenna tell him where the operating system is.
McKenna is shoved to the floor of a stable and kicked by one of Traeger's men, while Traeger himself interrogates Casey, revealing to her that they believe the dead Predator was on the run and there's something on his ship the larger one wants. When she asks why they're on Earth to begin with, Traeger tells her that they know mankind doesn't have much time left and so, they're upgrading themselves with as much human DNA as they can before humanity dies out. He also says they may be intending to take over Earth themselves when the time is right and that the dead Predator brought something to help mankind protect themselves. Back in the stable, McKenna is getting punched around, as they try to force him to tell them where the Predator operating system is, but he refuses to talk. Back at the McKenna household, Emily has had it with the men there, as they're searching and snooping around Rory's room, and is about to throw them out, when they hear a loud clattering upstairs. Brandishing their weapons, one of the men rushes upstairs, while his partner stays behind. The upgraded Predator suddenly comes smashing through the ceiling. The man upstairs fires on him from above but the Predator whips out his very long wrist blades, shoves them up through the ceiling, and impales the man right through the crotch before pulling the blades, all while not even looking at him. Emily runs for safety upstairs, while the Predator completely guts the other man. Finished with that, he retracts the blades and searches about the room, scanning anything that appears significant, when he spots a map Rory drew himself.
At that very moment, the guard keeping an eye on Rory in the RV at the farm notices he's drawing something, and when he asks what it is, he says it's a map. Looking closely at it, the man realizes its significance and calls in Traeger. While Casey attempts to free herself from being handcuffed to a chair in the barn, only to be faced with execution, Traeger has Rory taken to the waiting chopper. McKenna sees this from the stable and then overhears the men interrogating him making plans for golf the next day. He chuckles and says, "You two never read my file, did you?", leading to this exchange: "What makes you say that?" "'Cause you two morons are making plans for tomorrow." He also says they're making him lie to his son about not enjoying what he's about to do. He then grabs the one guy's wrist, swings his legs around, puts him into a headlock with his legs, rolls him over on his back, and shoots the other man with the handgun the guard is still holding, before turning his gun on himself. Casey is about to be shot, when the Predator Dog shows up out of nowhere, startling the mercenary and prompting him to shoot at him. The dog retches up the grenade she threw for him to fetch earlier, and when the guard goes for it, she swings her legs and knocks his out from under him. She follows that up by grabbing the chair out from under herself and smashing him in the back of the head and the middle of the back with it, before grabbing the grenade, pulling the pin out, and stuffing it in his backpack. Dragging the chair she's still cuffed to across the floor, she runs for the loft's railing and jumps over it, only for the chair to get snagged on it, leaving her dangling. The grenade then explodes, blowing the chair apart and she drops. Nearby, in the stables, Williams and another guard hear this and Williams takes the opportunity to kick the guy in the knee, grab his rifle, and smash him in the face with it, knocking him to the floor. McKenna comes in, holding the guard he injured at gunpoint, and makes him cut the ties on Williams' wrists. McKenna asks what they should do with the guard and Williams shoves him right through one of the stables, bashing his head in a plank of wood; McKenna then comments, "Sorry, buddy, that was a dumb question." In the barn, Casey picks her lock, when the Predator Dog comes downstairs, only to run off when he hears McKenna, who then kicks the door open. He asks, "Can I interest you in getting the fuck out of here?", leading to this really stupid retort: "'Getting the fuck out of here' is my middle name." Just as they're about to run outside, McKenna's stomach gurgles loudly...
...and in the next shot, he rushes out of the RV, the sound of a toilet flushing coming from the inside, as he just passed the cloaking device through his sphincter (can you imagine what he had to do to in order to get it after he crapped it out?). He, Casey, and Williams get organized and load up with what's necessary. They hear the sound of an approaching helicopter and McKenna exclaims, "Jesus Tap-dancing Christ!", when he says that the other Loonies commandeered a news chopper with two women painted on the side. Deciding beggars can't be choosers, they all pile into the helicopter and take off. On the way, Baxley admits he doesn't give much for their chances, but McKenna tells them that they're both soldiers and survivors. Nettles flies after the chopper carrying Rory, honing in on its frequency, while down on the ground, the Predator Dog follows after them. Up ahead, an installation has been set up around the spaceship's crash site in a quarry, with a makeshift electric fence used to keep out intruders. A convoy of vehicles arrives at the place, with Traeger disembarking from one with Rory. Traeger attempts to use reverse psychology to persuade Rory into helping them get inside the ship, but Rory knows what he's doing and responds, "I can do that too: don't go fuck yourself." Laughing, Traeger has Rory walk ahead of him, passing by some men who are setting up a translator unit that's connected to the ship, as they head to its main hatch. Nearby, McKenna has his sniper sights trained on Traeger and is amazed when he sees Rory manage to activate the ship's controls and open the door. Followed by two other men, Traeger and Rory walk inside the ship, Traeger telling one of them to put the translator into the ship's mainframe in order to download it all. They also note the small pod containing something nearby, which Traeger proclaims to be their property now. Traeger is then contacted over the comm and told there's motion nearby. He orders a team be sent to investigate, when Rory tells him it's his dad, who's coming to save him. Traeger, however, isn't impressed, saying if it is McKenna, he's incredibly dumb for tripping wire sensors. But then, he realizes McKenna may actually be creating a diversion, and he turns out to be right, as McKenna, who's using the cloaking device, takes out the one guard, knocks Traeger to the floor, and materializes, pointing a rifle at the remaining guard. The guard isn't afraid, as it's a tranquilizer gun, but McKenna shoots him right in the eye with it. He then hands the rifle to Rory, before forcing Traeger to his feet, putting a handgun to his back, and making him walk to the door.
Outside, one of Traeger's men is taken out by Nettles, and he and Casey take cover behind a vehicle, while Baxley and Coyle dispense with two more behind another vehicle, Baxley proving himself to be quite lethal with a knife when he stabs and slices them in the throat. McKenna and Rory exit the ship, the former still holding Traeger at gunpoint and warning him to keep quiet. His men see this and train their rifles on them, as they walk out in front of the vehicles. McKenna tells Traeger to order his men to put down their weapons, as the Loonies keep their weapons trained on the scene from various vantage points. Rather than comply with McKenna, Traeger tells his men to shoot Rory's knees out if McKenna doesn't put his weapon down in the next ten seconds. McKenna warns him and the others that the Loonies have the place covered from every angle but Traeger says he doesn't care and starts the countdown. From up on a cliff, Lynch watches through the scope of a sniper rifle, when the Predator targets his left arm and blows it clean off. He lets out a yell of pain that echoes through the quarry, getting everyone's attention, and fires a flare as a warning. While McKenna is distracted, Traeger manages to punch himself loose and run for cover with his men. McKenna and Rory also run for cover, the former joining the Loonies in taking out the mercenaries. Amid the ensuing firefight, McKenna escorts his son to safety behind a parked car and gives him the cloaking device, telling him to use it if he has to. Williams manages to keep some men pinned down from his vantage point, when the cloaked Predator's silhouette appears on the cliff-face near the ship. Fired upon, he jumps down onto a car's roof, crushing it, and grabs and throws one man into the electric fence. Another man fires on him, causing his cloaking device to short out and deactivate, while three men drive towards him in a hoodless vehicle, firing on him. He jumps clear over another vehicle and fires a long, harpoon like projectile from his gauntlet, which goes completely through a man across from him, and sticks into the truck behind him. He pulls its line taut and it decapitates the men in the vehicle when they drive through it, sending the vehicle crashing through the gate and flipping over. The Predator retracts his weapon and walks to the ship undisturbed, everyone hiding from him. Getting back to the conflict between the people, Traeger tells McKenna they're outnumbered by one, when Williams instantly evens the playing field by taking out one of his men. Traeger then says he just wants the ship but they don't buy it, while Casey worries about what the Predator is doing inside the ship.
A very loud, unpleasant howling sound, as well as feedback, echoes through the microphones connected to the translator unit, and the Predator begins speaking to them through it. He tells them, "I have enjoyed watching you kill each other. I came here to destroy this vessel. You cannot have it. What you can do is run. I detect one among you who is a true warrior. The one called McKenna. He will be your leader. He will be my prize. I offer time advantage. Go." As they wonder what he means by time advantage, he shows them when a countdown appears on the main screen, starting at 7:31. With that, everyone comes out from behind their cover and decide to work together. Traeger says they need to stay together, otherwise the Predator will pick them off one at a time. They hear a soldier yell they can't get the vehicles started, meaning the Predator hacked into them. McKenna advises them to get to the helicopter, but before they move out, he tells Traeger that, when it's over, they're going to finish their personal disagreement and Traeger takes him up on the challenge. Everyone arms themselves, Traeger placing the Predator equipment into his own bag, when he's startled by the Predator Dog suddenly showing up. He pulls his gun on him but Casey and Nettles stop him, Casey again tricking the dog with a game of fetch, tossing something in the back of a truck, with Coyle locking him in. Everyone then runs for it, as the Predator finishes his business in the ship and disembarks. The group make their way into the woods, Traeger brandishing a shoulder cannon, when the countdown reaches zero and the Predator presses a button on a device. The spaceship explodes in a massive fireball, blowing open the back door of the one truck and allowing the Predator Dog to escape. Seeing and hearing the explosion in the forest, the group realizes their time is up and pick up the pace. Traeger removes the Predator helmet from the bag and asks Rory how he made it work before, but he tells him it reacted on its own when threatened.
Hearing something in the treetops above him, one of the soldiers decides to use the deadly Frisbee-like weapon employed by the Predators and throws it up into the branches. Because he doesn't have a safe way of catching it when it returns, the man loses his hand, the weapon sticking it in a tree trunk. The man yells in pain and Traeger pulls a bullet in his head before the Predator can hone in on them. Instantly, another man is snared by his foot and hoisted up into the trees, firing his weapon wildly and nearly hitting Traeger. The Predator literally bites the man's head off and spits it out. The men fire on him as he recoils back into the branches, Traeger blasting at him with the shoulder cannon, and everyone falls back as they continue firing. Williams directs them to a path that leads to a clearing, saying that Lynch left some pyro up there to cover their retreat. That's when Baxley tells the other to go set the pyro up, while he and Coyle act as bait, much to Coyle's derision. The others, however, are okay with this plan, and head on ahead, while the two men get into position. They take cover behind the trees and wait for the Predator to show himself. After some tense moments where they hear rustling in the trees, Coyle decides he can't wait and shoots up into the branches, yelling for the Predator. He tells Baxley he's giving him a chance to escape, when a blast hits nearby, forcing them to the ground. Lying on their backs, they fire into the trees, as the cloaked Predator bounces across them. They run to where the others are waiting and get into cover with them, waiting for the Predator to appear. When he does show up, everyone waits for him to get close enough to where they can shoot the explosive charges, but he, instead, targets a man far back into the woods and fires a sharp projectile, slicing him completely in half and sending blood and guts flying everywhere. They all open fire on him but he uses a miniature laser cannon and fires at a stump Casey and Nettles are using for cover, forcing them to jump to safety. Traeger lets Casey use the Predator helmet he has to fire back on the Predator when he attacks, but he hits it and sends it flying out of her hands. Regardless, when it hits the ground, its defense system activates and it fires, hitting the Predator's hand and sending him flying back.
Seeing he's in position, McKenna yells for them to hit the explosive charges, and after they do, Williams fires a flare that hits one of the charges and sets the Predator up on fire. He staggers around, screeching in pain, and they continue firing on him, Coyle moving in to get a closer shot. The Predator fires his laser cannon erratically, knocking Coyle to the ground and prompting Baxley to run at the Predator and jump on him, stabbing at him wildly. This is when Traeger ends up blowing his own head off when Casey yells his name and he turns to look at her. Baxley keeps stabbing the Predator at every spot he can get at, when the alien grabs and flings him at a tree, impaling him on a short, sharp branch. Everyone fires on the still burning Predator, when he shoots a projectile that slices open Coyle's stomach. The Predator falls into a ravine with water on the bottom, while Coyle collapses to the ground, bleeding out. He and the still alive Baxley look at each other and, realizing there's no hope for either of them, they each point handguns and shoot each other in the head in a double mercy kill. The others continue running, when a laser blasts in their midst sends them flying. Casey and Rory take cover behind a tree, as the Predator emerges from the smoke and growls, "McKenna." Deciding to go mano a mano with him, McKenna stomps towards the Predator, calling him out, and is grabbed by the throat, only to be flung aside. Casey fires on the Predator but she gets backhanded away and he moves in on Rory, picking him up by the neck of his coat and carried off; Rory drops the cloaking device on the ground when he's hoisted up. Seeing his son carried off, McKenna is distraught and confused, when Casey tells him the Predator wants Rory because of his significance to human evolution. Together with Nettles and Williams, they rush after him. The Predator reaches his own ship and puts Rory in a small cargo container. He then de-cloaks his ship and prepares to take off, as the humans rush to a cliff overlooking the ship. McKenna runs and jumps off, landing and sliding on the ship's hull, followed by Williams and Nettles, the latter of whom has to be pushed off. Unable to make the jump, Casey fires on the ship as it starts to lift off, with the others following suit on the hull. Casey empties all of her weapon's bullets on the ship and then fires its rocket launcher, only to get blasted back onto the ground by the recoil and watch helplessly as it heads up past the cliff.
The ship starts to angle itself upwards, causing the men to lose their balance and slide across the hull, having to grab onto each other for support. It angles itself to its side, causing the men to slide further along and strain to grab onto something, with McKenna finding himself coming close to hanging over the edge. Nettles helps pull him back up to a safer spot, while on the ground, Casey tries to keep up with the ship, to no avail. Inside the ship, Rory uses the walkie-talkie he has to try to warn his father that the Predator is about to activate a force field, but the field starts appearing in sections right in front of them. McKenna and Williams run and try to dive under it, but while McKenna succeeds, Williams falls on top of the shield. The shield encloses and traps Nettles, while he futilely shoots at it, and slices his legs off, sending his torso slipping off. Williams dives down on the shield but finds there's no way he can get through it, when he spies the engine across from him. He and McKenna exchange looks and he laughs before running and allowing himself to be sucked into the engine, firing on it before being torn to shreds. Doing so causes the engine to blow out and, as the ship heads towards the ground, McKenna crawls along the hull until he gets to the edge and leaps off, hitting the side of the shield and sliding underneath the ship, managing to find and slip through an opening. He activates a control panel and opens a hatch that allows him access to the ship's cockpit. He fires on the Predator, who then swings around and fires the line from before. McKenna dives but the line snags his foot and the Predator strings him upside down from the ceiling. The ship comes down and starts smashing through some treetops, forcing the Predator to focus on getting his ship under control. Falling to the floor, McKenna manages to shoot off the ceiling panel he's tied to, but as the ship comes down through the trees, he loses his balance and slides across the floor, falling out of the opening he came through. The ceiling panel gets wedged in the opening, stopping him from falling to his death, but he's still hanging outside the ship and getting smacked along tree branches. The panel gets sheered in two and he falls to the ground, though it again saves his life when it gets snagged in the branches, suspending him just above the ground.
The ship comes down through more trees before finally slamming into a bog. McKenna manages to free himself from the snare, while the impact from the crash frees Rory from the pod he was being kept in. The Predator disembarks and wades through the water to the shore, as McKenna hides among the shrubbery and fires a shot, which the Predator counters by firing a laser blast from his wrist gauntlet, which barely misses McKenna as he leaps over a gap. The blast also causes a dead tree to fall and nearly miss landing on him by inches. McKenna crawls along the ground and takes cover behind one of the fallen trees, when he looks at the ship and sees Rory open up a hatch. He yells for his son, but the Predator finds and roars a challenge at him. He points and shoots, managing to blow off one of his mandibles. Screeching in both pain and rage, the Predator leaps and lands right in front of McKenna, before grabbing and flinging him across the ground. Rory watches as his father then crawls along the ground, when the Predator starts advancing on him. Suddenly, Casey, using the cloaking device, materializes on a ledge behind the Predator (again, how did she catch up to them so quick?) and jumps onto his shoulders, firing a volley of shots into his head as he struggles. He manages to throw her off but the Predator staggers backwards, holding his head, and McKenna rushes and knocks him over a ledge, only to fall with him. That's when the Predator Dog shows up again, this time bringing an explosive charge with him. Seeing the Predator tumble towards the ship, Rory ducks back inside and slides underneath its hull, hitting a control panel that activates a section of the shield, slicing off the Predator's right arm in the process. Seeing her chance, Casey tosses the charge to McKenna, who runs and dives for it, avoiding getting blasted. He falls into the water and searches around, finding the Predator's severed arm with the still functioning gauntlet. After the Predator throws the dog aside, McKenna latches the charge onto the harpoon-like weapon on the gauntlet, Casey arms it remotely, and he fires, getting the Predator in the leg with it. The charge explodes in a massive blast and the Predator, now missing all of his limbs, tumbles over the edge and falls to the ground below. Running to the shore and grabbing his handgun, McKenna points his gun at the mortally wounded Predator, asking, "What are you?" The Predator says something in his language but McKenna grumbles, "Shut the fuck up," and empties his handgun into his head, finishing him off.
The battle over, McKenna looks over a bundle of keepsakes from each of the Loonies: a bottle of Nettles' medication, a Tootsie roll Coyle had on him, a playing card from Lynch, a little hula girl from Baxley, and a pack of cigarettes from Williams. McKenna tells Rory, "These are the ones that no one's gonna remember. Just us. What do you say we put 'em to rest?" Casey adds one last item to the bundle, the tinfoil unicorn Nettles made back at the motel, before McKenna folds it up. The final scene takes place at a new lab for Project Stargazer, where McKenna arrives, officially reinstated and in uniform. He meets Hiroshi Yamada, the new head of the project, who tells him the cargo the initial Predator brought with him survived the destruction of his ship, the pod having ejected before the ship exploded. He guides McKenna into a control room overlooking where the pod is being kept and monitored. It's then revealed that Rory is working there as well, given his amazing gifts, and has a Predator helmet hooked up to a computer. As they watch, the pod begins to emit steam and the computers in the room are all hit with interference. The lights flicker and the electrical equipment around the pod starts to spark and short out, sending the scientists running as the guards approach the pod. Rory then tells his father the pod sent him a message and, decoding it, he finds the object inside it is called "the Predator Killer." McKenna has his son removed from the room, while down below, the guards have their guns trained on the pod, as men move in and remove the lid from it. The steam starts to clear and something covered in goo slowly rises up. A scientist approaches it and scans it for radiation. He determines that whatever it is, it's dormant... when the object launches out of the pod, attaches to his left arm, and starts to envelop his body. He staggers and yells in a panic, only to then find himself totally decked out in a high-tech combat suit, complete with very long wrist blades, turrets on the back with laser targeting, and a jetpack. It then quickly regresses back into the small unit it was before and detaches from his arm, falling to the floor. While the soldiers see to the shaken scientist, Yamada asks, "What the hell is that?", to which McKenna answers, "That's my new suit, Bubba. I hope they got it in a 42 long." (And Newt Cox's mind just exploded in his skull.)
As far as the music score by Henry Jackman goes, the only parts of it I really remember are the many times he redoes Alan Silvestri's cues from the first two Predator movies; other than that, little of the original music he created for the film resonates with me, except for maybe this big, heroic fanfare he throws in here and there, an overly sentimental piece for Rory in his introductory scene, and a sort of memorial piece for when the Loonies are commemorated at the end of the movie that hearkens back to the Taps-like piece Silvestri originally composed. I wish I could say more about the music, as Jackman has scored a lot of big movies, like the latter two Captain America movies for Marvel Studios and Kong: Skull Island, but when I think about it, as much as I enjoy those movies themselves, I can't recall the music he did for them as being particularly memorable. So, I guess it's only appropriate that The Predator followed suit.
