Predator: What Every Character Death Means – Theory Explained

A theory about the original Predator film argues that each character’s death is metaphorically linked to their performance of toxic masculinity.

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The original Predator film is really just a long string of character deaths leading up to the climax, and one theory explains the nuanced meaning behind each one. Since Predator is a classic 1980s staple of the horror/sci-fi genre, it’s naturally attracted a dedicated following that knows each moment of the film backward and forward. With this level of attention to detail, intricate theories arise to help explain the deeper thematic elements behind Predator’s violent, action-packed story.

Predator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer. Dutch leads an elite military team specializing in rescue ops, which includes Mac Eliot (Bill Duke), Blain Cooper (Jesse Ventura), Billy Sole (Sonny Landham), Jorge “Poncho” Ramirez (Richard Chaves), and Rick Hawkins (Shane Black). Also along for the ride are Colonel Al Dillon (Carl Weathers) and Anna Gonsalves (Elpidia Carillo). Over the course of the film, the Predator picks off every man one by one until only Dutch is left to fight the alien hunter in an epic twenty-minute showdown with handmade weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Kevin Peter Hall plays the movie’s titular monster, though initially, Jean-Claude Van Damme played the Predator – he was fired shortly into production for a variety of reasons.

The majority of the protagonists die because that’s simply what the Predator does: he hunts and kills humans. But a Reddit theory contends that there’s a deeper metaphor behind the slaughter. According to this theory, the Predator systematically tests and strips away each man’s masculinity in a manner that fits his specific performance of it. Reading Predator as a critique of toxic masculinity is particularly fascinating, mostly because it’s known and rather beloved for boasting a cast of extremely tough beefy men, with Schwarzenegger as the money-making centerpiece. While it’s more intuitive to read satirical movies like Fight Club as the critiques they are, Predator takes some explaining. Here’s how the theory applies to each man in the film, and how well it actually holds up.

Hawkins

Hawkins is the first man to die, and he’s memorable mostly for being the only guy with glasses, and the one who makes badly delivered jokes about the size of his girlfriend’s vagina that never seem to land right. The Predator snatches him, rips his guts out for his comrades to find, then strings him up in a tree where he’s seen only by the camera, but never found. According to the masculinity theory, Predator’s Yautja hunter mocks Hawkins and his dirty jokes by tearing the guy an enormous hole of his own, only in his stomach. It also contends that Hawkins is the first to die because he’s the weakest man in the group. This death theory makes decent sense, even if it’s a bit hard to see the hole in Hawkins’s body because of the camera angle. Hawkins isn’t as burly as the other soldiers, and it seems like his jokes are an attempt to show off his masculinity in a different way, which the Predator makes him pay dearly for.

Blain

Blain is certainly the most aggressive masculine showboat of the bunch, and gets mercilessly picked off by the Predator’s deleted spear weapon and plasma cannon. Blain chews tobacco aggressively, telling the others “a bunch of slack-jawed f****ts around here. This stuff will make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus, just like me,” when they refuse to partake. He also totes around an excessively large machine gun, which is clearly meant to stand in for what really makes him such a tyrannosaurus. The Reddit theory holds that Blain’s specific death, which leaves behind a cauterized and supposedly bloodless wound, is a mocking confirmation of his earlier tough-guy line “I ain’t got time to bleed.” This doesn’t work perfectly, however, as there’s actually a clear spray of blood when Blain is first shot. That said, there’s no doubt that Blain gets violently penetrated by the Predator’s weapons, taking him down a few pegs from his self-proclaimed “sexual tyrannosaurus” status in a fitting way.

Mac

After picking up Blain’s minigun to kill the Predator, which of course doesn’t work, Mac becomes increasingly unstable due to the death of his friend, muttering to himself and running off on his own. He’s already unpredictable and dangerously prone to violence, which the masculinity theory cites as his greatest toxic offense. Thus, the Predator killing Mac with a direct headshot is meant to strip him of his most prized masculine trait: his apparent madness, which works as an intimidation tactic. While this piece of the theory is a bit more cerebral (literally), it still holds up alongside the others. It’s also worth noting that Mac’s death happens at one of the closest ranges seen, making it more intimate than some others. Because Mac feels a very personal hatred towards Predator’s alien monster after Blain’s death, this feels like the hunter’s way of acknowledging their deeper connection, even while stamping out Mac’s masculinity along with his life.

Dillon

Dillon, of course, is the man who gets everybody else into the Predator mess to begin with, as he selects Dutch’s team for a mission without telling them what’s really going on. Though he’s now a pencil-pushing CIA agent, Dillon still insists on coming along with the team to call the shots and achieve his real objective. The theory that the Predator’s kills are tailored to each man’s toxic masculinity cites Dillon’s right arm as his main downfall. After losing an arm wrestle to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch during Predator’s opening, Dillon gets the same arm shot off by the Predator right before he’s killed. Clearly, this is symbolic, but the theory doesn’t fully explain why. It’s not Dillon’s arm that’s toxic: it’s his need to be in control and do whatever he wants at others’ expense. The Predator’s kill doesn’t seem to address this directly. However, if Dutch and Dillon’s arm wrestle is meant to symbolize that Dillon can’t always get his way, even when he tries to, then the visual link between his loss to Dutch and his loss to the Predator could be how the alien hunter is stripping Dillon’s masculinity away and putting him in his place, just as Dutch does.

Poncho

Poncho may be the first Predator movie’s least iconic team member. Much quieter than Hawkins, Blain, and Mac, but not as badass as Billy, his main contributions are being pretty competent with firearms and obediently carrying out Dutch’s every order. Poncho is taken down first by a falling log caused by the Predator’s plasma blast, then gets sniped right out of Dutch’s arms later on as the major drags his gravely injured body towards the rescuing chopper. The Predator-as-manhood-judge theory weakens significantly when it comes to Poncho. Other than shooting and blowing stuff up at the guerilla camp, which is his job, Poncho doesn’t perform any especially aggressive masculinity. The theory does note that Poncho’s unfortunate meeting with a swinging log is an ironic nod to his earlier line to Blain, “you got time to duck?” but fails to find a convincing explanation for why Poncho deserves to die in his particular way. In fact, it nearly breaks the Predator’s honor code that Poncho is killed after being injured; only the fact that he’s still armed when he dies makes it permissible.

Billy

Finally, there’s Billy, the eagle-eyed expert tracker who is the first to intuit the presence of the Predator and the only one who seems to understand how it operates, aside from Dutch. Billy, unlike most of the other men, is distinctly not participating in typical toxic masculinity, as he even admits “I’m afraid” when Poncho notices him staring pensively into the jungle. As the theory goes, because Billy doesn’t swagger or show off, he’s given an honorable off-screen death instead of a gory, punitive one. It’s true that Predator doesn’t show Billy’s death scene in full, but it does show him preparing for battle by casting aside his weapons and even his shirt, instead making a stand with only a machete as the Predator approaches. Presumably, this is the way the Predator likes to fight. Its motives are all about honor, so it makes sense that the creature would respect Billy’s decision to fight man-to-monster and thus not metaphorically or literally castrate him, as it does to other men in the film.

The theory does go on to contend that Billy’s death is still somewhat of a punishment because he refuses to admit defeat by running away like Dutch. However, Dutch doesn’t exactly run away, either. He hides from the Predator with mud camouflage at first, but ultimately lures the creature to come and fight him to the death, in a similar fashion to Billy. And Dutch doesn’t come out alive for lack of the Predator trying to kill him. Thus, it seems like the retribution of toxic masculinity is over for the Predator once it kills Dillon. The logic for Poncho’s death is tenuous, and Billy and Dutch seem to meet the Predator’s approval as worthy men, rather than its scorn. Ultimately, the theory that every character’s death in Predator is a metaphorical trial of their masculinity holds up, even if some men pass where others fail.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/predator-movie-character-deaths-killed-meaning-explained/