The success of the first Predator convinced Twentieth Century Fox to produce a sequel to the film. From a jungle to a metropolis, the new Predator chooses a fictitious future Los Angeles as its hunting ground. Stan Winston Studios and Kevin Peter Hall returned to bring another Intergalactic Hunter to the screen in Predator 2, updating its design according to the director’s request. Stephen Hopkins wanted a “more urban and hip design” for the new character, fitting with the film’s setting — a concrete jungle. “The director wanted this Predator to be more colorful, with flashier, more intricate weapons,” said Shane Mahan in The Winston Effect. “The design of the Predator’s head was also altered a bit to make it look like it was a different individual – the same species, but a different character. It was steeper and a little shallower. We didn’t just want to pull out the old mold from the first movie and paint it differently, because we thought audiences would detect that.” Despite that, the creature obviously had to mantain the general outline of its predecessor. The special effects team found inspiration in the wide phenotypical diversity found in reptiles, and in particular snakes. “The concept is the same,” explained Stan Winston, “the difference is this is a different individual. A different individual of the same species. There’s a snake, a snake, a snake, but they’re all different, the coloring is different, different parts of their characteristics, facial structures, many differences.”
Concept art of the new Predator head, by Mark ‘Crash’ McCreery.
The new design was conceived by Mark ‘Crash’ McCreery — an admirer of Winston’s effects, in his first film work — a designer who would eventually become the Studios’ main concept artist. The Predator’s appearence was inspired by snakes in both its texture and color scheme. Its head was refurbished with “a horned brow ridge,” as well as other cosmetic additions: thorn-like protrusions were added to its mandibles, the lower ones of which feature evident gums — as opposed to the first Predator’s, which just blended with its outer skin layer. The Hunter was also given a forked tongue, a concept originally found in Winston’s drawings (as well as Wayne Strong’s maquette) for the first film, but eventually excised for reasons of time and budget. Said problems, that were fundamentally dominant in the creation process of the first Predator, were mostly absent; the special effects team was allowed much more creative freedom. “Every time you do something,” Shane Mahan said, “you come out of it knowing what you would do differently next time, if you got a chance. On Predator 2, we got that chance to improve.”
The Special Effects team built two suits, a stunt head, and a hero head — as well as an inset puppet torso and head of the creature, used for certain scenes of the film where the Predator is seen talking. It was built due to the necessity of showing mouth motion that would actually suggest speech — an action that the basic mouth puppeteering of the hero head could not deliver. The new mask followed the same idea of its predecessor, but displayed a more angular design combined with a mainly bronze-based color scheme. The new armor featured more ridged patterns, and generally remained consistent with the color scheme of the mask. Much like the forked tongue, several weapon ideas proposed for the first film — but eventually discarded — were recycled for the new project. Accompanying the wristblades and cannon — which was refurbished with a more streamlined appearence and a ridged design — a whole new set of weapons aided the Predator in Predator 2. The Hunter’s spear — or combi-stick — was built in three versions: hero, stunt, and a telescoping spear. The smart disc and the net launcher could attach to different parts of the Predator’s armor, located, respectively, in the right thigh and right calf. The spear-gun, another recycled idea, was housed in the left gauntlet.
“You can’t see the eyes of the Demon… till him come callin’.”
In the climax of the film, Harrigan uses the Predator’s own disk to chop his left arm off, disabling the gauntlet. Two stunt ‘chopped’ arm pieces were built; the left arm-less Predator was played by stuntman David Smith. The Los Angeles cop then proceeds to follow the Predator down to its ship — another idea that was cut from the first film’s finale. It is here that the final battle between man and Predator takes place — with Harrigan ultimately stabbing the Predator mortally with the disk. With the Hunter dead (or so it seems — the Predator is seen moving its mandibles), his entire clan reveals itself to the cop. For this sequence — the most expensive in the entire film — Stan Winston Studios built 9 additional Predator suits; single artists worked on each Predator suit, giving them their personal touches and signature traits. Each Predator was distinguished by its texture, color scheme, armor style, and mask (or lack thereof). Unlike the first film, in fact, the sculpture of the Predator featured only minor armor parts; this enabled it to be moulded multiple times, and each mould to be ‘customized’ in different ways. As such, a wide array of creative liberties and arrangements was allowed on the crew’s part. For the rest, specific head and mask designs (5 of the Predators appear masked) were individually sculpted and moulded.
Previously unused mask designs made their way into the screen, including the original mask prop of the hunter of the first film. Said mask was labeled as ‘Gort’, after the nickname of a garage seller that had previously bought the prop. The first Predator’s mask was also recycled and worn by one of the members of the Tribe. One of the Predators also displays a peculiar, naginata-like weapon — a thin spear with Predator blades mounted on top. The clan was played by a team of basketball players.
A crewmember working on the Elder Predator’s head.
The Elder Predator was actually sculpted with the original creature moulds as a base. Its details and textures were modified to give the character a more worn-out, senior look — additional quills, thorns, and plates. The exposed lower mandible gums of the new design are also present. “We changed the structure and the look of it a bit,” said Shane Mahan of the Elder, “and broke a tusk on it to make it look older. It was fun to go back and do that guy again.” The creature was given a self-targeting shoulder cannon, and a machete-esque cutting weapon. The Elder Predator was played by Kevin Peter Hall in his last role as the Intergalactic Hunter; the actor unfortunately died after a contaminated blood transfusion in 1991.
For more images of the Predator and its tribe, visit the Monster Gallery.
For an insight on the visual effects techniques behind the camouflaging effect of the Predator, visit the Appendix [COMING SOON].
Next: Part III: Alien Vs. Predator [COMING SOON].
