The Predator (2018) Review
Alexander Demitruis


The movie opens in outer space, where a Predator/Hunter ship is being chased by a much larger one. The smaller ship manages to escape into a wormhole, and ends up crash landing on Earth. In a forest in Mexico, Army Ranger sniper Quinn McKenna is currently part of a hostage rescue mission involving a drug cartel. Just as he’s about to hit his target, the Predator ship makes its landing. Quinn comes across a pod from the ship, where he finds some of the Predator’s armor, along with its cloaking device. As he looks through the pod, his teammate Dupree finds him. Soon after, they find their other teammate Sapir hanging from a tree with most of his flesh removed. An invisible Predator appears, and kills Dupree just before Quinn uses the Predator’s gauntlet to knock it out, as well as slice Sapir’s body in half, pouring his blood onto the Predator and revealing it to him. Soon after the encounter, a government team by the name of Project Stargazer, led by Will Traeger, arrives to retrieve the Predator. The next day, Quinn has the Predator’s equipment mailed home to his ex-wife and son, and swallows the cloaking device before he is captured by the government as well.

The next scene then shows us Quinn’s son, Rory, who has mild autism. At school, some kids pull the fire alarm while Rory had been watching some other students play chess. While everyone else had left, the fire alarm’s noise gave Rory a sensory overload. When the alarm finally shuts off, Rory rearranges all the knocked over chess pieces on their boards. Upon returning home, he finds the package that Quinn had sent home, and opens it. Inside of it, he finds a small device that he becomes fascinated with. After activating it, a much larger and superior Predator that had been chasing the other one is able to lock onto the device’s location and begins heading for Earth.

Back with Quinn, he is given a psych evaluation before being placed on a bus with five other government prisoners by the names of Nebraska, Baxley, Coyle, Nettles, and Lynch.

Meanwhile, a biologist by the name of Casey Bracket is brought to  Project Stargazer lab to see the sedated Predator. After studying him, they find that he has traces of human DNA in them. Soon after, the Alpha Predator’s ship is said to be traveling somewhere close to the lab, and the original Predator wakes up and kills a large majority of the guards and scientists. As he retrieves most of his gear, he spots Casey hiding, but spares her before leaving.

As the Predator makes his escape, Quinn and the others hijack their bus and head off to try and kill him, while Casey chases after him as well with a tranquilizer gun. She hops on top of the bus and attempts to take the shot, but only manages to shot herself in the foot. The Predator blows out one of bus’s tires, so the groups gets away on some motorcycles, Quinn taking Casey with them. While the regular Predator escapes in a bus heading into bed, the Alpha Predator’s ship lands and sends out two Predator Dogs to go hunt.

Quinn and the rest of the group hide out in a motel where they wait for Casey to wake up. When she does, she thinks they mean to harm her, and grabs a nearby shotgun, only to learn that it is unloaded. She attempts to leave, but Quinn informs her that Project Stargazer is trying to kill due to a vial she is carrying that was previously on the original Predator’s person. This gives her no choice but to stay with the rest of the group. Quinn soon figures that Predator is going to retrieve the rest of his equipment, which is at Emily’s house. Upon arriving there, they find that Rory has gone trick-or-treating using the Predator’s mask, hoping not to be recognized by bullies. They still manage to spot him, and begin harassing him. Rory knocks on a house, receiving no response at first. The man living there comes out and taunts him, throwing an object at his head. This causes the mask to activate, sending out a blast that kills the man destroys his house. Quinn and Casey manage to see the resulting explosion and head in its direction.

Rory flees to a football field, where the Predator Dogs have caught up to him. Just before they can attack, Quinn and the rest of the group arrive. They manage to kill one of them by throwing a grenade into its mouth, while taking out the other with a shot to the head. This does not kill it, but makes it no longer hostile. Suddenly, the original Predator arrives and grabs Nettles and orders the others to drop their weapons. While the others comply, Quinn quickly picks his back up and fires, causing the Predator to drop Nettles. They all run into a middle school, but the Predator quickly corners Quinn. As he attempts to return the Predator’s gear to him, the Alpha Predator arrives and pulls him out of a window. As everyone is escaping, the two aliens fight. The Alpha Predator is victorious, smashing the smaller Predator’s face in and ripping out his skull and spine. Later on, Traeger finds the Predator’s remains, deducing that the Alpha Predator is after something that he took, which is most likely on the Predator’s ship.

The group take refuge at a barn, but are quickly found