Filming ‘Predator’ Was a Living Nightmare

The Big Picture

Table of Contents

Toggle

• The production of the original 1987 Predator film was plagued with difficulties, including challenging shoots in harsh exterior locations.
• Jean-Claude Van Damme was initially cast as the Predator but departed due to conflicting accounts of discomfort and clashes with the production team.
• The making of Predator was so troubled that the film was almost shut down, leading to a rush to complete the project in the final days of shooting.

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” So goes one of the most famous lines from the classic Western feature The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In the case of the Predator film franchise, the “legend” surrounding this saga of sci-fi movies largely revolves around all the love people have for that original film. A string of subpar sequels (save for the excellent 2022 feature Prey) have only made it exceedingly easier to appreciate the glorious craftsmanship and sheer fun on display throughout that initial 1987 Predator title. No wonder the “legend” of this inaugural motion picture solely surrounds the quality of the final product rather than all the torment it took to make the movie.

Behind that legendarily influential movie, though, was a production riddled with problems that not even the beefy muscles of Arnold Schwarzenegger could deflect. Many of these issues stemmed from the inevitable problems of shooting a VFX-heavy genre movie like Predator in uncontrollable exterior locales. Other hurdles, though, stemmed from the difficulties of getting the cast and tone of such a unique entry in the world of 1980s action cinema just right. The legend of Predator is mighty, but it took a Herculean effort to pull off this classic monster movie.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Hated Filming ‘Predator’ Outside

Every movie is a challenge to a certain extent. It’s always difficult when you assemble a group of cast and crew members together and need them all to work together for a common goal, just like it’s often a bit cumbersome to get a lot of different people to coalesce for a singular objective under any circumstances. However, those difficulties get exacerbated when you have to shoot your movie in relentlessly unforgiving exterior locations. Rather than being on a soundstage where you can at least control the “weather” and lighting, projects like Predator are captured in authentic locations that nobody could exert power over. Even the most formidable Hollywood executive would be at the mercy of mother nature!

So it was with Predator, which was helmed by director John McTiernan and shot in locations around Mexico. Per Movie-Locations, the cast and crew were specifically near a popular beach resort by the name of Puerto Vallarta, thus ensuring that they weren’t as isolated from the rest of the world as, say, the cast and crew members on the nightmarish shoot of Apocalypse Now. Still, there were some major hurdles with shooting out in the backdrops of Predator, namely in any terrain involving the jungle or waterfalls. In his autobiography Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, Arnold Schwarzenegger recalls how any of the final scenes in the film where his character is naked and hiding in the mud from the Predator were a chilly nightmare to execute.

All that shivering led to Schwarzenegger dubbing the shoot “an ordeal” rather than something he’d willingly go through again. Such anecdotes reflect the hardships of shooting big projects like Predator in incredibly practical terms. Going out into the world and filming in authentic environments (and thus in brutally harsh temperatures) often results in a more tactile movie that can make the unbelievable tangible. However, it can also result in actors undergoing tremendously arduous experiences that they never forget for all the wrong reasons! Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger’s struggles with the cold were not the only instance of the Predator shoot going down such disastrous roads.

Jean-Claude Van Damme Almost Played the Predator

If there was any aspect of making Predator that proved especially challenging, it was figuring out an actor that could properly portray the titular monster. Being such a towering figure, the Predator couldn’t just be portrayed by anyone, and originally, a very idiosyncratic physical performer was enlisted for the role: Jean-Claude Van Damme. A legend of 1980s action cinema, much like Schwarzenegger, Van Damme’s unique stature and gift for physical acting seemed like a perfect fit for this intimidating alien monster. However, Jean-Claude Van Damme ended up walking away from this key Predator role because…well, that’s where things get complicated. Naturally, for such a major casting situation gone awry, a slew of conflicting anecdotes have emerged over the years offering different explanations for why this actor never got cast.

An oral history of the making of Predator from The Hollywood Reporter reflects the varying accounts of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s departure, with the publication inserting a note into the piece to indicate that “nearly everyone THR spoke with had a different explanation — including three separate first-person accounts of the actual moment he was fired.” Casting directing Jackie Burch, for instance, claimed that Van Damme didn’t do the role simply because it was too uncomfortable to do his trademark bursts of physicality in a monster suit. 2nd Unit Director Craig Baxley, meanwhile, recalled that Jean-Claude Van Damme went nuts after trying on the initial head for the Predator, to the point that he destroyed that $20,000 head in a fit of hysterics. This angered notoriously prickly producer Joel Silver and, per Baxley, led to Van Damme being fired.

Another producer, John Davis, offered up the diplomatic explanation that they needed the Predator actor to be much taller than the 5-foot-6 stature of Van Damme, hence why Kevin Peter Hall (a guy who is over seven feet tall!) got the role instead. Still another account came from actor Richard Chaves, who suggested a combination of Van Damme wanting his face to be seen in this role plus 20th Century Fox’s hatred of the initial Predator design caused this famous actor to get dismissed. These conflicting accounts suggest how much of a “legend” the saga of Jean-Claude Van Damme as the Predator has become in recent years. Oh, and let’s not forget that this casting conflict came about as the original Predator design (which was an entirely red look that resembled an insect) went over like a lead balloon with everyone involved in the production. You needed a Predator for Predator, yet every aspect of this part of the project was going horribly haywire!

‘Predator’s Production Was So Bad, It Was Almost Shut Down

While the biggest horror stories involving the making of Predator revolve around the casting of Jean-Claude Van Damme and the discomfort of Arnold Schwarzenegger, they’re far from the only problems that this project encountered. Let’s not forget that the crew experienced unspeakable sickness thanks to a faulty water system at a hotel they were staying at. Additionally, per that THR piece about Predator’s history, the feature fell ridiculously behind schedule thanks to how difficult it was shooting such a high-concept movie in practical locations. Things got so bad that Fox was preparing to shut the entire project down, which led to the shoot scrambling to get an incredible amount of work done in just the final eight days of shooting.

In the end, Predator turned out to be a new classic action movie and one of the standout titles in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stacked filmography of iconic action films. These stories concerning the horrors of making Predator are cautionary tales in some ways, namely any anecdotes about the behavior of infamous producer Joel Silver. However, they also reflect the dedication that the cast and crew members have when it comes to realizing such an ambitious project. Predator was a totally original concept when it launched in 1987. There was no nostalgia for an old comic, TV show, or other pre-existing material guiding everybody through the harsh shoot. Even without that element around, these artists plowed through in the name of executing something new and exciting. In other words, the artists making Predator, even in the face of enormous struggles, “ain’t got time to bleed.”

Predator is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

Watch on Max