Here’s what the director of the original Predator movie has to say about the film’s surprising legacy as an action flick

The Predator’s original director John McTiernan explains how the film inspired films such as Die Hard and The Matrix. Predator director John McTiernan discusses the film’s surprising action movie legacy and how it influenced other action films.

The original Predator was released in 1987 and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch, the leader of a squad of elite commandos. Suddenly, the soldiers are faced with an alien threat – a highly advanced alien Predator – who begins to kill them one by one.

Prey is the most recent sequel to Predator, which spawned several sequels and spin-offs of varying success. Schwarzenegger became one of the most iconic action movie stars of all time with Predator, in which he was the last man standing at the end.

The first half of Predator features plenty of the types of bombastic action scenes that the 1980s were known for, although the film eventually becomes an exercise in tension and suspense. As Dutch and his team attempt to kill the Predator, they wildly shoot their machine guns into the jungle, decimating trees and other vegetation, but they are ultimately unsuccessful.

In his recent interview on The Empire Film Podcast, McTiernan discusses Predator’s surprising action movie legacy and how it changed action cinema in the years to follow. According to McTiernan, the studio forced him to include the jungle shootout to add more action to the film, and the scene was such a hit that he also had to include a similar scene in his next movie, Die Hard.

As well as his filmography, the director cited The Matrix trilogy as another property that featured similar sequences.McTiernan’s experience on Predator and how it influenced both Die Hard and The Matrix shows how much power movie studios have over their projects.

A substantial amount of studio meddling was also reported in Shane Black’s much-maligned 2018 entry into the franchise, The Predator. In contrast to the original Predator, which was one of the most beloved action films of the 1980s, The Predator is an example of studio interference resulting in a film of lower quality.

Both Predator and Die Hard ended up being huge hits, despite McTiernan’s clear acknowledgment that he was forced to include things he did not truly believe in. Likewise, The Matrix is renowned for its action scenes, with a particularly memorable lobby shootout. Although the original Predator came out more than 30 years ago, its jungle shootout is still being referenced in many modern action movies.

Dakota Cameron

Dakota Cameron is a seasoned web content writer and covers the Hollywood movies for the MovieThop Website
Ms. Cameron began his professional life as a freelance blogger. Later, he worked for Witbe as a content writer for two years. His interests include blogging, reading, movies and travel.
Ms. Cameron graduated in Journalism and Mass Communication from University State of Georgia University. He is fluent in French, Spanish, and other languages.