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«Predator»

Predator is a 1987 science fiction, action and horror film directed by John McTiernan, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura, and Kevin Peter Hall. The story follows an elite team on a mission to rescue hostages from a guerrilla group in Central America. Unknowingly, the group is hunted by an extraterrestrial lifeform. Reaction to the film was generally favorable, and the film grossed US$60 million in the United States. The film has generated a sequel, Predator 2 (1990) and two crossover films with the Alien franchise: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

Opening with a mysterious spacecraft entering Earth's atmosphere, the film begins on the coast of Guatemala, where a group, led by Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is ordered to rescue a presidential cabinet minister kidnapped by guerrilla forces in Val Verde. Dutch's old Army buddy and now CIA agent, George Dillon (Carl Weathers), joins the team and they travel by helicopter to their destination within the jungle.

Once inserted, the team find the remains of a downed helicopter and later the bodies of several skinned men. They are identified to be an Army Special Forces unit, whose presence in the country mystifies Dutch. They soon make their way to a heavily defended rebel encampment and take out its inhabitants in short order, save for a girl named Anna (Elpidia Carrillo), whom they take prisoner. Dutch is enraged to discover the rescue mission had been a set up to get his group to destroy the camp, after the previous team - the dead men they found earlier - disappeared in a failed rescue of two CIA agents belonging to Dillon. Dutch extracts this information from him, who confesses that he was using him all along.

As the soldiers make their way to the extraction point, they are observed from afar by an unknown creature, who uses thermal imaging to see. Once members of the team are slain mysteriously, they become aware that something in the jungle is stalking them, whose presence is confirmed by eerie sightings of a partially invisible figure. Anna delivers insight into the creature, who has apparently become a local legend for hunting humans as trophies. Despite attempts to track down and trap the creature, the team is slowly killed off one by one, until only Dutch and Anna remain. Realizing the creature only kills those possessing weapons, a wounded Dutch sends Anna unarmed to the extraction point. Dutch narrowly escapes the creature—revealed to be a masked, humanoid-reptilian being—by unintentionally covering himself in mud, which hides his body's heat signature, rendering him invisible to the creature's thermal vision.

Dutch confronts the creature one last time, using the mud as camouflage and a number of improvised weapons and traps to kill it. The creature arrives as planned, but despite having its cloaking ability disabled in an attack, it manages to capture Dutch. Then, in a display of chivalry, the creature challenges Dutch to a final duel in hand-to-hand combat, unveiling its monstrous face and discarding his electronic weaponry before brutally beating him. Once cornered, Dutch drops the counterweight from one of his traps, which falls and crushes the creature, mortally wounding it. As Dutch approaches the creature and asks it what it is, the creature mimics his question (in garbled English) and then activates a time bomb on his wrist device. Dutch runs for cover as the creature self-destructs, and a massive explosion ignites the jungle. Anna and the rescue helicopter finally arrive to pick up a disheveled but victorious Dutch. Flying back to safety, he stares out at the jungle in mournful silence.

Guinea, 2008, Stan Winston's films

Guinea, 2008, Stan Winston's films

Mali, 1994, Arnold Schwarzenegger