Jack’s Bad Movies: Predator 2 (1990)

IMDB’s Description


Amidst a territorial gang war in 1997, a sophisticated alien hunter stalks the citizens of Los Angeles and the only man between him and his prey is veteran L.A.P.D. officer, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan.

This movie opens with Mike R. Harrigan (Danny Glover) involved in a major shootout with the gangs of LA. From the movie’s perspective, this is set in the future, specifically 1997. Not sure why that is relevant to anything though. A predator is watching the battle, something we only know because we saw the first movie (this movie basically requires you to have seen Predator (1987)).

There is quite a lengthy gun battle, it goes on so long that I started to eagerly anticipate when it would be over. Finally, Mike leads his squad of racially diverse subordinates into the den of one of the gangs, and everyone has been slaughtered. The only witness is a terrorized woman, and the gang leader himself, who races to the top of the building and is killed. Mike sees the Predator in his cloaking device, but ultimately decides it was nothing.

I’m getting too old for this.

Back at the precinct, it is decided that Mike’s squad is much too diverse, and so he is assigned a brand new smooth talking white guy (Bill Paxton). Mike doesn’t seem to want him around, possibly because he saw him in Aliens and knows that he is both a coward and a quitter. Also if Alien Vs Predator is canon across the two franchises, that means much later in the future there will be a Bill Paxton clone or something.

Since we are at the station Mike is reprimanded for going in without proper backup. He is subsequently introduced to a Special Agent or something (Gary Busey). Mike isn’t really interested in meeting new people though, possibly because Gary Busey is the one who held his daughter hostage and tortured him in Lethal Weapon. The police station is also in chaos, with crowds yelling and pushing people, and cops having to beat down subjects right there next to their desks. This movie was released pre-LA Riots though, so maybe it is an accurate depiction of an LA police department of the time. According to his Apple II computer profile, Mike is only 40% above average for aggression.

Det. Lt. Michael Harrigan Code X3412 DMS
Violence prone. Obsessive/Compulsive personality. History of excessive physical force incidents. Aggression level 40% above average.

Back to the gang wars, I suppose it is the Jamaicans versus the Colombians, but unbeknownst to everyone, it is actually everyone against the Predator. He slaughters them like only a Predator can, gruesomely and with excessive trophy taking. One of Mike’s squad also shows up, and promptly gets killed (Danny Archuleta).

Next Mike goes and meets with the head of the Jamaican gang. Like all good 80s/90s action movies that include Jamaicans, this one practices voodoo. Voodoo guy says the Predator is supernatural, and has specifically marked Mike. All that Voodoo mumbo jumbo doesn’t do him much good though, because like seconds after Mike leaves the scene, the Predator kills him.

Diversity Day at the LAPD.

Mike is en-route to a slaughterhouse (rulez!), and calls the two remaining members of his squad to meet him. While they are riding on the subway, they intervene in a mugging, but then the Predator shows up and kills a lot of people on the train, including Bill Paxton. Side note: Bill Paxton is the first actor to be killed by a Predator, a Xenomorph (Alien), and a Terminator.

The other squaddie (Leona Cantrell) gets most of the people out, but then the Predator catches up with her. He spares her life though, because she is pregnant. That is possibly why she blew off Bill Paxton’s advances towards her throughout the movie. Either that or because Bill Paxton’s character was annoying and one dimensional. We may never know the truth.

Mike gets to the slaughterhouse (rulez!) and is immediately abducted by Gary Busey’s team. They are apparently aware of the Predator and have laid a trap for it. Incredibly this pathetic human ploy is thwarted by the crafty Predator. Most of Busey’s team is killed.

Finally we have the showdown between Mike and the Predator, with a little help from Busey, who gets decapitated for it. Like all honorable hunters, the Predator won’t kill people who are unarmed or who are pregnant, oh, except unless it is about to lose, then it is time to activate the tactical nuke attached to its arm.

Mike manages to prevent this though by chopping off its arm and preventing the bomb from going off. Following the fleeing Predator down into the sewers, Mike comes upon a spacecraft and faces off the Predator and gives it the honorable death it does not deserve.

Now a few more Predators come out and one of them gifts Mike an old musket. Has than ever been a more fair fight than the match up of the physically and technologically superior Predators against colonial humans? I think not. The aliens leave, their blood lust temporarily satisfied. At least this all happened 7 years in the future though, because that arbitrary date was critical to the entire plot.

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