A couple of thoughts about the "Predator" films... (SPOILER WARNING)

I'm pretty certain if you look at the end of Predator 2, on the ship, you can see that one of them looks female.

firesprite said:

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I'm pretty certain if you look at the end of Predator 2, on the ship, you can see that one of them looks female.

If you mean this one, apparently, many don't see this one as a female.

There's a novel adaptation of the original Alien vs Predator comic series that touches on females, since a lot of the story is actually told from the perspective of one of the Predators. It mentions specifically that not only are females bigger than males, they're a LOT bigger. Not just the size difference we saw in the third film between the different races. The character muses that it's not uncommon to come away from a vigorous coupling with broken bones after having been thrown around the room a few times. The character is also surprised to find that the human he's with is female. He figures it out late in the story because of her breasts, which implies that Predator females are similar to humans in that regard.

That book's a really good read if you're curious about their society, since so much of the story is told from his perspective. Kudos to the author (Steve Perry) for coming up with all those details that were never even in the original comic.

And yes, it's worlds better than the films. No relation other than the name.

Jedi2016 said:

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There's a novel adaptation of the original Alien vs Predator comic series that touches on females, since a lot of the story is actually told from the perspective of one of the Predators. It mentions specifically that not only are females bigger than males, they're a LOT bigger. Not just the size difference we saw in the third film between the different races. The character muses that it's not uncommon to come away from a vigorous coupling with broken bones after having been thrown around the room a few times. The character is also surprised to find that the human he's with is female. He figures it out late in the story because of her breasts, which implies that Predator females are similar to humans in that regard.

That book's a really good read if you're curious about their society, since so much of the story is told from his perspective. Kudos to the author (Steve Perry) for coming up with all those details that were never even in the original comic.

And yes, it's worlds better than the films. No relation other than the name.

Yeah, that's where I heard about the female Predators in the Expanded Universe stories (which included the AvP stuff).

But, I read that when it came to the comics, the first time you see the female Predator, the design contradicts Perry's description from the novels. But then again, maybe I should actually read the novels and not just the cliffnotes.

But what about the mud thing? Could it be the minerals that the dirt is made of causing it to not register in the Predator's tech, or is the end-all-be-all answer that everyone agrees with is the "mud cools your body temperature"?

Mud : predator = lead : superman

Accept it and move on. it's an alien thing.


Predators are aliens who kill things in a horrifically violent way. No need for genderization there.


Next thing you know, people will be wondering if Jason Vorhees was really female, or if there was a female version of the killer at Crystal Lake.

JediG60racer said:

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Next thing you know, people will be wondering if Jason Vorhees was really female, or if there was a female version of the killer at Crystal Lake.

There was a female version of the killer at Crystal Lake. Her name was Mrs. Pamela Voorhess. Why would anyone wonder about that when its common knowledge?

At least two female designs were created for Predators but never got past the concept art stage.

Yeah she's hot, but i think enough damage has been done to the franchise, without entering female Yautja into the mix.

Mud, your over thinking it dude, its mud, with non existent alien tech, a movie gimmick, to make us all go WHHOOOOOAA, when Ahhhnie slaps it on.

lee

The reason you don't see any female Predators is that they are in the kitchen. Badoomp boomp!

(runs and hides...)

The females are probably home on the homeworld, running it and making sure the testosterone filled barbaric hunter men don't **** things up, which is why they allow the rights of passage thing when they are young and go out into the galaxy to hunt some stuff to come home and be praised and join actual society.

Funny. We've never seen one predator actually win. Must be a damn weak lot they are sending off.

Those designs above are just beyond ridiculous... but then again... so was the movie.

I like the expanded universe stuff for the predator franchise, some of the comics in particular (It is two stripes time springs to mind). It ticked me off that they didn't use any of it as inspiration for the AvP movies, and in one of the making of features, actually talk about deliberately ignoring it >.<

The females being bigger, and their society being matriarch based made a cool kind of sense to me. Why do predators go on the hunt? As a hunter based society becomes larger you need to do more to stand out amongst potential mates. You set up an honor system to restrict how, so it isn't first to use the nuke wins. Over time it becomes more ritualized in places. Even more sense if the male birth rate is the higher.

Meanwhile the females run the show, pick the most cunning powerful mates, and the species goes on.

As to the mud, Haven't seen the mythbusters take on it, but i always thought the handwave was its cold mud, takes a little while to heat up and arnie reapplies as needed. The first scene where it camouflages him he has just done a fair swim which would cool down his skin temp and slow the mud heating. ah well

Maybe the Female Predator is so large she is unable to move once she reaches the stage of fertility, sort of Jabba the Hutt Like, Just churning out little Preds much the same way as the Alien Queen.

Now thats an artist Impression i'd like to see.......

nice thread

What a visual.

Another option is that the females are very different from the males. They may not be as mobile as the males or have a different body construct (quadrupedal etc ...) More of a termite queen that's only good for reproduction and little else. That might explain why the males are the hunters, they hunt and take care of the females who can't fend for themselves.

Another option may be that Predators are hermaphrodites (like the somewhat similar Kafers in the 2300AD RPG by GDW) or may even change gender at different points in their life cycle.

My guess ? We'll get a female predator with very clear hominid female characteristics, probably smaller than the males, but more limber like 99% of all action female stereotypes.

Rotwang said:

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Another option may be that Predators are hermaphrodites (like the somewhat similar Kafers in the 2300AD RPG by GDW) or may even change gender at different points in their life cycle.

That's actually an interesting take. They are snails.

Thermal imaging cannot see thru mud, period. It is an issue of density of material and insulation thickness. The Predator would have absolutely picked up every inch of space that Arnold touched though. Residual heat lasts much longer than you would think. The sensor picks up the variation in temperature from the ambient temp of the immediate area.

As far as the females go, I believe their society has been described as Matriarchal, with the males competing for the females. This comes from the novelizations, comics, etc.

Seeing the "Elder" males in the films make me think otherwise. I only really consider Predator and Predator 2 to be canon. It could definitely be expanded upon and has been discussed and debated to some length over at the Hunters Lair.

I didn't care for Predators at all - I'm still not sure if it was supposed to be a re-boot, re-make, a nod, a tribute, or what. It was basically the bones of the original barfed up on a plate of dissapointment and regret.

CB2001 said:

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If you mean this one, apparently, many don't see this one as a female.

Actually, as I recall, there was one that was more slender, more 'gracile' than most of them that stood out as appearing more 'feminine' to me and my husband. It was subtle, but noticeable to us.

I'm pretty sure Predators was not a re-boot but a sequel. They mention the original predator incident in Central America at some point IIRC.

CB2001 said:

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If you mean this one, apparently, many don't see this one as a female.

Yep,

He is known as "Borg Predator" - because of his armor and crazy wires going everywhere.

So far no one has been brave enough to peak at a Predator's down stairs mix up huh

Warpaint said:

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I didn't care for Predators at all - I'm still not sure if it was supposed to be a re-boot, re-make, a nod, a tribute, or what. It was basically the bones of the original barfed up on a plate of dissapointment and regret.

the trailer and the horrible "super" new Predators were enough to put me off. i also made the mistake of reading the original script when it got leaked. put a whole new shine on the word "ghastly".

Art Andrews said:

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At least two female designs were created for Predators but never got past the concept art stage.

Interesting that they considered doing at least one for the film (it definitely would have counterbalanced the only human female character in the film). But I think I agree with a lot of others about the design. Honestly, it looks sort of along the lines of a lot of the fan art I've seen, where the artist attributes a lot of feminine details that are typical in human females. Honestly, if I were designing one, I wouldn't look at the typical women of Earth. I'd honestly look at professional female body builders (I mean, the Predator in the first looks sort of similar to the professional male bodybuilders of the time. I don't know if that was the production designer's idea, but it involuntarily does. With female body builders, they do have some recognizable female attributes, but they appear to gain some masculine details as well). I think you'd want to have a female Predator that could sort of keep up with the males, in both action and appearance.

Rotwang said:

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Another option is that the females are very different from the males. They may not be as mobile as the males or have a different body construct (quadrupedal etc ...) More of a termite queen that's only good for reproduction and little else. That might explain why the males are the hunters, they hunt and take care of the females who can't fend for themselves.

Another option may be that Predators are hermaphrodites (like the somewhat similar Kafers in the 2300AD RPG by GDW) or may even change gender at different points in their life cycle.

Both of these make sense. Honestly, the first one would seem odd to most filmgoers (especially since the males are depicted as hardcore hunting and killing bad-asses. And to them, it'd seem odd the female Predators aren't as bad-ass as the males while human females presented in the films have been just as equally bad-ass as human males and almost as bad-ass as male Predators), but it would make a lot of sense as to why their culture hunts. But the problem with that idea of the males hunting for the females is this: it negates the point of collecting the skulls of creatures they've hunted as trophies. Plus it also contradicts why they would attempt to evolve their hunting skills by having a game preserve (as we see in Predators), unless the hunting and trophy collecting is meant to be some sort of offering to the females (sort of like how human men will buy jewelry for human women).

The idea of hermaphrodites reminds me of something brought up in the first Jurassic Park film, about how some species of frogs interchange their sex (which, due to the DNA being use in the dinosaurs, allowed a group of all females to breed). So, that'd make a bit of sense that an alien species would do so. The thing is that the films never really addressed if they were reptilian in nature or not (though one can assume they are due to how they appear).

Warpaint said:

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Thermal imaging cannot see thru mud, period. It is an issue of density of material and insulation thickness. The Predator would have absolutely picked up every inch of space that Arnold touched though. Residual heat lasts much longer than you would think. The sensor picks up the variation in temperature from the ambient temp of the immediate area.

As far as the females go, I believe their society has been described as Matriarchal, with the males competing for the females. This comes from the novelizations, comics, etc.

So, for the thermal imaging, you're saying it is due to the mineral composition, but the thickness of it as well? That'd make a lot of sense (kinda like how you can add foam or some sort of cloth material a room to cut down on the acoustic reverberation that would occur if you were to talk).

Yeah, the society stuff is from the expanded universe stuff that I made mention of before. But even with a lot of tie-ins and their direct involvement, sometimes some details don't sync up due to the point of view of the individual working on it, so we are not sure how much could be considered canon, if it could be considered canon at all.

firesprite said:

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Actually, as I recall, there was one that was more slender, more 'gracile' than most of them that stood out as appearing more 'feminine' to me and my husband. It was subtle, but noticeable to us.

I've looked at pictures from that scene, but I didn't notice any one of them stand out as being slightly feminine. I could be wrong of course.

Paragraphs!

Every fan version of a female is some bikini babe with a mask.

I hope the one they eventually show is a big fat pig with six teats.

If there's one thing that bothers me about the PREDATOR films outside of never seeing a female version is that they've sort of fallen into the "klingon syndrome" where they turned the entire species into a race that's so obsessed with hunting it's a part of their life. Kind of like how Ron D. Moore turned all the Klingons into honor obsessed bigots.

I'd like to see a Predator (Male or Female) who isn't a hunter. Maybe a soldier who dawns a high tech set of armor, or just an explorer that doesn't have any weapons. I'm not trying to humanize them mind you, I just don't believe for a second that every single member of that race just wants to hunt big game.

In my opinion, I always saw the Predator in the first movie to be one of those hunters who hunts game that they're not supposed to. The species doesn't want any trouble from other races that could potentially go to war with them in the future. AvP of course totally destroys that, but I don't count AvP in anything period.