The Wildest Things That Happened While Filming Predator

"Predator" from 1987 is one of the most enduringly scary monster movies of all time. Decades later, 20th Century Studios (formerly Fox) is still cranking out sequels and even made a good one with "Prey" in 2022, but when you break down what went on behind the scenes of the original Arnold Schwarzenegger action-horror classic, it's easy to see how close this film was to being an embarrassment for everyone involved.

Shot on location in a hot-house Mexican jungle, the cast and crew were already battling the elements. They also embarked on this hunter-and-hunted suspense story the same way as the characters — without a glimpse of the Predator. Legendary "Die Hard" director John McTiernan shot a huge portion of this creature feature before he even had his monster on set,  and when it arrived, the crew had to get to the chopper for a redesign.

Schwarzenegger carries this movie on his broad shoulders as the commanding commando, Dutch, in a harrowing battle of brains and brawn with the galaxy's ultimate apex predator. However, not everyone on set was so professional. The man inside the suit, a certain Jean-Claude Van Damme, was allegedly a huge headache as were some of the other players, too. Somehow, some way, as this production ran months behind schedule, a terrifying classic was cobbled together through grit and impromptu jungle jury-rigging — which is exactly how Dutch defeats the creature. These are the wildest things that happened while filming "Predator."

"Predator" and "Jaws" are two of the best monster movies ever and both benefited from similar happy accidents. The animatronic shark in "Jaws" was famously malfunctioning. It wasn't properly salt-water tested before Steven Spielberg started shooting in the Atlantic. The shark was never fixed, but Spielberg simply cut around it in the editing room. In the end, less was more because what you don't see creates the suspense in this classic film. 

Filming on "Predator" similarly went on without a functional monster. Almost half of the movie was in the can before the costume arrived, recalls assistant director Beau Marks. There were two suits: one for the invisible camouflage scenes, and one for the big reveal. But when it showed up, it was not exactly ready for its close-up. The crew opened the box, and Marks recalls, "it looks like a giant red rubber chicken. It's pretty hard to have the most deadly alien from outer space coming to hunt man and it looks like a f***ing chicken unless you're doing a comedy. The real suit came shortly thereafter and it wasn't any better ... this was a disaster."

Production was shut down for six months while a creative team put together a new monster. "We don't see the Predator until just about when Arnold is by himself," Marks adds. "Everybody else has basically been killed off. So the third act is what we had to go back and shoot."

Shooting in real locations was a boon for movies like "Predator" and "Jaws," but the elements brought complications. The Mexican jungle for "Predator" was sweltering. Bill Duke, who played Mac, recalls battling the 90-degree plus heat daily. "We're talking about having to wear this gear that is heavy itself, and then the guns and stuff ... and then you're crawling through the jungle on your stomach and there are coral snakes and spiders and scorpions and a lot of different things."

Another problem was the original location near Puerta Villarta was scorched by summer. An entire mobile plant nursery and a crew of 30 or 40 to fill sacks with green leaves to make the scenery look lush were needed. In early shots, you can see the brown brush underneath all the green. Eventually, the shoot was moved to greener pastures in Palenque.

The other problem was the original Mexican crew was allegedly part of a "syndicato," or gang, and were complete "schleppers," according to cinematographer Donald McAlpine. He discovered this when he asked the grips to change the lights from glass to ceramics because of the heat. When bulbs started exploding, McAlpine realized his crew had simply ignored him. He spent all night recruiting professional replacements to fly in last minute from Australia.

All agree Arnold Schwarzenegger was extremely focused on his performance, but he was equally interested in looking jacked for the film. Despite the jungle heat and long shooting days, the 7-time Mr. Olympia, widely considered the greatest bodybuilder of all time, got up at 5:30 daily to train before the cameras started to roll.

Schwarzenegger had an entire gym shipped to Mexico in gigantic trucks. The ballroom of the hotel, where the cast was lodged, was converted into Arnold's iron cathedral. Producer John Davis got roped into one of these sessions and recalls, "They all would start yelling at me to lift more weights and more reps. And that night, I was in so much pain that the next morning when they came to my door and started banging, I pretended that I slept through it so that I wouldn't have to lift with them anymore."

Screenwriter Jim Thomas remembers Schwarzenegger using the term "manly men" over and over during these intense early-morning workouts. The actors were getting so beefy that, of course, the stuntmen had to join in, or they wouldn't remain good matches as body doubles. "It was kind of comical," Thomas says, "these guys are all trying to outdo each other."

Arnold Schwarzenegger was all business during filming. He absolutely tortured himself. "I took more abuse in 'Predator' than I did in 'Conan the Barbarian,'" he told Cinefantastique. "I fell down that waterfall and swam in this ice-cold water for days and for weeks was covered in mud. It was freezing in the Mexican jungle ... The location was tough. Never on flat ground. Always on a hill. We stood all day long on a hill, one leg down, one leg up. It was terrible."

First assistant director Beau Marks describes the star as a "very, very disciplined actor — especially back them." Schwarzenegger really understood the business and how big this movie could be. This movie star set the example for everyone else on set.

That said, "The Austrian Oak" did take a little vacation during the shoot to get hitched to his wife of over two decades, Maria Shriver, a bonafide niece of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Producer John Davis recalls that after a long day on set "and in the middle of the night when we were finished shooting, we were going to get on the plane and fly to Hyannis for his wedding." The invited guests all arrived Friday morning, with the wedding rehearsal that very night. The wedding was Saturday, and after a two-day honeymoon, Arnold was back battling the Predator again by Wednesday.

Shane Black was the hot screenwriter in 1987. His first ever screenplay to get a green light was the genre-defining buddy-cop action-comedy "Lethal Weapon." Since Black was also an actor and "Predator" was going to be months on location in a relatively remote jungle, the producers wanted a scribe on set for a big rewrite. Black only had one uncredited role before "Predator," but that was enough to qualify him for the part of Hawkins, one of Dutch's canon-fodder commandos.

"Predator" producer John Davis also had his hands on the Shane Black-directed 2018 dud, "The Predator," but met the screenwriter on the 1987 original. He claims once Black got to Mexico, he refused to fix the screenplay because he saw himself as a performer first. Davis says he dealt with that this way: "So he was the first person we killed. He got killed seven minutes into the movie."

Maybe Davis isn't being literal, but the seven minutes part is worth correcting. One of the best things about "Predator" is the methodical build-up. Black's Hawkins is the first to go, but he isn't gutted until around the 42-minute mark.

The conditions in Mexico during the "Predator" shoot in 1986 were wild. The sweltering jungle was also home to some aggressive anthropods. Richard Chaves played the somewhat minor role of Poncho. He and Shane Black's Hawkins are slightly hard to distinguish, but suffice it to say Poncho is an early Predator victim, too. However, the first set of mandibles to eat him alive wasn't from outer space. 

During the shoot, the cast had a momentary break, and Chaves decided to take a seat. He says he "checked the area" and plopped himself down in the bush. "The next thing I know, I am covered in red ants. I was bitten almost 100 times down both my arms and went into a little bit of shock, was running through the jungle ripping my clothes off, butt naked. They had a water tank, and I went into the water tank and just doused myself."

Chaves' welts were so bad that the Mexican doctor who tended to him had never seen anything like it. Hilariously, the actor admits the worst part was not being able to show off his guns. Arnold Schwarzenegger had gotten the cast, Chaves included, into the best shape of their lives. "My arms were really buff and everything, but then this happened," he recalls. Tragically, Poncho had to cover up.