We love our metal here at Metal Injection… but we dig movies too! Welcome to Cinema Fix, a movie guide tailored for the metal faithful. Sit back and relax after a long week of work and/or blast beats and enjoy one of our prestigious film selections. This week's pick is:
Predator (1987)
Quick Pitch:
80’s action overdose meets alpha male bromance of the century. Plus, peek Arnold in all his glory.
Synopsis:
A team of special forces commandos find themselves being hunted by a mysterious, nigh invisible entity in the jungles of South America. Major Alan ‘Dutch’ Schaefer and his crew of elite soldiers are on a routine black ops mission, shooting bad guys and cracking jokes like usual, when an unknown enemy immerges from the trees and begins targeting each of them for extermination. Now Dutch, Hawkins, Pancho, Billy, Blain, Mac and Dillion must put their copious amounts of muscles, firepower and Boy Scout survival tactics to the test in order to survive.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/Y1txEAywdiw[/youtube]
Why it’s metal:
An intergalactic space alien on safari, slays greased up body builders for sport. John McTiernan’s Predator is an action/sci-fi classic, with more mindless carnage and memorable one liners than should be allowed in a single film. Although not well received upon its initial release, Predator has gone on to become one of most revered films of the 1980’s and greatest Arnold pictures of all time.
Predator takes the macho, fantasy roleplay aspect of metal culture, and combines it with gnarly combat scenes and grotesque science fiction elements [the actual alien Yautja collects human skulls as trophies and is uh, “one ugly motherfucker” to boot]. Just about everything in McTiernan’s film is exaggerated and over the top, from the violence down to the handshakes. For instance, Jesse Ventura’s character, Blain, wields a goddamn minigun…by himself, and also is a sexual tyrannosaurs who doesn’t have time to bleed. Ventura was a former Navy Seal and professional wrestler, Carl Weathers who plays Dillion, is Apollo Creed from the Rocky films and Arnold, Mr. Olympia himself; is Arnold fucking Schwarzenegger. Needless to say the cast of Predator, rounded out by big fellas like Bill Duke and Sonny Landham and actual giants like the 7’3, Kevin Peter Hall; is one of the most physically imposing crews ever assembled onscreen. In fact, most of the cast and their stunt doubles spent their free time off set lifting weights in the Mexican jungle trying to out yoke each other, that’s how awesomely over the top this film’s DNA is.
Also, composer Alan Silvestri’s original score is flat out, marvelous [MCU nod for the man who crafted The Avengers theme]. His orchestral score is simultaneously brooding and booming, the perfect ‘OMG I’m being hunted in a rainforest’ soundtrack. You hear those horns cue up and you’ll be running to the chopper lickety-split. In short, there’s more testosterone captured in this film than any mosh pit or wall of death you’ll ever encounter. If you’re a metal fiend who likes sweating/bonding with your pals at a concert, or are down with human trophy collecting for some reason, jump on the Predator train and have you some fun. *Little Richard scream*
Suggested Listening:
Austrian Death Machine, maybe some Yautja perhaps? Both are solid, Predator related metal selections, but Silvestri's musical score is just too damned good to pass up.
Alan Silvestri – "Predator Suite"
[youtube]https://youtu.be/-eDAoheZrY8[/youtube]
BONUS Listening:
Little Richard – "Long Tall Sally"
[youtube]https://youtu.be/eFFgbc5Vcbw[/youtube]
