What actually happens
A rescue team with a CIA man who left out the details
An alien spacecraft sends a shuttle down to Earth. Some time later, Major Dutch leads a paramilitary rescue team into a Central American jungle. Mac Eliot is the mercenary, Poncho Ramirez handles explosives, Blain Cooper is the heavy gunner, Billy Sole tracks, and Rick Hawkins runs the radio. Their job is to rescue a cabinet minister whose helicopter was shot down. Dutch's old ally from Vietnam, Al Dillon, is now with the CIA, and he comes along to oversee the mission. Nobody has told Dutch everything about the job, which is about to be a problem.
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Three guys hanging in the trees with no skin on
The team finds the wrecked helicopter and signs of guerrilla soldiers, and then three skinned bodies hung high in the nearby trees. This is the scene to brace for, and it comes early. Dutch recognizes the bodies as Green Berets, and he gets suspicious of Dillon when he learns the helicopter was fitted for surveillance. The team attacks the guerrilla camp and wipes out the soldiers and their Soviet allies. They find the hostages there were CIA agents. Dillon then admits the cabinet minister was a cover story. He wanted Dutch, who will not let his team be used as assassins, to destroy the camp to head off a Soviet-sponsored invasion. He also admits that the earlier team vanished and the Green Berets were sent to find them. The team takes a surviving guerrilla, Anna, prisoner and heads for the extraction point.
The jungle starts fighting back with a cloaking device
The team doesn't know it, but a technologically advanced humanoid has been following them since they arrived. It can turn invisible, and it sees body heat. Billy senses something inhuman is nearby but cannot prove it. Anna runs while the team is distracted, and Hawkins catches her. The predator kills Hawkins and leaves Anna alone. While the team searches for his body, it kills Blain as well. Mac glimpses its cloaked shape, loses his temper, and gets the team to fire blindly into the jungle, which wounds the predator. That night they set traps around the camp. A wild boar sets one off, and the predator uses the noise to take Blain's body.
Dutch learns the creature only goes after people who fight back
The next day Dutch works out that the creature is following them from the treetops. He lets Anna go because he needs her help, and she tells them a local story about a monster that hunts men and takes trophies from the dead, mostly when the weather is hot. The team rigs the treetops to drop a net on the predator, but it gets away and Poncho is hurt. Mac and Dillon go after it to make up for what they did to the team, and it outmaneuvers and kills them both. Then it kills Billy and Poncho. Dutch realizes the predator only attacks people it considers a threat, so he tells Anna to drop her weapon and run for the extraction point. He distracts the predator, falls off a cliff into a waterfall, and washes up on a muddy shore. The predator cannot seem to see him there, and it leaves to collect the skulls. Dutch works out that the mud hid his body heat.
The ending, explained
Dutch builds traps and weapons to avenge his team. At night he covers himself in mud and shouts to draw the predator in. The mud makes him invisible to it, and he wounds the predator and wrecks its cloaking device. Then he falls into a river that washes the mud off. The predator decides he is a worthy opponent, takes off its mask and weapons, and fights him hand to hand. It is larger and stronger, and Dutch tries to lure it into a trapped tunnel, but it sees through the plan. Dutch sets off the trap himself, and the counterweight crushes the predator. As it dies, it arms a self-destruct device on its wrist. Dutch runs and barely escapes an explosion that flattens the area. At dawn a helicopter arrives with Anna to pick up the exhausted Dutch. Anna lives, and the rest of Dutch's team is dead.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Predator scary?
Predator is a 4 out of 10, with low dread that is gone when the credits roll. It is a tense action movie about an invisible hunter, with some jump scares and a grim scene early on.
How does Predator end?
Dutch kills the Predator with a counterweight trap, and it sets off a self-destruct device that Dutch barely escapes. A helicopter takes him and Anna away at dawn. The rest of his team is dead.
Does the dog die in Predator?
No dog dies in Predator. A wild boar does.
Is there a post-credits scene in Predator?
No. Predator has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Why can't the Predator see Dutch at the end of Predator?
The Predator sees body heat. Dutch covers himself in mud, which hides his heat, so he can wound it and wreck its cloaking device before the river washes the mud off.
