Geeking Out About Cinema #7: The Unofficial 2014 Predator Sequel

2005 Original Idea Context

Just to give you a bit of context here, this Predator movie concept goes way back to 2005 originally created as an Alien Vs. Predator sequel. After the theatrical release of that movie, let’s just say that I got thrown into a creative head space of franchise building. Jotting down every idea that came to mind in one of my high school notebooks (of which I still own to this day funny enough), I genuinely felt that I had something special there. I crafted out a series of rough blueprints that just needed a group of professional perspectives to shape it into something legitimate. Some ideas that I had included scenes of Predator hunters and Xenomorphs battling in a daytime city setting which is an image that has never been shown on film prior. However, as visually stunning as it would've been (still would love to see that actually), I struggled with finding an organic narrative reason to place these two species in the type of massive city setting that I had in mind. Ironically, some other ideas that I had for what would've been AVP2 actually shows up in Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem including a xenomorph tail crafted whip for the Predator and a scene where the Predator uses dual shoulder cannons as opposed to the traditional single cannon.

Eventually, after Requiem's release, I just left all of my ideas in my notebook allowing it to catch dust after the reality of a high school student with no filmmaking experience or studio connections smacked me in the face. Fast forward about 6-7 years later and, for whatever reason at the time, I decided to look back at some of those old AVP visual ideas and nudged them towards my very own stand-alone Predator film. There were some visual elements that transferred over including a scene where a Predator drop ship hovered over a city and an army of Predators were seen jumping out of the ship sliding down a building firing their cannons at xenomorphs on the streets and nearby buildings. The xenomorphs would now be replaced with human army troops/police officers to fit this non-Alien franchise connected story. There was also this striking image that I couldn't get out of my head involving Predators stampeding through a city with spears taking out military ground troops as rapid gun fire and Predator war cries smothered over the scene's atmosphere.

Predator 3 (2014)

Alright, so let's talk about the actual retrofitted Predator sequel idea in general. The story surrounded an elite level Predator that went off on a crusade to Earth in an attempt to conquer the entire planet with his own personal followers to prove his worthiness to his species. The movie can be told through the point of view of the actual Predator itself and a human archeologist who's been studying the alien species since the events of the first Predator film. With the idea of both point of views being simultaneously explored, the movie switches between the two throughout the film while constantly feeding upon the underlining threat of a foreboding massive invasion. I wanted to explore the Predators more than any film prior has ever done by showing a lot of scenes with the spotlighted Predator interacting with the other hunters as well as scenes of the scientist discovering their culture and behaviors through artifacts and relics. I also wanted to show the power of their technology by creating new tech for them as a means of separating their solo hunting gear with their military arsenal. The idea that the Predators are just hunters would be expanded here as the titular Predator have ambitions to do more than the traditional "hunt" and instead be a conqueror inspiring a small faction to go against the culture. 

So whereas Predator 1 was about a cat and mouse game with an alien creature and a group of commandos, Predator 3 would be about an alien ranking up and using his new position of power to go against his people's traditions to ambitiously reach for a larger reward than trophies...entire planets to call home. This would cause said Predator to be seen as a betrayer to many of his people which causes conflict resulting in brutal battles adding that extra layer to the mythos of how crucial their "hunt religion" really is. Similar in essence to a Magneto or General Zod situation, I want to tell a story of someone who became so ambitious with his idea of leading his people to a brighter future only to end up being seen as an evil antagonistic figure to everyone but the small devoted individuals that he inspired. Great intentions of envisioning a paradise for his species (broadening their horizon with other planets to start colonies on) but a dark and twisted manner of doing so (mass genocide of the native species present) makes the titular predator to be a multilayered and compelling lead. You'd get two completely different but hopefully fulfilling experiences from seeing Predator 1 and 3 (yes I'm intentionally leaving out 2 since my memory of that sequel is pretty shaky).

So, the first 3 quarters of the movie is showing roughly equal amounts of our human archeologist character and the main Predator lead. During this time, the archeologist' scenes mostly comprise of him studying and speculating on artifacts of the Predator culture found throughout the centuries while dealing with his own personal life conflicts revolving around work obsession and living a normal life. While the main Predator lead, who just recently rose up in the hunter ranks and was sent by the king to find new planet for game, is being revealed to have secretly set his eyes on a planet to conquer/changing the culture forever. There's a scene where the Predator finds Earth in their ship's records as a planet teeming with abundant resources and immediately makes it the selection to be the first to take over only to find that the planet is considered restricted by the king due to "an agreement made". When our predator lead learns of this and sees the resources of Earth to be prime for a new colony and a foolish decision to ignore, this sets up our first major climactic point in the film. The predator learns that only the elder king has access to unlock restricted planet locations on the ships' navigation system via a special key which leads to what I’d hope to be the greatest Predator fight scene ever shown on film.

The clan makes their way back to the home planet pretending to have found somewhere of interest to use as a game planet but the king already questions their intentions after getting a ping about Earth on their ship. In the king's royal palace of sorts, the rogue Predator confronts the king about the legacy of the Yautja needing to be more than hunters which angers the king ordering his guards to kill him only to witness the guards getting slaughtered by the rogue's clan in a quick confrontation as such an event was revealed to be pre-planned with precision. In other words, the rogue had already planned out how to take out the guards in the event that the king wouldn't agree to his plans to outgrow "the old ways". This leads to the clan moving into kill the king to which the rogue stops them and tells them to leave the two together alone in the palace ensuring that no one interrupts their battle. 

Translated in English subtitles, the king says "I see you respect our tradition enough to honor the code of battle between two Yautja". The rogue responds "The code of battle between hunters will be a thing of the past as peace and paradise will fill our spirits eliminating conflict...I only do this because I respect you enough to have lead us this far to give you an honorable death". This interaction allows viewers to see the rogue's perspective of desiring expanded territory and space allowing for conflict to never happen amongst neighboring tribes anymore (something established earlier in the film where we see the rouge watching certain predators of different tribes viscerally slaughter each other out of a disagreement). Although, this territory expansion may sound good on the surface, this may not be so cut and dry as he thinks. 

The king responds "Foolish child, there will always be conflict. There will always be someone attempting to take my place who thinks they know what's best for everyone until they fatally realize that they knew nothing but their own selfish desires. Today I stand in the face of another one, and though it pains me to kill one of such great power and skill in the ranks, I will not hesitate to eliminate anyone and anything that threatens the Yautja". The rogue unsheathes his wrist blades which leads to the king holding out his royal spear. The scene is then presented in this epic oil painting-worthy shot of the royal palace filled with decorated trophies of exotic skulls of varying sizes as the king's cape blows in the wind facing the rogue with his wrist blades extended.

The two have an epic clash to which the king proves his position by wounding the rogue severely while hardly taking damage of his own. This is due to the armor that he wears, the sheer imposing physical stature, and high classed (the highest known) level of combat skill attacking with strategic precision. Yet, the rogue shows a sense of unrelenting endurance striking ferociously. I wanted to show through their fighting methods the sensibilities of both characters. The king fights with patience and a sense of elegance with the royal staff while the rogue, although only gets a few hits in and is constantly getting knocked down, is constantly recovering back up out of sheer adrenaline and blood lust. Eventually, this extensive battle leads to the rogue, who is bleeding out in several sections of his body, seemingly knocked out from a blow that should've killed him. However, he manages to trick the elder king with a cloaked proximity mine that he had attached on the floor when the king knocked him across the room. What's key here is that, before the fight started, the rogue is shown removing all weapons except for his blades as the king only uses his staff disregarding the high tech weaponry in the palace.

This was to show that the honor code of battle was to restrict their plasma tech weaponry only keeping exclusively to the warrior’s melee weapons. This is another sensibility in the fight showing just how the rogue's way of overthrowing traditions follows through in his battle tactics. As the king approaches him with the staff ready to deliver the final blow, the proximity mine uncloaks as the red lasers shoots out around it to which the king swiftly knocks it away with the staff still getting mostly caught in the explosion damaging his arm. This leads to the rogue, who rolled away just in time as to not get caught by the explosion, staggering up and walking towards the now one-armed and bleeding out king. The rogue looks down towards him and says, "See this? (the rogue holds up the king's burnt royal spear). This is where tradition has left you. Blind...blind to the truth. You have restricted yourself and have thereby restricted your people. And now here you are. Laying in a pool of your own failure. You could have joined me on my conquest for a new age, but something told me that in order to fully see the new world, I had to kill the old one. My king, I shall tell the people that you fought with honor and they will look up to your image of stone in mourning and respect. But once I have taken your place, your legacy and everything that you stood for will end. This is the end of the old ways".

The rogue then stabs him with the spear but doesn't remove his skull as the old tradition would have dictated him to. Instead, he burns him in the courtyard of the palace alongside the trophies which is something (in my head canon) that has never been done before in their culture. The rogue's clan ensures that the ceremony remains a private affair and puts the word out that the king has fallen and a new king has taken his place who will show his worth with a prize for the colonies that is unprecedented...a promised paradise for all who follow. The rogue, now with the king's key, designates Earth's location coordinates and travel route while also unlocking all of the other once restricted planets that are prime for colonization. This leads to the rogue king taking his trusted band of devoted warriors and going to Earth.

The moment we get to the point of the story where the rogue king sends out a scout to Earth is where we dive into the archeologist story. We see this man studying discovered pieces of Predator tech and hieroglyphics in caves showing the ways of the hunters that have been recorded by civilizations over the centuries. This invited the idea that even before Dutch's (Arnold Schwarzenegger) encounter with the Yautja, these hunters have come to earth to hunt 100s of years ago being studied but never captured by civilizations. It's through the archeologist story that we get insight via his findings of why the predators never simply wiped out the human race emphasizing on a "code of sorts to be kept in tradition" with certain species. The archeologist is then brought in by the government when one of the predator scout ships are discovered which is where our back and forth story becomes more connected. The rogue’s clan starts murdering off people in certain populations who would've been considered as unworthy of a trophy per their studied traditions which the archeologist notes as being uncharacteristic. It is this revelation that results in him telling the government that there is "something much more dangerous taking place here".

The movie then switches into a full on epic alien invasion movie where the predator mother ship starts traveling to different parts of the Earth, dropping down warriors in pods, slaughtering countless of people (shown off through various cinematic presentations such as extensive one shot action scenes, found footage news segments, and other immersive use of cinematography. This eventually leads to the big citywide scene that I came up with for AVP 2 with the drop ship hovering over a large city and predator warriors on buildings taking out army troops in the city as well as a scene with the predators using alien attack dogs ravaging through civilians in the streets. Suffice it to say, it's one epic massive bloodbath of an invasion (think of the dramatic scope of Schindler's List ghetto liquidation scene or Children of Men's chaotic sense of frantic brutality). Desperately trying to find a way to at least cease the invasion in order for the military to come up with a plan to take out the mothership, the archeologist challenges the new rogue king to a battle which he knows the hunters around him cannot interfere and has to traditionally bare witness (as learned by his studies).

He acquires the Yautja symbol for the word "challenge" from his notes and finds a way to showcase it on a few buildings with red spray paint as the mothership hovering over should theoretically notice it. The rogue king is shown looking down from the ship but doesn't respond as to accept would be to honor the old ways. However, he steps out on a platform on the ship (almost like a balcony) looks down towards the building where the symbol is shown, and throws an explosive device blowing up the entire building before casually walking back inside his ship.

My 2022 Revisit

So what happens next? Well...Uhhh...Hmmm. Fast forwarding to 2022 upon this revisiting and publishing, I didn't realize that I never finished this in 2014. This was literally where I stopped. There was something about that imagery of the rogue king predator watching his people's symbol for challenge and both literally and figuratively blowing it up that just left a strong lasting impression on me. Perhaps I got distracted with other things at the time, so I'm not entirely sure what I would've followed it up with. I imagine that I'd have to come up with an idea for how this whole thing could possibly end on a positive note for Earth as things aren't looking so good for mankind here. The easy way out would be to just have the military finally find some scientific way to penetrate the mothership's shield and take out the king causing the warriors to be leaderless and having no way to return to home giving us the home field advantage. However, I wanted to find a way to make the archeologist story play a crucial role towards the end with his particular knowledge. Perhaps I'd have the archeologist find something in the archives and studies that would force even this new king to perhaps put himself in a vulnerable place resulting in the military being able to take him and his followers down.

Just coming up with rough ideas off the spot right now as I write this, what if the archeologist found a story that the Yautja told one of the old civilizations of an ambitious hunter that was punished for conspiring against the king. That hunter in the legend attempted to secretly conquer other planets but ended up gaining the attention of other powerful intelligent alien entities in the cosmos who were cautious deciding to launch an attack on the Predator’s home planet as a warning slaughtering hundreds. This story was the event that lead to the king's tradition of having "restricted planets" and "galactic agreements made" in order to keep a semi-peaceful enough culture of respect amongst the Yautja in the eyes of certain intelligent life forms. The archeologist, uncovering this passed down story from ancient history, finds a way to meet with the rogue king showing him these hieroglyphics and showing the Yautja symbol for "Peace" and "Harmony". Where the rogue snarls at the legendary cautionary tale, some of his followers begin to have a change of heart at the sight of the carvings portraying Yautja being massacred by a mysterious and more advanced race.

This leads to a scene where some of the followers try talking the king out of his genocidal crusade telling him that perhaps they made a mistake and that history might only repeat itself. The rogue however counters this argument by stating that this story is more than likely some folk tale created by the kings of old to keep the hunt culture intact with no true evolution. What starts off as paranoia amongst some of the members transition into an escalated heated fight after one of the betraying members try to assassinate the rogue king. It's this conflict amongst the large group that creates a rift between the rogue's very own clan causing an intense fight scene to break out. During this fight, the archeologist tries to escape the area as the rogue pursues him while his followers fight in the background. Being emotionally distracted by the turn of events, the rogue walks right into a trap set by the military to shoot him down, only the rogue's advanced shielding and weaponry allows him to take them out in an absolutely spectacular action scene. The archeologist, after desperately sifting through his research comes to the realization that this predator has went against the culture's history so much that he might be seeking to change it completely. With this potential revelation, he realizes that the only hope left is to feed into that sensibility.

He then finds the Yautja symbol for "change" and, right before the rogue could kill him, shows it to him via a holographic device. The archeologist then holds up the image of the hieroglyphics of the cautionary tale's slaughtered Yautja and begins to gesture (using a mix of body language and sifting through the Yautja language) the idea of interspecies collaboration against the mysterious "other alien entities". The rogue stops and carves the symbol on the ground for "deceiver". Seeing this, the archeologist then shows the symbol for "change" again only now highlighting the image of the ancient legend’s rogue hunter who got his people killed from his ambitions. The rogue snarls at the image and carves the symbol for the word "weak" then points towards the image of the fallen hunter. The archeologist then points at the rogue's symbol for "weak" on the ground then projects the symbol for the word "alone". He then points behind the predator which the rogue turns around to see that the number of his devoted followers who kept by his crusade have decreased and that most of the ones remaining are shown not only fighting but helping the fallen human soldiers.

The archeologist then shows the symbol for the word "change" again and now points at the rogue as well as himself. He says out loud in English while continuing using body and Yautja language (this time even showing images of Earth's brutal history), "We might be from two different planets, but we both want the same thing. A better world for our family. I believe that we can have that. Change doesn't have to come with the expense of taking lives. It can be made by us helping each other grow. Your people. My people. Together, we can evolve". The rogue drops his guard for a moment considering what the archeologist is offering. He then turns around and sees the Yautja clan who decided against the crusade being the only ones standing while the others are either dead or on their knees in surrender while surviving human soldiers are being nursed to health with Predator advanced first aid tech.

The rogue then turns back to the archeologist and begins to speak only this time he doesn't use any symbols to help relay his statement. The predator says in the Yautja language subtitled, "This alliance that you offer will not last. You use my people's speech and claim to know their history, but you do not know them as I do. Their pride will not allow them to see you as an equal worthy of sharing such resources. To them, you are prey, and to me, you're a threat to my vision." The rogue then pulls out his glaive weapon to strike down the archeologist only this time one of the Yautja cries out a war cry to which other members rush in front of the archeologist in defensive positions. The rogue king looks in astonishment and tells them "You would side against me? I showed you a new way to help our people grow." The Yautja member who let out the war cry walks towards them and stands in front of her band staring down the rogue king. She (as this is revealed to be a female of the species) responds "A new way, yes. But not a better one." The rogue then responds "If you wish to stop me, then you will meet my blade just as the creature you blindly protect. I will slaughter them all, and like the king before me, your deaths will be honored but forgotten in the old ways".

The clan member then responds "Then we will fight you to the death to protect them. This is the new way." We then get this intense epic stand off shot of the rogue king staring down the small group of predators standing between him and the scared archeologist. After a while, noticing that he's outnumbered, he unsheathes the retractable blades and glaive. The rogue king then says "What will you tell our people of this?". The clan member says "The truth." The rogue responds "They will not accept our actions against the old king". The clan member responds " Justice will be faced, but we will speak of our lessons and leave the future into the hands of the people. This is the new way". The clan member turns to the archeologist and holds her hand out in extension to take the hologram device from him and manages to understand it finding and projecting the word "peace" and "change". She then gives the device back seeming to have programmed something inside of it alongside a few Yautja items. She then walks away with her group taking the rogue king away to the ship. 

The ship then flies off into the horizon as the archeologist looks up in pure awe and shock. He looks down at the hologram device which begins projecting the Yautja language but now transforms into various human language translations. Holograms of the items that were left by her also start appearing showing that the items can be used to significantly heal wounded flesh and help rebuild after the damage done by their invasion. The archeologist starts to begin crying then laughing at the joy of realizing the scope of what his life's work and knowledge has lead to. He looks back up smiling in tears and we get one final shot of the Predator ship leaving Earth's atmosphere. The camera begins panning back down to Earth and a "5 Months Later" caption shows up. The archeologist is shown at a government facility watching and studying holograms that the Yautja warrior left showing instructions for rebuilding and duplicating their advanced medication formula. In the background outside of a glass window, military cargo marked with a medical symbol can be seen loading up on trucks while other trucks are loading up with cargo containing what appears to be futuristic looking tools. The archeologist turns around to watch as the trucks drive off smiling at the progress being made.

A man in a suit then walks in behind and says "You should be proud. This is quite the accomplishment. Quite the...gift...that our friends from the stars left us with." The archeologist turns around unsure of the man's identity cautiously responding "Yes, a gift to rebuild and to a make a new future. The medicine and construction tools that we're able to build now will send the world years into the future". The mysterious man then replies "Indeed, and the planet is forever grateful for what you did. Because of you, the human race can see that future...but...how long do you think this will last? The archeologist confusingly questions "What do you mean?". The man says "Look at what happened. Yes, we're building a new future but at what cost? The foundation for our evolution is off the ashes and skulls of a mass genocide enacted by the very same creatures that gave us these tools? What does that say about us that some alien race can just show up out of the blue and slaughter us like lamb out of some conflict that has nothing to do with us? And then just shows us some afterthought sense of sympathy like a pat on the back? No, we may have gotten lucky this time, but we cannot be so naive as to think that such a thing couldn't happen again." 

The archeologist nervously responds "What are you saying?". The man replies "What I am saying Mr. [insert protagonist's last name here], is that the government has a new job for you." The man then turns to one of the people that walked in with him who opens up a briefcase lifting out an ancient tablet with hieroglyphics on it. The symbols show what appears to be the Yautja instructing an ancient human civilization in front of a flying craft in the stars. The man then smiles and asks "Tell me. What do you know of space travel?". The camera cuts to the archeologist who looks at the tablet then back to the man with a cautious expression on his face before cutting to black. End credits begin.

Bonus Thoughts

So, You've Made It This Far...

I was so delighted to have seen such positive feedback from my alternate take on the Halloween movie franchise. Because of this, I've decided to continue in that creative spirit now looking back...waaay back...to some of my earlier movie ideas. It's a bit strange for me finally deciding to make something out of a rough idea that I wrote out in one of my junior high school notebooks in 2005 for an Alien Vs. Predator sequel. Flashing forward to 2022 and here I am adding and altering ideas on a blog that I've created. I'd love to travel back in time and tell that younger version of myself that those random ideas that he's having fun creating will actually get expanded upon in the future. I'd also love to tell him that, although his dreams of filmmaking won't come true, his love of film will certainly be expressed and become a major part of his life. I just wanna take this time and thank you guys for being a part of these geek out sessions with me. My Facebook audience and any newcomers finding me through this particular article, thank you for making this film fan quite the happy camper for seeing his ideas actually reach people.