'predator' was specially designed to mock our gun fantasies

plus: more on the yautja ONE CRACKED FACT | [View in Browser]( [03072022-HEADER](www.cracked.com/article_32770_nasa-sent-a-lightsaber-into-space.html?newsletter-cat=science?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=09032022) ['Predator' Was Specially Designed To Mock Our Gun Fantasies]( By: [RM Avatar] [Ryan Menezes]( • March 9, 2022 [03092022](www.cracked.com/article_32789_predator-was-specially-designed-to-mock-our-gun-fantasies.html?newsletter-cat=movies-tv?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=09032022) When Joel Silver got the script to 1987's Predator, he decided to produce it as a big-budget action film, much like his previous Commando. But the director he picked, John McTiernan, wasn't exactly gun-ho about the suggested tone. "People had a sort of perverse fascination with pictures of guns firing," he'd later explain. "And I said to myself, 'Okay, if you want pictures of guns firing, um, I'll give you pictures of guns firing.' So I created this sequence where they take all of their guns and they blaze away continually for five minutes flat. And they flatten the jungle. They mow down evvverything." "And what I was really doing," he said, "was sort of the Australian phrase 'to take the piss out of" (or to quietly ridicule) the desire to see pictures of guns firing." Because, see, the guns don't actually hit anything, unless you count all the exploding trees as successful shots. "The whole point was the impotence of all the guns. Which was exactly the opposite of what I believe I was being hired to sell." You might have seen something similar in Die Hard, with a whole lot of bad guys dramatically firing their rifles but hitting nothing but glass. Die Hard was McTiernan's next film. "Now, some of the people involved in this movie have since put that same sequence into just about every movie they make," said McTiernan, "every movie they're involved in. With subtle differences. They sort of forget to take the people away from in front of the guns. So you get a sequence where they blaze away for five minutes killing people." Not to say Predator is some total antiviolence piece. McTiernan called it merely a "compromise" between that and "the pornographic desire to market images of gunfire ... the corporate purpose." But it was kind of a takedown of violent fantasies, which the franchise eventually forgot. People remember "I ain't got time to bleed" and "If it bleeds, we can kill it," but the Predator kills all the men but one, and even at the end, it dies by its own hand instead of bullets tearing it apart. Or, as more proof of how little people remember the movie, think about how the shot of Arnold and Carl Weathers’ hands clasped has become a meme for different sides united in perfect agreement. Arnold and Carl Weathers aren't agreeing. Arnold has turned their friendly greeting into an arm wrestling match—one that he wins. For more Predator facts, check out: - [An Obscure Easter Egg From 1994 Links Predator To Terminator]( - [Alien vs. Predator Makes The Classic Predators Look Like Cowards]( - [5 Terrifying Uses of Sexual Symbolism in Horror Films]( [Daily Digest]( [16 Wonderfully Weird Facts About Whales]( [By Zanandi Botes / March 09th, 2022]( [15 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Awesome Movie Weapons]( [By Tara Marie / March 09th, 2022]( [How Spielberg's 'E.T.' Special Edition Pissed Off The Screenwriter]( [By JM McNab / March 09th, 2022]( [15 Netflix Up And Coming Comedians’ Hall-of-Fame Jokes]( [By Jay L'Ecuyer / March 08th, 2022]( [16 Behind-The Scenes Stories From Trainwreck 'Street Fighter' Movie]( [By Andres Diplotti / March 08th, 2022]( [READ MORE]( [fb]( [tw]( [yt]( [flipboard]( [insta png]( [tiktok png]( [ARTICLES]( | [PICTOFACTS]( | [Videos]( Literally media Ltd. 190 West St, Suite 17B, Brooklyn NY 11222 COPYRIGHT © 2005-2021 Cracked is published by Literally media Ltd. [Unsubscribe](