The Real Reason The Predator Killed Shane Black's Hawkins First

Almost 40 years later, "Predator" remains the gold standard for subversive genre switcheroos. At first, director John McTiernan's 1987 classic plays like your typical '80s testosterone fest, with Arnold Schwarzenegger posturing alongside other muscleheads and cheerily killing nameless baddies (but not without chucking out a winking one-liner). It's only then that the Sword of Damocles that is the film's opening, in which something from outer space is shown entering Earth's atmosphere, comes crashing down. With that, the movie seamlessly transforms into a sci-fi slasher in the jungles of Central America, with Arnold's Dutch and his fellow paramilitaries becoming more or less the equivalent of Laurie Strode and the other teen girls in John Carpenter's "Halloween." (Though I'm pretty sure Jam