In case you're wondering, when the Predator weapon hit Arnold and didn't hurt him, it actually hit and destroyed his gun; he was only clipped by shrapnel. Hard to see.

When Simone asked why one of them was drinking water from a vine instead of his canteen -- it's because they don't know how long they'll be in the jungle or when they'll be able to resupply.  By scavenging wherever they can, they're giving themselves more time in the field and on mission without having to worry about it.

Many people dont realize that when the Predator picks Dutch up and looks at his skull he is checking if he is human. He has never been pushed so far, even hunted by another human. Once he sees hes an "ordinary" human who did it solely with his wits and guile and not actually some superior species different to humans he respects Dutch.

That is why he follows by immediately trying to level the playing field. Predators may be violent killers but they have a deep sense of honor and respect for hunting and combat.

Stan Winston is one of THE BEST special FX guys in Hollywood of all time. His work includes, among many others:
Aliens, Predator 1+2, Terminator 1+2, Iron Man, Jurassic Park 1+2+3, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones 4, Avatar, The Thing.
He worked together with Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, John Carpenter, Tim Burton, and many others.
An absolute LEGEND.

11:50: How can you criticize that? It's one of the coolest scenes ever put on film. The whole team knows Mac wouldn't be laying down that kind of firepower without a good reason so they all join in no questions asked.

If you notice, Billy is the only one of Dutch's squad where the skull was taken instead of just the skin.

This is because Billy dropped his guns, and turned to fight on a log, where he couldn't be flanked, IE had to fight head on.

The implication is that the predator respected this, and fought him in kind, and valued his skull as a more worthy opponent.

Conan the Barbarian. Schwarzenegger, Mako, Max von Sydow, James Earl Jones, Sandahl Bergman, swords, snakes, and an epic score by Basil Poledouris.

The Arnold battle cry is also one of the coolest moments in any movie I've ever seen, along with the buildup of the score and how it echoes out into the jungle. So intense!

RIP Carl Weathers

I saw this in the theatre in 1987- when the Predator got out its surgical first aid kit, someone in the audience yelled out-

HE'S A DENTIST!

I love how Simone is completely unashamed of her love of beefcake shots. 😂

Yes, the Predator species use the Earth as their hunting ground. They're trophy hunters so they only go after healthy/dangerous prey, this one judged Arnold to be impressive enough to warrant facing him hand to hand for ultimate bragging rights at the hunting lodge. Predator 2 is also good cheese, after that the series is regular cheese imho

Stan Winton is basically THE creature designer, one of the top tier ones for sure with tons of credits to his name.

I love that the first half is typical 80's action, just to showcase how tough and skilled the commandos are. It really drives home just how badass the Predator is as it dispatches the team one by one, pretty much effortlessly.

23:30
The Predator was impressed by Dutch's cunning and resourcefulness, so he saw him worthy of hand-to-hand combat

"Feels a bit cheating when you have advanced technology like that." Said every hunted animal ever.

"This movie is just SWIMMING in Testosterone!"
Damn right!  It's the most "macho", manly movie ever made!
It wasn't Rated R for the VIOLENCE!  It was rated R because ANY male under the age of 17 who sees it would prematurely hit Puberty from excessive Testosterone exposure through the screen!

Like 90% of Franchises, you guys can see the NEXT one (the sequel), but I recommend AVOIDING anything AFTER Predator 2!

Predator is one  of the greatest action movies ever created.

Little Tidbits:
1) Showing the Alien spaceship in the beginning apparently was a studio mandate. Thinking audiences would not know what’s going on so it was added post production. I think the director was not even aware of it.
2) originally the creature looked horrible. Like a salmon colored rubber suit mantis, which was played by Jean Claud Van dam. You can find it online. They had to scrap that and start from new, needles to say it was 100% the right move.
3) if you I want another great campy/ cheesy Arnold movie, you should watch True Lies. It’s Arnold and James Cameron together and it’s one of the best early 90s action movies.

This movie is swimming in testosterone... "I like it!" and "Blue zappy zappys!" OMG so adorable.  
Regarding the face paint, the main purpose in warfare is to blend into the surroundings.  The face is one of the most recognizable patterns the brain can detect visually, so as long as the face paint can help mess up that pattern recognition by breaking up facial contours and even making false shadows, the better.  As far as this movie, the face paint feels more like a "war movie" aesthetic for show and less like how it's done IRL.  A real good example of effective face paint in cinema would be Brando in Apocalypse Now.