The trailer for director Shane Black’s highly anticipated Predator sequel, The Predator, has arrived. It’s only 94 seconds, but there’s quite a bit to unpack. Here are five things we learned.
1) A kid appears to initiate an alien invasion
The trailer begins on Halloween night, with kids walking around in costumes. It ventures inside a house, where one pipsqueak opens up a box containing armor belonging to a Predator. This boy appears to activate a homing beacon (damn the youth of today!) that sends an alien ship to earth. This leads us to the second thing we learned:
2) The story takes place in suburbia
Director John McTiernan’s 1987 classic unfolded in a Central American jungle, where Arnie smothered himself with mud and played hide and seek with a monstrous alien. The Predator looks more like a Joe Dante, Gremlins style experience, where the alien swine haunt us on our home turf.
3) The Predator’s face mask is a little different
It looks kind of like a chubbier version of the terrorised face in Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream. Bearing in mind, we don’t get much of a look at it. Most of the trailer is focused on the humans.
4) There is some kind of jungle or jungle-esque element
OK, so we said the film was based in suburbia. BUT, one minute and 20 seconds in, we see a couple of characters jump off a cliff (as you do) in a very ‘Mother Nature’ type area, surrounded by trees. So the jungle might not be involved but perhaps a national park, at least. There’s still hope that somebody will get covered in mud.
5) The Predator makes that weird, creepy sound from its throat
This one is hardly a huge surprise – but we wanted to get to five lessons, so this will have to do. The trailer incorporates that super creepy alien throat noise, at a key moment one minute three seconds in. Nothing says “sweet dreams, junior” quite like this disgusting sound.
