Alien Vs. Predator proved to be a worldwide success, and Fox immediately approved a sequel; whereas Amalgamated Dynamics returned for the creature effects, Paul W.S. Anderson was instead replaced by Brothers Colin and Greg Strause, who took on their first role as directors. In the story, the Alien bursted from the corpse of Scar (recreated as a featureless dummy) sneaks onto a scout Predator ship, wreaking havoc and causing it to crash on Earth. Its first victims are three Predators, whose designs largely recycle models built for the precedent film. The ‘Predalien’ also ‘skins’ them, leaving their corpses hanging from the ceiling of the ship (a decision — supposedly — brought by the studio executives); those were recolored and hidden in post-production. Before dying at the hands of the ‘Predalien’, one of the Predators sends a distress signal; another Hunter receives said signal and decides to investigate on it. The new Predator was labeled by the directors as Wolf — after the homonim character in Pulp Fiction, due to his function of ‘cleaner’. Played again by Ian Whyte, it is supposed to be an elite, extremely experienced Hunter, who has underwent many missions before the events of the film.
Wolf head maquette by Steve Wang, showing the burn.
Following the directors’ specific instructions, ADI once again redesigned the Predator. As opposed to the muscular, comic-inspired Predators of the first film, Wolf returned to a slimmer configuration — more akin to the original Winston design. “We were adamant about creating a new, unique Predator,” the Strause brothers said. “With a physique and features that reflected the original films — and the Wolf achieved that in spades.” The directors found the Predators from the previous film too disproportioned, and tried to use Whyte as a performer as much as possible; with only one main Predator, its proportions were based strictly on the performer’s. The Predator’s head features, however, a new configuration: a flatter face, proportionally bigger mouth and mandibles, as well as two single upper canines. “We wanted to re-proportion the face,” said Woodruff in the Inside the Monster Shop book, “giving the brov a more cunning, sweptback angle, like a predatory cat.” To add a visual clue of the Predator’s past fights with Aliens, the left side of its face is plagued by a considerable acid burn, which has almost completely consumed the creature’s upper left mandible, and blinded its left eye (which was re-colored in post-production). This aspect was inspired by ‘Broken Tusk,’ the Predator character from the original AvP comic book story, Prey. Colin Strause explained the connection: “One of the cool things was — we wanted, y’know — to give a little throwback to the comic book fans, so that’s why we kind of did the Broken-Tusk type of idea, with the melted off mandible.”
The concept art piece with the whip, which inspired its inclusion in the film.
The Predator’s mask was heavily inspired by the City Hunter from Predator 2‘s. Added to that basic outline were a grey, stone-like color scheme and texture, as well as thorns and marks on its forehead plate; it is unknown whether those marks have any ritual or religious meaning akin to the Alien symbol drawn by the Predators of the first film. As Wolf is an experienced hunter — to the point where it tries to shoot Aliens at point blank — the directors wanted his wrist blades to be shorter, and his body to be less covered in armor. In addition to dual shoulder cannons, the spear, the collapsible buzz saws and said wrist blades, the Predator comes with a new paraphernalia: a ‘power-gauntlet’ — housed in the left forearm — that allows enhanced strength packed in a single punch, claymore mines, a dissolving liquid (all designed by Chris Howe), and a razor whip. The last was in particular the key weapon of Wolf — who wraps it around enemies to slice parts of them off. It was not originally scripted; Colin Strause said: “the whip was actually… that was one of the really cool surprises that ADI brought to the table. In one of the first meetings, all of us started looking at this one design at the same time, which was a Predator whip. All of us, the light bulb went on, ‘We gotta have that. This has to be in our movie’; and we wrote it into the film after just seeing it on that design.”
ADI built a hero suit and a stunt suit, composed of the body and all the armor parts, which could be put on and taken off. As per the precedent film, this Predator is never shown with the original mandible closure. In a manner similar to the insert ‘talking’ Predator bust from Predator 2, the Wolf Predator’s eyes are not contact lenses, but rather fully animatronic elements, in order to give the character a more beast-like, and less humanoid vibe. This mechanical design choice was also dictated by the outline of the Predator’s head. Alec Gillis, in his commentary for the film, stated that the intention was also to make them more visible in the darkness — like a predatory cat’s.
For more images of the Predator, visit the Monster Gallery.
Next: Part V: Predators [COMING SOON]
