History YMMV / PREDATOR

** The film depicts the CIA as meddling in South America because of communism. This became a lot more harsher due to the Iran Contra scandal that broke later that year.
** Similarly, the film's willingness to paint the government as shady can be much more harder to look at after Creator/JohnMcTiernan acknowledged lying to the FBI.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The Predator's laugh as it activates its self-destruct. Mocking Dutch that the explosion will [[TakingYouWithMe kill them both]], and thus the Predator believes it's literally getting the last laugh? Or the Predator reveling in going out [[AGoodWayToDie exactly the way it wanted to]], killed by a WorthyOpponent at the climax of a glorious hunt?

** Dutch and Dillon's handshake became an image known as the Epic Handshake meme.

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The Predator's plasma caster and Blaine's minigun.

** The blank-firing adapters are visible in the barrels of the guns of Dutch's crew.

* ParodyDisplacement: The design of the titular alien is based on Adjudant Booba from ''Series/DengekiSentaiChangeman'', yet odds are that if you were to show someone a picture of the latter, they'd assume it's either based on or ripping off the former -- even Super Sentai itself seems to agree with this, since it's homaged the Predator several times.

** The blank-firing adapters are visible in the barrels of Arnie's crew's guns.

** [[GatlingGood Ol' Painless]]. Bringing a gun that weighs at least 81 lbs / 19 kg and requires thousands of rounds of ammunition and a portable power supply on a stealthy hike through the jungle is a complete ViolationOfCommonSense, but it's such an awesome weapon, used by the film's EnsembleDarkhorse, and contributes so much to the action scenes, that it gets a pass for being so much darned fun.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** Handheld miniguns are hardly revolutionary now that several action movies have imitated or parodied them.
** Visible invisibility isn't as exciting now that works like ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' have imitated it.
** Back in its time, the film itself was considered shocking, as it broke the action movie mold by having Arnie and his friends defeated by a stealthy being that uses its brain and deception to defeat them and, in turn, is only beaten in the end by some quick thinking on part of the hero. Nowadays, it's common practice for action movies, especially after ''Film/DieHard'', to have their protagonists rely on their brains instead of heavy firepower and shooting stuff.

* SelfFanservice: As noted under EvilIsSexy. Quite a lot of fans, especially the more lewd-loving ones, tend to give the Yautjas a heaping dosage of this. Interestingly enough, there seems to be two camps when it comes to this trope. One camp downplays the Yautjas' ButterFace, by making their faces either a bit more easier on the eyes or a little more humanized yet still keeping their alien aspects, while others just outright keep the nightmarish faces (or stylize them to make them easier to draw) and just make their bodies even more fanservice-y (i.e. turning female Yautjas into an AmazonianBeauty while the male ones can either just be decently [[MrFanservice hunk-ish]] or wouldn't be too out of place in the BaraGenre).[[labelnote:*]]While cinema has yet to see one, the comics describe female Yautja as being bigger in size than the males.[[/labelnote]]

* EvilIsSexy: For ''[[NightmareFetishist certain]]'' kinds of fans, the Yautjas/Predators are definitely this. They all suffer a major case of ButterFace, being aliens that have bizarre and downright nightmarish faces yet have smoking hot, toned, and very muscular bodies. It doesn't help that for the most part, their outfits [[{{Stripperiffic}} don't really leave much to the imagination]], as for the most part they are usually wearing {{Loin Cloth}}s and fishnets. Some fans sprinkle in a little bit of SelfFanservice to turn Yautjas into [[MrFanservice Mr]] and [[MsFanservice Ms]] Fanservices. The latter are usually even depicted as [[AmazonianBeauty Amazonian Beauties]].

** When Blain is killed, everybody on his team is upset, but his 'friend' Mac is absolutely devastated. He becomes almost suicidally vengeful and explains to a concerned Dutch that Blain was his ''friend'', with special emphasis on the word. He also insists he be the one to put Blain's dead body in a poncho, and takes one last drink before leaving his canteen upon Blain's body for burial. His parting words are "Goodbye, old friend", and later that night, when he's looking up at the moon, sullen: "Here we are again, bro. Just you and me".

---> '''Blain''': Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here! This stuff will make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus -- just like me!\\

---> '''Blaine''': Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here, this stuff'll make you a goddamn sexual ''Tyrannosaurus'' -- just like me!\\
'''Blaine''': I ain't got time to bleed.\\
'''Hawkins''': [[ChirpingCrickets ... it was 'cause of the echo.]]\\
'''Dutch''': If it bleeds, we can kill it.\\
'''Dutch''': Stick around.\\
'''Dutch''': Knock knock.\\
'''Mac''': Any time.\\
'''Mac''': [[MadnessMantra OH BABY, OH BABY, I'M GONNA HAVE ME SOME FUN, I'M GONNA HAVE ME SOME FUN, I'M GONNA HAVE ME SOME FUN...]]\\
'''Dutch''': Ruuuuun! Goooooo! Get to da choppa!\\
'''Dutch''': You're one ''ugly'' motherfucker.

** After lingering on Dutch's bloodstained body and [[ThousandYardStare traumatised gaze]], the film cuts to black with tense, sombre music... only to cut to a montage of the various characters we've just seen get brutally murdered laughing and going about their day in a way more appropriate for the credit sequence of a Vietnam-themed ''[[Series/HogansHeroes Hogan's Heroes]]''. [[SoundtrackDissonance The sombre music playing over it doesn't help]].

* RetroactiveRecognition: Try to recognize Creator/ShaneBlack under [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/avp/images/2/2a/Hawkins.png/revision/latest?cb=20130413102132 Hawkins]]' 80s geeky glasses.

--->'''Mac''': Goodbye, bro.

* TooCoolToLive:[[spoiler: Dutch's entire team ([[FallenHero even]] [[BadassBureaucrat Dillon]]) is this. Each of them is an entertaining and likeable OneManArmy with a unique skillset, and they're all dead by the end of the film's second third so that Dutch can fight the Predator one-on-one.]]

** After lingering on Dutch's bloodstained body and [[ThousandYardStare traumatised gaze]], the film cuts to black with tense, sombre music... only to cut to a montage of the various characters we've just seen get brutally murdered laughing and going about their day in a way more appropriate for the credit sequence of a Vietnam-themed [[Series/HogansHeroes Hogan's Heroes]]. [[SoundtrackDissonance The sombre music playing over it doesn't help]].

* SelfFanservice: As noted under EvilIsSexy. Quite a lot of fans, especially the more lewd-loving ones, tend to give the Yautjas a heaping dosage of this. Interestingly enough, there seems to be two camps when it comes to this trope. One camp downplays the Yautjas' ButterFace, by making their faces either a bit more easier on the eyes or a little more humanized yet still keeping their alien aspects, while others just outright keep the nightmarish faces (or stylize them to make them easier to draw) and just make their bodies even more fanservice-y (i.e. turning female Yautjas into an AmazonianBeauty while the male ones can either just be decently [[MrFanservice hunk-ish]] or wouldn't be too out of place in the BaraGenre).

* SignatureScene: Dutch and his squad unloading absurd amounts of ammo blindly into the jungle (the Predator is hit exactly ''once'', and that was before the firestorm started).

-->'''Mac''': Goodbye, bro.

** ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' has an overlap in interest with the series, owing to also being a violent 80's sci-fi series sharing numerous creators and actors with the ''Predator'' films, particularly Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/AlienVsPredator here]]. By proxy, this also means that ''Franchise/RoboCop'' fans are also part of the shared ''Alien''-''Predator''-''Terminator'' community due to their very sizable overlap with the latter.

* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/AlienVsPredator here]].

** "The only movie starring two future Governors."[[labelnote:Explanation]]referring to Wrestling/JesseVentura, governor of Minnesota between 1999 and 2004, and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, governor of California between 2003 and 2011[[/labelnote]]

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Averted. The less well-received second film was written by the Thomas Brothers who wrote the first film and the fourth film by script doctor Creator/ShaneBlack, which was ill-received to the point of being a potential FranchiseKiller. On the opposite end, ''Prey'' was well-received, at least by critics, to the point of renewing interest in the franchise as a whole, and it had involvement from ''none'' of the original creators.

* {{Sequelitis}}: None of the sequels have earned the level of acclaim or success that the original film has, with ''Film/ThePredator'' suffering particularly hard due to the credentials of the director and cast, though ''Film/Predator2'' and ''Film/{{Predators}}'' have definitely [[VindicatedbyHistory gained better appreciation over time]], largely thanks to the ''Film/AlienVsPredator'' films and ''The Predator'' being more divisive films. Averted with the release of ''Film/Prey2022'', which has received positive reviews, and although audience reaction has been more tepid, it still has higher scores than the other sequels.

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Averted. The less well-received second film was written by the Thomas Brothers who wrote the first film and the fourth film by script doctor Creator/ShaneBlack, which was ill-received to the point of being a potential FranchiseKiller. On the opposite end, ''Prey'' was incredibly well-received, to the point of renewing interest in the franchise as a whole, and it had involvement from ''none'' of the original creators.

* {{Sequelitis}}: None of the sequels have earned the level of acclaim or success that the original film has, with ''Film/ThePredator'' suffering particularly hard due to the credentials of the director and cast, though ''Film/Predator2'' and ''Film/{{Predators}}'' have definitely [[VindicatedbyHistory gained better appreciation over time]], largely thanks to the ''Film/AlienVsPredator'' films and ''The Predator'' being more divisive films. Averted, finally, with the release of ''Film/Prey2022'', which has received positive reviews to a greater extent than even the original.

* ToughActToFollow: It took over 30 years for [[Film/Prey2022 a sequel]] to come out that was even considered in the same league as this one. While the second and third films have their fans (the less said about the 2018 effort among the fandom, the better) and are generally respected for each trying something new with the overarching premise, it's commonly accepted opinion that neither of them reached the heights of the original.

** Dutch declares that his team is "not expendable." Dutch's actor appears in ''Film/TheExpendables'' franchise, but none of the rest of the actors in his platoon do.

** The ''Film/AlienVsPredator'' films depict the Yautja as being a mix of both {{sadist}}ic [[BloodKnight blood knights]] and a ProudWarriorRaceGuy culture.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The first films, at least, attempt the Aesop that "sport hunting is bad". But the Predators specifically go after victims that can fight back, making the hunt a true test of skill against skill, and (nuclear self-destruct options aside) are rather {{graceful loser}}s. No shame in testing your skill against, and being bested by, a truly challenging opponent. All in all, Predator hunting is rather different than the typical deer or duck hunting humans engage in. . . and when humans did engage in sport hunting against things that could hunt them back, they drove several of those species to near-extinction.

* ParodyDisplacement: The design of the titular alien is based on Adjudant Booba from ''Series/DengekiSentaiChangeman'', yet odds are that if you were to show someone a picture of the latter, they'd assume it's either based on or ripping off the former -- even Super Sentai itself seems to agree with this, since it's homaged the Predator several times.

* VindicatedByHistory: While a hit with audiences, ''Film/{{Predator}}'' was not well received by critics at the time (although Creator/RogerEbert gave it a positive review) and its Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores reflected this. Thanks to its unforgettable antagonist, effects and surprisingly subtle GenreDeconstruction, in more recent times, critical attitudes have warmed, and it has even gone on to be featured on several "best of" lists. (It's also picked up a reputation as one of [[RatedMForManly the manliest movies ever.]])

* VindicatedByHistory: While a hit with audiences, ''Film/{{Predator}}'' was not well received by critics at the time (although Creator/RogerEbert gave it a positive review) and its Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores reflected this. In more recent times, critical attitudes have warmed, and it has even gone on to be featured on several "best of" lists. (It's also picked up a reputation as one of [[RatedMForManly the manliest movies ever.]])

* ToughActToFollow: It took over 30 years for [[Film/Prey2022 a sequel]] to come out that was even considered in the same league as this one. While the second and third film have their fans and are generally respected for each trying something new with the overarching premise, it's commonly accepted opinion that neither of them reached the heights of the original.