7 Predator Movie Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee

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The Predator franchise has been consistently popular for almost 40 years. Luckily, it now appears to be at its peak. For a long time, we only had Predator and Predator 2, which gave the impression that it wasn’t an intellectual property that could successfully become a franchise. 2010’s Predators was a welcome return to form after the underwhelming Alien vs. Predator films from the 2000s, although it felt somewhat cautious. However, like many large-scale movies, most Predator films have noticeable flaws that are hard to ignore once you spot them. Despite this, some of the films are remarkably well-made and don’t contribute much to the list of mistakes. This is especially true of Prey, which is almost entirely free of errors.

Then we have Predator: Killer of Killers, which feels separate from the others because it’s an animated film. The two Alien vs. Predator movies were also excluded-they have so many mistakes they could easily fill a list of their own. Will Dan Trachtenberg’s upcoming Predator: Badlands continue the success of Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers? And importantly, will it include its own noticeable errors, potentially adding to this list? Only time will tell.

7) A Red-blooded Scorpion

The Yautja’s ability to see infrared light – when using its helmet – is a key element of the 1987 movie, and remains important throughout the entire franchise. However, accurately portraying this ability has presented some challenges. A good example is the scene with the scorpion in the first film. After Mac removes the scorpion from Dillon’s back and throws it aside, the Yautja jumps down as Dutch’s team leaves the camp and approaches the discarded creature. Initially, the scorpion appears to emit body heat on the Yautja’s vision, but once the Yautja picks it up, the heat signature disappears.

When someone dies, algor mortis causes their body temperature to fall. A body typically cools down about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit each hour until it matches the surrounding room temperature. Even if the scorpion *had* been warm-blooded – which insects and arachnids aren’t – its body heat would have equalized with the environment long before the Predator found it. There are a few reasons for this. First, a scorpion is much smaller than a human. Second, the scorpion and the soldiers are located in Central America, which is consistently humid. This means the temperature drop would have been minimal. And third, this is key: the body temperature of arthropods, like scorpions, depends entirely on their surroundings. They are the same temperature as the air around them. Because of this, the Yautja would likely have had a lot of trouble even *seeing* the scorpion.

6) So Much for the Hostages

Dutch and his team are sent to Central America with the mission of rescuing a local cabinet minister. However, when they locate the guerrilla camp, they believe their objective extends beyond just saving the minister – they think they also need to free other hostages who were taken with him. Unbeknownst to the team, Dillon has concealed the truth: all the hostages are actually CIA agents. There was never any cabinet minister to begin with.

Whether he’s a cabinet minister or not, Dutch and his team completely destroy the guerrilla camp. They believe there are people who need rescuing, but why are they firing machine guns and throwing grenades into huts that might hold prisoners? It’s only after the shooting stops that someone on Dutch’s team bothers to look for hostages. If any hostages were alive before the team arrived, they almost certainly aren’t now. It’s a brutal and questionable rescue attempt.

5) Was He Just Hanging On to the Beef Slabs?

Gary Busey’s character, Peter Keyes, is a standout in Predator 2, and his death is particularly memorable. However, the way it happens doesn’t quite add up.

When Keyes informs Lt. Mike Harrigan (played by Danny Glover) that he’s capable of handling the Yautja from that point forward, he is instantly cut in half by a thrown Smart Disc. We then see the lower portion of Keyes collapse in a gruesome heap. However, his upper body doesn’t fall immediately. Unless his hands were somehow snagged on the pieces of flesh around him, both halves should have fallen simultaneously.

4) No Mask Infrared

The slaughterhouse scenes in the icebox contain the two most noticeable mistakes in Predator 2. Beyond the fact that Keyes’ death doesn’t make much sense, there’s a more significant problem.

Specifically, when only the Yautja, Keyes, and Lt. Harrigan remain, the Yautja removes its mask. However, it still perceives the world using infrared vision. In fact, from this moment forward in the story, the Yautja’s mask is off for much of the time, yet it continues to see in infrared. The problem is that, with the mask removed, the enraged alien visitor’s vision consists of only red and gray thermal images. The color scheme of the maskless vision has changed over time within the franchise, but at this point it was a mistake. There was nothing to suggest this Yautja was significantly different from those in the first film.

3) If They Bleed Blue, We Can Kill Them

Yautjas are very durable, which is essential for the franchise’s thrilling action scenes. Predators and The Predator show that their young share many traits with the adults – including their fearsome, tooth-filled mouths. However, they can be defeated with enough firepower, as demonstrated with the Hell-hounds in Predators. Sadly, this also resulted in an obvious visual mistake.

During the sequence where the Hell-hounds attack Adrien Brody’s Royce, Alice Braga’s Isabelle, and the other people stranded on the Yautja hunting grounds, we see their bullets impact the creatures’ skin. When a bullet *does* hit, we see red spray, similar to what would happen with a human. However, when a Hell-hound is shown dead on the ground, its wounds are leaking blue fluid. This is confusing, unless the red blood somehow changes to blue after being exposed to air for a short time, which isn’t explained.

2) The Predator Has Its Years Mixed Up

In Predator 2, after the 20th Century Fox logo appears, the film opens with a sweeping shot of a forest. As the camera moves, the forest becomes less dense, eventually revealing that we are actually looking at Los Angeles. The city’s name is then displayed on screen, followed immediately by the year 1997.

However, in The Predator, there’s a noticeable issue when Olivia Munn’s Dr. Bracket displays images of past human encounters with the Yautja. We first see 1987 in Central America, which is correct. But then we see 1990 and Los Angeles. This is inaccurate because Predator 2 was *released* in 1990, not *set* in that year. The mistake is compounded by the fact that Sterling K. Brown’s Will Traeger had just stated the Los Angeles incident happened in 1997.

1) Metamorphosis, Not Evolution

Evolution describes changes that affect a whole species, not just an individual. Metamorphosis, on the other hand, is a transformation that can happen to a single member of that species.

Therefore, when evolutionary biologist Dr. Casey Bracket states the Ultimate Predator is evolving, she actually meant it is undergoing metamorphosis. Given that she is, as previously noted, an evolutionary biologist, one would expect her to understand the distinction between these two terms.

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2025-10-02 21:44