1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger Action Movie 'Predator' is Streaming Free on Tubi

Published 2 months ago• 4 minute read

The Predator franchise recently received a huge shot to the arm in 2023 with the arrival of Prey, Dan Trachtenberg’s incredible prequel to the 1987 original that refreshed and revived the sci-fi action franchise, and for many even surpassed the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie in several ways. Now, audiences are reminding themselves of how Arnie tried, and failed, to get everyone to the chopper almost 40 years ago, and have made the original film an apex predator of Tubi's free streaming chart.

Directed by John McTiernan—who would later helm Die Hard—Predator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, leading an elite Special Forces team on a covert rescue mission in Central America – well didn’t he always. What should have been a routine operation soon spirals into a bloody and desperate battle for survival when the group find themselves under attack from an invisible and deadly hunter unlike anything they have encountered before.

Backed by a $15 million budget, Predator clawed its way to a healthy worldwide box office of $98.3 million – which stands as a big figure for an R-rated sci-fi action movie, even by today’s standards. What was more impressive is that the film also managed to secure an 80% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and currently holds an 87% approval rating from audiences. As one of Arnie’s most iconic roles, standing alongside The Terminator as one of his most quotable and instantly memorable appearances, it is hard to imagine there being a time when Predator is not capable of generating an audience, and free streaming is as good a place as any for that audience to rediscover the film.

Unlike The Terminator franchise, which saw Schwarzenegger return for almost every sequel, including the highly underrated Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019, the Austrian Oak bailed out on the Predator franchise after just one movie. However, the saga of the technologically advanced alien hunters continued on sporadically over the following four decades.

While the original movie relied on its testosterone-driven action, startling death scenes, and its intriguing and hardly-seen (literally) villain, subsequent movies brought something different to the franchise, but not always in a good way. 1990’s Predator 2 saw Danny Glover taking the lead of a film that brought the extraterrestrial to the city, where its brutal murders are believed to be part of a Los Angeles crime wave being investigated by Glover’s police officer, Michael Harrigan. Reviews for the movie were pretty abysmal, and its $57 million box office was just as disappointing (although with a $20 million budget it was not a complete flop).

The main franchise remained dormant until being revived for two Alien vs. Predator movies in 2004 and 2007. With the first of those movies inexplicably pulling back the violence and gore to an acceptable level to land a PG-13 rating (although Alien vs. Predator: Requiem would be R-rated), it wasn’t until 2010 that the Predator franchise returned to an all-out R-rated offering in the Robert Rodriguez-produced Predators in 2010. The film scored reasonably well, and was certainly helped along thanks to the inclusion of a talented – and unexpected – cast including Adrien Brody, although it was criticized for trying too hard to copy the original movie’s premise.

Predator: Every Movie in the Franchise, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

The Predator franchise has been running strong since 1987. Let's look at how Rotten Tomatoes ranks every movie in the series.

Skip forward to 2018, and The Predator picked up the crusty mantle, only to fumble things again and undo any good grace built up by its predecessor. And then Disney bought Fox. For many fans, this meant it was, to quote the other big sci-fi horror franchise that the House of Mouse inherited, game over, man, for Predator movies. It was therefore a huge surprise to many when the female-led Prey arrived on Hulu and Disney+ in 2022 to become the most praised movie of the franchise, even surpassing the original scores of the 1987 movie.

With more Predator movies coming soon, including Trachtenberg’s Prey follow-up, Predator: Badlands, there has never been a better time to go back and remember where it all began, in the jungle, with group of sweaty muscle-men and a deadly alien with a technological version of Harry Potter’s Cloak of Invisibility.