Predators filmmakers’ vision for a sequel was ‘Die Hard on a Predator ship’

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Some fans were disappointed with PREDATOR 2 when it was released back in 1990 (that's why we dedicated the Black Sheep video embedded above to the film), but in the thirty years that followed, 20th Century Fox showed they could make PREDATOR movies that were much more disappointing than that one. After letting the film franchise lie dormant for more than a decade, they gave us a couple ALIEN VS. PREDATOR movies that didn't live up to the concept that comic books, novels, and video games have been more successful at digging into, then they brought back original PREDATOR cast member Shane Black to write and direct THE PREDATOR, an idea that sounded promising but turned out to be a total misfire.

But in the midst of all the bad decisions, Fox did give us a sequel that was actually pretty cool: 2010's PREDATORS (watch it HERE), directed by Nimrod Antal from a screenplay by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch, and produced by Robert Rodriguez. That film had the following synopsis: 

Brought together on a mysterious planet, a mercenary and a group of coldblooded killers now become the prey. A new breed of aliens pursues the ragtag humans through dense jungle. The group must work together to survive, or become the latest trophies of the fearsome intergalactic hunters.

Although PREDATORS left the door wide open for a direct follow-up to be made, Fox never moved forward with the project. Speaking with AVP Galaxy, Litvak has now revealed what a PREDATORS sequel would have been like if he had been able to make one with Finch, Rodriguez, and Antal. 

Surviving PREDATORS characters Royce (Adrien Brody) and Isabelle (Alice Braga) would have been back in the lead roles, and when the story begins they would still be stuck on the "mysterious planet" the Predators took them to.

And they [the Predators] keep dropping more people. And the opening of the movie was that somebody new gets dropped and a Predator shows up about to kill this person. Boom! The Predator gets killed and it’s Royce and Isabelle showing up saying “welcome to the resistance.”

So now they have their own little tribe on the planet where they’re surviving, they’re being hunted but they’re also striking back so we establish the way they are. We also establish that Royce and Isabelle are incredibly valuable targets because these guys [the Berserker/Super Predators] are all about the genetic upgrades. They want their DNA. But they’re still stuck here. They’ve got their foothold on survival, but how do we get back to Earth? There’s only one way. We’ve got to get on the Predator ship.

At the end of Act One Royce, Isabelle and their guys are captured by Super Predators –  on purpose because they allow themselves to be captured – and are brought to their ship that they use to funnel people to this planet. There’s got to be some sort of big transport. So now you get to see this transport. So our guys breakout… and what the movie is Die Hard on a Predator ship.

The idea was now you break free and now you’re trying to take control of the ship with all of the Super Predators you have to fight there. And of course all the other shit that’s there… like the alien zoo on that ship…"

That sounds like a fun movie to me, and probably would have made for a more satisfying viewing experience than THE PREDATOR did. 

Litvak went on to say that the film's "DIE HARD on a Predator ship" action would have built up to a twist ending in which 

we get back to Earth, we land and we realise it’s the future! All along we thought this was happening now, but what if these guys have been on ice for 300 years? The hatch opens, and the Space [Colonial] Marines come in! That was how we merge the two worlds – the Alien and Predator worlds finally merge and bring the Space Marines into the story."

Maybe that ending could have led into an ALIEN VS. PREDATOR movie that would be closer to what many fans wanted to see – one with Colonial Marines in the mix… but, unfortunately, none of this was to be.