The Predator Would Have Been Better If Olivia Munn Was The Hero

Major SPOILERS ahead for The Predator

If The Predator co-star Olivia Munn was the film's main hero, Shane Black's revival could have fixed the long-running sci-fi/action franchise's female character problem. The Predator is a return to the series that kicked off with John McTiernan's Predator in 1987 - starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his most memorable roles - and continued with Predator 2 in 1990. After the underwhelming response to the sequel, the franchise went in a different direction, crossing over with the Alien franchise for two event films: Alien vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem in 2004 and 2007 respectively. Then, Robert Rodriguez attempted to reinvigorate the solo Predator series with the Nimród Antal-directed Predators in 2010.

The Predator, which sees original co-star Shane Black return in capacity of co-writer and director, is another attempt to relaunch the franchise, this time serving as a direct sequel to the first two films. It follows a team of mentally ill former soldiers, lead by Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), who team up with Dr. Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) to take on a Predator that has put Quinn's son in danger. However, things are made difficult by government agent Will Trager (Sterling K. Brown), who wants to keep the Predator secret and study it, as well as the arrival of the Ultimate Predator. Reviews for The Predator were mixed-to-negative among critics, and once the film opened theatrically, it seemed audiences were mixed on it as well.

Undoubtedly, Holbrook's Quinn is the hero at the center of The Predator - much of the plot revolves around his son, after all - but Munn's Casey serves as a secondary hero, surviving the fight against the Ultimate Predator and providing necessary backup to Quinn in his final battle. In fact, Casey is so much of an action hero in The Predator, that the movie could have positioned her as the central protagonist. Here, we argue that The Predator would have been improved if the revival had gone in this direction, making Dr. Casey Bracket the main hero and Olivia Munn the main star.

This Page: The Predator Franchise’s Female Character Problem
Next Page: Casey Bracket's An Improvement & Would've Fixed The Predator

The Predator Franchise’s Female Character Problem

Since the first movie in the Predator franchise, the films have struggled to portray well developed, or even simply non-stereotypical female characters. In the first two movies, the Predator franchise goes out of its way to portray its main female characters as weaker than the male characters - ostensibly so that the Predator in those films won't kill them, but the result is the women appear lesser than the men. In the first film, the Predator doesn't kill Anna (Elpidia Carrillo) because she's an unarmed prisoner of Dutch's (Schwarzenegger) team, and Dutch makes sure she remains unarmed as a way to protect her - thereby taking away any agency she could have in such a dangerous situation.

Predator 2 gives Leona Cantrell (María Conchita Alonso) a little more agency as a detective working alongside new hero Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) and a slightly more developed character, insofar as she's a typical ball-busting guy's girl character. Still, when the sequel truly gets into the action and the Predator starts killing off Mike's team, Leona is spared because of the sudden reveal that she's pregnant - which the Predator learns after attacking and defeating her. Again, it seems to be an overtly contrived excuse for the Predator not to kill the main female character (Predator 2 also includes another woman spared by the Predator, but she's never named and is naked for almost all of her screen time).

Predators arguably features the most well developed female character, and the franchise's closest attempt to feature a woman being the hero prior to The Predator. Alice Braga's sniper Isabelle serves as the moral center of the movie, while the main hero Royce (Adrien Brody) is the lone wolf who eventually puts the good of others above his own self-interest. However, she doesn't have her own character arc so much as she helps Royce along with his. Further, she's treated appallingly by the script, which features Walton Goggins' Stans ogling her butt, then later sees Stans talking about getting home so he can rape women. Both are unnecessary to the movie and are simply used to establish the death row inmate Stans as a dangerous misogynist. Though Isabelle is undoubtedly a strong fighter, she's also relegated to typically feminine roles, playing peacemaker among the group and supporting the "real" hero, Royce.

As for the Alien vs. Predator movies, both do feature strong female characters with arcs of their own. However, since these are crossover films with a franchise known for its well developed and strong female action heroes, it's debatable whether they truly fix the Predator franchise's female character problem or simply adapt to to the Alien tradition. Still, The Predator offered a chance to fix the solo franchise, and instead it missed out on the opportunity.

Next Page: Casey Bracket's An Improvement & Would've Fixed The Predator

Predator 2018 - Boyd Holbrook and Olivia Munn

Olivia Munn's Casey Bracket Is Better - But Not Great

When viewers meet Olivia Munn's Dr. Casey Bracket, it quickly becomes clear that she's a capable and passionate woman. Although Munn's introduction in The Predator was cut, since it was presumably the scene featuring registered sex offender Steven Wilder Striegel that was removed, the movie establishes her character over her first interactions with the government men who eventually take her to meet Will Trager. She's also introduced as being one of the leading experts in her field, and arguably a better foil to the human villain Will. Both Casey and Will want to study the Predator, but Will hurts people in order to do so, whereas Casey takes a more humane approach.

Further, though Casey's expertise lies in academics, she gets plenty of action moments. Certainly, there's the scene in which she accidentally shoots herself with a tranquilizer - which is played for laughs - but she later proves to be adept with a gun and a key member of Quinn's team. Still, there are moments in The Predator when Casey is shown as "weak" as a means of saving her from the Predator, particularly early on in the movie when the Predator escapes within Will's lab and is killing everyone in sight in order to escape.

Arguably, the scene in which Casey is naked and hiding in the decontamination chambers is a subversion of the franchise's own tropes because she acquires key knowledge about the Predator in that moment, information that supposedly helps her and Quinn eventually take down the Ultimate Predator. However, when a scene consists of an overly large, murderous - and ostensibly male - hunter towering above a naked, unarmed women, no matter the context, the optics of the scene are unnecessarily grotesque. Further, it forces Casey to be seen as weak, as lesser than the men around her, in order to save her from the Predator. Though she passes on that knowledge to Quinn, it's not really used well enough to justify the scene in which Munn is naked. As a result, Casey may be one of the Predator franchise's best female characters, but she's still a missed opportunity for The Predator.

The Predator Could’ve Fixed The Franchise’s Female Character Problem

With one simple change that would have affected the entire movie, The Predator could have fixed the franchise's female character problem by making Casey Bracket the unequivocal main hero. However, The Predator shifts away from her being the lead when the Ultimate Predator kills the traitor Predator and the movie becomes more of a typical entry in the franchise, with Quinn taking the lead. Arguably, Casey is presented as much more of a leading character in the first act of The Predator since Quinn is stuck in debrief, then on the bus with the Looneys. Meanwhile, Casey is being shown the Predator by Will and using her scientific knowledge to analyze the creature.

As she appears in The Predator, Casey is already interesting enough to be a compelling protagonist. With her love of animals and her desire to study the Predator, she provides a new point of view for the franchise, which has typically starred macho action heroes bent on besting the universe's greatest hunter. In fact, Casey's empathy for the Predator is reflected in the traitor Predator's own mission of coming to Earth to give humans a weapon that they can use to defend against the Ultimate Predators. Since she already takes the lead in the early part of The Predator, the movie should have fully committed to her being the protagonist and centering her character arc. If it had, the movie could have given fans the first truly well rounded and capable female character with her own agency within the story, rather than propping up the male characters.

Not only would Casey being the hero have given The Predator a more well developed female character, it also would have reinvented the franchise in a compelling way for modern audiences. With the success of George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road and Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman, it's clear moviegoers enjoy female action heroes. Instead of giving Predator fans another entry that follows the same basic structure of a film in the series with another bland action hero, The Predator could have been a revival that truly refreshes the franchise. However, what fans got was a mediocre return that will likely send the Predator franchise back to being dormant.

Next: The Predator Reshoots Explained: Every Cut And Change Fox Made To Shane Black's Movie

Key Release Dates

Predator

Release Date:
2018-09-14