More than just another dumb '80s Schwarzenegger actioner, Predator has gradually become a sci-fi and action classic. It's not difficult to see why. John McTiernan's direction is claustrophobic, fluid and assured, staging the action with aplomb but concentrating just as much on tension and atmosphere.
It's cheesy as hell, of course, but enormously entertaining and deeply cool, with a ton of quotable lines - 'I ainít got time to bleed' - while The Predator itself is an utterly unforgettable villain. But most bad guys are only as good as their heroes and, long before he became a shambling self-parody, Arnie delivers - and not just in the walking and talking without falling over sense. He's an awesomely indestructible figure here, at the height of his physical powers. He's the archetypal immovable force meeting an irresistible object. Only Arnie at his most iconic could convincingly defeat the Predator (as those who've seen Danny Glover in 'Predator 2' know).
There's also something ironic in the climax, where immigrant Arnie - now fully embraced by the U.S. - kicks the tar out of a real illegal alien. We could go into the sexual subtext, but maybe we're just reading too much into it.
