Stories from the set

Jean-Claude Van Damme was supposed to play the Predator, but after two days of filming he left the project because he did not want to be a «walking special effect». Kevin Peter Hall came in his place.

The filmmakers tried to shoot a scene in which the Predator was supposed to jump from tree to tree. For this purpose, they wanted to use a monkey dressed in a special red suit. However, the monkey kept trying to get rid of the uncomfortable outfit. In the end, they had to abandon this idea.

The idea for the appearance of the Predator's lower jaw belongs to James Cameron.

The film's original title was "Hunter".

The Predator was originally intended to be a creature with a long neck, a head shaped like a dog's head, and a single large eye in the middle of its face. The alien's design underwent significant reworking after Stan Winston joined the project.

The two waterfalls that appear in the film shortly before the finale are located near Palenque, Mexico.

The idea for the film came from a joke: someone once said that the only creature Rocky Balboa had not yet fought was the alien from Steven Spielberg's film.

Two actors who played commandos were later elected state governors: Jesse Ventura became governor of Minnesota in 1998, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in 2003. Sonny Landham also ran for governor of Kentucky but lost the election.

The genus of Brazilian spiders Predatoroonops was named after the alien from this film because the males' chelicerae resemble those of the alien. All 17 species also have names related to the film — the names of characters, actors, and filmmakers, the name of the fictional country where the film is set (Val Verde), and the Predators' own name for their race in the expanded universe (Yautja). The genus is divided into two groups based on shell structure — Schwarzeneggeri and Peterhalli, named after Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Peter Hall.

Blaine's weapon (Jesse Ventura) – a handheld six-barrel Gatling-style machine gun – is actually mounted on helicopters or aircraft and requires a power source to operate. The rate of fire of such a machine gun is such that the shooter simply would not be able to hold the gun under recoil. And the ammunition supply that one fighter could carry is spent in 15-20 seconds. In the «Minigun» XM-214 specially made for the filming (which fired only blanks), the rate of fire was artificially reduced to 2000 rounds per minute, and the power cable was hidden in the actor's trousers; to hold the machine gun, the actor leaned on a support, which, naturally, is not visible.