A team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extra-terrestrial warrior.
Director:
John McTiernanWriters:
Jim Thomas, John ThomasStars:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall | See full cast and crew »Storyline
A team of special force ops, led by a tough but fair soldier, Major "Dutch" Schaefer, are ordered in to assist CIA man, George Dillon, on a rescue mission for potential survivors of a Helicopter downed over remote South American jungle. Not long after they land, Dutch and his team discover that they have been sent in under false pretenses. This deception turns out to be the least of their worries though, when they find themselves being methodically hunted by something not of this world.
Movie Reviews
A team of commandos are sent into a central American jungle to extradite US airmen that are being held by terrorists. During the rescue attempt the airmen and the terrorists are killed and the commandos being to return to their pickup location. However as they travel back across the jungle they are picked off one by one by an unseen assassin. With his teams' numbers dwindling, Dutch decides to take a stand.
This ranks as one of Schwarzenegger's best films, mainly because he doesn't ham up the one-liners etc and just plays it straight. The story is pretty straight forward. Once the issue of the airmen rescue is forgotten it is a straight hunt or be hunted affair. The film manages to create a great sense of tension by not revealing the predator until near the end, this means we, like the commandos, are not quite sure what's doing the hunting. If the tension was so good then this could have been a slasher style film with each character being bumped off in a series of gory ways. However McTiernan makes sure that it never feels that basic.
The action is good throughout. But the film benefits from a strong male cast - not great actors but they all fit the parts well. Schwarzenegger isn't wearing his star power on his sleeve like he does in other films and is good here. The rest of the cast are filled out by what could be kindly described as B list stars (except maybe Bill Duke), but Carl Weathers and ex-wrestler Jesse Ventura do well.
This ranks as one of Schwarzenegger's best films, mainly because he doesn't ham up the one-liners etc and just plays it straight. The story is pretty straight forward. Once the issue of the airmen rescue is forgotten it is a straight hunt or be hunted affair. The film manages to create a great sense of tension by not revealing the predator until near the end, this means we, like the commandos, are not quite sure what's doing the hunting. If the tension was so good then this could have been a slasher style film with each character being bumped off in a series of gory ways. However McTiernan makes sure that it never feels that basic.
The action is good throughout. But the film benefits from a strong male cast - not great actors but they all fit the parts well. Schwarzenegger isn't wearing his star power on his sleeve like he does in other films and is good here. The rest of the cast are filled out by what could be kindly described as B list stars (except maybe Bill Duke), but Carl Weathers and ex-wrestler Jesse Ventura do well.
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