The Musings of a Wistful Word Witch

CUT TO: Earth. New Mexico. The year 1950. An old wooden house. The backdoor opens quietly. A young woman tippy toes inside. She's holding a squirming bundle inside her coat. A voice from behind, exasperated, is like "What is it this time" and she jumps! Her twin brother, a cop (bare with me) has caught her sneaking in. She reveals what's inside her coat: an injured feral cat.

They argue. Copper's like "God damn it not ANOTHER ONE" and Woman (who I should name. Idk. Let's call her Star) is like "he was asking me for help!!"

Through the argument, we learn the following: Copper and Star are twinsies, and they jointly inherited their mother's home when she died (which is where they now live). Copper is a Sheriff's Deputy while Star works as a maid for a local motel. Copper is angry that Star keeps bringing home animals (this makes 7) into HIS house, to which Star responds that she pays for the animals and it's HER house too! The principal conflict in their relationship is that Copper does not see Star as a Full Adult, he sees her as a dependent on him. He's not actually resentful of this perceived role as her Protector, in fact he loves her deeply, but he is incapable of seeing her as an equal.

Star has some unspecified neurodivergency (it's important to me that it's not specified or pinpointed in the movie. Nobody cares enough to understand, diagnose or accommodate this woman, which is why it needs to be left vague. Star can only see herself the way the world sees her: wrapped up in the nebulous, inadequate and discompassionate words: "a bit touched.") Anyway,  this is why Copper is particularly protective (and there's gender bullshit in there too. It is 1950). He cannot see that Star caring for these animals is an outlet for her to feel some authority in her own life: something SHE is responsible for, something that lets her feel needed, important, and capable.

After the argument, Copper leaves on a bittersweet note. Do they love each other? Oui. Are they good for each other? Non non non!!

Star, flustered and hurt, brings her new cat to the shed, where a number of cats and dogs are chilling. Star speaks to the cat as if it can understand her: She knows he's scared, and things hurt now, and she knows that he may choose to run away when she lets him go, but so far none of the animals she's rescued have run away. She doesn't know why exactly, she says, petting the cat until it stops hissing and goes quiet. Maybe it's because she's "touched." Maybe the animals can sense that in her. Sure enough, within a few minutes we see the feral cat has cautiously relaxed.

It's here, as Star speaks to Cat, that we glimpse the main theme of the movie: Copper measures strength, honour and worth by what a person can do TO another - eg, he's a strong cop because he can DEFEAT big scary "bad guys". But Star measures strength by what a person can do FOR another - she's strong because she DEFENDS those weaker than her.

Copper arrives at the police station. He has a semi-adversarial relationship with one of his coworkers, who I'll just call Bastard. Bastard is a classic Bad Cop (ACAB but in this case, he is really really CAB). Bastard enjoys power and acts with impunity. He takes things from the convenience store without paying, he whistles at women on the street, he menaces the marginalised. Listen, it's a Predator movie, we need SOMEONE to be cannon fodder. Anyway Bastard's position is that whoever has the power to ENFORCE the law gets to decide which laws apply and which don't - especially when theres no judicial repercussions for his Bad Copness.

It's clear Copper is not on board with Bastard's philosophy, but it's also clear that he doesn't believe in some selfless, noble ideal of "protecting and serving" either. When Bastard asks him why he became a cop, Copper says "because it's respectable." Bastard's like, "And what's respect? People respect you because you have power over them. That's why you're here. You like power."

Bastard goes a step too far when he makes a sexual joke about Copper's sister. Its implied that hes a little obsessed with Star (me too i mean who can blame him. Shes a beautiful woman i made up in my mind). Bastard perceives Copper as getting in the way of what he deserves (Star), while Copper (correctly) perceives Bastard to be unworthy of his sister (hes also overprotective anyway). A little brawl breaks out and the Sheriff finally exits his office to intervene and reprimand Copper, even though he was provoked. Bastard once again gets away with being a bastard 😤 Just then, the items on the desks begin to rattle softly... 👀 an Earthquake? They look to the window... ☄️

CUT TO: The motel Star works at. She's cleaning. Her boss is a dirty old pervert (more fodder teehee).

While Star is hypersensitive, literal, and overempathetic, it's clear she's not really NAIVE as she knows her boss is a dirty old man and she knows how to dodge his advances. He's quite pushy, but his efforts to "seduce" (🤢) Star are interrupted by a rumble, and a rising thunderous sound - The room illuminates neon green, they look to the window: A fireball is streaking down to Earth.

Darling we already KNOW it's the Yautja ship!! It smashes into the ground outside some poor farmer's house on the outskirts of town and you KNOW this is after Roswell New Mexico 1947 SO the farmer is like "omg it's aliens!!!" and exits his property with a FIREARM WHICH YOU SHOULD NEVER DO IN A PREDATOR MOVIE!!

We creep towards the smoking crater only to see a mangle of alien metal scattered in a burning slew of debris. The farmer moves through it in equal parts amazement and apprehension. He shouts to his wife to call the cops. Stepping over a clump of shrapnel, he comes to the dead body of a Yautja - one of three that were on the ship. It's not Hound (he's too sexy to die in a crash), it's his clan leader (big brother? father? uncle? insert patriarch here). The farmer is like, wtf that is not a LITTLE green man, that is a very big green man. He hears a noise and, jumpy, turns to see a disoriented Hound climbing free of the rubble. Startled, he shoots Hound with his shotgun. Equally startled, Hound retaliates and kills the farmer by throwing a piece of sharp debris at him.

The third predator on board, Hound's other big bro (Let's call him Big'Un) is pulled from the wreck by a now injured Hound. They argue (non-verbally, using clicks and body language) over whether to stay and attempt to destroy the wreckage and the dead Yautja's body, as that's an important tenet in their beliefs ("leave no trace" KINGS) but they are interrupted by the farmer's WIFE coming out of the house guns BLAZING, shooting at them repeatedly. Hound's helmet and wristpad are fucked up because of the crash and he only has his little wrist knives for weaponry. Big'Un also finds himself unarmed due to the crash, but moves in to kill the farmer's wife nonetheless, when - sirens and lights on the road, fast approaching. Reluctantly, Hound and Big'Un retreat into the darkness.

Sheriff, Copper and Bastard arrive on scene to a hysterical farmer's wife screaming about an alien invasion. They don't take her seriously until they find the dead Yautja in the wreck, next to the dead farmer. Realising there must be more "monsters" out there, they go into Battle Mode. They call the national guard, meanwhile Bastard wants to gather every armed man in town believing this is somehow the Russian's doing, and a ground invasion is about to begin. Hes a real second amendment kinda guy. The Sheriff says NO babe, but you know... 👀 put a pin in it for later.

Wandering through backyards, in completely unfamiliar territory and overwhelmed and unprepared, the injured Hound begins to fall behind Big'Un. The shotgun blast was minor to a Yautja, but still a fucking shotgun blast! He slows and stops to use his Medicomp, but Big'Un carries on. He tries to call Big'Un back to him, but they have a quiet, threatening exchange: If you can't keep up, if you can't BE a fucking PREDATOR, then I will LEAVE YOU BEHIND. It's a continuation of their earlier dispute over the dead dog, really. Big'Un doesn't think Hound has the stomach to be a true warrior.

Big'Un leaves again, and this time Hound doesn't try to call him  back. He quietly clamps the wounds on his body and limps away at his own pace.

The sun rises on a circus of activity in the little town. Newspaper men, the national guard, the FBI, all on scene. We see the wheels of a cover-up in motion. Don't worry babes, it was a weather balloon. Don't worry about it. Panicked locals speculate that it's a Russian satellite fallen to Earth. The Feds take over, pushing local law around much to Bastard's simmering fury. They set up roadblocks and go acre by acre looking for the aliens. It's time for a Yautja hunt, baby!

Cut to: Star, leaving her house to feed the animals as she does every morning. She enters the shed, surprised to find it totally silent. Her animals are gone. They weren't locked in there, technically - as she said before, they were free to come and go, they usually just chose to stay. Visibly upset by their absence, she is distracted for a moment by a splatter of strange, green liquid on the ground. She follows it curiously to the ladder of the hayloft. Looking up, she squints, as if she sees... Something...

A soft meow. She turns away from the hayloft, delighted to find her new feral cat sitting at the entrance to the shed. It looks guarded, hissing a little. She soothes it as she approaches, and gives it a generous feeding. It lets her pet it. She leaves to find the rest of her animals. Once she's gone, Hound's invisibility flickers and fails. He's in the hayloft (obvi) exhausted and still quite injured. He fiddles with his wrist device, trying to fix the invisibility.

In another part of town, at a dinky little private air field, Big'Un rips a plane apart, examining the pieces, clearly making his own improvised escape vessel. Behind him, the corpse of the airfield's owner is pinned to the wall.

Back at the house, Copper arrives home to check on Star. He tells her something big is happening, and she can't leave the property until it's resolved. They argue, because she has to go to work and he won't tell her what's happening (men 🙄) but he puts his foot down and FORBIDS her from leaving the house, reluctantly insulting her as the only means to enforce this order. "Because you're touched in the head, because you can't look after yourself, because I'm SICK of being the only adult in this fucking house, that's why!" He shouts at her. "If you really want to help, if you don't want to be such a burden on me, then just do this ONE THING and stay inside today. Can you do that??"

Shell shocked, because he's NEVER spoken to her that way before, Star timidly agrees. Not feeling good about himself, but satisfied that he did what was necessary, Copper leaves again.

It starts to rain.

In town, the search for the Yautja is expanding. Bastard subtly tells some townspeople that they need to arm themselves and "get ready" for tonight. If this is the Russians, then they need to be ready to defend their country at a moments notice. This obviously begins a domino effect of gossip and quiet panic in the civilian population.

From his position in the hayloft, with the shed door open, Hound watches Star's flickering heat signature through his damaged mask. She's crouching outside in the dirt, getting rained on. Cautiously, he removes the mask, which removes his invisibility, and watches her from his vantage point. She is plucking wayward snails from the pathway and placing them back into the grass, "where you'll be safe," she says. Hound is curious, but not reckless. He doesn't understand the ritual, but something about it resonates with him. Behind Star, her little cat streaks across the grass, pouncing on a mouse. Hound's attention turns to the cat. How perfectly it hunts. How it plays with its food. Dishonourable, he thinks. Though it reminds him of someone he knows.

There's a shootout at the airfield. At first, we see it only from a distance: flashes of light and loud shots. Then, men screaming. We cut to the aftermath: the FBI barking orders to get a perimeter set up. The environmental storytelling of the carnage and bodies. Many national guardsmen slain. They don't know what they're up against, but they know it's scary af. They figure out that the Yautja must be building a new type of craft. Copper reckons that if he's trying to get home, he'll want some material from his own ship to make that happen. They make a plan to use the wreckage as bait.

The sun is going down. Hound's thinking it's probably about time to leave that hayloft. He's stiff and sore, but pretty much healed - he tries to go down the ladder, but it's old and shitty and breaks under his weight. WHUMP. He ungracefully hits the shed floor, and-

GASP. Of COURSE Star is standing in the shed doorway with a plate full of cat food. She's frozen there, staring at Hound, and Hound is staring back waiting for a scream, or an attack - something to identify her as a fellow predator, or as prey. But Star just stares, a mix of confusion, intrigue and disbelief in her eyes. Then a loud HISS - baby you KNOW the feral cat is standing by Star's side, saying (in cat language) GET THAT FREAKY THING OUT OF HERE!!!

In response to being hissed at, Hound unsheaths his wrist knives. NOW Star jumps into action. She screams NO!!! And jumps between Hound and the cat, arms out, an obvious and desperate communication: DON'T HURT HIM.

Now it's Hound's turn to stare. This... Whatever she is, alien monkey to him, is throwing herself into deaths path to protect an ungrateful lesser being with an attitude problem. And she's not attacking him. It's not as if she's a warrior. It's a little nonsensical, that she be so willing to die, so inept and yet fearless simultaneously. Almost subconsciously, he touches the fang around his neck. He sheaths his knives.

Still staring at each other in tense silence, Star cautiously places the open tin of tuna she was about to feed to Cat on the ground. She kicks it closer to Hound and asks him quietly not to eat her or her cat. Not understanding her, obvi, he warily crouches to pick up the tin. Its meat, that's all he can tell, and he hasn't eaten in too long. A little bashful about accepting food from a stranger, but exhausted, sore and hungry, he devours the tuna in one mouthful. As soon as his attention is on the food, not her, Star grabs Cat and flees back inside the house.

Hound doesn't pursue. He tries to scoop out every morsel from the tin, disappointed that human portions are so tiny. Grumbling, he tosses the tin aside and shuffles out of the hayloft, into the twilight.

He's passing the house when the back door opens and he tenses, expecting an attack. A little hand darts out to leave another tin of tuna on the porch, before the door closes again. Hesitant but still hungry, Hound approaches until he's on the porch. He eats that tin too. Star peeks out from the glass in the door to watch him eat. She cracks the door open again to put another tin out - this time she and Hound are barely two feet away from each other with just the creaky back door between them. Hound is less suspicious as he eats the third tin.

The door opens once more, a crack at first, and then wide enough that Star can watch him unobstructed. The two assess one another wordlessly. Seem to decide that neither plans to attack. Star opens the door more widely and backs away from it in a sort of passive, tense invitation. Hound thinks for a moment, unsure of his goals. But steps inside.

His alien eyes flit from detail to detail. The cooking pot on the stove. The clothes hung up to dry. The trinkets on the shelves, the pictures on the wall, the sweeping brush and dustpan next to the garbage bin. It tells him that humans must be an organised, intelligent species - but primitive in their technology. Star inspects him with the same scrutiny as he passes her. The broken mask, the shotgun wound, the damaged wristpad. She doesn't know what he is, but he's mortal, and not so different from human, really. Hound takes the lid off the cooking pot and stirs it to see whats inside. An extremely human action, Star thinks, watching. (I did Google and check, yautja do use cooking pots in the comics so don't COME FOR ME with any disputes teehee). Anyway this bitch slurps the whole contents of the pot!!!! Rude but you know, he's sexy so we'll allow it.

Star fills the basin in her sink and hands it to Hound with a clean white cloth. He hesitates to take it, unsure of the offer. She mimes wiping down her arms and chest. Hound looks down at himself, a mess of ash and blood and mud and hay, and realises in confusion that Star is not doing this out of fear. She's being kind to him.

Softly, he takes the basin and cloth, and starts to clean himself. Star watches, a tiny smile on her lips in girlish excitement. She's just taken in a new stray... and this one's kinda hot 😳

Back in town, the feds have heaped the remains of the Yautja ship into the local football field, all lit up with spotlights, nice and tempting. The remaining national guardsmen (very few), the feds and the local police are standing by with their guns. Bastard bemoans that there's not enough of them, but again Sheriff shoots down suggestions of enlisting the scared civilians with guns at home.

A scream across the field alerts us: Big'Un is HERE, BITCHES. A classic Predator vs humans fight begins. It looks sick as fuck but I'm not a combat choreographer so listen just. Use your imagination. Some notable details from the fight:

Big'Un is using improvised or home-made weaponry. Imagine a yautja using airplane scrap and household shit to make clubs and spears and it looks badass and threatening. Teehee!

Big'Un slaughters the national guardsmen AND the feds, and the Sheriff is grievously injured

Using some form of quick thinking (girl idk) Copper and Bastard get the upper hand and manage to disarm and seriously injure Big'Un, at which point it becomes a desperate hand-to-hand, two against one fight. They are the last two left.

The cops manage to blow Big'Un back in an improvised explosion. We see Big'Un, looking haggard and fucked up, hissing and wheezing, fumble with his wristpad...

CUT TO: The quiet peace of Star's House l. We LOVE a volume juxtaposition. Star is introducing Hound and Cat, two shady and distrustful bitches, to one another. She shows him how to approach the feline in a way that expresses no threat: hand outstretched, knuckles gently offered to sniff, let the cat come to you. She explains that she's always found animals much easier to connect with than humans. Hound watches Star pet the cat in thoughtful calculation, absently touching the fang around his neck in an understandingthat transcends language. It's hard to read a yautja's facial expression, but there's a vibe of curiosity- even, dare I say, envy - to the way he looks at her. His wristpad suddenly makes a noise, warped by malfunction though it is.

He checks it. Star asks what's wrong (she can tell). It's actually a mayday signal from Big'Un but you know, the audience will get it and if they don't they don't. Hound heads quickly for the door and Star runs after him, saying they can take her car (can you IMAGINE a yautja as a passenger princess teehee)

BACK TO: The football field. The last bloody, panting stand between the cops and Big'Un. In the end, Copper takes the risks and manages to take Big'Un out at the knees, effectively incapacitating them. Then Bastard runs in and beats Big'Un's head to a green sticky pulp, finally releasing all his rage and power fantasies. Big'Un is dead.

The cops look at the carnage around them. Dead people, dead yautja, a half exploded football field. They try to save the Sheriff, but he succumbs to his injuries. Copper wants to call for re-enforcements - the army, the airforce, the big guns - but Bastard has a better idea. Now totally untethered from any social or legal restriction, he announces that they can't wait for back up. It's time THEY were in charge of things. They know there's still one yautja out there (remember the farmer's wife saw BOTH Hound and Big'Un escape the crash) and they know they have a town full of people who they can lead on a Hunt. Copper says that Bastard is crazy, that he just wants the high of fantasising himself as some militia leader or hero of the people. It devolves into a fight, which Bastard wins. He knocks Copper unconscious and marches off to make his dream come true.

Star and Hound park just outside the football field where smoke is obviously rising and a crowd is gathering. Star stops Hound from getting out of the car, worried how others will react. He bangs his fist against his damaged helmet, and the invisibility flickers on. Yeah babe I'm sure we don't need to worry about that at all. Together the pair move towards the football field, just in time to hear Bastard riling up the bystanders about "Russian monsters," "Sheriff and feds are dead", "we're in it alone now" etc. The alarmed crowd defer to his authority and run to rouse the rest of the town and fetch their guns.

Star rushes up to Bastard, demanding to know where her brother is. He tells her that Copper was killed by the monster. In disbelief and horror, she attempts to run into the football field, but Bastard stops her and holds her while she cries - another of his dreams coming true >:3

Watching her grief through his invisibility, but not understanding what's been said, Hound proceeds onto the football field. He finds Big'Un's body and stares at it in a quiet mix of despair and disappointment. His invisibility flickers off, but alone in the field he doesn't care. He takes his brother's wristpad and projects the map to the improvised ship. He also takes his makeshift weapons.

And then Hound is shot in the back!!!!!! :0

Its Copper!! Barely conscious, shakily raising his gun to take another shot. Obviously one bullet is NOT taking down a big sexy yautja on this day, but Hound has no range weapons, so he moves in to kill Copper by hand.

Of course, WHO heard the shot but Star and Bastard!!! Star arrives first, screaming at Hound to stop before he reaches Copper. She throws herself between them and Hound DOES stop, long enough for Bastard to start shooting (almost hitting Star too!!). With the last of his strength, Copper throws Star to the ground. Hound is struck by several bullets, and as more people flood into the field he is forced to retreat, activating his invisibility. In the chaotic aftermath, Star and some townsfolk manage to carry Copper away. Disoriented, he tries to warn Star about Bastard, but she misunderstands his half-conscious sentences as CONCERN for Bastard. She assures him that Bastard is okay and will take care of them. Copper passes out.

The town is now in Active Manhunt, Full Paranoia, End of Days mode. Armed men are going door to door searching for the yautja. Looters who try to take advantage of the chaos are shot dead by civilians. Bastard gleefully eggs on the violence, himself now the Supreme Authority in town. He speculates wildly that someone must be hiding the creature, that there are Russian agents in town, further fuelling the paranoia.

At the motel, Star and some neighbours attempt to bandage the badly injured and unconscious Copper. They hear the rioting outside. Star's Pervy Boss stands guard at the door. Star tries to say that she doesn't think the yautja wants to hurt them, but she's called "simple minded" by her neighbours.

Everyone trickles out of the motel, to be with their families, or to get out of town, or to join The Hunt. Leaving only unconscious Copper, Star, and Pervy Boss (🤢) left in the room. YOU KNOW he starts to make a move on her, the dumb fuck!! Star timidly rebuffs him, but he persists, saying things like this could be the end of the world, who knows if there will be a tomorrow, all the usual pick up lines teehee. When he puts his hands on her, Star attempts to scramble away but it devolves into a messy fight. Just as Perv gets her on the ground-

SHING! A bicycle chain is wrapped around Perv's throat and Hound, invisibility flickering off, strangles him to death quickly. Star screams in horror and rums, pursued by Hound. She grabs Copper's firearm abs rounds, aiming it directly in Hound's dace whicH YOU SHOULD NEVER DO IN A PREDATOR MOVIE!!!!

Hound reflexively raised his weapon to kill her, but they both freeze. Barely an arms length from each other, his arm raised high with a makeshift axe, her hands trembling around a gun to big for her hands. They freeze, and stare at one another.

Star cant do it. Sobbing, she throws the gun away. Hound doesn't move, still poised to strike. He's been shot enough times now not to trust humans. Shakily, Star extends a hand to him, knuckles showing. He recognises the gesture from when she did it to Cat. A way to say "I'm not a threat."

Slowly, he lowers the axe, and leans his face into her hand. She trails her hand along the unfamiliar ridges of his damaged mask. He raises a hand and removes it. A little nervous, a little thrilled, she touched his skin for the first time. She hums at the texture of his scales. He purrs at the heat in her fingers. This beautiful moment is interrupted by Copper saying "what the FUCK"

which honestly. Is an understandable response!

He's bleary and discombobulated, and Star manages to get between him and Hound to quickly explain that Hound is not a threat, he only seems to RESPOND to threats. Copper is obviously distrustful, but it is evident that this thing has some connection with his sister. Hound uses his brothers wristpad to project the ship he was working on, and Star deduces that Hound is asking for help to get home. Copper takes some convincing but eventually agrees, since he knows Bastard will tear the whole town apart if they don't get the alien out of there.

So our trio set out across town to get to Big'Un's spaceship! They retrieve some parts of Hound's original Yautja ship from the football field (there will be an obligatory shootout with townsfolk there, but our guys get away). They make it through town with only minimal interference from the fear crazed locals, and at last arrive at where Big'Un had hid his ship - in the town cemetery. Spoooookyyyyy

Of course, this is where our last stand has to happen! Bastard arrives with a few of his militia and a battle begins. Copper manages to hold them off with warning fire while Star and Hound frantically finish the spaceship. Of course the situation devolves. Copper is shot (relax he lives) and Hound has to fight off a swarm of the militia himself. Again use your imagination, let's pretend there's some gore-riffic and creative kills in there. Anyway he takes them all out one by one until only Bastard is left, but uh oh! Bastard has grabbed Star and is using her as a human shield!!!!

He and Hound circle slowly as Hound looks for an angle of approach that doesn't endanger Star. Bastard gloats that the alien didn't know what he was getting into, landing on Earth. That HE is the superior Predator, that HE is the strongest blah blah blah. He shoots poor Hound AGAIN (my baby is full of bullets) this time SQUARE IN THE CHEST, which takes him down to his knees.

Star screams and, from her position as a hostage, back to Bastard's chest, she grabs his shooting arm and bites into it like an animal. Bastard shrieks in a mix of shock and confusion, which gives Hound the window he needs to lunge and behead Bastard once and for all.

Star rushes in to stop Hound's bleeding, and then to Copper, fretting between the two of them and their bullet wounds. Hound uses the last of his medical clamps to seal Copper's wounds temporarily.

Limping, wheezing, he stumbles to his ship. Star follows miserably, but understands that he must go and recover from this with his own kind. As they part, she asks if he'll come back and visit her. Hound raises his hand to her face, knuckles first, just as they did with the cat. His blood and hers mix with tears on her cheek as he softly strokes her skin. Then he turns and climbs into his ship. Star steps back, watching it rattle off into the sky.

In the credits sequence, we see a series of newspaper clippings of what happened over the following years and decades, going from respectable news outlets saying things like "Gas explosion kills dozens at football field" and "Weather balloon crashes on farm", which devolve into conspiracy tabloids with headlines like "MASSIVE COVER UP OF ALIEN CRASH" and "JFK ASSASSINATED OVER DECLASSIFIED UFO DOCUMENTS". In the mix of these headlines are stories about Star, showing her at various ages as the newspapers become more recent. Some tabloids say things like "LONG DISTANCE BOYFRIEND IS E.T." and "CRAZY CAT LADY CLAIMS HUSBAND IS ALIEN". In the most recent photo, Star is an elderly lady sat in a warm chair, surrounded by affectionate cats. Around her neck, she wears a necklace with a peculiar fang. In the photo, there's a strange artefact - perhaps a defect with the lens. It almost looks like there's a half invisible hand resting on her shoulder.