The Predator movie and its gender war subtext.

The Predator movie ( 1987 ) and Its Gender War Subtext.





I'm sure many of you have seen this movie before; it's a classic action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. But if not, I will sum it up in a nut-shell before I go into the subtext.

Arnold is the leader of a top secret military group of commandos. They are called in by a military general to head over to the South American jungle to locate American prisoners of war that are being held by a drug cartel. The commando group is accompanied by a CIA agent that used to be part of the commando team, but decided to become a pencil pusher for the CIA. They locate the hidden drug cartel hideout in the jungle and proceed by blowing the living shit out of the place with RPG's, grenades, and high powered assault rifles. The prisoners of war were killed, but they ended up by finding and capturing a mysterious native female. The POWs weren't even the primary objective or an objective at all. The general and CIA agent lied to the commandos about the objective. The real objective was to obtain paperwork that contained information the CIA desired. The commandos were used as pons. They end up stuck in the jungle as an extraction helicopter can't fly in their direction due to some sort of problem. The commandos survive in the jungle with their female captive and start to loose men due to some mysterious killer in the jungle ( the Predator ). One by one they get picked off until it's just Arnold alone with the Predator. He kills the Predator and is later picked up by the chopper.




Now we shall get into the subtext. Let me just clarify that I'm not one of those people that sees some grandiose conspiracy or hidden agenda behind every trivial matter. But in film - in movies, there does exist " the subtext " in many. A subtext is basically a subliminal or subterranean alternative message or story that accompanies the more obvious and clear storyline. In this movie, the subtext is of a gender war - a war to emasculate and test the  masculine strength of the alpha-males ( the commandos ). The Predator is symbolic of vagina detanta ( vagina with teeth ) or misandric-femininity that seeks to emasculate men as a sport hence the vagina face of the predator.



In the initial part of the film, the commandos are portrayed as being very hyper-masculine. They talk tuff, ignore pain, degrade females, and wield mighty phallic shaped rifles. One of the commandos jokes was in reference to a loose, gaping Vagina ( subliminal future reference to the Predators face).

As the commandos survive in the jungle against the Predator, they start to become filled with fear and doubt (contrary to the way the felt when they destroyed the fuck out of the Drug Cartel members ). This time they are up against something that blends into the jungle- that can become invisible and use guerrilla warfare tactics. Subtlety and indirectness is a hallmark of the feminine. The commandos are very direct ( masculine ) and use their brute force to try to kill the Predator. They end up by shooting the Predator ( non-fatal shot ) and it leaks some sort of green blood or slime that sprinkles on leaves in the jungle ( symbolic of the female fluids the flow from the vagina ).  



In the middle of the movie, one of the commandos said that whatever they are fighting against, " It ain't no MAN ! ". The significance of this statement in the subtext is that they are fighting against a feminine or female force.

The native female captive of the commandos, who had been, initially, defiant and loud mouthed (speaking in Spanish), finally calmed down and decided to cooperate with the commandos. She began to speak to them in English and tell them the story of the Predator. She said that it makes trophies of men - that it hunts them for sport. This translates sub-texually into the behavior and mentality of misandric ( man-hating ) feminists or females in general that enjoy manipulating and leading on naive males and emasculating them.
These types of females are very deceptive and conniving like the Predator in the movie. They play with you - leading you on into their final trap where they,psychologically, castrate you completely with mind games and other things of that nature.  

The Predator is the ultimate Vagina Dentata - The emasculator of men.



Towards the latter part of the film, one of the commandos gets his arm blown off by the Predator ( symbolic of castration as the arm is phallic in nature ).








Finally, Arnold is the last one standing as the rest of the commandos were defeated ( emasculated ) by the Predator.

Arnold is the real deal. He is the king of the Alpha-males.



At this point, he has lost all of his modern weaponry and is at rock bottom in the jungle. He has been stripped of all his pseudo-masculinity ( the rifles, cigar, etc ). Now it's time for him to manifest the inner, primordial masculinity that he is the incarnation of.

In this scene, he is covered in the mud of the jungle ( symbolic of primordiality ) and shouts a loud, primeval, masculine roar to let the Predator know that he is ready to fight to the death and manifest his masculine dominance over the feminine.



The manifestation of the primal, masculine spirit.




      Probably one of the manliest, most badass scenes in cinematic history.



Arnold dukes it out with Predator and is a worthy foe. The Predator takes of its mask as a sign of respect to the fighting man of grit.

The monster reveals its true nature to Arnold. Arnold's response: " You are one ugly mother fu$#er!". This in the subtext means that the man-hating females femininity is spoiled - rancid. It's infected with nihilism, i.e., the hatred of nature; resentment towards the masculine.






Arnold lures the predator into a trap - a trap formulated like a vagina dentata. He reverses the Predators tactics on itself. He uses camouflage and trickery. He tries to dominate the Predator in its own game.




But the predator spots the trap ( it's familiar with its own game ) and walks around the spiked trap.

Arnold, finally, used his last option to kill the Predator: An enormous log hanging from a tree ( phallic symbol ).


In this clip, you see how it goes down.



Arnold dominates the Predator ( Vagina Detanta - the emasculating spirit of misandry ) with a quintessential masculine symbol: the phallus. And asserts his masculinity as victorious over the feminine.

Excellent.

I loved it.

Ha, very good.

Haha thanks, guys. A few grammatical errors on my part. But so be it! Glad you enjoyed.

The predator uses sophisticated technology to his/her advantage - invisibility cloaking, heat sensory and futuristic weapons. What's interesting is that the technology which the predator uses was probably not invented by him. He/She doesn't look that smart afterall, but his/her animalistic drives and instincts guide it.

Arnold ends up using 'feminine tactics' to defeat the predator. The difference is that he had no superior tech at his disposal (it was inferior to the predator's). He observes (cold mud which blocks the predator's heat vision technology) and constructs his trap. What grants him victory is thinking on his feet, adapting not for the sake of adapting but to realize a set goal - survival/the kill.

Beating the predator at his own game, by taking risks and being aware.
Camouflage... to blend with the environment...

That struggle is why the first half of Commando is good fun and the second half becomes boring because it's just release of violence... for over half an hour. Must be a woman thing to draw it out and keep on coming...

It's interesting that the very phallic xenomorph/facehugger from the Alien movie was combined with this into the Alien vs Predator franchise.
Where, also interestingly, the (female) Predator becomes the hero fighting off the (male) Alien menace.