Goofs for
Predator (1987) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Orientation of the scorpion when Mac crushes it with his boot.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The object visible under the log while Mac and the major are hiding there, which looked like a microphone to some, has been identified as the ends of two guns.
  
  
• Continuity: The bloodstains on Anna's face after Hawkins is killed.
  
  

• Continuity: After the scene where the whole team embarks on a shooting spree into the jungle (after Blain's death), Dillon gets on the radio to ask for help "Blazer one I repeat extraction necessary, say again blazer one, say again!" The first shot shows Dillon facing in Anna and Poncho's direction. When the camera zooms in for the next shot, Dillon is facing away from Anna and Poncho.
  
  
• Continuity: The cable wraps tying Anna's wrists.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Anna swings a branch at the right side of Poncho's head, but he turns before the impact, which is why he bleeds from the left.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Anna hits Poncho and runs away, Dutch points and "whistles" at Hawkins ordering him to chase Anna. But when the whistling noise is heard Dutch's mouth is closed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the predator shoots Blain through the chest and Mac rolls Blain over, you can see the undershirt the actor is wearing under the fake wound.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Anna sneaks up on Dutch from behind in the rebel camp, he turns around at the sound of a pistol being cocked, when she is merely holding the gun.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Springboard clearly visible when Dillon is picked up by the Predator. (Non-widescreen version only).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Dillon has his arm blown off and the Predator is coming for him, his hand is visible behind his back under his vest as he turns to take off his machine gun.
  
  
• Continuity: In the original uncut version, when Major George Dillon has his right arm shot off, the camera pans around his back and you can see his right hand poking out under his shirt, in the next shot his hand is not there.
  
  
• Continuity: Billy has a M16 with a shotgun attached to it. In the scene right after they leave the rebel camp you can see Billy with a "normal" M16 without an attached shotgun. One moment later he has his own rifle back again...
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Anne runs away from Dillon and is caught, Dillon lifts her up and her hands are in front of her "bound" together. One of the zipties that is supposed to be around her wrist is hanging loose and her hands are clearly no longer bound, although she holds them together as if they were.
  
  
• Continuity: In the final battle scene, before the Predator takes off his mask, Dutch can be seen leaning back against a tree; from the Predator's view, he is standing in the clearing, hunched over in a ready position.
  
  
• Continuity: Dutch lights an explosive and tosses it at the Predator. When it explodes, Dutch runs and jumps on a branch. In the first shot with the branch, it has a curved end. When Dutch grabs onto the branch in the next shot the branch has no curved end.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the pan-and-scan version, when Billy first finds the bodies of the skinned green berets, he is startled by the vultures as they fly away. In a quick overhead shot, a camera can clearly be seen below him.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Dutch is told that the craft found "looks like a surveillance bird" the words don't match the lip movement.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Anna sneaks up behind Dutch with a gun. Dutch then hits Anna on the side of the head with his gun. If you look in the lower left corner of the screen, right when Anna is about to fall, you can see someone's hand touch Anna's back to help her "fall" to the ground. (Non-widescreen version only).
  
  
• Continuity: When Dutch catches the dog tags of Lt. Hopper, they hang off the side of his hand. In the following shot (from Dutch's point of view) they are sitting nicely in his palm. It then cuts back to the full body shot of Dutch and they are hanging off the side of his hand again.
  
  
• Continuity: The snake that crawls down towards the guys is slithering down a metal pole when we see it in close-up, instead of the tree we see in the previous shot.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Dutch is about to lift the running truck off the logs, the rebel is obviously looking to his right waiting for the truck to come by so he can look surprised.
  
  
• Continuity: At the start of the raid on the rebel camp, Poncho is shown firing from behind a tree already riddled with bullets. Moments later, the tree is in better shape before being shot again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious rubber/prop gun when Poncho is killed by the Predator.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Mac opens up the body bag with Blaine inside, you can see his right eye twitching.
  
  
• Continuity: When Poncho tells Dillon "Maybe you should put her on a leash, agent man," Poncho's hands move around on his gun between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Billy climbs up to discover Hopper and his team's bodies he is wearing nomex flight gloves. A moment later he is shown barehanded as he shields his face from the buzzards, only to be wearing them again as he emerges from the brush.
  
  
• Continuity: The dust cover on Billy's M16 is alternately open/closed between shots in the scenes leading up to the guerrilla camp firefight.
  
  
• Continuity: When Arnold is swinging through the trees trying to get the predator to follow him into the trap, there is a clip where he his hugging the tree and his hair is messy. There is a pan of the forest then back to Arnold but now his hair is all neat and tidy.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Poncho climbs the rope to check out the chopper, the hook on the rope's end is lifted by his clothes. When it drops back onto the chopper there is no metal sound.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Poncho is hit with the log the Predator just shot, you can see the ramp that flings Poncho into the air right under him.
  
  
• Factual errors: It is not possible to fire a mini gun, which Blain carries, without some power source, which he does not carry; the pack on his back only contains ammunition. Further more, if a human were to fire a mini gun with live ammunition, one would be propelled backwards by the recoil.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Dutch is running from the Predator, and trying to lead the beast into the small tunnel which contains the "trap", a quick cut-away shot of the trap mechanism appears to be a photo of the trap, as opposed to "live" footage, and even appears to be a bit out of focus.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: When 'Dutch' and Major George Dillon are hiding from the Predator in the hole/trench the boom mic is visible.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Dutch falls down the waterfall, it is clearly a stunt double. The person falling down the waterfall has more hair than Arnold did in the movie.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When Blaine was shot in the back by the predator, the laser had to have ripped right through all the ammunition in his backpack. However, Mac picks up the mini gun and fires all the ammunition with no problem.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Dillon and Anna walk by Mac after the fight at the compound, a supposedly dead soldier can be see rolling his leg around. He's the one lying directly next to the barrel, and can only be seen before Mac takes the scorpion off of Dillon's back.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie when Dutch asks Dillon who their reinforcements are you can clearly see Poncho sitting next to Dillon, but Poncho doesn't move next to Dillon until later when he tells Blaine to strap the grenade launcher on his sore ass.
  
  
• Continuity: The length of Dutch's cigar changes drastically during the Jeep ride from the helicopter. Dutch is seen lighting the new Churchill sized cigar when the chopper lands, but when he walks up to the General, it is several inches shorter. That type of cigar takes a few hours to smoke, so the Jeep ride across the beach would have to be about 45 minutes long. Additionally, his cigar is shown to be even shorter in the next scene inside the General's HQ.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During several scenes in the movie, permanent blank adapters can be seen in the muzzles of the various weapons carried by Dutch and his team. Most notably, the scene where Mac is walking through the bush with his M60 barrel pointed towards the camera, and another scene where Billy is shown emerging from the bush with the muzzle of his M16 pointed towards the camera. There should only be one hole at the end of the barrels of each weapon, but what can be seen is a small reversed cone shape inside the flash suppressor indicating permanently modified blank firing weapons.
  
  
• Continuity: After Dutch swims to shore, he falls on the left side of his face. When he turns around to look at the Predator, we can see that the right side of his face is clean. A little later, after Dutch struggles into the brambles and turns around, his entire face is covered in mud.
  
  
• Factual errors: One scene features prominently a reticulated python (Python reticulatus) moving on a tree's branch. The species is found in Southeast Asia rather than Central America.
  
  
• Continuity: When Predator uses stealth camouflage, his hair completely vanishes.
  
  
• Continuity: When the team sets up the tree trap, Dillon is seen in the background of one shot shirtless and helping out; in the next instance, he has his shirt on and is told by Dutch "Instead of complaining, maybe you should help".
  
  
• Continuity: Right after Dutch gives the plan for attacking the rebel camp, Blaine and Mac walk off screen to the left. Blaine is carrying the mini-gun ready to use it. In the next shot the mini-gun is shouldered and his M16 is being carried.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the end when Dutch is alone and waits for the predators arrival after setting up his traps, it's late at night. However in a cutaway shot showing the predator leaping down from the trees shortly after-wards, its in the middle of the day. When the camera goes back to Dutch with the predator behind him, it's night again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Dillon radios for help, the voice on the other end says they will speak again at 9:30 hours. Dillon incorrectly acknowledges it as 10:30 hours.
  
  
• Factual errors: Anna is shown picking up an assault rifle with surprising ease. She never shows any sign of it being heavy.
  
  
• Continuity: After the commandoes have set a trap for the Predator, there are tripwires all over the ground. When the Predator attacks, the tripwires mysteriously disappear.
  
  
• Continuity: When the team is attacking the terrorist camp and Dutch launches a grenade from his attached M203 grenade launcher, there is an explosion that sends a terrorist flying in the air. Few seconds later Poncho uses his grenade launcher to attack the camp, but the same explosion with the same terrorist is shown once again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Mac fires into the trees with the mini-gun it cuts to a quick wide shot behind him showing some of the trees in front falling down. However if you look carefully there's some trees that are being "shot down" and falling over before Mac has even fired in their direction.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In several scenes Mac is seen shaving. No solider, special forces or otherwise, would ever shave in the jungle as it welcomes infection which in those conditions can kill a man.
  
  
• Continuity: When General Philips is visible in the tent at the beginning, his name is spelled with one "L", whereas in the credits it is spelled with two "L"s.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Right before Dutch climbs underneath the log bridge, you can see a bungee rope helping the Predator land.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the crew are in the chopper traveling into the jungle 'Long Tall Sally' is playing on the tape recorder behind Blaine - but there is no tape in the recorder.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Predator uses two large retractable blades, each probably close to 20 inches long and 4 inches wide, to kill Major George Dillon. The Predator stabs Dillon in the abdomen with enough force to actually lift him a foot or so off the ground. With the length of the blades and the location in which Dillon was stabbed, he certainly would have not been able to scream as long and as loud as he did. There simply would have been too much internal damage done by these large blades. Given their length and the fact that they did not exit his back, the blades would have had to go up, thus piercing his diaphragm and one or both of his lungs. Dillon could have, at best, only managed a gasp.
  
  
• Factual errors: While in the chopper, the team holds their rifles "butts down" or pointing up. In a chopper, rifles are carried "stocks up" or pointing down because the chopper's engine is at the top.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After removing his space helmet, the Predator screams at Dutch. Seconds later, while chasing Dutch, the Predator roars at him, and the same footage of the Predator's screaming is used.
  
  
• Continuity: When Dutch is shot by the predator. He is hit between his arm and shoulder. In the next scene were he lying on the floor. The wound is clearly only on his shoulder and has moved further down his arm.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The snake that Dutch sees when he is looking for the body of Hawkins is a Burmese python. The only large constricting snake in central America is the Boa constrictor which isn't as big as a Burmese python. Since the movie was filmed in Mexico the question becomes, why didn't they use a Boa? Burmese pythons are indigenous to southeast Asia.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After Hawkins is killed, Anna is found, terrified. Poncho asks her repeatedly, "Que paso, mujer?" which does in fact mean, "What happened, lady?" Her answer is "No se, no estoy seguro, no se!" Poncho states, "She says the jungle, it came alive and took him." "No se" is Spanish for "I don't know," and "No estoy seguro" means "I'm not sure."
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The Predator is able to fight Dutch without its helmet because it still sees Dutch, just in a different way. Point of view shots from the Predator after the helmet is removed clearly show Dutch.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the Predator first starts tracking the soldiers, he finds a scorpion that has been stabbed with a knife by "seeing" its heat as it dies - scorpions are cold blooded and would not be visible, alive or dead, with heat vision.
  
  
• Plot holes: When Dillon is arguing with Dutch he explains, "We've been looking for this place for months." But not there is a truck at the camp, implying that it is accessible by a road.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious animation: when the Predator is answering Dutch's challenge, it leaps onto a tree branch and then kicks off, but the branch never moves once.
  
  
• Factual errors: Although Dutch' body was covered in mud, his eyes never were. Eyes give also off a lot of heat, so the Predator could have seen him.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: (At 1:08:58) When the Predator is walking away right after he had blown Mac's head, in the next shot you can see Mac's body going into death convulsions . In the upper side of the screen, right below the highest tree branch, the camera (from which the view of Mac's head blown was shown) is clearly being pulled up by the cameraman.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When Dillon is firing at the predator but gets hit by its laser you see the gun he was firing drop on its own, but when it hits the ground in the close up the hand of his severed arm is still grasping it.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: SPOILER: Almost at the end of the movie (everyone but Dutch has died), when Dutch is walking (semi-crouched) through the jungle with his assault gun, it can be clearly seen that the leaves in front of Dutch are being moved by the camera going backwards in order to follow Dutch.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: The last scene of the movie, where the helicopter is flying out of the jungle, the aircraft has it's anti-collision lights on. This is standard for peacetime operations, but no military pilot would fly in a "hot" territory with them turned on, as they are designed specifically to draw attention to the exact location of the aircraft.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: When Dutch is being pursued by the predator, he hides from its infrared vision using mud. Mud wouldn't conceal the thermal energy radiating from his body, and the predator would have seen him.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: The looped cord for the rigged booby trap (seen going up when Dutch trips it) is a matte added in, partially transparent.
  
  

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