I love “Predator.” I remember being way too young to see such violence, but there I was, side by side with my brother, watching Arnold and his team fight this monstrous, invisible being in the jungle. The over-the-top action contrasts with how the team falls one by one to the deadly hunter. And the guns! The glorious, glorious guns. They aren’t subtle. The commandos are so well-armed that chopping down an entire section of the jungle is within their power. However, like most of their weaponry and skills, the action is ultimately ineffective. Still, the guns are cool, so today we’re covering the guns of “Predator” and rating them by their ability to chop through a jungle.
Colt SP-1
Two characters in “Predator” carry SP1 rifles. Arnold ‘Dutch’ Schwarzenegger and Sonny ‘Billy’ Landham carry early AR-15 rifles. They aren’t fancy carbine models either, but full-sized rifles. This team likely all served in Vietnam and would be quite familiar with the M16 series of weapons. These days these guns seem massive compared to the Mk 18 style carbines, but in this era, they were fairly small and lightweight compared to other options.
These rifles are dressed up to appear to be M16-type rifles with a more military look than the original Colts. They have clearly been converted to full auto for filming purposes. The SP1 series were slab-side AR-15s, and the film used M16A1 muzzle devices. Dutch’s rifle has a mock-up of the M203 type handguard we saw on M16A2 rifles, and Billy’s uses Lonestar Ordnance round handguards.
While the guns feature carry handle sights, they are just there for decoration. I can’t recall too many situations where the soldiers actually aimed their weapons. They seemed to just fire from the hip with amazing accuracy. That specific hip-fire technique was sadly forgotten by modern tactics. The Colt SP-1 isn’t the best gun for chopping a jungle down, but it’s not the worst, either.
Fake M203
Dutch’s SP-1 carries a mocked-up, fake M203 grenade launcher. It doesn’t appear to be a flare launcher but just a fabricated tube. Dutch used it a few times, and in 1987 the attached grenade launcher was pretty high-speed. Being able to propel 40mm grenades a few hundred yards gave a small fire team a lot of power.
Mossberg 500
Billy’s SP-1 rocks an attached Mossberg 500. It’s set up in a ‘Master Key’ format. The design is odd, and the Mossberg 500 wouldn’t be a great option for this setup. The tang safety looks almost impossible to reach and use when connected to the gun. This Mossberg 500 rocks a full-size 18.5-inch barrel. We only see quick snips of him using the weapon.
Handheld M134 Minigun
The most famous weapon from “Predator” is, without a doubt, the manliest in a sea of manly. Jesse Ventura’s character packs this beast gun he calls “Ol’ Painless.” This is an M134 minigun setup in a handheld orientation. This particular model features an M60 handguard to give Jesse something to hold and a rear pistol grip that replaced the spade grips on the normal M134 minigun. A harness was made to make it easy to carry since the thing weighs 85 pounds.
Ol Painless was a 7.62 minigun with a firing rate of a minimum of 2,000 rounds per minute and up to 6,000 rounds per minute. That’s absurdly fast, and its’ designed mostly for aircraft. Its high firing rate makes it easy to land a ton of rounds on a single target during a rapid fly-by. The M134 was never made to be a handheld weapon, and the recoil it generates can be absurd and impossible to handle.
Plus, the ammo it consumes would be monstrous, and that alone would weigh an entire squad down. The M134 is also a chain gun that requires a power source, meaning lots of heavy batteries for a handheld version. For the film, Ventura’s power source is hidden. A cord runs down his leg and is connected to the batteries that are hidden offscreen.
While it was never meant to be handheld, the M134 certainly made quite the splash in the film. Ventura certainly gets credit for toting it around for so long. Ventura destroys multiple enemy firing positions and sprays lead that devastates enemy forces. Later on, it proves to be perfect for chopping through the jungle. If you had to pick one weapon to act as a logger, then it would be the M134.
M60E3
If you have an M134 in a handheld orientation for support fires, it’s tough to imagine you’d need another machine gun. However, keep in mind that machine guns work best in pairs. That’s part of the PICMDEEP acronym from the USMC. Bill ‘Mac’ Duke carries an M60E3 machine gun. It’s another Vietnam-era machine gun. The M60 is a medium machine gun that served as the GPMG of the United States military.
The M60E3 was vastly improved from the original and did offer a lighter, more compact medium machine gun when compared to the M240, aka the FN MAG. Mac’s M60E3 machine gun has a shortened barrel to make it handier for jungle use and likely much more portable for the small commando unit. It throws a lot of lead but is actually way more controllable and makes more sense than the M134. The M60E3 is easily the second-best weapon in the squad for cutting down trees, but it’s not a close race compared to an M134.
HK M94A3 Chopped and Converted
Four of the commandos carry MP5-wannabes. These are actually civilian HK943 rifles. These guns typically have 16-inch barrels, but they were chopped for the film and converted to look more like an MP5. Blain carries one as his sidearm, and so does Poncho. Hawkins and Dillon carry these weapons as their main firearms.
The MP5 was still high speed in 1987 and acted as a great sidearm if you were a manly commando packing a grenade launcher or M134 mini gun. Admittedly they were less sidearm and more personal defense weapons, which makes a surprising amount of sense when you are packing such weapons. Blaine carries a radio, so I guess he wants a lightweight weapon, and Dillon was made soft by the CIA.
The MP5 is a 9mm submachine gun, and while it’s fine for close-range work, it wouldn’t be my choice for jungle warfare. With an effective range of about 50 yards, the MP5 doesn’t pack much punch. Plus, it’s only firing a handgun round. If you’re going to combat in the jungle, a rifle makes a lot more sense. But MP5s are pretty cool.
The Fake Multiple Grenade Launcher
Poncho packs what appears to be a multiple grenade launcher throughout the film. He famously sets Blaine up to deliver the line “I ain’t got time to bleed.” He retorts, “You got time to duck?” before throwing a few 40 mike mikes into the bad guy’s faces. This is a fake multiple-grenade launcher.
It’s actually a flare launcher designed to be used by aircraft. It’s called an AN/M5 Pyrotechnic discharger. It’s a six-shot, 37mm flare launcher. In real life, it doesn’t have a pistol grip, trigger, or means to hold it. The fake MGL was fitted with a handguard and an HK94 stock and pistol grip to make it look more infantry-friendly.
In terms of chopping down trees and running through the jungle, it would work, but explosions aren’t great if you can’t hit an area directly. Even then, the explosion will likely only take a chunk out of the tree. The limited ammo capacity and weight of extra rounds are certainly a limitation.
Desert Eagle
The sidearm of most of the commandos is a Desert Eagle Mark I. A fitting pistol for a manly crew of commandos. The Desert Eagle is plenty screen famous and certainly looks great due to its massive size. The Desert Eagle is carried, but we never see it used. Billy sleeps with one across his chest, and Dutch reaches for his right after he loses it, falling down a waterfall.
The Desert Eagle is a beastly firearm that chambers cartridges like the .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .50 AE, which is admittedly somewhat novel for an automatic handgun. This ensures the weapon is massive and eye-catching. Not to mention it has a stylized and aggressive design. Enough to make it recognizable when holstered.
Get to the Choppa!
“Predator” is, without a doubt, one of the best action films ever made. The testosterone, the over-the-top action in the beginning that sets up the rest of the film, leads to an entire elite team being taken out by one deadly predator. It’s such a great setup that leads to an original film that goes beyond a normal action flick. It helps that the guns are awesome and equally over the top but seemingly useless against such a foe.
