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One Predator scene changed how action movies are made

According to the director of the original Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a scene in his film completely changed the way action movies are made now

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator

There’s a new instalment in the Predator franchise, with Prey taking the world by storm since its release on streaming services, but the action movie genre wouldn’t be what it is without the original ‘80s movie. According to the director of the first Predator movie, one scene in particular paved the way for some of the best movies in the genre.

Prey offers a fresh take on the monster movie story, taking us back to the Great Plains of North America in 1719. Our Prey review lavished praise on the alien movie, describing it as the “best Predator movie” since the original of 1987. But, where would we be without that classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?

Well, in an interview with The Empire Film Podcast, John McTiernan, the director of Predator, explains how his iconic thriller movie changed the game for how filmmakers approached action set pieces in their work. In fact, McTiernan believes one scene in particular helped to inspire the making of greats like Die Hard and The Matrix.

“That particular [jungle shootout] scene then became a staple of action movies. That they blaze away for five minutes, whatever. So we had to put it in Die Hard after that, they spend five minutes blazing away at all the glass,” McTiernan explained.

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“And then Joel Silver put it in— it’s in all the Matrixes. There’s this scene where, for five minutes, everybody shoots every gun they can find, blowing up stuff. But the way it actually came, the grandfather of all of those scenes of blowing up stuff with guns, was me trying to get the studio off my ass about gun pornography. So I said, ‘Okay, I will make up a scene where I’ll just give you pictures of guns blazing.’ And that made them happy. And I did it, I got away with it, and they stopped talking about it,” he concluded.

So, you see, if it wasn’t for McTiernan finding a clever solution to studio interference, we may never have had the badass moments you see in epic ‘90s movies that followed, and the world of action, thrillers, and indeed science fiction movies, may never have been the same.

You may be interested in our interview with Prey star Amber Midthunder, or if you’re really curious about the latest hit Predator movie, here’s where Prey was filmed. Prey is available now on Disney Plus and Hulu.