- 6/19/2025
Nature's most perfect killing machine hunts again... Join us as we count down the bloodiest, most savage, and epic kills across the Predator franchise! Our list features iconic deaths from the original jungle hunt to the latest adventures. Warning: major spoilers and extreme violence ahead. Which brutal takedown made you wince the most? Let us know in the comments!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the 20 bloodiest, most
00:12savage and epic kills in the Predator franchise.
00:16Please be warned, there are major spoilers and violent content ahead.
00:30When you live by the hunt, you die by the code.
00:35After a brutal showdown with Dutch in the jungle, the Predator is finally beaten.
00:40It survived blades, bullets and bombs, only to be taken down by a giant log counterweight.
00:50Bloodied and out of options, it still sticks to its principles.
00:54As Peter Keyes explains in the sequel, these creatures will do anything to keep their advanced
00:58tech out of human hands.
01:00So with a twisted grin and a familiar chuckle, the hunter activates its wrist gauntlet.
01:10The resulting explosion levels the surrounding jungle.
01:13The Predator isn't just a movie monster, it's a villain who chooses to go out with a bang.
01:24Danny Boy, Predator 2.
01:32Not all brutality comes from gore, sometimes the deepest cuts are emotional.
01:36Danny, played with humour and charm by Roman Blades, is the heart of Predator 2.
01:41He's loyal, funny and the last person you want to see get hurt.
01:44That's exactly why the Predator targets him, to rattle Harrigan, its ultimate prey.
01:49The attack happens off screen, and we never see the body.
01:52Danny is dragged into the rafters and vanishes.
01:55No last words, just silence and blood.
01:58Then came the real gut punch.
02:00At his funeral, the Predator taunts Harrigan with a chilling trophy, Danny's necklace left
02:05dangling in a tree.
02:10It's not just a kill, it's a psychological ambush.
02:17The hunter wants to break him, before finishing the job.
02:22You can always count on Bill Paxton to crack a joke right before things get grim.
02:39During Predator 2, he plays Jerry, the wisecracking young detective who meets his end during one
02:44of the film's most chaotic set pieces.
02:46He and his partner, Leona, do something incredibly rare in LA.
02:50Take the subway.
02:51Unfortunately, the train is filled with both gun-toting gangsters and armed civilians, a
02:56proper smorgasbord for an alien hunter.
02:58When the creature attacks, Jerry gives it everything he's got, buying time for Leona to evacuate
03:11the survivors.
03:12The Predator is not impressed.
03:14Off screen, we hear the screams.
03:16Harrigan arrives just in time to witness the hunter tear Jerry's spine from his body.
03:21The Predator is a deeply flawed sequel, but you can't deny that it goes all in on carnage.
03:38Nowhere is that clearer than in the chaotic three-way showdown between the convicts, Black
03:42Ops soldiers and the ultimate Predator.
03:45Bullets fly, bodies fall, and it's hard to tell who's hunting who.
03:55In the middle of the chaos comes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment of pure savagery.
03:59One soldier gets yanked into the trees by the Predator, only to have his head ripped clean
04:03off with its mandibles.
04:05It's not clean, but it's mercifully quick.
04:07Meanwhile on the ground, this horrific spectacle is witnessed by Sterling K. Brown's character.
04:13He watches in terrified silence as the monster mean-mugs him with his goon's head in his
04:18mouth.
04:19At first, Edwin seems like the odd man out in Predators.
04:31Surrounded by bloodthirsty killers, he's an out-of-place, twitchy, soft-spoken character.
04:36He doesn't seem to fit in well in this band of mercenaries, soldiers of fortune and death
04:40row inmates.
04:41But many Predators, including the human kind, play the long game.
04:45As the body count rises, Edwin reveals his true nature.
04:48He's not an innocent scooped up by mistake.
04:50He's a methodical, quiet serial killer.
05:02Sadly for him, Royce never quite bought his act.
05:04As a final trap, Royce rigs Edwin with grenades and leaves him as bait for the Predator.
05:10When the creature comes sniffing, it finds a surprise package and Edwin goes up in flames.
05:23For many, Dan Trachtenberg's Prey was the first truly great Predator film in decades.
05:35And it's easy to see why.
05:37The feral Predator lands in 18th century Comanche territory, surrounded by skilled warriors.
05:42Sadly, the small band of hunters who ride out to track it never stood a chance.
05:46Armed with grit, bows and tomahawks, they do what they can against an invisible nightmare.
06:00The result is ultimately a one-sided bloodbath.
06:03Limbs fly, blood spills and the forest becomes a killing ground.
06:06It's fast, brutal and deeply unfair.
06:09Still, we get a flicker of defiance when Naru's brother later holds his own against the green-blooded
06:14terror.
06:15He fights valiantly, severely wounding it.
06:17He buys assist at the time she needs to escape, and eventually strike back.
06:33Cucillo's death is the first real warning that something's terribly amiss for the deadly
06:37group of strangers in Predators.
06:40Other than being trapped on an alien hunting preserve, a cartel enforcer with twin submachine
06:45guns and a don't-mess-with-me attitude, he seems built to survive.
06:58Unfortunately, the jungle has other plans.
07:00After he's separated from the group, the next time we see him, he's already dead.
07:05Cucillo's voice echoes through the trees, calling for help, but it's not actually him.
07:10The Predator has rigged his corpse and is using his voice as bait.
07:14It's grisly.
07:15It's silent.
07:16And it's brilliant.
07:17Thankfully, his fellow captives recognise the trap for what it is and escape.
07:33Billy goes out like a legend, or so it seems.
07:36After witnessing the Predator tear through his team like tissue paper, the stoic tracker
07:40knows what's coming.
07:41He chooses to face it head on.
07:44On a log bridge above a canyon, he drops his gun, drops his blade and waits for death to
07:48meet him.
07:49It's one of the film's most iconic standoffs.
07:51But the next thing we hear isn't a battle cry, it's a scream.
08:00Billy's last gasp is a raw, blood-curdling shriek that tells us exactly how quickly that
08:05fight went south.
08:06We never see the kill itself, but the aftermath is even worse.
08:10The Predator defiles Billy's body and keeps his skull as a trophy.
08:14In Prey, Naru, alone in the wilderness, comes face to face with the last thing you ever want
08:28to meet in the wild.
08:28An angry grizzly.
08:29She barely scrambles to safety.
08:31Naru quickly discovers an even greater threat moments later.
08:35She bears witness to a battle of titans when the bear squares off with an invisible demon.
08:47The two beasts collide in a primal clash of muscle, teeth and seemingly nothing at all.
08:52At first, the bear gets the upper hand, until the Predator kills it with a single punch.
08:57Even in a brutal display of dominance, it hoists the bear's lifeless body overhead as blood
09:02pours down its shimmering form.
09:04It's less of a kill than a literal flex.
09:07Dale may have been a high school hothead, but nobody deserves what happens to him.
09:19Aliens vs Predator Requiem isn't a great movie by any stretch, or even a good one.
09:24But it delivers some gut-churning gore.
09:27During a chaotic standoff inside a sporting goods store, xenomorphs, humans and a Predator
09:31all collide.
09:32Dale makes a break for it, but gets tackled and pinned by a xenomorph.
09:36Just when it seems like he's about to be shredded, the Predator kills the alien mid-attack.
09:41Great, right?
09:42Well, unfortunately, its acidic blood sprays across Dale's face.
09:46He screams as his skin melts away, dying slowly and in agony.
09:54It's the kind of death that feels like a cosmic joke, rescued and ruined in the same
09:59instance.
10:00We're terrified of the Predator in the mainline series, but when it's going up against these
10:13snarling creatures, we're team Pred, all the way.
10:16Bafflingly, the first Alien vs Predator was rated PG-13, which meant that much of the human
10:22carnage had to be toned down.
10:24But thankfully, the ratings board had no problem with the aliens shedding a little acid blood.
10:34After just missing the opportunity to slice off Sebastian's head, the Predator gets redemption
10:38when a facehugger lunges at it.
10:40But eagle-eyed viewers knew a greater danger lurk just above in the form of a fully grown
10:45xenomorph.
10:46Just when it seems it'll get the jump on the Predator, he turns the tables with one
10:50swift blade.
10:54With Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead, we knew the jungle wasn't big enough for two future
11:06US state governors, so clearly the pride of Minnesota, Jesse the Body Ventura, had to go.
11:12Though, if you asked his character, Blaine Cooper, he'd probably say he didn't have time.
11:17After Rick is the first of the militia to bite it, the others are on high alert.
11:28So is Blaine, who's ready to blast away the enemy with his submachine gun at the first
11:33hint of noise.
11:35Only the threat turns out to be less than intimidating.
11:37Unfortunately for Blaine, the Predator takes advantage of his newfound sense of calm, blasting
11:41a hole through him with a plasma caster.
11:44It's a cheap shot, but absolutely brutal all the same.
11:56In this first sequel, the city of Los Angeles is subject to violent clashes between the rivalling
12:00Jamaican and Colombian drug cartels.
12:02But when the Predator's in town, you can bet he'll win the war.
12:06While the Jamaicans are in the middle of brutalising the rival leader, the Predator arrives to one-up
12:10them with a few moves of his own.
12:15After letting them exhaust most of their ammo, the Predator takes them out one by one, using
12:20the likes of his net gun, spear gun, combi stick and wrist blades.
12:24Seriously, if this were a video game, he'd probably get an achievement for his diverse
12:27use of weaponry.
12:28It isn't long, either, before the cartel is stamped out for good, as the Predator later
12:33takes out King Willy in an alleyway.
12:35For the most part, we can pretty much tell who's going to get the axe in Predator movies.
12:52This one, however, even caught the Predator by surprise.
12:54Embodying the girl-next-door archetype, Jessie wasn't high on our hit list.
12:59Sure, her previous taste in men was questionable, but the fact that she and protagonist Ricky
13:04began developing a newfound romance seemed to ensure she would make it out alive.
13:09Nope.
13:10In a last-ditch effort to escape town, the survivors head for the helicopter on the hospital roof.
13:17However, the Predator is in a fierce battle with xenomorphs nearby, and one of his shriekens
13:22inadvertently pins Jessie to the wall.
13:25As cold as it is, this death is hardly the darkest moment in this bonkers sequel.
13:41We love us some early-90s Gary Busey, but you don't put him in a Predator movie if you're
13:45not going to kill him off in grisly fashion.
13:48The leader of the CIA taskforce aiming to capture the Predator and harness its technology, the hot-headed
13:53Peter Keyes ultimately underestimates his extraterrestrial foe.
14:03During a raid on the slaughterhouse the Predator's been holding up in, the skilled hunter gets
14:07the upper hand on Keyes' team, taking care of them in quick succession.
14:12Despite clashing with LAPD Lieutenant Mike Harrigan throughout the film, Keyes actually
14:16manages to save him before meeting a horrific end himself.
14:19The Predator bisects him with a smart disc, making us cringe and wonder what happened to
14:24his top half at the same time.
14:30That's right, not even Predators are exempt from the ruthlessness of Predators.
14:43In this thrilling sequel, the action is taken off-world to a distant planet that serves
14:47as the creature's hunting preserve.
14:50This of course means there's multiple kinds of Predators, and not all of them are friendly
14:54with each other.
14:55After coming across a captive Predator that resembles the first movie's antagonist,
14:59protagonist Royce doubles back later on to free him, hoping it'll assist them in the
15:03fight against the others.
15:11He's right, but even the classic Predator is no match for the Berserker.
15:15Their fight is legendary, but it isn't long before the Berserker gets the upper hand.
15:20After unmasking themselves, the Berserker decapitates the classic version in a brutal
15:24display of dominance.
15:37If there's one character from the original Predator we naively wished would make it,
15:42it was Dylan, played by Carl Weathers.
15:44But, when we learned the mission he's leading isn't what it appears to be, we know it was
15:48only a matter of time before his number was up.
15:51After the Predator eliminates Sergeant Mac Elliot, Dylan is left to fend for himself without
15:55the rest of his team.
16:03Upon coming across Mac's body, Dylan realises it's already too late.
16:07Making out the cloaked Predator in the trees, Dylan doesn't have time to react before his
16:11arm is blown clean off.
16:13Not even permitted a quick death, Dylan has to wait helplessly as the Jungle Hunter makes
16:17his way down and finishes him off.
16:33Set over 300 years ago, Prey follows a Comanche warrior named Nauru, as she goes up against
16:38ostensibly the first Predator on Earth.
16:40About halfway through, a group of French trappers try to use her and her brother as bait for
16:46the Predator, only to realise they had it backwards.
16:55The Predator's weapons are slightly more rudimentary this time around, but he even manages to get
17:00by with some of theirs, taking the trappers out with simple bear traps and deflected gunfire.
17:05Still, it's clear some of the Predator's favourite tactics go way back, as he finishes
17:10the rest off with a good old-fashioned self-destruct device.
17:14Of course, the trappers hardly know what it is, and barely do anything to avoid it.
17:24In a fun bit of metacasting, Jake Busey enters the franchise to play the son of Gary Busey's
17:39character from Predator 2.
17:41His scientist character fares much better than the elder keys, the rest of the lab assistants,
17:46not so much.
17:47After trying to study a Predator that's inexplicably got human DNA, the lab workers get a rude awakening
17:52when the big guy wakes up, and breaks free of his restraints.
18:02In a savage display of violence, the Predator mows down everyone, and anyone, in his way.
18:08While the film as a whole didn't quite live up to expectations, it's scenes like this
18:11that show how beast mode Predators can really go.
18:41Seeing as the protagonists of this third instalment are Earth's deadliest killers, you gotta
18:46know many characters would be downright despicable.
18:48None are more despicable than Stans, however, an admitted murderer and death row inmate.
18:54As much as Walton Goggins' performance made him somewhat amusing, we still could not wait
18:59for Stans' comeuppance.
19:00Only even we were shocked by the brutality of it.
19:10Stans is seemingly killed by the berserker's plasma caster, but his chest plate allows him
19:14to bounce back and give the others time to escape.
19:18Making sure no good deed goes unpunished, the berserker makes absolutely sure Stans won't
19:22be getting back up, yanking out his spine with his bare hand.
19:26We could not think of a worse way to go.
19:29So do any of these Predator kills not live up to the hype?
19:32Let us know in the comments below.
Recommended
0:36
12:52
9:41
11:44