60 free Predator trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Predator started life as a script called Hunter that two unknown brothers slid under a producer's door, and ended up as one of the defining action films of the 1980s. This Predator trivia quiz covers the 1987 original in depth: Dutch and his team, the CIA man with the handshake, the tracker who senses something in the trees, the mud that hides body heat, the chopper, and the alien that removes its mask for a fair fight. Behind the scenes there are questions on Jean-Claude Van Damme's brief spell inside the suit, Kevin Peter Hall and his sasquatch, Stan Winston, James Cameron's mandible suggestion, the red suit behind the cloaking effect, the glow-stick blood, Alan Silvestri's score and Arnold's mid-shoot wedding. The quiz then follows the franchise through Predator 2 in Los Angeles, Predators, The Predator, Prey and its Comanche heroine, Killer of Killers and Predator: Badlands, plus the Alien crossovers and the name fans give the species. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the films, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was the original Predator released?
1987
It opened at number one in the US in June with $12 million and finished the year twelfth at the domestic box office.
Q 02Who directed the original Predator?
John McTiernan
It was his first studio film; he made Die Hard the following year.
Q 03What is the surname of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, Major Alan "Dutch"?
Schaefer
He returned as a playable character in the games Alien vs. Predator (1994) and Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020).
Q 04What was the script's working title before it became Predator?
Hunter
The first concept involved several species of alien hunters chasing various targets before it was streamlined to one creature and one soldier.
Q 05Which sibling screenwriting duo wrote Predator?
Jim and John Thomas
As unknowns, they resorted to slipping the script under the door of a Fox producer, and later wrote Predator 2 as well.
Q 06Which martial-arts star was originally cast as the Predator before being replaced?
Jean-Claude Van Damme
At 5 feet 9 he looked too small next to the bodybuilder cast, and he reportedly kept complaining that the suit was too hot.
Q 07Which 7-foot-2 actor ultimately played the Predator?
Kevin Peter Hall
He could not see out of the mask and had to rehearse with it off, memorising where everything was.
Q 08The actor inside the Predator suit had just played the sasquatch in which family film?
Harry and the Hendersons
That film won Rick Baker the Best Makeup Oscar the same year the Predator was classed as a visual effect.
Q 09Which effects artist created the final Predator creature after the original design was scrapped?
Stan Winston
He had worked with Schwarzenegger on The Terminator, and his creature earned the film its only Oscar nomination.
Q 10Which director, sitting beside the effects artist on a plane, suggested giving the creature mandibles?
James Cameron
He said he had always wanted to see a creature with mandibles, and they became the Predator's signature.
Q 11Who composed Predator's score, his first major action movie?
Alan Silvestri
He was hired off the back of Back to the Future and returned for the sequel, the only composer to score more than one Alien or Predator film.
Q 12Which Little Richard song plays in the helicopter as the team flies into the jungle?
Long Tall Sally
One of the soldiers later recites lines from it while chasing the creature through the trees.
Q 13Who plays CIA agent Al Dillon, Dutch's old Vietnam ally?
Carl Weathers
He was the producers' first choice thanks to his turn as Apollo Creed, and he secretly trained at 3 a.m. so his physique looked effortless.
Q 21Which character, the team's expert tracker, is the first to sense something inhuman in the jungle?
Billy
He later stays behind on a log bridge to face the creature alone.
Q 22What is the name of the guerrilla prisoner played by Elpidia Carrillo?
Anna
She recounts local folktales of a monster that kills men and takes trophies when the weather is hot.
Q 23Why does the Predator spare the guerrilla prisoner?
It only attacks those it considers a threat
Dutch realises this and tells her to drop her weapon and run for the extraction point.
Q 14What name did the internet give the arm-clasping greeting between Dutch and Dillon?
The Epic Handshake
It later became an object-labelling meme, with a painting of the two arms agreeing or fighting over something.
Q 15Jesse Ventura plays which heavy gunner on Dutch's team?
Blain Cooper
The former Navy SEAL and wrestler co-starred with Schwarzenegger again the same year in The Running Man.
Q 16Ventura later served as governor of which state, from 1999 to 2003?
Minnesota
Schwarzenegger became governor of California in 2003, making Predator the rare film with two future governors in its cast.
Q 17Which cast member ran unsuccessfully for governor of Kentucky in 2003?
Sonny Landham
He played the team's tracker; his co-stars Ventura and Schwarzenegger both actually won governorships.
Q 18Which member of the cast went on to direct the 2018 sequel The Predator?
Shane Black
He plays the bespectacled radio operator in the original and co-wrote the 2018 film with Fred Dekker.
Q 19Which team member is the first to be killed by the Predator?
Hawkins
He is killed after catching the fleeing prisoner, who is spared.
Q 20Bill Duke plays which sergeant, who provokes the team into blindly firing into the jungle?
Mac Eliot
He had co-starred with Schwarzenegger in an earlier Joel Silver action film two years before.
Q 24What does Dutch cover himself in to hide from the Predator's thermal vision?
Mud
Schwarzenegger spent three weeks caked in it for the climactic fight.
Q 25The film is set in which region?
A Central American jungle
The writers chose it because US special forces were constantly operating there at the time.
Q 26Most of Predator was actually filmed near which Mexican resort city?
Puerto Vallarta
Shooting began in the jungles of Palenque, Chiapas, and most of the cast and crew suffered from bad water at their hotel.
Q 27Roughly how much did Predator gross worldwide on its original release?
$98 million
About $60 million of that came from the US and Canada, on a budget of around $15 million.
Q 28Predator received a single Academy Award nomination, in which category?
Best Visual Effects
The Academy struggled to classify the creature, then gave the award to Innerspace.
Q 29What colour suit did a stand-in wear to create the Predator's cloaking effect?
Red
The colour was chosen as the furthest opposite of the jungle green and sky blue, then removed with chroma key and filled with a wider-lens plate.
Q 30The Predator's glowing green blood was made from glow-stick liquid mixed with what?
Personal lubricant
The electrical spark effects were rotoscoped by hand on light tables.