Predator Trivia
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58 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 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was the original Predator released?
1987
Predator opened at number one in the US in June 1987 with $12 million and finished the year twelfth at the domestic box office.
Q 02Who directed the original Predator?
John McTiernan
John McTiernan's Predator was his first studio film after the independent Nomads; he made Die Hard the following year.
Q 03What is the surname of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, Major Alan "Dutch"?
Schaefer
Major Alan 'Dutch' Schaefer returned as a playable character in Capcom's 1994 Alien vs. Predator arcade game and in Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020), where Schwarzenegger voiced him.
Q 04What was the script's working title before it became Predator?
Hunter
The script was titled Hunter; its 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
Jim and John Thomas, then unknowns, resorted to slipping the script under the door of a Fox producer; they later wrote Predator 2 as well.
Q 06Which martial-arts star was originally cast as the Predator before being replaced?
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme, at 5 feet 9, looked too small next to the bodybuilder cast, and reportedly kept complaining that the suit was too hot.
Q 07Which 7-foot-2 actor ultimately played the Predator?
Kevin Peter Hall
Kevin Peter Hall could not see out of the mask and had to rehearse with it off, memorising where everything was; he also played the Predator in Predator 2.
Q 08Which 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 09Which director, sitting beside the effects artist on a plane, suggested giving the Predator mandibles?
James Cameron
James Cameron said he had always wanted to see a creature with mandibles, and they became the Predator's signature look.
Q 10Who composed Predator's score, his first major action movie?
Alan Silvestri
Alan Silvestri was hired off the back of Back to the Future and returned to score Predator 2 in 1990.
Q 11Which Little Richard song plays in the helicopter as the team flies into the jungle?
Long Tall Sally
'Long Tall Sally' plays in the helicopter, and Mac later recites its lyrics while chasing the creature through the trees.
Q 12Who plays CIA agent Al Dillon, Dutch's old Vietnam ally, in Predator?
Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers was the producers' first choice thanks to his turn as boxer Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, and he secretly trained at 3 a.m. so his physique looked effortless.
Q 13What name did the internet give the arm-clasping greeting between Dutch and Dillon?
The Epic Handshake
The 'Epic Handshake' became an object-labelling meme, with the two clasped arms standing for parties agreeing on something.
Q 21What is the name of the guerrilla prisoner played by Elpidia Carrillo?
Anna
Anna, played by Elpidia Carrillo, recounts local folktales of a demon that kills men and takes trophies in the hottest years.
Q 22Why does the Predator spare the guerrilla prisoner?
It only attacks those it considers a threat
The Predator only attacks those it considers a threat, meaning the armed; Dutch realises this and tells the prisoner to drop her weapon and run for the extraction point.
Q 23What does Dutch cover himself in to hide from the Predator's thermal vision?
Mud
Q 14Jesse Ventura plays which heavy gunner on Dutch's team?
Blain Cooper
Ventura plays Blain Cooper, who lugs the minigun 'Ol' Painless'. The wrestler and Navy UDT veteran co-starred with Schwarzenegger again the same year in The Running Man.
Q 15Ventura later served as governor of which state, from 1999 to 2003?
Minnesota
Ventura governed Minnesota from 1999 to 2003; Schwarzenegger became governor of California later in 2003, making Predator the rare film with two future governors in its cast.
Q 16Which cast member ran unsuccessfully for governor of Kentucky in 2003?
Sonny Landham
Sonny Landham, who played the team's tracker, mounted a Republican bid for Kentucky governor in 2003 that went nowhere; his co-stars Ventura and Schwarzenegger both actually won governorships.
Q 17Which member of the cast went on to direct the 2018 sequel The Predator?
Shane Black
Shane Black plays the bespectacled radio operator in the original and directed and co-wrote the 2018 film with Fred Dekker.
Q 18Which team member is the first to be killed by the Predator?
Hawkins
Hawkins is the first to die, killed after catching the fleeing prisoner, who is spared; Blain falls next.
Q 19Bill Duke plays which sergeant, who provokes the team into blindly firing into the jungle?
Mac Eliot
Bill Duke plays Sergeant Mac Eliot, whose grief after Blain's death sets off the wild volley into the trees; Duke later directed films including A Rage in Harlem.
Q 20Which character, the team's expert tracker, is the first to sense something inhuman in the jungle?
Billy
Billy, the team's tracker, is the first to sense the hunter; he later stays behind on a log bridge to face the creature alone with only a knife.
Dutch smears himself in cool mud, which masks his body heat; Schwarzenegger spent about three weeks caked in it for the climactic fight.
Q 24The film is set in which region?
A Central American jungle
The story is set in a Central American jungle; the writers chose the region because US special forces were active there throughout the 1980s.
Q 25Most of Predator was actually filmed near which Mexican resort city?
Puerto Vallarta
Most of the shoot took place in the jungle at Mismaloya near Puerto Vallarta, after filming began at Palenque, Chiapas; much of the cast and crew suffered from bad water at their hotel.
Q 26Roughly how much did Predator gross worldwide on its original release?
$98 million
Predator grossed about $98 million worldwide, roughly $60 million of it in the US and Canada, on a budget of around $15 million.
Q 27Predator received a single Academy Award nomination, in which category?
Best Visual Effects
Predator's sole nomination was for Best Visual Effects, which went to Innerspace; the Academy had debated whether the creature counted as makeup or an effect.
Q 28What colour suit did a stand-in wear to create the Predator's cloaking effect?
Red
A stand-in wore a bright red suit, chosen as the furthest from jungle green and sky blue, which was removed with chroma key and filled with a wider-lens plate.
Q 29The Predator's glowing green blood was made from glow-stick liquid mixed with what?
Personal lubricant
The luminous blood was glow-stick fluid mixed with K-Y personal lubricant; the suit's electrical spark effects were rotoscoped by hand on light tables.
Q 30Which earlier Schwarzenegger movie convinced Joel Silver to make Predator big-budget?
Commando
Commando (1985) was Silver's hit with Schwarzenegger; Bill Duke came over from that film too, and Silver brought in his old boss Lawrence Gordon as co-producer.