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"The Hunt Is On."

References
predators

December, 2008

A mercenary named Royce awakens to find himself freefalling over a tropical jungle. As he nears the ground, a parachute on his back automatically opens. After landing in the jungle he is immediately confronted by several other heavily-armed individuals:

They quickly encounter several more people dropped from the sky into the jungle:

An unnamed soldier falls to his death between Royce and Cuchillo, and the dead man's parachute suddenly activate, startling Cuchillo.

None of them have any clue where they are or how they got there, each having woken up in freefall like Royce. They discover that each of them are armed and lethal killers, with the apparent exception of Edwin.

Predators After Royce (whom Isabelle suspects is a former black operations soldier turned mercenary) decides they need to head to high ground, Isabelle, Cuchillo and Stans continue to argue about working as a team. Stans initially refuses to go with the others, but when everyone else walks away without him, he eventually follows.

The group discovers that they are on an alien game preserve planet (by the "Super Yautja" clan in order to be hunted). In the jungle they find a plant with a neurotoxic poison that Edwin collects on a scalpel, empty cages, deadfall traps. The group inadvertently springs a series of booby traps. The creator is discovered to be a US Special Forces soldier who lies dead nearby, killed some time previously, seemingly by a high-powered energy weapon.

The party is attacked by a pack of HellHounds. Royce deduces they are on a planet used as a game preserve, where humans are hunted as game.

royce Hellhound

Royce: This planet is a game preserve. And we're the game. In case you didn't notice, we just got flushed out. They sent the dogs in, just like you if you were stalking boar or shooting quail. They split us apart and they watched. Testing us. Predators. 20th Century Fox, 2010. Movie.

Cuchillo is killed, and he is used to try and trap the others, which they avoid. The group follows the Yautja hounds' tracks to a camp and finds a captive Yautja. Their hunters, three larger "Super Yautja" known as the Tracker, Berserker and Falconer, attack the group. Mombasa is killed by a cloaked Yautja and the rest of the group escapes. Royce confronts Isabelle, believing she knows something about the alien creatures based on her shock of recognition when they encountered the captive Yautja. She reveals that she has heard of the Yautja before, from a report by the only survivor (Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer) of a Special Operations team who encountered one in 1987 near Guatemala.

noland The group next meets Ronald Noland, a solitary a US Air Cavalryman, who has survived on the planet for "ten seasons" by hiding and scavenging from the Yautja and their victims. At his hideout, he explains that the Yautja hunt in threes and sharpen their killing skills by abducting warriors and dangerous beasts from other worlds and bringing them to the planet to hunt. Noland also reveals that there is a blood feud between the larger Yautja and the smaller ones. Royce devises a plan hoping that if they can free the smaller Yautja being held prisoner in the encampment, it may take them home using the larger Yautja's spaceship.

When the group falls asleep, Noland traps them in a room and attempts to use smoke to suffocate them. Having gone mad, he plans to kill them for their equipment and supplies. Royce uses an explosive to break out of the room, attracting the Yautja to the hideout. Noland tries to escape and is killed by Tracker. In the ensuing chase, Nikolai uses two claymore mines to kill the Tracker, sacrificing himself.

As the remaining group flees, they are intercepted by Berserker. Walter Stans distracts it by attacking it with his shiv, buying time for the others to escape, and is killed when Berserker rips out his spine and skull. As they continue to flee, Hanzo stays behind to duel Falconer with a katana that he found in Noland's hideout, killing it before dying from his wounds.

Royce, Isabelle and Edwin continue to head for the Super Yautja's camp hoping to enact Royce's plan, until Edwin is injured by a trap. When Isabelle refuses to abandon him, Royce leaves them both behind and they are caught by the Berserker, who traps them in a pit and continues to the camp. Royce frees the smaller captive Yautja in exchange for return to Earth. The Yautja dons his armor and hacks into the computer of the Super Yautja's ship using his wrist computer, and sets a course for Earth. Royce runs to the ship as the Berserker arrives, and the two Yautja fight each other. Berserker eventually overpowers and decapitates the smaller Yautja before using his wrist computer to self destruct the ship as it takes off, ostensibly killing Royce.

Meanwhile, Edwin's true nature is finally revealed to Isabelle as Edwin paralyzes Isabelle using the neurotoxic poison he had earlier captured. He reveals that on Earth he was a murderer, and feels that he fits in on this planet among the monsters. Royce appears, never having boarded the ship, and stabs Edwin with his own scalpel, paralyzing him.

Royce booby-traps Edwin with grenades, using him as bait to injure the remaining Yautja. While an injured and partially paralyzed Isabelle crawls for her sniper rifle, he proceeds to fight the Berserker with a crude bone axe after using both mud and fire to confuse Berserker's infrared vision. However, the Berserker switches vision modes and duly overpowers Royce. As the Berserker prepares to finish Royce, Isabelle recovers from her paralysis sufficiently to shoot the Berserker, giving Royce the opportunity to decapitate it.

As Royce and Isabelle rest, they observe parachutes opening in the distant sky. Royce, surmising that more Yautja will soon arrive to hunt the new prey, tells Isabelle they must find another way to get off the planet, and they make their way back towards the jungle.

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