Its been 36 years since Major Alan ‘Dutch’ Schaefer and his military team suffered their horrific fate from an Alien creature with a cloaking device, while out in the South American jungles. John McTiernan’s ‘Predator’ is still fresh in every fan’s mind. The shooting took place in real locations, in the jungles of Palenque, Chiapas, in Mexico. The troubles the actors faced while shooting the film are a story in itself. Its lead, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had already bid adieu to bodybuilding after winning 7 Mr. Olympia titles, was already making his name in Hollywood. His ordeal during the shoot is something of a hair-raising story.

In his autobiography, ‘Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story’, Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote about the time he got married in Chapter 17. The chapter, titled ‘Marriage and Movies’, also covered his troubles during the shoot of Predator under horrible conditions. It was right around the time he got married to his now ex-wife Maria Shriver.

It was a hellish time shooting in mud for Arnold Schwarzenegger

The final slot of shooting took place in November in the Mexican jungles. Temperatures drop to the utmost minimum at night. And that’s when they had to keep shooting in the freezing cold of the night. “Like any action movie, Predator was more of an ordeal than a pleasure to make”, wrote Schwarzenegger in the book ‘Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story’. But what was this “ordeal” all about that almost sucked every ounce of warmth from Schwarzenegger’s body.

Towards the near climax of the movie, in an iconic scene, Major ‘Dutch’ loses all his clothes and has to cover himself in mud in order to avoid detection from the thermal imaging of the Predator. To shoot it, Schwarzenegger had to put cold, wet pottery clay on his body. The kind used to keep wine bottles cold in restaurants.

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Schwarzenegger said, “I was shivering nonstop. They had to use heat lamps to warm me, but that made the clay dry out, so they didn’t use them much”. He also tried other concoctions like jagerteee, but that made him too drunk.

Besides Schwarzenegger, others struggled on sets too

In the end, Arnold Schwarzenegger had to brave the cold and complete the shoot like the diligent actor that he is. But overall it was a difficult time on sets for everybody. Kevin Peter Hall, the 7’2″ actor who donned the titular character, also had immense trouble carrying the heavy weight of the Predator costume. The movie went on to be a cult classic, spawning a franchise of its own.

But despite reports, Schwarzenegger has turned down every opportunity to star or cameo in any of its sequels. He believed they were doing an injustice to the original movie by not choosing the right cast or right director. Nevertheless, its latest installment ‘Prey’ met with an overall good reception.

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