Why predators have dreadlocks

The creature’s original design in John McTiernan’s 1987 action film “Predator” was initially slimmer and more animalistic. He was taller and sported huge yellow eyes and a head resembling a horse skull. Fun trivia: Jean-Claude Van Damme was the original stuntman hired to play the slim version of the Predator. More fun trivia: In the sequel “The Predator,” during a Halloween Night sequence, a little boy walks past the camera wearing the original Predator as a costume.

The final design of the Predator, called the Yautja in expanded universe lore, was much more humanoid. The Predator was a tall man with a muscular masculine physique. It had long claws, shark skin, and was equipped with high-tech alien hunting equipment. He wore a mask for most of “Predator,” but eventually took it off to reveal a crab-like face, evil eyes, and an undeniably vulvar, fanged mouth. The predator’s vaginal visage is in keeping with the film’s overall satirical depiction of exaggerated, cartoonish masculinity. The design was eye-catching enough to be included in six additional films, not to mention a wide range of additional “Predator” media, including video games, comics, books and toy lines.

Most strikingly, the Predator sported dreadlocks that twirled dramatically when he turned his head. The dreadlocks even had little rings and bracelets attached to them and looked pretty badass. All Predators seem to wear their hair in a similar way.

However, the vast sea of ​​”Predator” expanded universe history reveals that those locomotives aren’t hair at all. If one digs deeper into the numerous “Predator” comics, they will find that those cranial tendrils are actually complex sensory organs that help a Yautja with its balance and reflexes.

In Brian McDonald’s 1996 comic “Predator: Strange Roux,” one of the title creatures, while hunting humans in the swamps of southern Louisiana, was shot in the head by a local trapper. The shotgun blast tore out several of his “hairs,” and they actually began to bleed. This was positive, semi-canonical proof that the Predator’s cranial tendrils were definitely not hair, but a series of boneless protuberances on the creature’s head. Later in that book, a trapper traps the Predator by luring him into quicksand, killing him… and turning him into stew. It seems that the predators are edible.

However, the actual biological function of Yautja tendrils would not be made explicit until the 2008 novel “Predator: South China Sea” by Jeff VanderMeer. That novel eventually clarified that the tendrils provided enhanced sensory information for a predator, giving it a better sense of balance than a human. They also apparently provided some sort of “spider sense” effect to the aliens, as they also enhanced a creature’s reflexes. The conceit exposed in “South China Sea” also explains why an imprisoned Yautja had his tendrils removed in the 2005 video game “Predator: Concrete Jungle.”

Since the Predators decorate their tendrils with bracelets and rings, it is evident that there is also an aesthetic aspect to their “dreadlocks” in their culture. Perhaps in the same way one might get one’s nose pierced. In David Bischoff’s 1994 novel “Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter’s Planet”, a human named Machiko Noguchi joins a group of Predators and becomes an ally. To fit in better, she grew her hair to look like a predator’s tendrils. When they are interrupted in the novel, Machiko laments that the male Predators won’t find her as attractive. It seems that the Yautja yobbos consider long tendrils beautiful.

The Predator was designed by master creature designer Stan Winston, who also created monsters and robots for “The Terminator,” “Jurassic Park,” “Aliens,” “The Thing,” “Edward Scissorhands” and hundreds of others. It won four Academy Awards for sound effects and makeup. In interviews included on the “Predator” DVDs, Winston revealed that the “dreadlocks” were imagined as quills, perhaps like a porcupine. He didn’t offer many details beyond the word “spikes,” but the use of the word implies that Winston wanted the dreadlocks to be more hair-like and perhaps even detachable. It was not Winston who considered that they should be sensory organs filled with blood.

Fun Trivia: When Yuatja activated his cloaking device in “Predator”, a close look will see that his dreadlocks are not part of his shiny silhouette. This was done because employing the invisibility effect on hairs was too complicated for the SFX team. They decided to solve the problem by simply removing the hairs for stealth shots. That’s okay, because it’s barely noticeable.

Other looks at the “Predator” franchise also reveal other details. For example, most dead spots are black, but some Predators have blue or red. Older predators appear to turn gray. In the feature film “AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem”, a Predator is implanted with a xenomorph egg, and the resulting offspring is a combination of Alien and Predator… with dreadlocks. That was a pretty sure sign that the “hairs” were a fleshy part of the monster’s head.