Question: What was the true sole purpose of the Predator killing people? Was it for sport, some kind of training, or was he sent to earth to do it? Most of all, at the end of the movie, why did he kill himself. He still had some weapons on him so why didn't he use one of them to kill Dutch instead of using his self-destruct device to take them both out?
LorgSkyegon
3rd Aug 2005
Predator (1987)
Answer: Predators appear to be drawn to conflict (as well as heat, which is why it's in a Jungle in the first film and during a heatwave in the second), and they seek out the most challenging prey. Obviously to a predator, a lion or something isn't going to be much trouble, but a heavily armed group of highly trained commandos is a hunt worthy of honour. They are honourable hunters, not just bloodthirsty killers, which is shown when it actively avoids the woman because she is unarmed (and is also shown in Predator 2 ignoring a woman as she is pregnant). It kills itself at the end because it's dying, and it can't do anything else, so go out with a bang, basically. If he had used another weapon to kill Dutch, he'd have died eventually anyway.
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Answer: The entire culture of the Predators, a species called the Yautja, revolves around hunting for honor and glory. In expanded universe material, humans are considered one of the top two species to hunt, the other being Xenomorphs (AKA Aliens), and that human hunts must be granted instead of being open to all. As for the self-destruction, it is three-fold. First, it is used as a ritual suicide similar to defeated samurai. Second, it is a last chance to kill an enemy who has bested them. Third, it destroys all Yautja technology and erases evidence of the Yautja being there.
LorgSkyegon