The Predator franchise aims to diversify its apex galactic hunters. While there have been different Predators such as the four-armed Predator, the Mutated Predator, the Infected Predator, and others, the human Predator is a rare species. These were hunters that were so good at what they did that the Predators embraced them as one of their own. They frequently outfitted them with Yautja-style armor, equipment, and weaponry. Others, such as Buddy Wilcox, just converted themselves into Human Predators by constructing their own Predator equipment. In this video, we will look at five of the most competent and dangerous humans who have earned the title of Predator. So, without further ado, let us get right to the point!
Machiko Noguchi from Alien vs. Predator Novel
Machiko was the daughter of a renowned businessman named Akira Noguchi. She had a happy childhood with two loving parents, but after her father got fired for embezzlement, he couldn’t take the humiliation and committed suicide. Young Machiko decided that she would bring back the glory that her family enjoyed before her father’s passing. She worked hard for the next few years of her life and secured a respectable job at the Chigusa Corporation. After working for a couple of years at Chigusa Corporation, she was sent to the ranching colony of Ryushi, a planet with two suns, as the new administrator. Her father’s death and her mother’s subsequent remarriage had changed Machiko into a recluse, whose only motivation was hard work. Naturally, even at Prosperity Wells where she was stationed, she made little to no effort to socialize with the other colonists. However, she soon eased her demeanor and started to get more involved with the staff. But, this part of Machiko’s life was soon going to change.
It wasn’t long before a Predator hunting party led by the Predator Leader Dachande came to Ryushi, so that he and his juniors could seed the planet with Xenomorph eggs. The Predators didn’t know that humans had started to colonize the arid planet when they unleashed the Xenomorph eggs. Furthermore, the Xenomorph’s Queen that the mother ship was holding captive, managed to sneak in a royal Ovomorph in the batch of other Ovomorphs. Later, Dachande was injured by the colony’s doctor. The young Predators began a massive hunt and killed anyone who came before them, irrespective of whether they were young or old, armed or unarmed. However, Dachande and Machiko soon realized that the enemy of an enemy is a friend, and they joined hands to fight the alien infestation.
Because Dachande was unaware that a human colony was residing there when the Xenomorphs started massacring them, he took it upon himself to be their savior as he felt responsible. Eventually, Machiko gained the Yautja honor as she killed a Xenomorph queen by sheer resolve and skills. Dachande gave her the Predator name of Da’dtou-di, which translated to ‘small knife’, and she was accepted as a Human Predator. Furthermore, she was marked as a Predator by Dachande and given the typical Yautja armor and weapons.
She soon started hunting along with the other Predators and proved her strength and skills. However, because she was a human, she was often made fun of by other Predators. She also helped the other Predators capture a live Xenomorph Queen for an impending hunt later. Despite her high-octane and thrilling life as a Predator, Machiko could never resist her natural instincts and connected more to humans than Predators. She shortly left the hunting aliens and disembarked on a settlement named Bellatrix 2, where she became a guide to the hunting parties on Livermore Evanston’s hunting planet.
In “AVP: Three World War”, a group of the Killer Predators attacked a mining colony, and Colonial Marines requested her help. After initially being hesitant, she agreed to help the Marines because she saw the Killer Predators as a threat to all lifeforms. She swiftly killed one of the Killer predators as a showcase of her skills and abilities; this led to a standoff-like situation between humans and the Predators, after which negotiations began. Noguchi used predator weapons like plasma casters and wrist blades, while wearing a bio mask and Yautja armor. She is one of the few humans to have been accepted and honored into the Yautja society.
Royce
Royce was a U.S. Special Operations Forces veteran turned mercenary who appeared in the film ‘Predators’. He reluctantly became the leader of a group of humans on an alien planet. His life before and after the events of the film is equally thrilling and fascinating, yet dark.
Once upon a time, he was working a job in the islands of the Philippines, but because of some faulty intelligence, he demolished a building that had a grade school located in its basement. Many innocent women and children lost their lives in the mishap, and the incident left a deep dent in Royce, scarring his mind and soul. However, the others started to feel that he was a cold-hearted man with no conscience, and his fee doubled.
Following this incident, he was hired by the General of an African nation to eliminate his rival rebel leader, Ayotunde Kutti. Royce knew that his clients wanted to eliminate him after completing the job instead of paying up and naturally, he took two-thirds of the payment beforehand. His anticipation later turned out to be true. After trekking for a few days in the jungles of Africa, Royce managed to locate Kutti and his forces. He noticed that Kutti’s group had several Western mercenaries and ex-special forces, including a man named Travis, with whom he had previously worked on a job in Pakistan.
Sniping was Royce’s area of expertise, but he still took out a few men from the jungles so that the others left Kutti’s stronghold in search of the sniper. Once the place was left bereft of most mercenaries, Royce infiltrated Kutti’s house and slaughtered his personal security before killing Kutti. He also killed each and every man who was serving Kutti, including Travis. The Predator Tracker closely monitored this sequence of events and ultimately abducted and dropped him in the Game Preserve Planet with a strange parachute. This joins the comics to the 2010 film ‘Predators’.
Joyce woke up from his unconscious state in a parachute and landed roughly but safely on the ground. He met several equally deadly people from different backgrounds. Among them was Isabelle, a sniper of the Israel Defense Forces; Stans, an inmate from San Quentin State Prison put on a death row; Nikolai was a Russian commando from the Spetsnaz Alpha Group; Hanzo was a Yakuza Inagawa-kai enforcer; Mombasa was a Revolutionary United Front death squad soldier; Cuchillo was a cartel enforcer.
And lastly, Edwin was a general physician whose presence was strange because he was nowhere as skilled as the other men and one woman, who were trained, professional killers. After the events of the film, only Joyce and Isabelle survive. Royce survived the Game Preserve Planet for close to two months, during which he killed the prey that the Predators dropped into the planet the same way he was once dropped. It was a simple case of ‘hunt or get hunted,’ and Royce proved to be a skilled hunter.
This earned him a certain degree of respect among the Predators, one of whom provided him with a specially crafted Yautja armor and the typical Yautja weapons. However, he was provided with these for a special and deadlier opponent in the form of the very famous Four-Armed Predator. Tasked with killing the two of them, Four Arm proved that he was not just a hulking monster but also adept in using technology and his brain whenever needed. This four-armed beast’s body armor seems to be more resilient than other armors we have come across, with the obvious exceptions of the Mutated Predator and the Upgrade Predator. Having said that, Royce and Isabelle managed to kill the Predator, although with many difficulties and excellent planning and teamwork.
Ash Parnall / Caryn Delacroix from Alien vs. Predator Deadliest of the Species and Aliens Renegade
Introduced in the comic named “Alien vs. Predator: Deadliest of the Species”, Ash Parnall, or Caryn Delacroix, was a genetically engineered trophy wife of a rich man named Lucien. According to the comic, when the Earth became infested by Xenomorphs, the affluent and powerful humans started living in Skyliners. One such Skyliner was the Liberte run by a supercomputer named TOY. Caryn was often tormented by nightmares of a Predator, something that would later turn out to be true. The Predator abducted Caryn and took her to an island infested with Xenomorphs, and it seemed like the Predator was trying to hunt Caryn. Luckily, she is rescued and the Predator is taken to a lab. However, Caryn in turn rescues the Predator, who turned out to be Big Mama, one of the most elegant and deadly female Predators ever encountered. Big Mama developed an innate motherly instinct to protect Caryn. The Big Mama has immensely advanced combat skills and uses the traditional Yautja weapons and armor. She even teaches Caryn combat skills and other things that she would teach any other unblooded Yautja.
The comic also introduced us to the White Hybrids that was a species created when a villainous Artificial Intelligence computer combined the DNAs of humans, Yautjas, and Xenomorphs. As the name suggests, they are essentially white in color but have red eyes. They can speak, use many weapons and stand in an erect stance like the humans and Yautja. From Xenomorphs, they acquired a eusocial society and claws in place of fingers. They are incredibly bony and come with two sets of jaws. Eventually, a Queen Mother captures Big Mama, but Caryn took her place as the royal host. When the White Hybrids show up, Caryn, Big Mama, and the Queen Mother form an unholy trinity to fight back the artificial monsters. Caryn’s characterization is very similar to Ripley or Ripley 8. However, she is one of the very few sane and non-fanatic people, who willingly chose to be face-hugged. When the chest buster erupted from her body, she regenerated, courtesy of her artificial body, and came back as Ash Parnell.
Here, we’d like to take the opportunity to give an honorable mention to Gisande Salazar, who was the chief of security in the comic ‘Deadliest of the Species and worked alongside Ash Parnall. She turned against her employers and trained under Big Mama, who gave her the Predator weapons and tools. In the end, she escaped with Ash and Big Mama.
Hunter Borgia from Predator: Concrete Jungle
The son of Isabella and Bruno Borgia, Hunter was the head of Borgia Industries. After a Yautja named Scarface desecrated the city called New Way City, Hunter and Isabella were given credit for reconstructing the city of Neonopolis on top of the ruins of New Way City. Borgia was born as a stunted and weak child who had very little chances of survival. Nonetheless, shortly after his birth, he was exposed to Yautja blood. The Yautja blood is a bioluminescent compound of neon green color. Their blood is known to have life-giving and healing properties and has neutralizing effects on the corrosive Xenomorph blood. He was born the day his father Bruno got killed by the New Way Devil or Scarface.
When his mother shot the beast with a pistol, Scarface’s blood splattered on Hunter Borgia, giving him a new lease on life. The city got destroyed by the powerful self-destruct weapon on Scarface’s ship, after which Isabella and Hunter use the resources of Borgia Industries to rebuild the city. Although this seems like a kind act of philanthropy, it made them and their company rich and powerful. Borgia Industries is known to do business with the likes of Weyland Industries and Yutani Corporation, and Borgia himself is known to have a close personal relationship with Charles Bishop Weyland, the CEO of Weyland Industries.
Borgia’s encounter with Yautja blood made him obsessed with the species, and he used his family’s resources to develop pieces of technology based on Yautja technology. Under Borgia’s leadership, his firm reverse-engineered the tech that Scarface left behind and constructed the Prometheus Tech; an advanced combat weapon. Furthermore, Borgia’s men used this same weaponry to capture Predators who were then subjected to crude experiments by the scientists of Borgia Industries. But all these developments with the help of Yautja technology and the imprisonment of Yautjas were not going to go unnoticed, and Scarface returned to Neonopolis to get his technology back.
As the news of Scarface’s return reached Borgia, he started the next phase of his research and became the first test subject of a program that would transform a human into a Yautja-like super-soldier. However, the program got interrupted midway by Scarface, who breached the facility and massacred everyone. The semi-completed experiment gave Borgia powers to fight against humans, but Scarface proved more than a match for him. During the last battle between Borgia and Scarface, the Predator took Borgia’s head as a trophy and used the hybrid Hunter Borgia’s blood to smear Bruno Borgia’s statue with a Predator symbol.
Buddy Wilcox from Predator: Kindred
At the outset, the small town of Fleener Creek in Oregon looks sleepy and dull, but in reality, it is a hunting ground of a specific Predator. On a hot sultry day in 1958, Buddy Wilcox’s father took him hunting into the forests of Fleener Creek. Buddy’s physically and psychologically abusive father felt that hunting would turn Buddy into a man. The man’s intentions may have been good, but his means did not justify the ends. This was the reason why Buddy was always repulsed by his father, and his heart was filled with hate and disgust. Young Buddy was done with his father’s controlling nature and wished for his father’s death. Still, Buddy didn’t know that this wish would soon come true.
Later that night, a Predator landed in the forests of Fleener Creek and approached Buddy’s house. When Buddy’s old man heard some noise, he went out to investigate and got killed. The memories of this incident would go on to haunt Buddy in his nightmares for the next thirty years. Even though he grows into a fine man, who is a loving husband and a perfect father, his repressed emotions were about to blow up sky high because the most uninhibited killer of the galaxy had returned to the forests of Fleener Creek.
Meanwhile, an action-hungry Sheriff Kelly Mathis deals with a serial killer named James McCutcheon, who, along with his three mates, had killed twenty-two people, including women and children. The feds take James into the woods to investigate the murder of one of them when the Predator attacks and James escapes. The Predator kills two men and leaves the place in a bloody mess. When Kelly finds out about the massacre, she takes James into custody, but the Predator follows James. The Predator kills a man, and the needle of suspicion points straight towards Buddy. Buddy tells Kelly about the Predator at the police station and how his father was killed by the beast thirty years ago. The sleepy town is not sleepy any longer.
Meanwhile, James has started to lose his sanity and starts seeing the Predator as a father figure. He thinks that killing more people would please the Predator. The Predator attacks the station, and James gets free in the ensuing chaos. The Predator then gives James a chase, while Buddy prepares himself to fight against the master hunter of the cosmos. We learn that James had fashioned his own armor and Yautja weapons in preparation for this day for the past thirty years. Buddy meets the Predator in the woods, and in the ensuing battle gets heavily injured but continues to fight.
The Predator gives Buddy a sword to make it a fair battle. Buddy makes good use of the sword and slices off the arm of the Predator before sinking the sword into its chest. He doesn’t kill the Predator because Kelly was being attacked by James. With Buddy’s help, Sheriff Kelly kills James, while the Predator escapes in his ship, only to crash-land into a nearby lake. Later, Buddy buries his father’s skull that the Predator had brought along with him, an act that would finally relieve Buddy of his thirty-year-long nightmare.