'Predator' propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger into the stratosphere

Arnold Schwarzenegger

When you think about it, it's pretty miraculous that Arnold Schwarzenegger became an A-list superstar.

He was best known for being a body builder, came with a long easy-to-mispronounce name, and had an unmistakable Austrian accent.

He was not, and never has been, considered a great actor per se, but he's always been very effective in the right role and has great movie star presence.

That said, he didn't become a real bankable star until relatively later in his career.

Sure, The Terminator and Conan the Barbarian brought him a certain level of cache, but neither film was as giant a blockbuster as people might presume.

In fact, it was really 1987's Predator that propelled him into the top echelon of Hollywood leading men. It's a terrific action film, one that is pretty compelling once you get past the relatively cheesy first act.

Some have called Predator a B-movie, and that's probably fair. It's premise is as thin as it gets -- alien creature stalks platoon of military men -- but there's something brilliant about how little the movie spells out. We see a spaceship early in the film but little else to explain the creature's origins. The creature itself never speaks, but appears intelligent as well as genuinely malicious.

Meanwhile, the refreshingly diverse cast of grunts won't be winning Academy Awards anytime soon -- Bill Duke and Jesse Ventura give over-the-top performances, while the underrated Carl Weathers is a nice foil for Schwarzenegger -- but they are engaging enough. Some of the corny jokes and hokey dialogue are wince-worthy, so much so that the "get to the chopper" antics are often what people remember most about the movie.

But once the cat-and-mouse game really gets going -- and virtually all of the other principles are killed off -- the film develops a sort of primordial gravitas. Schwarzenegger -- at his peak of being ripped and covered in mud -- is almost Caveman-esque. His character is forced to rely on his wits and his natural instincts.

The last 30 or so minutes of the film almost become a silent movie, ratcheting up the tension as Schwarzenegger tries to figure out how to outlast a seemingly indestructible enemy. This passage of the film makes it a classic. And even though -- SPOILER ALERT -- Schwarzenegger survives, his final moments on screen, looking positively depleted aboard the oft-mention "chopper" - is actually one of his better acting moments.

After this film, which was a breakout summer hit in '87, Schwarzenegger went on a huge roll. Predator was followed by a comedic change of pace in 1988's Twins, then Kindergarten Cop and Total Recall (both 1990 smashes) and culminating with the largest success of his career to date -- Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Age and a polarizing political career have since slowed his impact, but for a brief period Schwarzenegger was the biggest thing in movies, and Predator was one of the prime reasons why.