Predator 2 (1990): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

Predator 2 follows a Los Angeles cop who discovers that the cartel war scorching his city is only the second most dangerous thing on its streets. It is the summer of 1997, a record heat wave has the whole city sweating, and Colombian and Jamaican gangs are trading bullets block by block. The film opens on that turf war, then lets something stranger step into it.

Danny Glover plays the squad leader, Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (harrigan predator 2), a headstrong officer with little patience for orders. Beside him work detectives Leona Cantrell, Danny Archuleta and Jerry Lambert. When the killings turn unusually brutal, a mysterious federal task force under Special Agent Peter Keyes takes over the scene and shuts Harrigan out, which only sharpens his suspicion that gang violence does not explain the bodies.

If you are coming from predator 1987, the sequel keeps the hunter and swaps the jungle for asphalt, with a cop in the Dutch role instead of a mercenary.

The full plot of Predator 2 is a chase through gang territory, a subway car and a slaughterhouse that ends with Harrigan killing the creature in its own ship. An alien Predator starts hunting the gang members and the police who get in its way, while Keyes leads a task force that is secretly trying to capture the creature alive.

Archuleta goes back alone to a crime scene, finds one of the creature's spear tips and is killed by the Predator. Harrigan then visits the Jamaican boss King Willie, who is killed by the Predator and loses his head as a trophy. The Predator later ambushes Cantrell and Lambert on a subway train, killing Lambert but sparing Cantrell once its scanners show she is pregnant.

Keyes's team sets a trap for the creature in a slaughterhouse, but the Predator kills most of his men. Harrigan wounds the Predator, and Keyes is killed when the creature throws a disc at him. Harrigan fights the Predator on a rooftop and cuts off its self destruct device. The Predator retreats to an underground spacecraft, where Harrigan kills it with its own disc. A group of cloaked Predators then collects the body, and their leader gives Harrigan an antique flintlock pistol engraved "Raphael Adolini 1715" as a reward.

Predator 2 opened in US theaters on November 21, 1990, according to Box Office Mojo, followed by Australia on January 10, 1991 and the UK on May 3, 1991, per TMDB.

Is Predator 2 a hit or a flop? It grossed $57 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo, split into $30.7 million domestic and $26.5 million international. That is a clear step down from predator 1987, which earned considerably more worldwide on a much smaller budget. The sequel grossed more than its budget but earned well under the original. More figures are on the predator box office page.

The film is rated R in the US, 18 in the UK and R 18+ in Australia. In the US it streams on YouTube TV and FXNow, and can be rented or bought from Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube and Fandango At Home. In the UK and Australia it streams on Disney Plus (availability checked November 3, 2026, via JustWatch on TMDB). A fuller breakdown is at where to watch predator.

The Predator 2 ending shows Harrigan killing the lone hunter and then receiving a gift from its own kind. After he cuts off the creature's self destruct device and follows it into the hidden spacecraft below the city, he kills it with its own disc. Other Predators appear, take away the body, and their leader hands Harrigan an engraved antique pistol as a trophy. The film closes with the sense that the Predators will return.

What does the pistol mean? The engraving reads "Raphael Adolini 1715", and in my opinion the likeliest reading is that the hunters have visited Earth for centuries and collect trophies from humans they respect. The film does not spell that out, so it is an interpretation, not a stated fact. It is also a quiet answer to the question of who wins. Harrigan is not rescued or thanked by anyone human, since Keyes is dead and his task force has been wiped out in the slaughterhouse, so the only recognition he gets comes from the species he just fought.

How does the finale compare with the original? In predator 1987, Dutch wins alone and the hunt ends in the jungle with nobody else watching. Here the climax moves through a rooftop chase and then underground into the ship, and the arrival of the cloaked group turns a one on one duel into a ceremony. That shift is the sequel's sharpest creature design choice, because the hunters now have witnesses, rules and a way of honoring a kill.

It could be argued that the ending is the sequel's smartest idea, because it turns the series from one survivor's story into a culture with its own rules. The earlier subway scene sets this up, since the Predator spares Cantrell once its scanners show she is pregnant. Perhaps the most telling contrast with the first film is that this hunter will not kill someone it judges unarmed in that sense, while Keyes, who treats the creature as a prize, dies to its disc. The creature reads as a hunter with a code, and the humans who ignore that code are the ones who pay.

Predator 2 was filmed in Los Angeles, California, mostly through night location shooting with soundstage work as well. Shooting in the city the story is set in suits the Thomas brothers' urban jungle pitch, and night work gives the hunt its dark, sweltering feel.

Predator 2 trivia starts with how the sequel was written and cast.

• Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas pitched an urban jungle setting, the studio approved it, and they wrote the script in about three weeks.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to return because of a salary dispute, and the lead went to Danny Glover.
• Patrick Swayze and Steven Seagal were considered at different points for the lead role.
• Joel Silver brought Stephen Hopkins on as director.
• The MPAA first gave the film an NC-17 rating, so cuts were made to get an R rating.
• Alan Silvestri conducted the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra for the score.
• Kevin Peter Hall is credited for the Predator in both this film and predator 1987.

To see where the film sits in the saga, check the predator timeline or predator movies ranked.