Die Hard is a 1988 American action thriller film directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. It stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, and Bonnie Bedelia, with Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, Paul Gleason, and Hart Bochner in supporting roles. Die Hard follows New York City police detective John McClane (Willis) who is caught up in a terrorist takeover of a Los Angeles skyscraper while visiting his estranged wife.
Predator is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by John McTiernan and written by brothers Jim and John Thomas. It is the first installment in the Predator franchise. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Dutch Schaefer, the leader of an elite paramilitary rescue team on a mission to save hostages in guerrilla-held territory in a Central American rainforest, who encounter the deadly Predator, a skilled, technologically advanced alien who stalks and hunts them down. Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Richard Chaves, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, and Shane Black are supporting co-stars.
Commando is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Mark L. Lester and produced by Joel Silver. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, alongside Rae Dawn Chong, Alyssa Milano, Vernon Wells, Bill Duke and Dan Hedaya. The film's score was provided by James Horner.
Howard the Duck is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered anthropomorphic animal trapped on a human-dominated Earth. Echoing this, the most common tagline of his comics reads 'Trapped In a World He Never Made!'.
John Campbell McTiernan Jr. is an American retired filmmaker. He is best known for his action films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). His later well-known films include the action-comedy-fantasy film Last Action Hero (1993), the action film sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), the heist-film remake The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and The 13th Warrior (1999). His last completed feature film was the mystery-thriller Basic, released in 2003.
Last Action Hero is a 1993 American fantasy action comedy film directed and produced by John McTiernan and co-written by Shane Black and David Arnott. It is a satire of the action genre and associated clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater, a Los Angeles police detective within the Jack Slater action film franchise, while Austin O'Brien co-stars as Danny Madigan, a boy magically transported into the Slater universe, and Charles Dance as Mr. Benedict, a ruthless assassin from the Slater universe who escapes to the real world. Schwarzenegger also served as the film's executive producer and plays himself as the actor portraying Jack Slater. The film also marked Art Carney and Tina Turner's last feature film before their deaths in 2003 and 2023 respectively.
Freedom Force is the name of two fictional teams appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, is a fictional American comic book jungle girl heroine, originally published primarily by Fiction House during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was the first female comic book character with her own title, with her 1941 premiere issue preceding Wonder Woman #1. Sheena inspired a wealth of similar comic book jungle queens. She was predated in literature by Rima, the Jungle Girl, introduced in the 1904 William Henry Hudson novel Green Mansions.
The Man-Thing is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway and artist Gray Morrow, the character first appeared in Savage Tales #1, and went on to be featured in various titles and in his own series, including Adventure into Fear. Steve Gerber's 39-issue run on the series is considered to be a cult classic.
William Henry Duke Jr. is an American actor and film director. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. Frequently a character actor, he has starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando and Predator, and has appeared in films like Car Wash, American Gigolo, No Man's Land, Bird on a Wire, Menace II Society, Exit Wounds, Payback, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Mandy. In television, he is best known as Agent Percy Odell in Black Lightning.
Sheena, also known as Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, is a 1984 superhero film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
Tarzanesque is a term created by Frenchman Francis Lacassin used to describe characters in comic books inspired by Tarzan. A tarzanesque character resembles Tarzan in his physical resourcefulness, within a line of action that includes an adventurous life in the jungle, the gift of understanding and being understood by animals, contact with lost civilizations and courage combined with the ability to deal with nature. The creation of such characters may have been propitiated by the success that Tarzan had achieved since his appearance in literature in 1912, culminating with the release of daily comic strips in 1929, which paved the way for a genre that combined the allure of the unknown environment, the need for the archetypal characteristics of the hero and the popularity of access.
The Yautja, also known as the Predator, is the titular extraterrestrial species featured in the Predator and Alien vs. Predator science fiction franchises, characterized by its trophy hunting of other "challenging" species for sport. First introduced in the film of the same name, the creatures returned in the sequels Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010) and The Predator (2018), and the prequel Prey (2022), as well as the crossover films Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). In 2023, the species was licensed to Adult Swim to appear officially in the seventh season of the animated series Rick and Morty, introducing the Skin Thieves clan.
Frankenstein's Monster is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is based on the character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The character has been adapted often in the comic book medium.
Predator is an American science fiction action anthology media franchise centered on the film series depicting humankind's encounters with an intelligent race of extraterrestrial trophy-seeking hunters known as the "Yautja". Produced and distributed by 20th Century Studios, the series began with Predator (1987), directed by John McTiernan, and was followed by three sequels, Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010), The Predator (2018), and one prequel, Prey (2022). The series has led to numerous novels, comics, and video game spin-offs such as Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005) and Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020). The Alien vs. Predator franchise combines the continuities and universe of the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise and consists of two films as well as varying series of comics, books, and video games. Unlike the Alien franchise, which features a continuous story arc, the Predator films are more non-linear, instead focusing on individual encounters with the Predators spread across multiple timeframes.
Predators is a 2010 American science fiction action film directed by Nimród Antal, written by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and the third film in the Predator franchise. The film follows an ensemble cast starring Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, and Laurence Fishburne, and follows a group of proficient killers who have been abducted and placed on a planet that acts as a game reserve for two warring tribes of extraterrestrial killers, leading them to try and survive and look for a way back to Earth.
Predatoroonops is a genus of goblin spiders endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The genus is characterized by the extremely modified male chelicerae and long pairs of ventral spines. It is the first fully revised endemic Brazilian genus of spiders, uncovered in 2012 after two and a half years of research at São Paulo's Instituto Butantan.
The comic book stories published by Marvel Comics since the 1940s have featured several noteworthy concepts besides its fictional characters, such as unique places and artifacts. Since the introduction of Peter Parker as a character in 1962, with the superhero alter-ego, Spider-Man, a number of these locations have been prominently featured in connection with storylines specific to this character. These have then been carried over to depictions of Spider-Man in film, video games, and other media. There follows a list of those features.
Commando Ninja is a 2018 English-language French martial arts action comedy film written and directed by Benjamin Combes. It pays homage to 1980s action films such as Commando, The Terminator, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Predator, and American Ninja. The film stars Eric Carlesi, Philippe Allier, Stéphane Asensio, Olivier Dobremel, Anaëlle Rincent, and Charlotte Poncin.
Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer, commonly known simply as Dutch, is a fictional character in the Predator and Alien vs. Predator franchises, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Predator (1987) and the video game Predator: Hunting Grounds (2020), and voiced by James Patrick Cronin in the audiobook for Predator: Stalking Shadows (2020). A United States Army special forces operator, he first encounters a Yautja (Predator) in Predator when it massacres his crew of mercenaries in Val Verde, before he is recruited to join the OWLF to hunt Yautja in Predator: South China Sea (2008), Stalking Shadows and Hunting Grounds, as Agent Onyx. Following his death, in Alien vs. Predator (1994), Dutch is rebuilt as an android by the United States Colonial Marine Corps, and he and his partner Linn Kurosawa join forces with two Yautja to fend off an invasion of xenomorphs.
