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Alan "Dutch" Schaefer is the main protagonist in the 1987 sci-fi action horror film Predator.
He's a U.S. Army Special Forces Major who is the leader of a rescue team tasked to save hostages in a Central American country, but is in conflict with an extra-terrestrial hunter that kills for sport.
He is portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger who is known for playing the terminator in the Terminator series.
Mission in Guatemala
In 1987, Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer and his army special forces team is taken to Guatemala to rescue a Guatemalan cabinet minister and his aides from a group of guerrillas.
Meanwhile, Al Dillon, Dutch's former military friend now CIA agent, comes along with Dutch's team and takes command of the mission.
As they are deployed in the jungle, the team finds a downed helicopter the cabinet administer was riding in.
Later, Billy, the team's tracker, finds skinned bodies belonging to four green berets, one of the bodies belonging to Jim Hopper, another one of Dutch's old military friends. Their presence begins to puzzle Dutch.
They soon find the guerrilla base and discover that the cabinet administer and his aides are executed. After obliterating the base, Mac, one of the team members, tells Dutch that the cabinet minister was actually a CIA agent.
Realizing that the rescue mission was a set up, Dutch angrily confronts Dillon and Dillon admits that the mission was just to destroy the base and kill everyone.
He also reveals that Jim Hopper was ordered to go rescue the agents, but went missing in the mission which it turned out that he was actually skinned alive.
At this point, Dutch begins to hold a grudge against Dillon. Before the team pulls out, Dillon takes along a female guerrilla named Anna Gonsalves in order to get information out of her.
As soon as the team leaves the base, a mysterious creature using a cloaking device and heat seeking vision begins to stalk the team.
As the team begins to take a break, Anna escapes and Dutch orders Hawkins, the team's radio and technical expert, to get her back.
As soon as he stops her, the mysterious figure brutally kills Hawkins, spares Anna, and drags his body away. The team begins to think that there are more guerrillas in the area and Dutch orders everyone to lead an all out search for Hawkins' body.
In the middle of the search Blain, the team's minigun handler, is killed by the mysterious figure by its plasma cannon.
Mac then goes over and manages to see the mysterious creature cloaked and manages to wound it. Poncho, the teams ordinance and translator, asks Anna what happened, in which she says in Spanish, "the jungle came alive and took him."
At this point, Billy believes that there is an inhuman being out in the jungle and that no one will survive. Later that night, the team begin to set up traps around their area.
Mac, who is tasked if keeping guard, suspects something and is attacked. Mac attack what seems to be the mysterious creature, but is only a wild pig.
After everyone laughs at him, Billy goes over to Blain's body bag only to find that the creature took his body and Dutch realizes that their enemy uses the trees to travel.
An attempt to trap the creature fails, leaving Poncho injured. Mac and Dillon pursue the alien, but it outmaneuvers and kills them. The Predator catches up with the others, killing Billy and Poncho and wounding Dutch.
Realizing the creature does not target unarmed prey because there is "no sport", Dutch sends Anna to the helicopter unarmed. The creature pursues Dutch into a river and its cloaking device malfunctions.
The creature, now visible, gets within a few feet of a mud-covered Dutch. His thermal signature reduced, Dutch remains unseen by the Predator and the Predator moves on. Dutch realizes he can use mud as camouflage.
While the creature collects trophies from the bodies, Dutch crafts traps and weapons and lures the creature with a war cry and fire.
Dutch disables the Predator's cloaking device and inflicts minor injuries but becomes cornered. Acknowledging Dutch as a worthy foe, the creature discards its mask and plasma weapon and engages him in hand-to-hand combat.
Dutch is almost beaten, but crushes the creature under a trap's counterweight. As the creature lies dying, Dutch asks, "What the hell are you?"
The alien repeats the question in garbled English before activating a self-destruct device while laughing maniacally.
Then, Dutch takes cover just before the device explodes, resulting in a mushroom cloud. He was picked up by his commander and Anna in the helicopter.
Behind the Scenes
Cancelled reappearances
Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally intended to reprise the role of Dutch in Predator 2 and the actor was supposedly close to signing up.
However, according to producer John Davis, a pay dispute amounting to $250,000 meant that the deal fell through and Schwarzenegger walked away from the project. The Dutch role was subsequently rewritten as Peter Keyes.
When Robert Rodriguez came to make Predators, he also intended to have Schwarzenegger reappear as Dutch, in the form of a cameo at the film's end after defeating Berserker, Royce and Isabelle sit bloodied and exhausted in the jungle when a Yautja ship lands nearby and a host of Predators emerge.
Too tired to fight, the survivors await their fate, but the Predators do not attack. Instead they split into two single-file lines flanking the doorway and through the gap in the center their leader emerges from the ship, his armor covered in trophies.
The leader would then remove his helmet, revealing it to be Dutch, who tells Royce, "Not bad, kid... Not bad at all." The scene was dropped due to Schwarzenegger being unavailable, but Rodriguez has mentioned a desire to include the sequence in any potential Predators sequel.
Trivia
- Dutch Schaefer actor Arnold Schwarzenegger played the titular Terminator in the Terminator franchise, the first two films of which were written and directed by Aliens director James Cameron
- In the novelization of Predator 2, Keyes mentions Dutch's "Olympian physique";[15] this is likely a humorous nod to Schwarzenegger, who won the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition seven times before becoming an actor.
- The 1994 arcade game Alien vs. Predator features a character named Dutch Schaefer as an homage to the character in the film. Additionally, Dutch Schafer in the game has a mechanical arm and is said to be a cyborg, likely a reference to Schwarzenegger's starring role in the Terminator series, particularly the second film which features a famous scene where Schwarzenegger strips the skin from his left arm, revealing the robotic structure beneath.
- The real-life goblin spider species Predatoroonops dutch is named after Dutch Schaefer; every member of the Predatoroonops genus has a name that references Predator, due to the perceived similarity between the spider's mouthparts and the Predator's mandibles.