Aside from a handful of customary call-backs â some of which are gleefully dreadful â and Alan Silvestriâs largely recycled score, Predator 2 is comfortable doing its own thing. Itâs more plot-heavy, less subtle and happy to play almost all of its cards at once. Here, the titular monster is less a takedown of toxic masculinity and more a metaphor for the consequences of societyâs endemic violence. The year is 1997 (technically the future, since the film was released in 1990). Global warming means that Los Angeles is in the midst of a heatwave, and there is a brutal drug war going on that sucks the city down with it. The hot temperatures and the heat of battle draw the predator in. First the predator goes after the drug gangs, then the police and then finally the public, attacking a subway train full of armed civilians. In search of more trophies, he is a harbinger of death to those living in a society saturated by lawlessness and bloodshed. Much like other cu