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"I ain't got time to bleed."
Blain (from Predator)

Sergeant Blain Cooper[4] was a mercenary and a member of Major "Dutch" Schaefer's private military team. In 1987, Schaefer's team was hired by the U.S. military and the CIA for a rescue mission in Guatemala. After discovering that their mission was a set-up to dupe them into eliminating the rebels in the area, Schaefer's squad came into contact with a Predator that stalked and killed the elite mercenaries one-by-one.

Blain acted as the team's heavy hitter, notably carrying a handheld M134 Minigun during the mission to Guatemala. He had served alongside his close friend Mac Eliot for many years before they both joined Dutch's team, and the two had developed a close friendship.

Biography[]

Vietnam[]

Blain and Mac served together during the Vietnam War as part of the 101st Airborne Division, including operations in Cambodia.[5] At one point, their platoon was ambushed south of Khe San and virtually wiped out, with everyone other than Blain and Mac being killed, although the two survivors walked out without a scratch.[6]

In 1980, Mac and Blain both joined the private military team that Dutch was setting up.[7] As part of the unit, they saw operations in Angola, Cambodia, Lebanon and Afghanistan,[8] and recently ended a terrorist siege at the Sudanese Embassy in Berlin, Germany.[9]

Guatemala[]

"Payback time!"
Blain, readying Old Painless (from Predator)

Like several members of Dutch's team, Blain took an immediate dislike to Dillon, whom he apparently deemed unworthy of commanding Dutch on the ground. Unlike other members, though, Blain was only too happy to make this dislike obvious.

After finding the skinned corpses of Jim Hopper and his squad, Blain readied his handheld Minigun for "payback", payback that he dished out in abundance when the team reached the guerrilla camp that was their objective.

Death and recapture[]

"You know, whoever got you, he'll come back again, and when he does... I'm gonna cut your name right into him. I'm gonna cut your name into him."
Mac, swearing vengeance to a deceased Blain (from Predator)
Blain's death

Blain after being hit by the Predator's Plasmacaster.

Following the destruction of the camp, Hawkins was killed by the Jungle Hunter as the team moved towards the extraction point. The others subsequently spread out to search for Hawkins' missing body and Blain became the hunter's next victim. The Predator critically injured Blaine by shooting him in the neck with a Speargun, before finishing him off with its Plasmacaster, blowing a hole clean through Blain's chest. The Predator then attempted to drag Blain's corpse away, but was thwarted by Mac, who fired upon the hunter and forced it to flee.

The remaining team members subsequently wrapped Blain's body in his poncho and took it with them. However, that night the Predator slipped through the mines and trip flares set up around the team's position and reclaimed the cadaver. This act was the first indication to the survivors that they were being hunted rather than simply eliminated. After recovering his corpse, the Jungle Hunter presumably skinned.

Personality and Traits[]

"Bunch of slack-jawed faggots around here. This stuff'll make you a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus, just like me."
Blain, when the others refuse his offer of chewing tobacco (from Predator)

Blain was a gruff, cocky mercenary, who had a habit of chewing tobacco and spewing profanities. While close to those who had earned his trust, anyone else was treated with open contempt, such as Dillon. He regularly chewed tobacco, which he apparently considered the secret to his (alleged) popularity with women; he would describe himself as a "goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus". Conversely, he described those, who did not indulge in this habit as "slack-jawed faggots".

Armed with his handheld Minigun, Blain was a virtual human tank and correspondingly he was fairly arrogant when it came to his perception of his abilities, as well as the abilities of the team as a whole. He also possessed a significant resistance to pain — during the attack on the guerrilla camp he was hit several times in the arm by bullets or shrapnel and continued with the attack completely unaffected.

Equipment[]

Blain armed with minigun

Blain armed with his M134.

Blain wielded a Heckler & Koch HK94A3 submachine gun when he first landed in the jungle, but he soon switched to his handheld GE M134 Minigun (affectionately nicknamed "Old Painless" by the team) for the shootout on the guerrilla camp. He also carried a large combat knife for the rare occasions where he would employ stealth over brute force, and no doubt helped to carry the team's large supply of M18A1 Claymores.

Quotes[]

  • Makes Cambodia look like Kansas.

Trivia[]

  • Blain actor Jesse Ventura was a real-life Navy SEAL before becoming an actor.[1]
  • In early drafts of the film's script, Blain was known as Williams.[10]
  • With Predator, Ventura became the first actor ever to fire an M134 Minigun handheld.[1] Several actors have since joined this statistic, including fellow Predator star Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Oleg Taktarov from Predators.
  • The custom handheld Minigun that Blain uses in the film was also used for the filming of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in which it was carried and fired by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Except, instead of the M60 foregrip from Predator (installed backwards beneath the barrel), it was replaced with a more comfortable chainsaw-like grip, that became the standard handling attachment for future film.
  • The real-life goblin spider species Predatoroonops blain is named after Blain Cooper; 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.[11]
  • Blain's famous line, "I ain't got time to bleed" also serves to foreshadow his eventual demise, as Dutch and Dillon notes that his fatal injury had been fused and cauterized by the Predator's Plasmacaster.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 John McTiernan, John Davis, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Shane Black, Stan WinstonIf It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: The Making of Predator (2004), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
  2. Blain's actor's (Jesse Ventura) height at the time was 6ft 3 ½ (191.8 cm), so that is also how tall Blain would have been.
  3. Jim Thomas, John Thomas (writers), John McTiernan (director). Predator (1987), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
  4. Paul Monette. Predator, p. 14 (1987), Jove Books.
  5. Paul Monette. Predator, p. 128 (1987), Jove Books.
  6. Paul Monette. Predator, p. 139 (1987), Jove Books.
  7. Paul Monette. Predator, p. 118 (1987), Jove Books.
  8. Paul Monette. Predator, p. 3 (1987), Jove Books.
  9. Paul Monette. Predator, p. 9 (1987), Jove Books.
  10. Hunter script (July 27, 1985 draft) by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
  11. Brescovit, Bonaldo, Santos, Ott & Rheims, 2012: The Brazilian goblin spiders of the new genus Predatoroonops (Araneae, Oonopidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, n. 370, pp. 1–68 (whole text).
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