Blain Cooper

"I ain't got time to bleed."

―Blain (from Predator)

Blain Cooper
Biographical Information
Rank	Sergeant
Affiliation	US Army (formerly) Alan Schaefer's private military team
Status	Deceased as of 1987
Physical Description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Height	6' 4"
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Blue
Other Information
Portrayed by	Jesse Ventura

Sergeant Blain Cooper was a member of Alan "Dutch" Schaefer's private military team, which was hired by the U.S. military and the CIA for a rescue mission in the Republic of Val Verde in 1987. 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 Val Verde. 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. 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. In 1980, Mac and Blain both joined the private military team that Dutch was setting up. As part of the unit, they saw operations in Angola, Cambodia, Lebanon and Afghanistan, and recently ended a terrorist siege at the Sudanese Embassy in Berlin, Germany.

Val Verde

"Payback time!"

―Blain, readying Old Painless (from Predator)

Like several members of Dutch's team, Blain immediately took a dislike to Dillon, whom he apparently viewed as unworthy of commanding Dutch on the ground. Blain was only too happy to make this dislike obvious.

Blain after being hit by the Predator's Plasma Caster.

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. 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. After initially missing with its Spear Gun, grazing Blain's shoulder, the Predator finished him off with its Plasma Caster, blowing a hole clean through Blain's chest.

Following his death, the remaining team members 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 Blain's body. This act was the first indication to the survivors that they were being hunted rather than simply eliminated. After reclaiming the corpse, the Jungle Hunter presumably removed Blain's skull as a trophy

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, like Dillon. He regularly chewed tobacco, which he apparently considered the secret to his (alleged) popularity with women; he would describe himself as a "God damn 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 his M134.

Blain wielded a Heckler & Koch MP5A3 submachine gun when he first landed in the jungle, but he soon switched to his handheld M134 Minigun, affectionately nicknamed "Old Painless" by the team. 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.

Trivia

• Blain actor Jesse Ventura also starred in the film Running Man alongside fellow Predator star Arnold Schwarzenegger, Predator 2 star Maria Conchita Alonso and Alien star Yaphet Kotto.
• Ventura was a real-life Navy SEAL before becoming an actor.
• With Predator, Ventura became the first actor ever to fire an M134 Minigun handheld. Several actors have since joined this statistic, including fellow Predator star Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Oleg Taktarov from Predators.
• 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.
• Several lines of Blain's dialogue later inspired the titles of trophies/achievements in the 2010 video game Aliens vs. Predator, including "World of Hurt" and "Ain't Got Time to Bleed".

Appearances

• Predator/novel (First Appearance)
• Predators (indirect mention)

Gallery