John Schaefer

"Whoevers doing the killings, they've messed with my city, my subway system, and maybe, just maybe, my brother."

―John Schaefer (from Predator: Concrete Jungle)

Detective John Schaefer^[1] was a detective in the New York City Police Department and older brother to Alan "Dutch" Schaefer. He was a veteran of several run-ins with the Yautja species.

He later briefly joins Jaya Soames and her team of hunters in tracking down Predator activity on Earth and eliminating them.

Biography[]

Schaefer was an immigrant who was granted an American citizenship in 1975, joined the NYPD in 1978, and made Detective in 1986. He was fluent in English, French and Russian.^[2]

First Predator encounter[]

"They've been skinned. Half of them are Carr's men -- the rest are Lamb's. An equal opportunity massacre."

―Schaefer investigating the crime scene (from Predator: Concrete Jungle)

In the city of New York, Schaefer and his partner Rasche were called in to investigate a brutal crime scene. Upon entering the room, they are met with an abattoir of dead bodies and flayed corpses. A survivor, Carr, attacked the two and managed to escape. Police Captain McComb intervened and told Schaefer to stay out of the matter, as the scene was government-sealed.

Later, after involving himself in a similar crime scene at a subway, Schaefer was approached by General Homer Philips, who took him aside to a bar and discussed the disappearance of his brother Alan "Dutch" Schaefer. He subsequently adviced Dutch and Rasche to drop the case, revealing that the culprits were deadly killers from another world, and that if they were to be left peacefully, they would leave in their own time.

Detective Schaefer1 — Detective Schaefer comes face to face with a Predator.

Ignoring the general's advice, Schaefer and Rasche returned to the original crime scene, where Schaefer came face to face with a Predator. A brawl ensued, and Schaefer was tagged in the neck by a tracking-device-like object, before being kicked out of a building window, but not before being able to steal the creature's mask. John is hospitalized, with the excuse being that he had slipped. However, he was soon back on the job, determined to uncover the truth. He went to McComb's police department, and after a brief confrontation, McComb revealed that Phillips was "some kind of army free-lance."

PCJExplosion — Schaefer discovers the crater left behind by the Jungle Hunter.

Schaefer opted to travel to South America to investigate and confirm the links with the murders in the city to Dutch's disappearance. John hired a guide and re-traces to the remnants of Dutch's teams, eventually encountering a massive crater, the remnants of the Jungle Hunter's Self-Destruct Device.

War against the Yautja[]

PCJSchaefvPred — John presumably kills the Predator.

As Schaefer and the guide set up camp within the Jungle, he suddenly noticed that the hunter was nearby and a battle ensues. Though he was quickly overpowered by the Predator, he broke a salt-shaker into the creature's face, temporarily blinding it. Grabbing a branch, he smashed it against the hunter, causing it to plummet from a cliff and impaled by a branch.

Schaefer's guide revealed himself to be a mole, and contacted General Phillips on the matter. He held John at gunpoint, before being shot and killed by local members of the Columbian drug cartel, whose boss, Eschevera, wants Schaefer dead. Schaefer was held hostage by Eschevera and his men, and just as they were ready to brutally kill him, he escaped just before a Predator raid is launched on the compound. He was later saved by General Phillips, who noted that the only thing the aliems cared about currently was finding John. As such, Phillips intended on using John as a bargaining chip with the Predators for peace in New York. However, Schaefer managed to knock Philips unconscious and held the helicopter pilot at gunpoint, taking them to the Pan Am building, where he was reunited with Rasche.

PHSchaeferdefeat — Schaefer is defeated and the Predators are victorious.

The two traveled to where Carr resides with the intention of requesting his assistance, though Carr is initially hostile, their fight is interrupted when a Predator appears behind them and attacks the two, though they are saved when Rasche kills the Predator with a bazooka. The three used the previously acquired bio-mask and witness several cloaked Predator ships destroying the city. Carr manages to recruit several gang members in the fight, and the group partake in an all-out war against the Predators in the city-streets, with Phillips and his men soon joining in on the fight. Though they had initial trouble locating the cloaked hunters, Schaefer informed everyone to shoot the nearby fire-hydrants, causing water to spray everywhere and uncloaking their enemies, giving them an edge. However, the humans were eventually overpowered and near defeat. However, a thunderstorm approaches. Realizing that "hunting season" was over and that there was no more sport to be had in the city, the Predators called off their attack, returning to their ships and retreating from New York.

Conflict in Siberia[]

"You seem to share a special understanding of these creatures."
"Enough to know there's something wrong about their being here. They don't care much for the cold. I should know -- last time we 'met', the only thing that saved my ass was a half-inch of summer rain. Besides, if they really wanted us dead, we'd have been hanging from the yardarms hours ago."

―Valentina Ligachev and Schaefer (from Predator: Cold War)

PCWSchaefandLig — Schaefer and Ligachev discuss matters.

A year later, Schaefer was approached by representative for General Phillips, Smithers, who requestd his assistance alongside the general in investigating an unknown object that crashed in the remote wastelands of Siberia. John declined and instead took part in a subsequent drug bust against female dealer Baby. However, the bust went awry, resulting in Schaefer being saved by Smithers and his men, and then subsequently tranquilized by them. He awakened in a helicopter with Philips, realizing he has been press-ganged into joining the mission. Phillips bargained with John that if he cooperates, he would do anything he can to uncover information on his brother.

The team was inserted into Russia aboard a modified B-2 stealth bomber; upon reaching the pumping station near the crash site, they discover its occupants have been slaughtered by Predators. They eventually encountered Russian reinforcements led by Lieutenant Ligachev. Taking an interest in Schaefer's past encounter with the Yautja, Ligachev began questioning him while the rest of his team were detained. Ligachev ultimately elected to go to the Predator ship alone and destroy it as revenge for her massacred soldiers, with Schaefer accompanying her. They find the vessel lying in a deep ravine, but were attacked before they can reach it by Ligachev's ambitious subordinate Yashin and the other Russians, who now had orders to preserve the crash site so that it could be stripped of useful technology. The firefight was interrupted by a Predator, which quickly slaughtered Yashin and his men. Scahefer was overpowered by the Predator, but Ligachev saved him by opening fire point-blank on the creature, killing it.

PCWSchaefandLig2 — Schaefer and Ligachev discover a Predator ship in Siberia.

Continuing on, the pair located the crashed ship and headed inside, planning to destroy it with a C4 charge. Before they could set the bomb, they were attacked by more Predators, killing two before being forced back outside, where they were apprehended by Philips and the Americans, who have once again escaped their captors at the pumping station. Philips ordered Schaefer and Ligacheva to be killed when they refuse to cooperate, whilst allowing the remaining Predator to escape back to its ship, but they were saved by Rasche, who arrived with a much bigger force of Russians.

Ligachev was prevented from destroying the ship by her superiors, but when the now-repaired vessel began to lift off, she kicked the bomb into the open hatch, destroying the craft shortly before it could reach orbit. Though she was faced with dishonourable discharge and imprisonment for her actions, Schaefer suggests that the entire incident would be best buried. Schaefer subsequently suggested that she would have made a great member of the NYPD.

Return to South America[]

"I was back in beautiful South America. The very thought conjured up visions of Rio, thong bikinis and suntan lotion. But for some reason, I wasn't getting that sense of romance this trip."

―Schaefer (from Predator: Dark River)

PDRSchaef3 — Schaefer takes Mercer hostage.

On October 10th, 1995, Schaefer was involved in a drug bust with new partner Detective Brad whom he is not particularly fond of. One of the cartel members who Schaefer had arrested, Mercer, attests that he could give him a link to his brother's whereabouts. He details that he was approached in a local South American shantytown, by General Philips, who was in need of a pilot. It is revealed that he was the pilot that rescued Dutch following his battle with the Jungle Hunter.

Dutch was rescued but was gravely infected with an Alien disease. Philips ultimately decided to abandon Dutch and left him in the same jungle where he had retrieved him. John subsequently takes the pilot hostage and leaves the police station. Donning fake IDs, the two board a plane to South America. After, a nightmare involving a Predator attack on the aircraft, the two set foot on unspecified South American soil, only for Schaefer to be immediately knocked unconscious by a soldier. He awakens in the president of the country's penthouse. There, he is escorted by the "El Presidente" himself, who reveals that he has taken a hostage, a woman named Lopez who was a previous escort to a US squad in the region that had been wiped out by a Predator. The president showed John camcorder footage taken from previous American emissaries that Lopez had previously taken. In it, it was revealed that the first Predator that Schaefer had presumably killed had in-fact survived his impalement, and subsequently went on a bloodthirsty rampage within the jungles, indiscriminately killing all it encountered, save for the indigenous locals. The president subsequently threatened John to hunt down and kill the 'Devil', lest he be killed. John, the pilot and Lopez had tracking devices attached to them and are then forced into a military truck, where they were to be deposed into the jungle - if one of them was to flee, they would be tracked down and killed. Suddenly, a random attack from a local renegade militia allowed the three to escape, and hijack a tugboat.

Battle against an old enemy[]

"The other expeditions would have expected the creature to follow the logic of past encounters. But this one was alone. Maybe it had been left for dead, or simply forgotten. I had the feeling it didn't even know anymore."

―Schaefer referring to the 'Devil' (from Predator: Dark River)

During the voyage, Lopez revealed that Mercer was likely fabricating his story about saving Schaefer, as there was no shantytown in the region he described, only a military camp. John burst into the cabin and assaulted Mercer for lying, but shortly afterward, the boat was attacked by the natives of the jungle, alongside the Devil. A battle ensued, and John was brutally ravaged by his old enemy. Before he was finished off, Lopez fired a flare into the Predator's face, causing it to howl in pain and fire its Plasmacaster in every direction, destroying the tugboat. The two escaped down a waterfall whilst Mercer was taken by the natives.

PDRSchaeferwound — Schaefer has his arrow wound treated by Lopez.

Several days go by as John and Lopez followed Mercer's tracker. They were soon after attacked by the natives, and John was hit in the arm with a poisoned arrow. Lopez treated the wound by deepening the cut with a knife to "bleed off the residue" and allowed Schaefer to rest, the latter slowly falling into unconciousness. Schaefer woke up several hours later at nightfall, with Lopez gone. Hazy, he explored further into the depths of the jungle, only to discover a horrific ritual conducted by the Devil and the natives, where the Predator was brutally torturing captured wildlife. Mercer was also there, both his legs bisected, and Schaefer sneaked in and attempted to rescue him.

PDRSchaefvPred — Schaefer battles an old enemy.

Mercer confessed that he was never a pilot, nor had he met Dutch. Instead, he was bribed by Philips to lure John into the jungle once again to observe the results between him and the Predator. The creature subsequently noticed their escape attempt, striked John away and brutally killed Mercer by plunging its Wristblades into him. John retreated to acquire US military contraband and wounded the Devil using an acquired rocket-launcher. In response, it launched John into a nearby shack, finding Lopez tied up. The Predator eventually overwhelmed John and knocked the tracker off his leg. He is saved by Lopez who shoots it with a pistol, and the two retreated, but not before attaching the tracker to the Predator.

The two escape, and before the Predator gave chase, one of El Presidente's fighter jets emerges. With the tracker now on the hunter, the jet mistakes it for John, gunning it down and finishing the job by dropping a missile on the creature, finally killing it.

John and Lopez later returned to the US and track down Philip's whereabouts. The two hold him at gunpoint, and Schaefer took him into a nearby forest before threatening him on the location of his brother.

Capture by the Yautja[]

John Schaefer 2068 — Schaefer in 2068.^[3]

Prior to 2068, john was capture by the Yautja and taken to Mabou.^[3]

Personality and Traits[]

"Schaefe was one tough hombre, in his condition i'd have been sipping scotch broth and dozing through "high chaparral" reruns. He just wanted to get back to work."

―Rasche on John after his first encounter with a Predator (from Predator: Concrete Jungle)

John was just as tough and hardened as his younger brother was, if not perhaps even more so. John carried an aura of austerity to him, and he did not take kindly to orders from those he disliked. He was also, like Dutch, a wise-cracker in serious situations and was not above making sarcastic remarks in situations his peers deemed serious, something that irritated them to no end. However, a commendable feature of John's was his sheer determination, never allowing injuries to interfere with his goals. He was especially driven to fight back against the invading Predator force in New York, in spite of General Phillips and Captain McComb's unsuccessful attempts to keep the events covert. He was also largely fearless, and frequently engaged in head-to-head brawls with the Predators he encountered.

Schaefer soon became a hardened veteran of Predator encounters, and he would see himself returning multiple times to fight the hunters on several occasions, at one point facing off once again against the first Predator he killed in the jungles of South America.

John was largely dedicated to locating the whereabouts of his younger brother, who had disappeared following his confrontation with the Jungle Hunter.

Trivia[]

Schaefer has been the lead character in three Predator comics miniseries, including the first ever Predator comic, Predator: Concrete Jungle. He then returned in the sequel series Predator: Cold War (1990), and Predator: Dark River (1996), before coming back roughly 20 years later in Predator: Hunters III.
- This makes Schaefer one of only two Predator comic characters to appear as a lead in more than one Predator story, the other being Corporal Enoch Nakai.
Throughout the majority of his appearances, Schaefer's first name was never revealed. In fact, it was not until the second issue of Hunters III, published more than 30 years after the character's first appearance, was his name revealed.