Back in the 80s, Arnold Schwarzenegger constituted nearly three-fourths of the tough guy roles in Hollywood. Whether it was wrecking his enemies in Conan or rescuing Mars in Total Recall, Arnold was the answer to any need of a character with huge biceps and difficult to understand dialogs. To be straightforward, his films were not much of a mystery. He didn’t delve into the dark matters of the heart, and his machine gun bursts never addressed the complex issues faced by humanity and their causes. Schwarzenegger movies were all about fireballs, machine guns, and face-altering punches and that is all about Schwarzenegger cult.
However, how would you feel if we tell you that there was a secret hidden in the narrative of Schwarzenegger? A secret that links two of his most iconic roles in what probably are two of his most renowned movies. What if you come to know that the lead character in Predator aka Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, was the template (Model 101) for the Terminator.
Dutch Made The Predator Kick The Bucket And Became Cyber-Immortal
By any cruel stroke of fate, if you are among the tribe that hasn’t seen Predator, then we can only feel sorry for your existence. Because never again will you get another shot at relishing events of the best story that Shakespeare didn’t write. It was in 1987 when the US military pushed team after team into the Val Verde jungle to “obtain some intel.” The real purpose of this top-secret mission was for the soldiers to “get killed by an unseen alien force.”
Now we are aware of that alien being a Predator, a master hunter with dreadlocks and a mouth which resembles a fusion of an Octopus with a bear trap. The thing is that the military lied to “Dutch” and his band of overexcited soldiers. They were aware of some mishappeningthat took place with the first team that went in. Dutch (Arnold) was a counter-terrorism specialist and an ex-army guy. He succeeded in the military’s test when at the end of the fight that put almost entire South America on the verge of extinction, he hunted the Predator.
Dutch was the answer to their prayers for an indestructible prototype cyborg.
And that is in fact, the answer to the question…
Where The Hell Did Dutch Go?
In the novel versions of Predator movies, there is an attempt to answer this query by stating that Dutch suffered from radiation poisoning and he had given an interview during his treatment. However, that’s nothing more than avoiding to answer the question. The Dark Horse Comics show Dutch’s brother on a mission to find out about Dutch’s fate. None of these are important because Dutch was never again seen in any sequel or spinoff film. If at all, he was referred to in the passing only. Therefore, when you see Dutch jumping onto that rotator bird at the end, you know that he is gone for good.
The nearest that we ever got to the actual answer was through an Aliens Vs. Predator arcade game (which was absolutely critical for the canon for more than one reasons, especially the concept of Aliens and Predators being complementary to each other like peanut butter and jelly). The game had a cyborg character called Major Dutch Schaefer. Wasn’t he the same Dutch that we all are familiar with?
Hmm..could be. The chest size is definitely correct and we all know how Schwarzenegger and “Major Dutch” are capable of smuggling air conditioning units in the chest cavity itself. However, we know that it is a cyborg developed to fight aliens. This means that once Dutch won the top medal in his fight with the Jungle Predator, he also won his ticket to become an immortal cyborg cast in metal. This suits the U.S. government too because it lends credence to the fact that they were involved in his creation. It is possible that the government had deliberately dispatched several teams of soldiers to feed the Predator in hopes of discovering the ideal template for their robot superhero.
Definitely possible.
The government managed OWLF (Other World Lifeforms Taskforce – agreed that it is a really crammed acronym) had spent years investigating the Predators, even before the Val Verde campaign and there is no way they didn’t find out that Predators cling to a particular target – the one that they find challenging enough for an existential fight. That’s why the government gladly let Dutch go after the battle. This also clarifies why he underwent treatment and then disappeared, only to be seen later as a destructive cyborg.
Now where does Cyberdyne Systems, the tech enterprise behind the Terminator thing, become a part of that brief description from the Alien Vs. Predator game? It is true that they were knee deep in some illegal stuff, but, Cyber Dutch? By the looks, we feel that the only thing that was needed to create Cyber Dutch was a round the clock gym training.
Still can’t figure out? Check out the serial number hidden away in the corner and expected to go unnoticed. “CDS-170A3”.
CDS is the short form for “Cyberdyne Systems.” Don’t jump the gun as we have solid explanation coming up.
We all remember that disgusting Alien Vs. Predator movie which we have all wished to forget and it nearly had a very different story. The film’s original script was much closer to this arcade game and that means the film was all set to feature a cyborg version of Dutch rounding up a few aliens. In fact, Schwarzenneger might have even been a part of the film if he hadn’t won that election.
Just in case you believe that those three letters mean nothing, go on reading because..
Everything is connected
It was clear by the time of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (Downfall Of The Franchise) that Cyberdyne Systems were neck deep in U.S. government and military associated project to make the Terminator. Various expanded universes also hint that they even undertook search and even tests to find the ideal soldier. The Terminator 2 novel and deleted scenes from Terminator 3 (Seriously, was there anything bad enough to be removed from that ghastly movie? Really?) depict two soldiers getting short-listed. (Dieter Von Rossbach and Sgt William Candy).
We saw William Candy only in a Terminator 3 video game easter egg whereas Rossbach featured in the T2 novels which were absolutely rejected by the movies. None of the two candidates were attractive as per canon as they were not given even the proper garbage value by their storylines. However, the important thing to note here is that the idea about U.S. military giving the specs for Terminator (Model 101).
Since all three franchises exist in the same universe, it was logical that a solider who had overcome a Hunter alien would be chosen for the task.
Technological Evolution Is Clear
From the timeline point of view, you can notice that the technology was slowly evolved from androids such as Cyber Dutch and the Terminator to much advanced robots such as Ash and Bishop from Aliens and Aliens.
Ash stated about the origins from Hyperdyne Systems, which is quite similar to Cyberdyne Systems. Since James Cameron wrote and directed Aliens and The Terminator, everything is very well linked. In an initial draft of the Aliens script, Paul Reiser’s Burke had clearly said “Cyberdyne Systems.”
Do you remember the serial code mentioned above – CDS – 170A3 – which was for Cyberdyne Systems 170A3 model aka Cyborg Dutch? There was a seriall code for Ash as well :Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 which in the same pattern as above would read out as HDS-120A2.
Three letters (the abbreviation of company’s name).
Followed by the number 1.
Followed by another number.
Followed by the number 0.
Then followed by the letter A.
And finally, one more single digit number.
Now look at everything put together:
CDS-170A3
HDS-120A2
Don’t even call it a coincidence. In the world of Cameron films, it is well acknowledged that Cyberdyne System later became Hyperdyne Systems. Irrespective of whether it was just a joke or something that was supposed to get a pivotal position in a future film, the truth is that those guys who nearly killed the world with their Terminators were inspired from the big guy who “ain’t got time to bleed.” No wonder Arnold would be smug!
