Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up in the jungles of Mexico with almost an entire gym to shoot the film Predator in 1986. The cast of Predator allegedly had to follow a military training routine that started at 6 AM every morning.

But Schwarzenegger had his own setup and commandeered a section of the hotel, set up his weights. This routine was not something others could ignore.

Carl Weathers, who played Colonel Al Dillon in the movie, was the first to take the bait. "This guy's got the biggest arms in the world. Now I got to kind of beef up here," Weathers recalled. "Arnold's got the gym, and he's going down at like 4:30 to work out every day before we go shoot.

"So I'm gonna get up a little early. I go in at 4. Well, I find out later that Arnold starts going in at 3:30. I'm going, this is insane, this can't go on."

Already a former NFL linebacker with an athletic career behind him, Weathers wasn't about to be outworked on screen or off it.

So Weathers switched tactics. "I won't get up early, but I'll go downstairs after we come back in the evening — I'll go run the hill, which is three and a half miles down and three and a half miles back up," he said.

"One day, I'm running up the hill, and here comes Arnold driving by. Because he comes in later than I, the next day, Arnold is out running the hill."

Weathers' solution was simple. Wait by the hill, watch Arnold drive past, then go back to bed.

But the gym wars on the Predator set didn't stop with Weathers. Arnold had another co-star in his sights, and this one would cost Jesse Ventura a bottle of champagne.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Most Competitive Man On the Predator set, and everyone paid for it

Jesse Ventura, the man who delivered the Predator’s most iconic line, “I ain’t got time to bleed,” was an ex-Navy SEAL, a WWF wrestler, and one of the most physically imposing actors on set.

Ventura felt confident after knowing that his arms measured an inch bigger than Mr. Olympia's; what he was unaware of was that Arnold Schwarzenegger had orchestrated the whole thing.

It was Arnie who tipped off the wardrobe department in advance.

When Ventura proposed they measure up and bet a bottle of champagne on the result, the Austrian Oak agreed without hesitation. Schwarzenegger's arms came out three inches bigger. Ventura lost the bet and the pride that came with it.

"My joke worked," Arnold later said.

What do you think of Schwarzenegger's competitive nature?

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Written by

Proma Chatterjee

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil