If you’ve ever seen the movie Predator, you’ll have seen Arnie and his group of chums slogging through the jungle fighting off an alien life form that’s hell-bent on removing their skulls from their bodies. You may, in particular, remember that the Predator tracked everyone down in the movie by using thermal imaging, allowing it to detect the thermal signature of its prey even in the densely populated jungle.

Now imagine you’re in the same situation. How do you hide yourself from an alien that can see you no matter where you are? There are a few ways, but not many of them are particularly practical!

1:  Mud Yourself Up

In the film’s exceptionally epic showdown where Arnie realised the Predator can see using thermal imaging, our hero decided to slather himself entirely in mud, with the aim of blocking his thermal signature from being seen by the Predator.

On paper, it sounds like an effective method, but does it work?

No, no it doesn’t.

Well, technically it does, but the mud slathered all over your body would have to be absolutely freezing cold to have any kind of prolonged effect. Mud at normal temperature slathered all over human skin would rapidly take on the body heat of the human it encases, making it ineffective extremely quickly.

You’d also have to make sure your body was absolutely covered. Any patches not covered on your body would instantly show your thermal signature, and that’s the last thing you want when being stalked by a psychopathic, unstoppable, 7-foot tall alien with a big sword and shoulder-mounted laser cannon.

So in other words, if you’re about to be attacked by a Predator, don’t slather yourself in mud and expect not to be seen.  Mud is great for hiding in the mud from normal people, but not from those pesky Predators (and any thermal imaging cameras in general).

2: Use the Natural Environment to Your Advantage

If there’s one thing Arnie had great access to in Predator, it’d be the natural environment. The guy was running around in a jungle after all.

One of the simplest things Arnie could have done during the daytime to hide from the Predator would be to hide near rocks, with one that’s been out in the sun being perfect.  As the rock has had the sun’s rays shining on it all day it has gradually been heating up, meaning that hiding yourself against it would confuse a thermal imaging camera because the two types of heat (both of the rock and the body temperature) would blend together slightly.

Admittedly it’s not an ideal scenario and one that could easily go wrong, but it’s a quick method that could be employed to fight against a thermal imaging camera.

In more urban environments, heat from cars, buildings and other sources can also help to mask your thermal signature.

You may also recall that in the movie’s climax, Arnie also used fire to confuse the Predator’s vision. This is an effective method as moving flaming objects like sticks or a large fire would throw a thermal camera off significantly.

3: Make Yourself Inhuman

Can you spot the human?

By using the basics of natural camouflage it could also be possible to hide yourself from a thermal imaging camera.

Covering your body in sticks, foliage and anything else to hand can break up your thermal image, making you appear much less human shaped than if you just stood there. For extra effect it would be a good idea to lie on the floor in an unusual position, then distribute the camouflage all around yourself to make you blend in effectively with the floor and look like nothing of interest.

Since thermal cameras use infrared radiation rather than natural light to detect humans, this would effectively confuse the thermal camera into believing there’s no-one there, and is a great way to hide from pesky Predators in the tree tops.

4: Hide Behind Glass

Although glass is generally in short supply in the jungle and most people don’t tend to carry around massive sheets of glass with them anyway, you can actually use a large pane of glass to hide from a thermal imaging camera.

This was proven to be true by the programme Mythbusters, who finally managed to fool a thermal security system by walking towards it with a large pane of glass attached to a handle.

This shield essentially filters infrared beams before they reach the thermal camera, allowing you to effectively disguise yourself as there’s no thermal signature to be detected.

If you do find yourself in the jungle and you’re being hunted by aliens, make sure you find the nearest pane of glass. I believe they grow on glass trees.

Conclusion

It’s pretty hard to hide from a thermal camera, but it can be done!

If all else fails, do like Arnie says and: