Yautja Fest - The Predator (2018)

Weird way.

Preach we can kill it.

Good time.

Shouting out their way us. What the hell are you.

Welcome back midnight viewers too?

Yeah?

Oocha fest Oh my god, we're nearing the end of the road, aren't we?

Hp Where the end? The finish line is in sight? Fa them Malone. I'm so excited.

This is the end of one era of the Predator, and now we've got a whole new sort of not reboot necessarily, but a whole new creative direction going. Anyway, what are we talking about today? We aren't talking about the Predator.

Do you know what my job description is. I'm in acquisitions. I look up and I catch what falls out of the sky.

What's on the ship?

Tell me about the mission?

Did you see anything unusual?

It's above our vague work. I get a cookie.

Now, look, I get it. Something went down in Mexico. Nobody wants any witnesses.

We need to know if you can your man pose a threat? We're rangers, Backsley.

If your mom's vagina were a video game to be rated e for everyone.

Isn't posing a threat? Kind of the fucking point?

Credators just don't sit around making hats out of rib cages the conquered space. But that's not what's.

On the horizon.

Sure, I'd be worried, Roy, I think you know what is on the ship, The Ultimate Predators.

We may die, we're still here, so come and get us.

Motherfucker. That time modifier counts. This is the actual Predator. This was released on September sixth, twenty eighteen. Actually this was released on September the fourteenth, twenty eighteen. Written by Fred Decker and Shane Black. Black and Decker their second collaboration together, third technically, although they they're most famously known for writing The Monster Squad. Together was also directed by

Was it is?

This is officially you were talking about we're graduating to this next era of the Predator franchise. This was I'm graduating because this is my last Predator movie that I had not yet seen, so that was pretty exciting for me. So, yes, it was my first time seeing it.

What'd you think, a.

Lot of mixed feelings on this one, Father Malone. There's quite a bit that's problematic, and ultimately I not to bury the lead, but I'm not sure this thing hangs together fully as a as a cinematic experience. There are moments that I really enjoyed. There's moments that I didn't. There's moments that I wondered what Shane Black was thinking. But I will say this, I was pretty much always entertained.

This movie moves.

It's my second favorite Predator movie. That's what I discovered this time. This is probably my third time watching it so in the theater when it came out after long delays. Everyone this movie was delayed an entire year. I wonder what could have been happening during that entire year. Was just sitting on a shelf or maybe did they reshoot the entire last third of the movie. I think it was the last part. HP What was the story that

The story of the movie in a nutshell?

So some plot?

Okay, so we have yet it? Is there a plot? There is a plot?

Is there are several There's.

A lot going on, and frankly, there are times where it felt less like a Predator movie and more like a kind of misfit army vehicle where they have to band together and that has its own charms. But anyway, the story of this movie, we have another, yet another predator that's being chased to Earth by a larger predatorship for reasons that will become clear later on. It crashes on Earth and a sniper, an army sniper who's in the middle of a hostage recovery, witnesses this engages the predator.

Years and years and years.

They take ownership of this predator that has survived the crash, all of his equipment. They send the sniper off. Basically, they put him on ice. They send him to the looney bin for lack of a better term, with a bunch of other misfit soldiers that have various forms of PTSD and other mental health issues. While this is all happening, the sniper has sent the predators helmets and risk gauntlet to his son so he can have evidence that he indeed,

They have their own predator.

They bring in Olivia Munn's scientist biologist to come and help them study the predator. Things go wry, the predator escapes.

This is so interesting. What happens next?

It's hijinks happen. Next there's the father.

The sniper is trying to get back to his son to you know, to because he knows the predator is tracking this these artifacts and trying to get to his house to get his helmet back. Because apparently their own equipment is very, very important to the predators.

They man, do not touch a predator's fucking armor.

Man, don't do it.

Don't ever borrow it, because they won't, you know, it's bad news.

So they're trying to don't spit into the wind.

Won't spit into the wind.

Step on no, don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger.

But most of all, yeah, don't touch predators, fucking dreadlocks.

And don't mess around with Jim. But that's a story for another day.

Jim Thomas, Jim Varney.

I think.

So there's so these misfit, lunatic soldiers are trying to help the guy save his son. The government agency is on is tracking them, trying to get this predator tech back. It's there's a lot of pursuit, a lot of gunplay, not as much Predator as I would like. But again, at times it's not such a bad thing because Shane Black is, as you said, he's a great screenwriter. He knows how to write an entertaining screenplay, so I didn't

Did you have any of those same thoughts for.

The mom I had all of those thoughts. Yeah, this feels like several action movies playing at once. It can't really settle on which story is the most important, so it just tries to tell us all of them equally, thus satisfying none of our needs. Overall, I like the story of the soldier trying to get home to his kid and stranged wife because there's something he's done is going to be visited an evil response to that, like the Predator's going to come hunt them down, so now

I think part of it for me that the secret weapon of this movie is for the most part, and I stress that for the most part, this movie has cast really well. I love Sterling K. Brown as Traeger. He's the leader of this team that's been studying the predator, and he's so no bullshit and charming at times and scary at times, ruthless. He's so effortlessly good. And the team of the lunatic misfit so soldiers is also really

And I always count on the punisher, but when he shows up, you can definitely count on him, even if he has to Rett syndrome. Sterling K. Brown should be Blade, I haven't.

I've never thought of him in that role. I mean, I kind of made my peace with mahrscha la Ali. I think he still would have been very good.

You know why everyone's settled them mahershal Ali as Blade. He's stoic and we now think of Blade as a stomic character. Is Blade a stoic character? I mean he was in that comic book adaptation in the nineties, certainly, but not the comic book character I read. He's pretty gregarious at times, He's very Sterling K. Brown. Also, he's English. Everyone should know. Does anyone know that Blade is an English character? He's from English.

I didn't know that. I never read Blade.

I have Tomb of Dracula number one hanging on my wall right here with the first appearance of Blade of a sight. So yeah, I think Sterie K. Brown would be a fantastic thing. But let's talk about some of the other lunatics here Alfie Allen inexplicably Irish part of the American army.

That was a little odd, and to be perfectly honest, he's the one that featured the least because I think they he didn't get saddled with a very distinct marker. Like you said, Thomas Jane has Turette's Keagan Michael Keys is always making jokes. He's funny and a little crazy. There's Nebraska, who is a chainsmoker and very laconic cool. The Irish guy, the Irish member of this team, as you said, inexplicable. I wish they gave him more to do, but he just he's just kind of there.

What's funny to me is I remember thinking that as part of the too many plots, that we didn't really get to know anybody, and I was disabused of that rewatching at this time. This is the first time in any of the Predator movies where we've stopped to get to know the characters, and it's been interesting and I

But that works for the very first one though, because.

That's all we needed.

Then.

I'm just saying, yeah, the same amount of time, the same amount of storytelling, and yet like this is actually like a step above as far as the writing goes as first what every Predator movie has been attempting to do since then, which is that we have to get used to a whole new human team and follow them as in their travails against the Predator or Predator and alien combo. And this is the first time that I've thought, like, I like everyone here, I'm comfortable with these characters.

Well, this is definitely the first Predator that had so much humor in it. There might have been funny moments in the first one and certainly the last one Predators, there's a few funny moments. It's mostly played pretty stoically, but this one, I would also I'm almost ventured to say that the humor kind of outweighs the grimness. I mean, there's a lot of death and maiming and destruction.

In this that is what it is.

But sometimes to the film's detriment. I think it's played a little bit too much for laughs.

I totally agree with that. It is definitely the funniest of any of the Predator movies. But that's a guarantee. When Shane Black is writing the script. You might come up with plot inconsistencies, you might have problems overall with structure or something, but you are never going to find a more quotable, funnier film than his like Lethal Weapon, Long Kiss, good Night, Last Boy, Scout, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bank. They're all fucking bangers man.

Agreed. Agreed to your point.

But to your point, yes, there are some scenes where there should be some tension, but there is zero tension because everyone is making jokes, and there are plenty of times where they're joking around. Is more than necessary as an escape valve and then as just a getting to know these folks kind of thing, but maybe not when they're being attacked by Predator dogs.

Yeah, and kudos also for making the team of lunatics. They're all pretty good guys. I was prepared for it to be more like, you know, some of these guys maybe are a little dark around the edges, because at a certain point in the movie they essentially rescue Olivia Munn's biologist character. We'll talk about her and their character in a minute. And I was very prepared for it to be a little bit iffy because these are you know, these are red blooded soldiers who have a screw loose.

I will say this, I think Shane Black fell in love with these characters because I mean, we'll spoilers everybody you know that I need to say that with this fucking show. But by the end we lose them. But he's very precious about it. He doesn't. He waits until he absolutely has to start kicking them lose. Before he starts doing that, he keeps these guys inlive way too long. I mean, I'm not complaining. I think we needed more of them. I think they should have been front loaded in.

He does, and he's also not he's not unwilling to. I mean, a lot of them die very heroically, and I think that's to your point. I think it's because he loves these characters so much he wants to give them that heroic ending. But at the same time, he's Shane Black is also not afraid to just have a guy die for no good reason. Just you know, there's to skip ahead a little bit. One of the characters.

He's the pilot.

Okay, he really dies for no good reason that he's on top of an alien ship. The shields power up and his legs are effectively cut off by the shields forming around his legs, and he just falls off the ship and he dies. I don't know why, but I kind of dug the fact that they didn't. He didn't feel the need to give this this particular character a grace. Note he just died for no good reason, and he falls off the ship and that's it. He doesn't do anything heroic.

I don't know why, but I.

Think we've grown to expect these guys to get a nice tag, and a lot of them certainly do.

But as useless as that death is, and I agree with you, like he is not afraid to have someone die in an glorified manner. But when's the last time you saw a force field turn on and cut a guy's legs off?

It was pretty amazing, actually was you know, my jaw was kind of left slack, and like, that is a really inventive way to kill somebody off in a movie. And another character has kind of, you know, flattened himself on the ship, so the force field is effectively above him and he's kind of trapped in this you know, two foot gap between the ship and the very Some of the stuff is very creative.

CG.

Might be a little dodgy at times, as you would expect from a movie that's effectively almost ten years old now, but pretty inventive and pretty creative at times.

The cig in that scene in particular was dodgy because that is that part of the movie that had to be rejiggered there at the end. Yes, I that's part of the movie that to be recombined there at the end. I do not like the word rejiggered.

Yeah, recombined, I re Yeah, that's it seems it sounds problematic, even though I know it's not the other thing that I did a little research, and apparently he was. Shane Black is very cognizant of maybe have because this is an R rated movie, I believe, but he wanted to have the option. It is, but he wanted to have

Oh, that's exactly what happened. There are there were markets with this movie was essentially a page without being a PG thirteen was a PG thirteen.

But makes sense.

But this is when we watched Alien Versus Predator Requiem, we noted how mean spirited the death seemed. These deaths are way meaner and way more island, and yet did not somehow seem exploitative. How is that possible.

Because I think for the most part, you're right, there's an awful lot of maiming and destruction in very creative and violent ways. I don't know, I didn't really get this sense because a lot of the deaths in Requiem I think they read as harsh because these are flat out innocents in a lot of cases. Case in point, at very beginning, the hunter and his son get face hugged and a chest You know, that's pretty awful to have a child watch his own father die from a chest burster.

To me, if that's cruel in this.

There are I guess you can't. You know, it's not especially cruel, But I don't know. It felt like most everybody who had it coming got it particularly bad here, And that's maybe why I didn't have as much of a problem with it, because it mostly seemed, and I'm doing air quotes, justified this universe.

So do you think one of the three guards that is guarding that one of the three guards that's looking after Ivan Strahovsky when the ultra predator, when the super Predator arrives, you think that guy deserved being basically slit in half with the predator's knife and then there was basically a fountain of blood that poured down into the basement through which he had just broken through the floor or the ceiling.

Well, I mean, not to get all clerks on you, but I don't think he deserves it any less than a stormtrooper on the Death Star when it was destroyed. I mean, he's part of the enemy. He's holding this woman against her will for nefarious purposes. And we've seen Sterling Brown's characters not afraid to just say take them out, So you know that these soldiers are prepared to go

Excellent point. These guys will kill anyone on command, so they deserve what they get. Plus, look, man, I'm being Devil's ad good. I loved all the violence in this movie.

It was gratuitous and requiem. That's my problem with it because we talked about the scene in the hospital where there's a pregnant woman who gets impregnated multiple times by the pread alien hybrid. That just that to me is gratuitous because it's she's a complete innocent in all of this, whereas a soldier who has the potential to wipe out a family at a moment's order, I don't feel as bad.

He goes out on Halloween.

He's got the Predator's mask taped to his face. It's cartoonishly big on him, and.

He's got the risk off scene.

It's a really good.

Scene, and the bullies are just about ready to pounce on him and they're making fun of him. This little boy, Jacob Trembley's character goes to a house to trick a treat. They never answer, and this jerk up in the balcony.

The punk kid like in his early twenties, like you can tell him, this scumbag.

Like like a hesher kind of goes, I'll give you a trick, a treat or something, and he throws like a can or something at the kid and it doinks off of the helmet, and the tech is set to like automatically send a shot back when it gets hit. So this cannon pops out of it, shoots the guy like this hasher who has no idea what's happening, kills him, blows up the whole house, and the bullies are just.

Like, what is going on?

So it's kind of a nice Yeah, you know, this kid gave it to the bullies, but at the same time, he just he killed at least he least one innocent maybe a full house full of innocence.

Not his fault, but it happened.

The Predator is effectively at fault there because his tech is a little too good.

Defensively, it is it is, and I like they have little touches, they're always. The one thing you can say

There are gauntlets in this movie where those are new. The predator, what he's after is his helmet or his face plate really and one of his one of his two gauntlets. He has the right one, but Boyd Holbrit puts the other one on at the beginning and then is attacked by a predator and then the gauntlet defends him by shooting out a little disc that actually wounds the predator.

Yeah, and that's the predator that is taken away by this strike team and is being studied.

Let's talk predators second, because I know you've been super critical of every Predator performance since Kevin Williamson. What did you think of this fella?

Uh, the one there's two predators, I guess as a whole.

No, no, no, there is an actor and then there's a fucking cartoon. I'm talking about the actor.

Okay, he was fine, He read a little bit more TV wrestler to me. He didn't again, I'm gonna be.

More crowd man, I am.

But I really think Kevin Peter Hall was Kevin Williams. You said Kevin Williamson. I was wondering about that.

I was like the guy who wrote scream? Did he?

Oh? You remember him in the second Predator movie. He's only in the ship at the end.

Though, look, there's three rules to a Predator movie. Not anyway, he was good.

He was good.

I think he was a little more pro wrestler than lithe killing machine. And they do some weird things with the Predator. This isn't necessarily related to his performance. So maybe I'll leave it there and we can move in a minute.

But he was fine. He was fine.

I didn't think that he was the best performance of a Predator that I've seen. That honor still goes to Kevin Peter Hall. Rip, what did you think of his performance? You're looking at me like, are you crazy?

No, I'm not. I don't think you're crazy, because obviously Kevin Peter Hall's performance is just fucking fantastic. He is the Predator. I mean, that's what we think of when we think of a Predator. But I mean, can I just say that I think this predator's better? I like this Predator?

Yeah, yeah, No, he's fine.

I think I think he's moving in a much more lithe way, in a much more professional way than before. There are some shots here. I know that look, there's a there's a ton of fucking CGI in this movie, but there's a lot of practical stuff, just down to little things like there's a rooftop chase where Olivia Munn

Best we've seen since. I will grant you that with the proviso that there's still more Predator to come in the franchise, which we'll get to when we get to it. But yes, I will agree to that, and he's the best since Predator too effectively.

Yay win for me. I hunted that one down. I like the fact that at one point during the several times in the movie, they point out the fact that predator is actually the wrong name for what he's doing. They should be calling him a hunter. A predator is just hunting for food.

Yeah, that was kind of funny actually, and I guess that was that grew out of a real discussion that they had on set about the editor. But that is and that's but that's something that not many actors can sell.

But Sterling K.

Brown, who I mean, they bring up this argument several times. But when they're in the lab and that the biologist Olivia mun says, yeah, that sounds more like a hunter, like a game hunter, not like a predator.

Predator only hunts to survive.

And Sterling Brown is the one who's who basically says, now, we had a vote on it and we agreed.

Predator school, right guys, right guys. School.

He has I use the word before. He has an effortless smoothness about it.

This is a very funny, it is.

But he's so he really is kind of for me, he's one of the aces in the hole of this movie because he's so charismatic and you buy him being somebody who could lead this team and seem because there's scenes where he has to be super charming because he's trying to cajole this boy into helping him unlock the alien tech. You've got to buy that part of him that he can get down to a boy's level and

You know that's it.

He I buy him in both senses, and he's just so good and he's so funny too.

Talk about ruthless. At the end of the movie, boyd Holbrook has a gun on him and he has Jake and Trembley at his side, and Sterling came Brown, instead of telling his men to put his guns down, tell says, man, I'm going to count back from ten, at which point shoot out the child's kneecap.

It's really good.

Because we've been trained in every one of these movies where somebody's being held at gunpoint, like tell them to put their guns down, they're like, you know, against their will, they're like, all right, you'll lower your guns. But that's not what he does at all. He threatens the guy's son right in front of him.

I'm shaying Blake so much.

Man's so it's so good. It's really that part of it.

It's like really good, I which makes it all the more upsetting. Father alone, the way they took out Trager, obviously we're there's this is a no, this is a spoiler zone here now. To be honest, I practically blinked and missed the moment that Trager got killed. I had to go back and like rewatch the scene, like what happened to him.

It is certainly a chaotic scene, isn't.

It It is?

So can we go into that a little bit just to give people context. Let's so, it's they effectively, after this standoff between Trager and McKenna, they effectively joined forces for the moment to try and take the predator out. They realize that they're better off together than individually. So they've made a truce and they're walking through these woods and as one does, the predator attacks them. It's a

And at one point, which he's been warned about they warn him earlier, he picks that cannon up and his subordinate says, you gotta be careful what that's her?

Oh but it's but I saw that, but it didn't read as the shoulder cannon because it's effectively a tube at that point. It's not mounted, so I didn't make that connection. That's just me being slow. But regardless, he's got this shoulder cannon on Olivia Munn, says Traeger, and he turns his head and the gun is pointed right at his head and blows his head off. That's it, ignominious death.

Well, you said you like that about Shane Black. You like it? You like it good ignominious death, don't you.

I'm fine if it's not as chaotic and I can understand what just happened.

Well, do you want to talk about the chaos? Stand?

I'd love to. I'd love to talk about a lot of stuff.

Let's talk about Let's talk about the specific plot of the movie right now. What is happening here.

At this moment in the movie.

Overall, a lot of the movie, Number one is on the run from predator to because he's stolen a bunch of tack.

Why, well, do you want to reveal we We don't find that out until the very end.

Is spoiler.

So what's happened is and Trager is very good at keeping one step ahead. He understands the predators, and he's the one who kind of expositories this whole thing. The global warming is happening there, the temperature is rising. The biologist figures out that there's human DNA in the predator that they're studying. So what Traeger has basically figured out is that they are using the trophies that they get of all of the humans and other aliens. They use the DNA from those trophies that.

They find in the spine, and hey, that's why they rip out their spine. Everybody.

Yeah, it's a very interesting twist because up to that point you just think these are trophies, but no, they're harvesting DNA to make themselves better hunters. So the fact that the Earth's temperature is rising, humanity is effectively an

He's big, strong, he rips his.

Head off like we've seen him do with so many humans.

And I don't know how she noticed that when when he did that, he didn't use it like a trophy at all. He just went inflicted away like so much rubbish.

Yeah, he just dropped it. I don't need this.

But somehow the biologist recognizes that this giant predator has an exoskeleton on the inside. I don't know how she figured out, because he just looks like a predator to me.

But this is this.

Predator is we're led to believe has been crossbred with all this predator DNA and that's what makes him bigger, faster, and tougher. But what he's after, this thing that the other predator was bringing to humanity to try and give us a fighting chance, and we don't find out until the very end that it's a predator killer armor. It's actually pretty cool. I'm kind of a little sad that we never saw this thing in action, really in action. But it's this armor that kind of bonds to you.

Okay, one of three endings, Ending number one preferred Shane Black. They were really pushing for it the whole time. They reveal the tech from the alien ship and it's a cryo chamber and in it is Dutch Schaeffer. He was bringing Dutch Schaeffer back to help us fight the other predators. Ending number two, Ending number two. Are you ready for Ending number two? I'm Sam Set up cryo chamber. Open up the cryo chamber. Who's in it?

Don't tell me to any glovers in it? No Adrian Brody, no, Martin Riggs. I don't know who's in the other cryot.

Close Ellen Ripley, Oh you know, I think I.

Did read that somewhere, but I didn't really. It didn't make much of an impact.

How would she travel back in time? I don't know. They filmed that you're shooting me.

They filmed Sigourney Weaver coming out of the crood.

Oh, they filmed a double with a breathing mask over her face in a patch that read Ellen Ripley.

Oh, wow, have you seen it?

I have not seen it, but I did read the original screenplay, and oh boy, let's talk about the original screenplay. What did you think of We'll get there, but here's a question that when this is part of the movie, we should talk about. What did you think of the Predator dogs in this movie? They're not the same. They're not the same as the last Predator dogs we saw, right.

They're not. But to be honest, I mean, the scene is cool.

We won't go into the scene, but basically there's a scene much like Predators the last movie, where they're in a baseball field and the Predator dogs come out. They didn't make a lot of impact to me. They're faceless and they don't really have a lot of panache to

That's you know, kind of.

Like it's a sweet pep boy at that point.

Yeah, yeah, it becomes a loyal pop.

Riley Jean was riveted once that dog became nice.

It's a little dark that it took a bullet to the head to make the thing docile, but it was kind of It's the source of some fun comedy in the movie. But to be honest, I didn't really.

The predator notice anything interesting. Do you notice anything interesting about their design?

They had the dreadlocks.

They did have dreadlocks, almost as if they had been genetically engineered.

Yeah, I wondered about that.

Well, guess what. Originally the gigantic predator was a gene splicing predator. Those are his dogs, after all, and he had an entire menagerie of predator spliced aliens, predator, crocodiles, predator, giant spiders, predator, this and that and the other thing,

Sounds expensive in broad daylight, sounds even more expensive.

They filmed at Harris, they filmed at HP Nice. I've never seen it.

There's a lot that they filmed. I know that the ending of Keegan, Michael Key and Thomas Jaye's characters were also like refilmed like originally they didn't die the way they did in the released version. There's an awful lot of this going on with this movie. It makes me wonder if there's a whole nother cut, like release the Baute, the Black cut exactly released, the Shane cut.

Shane come back, Shane. The thing is, you know Shane Black is intimately involved in movie, so I don't think he's spoiling to get another cut out there, and you know he's taking his lumps. He's spoken about the movie that he fucked out up and you know, didn't deliver the movie that people wanted. But yeah, that that was the original ending. I'd love to see that ending. I would too, I really, I've read comments on the ending

And you really just encapsulated it beautifully.

It really is like an a team of misfit soldiers that band together and it just so happens in this case that their foe is a predator from outer space. But it could have been it could have been a drug lord, it could have been any number of things, and it would have been an equally interesting movie.

Perhaps a team meets the Predator.

Yeah, do you know?

There was an Archie meets Predator too. After this came out, I read I.

Think I read the first Archie Versus Predator and it was interesting. I can't say that I liked it. I appreciated their willingness to kind of blend these two disparate genres.

You should take it.

Yeah, I will. I will.

I'm sure they have a new line that's the Marvel Universe versus Predators.

Did you know that brand new?

I did know that, and I don't want to dive inte. I kind of just don't want to. I mean, maybe I will eventually, but I'm we're experiencing Predators so purely right now. Although if you wanted to, you could read the prequel novel for this film, just for the Predator, there's a prequel.

Yeah, did Alan Dean Foster write it?

No, I don't know the author. Off the top of my head. I did listen to it. I didn't read it, but I listened to it. It's about it's about Sterling K. Brown's characters and his and his squad, the Reapers. That's their case. That's his team's name, the Reapers.

I would check that out. Actually, speaking of the Reapers, one thing that we haven't mentioned, which I thought was a neat little I don't call it an easter egg is one of the one of the scientists that's there when Olivia mun shows up to study the Predator is played by Jake.

Busey, who number one.

I love the fact that he's so restrained and kind of nerdy in this. I'm used to him being like his dad, a little more boisterous and kind of hey. Here, he's just like a nerdy scientist. He starts off that way, the Predator attacks and he dies as a nerdy scientist.

I thought that was pretty cool.

But he's meant to be the son of Gary Busey's character from Predator two.

Yeah, it's a it's an easter egg that's right there, But they don't like at no point that they go like my dad was blah blah blah, which is nice, Like it's there if you want to.

They don't call attention to it. Yeah, there are tons.

Of little easter eggs like that throughout the entire film. In fact, Shane Black is not shy for acknowledging the other films, right down to the Alien Versus Predator. One of their artifacts I don't know if you noticed, is sna Leathan's spear, the xenomorph tail spear.

Really that I didn't notice.

I did notice that when he finally escapes and kills everybody in the lab, there's a glass case with I think that's where you're talking about where the artifacts are, and he doesn't have his mask. The kid has his mask, so he gets it's effectively the original Predator's mask from Predator one. And I think it's great that we've had so much lore that we can recognize like one mask from the other. That thought that was really clever. Can we we haven't really gotten back to this, and I

When we talk about a biologist who turns into a fucking action star within moments.

Sure, that's number one. Well, how did let me ask you? First?

As an actress, how did you feel when you saw that Olivia Munn had a starring role in this picture?

My heart felt through the floor when I saw that she was in the cast. This is before I saw the movie, my mind. I previously my experience with Livy Munn had been as a Maximum cover model and as a pilock. I think that's pretty much the sum total of my experience of her. And I don't know, she's a pretty girl, you know what I mean, But I didn't. I didn't think too much of her acting Jumps. I liked her a lot in this movie. I think she was really good in the movie.

She's better than I expected. I like, you had low expectations.

I knew on me, I guess is what I'm fucking saying. Don't judge a book by its cover, like because I thought she was really good, like given the fucking bizarre logic of her role in this film, the fact that she manages to come off normal and not betray how stupid everything they're making her do is.

Sure my my intro to her.

My previous experience was a little more extensive in that I used to watch it was like a network called G four, which was a network for video games and things like that, and they had a show.

Sorrow. This was the rise of nerd fucking Nerd Kingdom, nerd fucking.

This was like Spike TV, this was back in those days, and their flagship show, their news show, news variety show was called Attack of the Show, and she was one of the co hosts. It was her and some other nerdy guy and she she proved in that. I mean, she obviously she's very pretty, and that's a big part of her appeal. But she did prove in that show that she could she could twist that on its head a little bit, and she could be funny, and she could act a little bit. And you know, she wasn't

But have we kind of gotten past this.

Idea of the beautiful, brilliant scientist like who is that? There was was a Denise Richards in that James Bond movie as.

She was a nuclear scientist.

Yeah, that makes me bristle when I see somebody pretty in a role like this. Having said that, she comports herself, Oliviamane comports herself much better than I gave her any credit for.

I believed her as a badass member of that squad of that movie, because I don't know what her place is in this film other than as the person who infiltrates the lab, grabs a thing, and then figures out what they're up to. That's the function of her character. But they introduce her as this like bookish professor who gets called on by this stargazer organization, which is the storylin K Brown's organization to come check out this alien,

First time.

Absolutely we've been looking at that scary fucking mouth. This holds on five movies. Nobody went wouldn't it be good if he bids somebody anyway? During that scene, predator kills everyone in the room. She tries to get out. The only way to get out is through the decontamination, so she's effectively naked on the floor without a weapon when the predator comes in, so she's not a threat and he leaves, and she's so fucking shaken. In that scene, this is when I was like, Oh, why she really

If it were me, let's say I'm the scientist who goes in there and I face down a predator in that fashion, and he spares me, but he gives me a nice long glare before he does.

No hyperbole. I would literally be.

Shitting myself, and I think I would probably have PTSD for the rest of my life. Because number one, I have to come to terms with the fact that aliens do exist.

And I just and this.

Thing that I just saw kill people in the most egregious way that you can imagine, spared me. I think I'd be I would be on that bus with the lunatics.

I would be done.

Is that Shane Blackswall, it's too real world a moment to follow it up with, and now it's action fun.

Well, they try to play it off like she She's like, well, no, this is my alien. I'm not gonna let him get away. I want to study him. So that becomes her obsession. She is driven by the idea that I, you know, I came this close to studying an alien.

I'm not going to let him get away.

It's all very happenstance. There's so much logical happenstance in this Like this, the squad just happens to be there, like dud when they're putting them on the bus with them, you know, like weit. Holbrook's character did was not familiar with these characters before we meet them, which is like thirty minutes into the film right right the but should

No, there weren't.

You're actually crazy, No you are, you know, like something like he needed to pick a story because I want to either follow Boyd Holbrook saving his son and doing hold that whole thing, or I want to follow this fucking A team story.

There is something very endearing about that whole team of damaged soldiers because they each, as you said, they take time. Shane Black takes time to really let you get to know all of them, and they all have a very interesting backstory, like Nebraska, who's effectively the leader of the group when Holbrook meets them. He shot himself in the head. He tried to commit suicide effectively, and then he had to walk himself to the hospital when it didn't work.

A fun fact, although that might not be it might not be a fun fact. Shane Black also has to write.

And I'm aware of that, and that made it a little complicated to think about this character because the Turets, Let's be honest, has played for laughs in this But the fact that Shane Black has Turets does, I guess that's supposed to excuse it or make me feel better about it being used.

I don't know.

Is it any better or worse than autism is a magical step in our evolution and will allow you to understand alien technology.

That's the biggest bar none, The biggest problem I had with this movie was the treatment of a.

Boy with autism.

He's effectively like he's like rain Man basically because he has this preternatural ability to understand the aliens tech and figure things.

I mean, he's doing.

Things like like this alien, this the uber alien is Predator has been pursuing in this ship and he cloaks to get into Earth's you know, it's to land on Earth and the kids playing with this thing, and the kid can effectively turn off and on the cloaking of the aliens or the Predator's ship at will. I mean He's figured this out in less than a day. So I don't I take umbrage with the fact that number one, well, really that autism is being treated like this, like a

Fahlahlah.

There's some subtitling that happens when the ship is on its way, and then when they're trying to break into the ship, Traeger has set up this translator and downloaded the predator's language onto this device. The predator, the uper predator, gets on the ship and he talks to the people and to the mercenaries and so forth, and he says, look, this is my ship.

You're not gonna get this ship.

All I want is this item that the other predator had. And I'm gonna give you guys a head start. I'm gonna let you. Let me give you like a seven minute head start. By the way, one among you is called McKenna. He's your leader. He will be my trophy, which is kind of scary to think that, Wow, this is actual alien, like an alien talking to us, and we understand it. We're led to believe that he means McKenna the sniper, but no, because this autism is being

You know, it's unfortunate.

But how did you feel? I mean, I talked a lot about this, but what were your feelings? Fun and alone?

I didn't feel quite as harshly towarded on this viewing as I did before. I don't think it's look, it's as muddle headed as is it as muddle headed as punching down? I don't know man like it's not played for laughs, but you know it's I guess it's kind of like feeling like, you know, you're Chinese and everyone thinks you're mystical and can do kung fu or something.

That's a very fair point. That is a very fair point. And I don't have a I guess I didn't think of it in those terms. But at the same time, I don't know, I just it.

I don't know. I don't know how you would I guess.

Could it have worked as well had the boy just been a really smart, nerdy kid without this overlaid you issue of autism blanketing him.

Yeah, yeah, yes, it definitely could have it. The script is such a fucking kitchen sink of ideas that it doesn't necessarily need to be in there. I don't know, I don't know how I feel about it. I mean, I wanted to just give everyone the benefit of the doubt because I know their intentions from previous works. You know, it doesn't excuse it. I suppose I don't have a child with autism, so I don't really have a dog in the fight necessarily, or a predator dog in the fight.

Ah me, Well, no, it doesn't kill my whole enjoyment movie. We just talked for the better part of an hour about how much what we loved about it, and that doesn't change that. I just I really wish he had And this is Look this, if this movie had come out in nineteen ninety seven, let's say, doesn't excuse it, but it would have made it more understandable that maybe autism was understood very differently two decades ago or whatever.

Do you think it was maybe a misguided attempt at hopefulness? Like, I know it seems bad, folks, but don't worry. You're just actually the next evolutionary step.

That's the most charitable explanation for it. Sure, yeah, I guess I will go ahead and give Shane Black the benefit of the doubt on this. I don't think he was out to purposefully exoticize the notion of autism, just like I don't think it was John Carpenter or W. D. Richter's notion to exoticize Asian American culture in Big Trouble Little China. I just think it's a factor of the time it was made and the people that made it.

It's a topic that must be wrestled with. If we're going to enjoy this movie, if we must sing it's praises, we must let you know that there are problematic issues.

This is that's a very well set overall.

Where do you rank it?

Ooh, it's a very The thing of it is like, look, number one, it's better than Predator two, it's better than Requiem, It's better than AVP hands down. Where it's a little tough for me to judge is Predators. The previous movie is so different tonally, structurally, everything about it is so different. It's a bit of an apples and oranges argument. But if we're judging this primarily on entertainment value, was how much entertainment did I get from this versus Predator? Predators?

This was better.

Do we rank them so far? Yeah, Because here's the thing. From here on out, I consider this the end of the first Predator era, let's say, because from now on, Tracktenberg's in charge, and from now on, I think we're going to be thinking about the Predators a little more thoughtfully and a little less you know what, would be cool, because that's what every filmmakerup until now has been doing every time they get their hands on this franchise.

Good point, So let's obviously number one has well, you want to go backwards in reverse.

Number one is Predator. There's no surprise.

It's it set the tone. It's still the best movie overall. Nothing's going to top Predator, the second best. I would say, is this the Predator agreed? Then Predators agreed. Then it's a very big drop off from there to.

But Alien versus Predator has more charms than it's misbegotten sequel.

Sure, look, Requiem is going to be bottom of the barrel regardless because stacking it up against any other movie, it's going to be the worst.

Thank god, it's there right like you. Every movie that comes out from now on we can always just say, but was it as bad as Requiem?

No, that's true. It can only get better from there, that's for sure.

But oh how how I love you?

Oh wait, you know what we didn't know? I'm sorry we didn't rank Predator.

Too because it's not on the list, because we're just tossing off the list Predator too, Yeah, it doesn't exist.

Why is that? Get off.

With you?

Obviously we've got to put it on the list. How dare we even forget it?

I would say, it's then I would offer that it should be just above a VP agreed. So it's just it's lots of into that third spot. Effectively or fourth spot.

I want to like it more than Predators, but it is not as good a movie.

It's not.

And I think we talked about this when we discussed that movie. I liked it a lot when I first saw it in the theater. Predator too. I did not like it nearly as much when we rewatched it for this series. In fact, I disliked it a lot.

Well, there it is. There's the list Predator, the Predator, Predators so ridiculous, and then Predator two versus Predators Predator. Okay, that's it.

I don't know why that's so funny, but that is.

I'm just and oh, you know what's funny. Here's what's funny. HB. Do you know the original title of Predator.

The first Predator? Yes, I have no idea. What was the original title?

Hunter? Until next time, we're gonna be taking a look Finally, motherfuckers,

All right? I hope? So I welcome it.

I co host the Night Mister Walters Taxi podcast alongside my best friend in the world, Father Alone. Here, I'm Miniqui a and also a world's best Fonzie impressionist. Over here, I am an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Chris Dashu. I also host occasionally host the Noise Junkies music podcast.

And I'll let you kind of when I feel like it.

And I also, last but not least, I have a band campsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com.

As for me, you're listening to the show you know it all patreon dot com, slash Father Alone. Thank you to all the patrons, by the way, really appreciate it. I got a lot of good stuff coming up for you soon, including a new HP hates Me. In fact, if you're listening to this, Yude, I probably already on the Patroon channel. We're gonna be looking at fucking f M.

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