Predator: Badlands Director, Dan Trachtenberg, Preys on the Pod

It's a Predator episode baby! We interview Dan Trachtenberg about his new movie, rank our favorite Predator films and discuss what action hero can defeat a Yautja, 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Dan Trachtberg, director of Predator bad Lands, and you're
on get Wrecked with straw Had Goofy or I'm on
it okay.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I mean they're on it, You're we're all on it together.
Wake up? Did you time to go to work? All right?
Can we talk about get it? Get it? Wake up?
I get it that get it that goal with everyone's
saying that up next, it's not my father the focus
of goals. That making that hit it up my legs
of a movie the way then that roll they.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Say had him mooky.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
But baby, you know I'm making everybody upset because we
don't and.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
I know, gunna get bread, Gunning get bread, Cunning, get bread, Cunning,
get bread, Donning, get bread.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
What's going on? Everybody? At your boy? Green ak Stra
had Goofy. You're a movie guy and I'm here with
the legend the director of Well, he's now the head
honcho of the whole Predator universe, it seems, Dan Trashnerberg
of Predator bad Lands, how's it going on? Bro?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm good man, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm good. I've been excited to talk to you for
a while. Man. Seriously, this is like a dream come true.
For me. Awesome A long time coming.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Me too, Me too.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh it's not a dream to talk to me. I'm
sure about that. But I'm really excited to talk about
this movie. I saw it like two days ago. Now,
Freaking rocks awesome. If Freaking Rocks it wasn't an IMAX,
but I think it's going to be. I'm gonna be
out the premiere tomorrow. It's going to be an IMAX, right.
So I love when you get that second dimension on
there and like you just get a whole new experience

(01:27):
with it, because that's what the whole IMAX experience is about.
I just dude, So what I like to do on
this show, And I've been wanting to do this with
you for a while because you're a bit you love
like Deep Cup movies. You're a big movie now. I
could tell you're a huge nerd. And what I believe
is that when we talk about film, we learn a
lot about who we are and like how these movies
has kind of like built us up as people. So
the big question that I have to ask you is

(01:48):
do you have a movie recommendation that when you saw
it it changed your brain chemistry? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Very very specifically, I think a lot of the generation
before me was transformed by seeing Star Wars and theaters
and having that the moment the starter destroyer comes over
ahead was like this pivotal and they wanted to make
the visual effects or make movies. For me, that moment
was seeing Hard Boiled John Wu Hardboiled. And there's a

(02:17):
moment when when Chai in fact gets shot at and
on a staircase and he falls back against the banister
and then uses that momentum as he pulls out two
guns and starts sliding down the bannister on his back
and shag. And I'd never seen someone wheel two guns
at the same time before.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
O give me.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
But also the the the flow of action, from the
visual dynamicism to the editorial nature of that sequence, it
made it. It felt like a dance sequence or so
the way that people's spirit is filled up when they
watch dance or hear music, That's what watching that felt like.

(02:56):
And that movie is just filled with moments like that.
But that was just the first.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
One in it.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And my jaw I remember like literally being like, oh
my god, my jaw just opened on its own, like
the cliche of your jaws. Of course, I ran out
and fill. My parents had no appreciation for for it,
but it really blew my mind.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, so I got to know, now, have you used
kind of like that inspiration and some of your other
films that I might have missed?

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Do you have like an example of there's I haven't
made a movie that has gun play like that to
like literally do. And I have no interest in like
tracing what that. I mean, I didn't like film school.
I did stuff like that all the time. I made
a movie with people fighting with water guns in a
in a park, you know, and when I was first
shooting black and white reversal film in film school, but

(03:42):
tracked that down. Guy, it is not on the induct
but but I but more of from remembering the impact
of the surprising and inventiveness inside of Magatine to make
sure that like from John wu I take away the
choreography within a melee and from Steven Spielberg, I take

(04:06):
away the geography of the entire scene. So when Indie's
over here and Short rounds up there and Kate capshaws
over it, like like really like understanding that the whole
sequence is one big interplay as well as the moment
to moment can be inventive and cool, but also the
flow of a scene really that really never left me,

(04:27):
and always being aware of the way that a camera
can bring you someplace and then back another way, and
and and creates a feeling in you despite whatever whatever
the content of what it's capturing.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Right. You know, I never thought about it like that
before because and I didn't realize that. You know, some
of my favorite action sequences of some of my favorite
battles and a scene like involve exactly what you're talking about,
that geography where there's like multiple characters here and you
know where everyone is and kind of creates this this
symphony of action of brutality and like. But the best
example of this, I would say is probably Game of

(05:03):
Thrones the Watchers on the Wall episode, and there's this
moment where John Snow kind of like comes out of
the keep, kicks a guy over like a banister or something,
and then the motion tracks and you see every character
here and there and you know where everything is. Like
I've seen Battlesequel sits where it's just a bunch of
people on a field and it's.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Hard to get cacophony and violence, and like there's uses
for that, but for me personally, it's hard to connect
to those type of things versus like knowing where everything
is and then like everyone has their own jobs to
do in that and it kind of like connects with
me a lot more so, I see what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's that's actually pretty sick. Yeah. Yeah, Now I have
to ask you because I read this and I got
really excited when I read this, and you can probably
confirm for me if this is still happening. Are you
still directing an episode in the final season of Stranger
Things five? Know what happened?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Sorry, very quickly? You know what happened was I was
going to Ironically, I met the Duffers when we were
mixing Prey they were also mixing whatever season that was
of Stranger Things. Huge fan of the show and what
they've done, and uh, they asked me to do an

(06:13):
episode of this final season and I was very excited too,
but unfortunately, because of the writer strike and the way
it shifted timings, I both both Killer of Killers add
bad Lands got greenlit at the same time I was.
I was thinking I could squeeze the episode in between
the two, and I actually started prepping it in prevising

(06:35):
sequences and all that, but then unfortunately had to eject
from it. I thankfully kept in touch with the with
the guys and when we were mixing bad Lands, they
were also mixing the final season of Stranger Things. This

(06:56):
is just as of the past few weeks, and I
rope them in and got them to record uh in
yaoucha they are actually they are in bad Lands there.
They are the voice of Quay's ship in bad Lands.
There's really three three times in the movie and it
was so fun. It was seeing their dynamic as brothers unfold,

(07:20):
ribbing each other on their performance in yaucha was great.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
They so they learned yaucho.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
For they or the thing. It wasn't just like at
first I was like, hey, you guys mind just like
drink couple cameo what you really find that?

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh my god?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, and then they were like, wait, what do.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
You want us to do? Like speaking this crazy?

Speaker 1 (07:38):
And uh it was so fun and I had to
say in return. They showed me where they were at
in the mix on one of the theatrical bits of
episode of whatever the episode they're showing the early episodes,
and it was I'm telling you, incredible, like people are
going to it is. The filmmaking in it was brilliant.

(08:02):
I do not say that lightly, but they were just
there's a great suspense sequence that was that had me
absolutely floored.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
So, God, you're hype. I'm a big Stranger Things fantasy,
like I think season four and season one or like
just perfect seasons. I agree, Like it's absolutely increborate. I was.
I was gonna ask because like, you know, you were
born in eighty one. That was like heavily inspired in
the eighties. Predator was also made eighty so I thought,
how cool is that? Like, you know that you had
a chance to do that would have been I know, now,

(08:33):
if you had a chance to kind of like take
something in the eighties that you love and insert it
into Stranger Things, what would that thing be? Because I
know they take inspiration from all those different types.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I hm. I remember trying to do a couple of
things in the episode I wanted, I'll tell you what
I was going to do. I was going to do
something with them using a model rocket as a weapon. Okay,
there's a movie called The Gate Stephen Dorf where he

(09:04):
used a model rocket as a weapon of sorts, And
I was trying to uh mimic that. I was going
to do something with the kid playing Nintendo in the
living room while something crazy was happening outside the window,
and I what was the I wanted to set a

(09:25):
montage to the same music from the montage of the
Monster Squad. Yeah, there's a great if you like if
you have the song was like so iconic to the
eighties montage, and I was trying to do the same thing.
And then oh, and then I was going to do
something where someone uses the Goonies statue that like the
statue of David that as a weapon and the same

(09:48):
heart you had a whole break break off of it.
So that was what I was going.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
To Okay, so now we have like an alternate headcanon
for that. I want to see that someday, maybe in
a short film. Who knows right? Right? All right, so
keeping it in the eighties, but still kind of like
all the way to talking more about Predator, Like I
want to know, like, what was your first contact with
the Predator franchise? And he walked me through kind of
like your emotional connection to it.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I was in a I was in third grade in
a carpool on the way to a karate tournament and
all this, and it was it was a couple of
kids from my grade and then a couple of sixth
graders in the back, and they had all just seen Predator,
and so they described the entire entire movie word for

(10:33):
a word.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
So I wasn't allowed to see it, okay, So I
was just eating up everything. So really the first time
I saw it was in my own imagination.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
And then when I first watched it, keeping it very eighties.
When I first watched it with a friend of mine,
we had this ritual of renting a movie and then
having the Mad magazine parody of the movie along with us.
So we like went seen by scene and paused the
movie and then read the parody of it, and then
turned the page and then paused, and like just went

(11:04):
from parody to parody.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
So that's pretty sick. Yeah, I love that. I think
the first time I saw Predator, I think I was
I want to say, I was like eight years old,
and I'm way too young.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
That would have been in third That was when I
wanted to and wasn't allowed to.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
My grandmother did not care. You know, I don't know.
I think it was because Arnold was in it, and like,
I think it's because like I think I saw it
without her knowing I saw it, I see and I
came that quoting and already so at that point she
was just like, oh, gotch Well he's already like fully
into it.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Is it a blow your mind where you like I
can't even hear?

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Honestly, it's my favorite. It's my second favorite action movie
of all time under Terminator judgment judgment the Terminator two. Yeah,
but it's my favorite monster of all time. And that's
what kind of like drew me in, was this like
creature that can hide in the shadows, like it mimic them.
And the way I described Predator always was that it
was a serial killer movie, not onlike like Friday the thirteenth,

(11:56):
but you replace the campers and teenagers with the most
macho man you could think of, and you put them
in that situation. Yes, and that was just so different
for me, Like seeing these grown men just like terrified
and being stalked. Yes, Like I didn't know it at
the time, but that just like completely changed my view
of what like an action horror could be.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
And the thing that they were up against was not
a force of nature or a force of destruction like
Jason or Freddie or Michael Myers. It was something that
was intelligent, that had skilled, that had culture, that had
a code.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah yeah, I mean it bled, which is what makes
the line, if it bleeds, we can kill it. So
so so great. Yeah. So I think it's really cool
how like, you know, Predators kind of persisted through like
pop culture. Like I literally have a I want to say,
it's like a three foot Predator statue of the original
Predator song in my house, just chilling there. But for you,
I've already said this, you're like almost the Dave Aloney

(12:46):
Kevin Faige of the Predator universe. You've expanded it, You've
added new things that like most people wouldn't have thought
of outside of like comic book continuity. So what does
it feel like getting the keys to this iconic franchise?
And do you feel that like you've like earned the
cash to kind of just do whatever you want?

Speaker 1 (13:02):
No, I mean those guys have really done quite a
bit in those universes I've now made. Two have come
out and one is about to. So I hope that
people embrace it and certainly can feel that I am

(13:22):
slowly fleshing out more of a universe and letting these
movies connect to each other than they ever had before,
yet still approaching them in somewhat of an episodic nature,
and still letting each movie be its own cool core
idea for a movie, rather than two movies down now.

(13:43):
And it could have been like Prey, and it could
have been Pray two, Pray three, and it would have
been the same story kind of told in a new skin.
That's not what I wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
I really wanted.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
To delight people with the same kind of surprise that
we got in nineteen eighty seven. Yeah, And also, as
you said, really really find it challenging to watch so
much the great television that we have because I feel
like I got to do homework before I.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Watch right and the Marvel Superior, and that.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Is just not the case at all with what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well. I appreciate that, to be honest, Like as much
as I love kind of, like you know, this synergy
of like TV and movies and we're in the golden
age of TV right now, I think like people who
want to get in on the ground floor or like
the barrier for entry to these type of franchises is
getting harder and harder now, right, And I really appreciate, like,
you know, the Predator franchise, like even though they are
connected and you can't connect them, and you get a

(14:39):
much more rich story like viewing experience. I think anybody
could come in on anyone. I believe you said this
about like the Dark Knight trilogy, Like you can watch
The Dark Knight without having watched Batman because right and so,
I feel like the Predator franchise. I can come in
on Killer of Killers without having seen Prey, right and so.
But there is a link between Predator Batlands and Prey,

(14:59):
very small link, but I really love this. One of
my favorite genres of all time is the coming of
a genre and Pray was a great example of that
in the Predator universe. But you have some of that
in Predator bat Lands as well. Can you talk to
me about creating a coming of age film with a
Predator at it center?

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah? I mean I think I just happened to be
so fueled by an underdog story by someone trying to
prove their worth and I and not only is that
like of personal interest to me, but I think that's
one of the most universal kind of stories you can tell,
and we really want to find allow people to access
the emotional story of a monster. And there was a

(15:40):
long time of going back and forth between does he
wear a mask the whole movie? Do we at one
point shatter the mask, so just covering half his face
so you could see his eyes, you know, And it
all was very cool, but I felt like, you know what, man,
the thing the bolt swing we're taking. If we covered up,
then we're not fully embracing, like people are going to

(16:03):
stare at the face of a monster and find a
little bit of themselves in it.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I didn't want to cop out in any way. So
we just worked hard at setting the stage in the
first fifteen minutes and creating a scenario in which he
was really up against as brutal as as Deck is,
He's up against something far more ferocious, both emotionally and physically,
so we can find ourselves rooting for him to overcome,

(16:32):
you know, what he's dealing with.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
And that planet is like pretty brutal and pretty great.
The things he goes up against is absolutely insane for
a predator to deal with. So it's fun to see
a predator on the ropes, right, it's so different. The
last question I want to get to, because I believe
we're running out of time, is that I feel like
you are extremely courageous in making a movie like this.
And the reason why I say that is because predators

(16:54):
as we know them are like I said, usually the
ones on top, they're very dangerous, they're very like badass.
Deck is still very bad ass, but he is a
very I don't want to say human character, but you're
adding a human element to an inhumane character. Talk about
finding the courage of taking that risk, of taking a
character that's so bad ass usually and making him a

(17:14):
little bit more.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
I think it comes from I think what we love
in movies is watching things try. I think that's kind
of the secret sauce to the Mission Impossible franchise is
it's really it's not all about just seeing him be
awesome the whole time. In fact, more of the case,

(17:36):
it's seeing him try to be awesome and failing and
try and failing and try. It's it's just a pleasurable experience,
and it's be invigorating because that's what the way that
we experience our challenges. Think of Diehard, think of Indiana Jones. Right,
the power is in them trying. It makes the action

(17:57):
more fun as a spec as a piece of choreography,
but also you can't help but root for that. So
that is what really fueled that thinking for for Deck.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, it reminds me a lot of the Hallway fight
and the Daredevil season one series where he's like exhausting,
he's fighting one and it's that human element of him
trying to succeed. That's what makes that scene so amazing. Yeah, damn,
thank you so much for talking to me.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
It was awesome, amazing, very cool. It wasn't an IMAX,
but I think it's gonna be. I'm gonna be out
the premiere tomorrow, right, it's going to be an IMAX. Right.
So I love when you get that second dimension on
there and like you just get a whole new experience
with it, because that's what the whole IMAX experience is about.
I just dud so what I like to do on
this show, and I've been one to do this with
you for a while because you're a bit you love

(18:45):
like deep Cup movies. You're a big movie now. I
could tell you're a huge nerd and what I believe
is that when we talk about film, we learn a
lot about who we are and like how these movies
has kind of like built us up as people. So
the big question that I have to ask you is,
do you have a movie recommendation? When you saw it,
it changed your brain chemistry?

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, very very specifically. I think a lot of the
generation before me was transformed by seeing star Wars and
theaters and having that the moment the starter Schroyer comes
overhead was like this pivotal and they wanted to make
individual effects.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Or make movies.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
For me, that moment was seeing Hardboiled John Wu Hardboiled.
And there's a moment when when Chai in fact gets
shot at on a staircase and he falls back against
the banister and then uses that momentum as he pulls
out two guns and starts sliding down the bannister on
his back and Shah and I'd never seen someone wheel

(19:41):
two guns at the same time before, O give me.
But also the the the flow of action, from the
visual dynamicism to the editorial nature of that sequence, it
made it it felt like a dance sequence or so
the way that people's spirit is filled up when they

(20:02):
watch dance or hear music. That's what watching that felt like.
And that movie is just filled with moments like that.
But that was just the first one in it. And
my jaw I remember like literally being like, oh my god,
my jaw just opened on its own, like the cliche
of your jaw. I ran out control. My parents had
no appreciation for for it, but it really blew my mind.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, so I got to know, now, have you used
kind of like that inspiration some of your other films
that I might have missed? You have like an example of.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
There's I haven't made a movie that has gun play
like that to like literally do. And I have no
interest in like tracing what that.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
I didn't like film school.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I did stuff like that all the time.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
I made a movie with people fighting with water guns
in a in a park, you know, right, And when
I was first shooting black and white reversal film in
film school. But track that it is not on the
DCT but but I but more of from remembering the
impact of the surprising and inventiveness inside an aging scene

(21:05):
to make sure that like from John wu I take
away the choreography within a melee and from Steven Spielberg,
I take away the geography of the entire scene. So
when Indie's over here and Short rounds up there and
Kate capshaws over it like like really like understanding that
the whole sequence is one big interplay as well as

(21:27):
the moment to moment can be inventive and cool, but
also the flow of a scene really that really never
left me, and always being aware of the way that
a camera can bring you someplace and then back another
way and and and creates a feeling in you despite
whatever whatever the content of what it's capturing.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Right. You know, I've never thought about it like that
before because and I didn't realize that, you know, some
of my favorite action sequences of some of my favorite
battles and a scene like involve exactly what you're talking
talk about, that geography where there's like multiple characters here
and you know where everyone is and kind of creates
this this symphony of action of brutality, and like the
best example of this, I would say is probably Game

(22:12):
of Thrones the Watchers on the Wall episode, and there's
this moment where John Snow kind of like comes out
of the keep kicks a guy over like a banister
or something, and then the motion tracks and you see
every character here and there, and you know where everything is.
Like I've seen battle sequel sits where it's just a
bunch of people on a field and it's hard to

(22:32):
get cap and violence, and like there's uses for that,
but for me personally, it's hard to connect to those
type of things versus like knowing where everything is and
then like everyone has their own jobs to do in
that and it kind of like connects with me a
lot more. So, I see what you're saying. That's actually
pretty sick. Yeah, now I have to ask you because
I read this and I got really excited when I

(22:52):
read this, and you can probably confirm for me if
this is still happening. Are you still directing an episode
in the final season of Stranger Things? Five?

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Know what happened? Sorry, very quickly. You know what happened
was I was going to Ironically, I met the Duffers
when we were mixing Prey they were also mixing whatever
season that was a Stranger Things. Huge fan of the
show and what they've done, and uh, they asked me

(23:21):
to do an episode of this final season and I
was very excited too, but unfortunately because of the writer
strike and the way it shifted timings. I both both
Killer of Killers had bad Lands got greenlit at the
same time.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
I was.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
I was thinking I could squeeze the episode in between
the two, and I actually started prepping it in prevising
sequences and all that, but then unfortunately had to eject
from it. I thankfully kept in touch with the with
the guys, and when we were mixing bad Lands, they

(24:02):
were awesome mixing the final season of Stranger Things. This
is just as of the past few weeks. And I
rope them in and got them to record uh in yaoucha.
They are actually they are in bad Lands there. They
are the voice of Quay's ship in bad Lands. There's
really three three times in the movie. And it was

(24:25):
so fun. It was seeing their dynamic as brothers unfold.
Ribbing each other on their performance in Yaucha was great.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
They so they learned yaucho for they or the thing.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
It wasn't just like at first I was like, hey,
you guys, mind just like drink up a cameo. What
you really find the Oh my god? Yeah, And then
they were like, wait, what do you want.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Us to do?

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Like speaking this crazy and uh it was so fun,
and I had to say in return, they showed me
where they were at in the mix on one of
the theatrical bits of episode of whatever, the episodes they're
showing the early episodes, and it was, I'm telling you incredible,

(25:06):
like people are going to it is. The filmmaking in
it was brilliant. I do not say that lightly, but
they were just there's a great suspense sequence that was
that had me absolutely floored.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
So you're I'm a big Stranger Things fantash like I
think season four and season one are like just perfect seasons.
I agree, Like, it's absolutely incredible. I was. I was
gonna ask because like, you know, you were born in
eighty one. That was like heavily inspired in the eighties.
Predator was also made eighty so I thought, how cool
is that? Like you know that she had a chance

(25:41):
to do that would have been I know, I know
now if you had a chance to kind of like
take something in the eighties that you love and insert
it into Stranger Things, what would that thing be? Because
I know they take inspiration from all those different types.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
I hm, I remember trying to do a couple of
things in the episod, so.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
I wanted.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
I'll tell you what I was going to do. I
was going to do something with a using a model
rocket as a weapon. Okay, there's a movie called The
Gate I Stephen Dorf where he used a model rocket
as a weapon of sorts, and I was trying to uh,
mimic that. I was going to do something with the

(26:23):
kid playing Nintendo in the living room while something crazy
was happening outside the window, and I what was the
I wanted to set a montage to the same music
from the montage of the Monster Squad. Yeah, there's a
great if you like. If you have, the song was

(26:44):
like so iconic to the eighties montage, and I was
trying to do the same thing. And then oh, and
then I was going to do something where someone uses
the Goonies statue that like the statue of David that
as a weapon. In the same part you had a
whole break off of it, sick. So that was what
I was going.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
To Okay, so now we have like an alternate headcanon
for that. I want to see that someday, maybe in
a short film. Who knows right? Right? All right, so
keeping it in the eighties but still kind of like
on the way to talking more about Predator, Like I
want to know, like, what was your first contact with
the Predator franchise? And he walked me through kind of
like your emotional connection to it.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
I was in a I was in third grade in
a carpool on the way to a karate tournament and
all this, and it was it was a couple of
kids from my grade and then a couple of sixth
graders in the back, and they had all just seen
Predator and so they described the entire entire.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Moved for a word. Wow.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
So I wasn't allowed to see it, okay, So I
was just eating up everything. So really the first time
I saw it was in my own imagination. Wow, that's crazy.
And then when I first watched it, keeping it very eighties.
When I first watched it with a friend of mine,
we had this ritual of renting a movie and then
having the Mad Magazine parody of the movie along with us.

(28:05):
So we like went seen by scene and paused the
movie and then read the parody of it, and then
turned the page and un paused and like just went
from parody to parody.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
So that's pretty sick. Yeah, I love that. I think
the first time I saw Predator. I think I was.
I want to say I was like eight years old
and I'm way too young.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
That would have been in the third That was when
I wanted to and wasn't allowed to.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
My grandmother did not care. You know, I don't know.
I think it was because Arnold was in it, and
like I think it's because, like I think I saw
it without her knowing. I saw it and I came
that quoting and already so at that point she was
just like, oh, got well, he's already like fully into it.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Does it a blow your mind where you like, I
can't even hear.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Honestly, it's my favorite. It's my second favorite action movie
of all time under Terminator Judgment Judgment Terminator two. Yeah,
but it's my favorite monster of all time. And that's
what kind of like drew me in. Was this like
creature that can hide in the shadows, like it mimic them.
And the way I just Predator always was that it
was a serial killer movie, not unlike like Friday the Thirteenth,

(29:06):
but you replace the campers and teenagers with the most
macho men you could think of, and you put them
in that situation, and that was just so different for me,
like seeing these grown men just like terrified and being stalked. Yes,
like I didn't know it at the time, but that
just like completely changed my view of what like an
action horror could be.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
And the thing that they were up against was not
a force of nature or a force of destruction like
Jason or Freddie or Michael Myers. It was something that
was intelligent, that had skilled, that had culture, that had
a code.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean it bled, which is what makes
the line if it bleeds, we can kill it, so
so so great. Yeah, So I think it's really cool
how like you know, Predators kind of persisted through like
pop culture. Like I literally have a I want to say,
it's like a three foot Predator statue of the original
Predator so in my house just chilling there. But for you,
I've already said this, You're like almost the Daveloney Kevin

(29:56):
Fige of the Predator universe. You've expanded it, You've added
new thing that like most people wouldn't have thought of
outside of like comic book continuity. So what does it
feel like getting the keys to this iconic franchise and
do you feel that like you've like earned a cachet
to kind of just do whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
No, I mean, those guys have really done quite a
bit in those universes I've now made. We two have
come out and one is about to. So I hope
that people embrace it and certainly can feel that I
am slowly fleshing out more of a universe than than

(30:36):
and letting these movies connect to each other than they
ever had before, yet still approaching them in somewhat of
an episodic nature, and still letting each movie be its
own cool core idea for a movie, rather than two
movies down now and could have been like Prey and
it could have been Pray two, Pray three, and it

(30:57):
would have been the same story kind of told in
a new skin.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
And that's not what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I really wanted to delight people with the same kind
of surprise that we got in nineteen eighty seven. Yeah,
And also, as you said, really really find it challenging
to watch so much the great television that we have
because I feel like I got to do homework before
I watch.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
And the Marvel Superior, and that.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Is just not the case at all with what we're doing.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Well.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
I appreciate that to be honest, like as much as
I love kind of like you know, this synergy of
like TV and movies and we're in the golden age
of TV right now. I think like people who want
to get in on the ground floor or like the
barrier for entry to these type of franchises is getting
harder and harder now, right And I really appreciate, like,
you know, the Predator franchise, like even though they are
connected and you can't connect them and you get a

(31:48):
much more rich story like viewing experience. I think anybody
could come in on anyone. And I believe you said
this about like the Dark Knight trilogy, like you can
watch The Dark Knight without having watched Batman because right, so,
I feel like the Predator franchise, I can come in
on Killer of Killers without having seen Pray, right and so,
but there is a link between Predator bat Lands and Prey,

(32:09):
very small link, but I really love this. One of
my favorite genres of all time is the coming of
a genre and Pray was a great example of that
in the Predator universe. But you have some of that
in Predator bat Lands as well. Can you talk to
me about creating a coming of age film? With a
predator at its center.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, I mean I think I just happen to be
so fueled by an underdog story, by someone trying to
prove their worth and I and not only is that
like of personal interest to me, but I think that's
one of the most universal kind of stories you can tell.
And we really want to find allow people to access
the emotional story of a monster. And there was a

(32:49):
long time of going back and forth between does he
wear a mask the whole movie? Do we at one
point shatter the mask so it's just covering half his
face so you could see his eyes, you know, And
it all was very cool, but I felt like, you
know what, man, the thing, the bolt swing we're taking.
If we cover it up, then we're not fully embracing,

(33:12):
like people are going to stare at the face of
a monster and find a little bit of themselves in it.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
I didn't want to cop out in any way. So
we just worked hard at setting the stage in the
first fifteen minutes and creating a scenario in which he
was really up against as brutal as as Deck is,
He's up against something far more ferocious, both emotionally and physically.
So we can find ourselves rooting for him to overcome

(33:41):
you know, what he's dealing with.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
And that planet is like pretty brutal and pretty great.
The things he goes up against is absolutely insane for
a predator to deal with. So it's fun to see
a predator on the ropes, right, It's so different. Last
question I want to get to, because I believe we're
running out of time, is that I feel like you
are extremely courage in making a movie like this. And
the reason why I say that is because predators as

(34:03):
we know them are, like I said, usually the ones
on top, they're very dangerous, they're very like badass, and
Deck is still very bad ass, but he is a
very I don't want to say human character, but you're
adding a human element to an inhumane character. Talk about
finding the courage of taking that risk, of taking a
character that's so bad ass usually and making him a

(34:24):
little bit.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I think it comes from I think what we love
in movies is watching things try. I think that's kind
of the secret sauce to the Mission Impossible franchise is
it's really it's not all about just seeing him be
awesome the whole time. In fact, more of the case

(34:45):
it's seeing him try to be awesome and failing and
try and failing and try. It's just a pleasurable experience
and it's be invigorating because that's what the way that
we experience our challenges. Think of Diehard, to think of
Indiana Jones, Right, The power is in them trying. It

(35:06):
makes the action more fun as a spectacle, as a
piece of choreography. But also you can't help but.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Root for that.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
So that is what really fueled that thinking for for Deck.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah, it reminds me a lot of the Hallway Fight
and the Daredevil season one series where he's like exhausting
and he's fighting one and it's that human element of
him trying to succeed. That's what makes that scene so amazing. Yeah, Dan,
thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you.
It's awesome, man, very cool. What's going on? Everybody? It's
your boy, Juj Green aka straw had Goofy. You're a
movie guy, and welcome to another episode of Get Wrecked

(35:41):
with straw had Goofy. What you just heard and or
saw was an interview with director of Predator Batlance Dan Trashnenberg.
That man is fucking killing it with everything that he's
doing in the Predator universe right now. I've been calling
him the Dave Faloni and the Kevin Vaigi of the
Predator verse. Right now, he is absolutely just on a
tear right now. And we got a special episode for

(36:01):
you guys today. We're gonna be talking all about Predator.
We're gonna be breaking down the Predator movies. We're gonna
be breaking down the new Predator films. We're gonna give
you a quick review of Predator bad Land, some of
the Dan Trachtenberke inspired and led movies that he's done
so far. Craig hasn't watched all of them, but we're
gonna get him caught up. We're gonna talk about it.
But I think what we should do right now is

(36:23):
just like really just say hell yeah, like cause I'm
a big Predator fan, Like I have a I was
gonna say six foot. It's not six foot, it's like
a three foot now, is it three foot? I'm bad
at like measurements. I'm really bad. It's two of these.
It's like two of these, maybe two and a half
of Predator statue in my house and I love it.

(36:46):
I walk in, I look at that damn thing, and
I just kind of stare at it. I just changed
the head since I got it. Usually I have the
predator mask on, but now I have the full like
predator mean face, the ugly motherfucker face. So I did
it because I didn't want to scare my daughter. But
now she's like, you know, she's a little bit more
grown up. She sees it. She's not scared. It looks great.
But huge Predator fan, always have been. And I just

(37:09):
saw Predator bad Lands at the world premiere two days ago,
and it's it was my second time seeing it. Phenomenal work.
It's phenomenal work. It is different, which we'll get into
later in this pod than like what we're used to
from the Predator franchise. It's a big swing, big ass
swing because this is obviously the first time that a
Predator is the protagonist of the movie. But before we

(37:33):
get into that, like full review and everything, like, I
know you're a little bit behind Craig, Let's go to
the Craig cam real quick. Of the Dan Trachenberg movies
outside of Prey, you saw.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Pray, saw Prey, Loved Pray.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's incredible. I think Pray is up there with the
original predator, and we're gonna do a ranking further down
in this podcast, and we're gonna find out whether the
original predator or prey is one or two. So that's
a little spoiler, but it's one or two. It's constant
fighting between my one or two. We'll see where it
lays today. I labored over it this morning. It was
a hard choice, but I made it, and it might
change tomorrow, but that's gonna be the ranking as of

(38:07):
this episode today. But Pray was just so phenomenal. Like
Dan Tratchiberg, who directed ten Cloverfield Lane, he also directed
it the first episode of The Boys as well. I
didn't know that, and he was also set to direct
an episode the final season of Stranger Things as well,
which was a scoop I got for him in that
interview that you guys who are listening just heard Craig

(38:27):
just now finding out about this. Yeah, but he was
supposed to direct that, and we'll get into that a
little bit later. But when I saw Pray for the
first time, I went to the premiere back in twenty
twenty two, and it was twenty twenty two or twenty
twenty one. It was one of my first premieres, and
I was shocked that that movie wasn't getting a theatrical release.
Like that movie deserves the theatrical release right like it,

(38:47):
like the landscapes, it shot on location, The cinematography is amazing.
The stakes are huge, but it's also very personal. It's
also a very emotional film, a familial film, and Amber
Thunder just comes out the gates swinging with this like
badass action role. I believe she is the sec She
is the second female protagonist in a Predator movie. I

(39:09):
would say like headlining female protagonists because Predators has had
one as well. I can't remember the actress's name, but
we cannot forget about Queen Snihila Than an alien versus Predator.
Not gonna count that in the Predator rankings. We're just
gonna talk solo. But still I will count Sonila Than
as a Predator like protagonist. But Narusa first want to
headline a solo Predator film, and it's She's great. She's

(39:33):
like Balls of the Wall amazing. That final scene which
he takes on that predator in the muck, in the
in the snow, in the at night, killed It's killed.
Bro killed it for the amazing killed it, right. But
I think the coolest thing about Prey right was that
it was essentially a coming of age movie disguised as
a predator movie.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
It's about a woman who basically like wants to be
a hunter, Like, you know, she wants to be I
don't want. I'm not sure she wants to be chief,
but she wants to be recognized as a competent hunter.
And honestly, what we're seeing in the movie is that
she is better than a lot of the hunters there.
But because she's a woman existing in the sixteen hundreds,
they look at her and they just say, like, hey,
go pick some berries, go do some healing, listless, just
stay in your lane real quick. And the Predator was

(40:15):
like a real cool way to introduce I don't want
to introduce, but the Predator was a way to basically
show just how capable she is not only to her tribe,
but to herself as well. And her relationship with her
brother was really cool. Like I still remember that scene
where he takes on the Predator by himself and he's
got his own moment, but obviously he doesn't make it
to the end, and his last words to her is

(40:37):
bring it home, right, and like there's a lot of
like ties that goes into the other Predator movies. But
I really do think that Prey is one of the
best Predator movies. And honestly, it was one of the
best movies of twenty twenty two or twenty twenty one,
whenever that came out. Like, I think that was one
of the best movies of the year. I cannot stop
talking about it when I was making tiktoks, like, and
at one point I remember someone commentent and was like, damn,

(40:57):
you're still talking about Prey. I was like, yeah, there's
a lot and I love it, so like that was
really cool. But yeah, man, Like I had a chance
to meet Dan Pratcherberg on a couple of occasions. I
actually like linked up with him at San Diego Comic
Con and it was a shot because he actually recognized
my work and like he actually like watched my videos.
He's like, yeah, man, I've been waiting to talk to

(41:18):
you for a long time. And anytime you hear that
from a director who makesh it, you love you.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
It feels good.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
It feels good.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
It feels good.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, right, and so like, and this was at a
Predator bad Lands event. It was like I can't. It
was at the hard Rock Cafe and we just sat there.
We talked about Predator. We geeked out about it. He
introduced me to the actor who's playing the Predator in
this new movie, Demitrius. I'm gonna like butcher his last name.
I want to say it's Almani or something like that.

(41:44):
I said it right yesterday, but it's Demitrius. He's amazing.
Got to talk to him for a little bit, and
he's just a super down the earth dude. He's a
big geek, big old nerd. Saw him again at this
event at Disney Studios where they showed us the first
thirty minutes of the movie. We got to like sit
down and chop it up for like thirty whole minutes
of just talking about what we saw, what we're excited for.

(42:07):
Got to pick his brain about like what's he doing
in the franchise. And then, like I said, like as
you guys heard in this interview, like we just interviewed him,
had a nice, like twenty minute interview with him, nice
little sit down. We just talked about film. We talked
about the nature of this movie and like like this
new movie. That dude's just a real down to earth guy,
like and he has a great beard. And he has
a great beard. I'm always gonna respect you.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
I'm always coming. I know.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
It's what we do. It's our makeup, you know. So
it's like when the way girls want to be acknowledged
for their makeup. I feel like a man grows out
their beard so other men can comment on it. Right,
That's why I do mine.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Yo. The beard is looking good, thanks man, Yo, let's
look and appreciate it. Yeah, I saw what you.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
I got some shine on it. I bought a whole
bunch of new products recently, too, did you I did?

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Do you want to give him a shout out?

Speaker 2 (42:51):
I don't know the names. I just saw it and
I was like, this looks like it'll work on me.
And it's working so far. So next episode now, no sponsorship,
but we will shout out those products for sure. But
it got my beer looking nice, got it in shape,
love it. No stray hairs, even my gray hairs are
looking good. The little two gray hairs are kind of
behaving this time. But but yeah, so pray. Amazing piece

(43:12):
of work. But bro killer versus killers, you gotta watch that.
You gotta watch that behind, man, I mean, you're one
movie behind, your one movie behind, and I think you
before you go see bad Lands, I don't know if
you have time to see it this weekend when it
comes out, I think you should make that a double feature,
like watch Killer Killers at home right before you go
see Predator bad Lance. Not saying that because like they're

(43:35):
so interconnected that, like you know, you can't miss one.
Like Dan does a really good job of making these
very standalone and like you can watch them without having
seen any of the other pieces of his work. But
I do think, like if you just want to feel
caught up and like immerse in the world, because what
he's doing to expand the Predator universe is fucking insane, right,
and I think he does the best his best expansion

(43:58):
of the universe and Killer of Killers. So do you
know like the general like premise, I don't know the premise? Yes,
would you like me to tell you? And you know
how I'm about spoil you? So. Killer of Killers is
a triptick story. It features three separate short stories about predators,
very similar to Prey. How that was set in like

(44:20):
a like a pastime and you insert a predator into that.
He does that three times in Killer of Killers. So
the first one story is set in the Viking era
and it's about a Viking who's going on a path
of revenge and then a predator gets dropped into that
and then she has to take that on. And then
you have, uh, the second one, which is set in
feudal Japan, and that one deals with samurai and there's

(44:43):
a ninja in there and it has to do with
two brothers and like a predator gets inserted into that
as well. Then the final story, it's a World War
two pilot, an underdog World War two pilot who goes
against the predator that's also piloting a plane as well.
It's fuck, it's sick. Every predator is very distinctive to

(45:04):
like that time. The weapons are super unique. The action
is absolutely bonkers, like it is so well choreographed, so
well paced, and it has that like now I would
say classic across the spider versus animation style. So the
animation style is absolutely great, Like it looks like a
straight up like painting, like the landscapes, the cinematography. This

(45:24):
before K Pop Demon Hunters. I was like, this might
be the number one animated film of the year for sure.
Then K Pop Demon Hunters happened, and we know how
that turned out. I was still like, like, in terms
of like what film is better, I would probably say
Killer of Killers? What movie did I watch the most?
K Pop? Demon Hunters for sure, which is why I
probably put it in a number one. But Killer of
Killers it expands the universe because there is a surprise

(45:46):
fourth story that happens that I'm not gonna spoil. And
the post credit scene is like crazy when it comes
to the lore of the whole thing, and it makes
you rethink all of the other Predator movies that you've
watched so far. Right, it reminds you of a Predator
to Danny Glover when he walks into the trophy room
for the first time and you see that alien skull.

(46:07):
It's like that level of like, oh wow, this world's
actually way bigger than we thought. Right. So Killer of
Killers banger of a movie. I think he did that
movie this year too, and so he's basically going back
to back and Predator movies between Batlands and Killer of Killers.
But bro, it's good.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
So let me ask you out of all of those
stories in Killer of Killers. Do you think one of
them could have been singled out and made a full
length feature? Which one? Which one would you have said?

Speaker 2 (46:35):
I would say two of them for sure, Two of
them for sure. The Feudal Japan one because I love
some samurai and it reminded me of the scene and
Predators where the yakuza member fought that predator in the
fucking glat in the grass field. But just think about that,
but with great animation and like like there's also a
ninja in there at some point, Like that could have

(46:55):
been a whole movie by itself. But honestly, if I
had to choose bro probably that Viking one, a predator
versus a Viking, Like you dream about that type of
thing and you talk about it goes that sounds dope.
You watch it fucking amazing, And the story is so
self contained because I don't want to give too much away,

(47:16):
but there's a reason why this Viking woman is doing
what she's doing, and then the predator just kind of
like compounds onto that and so and I think that's
like the best type of stories when you have like
a base understanding of what the character is going through
and then you add whatever supernatural, alien or external force
to it, and then it takes it to the next level.
So I would say Viking first, then then the Samurai,

(47:39):
and then the World War two pilot. It's a good
as good as a short. I don't know how they
would expand that. It's like a full thing, but as
like you watch it, you're like, this is fucking it's
it's amazing. So okay, I'm in, Yeah, you're in. I'm
in Killer Killers, Bropton, It's dope. Now this leads us
into Predator Badlands right now. Again, you can watch Predator

(47:59):
Badlands without having seen Killer of Killers or even Pray Right.
But I gotta say this movie is different than any
other Predator movie that we've seen, mostly because the Predator
is the main character, right, and I know it takes
a lot of work to humanize an inhuman character. And

(48:21):
I saw my boy Sean Chandler, who we've had on
the show. He set this in a way better way
than I could have because I set this in my
review as well. It demystifies the Predator, right, We've always
seen the Predator as like the Stalker is like something
in the shadows, very mysterious. This one, this predator's got
issues when it comes to family. This predator has hopes,

(48:41):
this predator has dreams, this predator has a goal. There's
a predator language. Now there's a Yaucha language in this movie.
It's so fleshed out, and we get to learn more
about the culture of the Yaucha and the clans and
all those things. And in this movie, the predator is
no longer a thing lurking in the shadows, like it's
a character. Like his name is Deck and so like

(49:01):
we never had a predator named in a movie like
this before. So it's gonna take some getting used to
for hardcore predator fans, I will admit, however, once you
accept the movie on its terms of like this is
a coming of aide story about an underdog Yautcha, that
that shit is actually pretty dope. And this Predator inherently

(49:25):
is different than any other predator that we've seen because
he's the runt of his klan. He's smaller than most predators,
still very badass, still very capable in a fight, still
very sneaky, but he's still like compared to the other predators,
he has a lot to prove, right, So inherently, just
like visually, he's different than the other Predators that we've seen,
and so when you see him go on this story,

(49:46):
you know this is an underdog story. It's a coming
of aid story. It's a predator going on his first
hunt and he runs into thea who's a synthetic of
alien lore and she basically a system on this journey
to basically take out this unkillable beast on this planet
of death. And so it's again a predator with a sidekick,

(50:07):
which we saw in Alien Versus Predators. Not Lathan was
a sidekick in this situation. But again it's so different.
But once you like really accept this movie for what
it is, and I think new fans of the Predator franchise,
if this is your first Predator movie, you're probably gonna
really love this. But it will take some getting used
to on this one. As for me, I'm fucking on
board like I was on board with it, because again,

(50:29):
he still has the badass nature. The actor Demetrius is
doing all the stunts as well. I believe he's a
stunt man as well, so he's doing all the stunts.
Everything's like very much in camera. There are some scenes,
some fight scenes that are like Some are in camera
and they're really well choreographed and it makes you go, oh, damn,
that's really dope. But there are other fight scenes that
are a little too close up and it makes you

(50:50):
wonder what just happened, right, So like, there are some
things like that that just kind of like, you know,
I will critique, But the movie itself, it looks beautiful.
You could tell, for the most part, is shot on location.
There's a ton of Lord of the Rings type shots.
I think they filmed this in New Zealand, and I'm
just guessing that just from the shots that they had. Visually,

(51:11):
you know, I feel like the work that that was
done to the Yautja head, it was very well done. However,
my preferences lie in the older Predator designs that feel
a little bit more like a mask that you could
take off, that feel a little bit more like something
you could feel like if you touch it, you could
feel like those real practically like those real practical ones, right,

(51:32):
like you could feel the grooves and the skin and
everything and whatnot, the drool coming off of it. And
this one just kind of had a little bit more
of a shine to it, right, You could just tell
right from a side by side you get used to it.
It's almost like when you watched into the Spider Verse
for the first time and a lot of people wasn't
used to the animation style, so they had to adjust,
and now we're very much used to it and like

(51:53):
it's just commonplace. Now. That's the feeling that I got
watching Predator Badlands.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Oh and you were right.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
It's a New Zealand, New Zealand right in New Zealand. Yep, yep, see,
I know my locations like it. It looks that way,
like I'm really looking at it, like this is a
Lord of the Ring shot for sure, because again, this
is a big journey if I'm trying to find this
beast on this planet. So there's a lot of shots
like that that look amazing. One of the there's an
opening shot before the title sequence pops up. I was

(52:19):
just like, ah shit, Like it got a cheer from
the audience once it like appeared, So I can't wait
for you to see that. But yeah, so I feel
like a lot of the visuals work for what it is,
especially once you get used to it. Some little hiccups
here and there, Like I said, there's a little bit
too much of a shine to it. Maybe there's like
a little bit too. Some of the monsters look very
like Gumby. Like there's one monster that's like in a tree,

(52:40):
like going from tree to tree, and you're just kind
of like, okay, like I just have a negative reaction
to monsters with tentacles.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Is this a PG thirteen or are I think.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
It's PG thirteen? It can be are. There is some
blood and gore, but there are no humans in the
movie at all. Everyone's either a synth or a monster.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
And there's not a ton of predator death. There's some,
but you know, again, predators are aliens, so they if
it's a human that I think that will bump it
up to R. But PG thirteen thirteen.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
You know why I asked that because I have been
uh thinking a lot about how the monsters in some
of these movies feel a little bit more geared or softer.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So I was.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Thinking about the eternals and whatever that thing was.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
I forgot the yeah yeah yeah so.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
And and again, no shade, we love James Gunn but
I felt like in Superman.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
That yes, right, yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
It felt like it felt like it was it could
have just been good merch Yes, you know what I mean.
So I feel like there's been a softening of some
of these monsters in these movies one two, I think
maybe a line with a PG. Thirteen so a little
bit widely accepted. And then I've to see merchandise opportunities.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Yeah. So I've just been saying that I see what.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
You're saying, like and if that's that's kind of the
reaction that I had looking at Deck the Predator in
this movie, like you get he just seems a little
smooth to me. I want to when I see a monster,
I want to And again I'm not trying to compare
things to like a classic like this, but like as
close to John Carpenter's the thing as you can get right,
Like you look at it and you feel like you

(54:25):
can touch it, and when you touch it, you feel
just like all the cells and the and the grooves
and the skin and the hairs, and like, I I
like that bit of a of a tactile like thing.
And so I did what you're saying about these monsters.
They just feel very like Gumby. You could tell they're
just a little softer. It's a little softer, you know.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
And also the fact that you are now seeing these
antagonists and you're seeing them more. Yes, so now you're
getting accustomed to it versus like having flashes here and there. Yeah,
get it, like something that's a little a little bit
more dimly lit in the shot. So so yeah, it's
just like it becomes a little bit more palatable. And
I get that for people getting access to the films, yea.

(55:07):
But it also for those of us that enjoy a
little bit more of the horror, a little bit more
of that it takes it takes away from it, so
you better have a good story.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Yeah, And I feel like Predator Batalance accomplishes that, right.
That's the thing that it makes a four in spades
where the story just it's it's emotional and I never
thought I would be emotional in a story about a predator,
right or a yatcha. And I feel like the softening
visually of the predator. I was worried that people would

(55:38):
think that the predator is now soft if that makes sense, right,
And you don't want the predator be soft, like this
is the same thing that was introduced Battling Arnold Switzenegger
and Carl Weather's and some of those badass man to
ever grace an action movie scene, right, and then you
got Danny Glover who fights him, and you know, just
go down the list, like, I never really thought of
Adrian Brody this way. Adrian body got a six PA

(56:00):
for this for that role, right, just fighting Walton Goggins,
Lawrence Fishburn and shit. So I never thought that I
would get an emotional story about a small Yautja who
looks a little softer than the other ones, but he's
still again as badasses you want a Predator to be.
The fight scenes are dope. New weapons as well, like
Predator has some of like the best weaponry in like

(56:20):
movies ever. So I think I think, like bottom line,
Predator Badlands, great fucking movie, great fucking time. If you
love Predator, I feel like you would love this once
you get used to it. Uh, visually great. I feel
like they did a good job for what they could
when it came to like the mapping of the face
of the Predator itself. Yeah, man, I I highly recommend

(56:44):
Predator Badlands in the theater. It's it's dope, No.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
It's good man. I'm definitely gonna and I have to
go see, I was gonna say, because the way that
I'm set up, I can't.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
I need to see no way baking set up by
watching history is set up.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
I can't. I can't just go jump to the other
one to go get you. I had to coach this
a little bit of a tangent. But one of my
friends ended up watching like WandaVision right before she saw
any of the other Marvel.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Like her first thing, like her first thing.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
And I was like, exactly, I said that, And I
was like, and then she said she was At the time,
she was dating somebody who said, uh, yeah, Guardians of
the Guardians of the Galaxy three. I really identified with
Rocket and his story.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
And then she watched that with.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
No context or nothing, no backstory on her No.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
So what I did was I challenged her to go
back and watch all of the Marvel movies. She has
been making her way through each one and giving me updates.
She just watched age of Ultron.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Okay, Okay, she's making a way through, she's making it
away through. Okay, she still got Phase three to get through.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
Yes, I can't. I know. That's why I was like,
I can't wait till she gets there, because we know.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Yeah, we know. That's that's That's what I think about
when I think of like the peak of the MCU
to face p just it was like bangra like Phase
three was so good that Phase four had no chance,
like it had no chance to live up to it.
And it's I think Phase three is the reason for
the downfall.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Of It's kind of it's kind of like whenever you
have that conversation about what's the album that you could
play with no skips? Yeah, I feel like, yeah, phase three,
It's almost like it's almost like no skip.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
The lower ones is like like, yeah, I'm not I'm
not really skipping Doctor Strange, I'm not skipping even I'm
not even skipping ant Man of the Wass.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
I'm watching it.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
I'm watching that, like right, so yeah, but yeah, so
Predator Batlands, check it out, check out Killer Killers, and
you already know what Pray is like. Dan Trachenberg's run
has been absolutely phenomenal. Okay, so now we're going to
move into the ranking of the Predator films. Right here
we go. Now, obviously, I've been very open about like

(58:55):
the First Predator being one of my favorite action movies
of all time. I've always been a Predator fan because
of this movie, and every time there's a Predator involved movie,
I'm watching the shit of that, right, all of them.
So I've watched all of these multiple times, no matter
if they're good or bad. But I think it's about
time that we definitively rank these things. And I say
definitively even though my top one or two are gonna change,

(59:17):
probably by tomorrow, even when I leave the studio. So
but I'm gonna start from the bottom and then we're
gonna go to the top, all right, So starting for
the bottom. At number seven, we have the Predator. That's
someone directed by Shane Black. It has what's the guy's name?
I cannot. I feel so bad that I keep forgetting it.
Boyd boy Boyd Boyd Holbrook, Boyd Hobrook. I say he's

(59:41):
like Charlie Hunham, like you know what I mean, Like
he's been trying to get us starring role since like Logan,
I feel like he's been kind of like bouncing around.
Like he's not a bad actor, don't get me wrong,
He's just.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
He's killing it on the Morning show this season. He's
killing Yeah, his character, very complex character.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Yeah, I feel like he's in a Taylor Kitch mode
of his like life right now, where like remember what
Hollywood was really trying to push Taylor Kitch. It just
wasn't working. Like he's good, like.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
He's really good, He's a good Friday night, you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Know what I'm saying, and so like, damn, his gambit
didn't even his gambit didn't hit like it's was supposed to.
But I feel like he Boyd is in that like
kind of like pocket. Oh, I'm glad that he's like
having a good chance in the Morning Show right now.
But I just always wanted him to do well. But
the Predator was not it. The Predator was not it.
You had another actor that I really wanted to do well,

(01:00:35):
and Travonte Road, who was in Moonlight, He's in it.
Key and Michael Key is in this movie as well.
Olivia Mun's in it. Jacob Trimblay is in it. Oh
my god, why am I begging on his name? Sterling K.
Brown is in this movie. Bro, Like, there's so many
people in this movie. Shane Black's the director. It was
set up for success and it was just bogged down

(01:00:58):
for so many reasons. We think one of the main
runs is like studio interference. It just it just did
not come together, like very badly timed humor. Uh, we
want to talk about CG. Like the CG Predator is
just god awful. The blood is awful. It just looks
like oohz popping out of like body parts and things
like that. It just doesn't it just doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I mean it just looking at the cast and then
with Shane, it's like, are you ever going to be
able to get this collection of people together again? They
get together and then unfortunately it just didn't land the
way that they wanted to know. But I don't think
there were bad performances. It just did not feel like
there was a real alignment around.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
The Everyone feels like they're in a different movie. Yeah,
everyone feels like they're a very different movie. Key and
Michael Key is in like a parody of it, him
and the Latino dude that like they're like the best
friends in the troupe and they just feel like they're
just doing like a comedy thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Yeah. The tone of the movie, the tone of the
movie is just all It was all over the place,
and that was the thing. And like I said, it
could have been studio notes yeah, need to. Maybe there
were some reshoots and then they figured. I don't know,
but yeah, I love everybody. I love everybody in the movie,
but just didn't love that project.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Not to mention the whole like, Oh, this kid who's
like it has eighty HD or dyslexic, is like, oh,
it's actually a secret like thing where he could read
the Yautcha language and stuff like that. It's actually a superpower.
I didn't know how it felt about that. I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:26):
I felt like another movie that we've seen before. Yeah,
what was that movie with There was one with Alec
Baldwin back in the day and it was a kid in.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Uh No, I was gonna say it was a movie
with a Jennifer gard with the green kid, but not
that one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
Mercury rising Is never saw it. Yeah, it was one
of those. It was was this Bruce Willis too, Yeah,
Bruce Willis Alec Baldwin and it was it was that
kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Okay, yepkay, Well that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Was one of those.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Did it hit then? Was it good?

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
It was on HBO all the time. It was one
of those. So if you're of a certain age you
saw this movie. Yeah, yeah, you're supposed to have to
protect the kid because they wanted to grab him and yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yeah, okay, well didn't work here. In The Predator, one
of my favorite seedes The Predator, though it's so fucking stupid.
It's when Sterling K. Brown, like, I think they all
all the good guys and the bad guys decide to
like get to the ship and like escape the super Predator,
the super Predator. Sorry, that's just so stupid. And so
they're escaping and sterlet K. Brown outfits himself with the

(01:03:32):
classic Predator shoulder blaster, right, and in the middle of
just the scarmish of them running from this predator, he
turns around and it's like it's not even like a
moment that is like it's like it calls attention to itself.
It kind of happens, is like a fly by, like
if you blinked, you didn't know what happened to Sterling K.

(01:03:53):
Brown in this movie. But he is running, he looks
at the Predator, tries to use the canon to shoot
the predator. The cannon aims at his head and blows
his head up. And the movie never has anyone acknowledge it.
It doesn't acknowledge it. You just see Starla Kate Brown
Goo and that's that's it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
And then we're just gonna keep that's fine, and it happens.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
So that's a scene where it happens to multiple characters.
A lot of characters just get off one by one
by one by one by one. It's such rapid succession
that I was like, that was only a two minute scene.
What happened?

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
Like this is one of those movies where you wish
they did a documentary on the production of the film
to figure out how to watch that. Yeah, I would
watch it too, because again, stacked cast, we love Shane.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
And how do you get rid of Sterling k Brown
like that? No, like that, he was like the main
antagonist outside of the Predator and he just.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Yeah, just like that, just so wild.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
It was wild, all right? So that was our number seven,
number six. We talked about this a little bit Predator too.
I have said, like I haven't really revisited Predator two
as much as any of these other films. I think
the last time I actually watched Predators, who was like
seven eight years ago something like that. We loved Danny Glover,
we respect always he's he's basically the Bruce Willis of

(01:05:11):
the Predator franchise, because he's not like the buffest guy.
He's not the most like, I don't want to say macho,
but he's not on a Swartzenegger. He's not what Adrian
Brody was portrayed to be in Predators. He's just a cop,
like a guy. You could tell he eats donuts, you
could tell you could you can tell that he enjoys
a good donut. But he somehow gets like gets one

(01:05:34):
over on the Predator like and that was the that
was what made Diehard grade. It was a very everyman
type of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
You know. I wonder if there was inspiration drawn from
that second Triple X movie with ice Cube, because this
is kind of the same kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Yeah, well didn't this come out first though?

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
No, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Oh, like maybe was inspired by this.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
Yeah, it's like, hey, we ended up pivoting U the
protagonists and very different archetype than the original protagonist. So
it's a sequel that feels new all the way around.
Now you have the city scaping versus the jungle because
it was eighties l a.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Yes, yep, which is a whole urban.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
One yeah, which is a whole other thing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
Right, So my favorite and look up the poster for
a Predator two because I feel like the tagline is
something hilarious. I feel like the tagline has something like
Predator ghost Urban or something like that. I do remember
being something weird.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
It's not as bad. It looks like it's hunting season
opens again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Hunting season opens again. It's not that one. It's not
I'm gonna I remember seeing a tagline.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
Let me see, I was run through all of them.
There's a couple of them here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Yeah, you're already laughing at one.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
He's in town with a few days to kill.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
That one, that one that is like bro like that
was a tagline for Predator too.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
He's in town with a few days to kiss Predator.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Two, Like, on what hand? On what hand? There is
a bit of cleverness like to it, right, like a
few days to kill kill So I get it, but
like to make it seem like the Predator is like
on a business trip, like auto vacation. He's in town
with a few days to kill.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
Oh and you know what, so don't forget there was
the time jump situation because this was supposed to be
taking place in la in nineteen ninety seven. Yes, so yeah, so,
but it was eighties, la, yeah, in ninety seven.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
Well this movie came out of what ninety two something like.

Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
That, ninety ninety yeah, so production.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
But I think but I like what you said about
like you know what if like you know, Triple X
State of the Union was inspired by this one. I
think the reason it was what it was is because
mc tiernan, who directed Diehard, also directed the original Predator,
So maybe they tried to go through like, oh, let's
do a mg tieranan thing and put every man at

(01:07:59):
the four front of this movie, which is like fine, but.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
Yeah, when you have a formula that's been wildly successful,
you're just gonna try to run it back, right, Just
run it back?

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Yeah, just run it back.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
Yeah, but that one, I mean, but I was glad
to see us up on there though.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
That's why for that, And I feel bad for not
watching it enough. But I feel like I paid my
dues by watching some not Latean and Alien for Predator.
I think I paid my dues. You gotta pay your
due sometimes, man, you gotta pay your due sometimes. So
the last thing I want to say about Predator too
is I think the reason why I don't watch it
as much is because it always reminds me of Jason

(01:08:38):
Takes Manhattan. He's like he goes to like, well, how
do we put a dangerous figure in a city? Like
that's the that's the thing. He's in the city now,
because the big part about Predator was like he was
in the jungle. He was hunting in the jungle. So
let's go to the concrete jungle. It's like the most like, oh,
sequel thing you could.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
Do, very very trophy, trophy, very sequel last.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
And then you have like this weird like shaman guy
that like that's in the movie as well. It's just
a lot of weird things like happening in Predators.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
I just remember this is one of those ones again, HBO.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
It was just just play it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
This is this is the difference now, Like we were
all watching this because there was so many like limited
ways to actually and everything, but it was on, So
if it was on, it was on for all of us.
We're all watching it. And that's why we all know
these movies.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
That's why we watched Baby Boy a thousand times because
it was on BET every single day, every day, all right.
So coming in at number five, we have Predators and
I like Predators. I like Predators a lot. Is it
the best of a franchise, not by any stretch, But
it was the first Predator movie to it came out

(01:09:48):
after a VP, but I'm not counting the a VP
movies in this one. But it was the first solo
Predator movie that truly did like expand the lore of
it all. It took it off planet. We got to
see new aliens, we got to that there was actually
two different types of predator. And I love how Laurence
Fishburn has that scene where he says it's like the
difference between dogs and wolves, where the big ones hunt

(01:10:09):
the little ones. And I'm like, oh shit, Like there's
a predator for the predator, Like there's Yautcher for the Yaucha.
Like that was really cool to me. And the concept
of the Yautja taking the most dangerous killers on Earth
and hunting them on a game preserve on an alien planet.
That is a badass idea. That is a badass idea.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
I love that movie unapologetically. This is not like a
guilty pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:35):
I think it's just it's a good movie. It's one
of those movies. And I don't know, my friend and
I used to talk about it. It's like one of
those Sunday movies. You can put it on on a Sunday.
You're watching it, maybe if you've seen it a few
times already, maybe you fall asleep and you wake up
and you just pick right back up and you know
exactly what's going on. It's just one of those things. Yeah,
I watched it at least once a year.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
I watch it. So I watched it like at least
once a year too, maybe twice a year, because like
it's action packed. It's really cool. I think all the
actors do a great job. But Hersha Ali's in this movie,
Walton Daggins, who's always one of my top man on
top actors. Yeah, Like Lawrence Fishburn's also in it as well.

(01:11:14):
Like this has a stack cast and uh, one of
my favorite scenes, and I alluded to this when we
were talking about Killer of Killers is the yakuza member
who like basically whips out of sam uh uh Katana
and he goes head up with the predator in the
grass and not only does he like beat the predator,
he goes out like he dies too. It's like a

(01:11:36):
cool little like moment, and like I think that's one
of the best moments in like predator history. And I
think it's because of that moment that Dan Patcherberg put
a samurai storyline in A Killer of Killers.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Also that actress name was Louisa.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
He's great, it's amazing, it's awesome, And uh, let's talk
about that reveal to really quickly, the Telfer Grace reveal,
because for the whole movie, you think Tofer Grace, of
all people, who's also kind of coming off of like
nobody liking him is like any Brocket, like everybody's like.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
Oh, you can't be This felt like a sequel to that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
It felt a little bit and it was like, Oh,
he's not gonna be like intimidating as Eddie brock But
I like that this was a different type of intimidation
factor for him. That works for him, right, because for
the most part, he's in this movie just kind of
like I don't know what I'm doing here, Like I'm
here with all these like hardened killers and criminals and
yakuza's and cartail members and nah, and then that reveal

(01:12:32):
where he's actually like a serial killer. Yeah, it was
the dexterification, the justification of Tofer Grace. He was Dexter.
They dropped that. I didn't even think about it, Like
they dropped Dexter in a Predator movie, and I thought
that was so cool. And the fact that, like I think,
I can't remember if this was like because of him
or if he found this on the planet, but he

(01:12:54):
found this poison and he knew immediately how to employ
it against the people. I was like, this man's like
a monster at like an actual predator, and so he
became like the surprise like villain of the story. And
I thought that was just I thought that was a
really great reveal.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
Yeah that casting, it was good casting.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Yeah, So I thought that was fantastic. There's a lot
to love about Predators. A lot of people think that
Adrian Brody was miscast. I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
Like, I don't think so either.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
Maybe it's because like maybe it's because that I wasn't
really I can't remember the last time I saw Adrian
Brody in a movie before that. I know I've seen
him in movies before that, but I didn't have this
type cast notion of him in my head where I
see him and only think of this one thing. I'm like,
bro if you got a six pack and a gravelly
voice with a machine gun. You could be a you

(01:13:44):
could be somebody tough.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
I'm trying to remember and I can check if this
was before or after his uh Peter Jackson King.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Kong, this is, this is after King Kong, this is,
and this is that he was pretty cool in King
Kong too, like so, like I I think that was
like a good one to one for me.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
Well, that was the thing he was breaking type because
he had constantly been in these Oscar Yeah I don't
want to say Oscar bait, but obviously writing the Oscar,
putting him in these these films, and and then he's
kind of breaking character and just or breaking that archetype
of just saying like, hey, I want to be I
want to be an action star.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
Right. I wasn't. I wasn't as yeah, yeah, I wasn't
as tapped in with him to like know he was
breaking type. I was just introduced to him in the
process of that, so I just was just kind of like, oh,
he's he's action guy, right, so uh and like he
did like one under while, but I thought it was
cool how like he did the Arnold thing and like
covered himself in mud and I was just kind of
like cool.

Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
Best Actor winner will be the lead in your science
fiction quasi horror film. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna,
you're gonna get you might cast back, Yeah, you might
cast them yeah, right right, right exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
He's gonna bring back the Predator franchise, right, And you know,
I don't think it like fully did that. But what
I got was a pretty enjoyable like Predator film, great
action sequences, really great concept and I feel bad when
anybody like died. Walton Goggin's death scene still is like
pretty like fucked for me. I was like, damn, like
he got the classic like spine rip and something tells

(01:15:13):
me that he acts for that. I think he said
I'll only do this movie if I get my spine
ripped out.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
We need to ask Paul to make that connection. I
would love to have this studio so.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
Many like, come on, hateful aid, what's that one that
he's doing right now? Not portal fuck Fallout? Fallout is
great in like he's great. Also, White Loaders, I gotta
watch White loads Have.

Speaker 3 (01:15:34):
You seen none of them or you just haven't seen
the season none? Okay, yeah that could be.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
But he's really good man. All right. So after Predators,
and I know I talked this movie up, but I
think this just kind of speaks to I think this
just kind of speaks to how many good predator movies
there are now, right. I think we're now in this
mode of we have more great predator movies than bad ones.

(01:15:59):
And that's all He's to Dan Tratchenberg. Now, but I'm
gonna put Predator bad Lands at number four, and this
is like, you know, me staving off recency bias. I
still love the movie very much. I'm kind of fighting
with the number three on here, and that's it's gonna
give it away. But like these movies both came out
in the same year, so I'm gonna have to like
really reevaluate where do I think which one goes where?

(01:16:22):
But as of right now, Predator bad Lands is my
number four, and I think it's exactly what I said.
I'm kind of reconciling with the fact that it's different
than what I've seen in a predator movie before, Like
I'm getting used to the idea of seeing a predator
in this way, this type of predator movie that's more heartfelt,
that has a little bit more of a story that

(01:16:43):
has that makes a character out of a Predator. It
just feels off to the side of that, right, It
demystifies what we know the Yatja to be. So that's
the only reason why it's at number four, Whereas like
the other three movies above, it give me what I've
all mans gotten from a Predator movie and why I
fell in love with the Preader movies in the first place.

(01:17:03):
So that's that's why it's that number four for me.
But Predator Badlands number four, number three, Killer of Killers.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
And come okay, like I said, I will, I will
report back.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
Yeah, I will get your rankings like Mius those two. Yeah,
But Killer of Killers, like again, it gives me what
I get from usual Predator movies. It puts it in an
animation form that that amazing Spider Verse style animation. And
then also, like again, it gives me that times three.
You get three Predator stories and different time periods, and

(01:17:37):
each story you really feel for the character at the
center of that story, and each Yatcha is very distinct,
and it's just it's fucking awesome, And all of them
have callbacks to previous movies as well. So I think
Killer of Killer is like, I think it needs to
be talked about a little bit more. But I think
it because it came out on Hulu. Like not everybody's
talking about it, but it is one of the better

(01:17:58):
films in the Predator franchise period. It's a top three
for sure, or I should say it's a top three conversation.
It's in the top three conversation number two and again,
so three and four fight for supremacy and two and
one are fighting for supremacy. But my number two as

(01:18:19):
of right now is the Original Predator.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
Oh okay, the Original Predator okay.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
And the reason why again, I was laboring over this
all morning, all last night, and I feel like the
reason why I say this is because the Original Predator,
as great as it is, as much of a classic
as it is, it feels like a movie of its time.
Now I will say that it deconstructs those movies of

(01:18:47):
its time, right, very macho eighties men like shooting machine
guns and like, you know, saying these one liners. Like
in the movie has a ton of one liners, classic
one liners. Stick around, get to the choppa. You know,
if it bleeds, we can kill it. Something's hunting us
in there, and it ain't no man like you an
ugly motherfucker like so many quotables in this movie. It's

(01:19:12):
just it's what we come to expect from it. But
the reason why I love it is because it truly
feels like you take the concept of adjacent Vorhees on
Camp Crystal Lake and you replace the camp counselor with
these macho men and you create a serial killer type
of horror off of that, and it's so it's so

(01:19:35):
jarring in the best way possible to see the most
badass men assembled to get picked off one by one
the way they do. And that's where I feel like
Predator becomes the classic because it deconstructs what we know
the classic eighties action movie to be. That being said,
it still has those things and the number one, which

(01:19:56):
I'll just say right now is pray. It takes those
things and it almost further deconstructs what we know about masculinity,
gender roles, femininity and just what the and like also

(01:20:18):
adding the coming of age element to it, and personally,
coming of age is my favorite genre of movie, right,
and so when you take one of my favorite like
franchises and you put a coming of age element onto it,
and you take all these concepts of these things that
I just of these themes that I just mentioned. I
feel like you get a movie that like improves on

(01:20:39):
the original, and I mean, come on, you put a
woman in the role of like Arnold, and you like
basically like strip her bear, Like she doesn't have like
the most advanced weaponry. She has a fucking tomahawk, it
sticks and stones and shit like that, and she still
comes out on the top. You do a new version
of the Predator who's like who doesn't shoot plasma cannons
but he shoots bow and arrows. Like it's just really

(01:21:01):
cool things that are happening. That just slightly edges Prey
over the top, not the mention of the fact that
it also from a a cinematography standpoint, it looks beautiful,
like way more beautiful than the original Predator as well.
So it just has like these little edges over the
original Predator, whereas like Predator from nineteen eighty five, it

(01:21:23):
is the eighty five or eighty seven, I letna say
it's eighty seven eighty seven. You take that and like,
you know, it's great for its time and it does
its thing. But I feel like Pray just kind of
like improves on all those things. So I would say,
as of right now, Pray is number one, Predator number two,
Killer of Killers, bad Lands, Predators, Predator two. It dead

(01:21:48):
last the Predator. That's my official ranking of the Predator franchise.

Speaker 3 (01:21:54):
Okay, yeah, so here are my quick thoughts. Yep, I'm
still need to the Killer of Killers, so we'll circle up.
But I actually will say the og.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
Predator, Okay, number one, number.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
One, because this again built the world, understood the characters,
these dynamics, and again it's an It's a John mctarn
in yeah, eighties, and I mean it now. Again we're
not talking about amazing cinematography with this one. It just
it is a sci fi action movie starring the biggest

(01:22:32):
movie star in the world, arguably at that time. Right,
So what I would say is Pray and then Predators.
For me, I feel like Pray was a better film.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Pray and then Predators. So Pray number two, Predators number three.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
But I say that because I think Pray is a
better film. But I've watched Predators so many times because
it just has that rewatchability. For me, It's like Killer
is like, yeah, it's just one of those things. It
just has that rewatchability factor. And I will say some
of the movies that I love the most, maybe I've
only seen them one or two times. And then there's

(01:23:12):
some movies that I'm just like, I've seen them like
ten twenty times. Legit, they just you put them on
and don't even talk to me about Like Mission of
Possible three, like I've watched I watched that one the most.
So yeah, yeah, so it's just like one of those things.
So when I see that movie, that's why it's kind
of like third. So those are only shuffles that I have.
But I will say Pray, I think is the best

(01:23:36):
movie out of all of these movies that I have seen. Yeah,
I think the I really love the story. I love
bringing in the female lead. I love uh just arming
the protagonist in creating even more of an uphill battle. Yes,
I really. I just like the the the resolve.

Speaker 2 (01:23:56):
Yeah, I just from a physical standpoint, interpersonal standpoint, her brother,
like the people in her clan, her clan.

Speaker 3 (01:24:04):
And yeah, yeah, it's one of those things where the
complexities of being a woman in that time period is
still echoes. Yeah, And it's and it's here and women
are still experiencing the you know what I mean. So
that's so, that's what I'm saying. I really loved so
I felt like this was the best film and also

(01:24:28):
the best looking because of cinematography. Again, so anyway, those
are just my quick little thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:24:33):
Are good. Those are good, and I'm guessing like the
Predators last for you as well. Predator took the predator
Predator as it should.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
Be because I've watched Predators too, our Predator to excuse
me so many times. Yeah, and that does have a
weird rewatchability. But also I get a little nostalgic about
late eighties early nineties La looking. It's like, man, there
these things were shot in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
That nineties La movies.

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
It's so hi, bro, it's so interesting, it's so vib
any time.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
I watched pul fiction like, I'm there for like the
nineties of La.

Speaker 3 (01:25:14):
Yeah, it's like before because you're you're a local, I'm not.
So I'm seeing all this and then I move out
here and I'm like, wait a minute, that's the place
that I'm on that street. I go to that cafe.
There's a cafe there, there's you know this restaurant whenever
I used to live. But I've seen things shot literally
on the blocks I've lived on downtown, So there's always
that little nostalgia thing.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
I love that, especially when I watch the movies like
Don't Be a Minis and Friday and everything like nineties
la is like a whole vit. Every movie, bro, even
A demolition Man was the eighties, right, I think that
was early nineties early No, I'm sorry, nineties right, even
like that was set in the future, it still has
a nineties la vibe. Nineteen ninety three, it still has
it has that carry, has that that car. It's crazy,

(01:25:57):
so ninety I think I think we should do an
episode to just like location in film and like what's
the best location in what decade in film?

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (01:26:05):
I think that could be like very absolutely yeah. All right,
so now we've got our rankings out the way, well
in the episode with something a little fun. We're having
fun here anyway, But I thought of this idea of like,
who do you think has a good chance against the predator?
I got a list of names here, and you can
give me like we can like talk about some of

(01:26:26):
our like thoughts on how this fight would go all right.
I got a list of one, two, three, four, five names.
First one comes with it comes with the family, Don
Touretto and the Fast Family versus a predator. And this
is before we get started. This is they just met
the predator head up, fight like one way in, one

(01:26:48):
way out, no prep, no nothing. It's like who has
the best chance once a predator comes to knock in
to like take it out. I'm thinking of like the
because when you watch Killer Killers, you'll find that the
predator shows up and it's go time. It's not a
lot of Oh, we got to figure it out over
the course of a couple of days. It's like, nah,
it's here, what is What's what you're gonna do? All right?
So Don Soretto and the Fast Family they're on a run.
What's happening?

Speaker 3 (01:27:09):
All right? So I have to ask, kind of like
our other clips, Okay, which Fast Family are we talking about?
Are we talking about from the original movie? Are we
talking about Fast five? Are we talking about f eight?

Speaker 2 (01:27:21):
Who say I'm gonna say when they were operating the
best with each other, I'm gonna say Fast six because
Fast five they have to learn to like be with
each other Fast six. They're like, oh, we're the family,
we know our roles, we know we're.

Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
Yeah, they became a paramilitary exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:27:39):
So let's say the Fast six family.

Speaker 3 (01:27:42):
I think they win, Bro, you think they win the win.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
I don't think they win.

Speaker 3 (01:27:45):
I think they win.

Speaker 2 (01:27:46):
I do not think they win because I'm thinking, like
they'll they'll be able to dry fast Sure. I'm thinking
like Ted is the smartest one there, right, Like he's
not gonna have enough time to prepare for a fucking alien, right,
He's not gonna be able to study their tag and
do all this and be like because a lot of

(01:28:08):
times when they figure shit out, it's after something goes
wrong or after the initial run, and he says, oh,
they use this, they use that, we can combat it
with this or this, and that he's not gonna have
time to do that in this moment, right, So I
think we knocked edge off the board. I don't know, man,
Marie is the first one to die. No, well, Tyre
did have that whole moment.

Speaker 3 (01:28:25):
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. He's not gonna die.
That's gonna tell you he's not going to die.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
But this is that. But I'm saying like if this
is fast six Like.

Speaker 3 (01:28:33):
I think I like the chances. I don't I like their.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
Chances because I think I think those cars are blowing up.
I think the predator is firing unless they got bulletproof glass.
I think the predator is firing a spear, it's firing
a grenade. It's firing a knife through the windshield. And
they everybody done.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
Missing every time, every time, miss miss me every time.

Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
Hey, but hey guys, we got company. I could see.
I went if the Prayer is like driving a car,
like like a killer Killers He's gonna play.

Speaker 3 (01:29:07):
But bro, he's driving a Supra.

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
He's just like making a little click. That's he studied
their driving and he's like, I'm gonna do it all there, Like,
oh my gosh. I still think they got a chance.
I think Doblin the past family there they're cooked. Okay,
this one's more interesting. This is more of a recent hero.
But I can put him up there with like these

(01:29:30):
action stars. Now Smoke from Sinners, Sorry, sorry, Smoke, Smoke
is done.

Speaker 3 (01:29:41):
He's done.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
He's just a it's a rap rap because like I'm
thinking of him, like like seeing him with that Tommy
and the way he like mows down those guys. I'm like,
that's fucking like Tony Montana, that's fucking you know this,
that's like you know.

Speaker 3 (01:29:53):
But it didn't necessarily work out for him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
No, I did not. No, I did not. Plus, like
Smoke had a lot of help, he had a lot,
don't get right. He was quick with it when corn
Bread almost bit off his arm, the way he like
fired in his face like all that. Plus he's a
military man as well. He has a lot of like
skills that would put up a fight. He will probably
I think he will get to right hooks.

Speaker 3 (01:30:15):
It would be interesting. It would be interesting in the
same way as the boxer was interesting. And was that
Jason takes Manhattan on the top. Yeah, yeah, and then
but so that's what I'm thinking, Yes, my boy, was
Gas take the best shot. I just rewatched that scene.

(01:30:38):
That's why I was like, that's the top of mind, man.
But that's that's what I'm thinking.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
That's how that's how Smoke outlast.

Speaker 3 (01:30:45):
Ye Smoke would Smoke would would go out like I.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
Would see Smoke will like I think Smoke will get
to like good like.

Speaker 3 (01:30:50):
He gets some good shots.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
But it's done. Sorry, Smoke, all right, next one, This
one's more interesting too, because I feel like this man
is like a cockerroall. He just refuses to die. He
just so. He just finds a way. Mad Max and
Tom Hardy Mad Max from Fury Road. No chance, no chance,
no chance, Okay, thank you, No, I thought so too. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:31:09):
They had his asshole chained up.

Speaker 2 (01:31:12):
They chained him to the car. It's like, oh, yeah, you're.

Speaker 3 (01:31:15):
Right, it's some malnourished yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31:17):
Plus I think I think by that time he realizes
what's happening, like, it's already over for him. It's already over.
Like if he had prep time maybe, like if he
had like I like, if he was with a group
of people and a predator killed the people around him,
he would probably get away and be like, well what
the fuck was that? Let me figure things out. But
in a fight where it's like just him and the
predator is hunting him, no chance, no chance. Plus he's crazy,

(01:31:39):
he'll get distracted. He'll probably see like his dead daughter
and then like a spear comes through his face, like
right after all, right, ooh, this one's good. Ethan hunt.
He's got it. He's got his own gadgets. He could
fight he's crazy. He do the crazy studs.

Speaker 3 (01:31:56):
You did this one for me? Didn't because you know
how I feel about my boy. I know, always taken.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
Ethan always taking. I'm always taking a predator.

Speaker 3 (01:32:03):
Even over a predator. Okay, even over a predator.

Speaker 2 (01:32:05):
Okay, Yes, how does it happen?

Speaker 3 (01:32:08):
How does it happen? In every movie? He utilizes all
of his resources once he gets once he gets disavowed
and he goes robe. He always they always have to
kick his ass out everything, and he's like yo, then
he has to pull his resources. He figures it out.
Ethan has a man on the inside.

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
Oh he knows, he knows, knows. Yes, he'll bring up
the whole arnold thing, like, oh, there's something that happened
in the Congo back eighty seven.

Speaker 3 (01:32:35):
Yes, there's a there's a dossier. I'm trying to tell you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
Yeah, let's say like a first Mission possible that was ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:32:44):
Nine ninety Yeah, I believe it was Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:32:47):
Nine ninety nine. So he's got two Predator movies under
his belt. One time in l A. It came back
another time in the Congo, Like I could see him
getting the whole like file on it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:59):
He's he's he is going oh actually no ninety six.
And so he's just so resourceful and for somebody who
has nothing available, he always finds a way. So I
think if you just give him, if there's just like
a little crack in the door, he's going to get
in there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:16):
Okay. So I feel like old Ethan Hunt getting to
the door.

Speaker 3 (01:33:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Okay, So it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
Even matter old man strength and experience that listen, there
is no shortcut for experience. Okay, there's just none. So
I just think I think intellectually there is a great opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:33:34):
Okay, you know what after this new one too, where
he literally was like leagues under the sea with no
wet suit with the pressure and everything and ice cold
water and he still survived. Yeah yeah, man, yeah that
that dude.

Speaker 3 (01:33:47):
You think it's done.

Speaker 2 (01:33:48):
Ethan gets it, He gets it done. Okay. I can
see that you've You've won me over on that one. Okay,
this one is probably easy, but I think it will
be an interesting fight. John Wick cooked cooked, the cook
of the Predator. No, no, no, he's cooked. I don't
think he's cooked.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
He's cooked.

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
I don't think he's cooked.

Speaker 3 (01:34:07):
Manked. I appreciate the gunplay. I appreciate, I do, but
there is no amount of holding the predator in your
guard that you were going to win. But it's not happening.

Speaker 2 (01:34:22):
He has like an indestructible suit. He has an indestructible suit.
Plus I'm thinking of the fact that I truly believe
that at the end of john Wick, where he dies,
he's not dead. But when he dies, is he was
actually supposed to die in the first one?

Speaker 3 (01:34:38):
Right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
A lot of the punishment that he takes will kill
a normal man. But what makes him the Baba Yaga
is that will power. Right, this man has every bone
broken in his body. He's got him ah dreaming, he's
got he's got all these things that are He's a corpse.
He's a walking corpse. And only after he achieves his
full revenge can he allow himself to rest.

Speaker 3 (01:34:59):
But he's eating other men, but he's fighting other men.

Speaker 2 (01:35:02):
But he's not a man. He's a Bobba yaga.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
He's not a man with that like in his suit
suit that bulletproof.

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
Like, he's a Baba yaga with bulletproof.

Speaker 3 (01:35:13):
And you know how I feel about Keanu and in
the movies. I love I love the john Wick franchise. Yeah,
there's no way, man, bro, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
I saw him fall down two million flights of steps.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
I was just thinking about that.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
I was like, he couldn't even make it up the steps. Listen,
he went back, he went back back up and thought
more guys, and then I saw her fall off like
a five story building, hit eight things on the way
down and still was able to like, come on, bro,
Like I think that his willpower, like if the predator
killed his dog. You know what I'm saying. I think, Okay, okay,

(01:35:48):
what if the predator killed his dog?

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
That might it's a little more difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
It is difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
It's a little more difficult.

Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
That puppy was cute.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
It was cute.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
Puppy was cute.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
Because remember he was fighting dudes off of willpower. He
was like, you don't want to do this, right, but
they can't sucking with him. But now you give him
a reason.

Speaker 3 (01:36:06):
But no one turned invisible.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
This is true. This is this is true. This is true.
Can john Wick detect people that are perceivedly not there?
This is this is a good thing.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
This is what I'm saying. I just think that this
is where the sci fi aspect kicks and gives Predator
the edge.

Speaker 2 (01:36:26):
But you know what, he will find a way, Like
what if he like hit a fire extinguisher or some
ship you know, or a or a steam pipe you know,
job will.

Speaker 3 (01:36:38):
You always bro there's always there is.

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
Goes invisible. He'll just go you think you're out of
my sight when really you're just in mind. He'll say
some dumb ship like that. That's just how he low
to me. Oh yeah, I thinking god back, Yeah, you know,

(01:37:11):
I think I think he finds a way to come
out on top of a Predator. I think it will
be one of the more interesting matchups.

Speaker 3 (01:37:17):
Well that's what I'm saying. I think it'll be probably
the most interesting match up. Yeah, but I don't see him.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
I mean this is interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:37:25):
Yeah. I think you should ask Keanu next time you see.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
Him, Honestly, I should. I think he would John Wick
or I think he would like fucking love that question,
because like I'm thinking, like if if John Wick was
in his Because the cool thing about some Predator movies again,
we saw with Danny Glover one of the characters, I
would say the World War two pilot and killer Killer
is so unlikely to go up against the predator. But

(01:37:47):
what the movies do really well is that they use
the smarts that they have in order to outsmart the predator,
versus being portrayed as like a Mary Sue in Away
where they just know how to do everything right. So
I feel like John Wick, like he would use his
smarts to be like, Okay, this is what I'm fighting
in real time, not like oh yo one day and

(01:38:08):
then come back in real time. He's like, okay, this
is clearly an alien. He fucking turns visible, like he
uses night vision. Bro. Once he finds out that he
looks through night vision, I think it's a rap.

Speaker 3 (01:38:19):
But see the thing I look at. I look at
the John Wick situation also like how you will look
at maybe some fighters. I don't know if you're in
the boxing or MMA, but there are some fighters where
they make their mark as far as their careers are
concerned by being able to take punishment and eat all
the shots and then eventually, then eventually when but when

(01:38:41):
you have a certain type of opponent that he might
not be able to eat all their shots, and eventually
one of those things is going to land, and then
it's a wrap, and that's how this episode. So that's
how I'm looking at it. It's like, there's only you
could take abuse from all these people in the cars
and you're falling off the building. And I get that,
but we're talking about an invisible alien.

Speaker 2 (01:39:04):
Come on, man, listen. This killin is also willing to
throw hands. Yes, and I think John Wick is gonna
bait him and to throw on some hands. And John
Wick small, he's like, you know, he can you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:39:16):
Predator's got good cardio, they got great card, great card.

Speaker 2 (01:39:19):
You don't talk about that enough.

Speaker 3 (01:39:20):
We don't.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
I've never seen a predator catches.

Speaker 3 (01:39:22):
They've never They've never got gas, never got never got gas.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:39:25):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:39:26):
So all right, well, agree to disagree.

Speaker 3 (01:39:29):
Say we can agree to disagree on that one.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
On that one, we gotta got to end the show, y'all.
Let us know what in the comments, who do you
guys think would take on a predator. I'm very curious
to see what you guys think on that topic, because
I think it's an interesting thing where Dan is now
saying like, let's put a predator against this and this
and this and that. So now I want to see
like actual cross over here, so we'll get that going. Guys.
That about wraps it up for this episode to get
requess straw had goofy. Thanks for talking Predator with us

(01:39:53):
or listening to us talk about Predator. Are you gonna
see Predator bad Lands? Have you seen the Dan Traschenberg
era of it? What is it looking like you guys?
Let us know in the comments down below. And if
you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you like hit
subscribe and just like you know, give us some love
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sure you catch us on iHeartRadio. This new episode is
premiere in this Friday. You're probably listening to it as

(01:40:14):
you know as I'm saying this, But we also have
an Eggor Wright episode coming next week. We have an
interview with the director of The Running Man, Eggor Wright,
and we're gonna talk about some Eggor Wright films, the
Cornetto Trilogy, Scott Pilgrim versus The World, Baby Driver. Thank
you so much for talking movies with us, and if
you like talking about movies, cannot be your movie guy.