Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) – Lore Upgrades, Animated Carnage, and Badlands Teases - The Fandom Portals Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
So we are indeed talking aboutPredator Killer of Killers made
in 2025.
And in this episode you willlearn how Predator Killer of
Killers rewrites the Predatorlore for better or worse.
You'll learn why DanTrachtenberg packs this film
with nods, Easter eggs and preypowered passion.
You'll also learn whetheranimation is a game changer or a
misfire for the Predatorfranchise.

(00:20):
And we'll also talk a littlebit about how Killer of Killers
teases the new and upcomingmovie Predator Badlands.

(00:41):
Welcome to the Fandom Portalspodcast, the podcast that
explores how fandoms can help uslearn and grow.
As always, I'm joined by MrBrash Rackham.
How are you today, Brash?
I'm too bad yourself.
I'm going very well.
Today we are talking about thebrand new animated flick on
Disney Pass called PredatorKiller of Killers, made in 2025.

(01:01):
This is a story about three ofthe fiercest worries in human
history become the prey to theultimate killer of killers.
But before we get into that,let's do our gratitudes.
I'm going to go first, Brash.
I am grateful this week forSpider-Man.
My son adores Spider-Man andbefore bedtime tonight we ran

(01:23):
around the house.
I was an evil spider-man and hewas a good spider-man and we
just kept playing that for avery long time.
So I love his imagination and Ilove the fact that he's fallen
in love with the character asawesome as spider-man, because
what a great role model one andan awesome game to play.
So thank you, spider-man, andthank you for time with my son,
very grateful.
What are you grateful for?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I am grateful for my Playstation oh yeah, I mean, and
my computer, I suppose as well,but always after a shitty day I
can always rely on myPlaystation and my computer to
fill me with endless hours ofdistraction from the world.
I even started, I even startedplaying a game again that I
haven't played in a while, andthat's always good, always going

(02:03):
back to those nostalgia hits.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, yeah, you know it's like an old friend that's
waiting for you, but also yourcomputer helps us do this
sometimes.
Yes, that's exactly Connectingtogether, doing that thing that
we love to do talking aboutmovies.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah 100%.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
So, yes, I'm, that is not bad at all.
That is good, all right, so weare indeed talking about
Predator, killer of Killers,made in 2025.
This movie was indeed directedby Dan Trachtenberg.
He was the one who wasresponsible for Prey Brash
thoughts on Prey.
I love Prey.
I thought it was a really goodrevisiting of the Predator

(02:42):
franchise because there has beena few movies come out almost
every five to seven years or so.
Some of them are okay, but Iprobably wouldn't move them past
.
Okay, but Prey, it was a newtake, it was a new concept and
it did answer a lot of questions, really for a lot of the fans

(03:02):
of the Predator series, becauseit showed one of the very first,
or you know, before this movieKiller of Killers, the first
interaction between a humancivilization and a Predator
species, which Brash and Ilooked up how to say and I've
forgotten how to say it.
Do you remember how to say it,brash Yautja?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Or.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yautja, yautja.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yautja, there's probably like, yeah, there's
probably like the one thing thatthey've done really well in the
predator sort of universe ismade every single alien word
really hard to pronounce.
Oh yeah, the aliens names that,like predators in the comics
have killed.
Their names are just like justhorrible to try and pronounce a
bunch of letters all stucktogether.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
It reminds me of that ever loving joke where, uh, the
creature from a different alienplanet is like, if I wanted you
to say my name phoneticallycorrect, then I'd have to rip
out your tongue for you to do so, because it's just so hard.
But yeah, fully understand.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
But I'll actually say I like to say I think the Yucha
that's how I sort of pronounceit, and when I looked up I'm
like the closest thing I canthink is Yucha.
I sort of make the A sort ofsilent and yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I think we'll go with Yucha today and if we're saying
it wrong and it annoys you,we're very, very sorry.
But you know, write us somefeedback.
I guess I don't know, is that.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yucha.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yautja, it's like Leviosa or Leviosa.
Which one is it?
But yeah, we're going with you,jude, today.
Did you know, brash, that DanTrachtenberg also directed an
episode of the Boys?
I did not know that, but itdoes make sense.
Yeah, he directed the very firstepisode of the very first
season, so you could say he wasresponsible for the trajectory
of that show, because obviouslypilots are the ones that get

(04:38):
that show greenlit.
So he directed the name of thegame this he directed the name
of the game.
This was actually co-directedby Josh Wassong as well, so
Trachtenberg is very muchinvolved in the Predator
franchise now, with this beinghis second run at it with
Predator Killer of Killers.
The writing for this movie itwas also written by Dan
Trachtenberg, but Miko RobertRuttare was also one of the

(05:01):
writers on this one.
It's starring Linda LaVancey,who played Ursa, the Viking
warrior in this one, louis Azawa, rick Gonzalez and also Michael
Biehn.
Now this movie obviously comesbefore the Predator Badland
movies, which is supposed to becoming in late 2025.

(05:21):
So in time of recording, that'sabout six or so months away.
There is a trailer dropped onIMDb.
What do you know about PredatorBadlands so far, brash?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
All I know is people are a little bit upset about how
he looks because they're usingCGI for his face instead of the
classic animatronics, yep, butthat's to sort of show some
emotions.
People are coping with that bysaying it's because his dna is
um blended with a more humanoidor human dna.
That makes them sort of looklike that.

(05:51):
But um and other things are,because realistically, um deck
is a younger, a young umpredator, so it hasn't matured
to look more like otherPredators.
And that's really all I've.
I'm trying not to spoil myselftoo much with it.
All it seems is that he's likethe run to the litter who gets

(06:14):
bossed out of the clan andeither has to work, because
usually if a Predator getskicked out of the clan they have
to then prove themselves to getback into the clan so that
might be what he's up to, butyeah.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
I'm not entirely sure .
Yeah, they're very on a base.
The U-Tour and you know thesynopsis on IMDb says a young
predator is outcast from hisclan and he finds an unlikely
ally on his journey in search ofthe ultimate adversary.
So I guess he's been trying toprove his worth.
So it's probably like you couldsay it's an alien,
coming-of-age story.
But looking at the images ofDeck that I have seen, the

(06:55):
pictures of him do look like Ihate to say it, but they look
like an AI-generated picture tome.
Yeah, he is Just because it'sCGI, obviously, but they look
kind of AI-generated and I cansee how people are a little bit
deterred by that, becausePredator is famous for its
animatronics.
But I think one of the otherreasons, or one that I surmise
is the reason they're going withthe CGI, or the motion capture
CGI for this film in terms ofthe Predator, was because Dan

(07:18):
Trachtenberg wanted to make thePredator the main character of
this story, instead of itfeaturing on a bunch of humans
who are being hunted by thePredator.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
I mean, in a way I think that's brilliant, because
every single Predator movie it'sthe Predators hunting down
humans they might see.
Well, for a lot of movies youdon't see the Predator until
they actually kill everyone.
And then I mean the most youprobably like, as the movies
have gotten on um, you see moreand more of the protos because
tech like technology has gottenbetter, so they're able to

(07:52):
because, like in the first one,happened to run around that
apparently run around thatcostume, the proto was really
bad.
So, um, as it's gone better,it's easier to put them in the
spotlight.
But having actually proto as amain character will allow them
to actually dive into the loreand the culture of the Ucho

(08:13):
instead, which I think is goingto be fantastic because most of
the like, I don't mind the oldPredators because you sort of
get bits and pieces and you haveto sort of.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
I love the old Predators.
This might be where we disagreebecause, yeah, I think that the
less we know, the better.
Well, this is, yeah, the lesswe know, the better in terms of
a fearful antagonist in futuremovies.
I will get into this a littlebit later when we talk about it,
but I think, yeah, having alook behind the curtain of the

(08:42):
Uter, especially if you'retrying to make a personal
connection with one, it takesaway that fear aspect, which I
think is something that Predatormovies are kind of known for as
well.
Yeah, that's my worry.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
The only thing with that is, realistically, if you
compared, say, a Xenomorph to aUter, in terms of scariness.
Ayuja, in terms of scariness,the Xenomorph is probably scary
because it's more animalistic,it just kills to kill, whereas a
predator is a hunter by itsnature and its upbringing.
So, realistically, it's notthat they're not meant to be a

(09:15):
scary thing, they're just reallygood hunters and half that is
stealth and being able to trapand track, and so they're not
like when they first, and halfthat is stealth and being able
to trap and track, and sothey're not like when they first
, even in the first movie, likeit's not so much that like they
were meant to be like, even itwas meant to be scary, it was
just hunting them.
Like you saw from itsperspective, it hunting them.

(09:38):
And then I can't remember hisname, but one of the guys with
Dutch- who's really attuned tothe name Billy he was always
like gone, always like there'ssomething out there
and he's like he knew because,as probably like a natural sort
of hunter himself, he knew thatthey were being hunted.
So I find it more like if youwant to be scared of something,

(10:03):
be scared of the zoom wolf who'sjust going to come at you and
kill you, rather than like you'dstill be scared of a hunter
because, shit, you don't want tobe hunted either.
But that's more of the like ifyou were to pose zero threat.
Realistically, in a predator'seyes you're not worth hunting.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, that's exactly what happens in the first
Predator movie, isn't it theAnna, the girl that they pick up
as one of the survivors of thecamp, that they completely
obliterate with fire and bullets?
The only survivor there?
Yeah, he basically says, youknow, dutch says don't pick up a
weapon because that's why Ididn't kill you.
So they are honor bound in thatway.
And with Predator Badlandscoming out and with the, with

(10:44):
predator badlands coming out and, uh, with the yuja becoming the
main character, obviously nameddeck um.
Dan trachtenberg actuallydidn't ask me anything on reddit
, uh, about two weeks ago attime of recording, and he was
asked what his inspiration wasfor taking a very drastic sort
of change away from the originalpredator movies when he sort of
created prey.
And then this movie killer ofkillers is even bigger step away
from the original Predatormovies when he sort of created

(11:05):
Prey.
And then this movie Killer ofKillers is even bigger step away
from those original sort ofmovies where the Predator was
seen as something in the jungleto be feared.
He's diving more into thebackstory of it and he's
actually said here on Redditthat he said so many sci-fi
films feature creatures andalien races as sidekicks or
villains to the human characters.
Well, oftentimes thosecreatures are the most

(11:30):
interesting.
I just thought how cool itwould be to see a movie where
the creature was the maincharacter.
And what if that creaturewasn't the most obvious choice,
but one of the most badass,vicious and formidable in all of
sci-fi?
What if a predator was Arnoldthis time?
What if he was the David on aplanet filled with Goliath?
And then he says would anyonelet me make that?
Turns out the answer was yes.
So I think it was a curiositythat he had and he kind of just

(11:52):
wanted to flip it on its head.
But I'm interested.
But I think you said beforeabout the xenomorphs and the
predator.
If you're going to fear one inthe Alien vs Predator movies, I
don't know anybody who roots forthe Xenomorphs, for one, or is
rooting for the Predator and fortwo.
I think that for me, if youwanted to tell my 14 year old

(12:13):
self not to be scared of thePredator, then I probably
wouldn't listen to you as well.
Because, yeah, this movie aswell was another late night
watch for me when I was a younggirl, 14 years old, old Predator
.
The original was with Arnold,but yeah, I think that this one
Killer of Killers.
I'm not sure where I sit on thechange for me.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
I know, when I was younger watching the original
Alien, the fact that that thingwas so big yet so fucking sneaky
and fast yeah.
And fast.
They'd be like walk along.
Like they'd be like walk alongand it'd be like it matched with
the pipes, like in the wallsand shit, and it was just
sitting there like you wouldn'teven know it was there, and then
all of a sudden hair justcreeps up.
That's me done.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
I'm out, wipe my hands of that with the
xenomorphs as well.
I would always feel safer whenthe protagonist had a big weapon
full of bullets.
Uh, when there's enomorph, ifyou piff it with bullets, then
you're obviously dealing withthe acidic blood that you know
puts holes in you and yourspaceship as well.
So, yeah, there, there aredifferent kettle of fish as well

(13:15):
.
I think that the honor boundyucha is is something that I
would prefer, if I'm going tochoose between the two, but I
think I like my Predators asvillains and sidekicks, as
opposed to main characters.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I don't know, we'll have to wait and see what they
do with Badlands, but yeah but Ialso have a feeling that
they're not going to humanise ittoo much because, realistically
, the only person or the onlyother thing so far that they've
named sort of humanoid is thecharacter of the Ellie.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Fanning's playing yeah, and she plays Thea, and
there are some rumors to saythat she is a one of the
androids that feature in theAlien franchise.
Yeah, as well.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Which also mean that, realistically, if he's just on
a planet full of other sort ofmonsters that he's killing, then
yeah, realistically, there's nohumans to dehuman, like sort of
like to contrast him against.
So it's just like a badassnormal who, normally, who's
someone, who's a villain or, inour eyes, a villain because

(14:12):
they're always hunting humans um, is now just hunting other
monsters.
So it's just, it's just like Isaid, they're hunting us.
Now we're watching it huntsomething else yeah, very true,
very true.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
all right, let's jump into our hot takes quickly and
then we'll get into our FandomFact Face-Off, all right.
So our hot takes is where wediscuss our first thoughts on
the media and unpack the boldestopinions, from what surprised
us to what split the room.
We'll also highlight your hottakes from our threads,
instagram and Reddit community.
So check out the show notes toget involved.
All of our show notes featureour social medias and if you

(14:43):
want your comment read out onour podcast, make sure you go
and join us at ThenPuddles onInstagram and threads and on our
Reddit as well.
We already pretty much talkedabout our first thoughts of the
Predator sort of franchise.
We touched a little bit on whatwe thought about Predator
Killer of Killers.
We might go with you first,brash.
What do you think of this one?

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I was apprehensive at first because I saw this out
before we even talked about umwatching it and I I like usually
I'd probably jump on it andwatch it, but, um, I hadn't, and
I knew it was there and Ihadn't watched it.
And then we said, when we saidwe're gonna do this, I was like,
oh, I've got to watch it.
Then like I'm a huge anime fanand all that kind of stuff, so
like that's not the thing, thatsort of, because it's the first

(15:27):
time I've seen a Predator inanimated form.
Yeah, but my first thought wasthey're going to butcher it by
making it so incrediblyunrealistic, which it kind of
was, but it was in a fun, flashyway, which I loved.
So yeah, that's what made meapprehensive at first.
But then after watching it, Iabsolutely loved it.
But it was in a fun, flashy way, which I loved.
So yeah, that's what made meapprehensive at first.
But then after watching it, Iabsolutely loved it.

(15:47):
I thought it was a brilliantmovie.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
When I watched this I was always interested because I
really love the animation stylein Arcane, which was made by
the Third Floor Inc, and thisone is produced by the same
company.
It's the same 3D styles ofanimation with the 2D sort of
overlays as well.
So I was interested to see thatand I do love the Predator
movies as well, as much as I'mnot a horror guy.
These are more like actionthrillers.

(16:11):
So I did like the mash.
There's a lot for me to talkabout later on when we actually
rate this in terms of how itsort of landed.
I was excited and then was letdown, so we kind of went through
the opposite journey, I guess,with ours.
But we'll go through that alittle bit later.
Let's jump into our reddits tosee what our redditors have said
.
All right, so we have downtonagent 3323 that says I need dan

(16:34):
to take this franchise as far ashe can.
Apparently, downton agent wasborn too early to explore the
galaxy, born too late to explorethe earth and born just at the
right time to explore theexperience.
That is the predatorrenaissance, um, so obviously a
fan there.
Uh, we also have constant resa,uh, who has also agreed saying
that being a predator, an alienfan, is finally pretty damn good

(16:57):
.
Again, I probably disagree withthat, because I feel like being
a predator fan was always good.
You know that I don't feel likethere's been a bad Predator
movie.
I even like Predator 2.
It's gotten 29% on RottenTomatoes, but I actually like
Predator 2 with Danny Glover.
It's always a fun ride for me.
So alien movies, though theydon't really hit for me.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
I think the only Predator movie I'm sort of like
eh, this is shit, was thePredator Not the first Predator,
but the original Predator, theit was like 2018 one yeah, that
one had Boyd Holbrook and thePredator went to the suburbs
yeah, like I'm like thinkingwrong.
Like the cast that had, it wasall.

(17:36):
They had really good actors init, but like I just, I just feel
it man.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
It was just a bit man , I think my favorite one other
than the original, of course wasPredators, the one that came
out in 2010 or so.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
That is an underrated and very excellent movie.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, with Topher Grace, Adrian Brody, Lawrence
Fishburne is in it as well.
Walter Goggins is in that.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's a stunning cast man.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
If you want to watch a Predator movie and you want
something that's a little bitupdated from the 87 original,
that's the one to go with, in myopinion.
I think that one was prettygood.
You don't see Topher Graysonenough.
I reckon I like him.
He obviously is famous for EricForeman from that 70s Show and
Venom from Spider-Man, amongother things.

(18:20):
Of course, we haveVariableSharmon3825 that says I
need more of these storiesPredator vs Gladiators, predator
vs Spartans, predator vsPaladins.
Keep them coming Also.
Oh, this is a spoiler everybody, so turn off.
Don't want a spoiler if youhaven't seen it Also was that
Naru.
In the end Does that mean theycaptured Dutch and Harrigan as
well?
So that might be something wetalk to a little bit later,

(18:41):
brash, when we look at how thissort of affects the predator
lore going forward and what itmight mean for Badlands in terms
of some predictions that aregoing around the internet right
now.
It is getting a lot of love.
I think that ScreenRant Dan'sservice rated it a 9.1 out of 10
, but the critics of ScreenRantrated it a 5 out of 10.
And it's going very well onRotten Tomatoes as well, with it

(19:05):
sitting at 96% approval ratingand a 7.6 on IMDb.
So I think it is is pretty wellloved.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
There's a lot more people in your corner than mine
on this one, brash, it seemsyeah, yeah, I, because I've
already sort of watched somereactions of people who watched
it and what they thought of it,and you know the vibe I'm
getting is that everyone reallyenjoys where they're going with
it, where dan's going with it.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
So I think so, and he seems like a very passionate
fan of the franchise too and hehe's been on a couple of
podcasts now where he's talkedabout it and you can just see
his passion shining through.
So as, as a filmmaker, if theyhave that much passion for you
know they're going to put theirbest effort forward.
They're not going to ruin theIP.
So I'm looking forward toBadlands as a Phantom Predator,

(19:47):
but I don't know what this onedid for me.
Predator Killer of Killers.
It's sort of.
It's made me a little bitapprehensive in the future.
But yeah, we'll get onto ourPhantom Fact Face-Off, shall we
All right?
So this is where hosts go headto head with trivia about the
focus of media learning newfacts along the way.
When the hosts collect 25points, we will give away a

(20:09):
movie voucher to someone on ourmailing list.
Our mailing list is availablefor you to sign up at at
wwwbandandportalspodcastcom.
All right, so I might go firstwith this one, all right?
So the Brute Predator, which isthe Hulkling yutja warrior that
fights the Vikings in the firstinstance of this movie,
predator Killer of Killers, hasa very technologically

(20:34):
rudimentary weapon in comparisonto ancestors that come after
him.
Can you explain why he only hasa stupid little hammer and
nothing else?

Speaker 2 (20:46):
I don't know if this is correct, but from what I know
of predators, when they go tohunt something they go with sort
of a semi-equivalent type ofweaponry, so they wouldn't go
with their whole entire arsenalagainst people with just hammers
.
They'd be a bit more, becauseotherwise it's too easy, it's

(21:06):
not um, a challenge.
So that's why, well, that's whythat's my understanding of how
they act.
But they've all, they've stillgot all the cool gadgets, so
like, even, like um, but like uh, because if you look at the era
period one where in japan hissort of weapons was chain whips
similar to the kunai on thechain for ninjas and stuff like

(21:30):
that, and he also had throwingstars that did explode.
But that's because theirtechnology was more advanced,
but they sort of had similar-ishweaponry.
I think is that the reasonBecause they have to match the
time period.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, so the UGA have a very strict code of honor and
most of the time they willmatch their opponent, but they
will also use the technologythey feel is equivalent.
In this particular case, in theBrute Predator, he was kind of
unique to the franchise up tothis point because he actually
voluntarily discarded hiscloaking device early in the

(22:06):
fight and basically he issomebody who preferred to do his
killing with bare hands, and Ithink he kind of did that
because the technology of thepeople he was fighting at the
time was very basic.
The other reason that I havehere is because the predators
also learn from all of theirprevious defeats.
So as they advance in timetheir technology also advances,

(22:29):
much like the human race does.
But you'll notice as well, likethis first predator, the brute
predator was damaged heavily bythe spear.
That sort of was part of theweaponry of the Vikings out
there, and then in the very nextiteration, the stealthy
predator in feudal Japan.
He actually utilized a spearbut had modified it slightly as
well to have the kick out of thesides.

(22:52):
Yeah, so they're alwaysconstantly learning and evolving
and that's part of theirsurvival, of the fittest
mentality, but they're alsobound by that strict code of
honor as well.
So I'll give you a point forthat one, because you're
absolutely correct.
They match their opponents intechnological advancements as
well, and you can even see thatthat's a callback to the
original predator in 87 witharnold gorschenegger.
When the predator does finddutch and holds him up by the

(23:14):
the neck at the very end andclimax of the movie, he could
kill him and rip out his spineright there.
But he sort of stands there andgoes to fight him hand to hand
or blade to blade and does thatsort of honorable warrior sort
of fight at the end, whereas ifthat was a Xenomorph, you know,
would beat his head off straightup.
So one point to you, brash.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
One of the voices in this film had also played a
character in one of the otherprologues.
Do you know who it is?

Speaker 1 (23:42):
I read this one and I love this one Louis Azawa yes.
One Louis Azawa yes.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
I love Louis Azawa.
He's such a.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, he was in the original Predators and he played
Hanzo, who was the Japanesewarrior that had the samurai
sword, and in this one I believehe plays Kenji is one of the
twins' names.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, he plays the main character.
Yeah, from the Little.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Japan arc Yep Through this one so Well.
He plays Kenji and Kiyoshi,yeah, yeah, both of the brothers
.
He does the voice of those two,but I thought that was a really
good nod and I think it waspurposefully done by Dan
Trachtenberg as well.
There are rumors circulatingthat, obviously.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Ah, so Kenji survives , and so does Arthmore and
Torres.
Yeah, above us.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yes, correct.
Yeah, there are rumors goingaround that Kenji is actually a
predecessor to, or an ancestorto, hanzo, who appeared in the
Predators movie, and the samuraisword that he uses may be one
of one in the same as the onethat Kenji uses as well, from
the ship.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a.
That'd be a cool callback.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, yeah, this movie is rife with Easter eggs
like that and just sort of likefan touched moments or little
nods to what came before.
So, yeah, I think I got thatone.
Yeah, yes, you did Beautiful.
So that's 19 points total sofar.
All right, my turn.
Another voice actor question.

(25:08):
Michael Biehn is a voice actorwho?
Well, he's a voice actor now,but he was a full screen actor
and he had previously played,and been famous for playing,
kyle Reese in the Terminatormovie.
Do you know what other role hehas had that has made him one of
the only actors ever tocomplete this trifecta?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Was he also in.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Aliens yes, correct, so he is one of the only actors
to have been in a Predator movie, an Alien movie and a
Terminator movie, kyle Reesebeing the father of John Connor,
and he plays Hicks in Aliens aswell, and in this one he plays
Vandy, who was in Torres' arc.
He was his mentor in the plane.

(25:54):
Yeah, so there you go.
Another point to you.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, Aliens 3.
Yep Well, Aliens 3.
Mine was so.
In each of the periods, thealiens, the predators were all
given names.
Do you remember the names ofall three predators?

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Are these the names that the?

Speaker 2 (26:10):
fans are sort of calling them no.
No, these are the names thatthe characters named them.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Okay, so was the Hulk , the Hulk King Yutja, they
called him Grendel Yep from thebeowulf, yep from the beowulf
mythos yep, the stealthypredator from feudal japan was
now this one.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
They sort of gave him two different sort of names one
when they didn't know what helooked like, one when they did
know what he looked like yep,the only one I can think of for
him is ronan yes, so they didcall him ronan before he I was
unmasked, and then, once he wasunmasked, they started calling
him Yokai, which is demon.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, both extremely cool nicknames, by the
way, like if you're gonna becalled something Ronin or Yokai,
that is, yeah, really awesome.
Um, after this, we might talkabout our favorite one of the
three, because, yeah, and thepilot, I don't know this one.
I've read that fans are callinghim Baron, like the Red Baron,

(27:07):
but I don't know if that wasdone on screen or not.
It was Baron.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yep, very cool, yeah, and obviously you know, red
Baron being a famous planefamous plane yep, and also, like
some fans are also calling thepirate pirate Utah, because he's
got the eye patch, oh yeahthat's cool too.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, baron, very nice.
Yeah, the bald pirate of theSkies, very good.
Okay, let's get mine this one.
We've kind of touched on before.
The end credit scene for thismovie, predator, killer of
Killers, features a few peoplethat we can see in cryo tubes
that are characters from pastmovies.

(27:45):
One is very obviously naru fromthe prey movies.
The one that shows before heris rumored to be a famous
character from the predatorfranchise.
Do you know who that was?

Speaker 2 (27:59):
so people have been that either it's going to be
either Dutch or Royce, butrealistically it can't be Royce.
Explain so with Royce at thattime period of where they
currently are Royce isn't aliveyet.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, because that one's set in the future, isn't
it?
Predators is set in the futureand currently, from what we can
tell, Predator Killer of Killersis set at a particular point in
time and the Predators havebeen collecting champions up
until that point.
So in order for it to be Royce,they would have to have some
time travel technology to goforward in time in order to

(28:38):
collect him, and currently thathasn't been explained or put
into the movie.
So realistically it's morelikely Dutch has to be Arnold
Schwarzenegger as Dutch.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
I mean, I reckon it'd be awesome if they get Dutch
back, because they got him inthe earlier game.
Yep, it'd be cool for himbecause it depends.
If they continue on with theanime it'll be a lot easier.
Oh 100%.
You could get Arnie back forthat was going to say they're
probably not going to be able toget him back for the actual
movie movie, because if he'smeant to be cryogenically frozen

(29:09):
from that period of when he gotstolen, there's something wrong
with the crisis freezingprocess.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I would you know what's that thing?
Deniability what is itplausible?
Deniability if he was to return, because I'd love to see that
so much, if he just came in andsaid my cryo tube broke, or
something like that Like there'sjust been a hole in it the
whole time.
Just stepped out.
I'll be back, yeah.
Yeah, just the cryo gases havejust been slowly leaking, so
he's aged slower than everybodyelse.

(29:35):
Yeah, I'd love to see him backbecause he built basically the
popularity of this franchise andhis character was so iconic,
macho and just bombastic.
Really it's fun to watch nowwhen you look back.
It's so fun to watch him andhis boys now because you're just
like wow, these guys are likemeatheads going into the forest

(29:55):
and they just get grinded.
So I think it was funny.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
And I did also hear that.
Well, some people were sayingthat it also could be what's his
name from, from the predator.
No, no, uh, no, uh, quinnmccann.
Quinn mccann brought boydholbrook, oh right, oh.
But I sort of also disagreewith that one, because he's
meant to have started aorganization like a secret

(30:20):
military organization to combatagainst predators with these new
Predator armor suits.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, look, I don't think he would be taken or
captured easily on the Predatorships, or not as easily as
Torres was, at least.
So I'm hoping for Dutch.
Fingers crossed for Dutch.
I think a lot of fans are too.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, because Dutch would be a way better.
Callback yeah, and it is yourlast question.
My last question, um, my lastquestion, which?
Um?
So, uh, so my last question um,there's an object that appears
in the movie, that has appearedin two other movies.
What is that?

Speaker 1 (30:55):
object.
That's the pistol.
I don't know what's inscribedon that it's a year and then a
name but I know that that onewas in prey, gifted at the end
to Naru.
It's also gifted to DannyGlover's character at the end of
Predator 2 as an honorabletrophy of their victory, which

(31:19):
suggests that Naru was capturedbefore the gladiatorial fight at
the end of this movie becausethey'd obviously already had the
pistol to then give to Torres.
But it's interesting that thatthrough line has come through.
Is there any other historyassociated with that pistol that
we know about?
Or is it just so far that thatpistol has shown up three times?
And it's interesting and a nicelittle nod.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
So in the comics that pistol?
Well, first of all, you had thequestion right, thank you.
In the comics, that pistol?
Well, first of all, you're thequestion right, thank you.
It is the uh, it is the flipmock pistol.
It was rafael adelini's pistol.
In the comics it belonged to apirate captain, rafael adelini,
and was taken later on.

(31:59):
But in the comics the piratecaptain had to fight off a bunch
of native people on an islandand he actually teamed up with
the Predator to kill all theseother people.
But that's now since sort ofbeen retconned.
Because Raphael Ali turns up inthe Prey probably the same

(32:25):
character perhaps than thecomics, but it's not in canon.
The comics aren't in canon.
But yes, he appears to besomeone who's with Furrows Yep,
the people involved in the furtrade, the fur trade but
throughout the whole movie hedoesn't seem to be exactly with
the group.
He's just tagging along, uh.
And in the movie, uh, prey, hegets his leg cut off by the

(32:48):
predator and helping him, uh,patch up his leg, he shows her
how to use the gun and then shefeeds him some medicine which
cools his blood down and shenotices the predator can't see
him, which is how she ends upfiguring out how to a way to
beat him by making herselfinvisible.
When she finds the furrow,captain and Dan's there as the

(33:11):
predator walks past her, eventhough she has a pistol.
But she can't see the predatorwith his heat vision can't heat
vision, not heat vision.
Thermo, thermo vision can't seeher.
And that's how she's like oohyep, he can't see me.
Bang in the back of her head,steals the mask.
But very clever then.
So it is.

(33:33):
She has the pistol at the end ofthat movie, but it is believed
that she's taken and so is thepistol.
And then in Predator 2, at theend the Predator 2, at the end
the Predator is Greyback.
After the City Hunter is killed, greyback then presents Danny
Glover's character with thepistol as sort of a trophy, the

(33:54):
fact that he won.
But I believe that this is athing that they do.
They say, hey, look, you won,yeah.
And because we don't understandthem, they're probably also
like, hey, in a couple of weekswe're going to snatch you up.
Yeah, we're going to snatch youwon, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
And because we don't understand them, they're
probably also like hey, in acouple of weeks we're going to
snatch you up.
Yeah, we're going to snatch youup.
That leaves us we'll get ontothat in a minute but that leaves
us with 23 points at the end ofour Fandom Fact Based Off.
Next week, when we do it, wewill most likely hit
portalspodcastcom.
We're now going to go into ourset secret segments, but we're
going to talk about all of thepredator code law and what this

(34:27):
means for the future of thepredator franchise.
The set secret segment is wherehosts look behind the scenes of
the focus movie to give you allthe information of what went
right, what went wrong and whatwas interesting about the way
this movie was made.
This week we're going to dive alittle bit into the lore
because there is a and it feelsweird to say predator quote lore
rash, considering this alloriginated in 1987s with a

(34:50):
popcorn bullet and explosionflick in terms of where this
creature originated, butactually has exploded in the
last 40 or so years to the pointwhere we now have from this
movie predator killer of killersthe notion that there are lots
of different predator types.
So in this one we're obviouslyintroduced to the brute predator

(35:11):
and then the stealthierpredator, and every predator in
every movie has looked differentand specialized for the time
period that they have arrived in.
Uh, even the one in prey wasmore of a savage animalistic
kind of predator than before.
But one thing that bands theseUjur together, even though they
all look different, is they allfollow this strict code that

(35:31):
they all must stick to, and it'sbeen hinted at lots and lots
throughout the movies where theyhave this strict code of honor,
and I think it's been morefurther explained in the comic
books and things like that.
But when we're talking aboutthe Yutja specifically, there
are things that they're notallowed to do, and when they're
fighting or hunting, rather,these code violations can cause

(35:56):
them to be exiled from theirclan, which I think is something
that's going to be explored inBadlands.
So some of the things, or whena Yujia is actually expelled
from their clan and we know thatthere's lots of different clans
of Yujia and some of them takethis a little bit more seriously
than others, don't One of thethings that happen is you're

(36:16):
labeled as a bad blood, and whenyou're a bad blood I think this
was explained further in thecomics as well it's an insult to
the Yujia culture and basicallythey're marked for death and
they're also exiled.
So once that has happened,there is actually also a way
that they can take backseas,almost like get back in.
It's like they have one chanceor something.

(36:37):
So here it says when a Yujiawants to restore its own honor,
it's sometimes permitted, afterbeing outcast from that clan, to
prove itself.
Basically it's usually only forYujo ranks, starting from the
elite, and only one more chanceis usually given after that
severe punishment.
The Scarface Predator fromPredator Concrete Jungle was a

(36:59):
disgraced Yujo who brought greatshame to his clan by letting
his ship self-destruct in themiddle of a city, and some of
his technology fell into thehands of humans, which is also
part of the code of the yujas.
They're not allowed to sharetheir technology and they're
also not allowed to usetechnology.
That is what's the word I'mlooking for here.
They have to use technology,that is, mimics the mimics,
those that they're actuallyfighting at the time.

(37:21):
But they also can't usetechnology that is not hunter
worthy.
So if it's like a massivegrenade launching machine that
destroys buildings and flattensthem, uh, even though they have
the technology to do that, it'snot permitted and not honorable
for them to use that in theirhunts.
So because this this predator,scarface, did that, he was
outcast to a hostile anddesolate planet, uh, for about a

(37:43):
hundred years.
But after surviving theseordeals he was given a chance to
redeem himself.
So he proved that he was ableto continue to meet the Yutja
code.
And he still had to go andreclaim that stolen technology
as well, because one of theother code rules is that they
have to leave no trace.
Basically.

(38:04):
So wherever they go, they haveto leave no trace.
Basically so wherever they go,they have to leave no trace
behind, which basically means itforbids lesser species from
possessing any future technology.
And if it is found that a humanhas a piece of future technology
, then they are allowed to goand collect it with lethal force
.
So I think we see that a littlebit in Killer of Killers as

(38:29):
well, because we do see lots ofdifferent predators who engage
in lots of differenttechnologies for their time.
But even when we're talkingabout Torres in the planes, you
know it's technology that islike, for like they're both in
flying machines.
But we know that the Yutja havelaser and homing and heat
seeking weaponry.
However, in this one, the barononly used the retractable chain

(38:51):
to try and uh defeat his foes.
So in that manner, you can seethat they're using uh technology
that is equal, so equaling theodds, and they they also then
also were hunting on equal termsas well.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, the only real thing he used was, well, he used
a net pretty much, but they hadthe laser net, the normal net
and the anchor hook that ripsout the engines and tracks on
the heat.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Exactly right.
So, yeah, I think most of thetimes when I've watched a
Predator movie, they have kindof stuck to that code and it
kind of makes sense.
Now, at the end of every movie,when they're facing that final
showdown, you always see aPredator reveal themselves.
That's actually part of theircode as well.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
So yeah, the last one's, sort of the one that they
have their last face-to-facecombat with.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah, so when the Predator's in a duel, it's also
said in the novelization of theAlien vs Predator book that it
is actually a rule from the YujaCode that they must then reveal
themselves to their final prey,and it's part of they call it
the hunting ethic to revealoneself to the enemy at the
climax of a fight.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah, and it makes sense.
So like they've killed everyone, there's one left.
So that must be the most like,that must be the most formidable
of the prey.
Then they do the one-on-one.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yeah, well, I think that was also mimicked by Billy
from Predator 1, where he standson that log bridge and
basically reveals himself.
He gets rid of all histechnology and stands there with
a knife and the blade.
One thing I don't like in thePredator movie is that he gets
killed off screen and justscreams After such a badass
character the whole way through.
He doesn't meet a worthy end,but obviously the Predator
claims another victim.
Some interesting things aboutwhat the Predators are not

(40:36):
allowed to do whilst hunting.
Do you know any of these Brash,when it comes to the prey, has
to be obviously of age age.
They're not allowed to killchildren, but there is a caveat
to that.
Do you know the only time thatthey are allowed to kill young
people?

Speaker 2 (40:49):
I'll assume if it's if they were like hacking uh, no
, not quite.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
It's when they have a chestburster inside them ah
right, if they've got axenomorph, yeah they're
basically allowed to use deadlyforce whenever it occurs with a
xenomorph threat.
One of the other ones is thatthey're allowed to, or prey is
not linked to anybody that issuffering or weakened by disease

(41:16):
.
They're not allowed to do that.
They're not allowed to killanyone that's elderly and anyone
that is sick.
Yeah, that's sick as well.
An interesting thing about ifthey fail their hunt.
So if they're not allowed, orif they're unsuccessful in their
hunt, then basically the Uchoshould take their own life to
retain their honor and live inshame.
However, this is not alwaysdone.
Some cowards do live inobscurity rather than die, and

(41:39):
it's considered a dishonorableand heinous act, basically.
And then on occasion, theUteger will send out an enforcer
where their end-of-life use,you might say, would be assisted
in quote marks, meaning thatthey would basically be killed
as well.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
In a way kill each other intentionally.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
No, you can't kill another Uteger, unless that's
the self-defense Yep or beendishonored before.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Yep or to settle a dispute.
Murder is the worst crime onthe planet.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Which is interesting because in Predator Killer of
Killers, we do see I think itwas a nod to the first Predator
where they bring out theoriginal Predator from the 87
series just before the climacticgladiatorial battle and in
order to demonstrate what thecollars do, the Grendel King as
what they're being called themassive xenomorph with the sorry
, the massive Ucha with thexenomorph cape, he basically

(42:37):
explodes the head of one of theUcha as well and I don't think
he was shamed, but he did lose,but I thought he died at the end
there.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Well, if that's the original one, he got blown up
because he blew himself up, butI feel it's just probably
another Utah that was eithershamed or something like that,
or did something cowardly orsomething like that, and this
was his punishment.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, well, that's true as well.
Well, thinking back to theoriginal Predator as well, he
did lose to Dutch.
Therefore, he was followingthat, that code where if he
fails his hunt then he needs toend his own life.
Basically.
And also destroy any, becausehe had evidence of his
technology yeah, technology aswell yeah, but I think, deriving
from that 87, there is that 87movie predator.

(43:23):
There is so much yuja lore thatthey've carried over into this
movie as well.
Um, one thing that I thoughtwas interesting was that little
tidbit that they played at thestart of predator killer of
killers where it says go forthamong the stars and seek only
the strongest prey.
They shall be your trophy.
Become the killers of killers.

(43:44):
The one thing that severelychanged the Predator lore from
Killer of Killers, from all theother Predator movies that came
before it was I think everybodythought that those trophies were
like skulls and things thatthey collect from their victims
or prey.
But from this movie they'vekind of revealed that their
trophies are actually the peoplethat they then go back and
abduct.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, but I think I mean like if, if the predators
had have killed those people,they would have taken its gulls
Cause ultimately.
I don't understand the otherpredators movies.
You see them collecting theskulls from the people they kill
, from like everyone there.
But then I think later on it'smore so that they take the skull

(44:26):
of just the final person.
But like cause, in the I thinkit's in the first one.
In the original you can see himhe's up in a tree, he's
cleaning off one of the skulls.
Yeah, I think it's in that one,or is it in?

Speaker 1 (44:38):
the yeah, it's in the first one.
The first one yeah, he cleansit off.
That's when he takes Billy'sspine and skull.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, I say maybe that's and maybe I am correct,
because I don't think he takesanyone else's skulls in that
movie.
So it might be the people heseems worthy enough to take
trophies from, enough that theirskulls are worthy trophies.
So, billy, back then he stoodthere and he's like, yeah, come
on.
Like he faced him, he's like,yeah, you're worthy enough to be

(45:06):
a trophy.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah, well, that's true, and you know, billy was
also pretty dangerous and weknow that the Ute consider more
dangerous prey, a greater gloryand honor to defeat and hunt.
So it may be more prized interms of, uh, that particular
trophy, but I thought it wasinteresting to note that even at
the end, when ursa doesbasically sacrifice herself to

(45:26):
let the two other characters,kenji and torres, escape in the
ship, they don't kill her.
They keep her because she wasone of the trophies as well and
they, they basically put herback into cryo freeze to serve
another day, I guess.
But that's kind of the part ofthis that I didn't really enjoy,
because I, I, I think it's, Ithink it's like if, if a human

(45:49):
being is strong enough to defeatone of the yuja and they're so
honor bound by their tradition,I don't think it's a very good
prize or very honorable for youto go back then and catch them
and put them in gladiatorialcombat, because I think that the
best thing that humans can doand the reason why humans are
hunted so much by the yuja isbecause of their ingenuity,
their ability to use theenvironment around them and the

(46:09):
challenge they present to thepredator species.
But if you pick them all up andyou put them into an arena, then
you're really just placing themin a disadvantaged situation
where the yutja would then shine.
So it's almost like that's notan honorable fight, that's not
equaling the odds as part of theYutja code, that's almost like
playing into their strengths.
So I don't know if I liked theend sequence of this movie and

(46:30):
how it sets up new law for theYutja species, because I think
it detracts from that honorablevictory and the fact that these
humans have earned their freedom, because now, whenever I think
of a predator movie previous andI watch them again knowing this
, I'll think okay, was thisperson then surviving this movie
?
Picked up three months later,taken to the alien planet in the

(46:51):
coliseum and then killed in adisadvantaged situation where
they're versing a grendel king?

Speaker 2 (46:58):
yeah, well, see the thing is where they're versing a
Grendel king.
Yeah, well, see the thing is.
For me, I enjoyed that partbecause it sort of seemed like a
War of Worlds, war World typesituation where what they gather
is just the strongest of allraces and everything they can
find, anyone who's beaten aPredator, because they go as the
stars to find the strongestbeings that can out in the

(47:20):
universe.
And I'm not sure if they'regoing to touch in on this, but
there are so many differenttypes of yuja and some look like
they, some look very differentand I'm wondering if that's
because they may, even if oneproves themselves like another
species proves themselves enough, they will use that DNA, add it

(47:42):
to their own to make themselves, and that's I mean.
I don't think that's the case,but that's one way they could
maybe show why dex looks sodifferent.
But I do like.
I do like it because their wholething is fair fights.
So even if it is a gladiatorialfight, they will make it fair.

(48:04):
So, even if you have to fight,like the only reason why it
probably seems unfair, well, itreally seems unfair because the
Grand King, he is huge, yeah,massive, bulking dude, but the
ingenuity of, say the human race, because even when, like they
were on three on of, say thehuman race, because even when

(48:25):
they were on three onrealistically it was only just
Ursa and Kenji they were not sobad.
They didn't really have achance, but they were personally
injuring Kenji.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
See, that's where I think it's fine, because you had
Ursa and Kenji there and theywere given their weapon of
choice.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
That's not a fair fight, though.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Well, three versus one, realistically yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Well, two.
She really said two versus one.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
The Yujia have to stick to their code.
The humans definitely don't.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yeah, that's realistically not true.
That's two on one.
That's what I mean.
No-transcript.
Like she is quite talented andum, if she played it smart and

(49:12):
was like sort of likecounterattacked more than sort
of just attacked she probablycould.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
I think that's that's like.
Her strength was obviously astrong offensive style, and then
Kenji's was almost reactive anddefensive in that way, and then
Torres's was the ingenuity ofhumans based on his machinery,
knowledge and wiliness.
I think he's the one that gotthe short straw in this and why
I don't think it can beconsidered kind of a fair fight
for him, because if they wantedto play to his strengths, then

(49:39):
give him a flying vehicle.
That's kind of.
Or give him a vehicle, not aflintlock pistol, because he he
didn't shoot down the predatorwith a flintlock pistol, he shot
them down with a, with a, withan aircraft.
That's yeah.
That's the part that kind offlunked me on that and how it
doesn't really fit with the, theyuja code, but then also the
fact that they're taking humansthat have survived and gained

(50:00):
their honor through the Yutjacode and their survival.
They've earned that and thennow they're going to come and
pinch them and take them and putthem in cryosleep to serve
another day once they'vecompleted.
It's almost like when we do itin schools.
It's like, okay, you'vecompleted your assessment here,
but now here's anotherassessment after that.
That's just as hard and almosttwice as deadly.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
It's just like but the predators are all about the
hunt.
The Utyr are always about thehunt.
So even the movie predatorsthat's what I think they are I
think all those people that arein the predators are
cryogenically frozen people thatput them on a planet?

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Yeah, because they're in a game preserve, basically,
yeah, yeah.
And I think it's important toremember as well that the Yutja
are a bunch of different clans,it's not just one clan
representing the whole thing.
So if we see that that happens,for example, where this one
Yutja clan places a bunch ofpeople onto a game reserve and
hunts them, that might be themhonoring their portion of the

(50:58):
code or their interpretation ofthe code, whereas this one that
we saw in Predator Killer ofKillers, the Grendel King, this
is his interpretation of thatPredator code, where he believes
in the hunt for one thing butthen also obviously believes in
that survival of the fittest,because it's almost like round
two ding, ding, ding, let's go.
But yeah, that's kind of why Ididn't really sort of like it,

(51:20):
because of how it changes thepredator law and it's almost a
fundamental change in terms ofthe yuja's like core belief.
So I don't know if I can sortof get past it, like if it was
just the first three segments interms of the, the sword, the
shield, the sword and then thebullet.
If that was it, I'd be finewith that, um, and I'd scrap the

(51:41):
last coliseum fight and extendthose pieces out more so we can
get more character depth.
Because, yeah, I think for thisone as well, one thing that I
didn't sort of take to wasbecause the pieces were so small
, the predators didn't likethey're supposed to be hard to
beat, they're supposed to beformidable and you're supposed
to feel like the odds aretremendously against you.
And I did feel like that.

(52:02):
That was the case, but I feellike in the short time frame
that we had with them 20 or sominutes there wasn't enough for
for that to to shine.
And if you're thinking aboutfair fights as well, where do we
sit on the the kenji and uhkiyoshi versing the ronin
predator like a two versus one?
Where do we sit with that?
It's just too many.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Well, the Predators are advanced and that's why they
always hunt multiple people.
So they are stronger, they'rebetter at technology, so they
hunt more people because theyare advanced and that them is
making it fair.
So more of them versing peopleis more fair, because they're
like well, stronger, we'resmarter, we've got more, better

(52:43):
technology, we're probably goingto kill you all.
You're probably not going tosurvive.
And then one survives and it'slike, oh, heyo, that doesn't
happen often.
Yeah, well, in every Predatormovie that we've seen, it has
happened well that's it like butyeah, but you can't just have a
predator movie where, like,just everyone just dies.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
It's like I would watch that movie.
No, the predator wins.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
It's like yeah, because, like those movies are
like, oh, you meant to, youmeant to root for the humans to
win, yeah, or the main characterof those humans to win.
He's meant to be the big heroicperson who beats the big alien.
But realistically, like evenwith dutch and that and even
with these ones and any otherPredator movie, the Predators
would absolutely just annihilateall of them with ease, yeah, in

(53:27):
a gladiatorial combat.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
if he picked all of Dutch's crew and Dutch up and
put them in the gladiatorialcombat arena, he would
absolutely cream the floor withall of them.
But he used the environment andthe places around him in the
original Predator movie to takethem out one by one and then
revealed himself to Dutch, whowas the last surviving member,
fully succumbing to the Utejacode.
And then Dutch gets taken awayin a helicopter and two months

(53:48):
later he gets taken up again tofight in an arena all by himself
.
Well, we don't know.
That's Dutch, it's Dutch man.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Well, no, that's the thing, though.
Just because they may be aspecial case, like with Dutch,
like he gets fired from thehelicopter, he may get taken
later on, like who really knows.
But I feel like, because, ifyou look at it that way, what?
So we've got Dutch survives.
We've got Donald Glover'scharacter who survives.

(54:17):
We've got Nuru's character whosurvives.
We've got Nuru's character whosurvives, yep, nuru, nuru's
character who survives.
Royce survives as well.
But got Royce, that's in thefuture.
Yep, but then that's what?
four, yeah and I think over,like if you don't count the new
ones, now four, over a period ofsince 849 BC.

(54:38):
Thousands of years, probably,even probably before um.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Before.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Ursa.
Even before then, like beforeUrsa, yeah, Um, they've been
hunting there.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
plus Hadeon caught other planets and other aliens
around the universe, which wesaw in the cryo chamber as well
in that last scene showing thatthey don't just hunt humans.
I think that was actually animportant addition, because it's
not just humans that they goand they find and they hunt.
They do go to other planets,which basically expanded the
universe even more.
I actually saw this thing thatDan Trachtenberg was talking
about, because a lot of thepeople that have been watching

(55:09):
trailers and closely watchingsome of the media have spotted
one of the alien skulls fromIndependence Day as well, which
is also a product owned by 20thCentury Fox.
So there's even talks ofintegrating all of that, which
I'm not sure how I feel about,but I think it's.
So far a lot of the nods andEaster eggs in Predator Killer
of Killers has been handledpretty well and it's almost like

(55:30):
, oh, that was cool because Iknow it and it's not like a bad
sort of crossover at this pointanyway, yeah, but it also means
that Donald Glover's characterprobably got captured as well.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
So, like, here's your trophy and now for the next
trick.
But yeah, because I don't mindthat, because, like, what
they're doing is they're findingthe best of the best, like
they're going out to the starsto hunt the best things they can
find to hunt, and then, whenone, when something wins,
they're like damn that'ssomething special, like they're
drafting the best team ofkillers that the universe has to

(56:03):
offer.
Yeah, and if they can get thebest of the best, because if
they just go around and justkeep killing everything and let
the ones that are really goodjust grow old or die, then
they're missing out on someother future u-type um,
challenging that same thing thathas killed one before and

(56:27):
beating that person, escalatingthem to a high echelon because
they beat some, beat a person ora thing that another one
couldn't that a previousiteration?

Speaker 1 (56:36):
yeah, because it's almost like they would get
stagnant or stale if they didn'tdefeat what had previously
defeated them in the past andthe process of time.
Obviously, time is the biggestkiller of all.
So if you're going to let Dutchage out until he's 87 and
becomes the governor ofCalifornia, and then you come to
get him, it's like it's goingto hit a bit different.
Yeah, it's going to hit a bitdifferent and send all your

(56:56):
progeny out to get him in andtest against the same metal.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
And, as you said before too, it's also about
learning from their losses.
We lost that person before.
Do you want us to try again,different?

Speaker 1 (57:07):
tactics and see if we win.
Yeah, I can see all your veryvalid points in terms of I'm
thinking of it in terms of thehuman's perspective, where it's
just like I just survived.
It's just like I just survived,I get my honor, I get my
survivable, and then massivetractor beam in the middle of
your backyard while you'recooking sausages for your family
, safe and sound In the shitagain.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
But fuck the humans, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Well, predator Badlands is going to talk about
the predator being theprotagonist, so we are
definitely on the fuck thehumans train right now.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
But I think, yeah, with the Bad Badlands.
I think the good point and theone like is yeah, I'm a bit I
don't know how it's going toturn out, but I think the best
thing that they could do is notinclude humans yeah, or at least
have them play as secondarycharacters no, I reckon don't
even have them at all, because Ithink that's going to detract

(57:55):
from, as you said, like it'sgoing to detract from the
predator, cause, like a lot ofpeople, we change more for the
humans.
Yeah, like there are some peoplelike me who would much rather
the predators killed the humans,but there are some people who,
like, just sort of automaticallyjust lean towards the humans as
the heroes, protagonists,people of interest.

(58:16):
Yep, yeah, like people.
It's like people in D&D whoalways pick humans instead of
picking other races.
I do that.
That's probably why you don'tlike it.
That's probably why you hatethe fact that it might be the
Predators being the protagonistsand not humans.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Yeah, that's probably it too.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Because you're a human picker.
You're a human picker, you're ahuman lover.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
So yeah, predator of Predators actually gives us like
the first formal look at theYutra Codex, like the actual
text.
And that's what we were talkingabout before when we said you
know, go to the stars, collectthe best trophies ever.
The killer of killers, and youknow, what they've done here is
they've expanded the universe tothe point where they can really
do anything.
In this one they've decided togo.
We wanted to talk a little bitabout that.

(58:56):
What are your thoughts on howthis opens up the franchise and
do you think it was a good moveto animate this movie?
Killer of Killers Brash.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
I think it looks cool , like everything looks cool.
The only issue I have is nowit's set a precedent of look at
all these humans doing cool shitjumping from buildings to
buildings, throwing out smokebombs and throwing knives at the
same time time, or bustingthrough walls and landing in
ponds and shit getting up likeit's fucking nothing, like it

(59:26):
sort of takes away from therealism of what you've found in
that, like you find the movies,even though with even the newer
movies, like they do some thingsthat you're like that probably
couldn't happen, because ifyou're like, wow, all these
humans don't like, even likeearth is just going apeshit with
the shields, just absolutelydecimating a whole, entire army
of people, yeah, it's like Ithink, yeah, it's obviously not

(59:48):
realism, but I think that's whythe we, we have to know as an
audience, why the predatorsselected them out of every human
on the, on the entire planet.
So they have to be the best ofthe best at the time.
So they're going to beperforming at a, at a level that
is inhuman almost which backsup my human lover argument here
because they're not quite human,they're better than human,
they're ultra human yeah, that'sthe thing I know like, but, um,

(01:00:10):
but it was also really cool andI really enjoyed it, like as
much as I was just harping onabout um kenji's scene and that
how he's jumping around rooftops and shit and doing his cool
stuff like it was fucking cooland I loved it every second of
it.
It was like, wow, if I had aD&D character, that's what my
D&D character would be like.
Yeah, a human, no, a tabaximonk who can jump from rooftop

(01:00:34):
to rooftop and slide arounddoing acrobatic cool shit.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
I think that the animation, for me, was good.
It allows them to do a wholelot more in terms of that,
because getting a stunt doubleto do those kinds of things is
absolutely, you know, out of therealm of reality.
So it opens the door to that.
It's visually stunning to watch.
I think the art style isbeautiful.
The thing with me was there weresome moments throughout this
where I thought like that,because it did look a little
janky on occasion.

(01:00:57):
I remember a fight,specifically in the sword arc,
which featured ursa and theviking, when she when it was the
back shot by the shield, theshield arc, the shield arc, yes,
sorry, and she was movingthrough the the town and slaying
everybody left to right and youwere seeing her from the back.
I felt like the frame rate wasjust lagging on that and I
didn't.
It sort of drew me out of itand became distracting at times.

(01:01:17):
I don't know if that is afeature of this animation.
It wasn't intended that way.
If they're going to do more, Ihope they'll sort of fix that,
but that kind of detracted mefrom it as well.
But I do enjoy that.
It allows us to then also getlots of different looking
predators, because that expandsthe species as well.
It expands the lore and thecanon, because we can see lots

(01:01:38):
of different types of predatorsthat are adapted to lots of
different specializations,instead of being limited by
prosthetics but then alsolimited by whatever cgi we can
do at the time.
So to me, I think animation isa good move.
Doesn't mean I don't want tosee any live action predator,
don't want to not see any liveaction predators anymore.
I definitely do, but I thinkthis will give us more cool shit

(01:02:01):
that humans do basically.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
I think one of the reasons that I said it the best.
I want to see more of this likethem against Spartans, them
against the Athens, them againstRomans, them against Celtics,
them against fucking Persians,people from all eras.
And because every single one ofthose things people from all
eras and shit like that, becauseevery single one of those
things like those sort of erashave some sort of person that

(01:02:25):
could like what if they go backto Greece and Athens and they
fight abandoned people and oneof them like is Hercules.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Yeah, yeah.
And then one of the trials thatwe know about, where he fought,
you know, the Nemean lion orwhatever it was, was actually a
predator.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
Same with like the Spartans, and maybe it was like
the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Well, how could they not pick a Spartan to fight a
predator?

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
because 300 of those guys just yeah, absolutely but
like maybe in that Persian army,instead of like when they have
fought the Persians at theBattle of Thermopolis In amongst
that battle.
They could have been likebecause in the movie 300 they
had like put like some of thePersians that were all like
balking, weird looking, yeah, abit deformed.
They could have had like one ofthat like they could have

(01:03:14):
thought it was a Persian butreally it was a um predator, and
it could be like the kingarthur and the knife of the
round table.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
yes, that would be cool too well, yeah, so going in
the green knight and the greenknight was actually a predator
like that's where this shines.
I think that's where dantrachtenberg shines, is where he
he has taken the predators, putthem in different time periods,
and I think that's whateveryone loved about it, which
is why I do like the first threeiterations.
I would have watched an hourand a half animated movie on
ursa, an hour and a halfanimated movie on Ursa, an hour
and a half animated movie onKenji, and then an hour and a

(01:03:40):
half animated movie on Torres.
I didn't need the end part andthat's what sort of detracted me
from it.
I would happily watch more ofthose in different time periods.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
The only reason why it was done is probably a
precursor for the Badlands movie.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
I don't like that either.
I don't like media and moviesserving as precursors for the
next thing that's coming, justfor the sake of it being the
next thing that's coming, ifit's the second in the trilogy
there's also like dip these toesin.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Yeah, so he's like all right, so I've got this bad
little movie coming up.
But what if we do this projectfirst the lore they'll show you
some like.
At the end they'll show yousome more about lore.
They'll also dip some toes intoanimation and some fight scenes
and see how people like it andsee if they want more.
So maybe they'll do like awhole animated series of just or

(01:04:27):
more movies or just even maybea series of like hour long
episodes of pros fightingdifferent humans in different
time periods and then maybe evenfighting other aliens, like the
first time they meet axenomorph or something.
And they could do that as awhole, entire TV series of just
hour long, I'd watch the shitout of that.
Yeah, shows of just predatorshunting different things and

(01:04:50):
different humans in differenttime periods, and then the
movies will go on talking moreabout their lore and shit.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Yeah, well, I think that's what this one does.
It kind of introduces thatcodex, and I think that's what
Dan Trachtenberg wanted us toknow.
He wanted us to know that thisis a diverse species.
They do have a lore, they dohave a code.
He wanted to update us onthings that have been happening
to Naru and the fact that we maysee characters in Badlands from
hype as a movie that standsalone on its own, though I would

(01:05:19):
take the first three parts ofthis the shield, the sword and
the bullet.
That was enough for me.
Yeah, the end was just yeah,not so much.
Alright, let's get into ourMVTs and then we'll rate it.
Alright, this is our mostvaluable takeaway, the heart and
soul of the podcast, where webreak down the one thing that
hit harder, stuck longest andtaught us something new from

(01:05:40):
what we just watched.
It is our moment to spotlightthe takeaway that made us think,
feel or see things differently.
This is what we learned fromPredator Killer of Killers 2025.
We learned that it is notbeneficial to be the strongest
human on the planet.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Be weak, be defenseless, oh, on the planet.
Be weak, be defenseless, oh,but no, but don't be the weakest
, because that's who they huntfor food.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
Exactly Be middling Be middle Average Be mediocre.
No, but for real.
We actually had a bit of a chatabout this and we talked about
that end scene and how they allovercame their differences in
the end to then become a teamand a unit.
They overcame language barrierand they saw the strengths in
each other and they were able todefeat a superior foe.

(01:06:23):
So that was kind of our MVP forthis movie, where, you know,
they faced insurmountable odds.
They were in a situation all ofthem, even in their individual
stories where they were, theirback was against the wall,
basically, which is a feature ofall Predator movies and it
shows that human ingenuity, thatrascliness of us as a species

(01:06:43):
and, um, basically the fact thatwe work better together than we
do alone.
We are the sum of ourindividual strengths.
When combined with others,individual strengths can pay off
massive dividends.
When you're facing a challengedoesn't have to always be when
you're fighting a predatoreither it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
It can be in lots of different situations, just in
life imagine if we all, everysingle person on this planet,
put their heads together and putall their technologies together
and work together, we couldalready be out in the stars.
Yeah, I got a little bit offtopic, but my hope for the

(01:07:20):
future is that of like Star Trek.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
Frank is listening to this right now and he is just
like clapping your praises,because Star Trek is 100%
aspirational and it's basicallyGene Roddenberry's theory of
what if humans did basicallythis what if they all worked
together?
What if they put aside alltheir differences?
What if they pooled all theirresources and just worked for
the betterment of humanity?
And I think they do this in amini sort of way in Predator

(01:07:45):
Killer of Killers in the endColosseum, when they're given
all their weapons, they're givenall their tools and they use
all of their strengths and youknow, even to the point where
Ursa sort of sacrifices.
At the end she sort of knowswhat she wants as her purpose
and she helps the other two getaway in that manner as well.
It's that, that strength valuesthat they're talking about when
you're sort of moving towards acommon goal and and the taurus

(01:08:09):
is sort of like the linchpin forit.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
so when he, but both of them pretty much at the same
time.
So when ursa is about to killKenji with the axe, he shoots
the axe.
Yeah, and in the post it looksexactly like the last time she
pretty much saw her son aliveafter he's thrown the spear.
Yeah, Anders, and for Kenjiit's like when he was about to

(01:08:35):
get killed by the Predator andthen his brother came in and
blocked it out of the way andsort of took that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
The way that he did so for Ernst's axe.
Once again, onto Torres, yeah,onto.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
Torres by shooting the axe and blocking the axe
away, and then, immediatelyafter that, he had a scooped up
knee.
But then he seized the hand ofthe other Predator with the arm
and he goes ooh, they've usedthis thing to set off that
person's wristband, and thatbecomes like the perceptiveness
and the ingenuity of Of hisstrength.
Yeah, yeah, and he uses that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
That's the other thing.
How is it a fair fight whenyou're bringing in creatures and
animals and vehicles and stuffto?

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
fight Because they weren't killing each other.
They had to get rid of it,that's the point, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
that's the point.
They were supposed to dwindleeach other down to one one
person and they and Kenjistopped fighting.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Hester was like oh, I'll kill you, and then was like
hesitant about it because theywere like after seeing what
happened to Torres, and thenlike that they were hesitant.
Then they're like, well, oh,they're hesitant to start
because they like talkingeverything's like these guys
aren't doing much killing, yeah,and then send in the beast
exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
So yeah, I think that the teamwork shines through at
the end of this movie and um,all three characters, or two of
the characters, are able toescape as a result.
So three did escape, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
And then Ursa's line at the end don't avenge me.
Yeah, the opposite from likeher father when the wizard told
her to avenge him.
Are you trying to?

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
tell me, brash, that all three of these characters in
a 20 minute or 25 minute perioddid actually go through some
character arc and journey, huge,huge.
Oh see, I don't know if I gotthat, but Because, yeah, because
Ursa's father told her toavenge him.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
She then told her son , if she is to fall, to avenge
her, yeah, and then it's just aconstant, repetitive vengeance
cycle that's never going to end.
And at the end, when she seesthem working together and she's
like I can help these peopleescape and live and if I was to
tell them to avenge me, all thatwould happen is they come back

(01:10:39):
and be in the same situation soshe's like there's a repetitive
cycle yeah, and so she's likedon't have, don't.
She says so she's like sendinghim off, saying don't avenge me,
escape and be free, and thenshe sacrifices herself to let
them escape, and then with kenji, kenji, um, he's the one who
loses a leg because instead ofhe loses an arm.

(01:11:00):
I'm who loses a leg becauseinstead of no, he loses an arm
Arm sorry Because instead of thebrother stopping him from
getting hurt, he sees a comingand pushes Ursa out of the way
and takes the hit.
So it was him sort of returningthe favor from what his brother
did to save his life, becausehis brother ended up dying
because he didn't take the hit.

(01:11:21):
Brother took the hit insteadand his brother ended up dying.
So that's why he didn't want tosee her die taking a hit that
he can see coming.
So he pushes her out of the wayto take the hit instead.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
And then Torres was flying a plane.
Yeah, that was the one where Ihad to suspend the most
disbelief, because he sat in thechair and he's just like.
He just felt it.
You know, he just felt it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
Yeah, he's got that.
He gets that mojo from his dadwhen his dad's in the car.
And the same thing when he theplane, he's like.
He's like, yeah, she's ready tofly.
And this time, instead ofpanicking and searching, he's

(01:12:05):
trying to fix the plane.
And he's complaining about notbeing.
He's like, oh, I'm not amechanic, blah, blah.
And then he goes um, if I canget to work, I could fly.
And the guy's like, all right,and he turns on and the engine
bus.
And he turns on the engine busand they all go out to fly.
And Anders is like no, you'renot coming.
He's like, but I'm a pilot.
He's like, are you?

(01:12:26):
Because he wants to be a pilot.
But, like his father said, hewants to be a pilot but he
doesn't know how all everythingworks to be a pilot.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Yeah, or even I think think it also he hadn't
developed the instinct which ishow he's able to feel, how, how
to fly?
Yeah, and I liked how none ofthose characters ever told him
he wasn't.
They never told him he wasn't apilot, they just questioned him
.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
So he would then question what he needs to do,
and he would think about it moreand try and become what he
wants to be?

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Yeah, so encouraging him in that way.
All right, you ready to rate it?
Yes, all right, let's rate itand rank it.
Each host gets five stars, onefor each category.
We have story and script,characters and performance,
direction and tone, visuals andsoundtrack and also our overall
enjoyment If it nailed it, itgets one of our stars.
If enjoyment If it nailed it,it gets one of our stars.

(01:13:24):
If it flopped, no star at all.
If it almost stuck the landing,it gets half that star and at
the end each host lands on apersonal score out of five and
we take the average to updateour official Letterboxd on a
board.
If you want to follow thatalong, you can track us.
We are at Phantom Portals onLetterboxd.
I'm going to disappoint you withthis one Brash, first off story
and script.
I gave it no star.
I think that this was an actionblockbuster smash, like there
is a lot of great fight scenesin this.
I think that the script and thedialogue there wasn't that much
of it and Torres' dialogue,especially like the protagonist

(01:13:47):
just kind of like talking tohimself, that's yeah.
I guess it felt like fillerdialogue to me.
There wasn't much emotional sortof resonance there for me
anyway, but with the script andthe story, as we said before, I
think that this purpose ofPredator Killer of Killers was
to bridge the gap between Preyand Badlands, just to get people

(01:14:08):
excited and talking in theconversation about Badlands and
maybe drop a little bit of lorethat Dan Trachtenberg wanted us
to know before Badlands camearound.
So there weren't too manyquestions about the movie that
is coming out In story as well.
I gave it no star because Ifeel like it messes with the
Predator lore a bit too muchwith that end scene In my
opinion.
I may be wrong, but in myopinion, yeah, no star.
Sorry, what about you?

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
I'm giving it a half star because I thought it was
absolutely amazing.
I loved Ursa's story.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
I loved Engie's story that's common from what I've
read um I just yeah, he just forme, he just didn't fit the bill
.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
I mean, like it showed, like if he had a bean,
um say, less mechanically minds,but just smart, and then then
relied on things he'd likephotographic memory, assumption
of things he'd learned from hisfather, who was a mechanic, and
added those two together, Ithink that would have been a lot
better, because that would,because he seemed, he seemed to

(01:15:14):
like see it in realism a bitmore other than yeah, he seemed
to be the most unreal, likeclimbing out in the realism a
bit more other than, yeah, heseemed to be the most unreal,
like climbing out in the wingand kicking off the thing,
kicking off the engine.
Yeah, it just all seems, yeah,just a bit too unreal, whereas,
like I can get past Kenjijumping from rooftop to rooftop
and sliding down things andstuff like that.
I can get past that because heprobably went through an immense

(01:15:35):
amount of training to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
Yeah, it was basically his whole life, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Whereas Torres was a kid that got drafted, and then,
a few years later, he became apilot.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Yeah, it was like two or three years, and before that
he was just watching the planefly by.
He was like why?

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
Oh, I want to do that .
And I was like oh yeah, I likedthe character and I liked what
they did with him tounbelievable yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
That character also, by the way, we have not
mentioned is voiced by RickGonzalez, who is famous for
playing Timo Kroos in CoachCarter.
He's the guy that has to do allthe push-ups, so I think he
does a like he's also.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
I can't remember the superhero name, but he was in
Arrow for like the last, likefive seasons of Arrow, varro's
sidekicks Hmm, mad Dog.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Oh yeah, he is too Correct yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
Absolutely, and like Anders, the voice of Anders Yep,
there's Damien Hoss from Smosh,the YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
Oh, there you go oh yeah, damien's here, very nice.
Oh, hass, sorry, hass, damien,hass.
Let's get into characters andperformances.
I liked the concept of eachcharacter, but I don't think
there was he talking to you.
Make makes me rethink, becauseinitially when I watched it I
was like there's not enoughdepth here for me to like these
and root for these humancharacters versing the predator.

(01:16:52):
Basically, when they werefighting the predator, I really
wouldn't have minded if theylived or died.
But now, looking at it, I thinkthere was some subtleties that
I missed.
But I think I've unfairly giventhis zero stars performance
wise.
I think all the voice actorskilled it.
There wasn't one where I waslike that's jarring.
I think they all did quite agood job, nothing like
completely outstanding that blewme away, but there wasn't
anything wrong with it.
Um, I think I've been a bitharsh on the characters, though

(01:17:14):
I think I'm going to give ithalf a star when I initially
gave it zero.
So, brash, you've changed yourmind today.
Half a star for me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
I'm giving it a half star as well because I, again, I
love the characters, especiallyKenji and Ursa.
Again, they were my favouritecharacters, but probably more so
Ursa yep, who was yourfavourite.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
Predator.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
I would have to say the Ronin Predator.
He was probably my favoritejust because he was cool as shit
.
Yeah, and Kenji was cool asshit as well.

Speaker 1 (01:17:44):
Well, my favorite character was Kenji.
My favorite Predator wasGrendel, the.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Brute.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
Hulkling at the start .

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Yeah, so yeah.
No, I just loved Ursa because Ireckon, out of all of them, she
has the biggest growth.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
Oh, yes, 100%.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
Then probably secondary would be Kenji, yeah,
and then Torres, sort of reallyhe more, just so starts to
believe in himself more.
Yeah, I think that's sort ofhis growth.
He sort of understands himselfmore and understands what's
going on around him more.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
I feel like there's more to come from Torres, Like
maybe I don't know if he's goingto be in Badlands.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Yeah, because he's in Badlands, so he can't fully
intact.

Speaker 1 (01:18:20):
Yeah, like maybe he's the one that we'll see later on
in Badlands, because we didn'treally get an arc from him per
se.
So I think that maybe DanTrachtenberg has some more plans
for him in the future.
But all right, let's go on toDan Trachtenberg and go
direction tone.
So I think for what they weretrying to do, they picked the
perfect medium in terms ofanimation.
That was a very good choice.

(01:18:41):
This is loud, fast and fun.
It's like it's a brutalspectacle as well, obviously not
an animation for kids.
It's rated R and I think thatthat carries on with the
predator style as well.
It enables them to do heaps andheaps.
In terms of the humanprotagonist, which we talked
about as well, I think the tonefits.
The only thing for me was someof the director's choices around
duration and the four actstructure in terms of having the

(01:19:07):
shield, the sword, the bulletand then the Colosseum fight at
the end.
I think it would have beenbetter if they decided to do
just those three acts with thepeople, without the Colosseum
act at the end.
So for me, I think it's goingto be half a star.

Speaker 2 (01:19:22):
This is probably where I'll give it a full star.
Love Dan's work I do Like,especially coming from like Prey
Yep, that was amazing, lovesPrey and then coming to this and
, yeah, because this is where wedifferent opinions, because I
loved the culmination ofeverything coming together at
the Coliseum at the end, mm,because really, like I don't

(01:19:46):
know, because I haven't reallyread any of the comics, this
whole thing with the Coliseumand I don't know if it's in
there or not, but like in thecomics, it could explain that
they do this.
Yeah, they might be things we'remissing and even though, like
the comics technically I thinkmost of the comics technically
aren't canon or anything likethat I think they pick up the

(01:20:06):
ideas in that from the comics.
So there might be things in thecomics where this is something
what they do and for me, likethe way I look at it, makes
sense for them to do thisbecause, as I said before, why
waste talent when they find it?
Yeah, but so, and I think it's,yeah, dipping the water and I'm

(01:20:30):
hoping it's dipping the watersinto showing more of the
different fights betweendifferent humans and predators
in the future, possibly inanimation, cause I think it was
probably the best thing to do goto animation with this,
especially when they want to, ifthey want to show off different
phrases and different um humans, different errors.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
The easiest, probably the easiest, the best way to do
that is through animation yeah,I feel like that's um answering
a lot of the fans want as well,because that's echoed
throughout.
As soon as prey came out,everybody would be was saying
give us this in different timeperiods.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
Yeah, which is amazing for a filmmaker to hear,
because that's easilyreplicated, you know oh and yeah
, because, like, we've got howmany different cultures on this
planet and in different timeperiods, and then if you
outstretch that to differentplanets with different creatures
, like it's almost endless thepossibilities they could do.
So I, I believe direction wisedan is going in the absolute

(01:21:23):
correct direction and this wasjust sort of a taste of things
to come, which got me reallyexcited.
And, as I said, like, as yousaid, like um, being a predator
fan toys has always been good,but I think this has really
rekindled.
Like whenever, like, a newpredator movie came out or a new
alien movie came out orsomething like that, like Alien
Romulus that just came out notso long ago, that sort of

(01:21:46):
re-spiked my interest in likethe whole Aliens again.
Because really, when they putout like Alien vs Predator, I
was like what the fuck is thisshit?
Yeah, it sort of dwindled and Iwas like ugh, okay, they just
made.
Yeah, it sort of dwindled and Iwas like ugh, okay, that just
meant to shit.
And now it's sort of like withAlien Romulus tying in like a
bunch of the Aliens movies andPrometheus and everything like

(01:22:06):
that, and then down with Killerof Killers, it sort of, and with
Prey and Killers of Killers.
It's sort of all bringingeverything back up in an
starting way.
That's motivating me to be likefuck, yes, I can't wait for
more of this shit yeah, well,that's exactly what they would
have wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
So, yeah, full star seems well deserved from your
perspective.
Let's go to visuals and sound.
So for this one, I think theanimation was a good choice as
well.
The 2D animation looksabsolutely beautiful like it's
beautifully drawn and the styleis really amazing too.
The sound design does carrythrough the whole entire film.
The only thing that I had aproblem with was the call it

(01:22:41):
janky, I guess, or jarring sortof frame rate in some instances,
and it picked up, but then itwould drop back and I think it
was.
Yeah, it was a little bit toodistracting for me in that way,
which is a shame, because Iliked the actual art style.
I think there's still images.
They looked absolutely perfectand amazing and beautiful.
I think.

(01:23:02):
In terms of character design,each character of the human
characters were really welldesigned, and even all the
predators and the way theydesigned them and the way they
presented their technology wasreally good as well.
I think the jankiness of it ina few scenes here and there
isn't enough for me to detractit from what I want to give it,
which is a full star.
So 100 full star for me onvisuals and sound looks good is

(01:23:23):
a beautiful, amazing choice togo in as animation.
Just a few things to sort ofpick up from there, but not
enough to detract any points I'ma huge fan of two because I
love the arcane series.

Speaker 2 (01:23:34):
He's trying to league of legends, like the animation
is really cool, sounds reallycool, everything's really cool.
But I don't know, is theresomething about this kind of
animation that it I don't know,like it all looks really cool
and flashy, but for me it's justespecially in high, like speed
and like, especially like theplane, like the dog fights when
going through the city.
I just watched that and it justseemed like a blur of color to

(01:23:55):
me, yep, and it was like it'slike a little bit too much.
I would have preferred thatlike a like for that kind of
style.
Like that, this kind of style,something a bit more like.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
Firm lined.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
Yeah, a little bit more firm lined Cause, like even
, yeah, as you said, like Ithink that's what it was with
two, when I was watching theUrsa scene, when she's taking
out lots of people becauseeverything's moving around so
quick, everything just seems abit blurred and frazzled and
like I was trying to capturebecause you can see in the
background of, like her otherwarriors coming in and killing

(01:24:29):
people in the background and Iwas like trying to spot them at
the same time or trying to watchUrsa run through and like like
I don't know, and because it'show it's drawn it, just it just
yeah, seemed really blurred likefor me.
I think the best fight scene forme was the, or the best drawn
fight scene for me was the Kenjione yeah, I agree with that um,
and I think that's because,especially like with somehow

(01:24:53):
summer fight, it's morepurposeful and more graceful and
fluid as well yeah, instead ofbeing more chaotic, like what's
um ursa and the vikings are, andlet's carry like a dog fight in
the sky with a bunch of planesgoing like what in all?

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
yeah, that that was ambitious.
I've got to give it to dantrack them both for that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
Animating that in this style very ambitious, oh
100 and like it doesn't say likenothing wrong.
They're still absolutelyamazing, but I think especially,
yeah, with the Ursa and Taurusones, because of how chaotic and
how everything was going atonce and I found this too in
actually Arcane in some of thefight scenes there that it

(01:25:31):
seemed a bit too chaotic for thetype of art style.
Yeah, yeah.
So for me I think I'll have togive it a half star.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
Half a star, all right, and then down to our last
category, which is enjoymentand rewatchability.
I'd probably rewatch this.
I think it would end up sittingin one of those guilty pleasure
zones for me, especially forthe action sequences if they
were better animated in somepoints as well.
But enjoyment-wise I think itlike I couldn't get past the
fact that it took away a lot ofwhat I perceived is what I loved

(01:25:59):
about the predator race, theyuja.
So I'm gonna give it half astar for me.
Yeah, and I wouldn't say thatthey carnage the predator lore,
because I think that there are alot of things that they did
touch on and there are a lot ofthings that you can look at the
predator codex or the yuja codexads and say, yes, a couple of
those boxes were ticked.
For me, I think that there'skind of like not enough for me

(01:26:21):
to say whether it was damagingto the lore or whether it was
adding to the lore in a positiveway, because there is a lot of
movies that came before it thatthey'd be detracting from and a
lot of comic books and thingslike that that they'd be
detracting from too.
So yeah, I think half a starfor me for that one.

Speaker 2 (01:26:38):
I'm giving it a full star.
I loved it.
I watched it again many timesmore, so I'll probably more so
watch it for the fight scenes.
That'll probably be like thereason why we're just because
I'm like, oh something cool.
I'll watch those fight scenesand try and focus more so I can
try taking more detail insteadof just seeing blurs or color.
But, um, maybe, maybe slow itdown a little bit and run it
like 1.75 speed or something.

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
So that means that I've given it a 2.5 and you've
given it a 3.5.
So it sits firmly on an averageof 3 out of 5.
So let's see where that'll sitfor us on our fandom portals on
a board, all right.
So we've got it rated at 14thplace.
It's sitting below Sonic theHedgehog 3 and above Teenage

(01:27:20):
Mutant Ninja Turtles from the1990 version with those horrible
animatronic suits.
So that is where it sits.
Let's do our sign-offs.
That was the Phantom Portalspodcast episode on Predator
Killer of Killers from 2025.
We want to thank you forjoining us.
As always, our giveaway will beactive pretty much as of next

(01:27:41):
episode.
I reckon Barash and I will getour stuff together and get some
points to get those 25 pointsfor you, and a movie voucher
will be up for grabs for you.
If you wanted to join ourmailing list and be in the
running to get it, you can do soat wwwfandomportalpodcastcom.
If you want to have youropinion read on the podcast,
then you can do so by joiningour socials, which is Threads,
instagram and Reddit.
We're always everywhere atFandom Portals and next week we

(01:28:02):
have a very special guest comingon the podcast.
It is Jeffrey Reddick, who isthe amazing creator of the Final
Destination franchise.
He wrote the screenplay forFinal Destination 1, and he is
coming on the podcast to talkeverything about the Final
Destination series, his careerso far and also the newest movie
in that franchise, finalDestination Bloodlines, which I
really, really love.
So tune in next week for ourepisode with our special guest,

(01:28:25):
jeffrey Ruddick, and share allour episodes with a friend.
Those that like movies, thosethat like Predators we had a bit
of a debate here on Killer ofKillers, but tell us what you
think.
Brash In the trees?
What's in the trees?

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
Oh, I'm pretty sure.
Isn't that one of the linesfrom the first movie?

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
yeah, it is if it bleeds, we can kill it.
Alright.
This is Aaron signing off.
And, as Arnold Schwarzeneggersaid in the original Predator
movies, stick around, dylan, youson of a bitch.

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