Predator Badlands: The Team Empire Take

22:07Prey is new in it. It has a similarity in template and tone, but I think it does do something, the historical setting, the different characters. I think it's different enough for me. I think what Prey did, which I thought was impossible, it recaptured the essence of Predator without being Predator. Because Predator is exactly what Helen's saying. It's come from the WWF, not even E era. It's huge, it's steroidal, it's homoerotic, it's wild. This is none of those things, but it's still frightening, and it has that chilling hunted feel to it. But what's great about this is it tries to do something completely different.

22:41Completely different. Like on every single level. It's different in tone. It's different in aesthetic. It's different in setting. It's a fucking buddy comedy. And that's, the risk there is fucking enormous. And especially when you bring in the small, cuddly animal. I mean, for the first couple of minutes, I'm like, oh no, is this about to drive off a cliff? Is this about to drive off a cliff? Like what's happening here? And even that worked. And I didn't obviously immediately see the kind of twist coming that that's a baby callus. It was only when the callus sniffed him and kind of walks away that I was like, oh, they're related.

23:21But I just thought that was, it was, I mean, yeah, it was just a masterpiece of kind of tone work in this film. That those things all work together and that they felt right. And I think we've seen a lot of the kind of, you know, gruff man on a mission, even grieving hero who's trying to focus on the piece of violence that they have to do and they've got some annoying sidekick. We've seen that done before, but I just thought it was done exceptionally well here. It's a genuinely great performance from Demetrius under all those prosthetics to kind of make that work and give him a sense of soul throughout the movie.

23:58Yeah, agreed. The confidence, though, to do that, to actually even conceive of and execute this film because like it's such a thankless task because like right out the gate you are potentially alienating everyone who loves the Predator films because you're taking this you're taking this creature and almost defanging it you're not because he's still a badass but even tonally literally almost because he's missing a fang right he's missing a fang but do you know what I mean you're making him like quote unquote friendly sort of fluffily a fluffy Predator so that's a dangerous thing to do with an iconic movie creature sort of monster but then so you're potentially pissing off the Predator fans but then also if you're not a Predator fan Will they even turn up?

24:32Will they care? Will they want to see it? So you are almost at, you know, the risk is you're making a film for no one. Whereas actually what he managed to do was make a film for everyone. But I would say the chance of success there was relatively slim. So, you know, more power to him. Never tell me the odds.

24:47Chris Hewitt:I think it's genuinely a miracle, but I think part of the key to this film's success is that the first 20 minutes of this movie is not what you just described. The first 20 minutes of this movie is, in some ways yes, obviously there's going to be accusations of fan service leveled at anything that isn't created by the original creators of a franchise but if you are a Predator fan over the years and you've been thinking what is their culture like? What does their home world look like? How do they interact? The first 20 minutes of this movie are absolute manna from heaven and again it's great credentials establishing which is something that this franchise has been generally very, very good at.

25:31Chris Hewitt:The first 20 minutes of this is like a Frank Frasetta sex dream. I'm not sure how much sex. I mean, because he had some sex dreams. We've seen those on his covers. That's a very good point. I don't know if this is that. That's a good point. But you know what I mean? It feels like this is, the first 20 minutes of this movie is just this glorious, pulpy fantasy world brought to life. The opening shot of this film is this gorgeous shot from inside a cave of this fast alien landscape. And we see this vehicle riding across it eventually. Speeder bike kind of thing. And then it just erupts into a world that is completely unlike our own.

26:12Chris Hewitt:The confrontation between Deck and, I'm going to mispronounce this, but I think it's Quay, his brother. but Kwe is so different and so interesting and just this kind of hardcore brutal duel sparring duel that they do is really fresh and interesting and unique to the franchise and then the introduction of the father who is an absolute fucking grade A prick all of this feels new all of this feels fresh but at the same time Deck is not denuded in any of this. Deck is still someone who wants to be very much a Yautja. He wants to, you know, he's happy to, I think he is happy, well, not he's happy to die, but he would accept, I think, he wouldn't be happy about it, but he would accept death if it came his way.

27:04Chris Hewitt:And his brother's the one who steps in front of him and says, no, this isn't going to happen. And then when Deck lands on the death planet of Gena and starts looking for the unkillable Kalisk, he is still very much an angry young man who greets everything he sees with a blade or a harpoon or a harsh look. The subject of this is deprogramming from the manuscript. I think this entire film is about that. It's detatification. But he's not defanged in the classic way or softened until he meets Thea. Even then, it takes a bit of a time in that classic. I think it's one of the greatest Midnight Run riffs since Midnight Run.

27:48Chris Hewitt:It absolutely nails that dynamic perfectly. Because I think the first 20, 25 minutes of this gives you enough hardcore Predator action, not like that, to satisfy the fans. And I've seen some people going, not my Predator. Why? Because there's a woman with a speaking role in it or because of the cute animal that turns out not to be so cute? I mean, both of those things turn out to be lethal in their own rights. Precisely. If that's your problem, you know. And Tractor Berg said in my interview, I don't want to give it too much away, but he was saying, you know, he's been reading stuff about people saying, oh, they're worried about the Disneyfication of this and there's a cute creature in it.

28:24Chris Hewitt:And he's like, well, cute creature is my idea. I entirely, this is, I've been driving this. This is what I want to do because why just remake the same film? But also that's misdirection, isn't it? The reason why it's cute is so you don't suspect what it is. Yeah, and it has a role to play. You know, they are both aliens in this landscape. It is a native. it is the one that sees some threats coming it's the one who knows how to navigate the razor grass which is freaking cool like environmental edition i love the i love the environment here i like i said about the the vfx before but just you know the way they integrate those kind of viney monsters into that into that forest scene at the beginning the way that the explodey things reload so you can't even like just you know throw a rock through the meadow and then follow it you know i just thought it was so so well done like they really kind of you a lot of the time like death planet like how many death planets have we been to in sci-fi and fantasy like come on okay whatever you know this one felt like oh okay there's some there's some genuine shit here that will fucking eat you all right nice makes pandora look like benedorm yeah yeah well they call that a death planet as well don't exactly yes that's fair still safer than australia no it's true we've all seen Mad Max yeah we certainly have yeah I agree entirely I think the the design of this planet was great he says this is the death planet of Gena and he delivers a death planet from the moment that deck is floating down to the surface he's attacked by a giant flying dinosaur type thing and then it's almost like you know from the deep rising school isn't it now what so giant death dinosaur dragon and then plant thingies plant thingies and then what was next after that was that the lamprey what's it yeah that's where Thea isn't because she's identifying what it is so then it's the explodey explodey field explodey field yeah and yeah then we have the lampreys at one point we have the razor grass at one point the big stompy things big stompy things the gigantic worm thing that lives on the crag oh yeah Yeah, we just randomly eat things.

30:39Just there, you know. Yeah. Do you think Noah Hawley has been to one of these planets? And maybe this is where the eyeball creature comes from. Yeah. But I love that. And I love the fact that it is so pulpy. It is so pure fantasy. And then slowly but surely sci-fi bleeds into it. Yeah. With the introduction of Thea

30:57Chris Hewitt:and the Weyland-Yutani thing. And I'll be honest, when I saw the trailer, the first trailer, I was like, oh, she's a Weyland-Yutani droid. Oh, I'm not, or not droid. when she's a Weyland-Yutani synth, oh, I'm not so sure about that. But that's because, historically, when these two franchises have collided, it has not ended well for us. No. Whoever wins, we lose. The audience. Yes. That was true. But this really, I think, worked. I thought Mother was wildly unfair to Tessa. Like, it's clearly, it doesn't seem like it's her fault, and she's somehow having to carry the can for Thea having been knocked off the map.

31:29Corporate bureaucracy, isn't it? Isn't it? I mean, but, you know, I mean, I would have thought our AIs would be better by the 24th century but apparently they still suck I so yeah that was a bit of a

31:41Chris Hewitt:I'm guessing 24th century by the way but I know it's further it's further than any alien or predator movie we've seen so far but I thought I genuinely thought that the you know that the idea that they would have a base that they would be researching the deadliest creatures in the in the universe makes a lot of sense from everything we know of Weyland-Yutani yes 100 % without a doubt if they find a death planet they would absolutely set up a base and start studying shit. And also, I like the idea that, of course, they would send synths because that makes absolute sense. And also, it means we can then have gore and violence without, you know, in our writing.

32:15This is a PG-13 Predator movie. It didn't feel like that. I didn't know that while I was watching it. I didn't know until afterwards. And I didn't feel the lack. Because it's massively gnarly. It's just because it's not red blood. It's fine. Heads are cut off. People are cut in half. There are all sorts of stabbings and explodings. But it's green blood and synths being massacred by the dozen at the end of the film. And there's only one swear word, I think. Is that? Is it in Yautja? It's shit. Oh, is it? Yeah, Thea says shit. You could even go heavier than that for a PG-13. You could. And you can say whatever you want in Yautja.

32:52That's true. Yautja! Yautja! Just randomly, I really liked the idea at the very beginning that you have this kind of tooling up fake out scene where Deck gets all of his hard, he's got this bow and he's got this staff and his spear and all this sort of stuff and then it all gets stolen by the plant. And I thought that was quite nice and he's back to basics. He just has his sword. I was just so frustrated for him at that point. I'm like, oh, for God's sake. It's like, dude, why did you get all your shit out? Like, what are you doing? Why did you take your backpack off, man? What the hell?

33:22Chris Hewitt:I think that's Trachtenberg's approach to this movie in microcosm because it's, he is divesting himself of all the trappings of a predator movie and he's divesting deck of all the trappings of a predator if you notice there's only one shot of predator vision in this film only one and then he loses the ability to to see in that spectrum I'd love to see what their vision I know we've seen some movies it's because he loses the mask he loses the mask and yet obviously canonically that's how predators see anyway yes so well we see in Predator that they don't see in this instead of blue it's red but still heat vision they still see firmly yeah well less so I think it's augmented yeah a little bit yeah I mean it felt like in Predator when he takes the mask off it feels a lot like it's just someone who's taking their prescription glasses off everything's just a little bit blurry it's not quite you know is it the red or the green I don't know well I love it I love it in Predator we're talking about that film again but when he does lose the mask and he takes it off he makes a choice to take it off and go after Dutch because he is so fucking pissed by that point it's just like you know these hunts usually go a lot more smoothly than this and this motherfucker this fly in the ointment it's just wild and then he just goes pure red red with rage Predator is reframed slightly differently in the context of Badlands what if that is just like another deck what if it's just a lovable young yautja warrior this is what happened to Ant and he's mercilessly killed by Dutch I thought about this because you know my pissing in the pool thing and I did feel a little bit like if you humanize a predator does that in any way affect my enjoyment of predator will I see that predator differently and I don't I think partly because like no one ever was saying that the predator culture was monolithic like they're not all going to be like that you will of course get slightly more pleasant ones I think it's still because it's not the same predator, it's not the same creature.

35:26I think it's fine to hold them in different narratives and different parts of your brain. So it hasn't ruined it for me at all. But also, I think the culture of the predators that we've been shown or told about before, even really back to the first predator, there was a ritual aspect to it, right? There was this idea that he was on a hunt and it was like a finite thing. He wasn't doing it for food, he's doing it for sport. It's an honor system or a proving yourself thing or a ritual of some kind. That was always kind of baked into the character. So this doesn't, it's not quite, you know, it's not the slavering beast of Alien, frankly.

36:07And they can be cunning and everything, but they're not strategic maybe in the same way. They're not thinking in the same way. They're not approaching a hunt the same way. They're killing for the love of killing. they're not killing for some sense of purpose greater purpose and they may also love Predators may also love killing but there is a there is a ritual aspect and a purpose to their killing a nobility to it as well as seen in Predator 2 well he doesn't kill Maria Conchita Alonso because she's pregnant and he doesn't kill El Pileo Carrillo

36:39Chris Hewitt:in the first movie because she not because she's a woman but because she's not armed not sport no sport no sport so I think that kind of lends itself to it being a little bit more flexible, maybe, than some other villains. Like, if they ever try to, like, and this is one of my worries about Alien Earth, if they ever try and kind of redeem the alien, like, that's my hard line. That's a now. But with redeeming the Predator, there's a bit more room to work with. I think, again, aliens are kind of just like animals, aren't they? And at the end of Alien Earth, they have kind of redeemed it to the extent where she's essentially domesticated two of them.

37:14So there's an animal there. But again, they're animals, so you can kind of, and she's communicating. I give that a pass as well. But you're right, certainly in Predators 2, when he gives, when that Predator steps forward and gives Danny Glover the pistol, you know, which is a mark of respect. Like, they have respect for him. Like, they are not just mindless hunter killers. Like, there is a sense of propriety. There's a sense of order. And he is now a hunter and they are giving him a Christmas present. They're not gripped by petty thoughts of revenge at that moment. It's like, you've just killed my cousin.

37:44That was Steve. Yeah, what are you doing? come on man

37:48Chris Hewitt:no instead you've earned this but we'll be back as this also this gun is like we've been here before so nice on you you've spoiled this party but we're coming back yeah how we got our spaceship into that tunnel not entirely sure let's not get into that let's not dwell on the details back a bit oh no back a bit you know like the Austin Powers 25.10 so anyway Predator Badlands though oh yes that's the end that's the film we're here to talk about the thing is I genuinely love Predator Badlands. I just, turns out, love talking about Predator and Predator as well. It's interesting, isn't it? So one of the things, obviously famously in Predator, you've got this high-tech armored alien hunting them down in the forest and the way to beat him is to go low-tech and cover yourself in mud and haul some logs around and all that kind of thing.

38:36And that's what's reversed here is that the Predator, being stripped of all his high-tech stuff, has to be the one to haul logs around and make traps. And get a little acid-spitting eel as a gun. To domesticate an eel as a gun. I don't know quite how, like, how much time passed during that planning process that he was able to train the eel. To the extent that the eel sacrifices its life to save him. Yeah. Just for some fucking seeds and berries. Like, that's cheap. I mean, they must be really good berries. They really must be. Jeez. It's a good thing the berries weren't poisoned on the death planet, because otherwise that could have ended very badly.

39:08Chris Hewitt:Oh my God, that's a good point. But you're right, the predator has a very unfair advantage, and I'm glad that he is stripped of that advantage. and this, it's just, it's not fucking fair. If you watch any of the Predator films, they, Predators, right? They parachute all these badasses in and then to an alien planet and they don't give them any bearings. They don't give them any weapons apart from what they have. So, actually, lots of weapons. But, and then they just unleash themselves on them. That's not fair. You've got a fucking laser. You can go invisible. Yeah. It's this weird, it's this weird attitude that you get in a lot of 80s American films to technology because on one hand, they like celebrated themselves for being like the great superpower and having like the best bombs and the best planes and all this kind of stuff but then you know films like Predator or films like Rocky isn't it 3 or 4 with Drago 4 so like he's Rocky is the one who's like again hauling logs and you know that's not an euphemism for having a shit by the way it sounds like it is but it's not but like yeah he's the one who's like out in a cabin in the woods back to nature and it's Ivan Drago who's in the lab running with a mask on and all this kind of stuff And which is, you know, not like America, actually.

40:18But I'm interested that that's the way they signal virtue in American films is like going back to basics. It's this kind of idea of rugged individualism again coming out this time in a Predator. So, okay. Or go Bear Grylls. But it's interesting, like, if you were to say what are the, what is the livery of a Predator film? you'd say the cloaking device, you'd say the heat vision, and you'd probably say the shoulder cannon with the three dots. And, you know, those things are all present in this film, but barely. And I think that's a really interesting thing, that he's taken the grammar of Predator and essentially sidelined it because he's doing something different.

40:59Yeah. I guess it's a show of confidence in his Predator, I suppose.

41:04Chris Hewitt:It's a show of confidence in what he wants to do, and it's a declaration that he wants to do something very different because I think Prey, as great as Prey was, you know, again, to go back to the point I was making about Prey, I think it was very determinately and deliberately clad in the bones of a Predator movie, you know, very much the same structure. Yes, a lot about it was different. Of course it was, you know, the setting, the Naru, the protagonist, the Amber Mid-Thunder character, of course, all of that was different. The Predator itself wasn't as technologically advanced as the one that shows up and faces off against Arnie or Danny Glover or Adrian Brody.

41:42Chris Hewitt:But at the same time, it was still absolutely recognizably a Predator movie, almost deliberately so to get the franchise kick-started again. And then Predator Killer of Killers are three variations on a theme. They're all very similar in a way that, you know, yes, different time periods and different protagonists and that's all very interesting. But they're all essentially here's a time period here's a kick-ass warrior here's a predator turning up kills everybody except the kick-ass warrior they end up one-on-one and that's it and I think with this movie he was just like I'm doing something completely fucking different from the off and I'm gonna have a cute creature I'm gonna divest him of everything that makes a predator a predator I'm gonna try and fill in some characterization as well I'm gonna try and make you feel for a predator which is a hell of a thing as well and I'm gonna make it a buddy movie and we haven't talked enough about Thea and we haven't talked enough about Elle Fanning who I think is the film's MVP to be honest I think she's absolutely terrific in this she's an actress I've always admired but this is the first time I've really come away from an Elle Fanning movie and gone oh this is a movie star yeah she's just terrific because for first of all let's talk about Thea I guess first of all but Thea is you know bubbly without being airheaded in a strange way.

43:05She is, you know, especially as the film goes on, even aside from her physical appearance, which is legless, she is not human. She doesn't approach things necessarily in a human way, but she approaches things like someone who's been taught to try to be human, you know. And so there's a humanity to her, which is probably easier for us to gel onto in some way than everything that Deck is going through. But there's also just this little tinge of strangeness and weirdness about her. There were moments where I was like, oh, can he trust her? What is the secret that she's hiding? What is she really up to?

43:42Is there another kind of side to her? And there were moments where I had to question that. And I think that was very, very deliberate. And I think maybe that's enhanced by the fact that you also have her second character. You have Tessa, who is coming from a very different place, who seems like initially just a very different synth. so initially we hear all about her from you know um thea going oh my god she's the best i love her we're great we're best buddies we hold hands and skip through the fields and then we meet this incredibly serious very laser focused character who obviously is put under pressure but you get the sense that there's some of that already she had been eaten by a calyx that might be in a bad mood maybe that is is why yeah maybe that's why but i you know i just i just thought the contrast and the sheer amount of ocean between them was fascinating.

44:30Chris Hewitt:I did not know about that. I went into this movie very, very cold indeed. I had seen basically the first teaser, so I knew that Elle Fanning was in it playing a chatty Cathy synth. But I didn't know she was pulling double duty. I didn't know she was playing, there was a test that was in this movie. I didn't know about Bud, the cute creature. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know about. I knew there was a confrontation with the callus. I assumed that would be the end of the movie. It's the midpoint of the movie. all that stuff was really really interesting but I was completely caught cold by Tessa I think she's a really interesting formidable foe I think there's a lot going on with her I'm really interested about what you just said there I didn't get a chance to talk to Trachtenberg about this what was she like before she was eaten by the catalyst and before mother makes it so clear to her what the punishment will be for failure you'll be lowered into a fire so for example is Thea misremembering?

45:27Chris Hewitt:Or is she putting rose-tinted glasses on it? I think it's just rose-tinted glasses. I think maybe Tessa was more focused and more sort of mission-focused to begin with, but it didn't matter because so was Thea in perhaps a more joyful way. But she's clearly fascinated by the planet. She's really enjoying the experience of exploring this world, really enjoying learning more about it. so she just sees them as on the same page. And I don't think she's paying attention to the degree to which they might not have been because they were both just focused on the mission and not really... Possibly. I don't think there was so much water between them then.

46:07Chris Hewitt:But I also think that... I think it's clear that Thea's personality, although I think it has evolved a little bit, I don't know how long she's been stuck on that outcrop of rock. She seems to say days rather than... Okay. So I don't know if it's had a profound impact on her personality. But I think she has never had someone, she's stuck with all these synths who are very, very automaton-like, the other synths who aren't Tessa. And she only has Tessa as a frame of reference. I think she's always chatty Cathy, and Tessa's always been slightly cold and slightly taciturn, but there is a bond there between the two of them.

46:48Chris Hewitt:But I think the film ultimately, and it's hard to do this without getting into Fast and Furious territory, is about family. And it is about both Deck and Thea suddenly having a different frame of reference for what a family can be. So Thea's sister's probably always been a bit cold and not chatty and nothing like Thea whatsoever because of programming or perhaps because of environment, who knows, whatever reason. Deck has grown up in this really, really cold, harsh, yautja upbringing where it's all about honor and you're a runt of the litter and you're not good enough and all he's ever known is his dad and his brother who's a nicer guy and obviously lays his life down for Deck.

47:31But beats him up first to try and get him into shape. But there's also a sense of how much of it is that his brother's a nice guy, you're a nice guy. How much of it is that? And how much of it is because he kind of almost owes him a blood date? Because Deck saved his life and that means something to him. And obviously Yautja, they're all about the honour and stuff. I wonder whether part of it is obligation rather than affection. That's a good point. That's a good point. I didn't really read it as that. I read it as that, you know, I want my younger brother to survive. I think there's both. I think that's part of it.

48:04But James is right. I thought the blood debt did play a role as well. I hadn't even thought of that. That's a really, really good point. But I think in the course of this movie, these two individuals, these two characters who have had very, very interesting family members

48:19Chris Hewitt:get to see what a real family can be like and what a real connection with someone can feel like. And I think that's where the film really takes off. I think that's a really lovely thing. I think that's what you get from that final scene. It's not just a sort of, I'm finally standing up to my father on my own terms, but it is about, I have now found my real family. This is my clan. This is my clan. And then, oh shit, mom's home. I mean, look, as cheap sequel bait goes, that is absolutely superb you know it's good yes okay I would like films to just end sometimes but if you're gonna do cheap sequel bait that was a great because also even if you didn't get the sequel it's just a funny thing to end on it's just funny yeah it's just fun and funny yeah everyone's shitting their pants it's like well he was pretty formidable why are they shitting their pants oh the mum's home yeah because I was thinking like what's the what's the female role in this in this in this society You know, I still don't know.

49:19No. Well, we'll find out, hopefully. Hopefully we will, but do we want to as well? Because, again, this would be something different. We haven't had a direct sequel. Well, has he said that the next film he wants to make is a direct sequel? Because he said there's another Predator film he wants to make, but to the best of my knowledge, he's not elaborated on what that is. Maybe this is standalone, and his other idea is, because bear in mind, all three of his films have been complete left turns from each other. Exactly. So maybe it's a completely separate film, and this is just its own thing? I mean Prey ends with a pretty open-ended bit of sequel baiting as well.

49:50Which they're kind of picked up in Killer of Killers. A little bit, yeah. I can see the next one being, there's a way to make it a sequel to both this and Killer of Killers, right? Like it could be done. But it doesn't need to foreground deck. It doesn't. Like you could do something completely different but still make it thematically connected and still make it feel like it's part of the same story. But I hope if they are bringing back, you know, the Earth Warriors who survived the last two that they have Deck involved I think that would be fun it would be interesting wouldn't it do you see a Predator movie where maybe Arnold might be tempted back and would that derail things I really hope not and I love Arnold but no no just just no every time

50:38Chris Hewitt:every time I see Predators I and Lawrence Fishburne shows up I keep thinking about how the original plan was for that to be Arnold and I'm so glad it wasn't. Not because, it's actually one of the least satisfying things about that movie because that character makes no sense. He saves everybody and then he goes, oh shit, I've saved everybody now I need to feed them. Oh, I might as well kill them. And then he goes completely insane and his, who's spoilers again, his death scene is so thrown away. I just keep thinking, well, that had been Arnold. That's not how you want Dutch to go out. No, it's not.

51:11Chris Hewitt:You don't want Dutch to go out at all. Going Dutch. you don't want that to happen so yeah I'm glad that they didn't they didn't do that I think fans and look fanservice plays a big part of this film and you know the aliens crossover moment so I'm thinking specifically the predator with the pulse rifle yes I'm thinking the giant sort of like power loader on steroids yes which they put on the poster which I think is a massive mistake I didn't know that until after I saw the film yeah yeah I agree terrible idea both of those things could have been taken off a subreddit what if this but bigger and better and what if the Predator got a pulse rifle?

51:47But in execution, it's really fun. I will say, because the pulse rifle that the Predator uses looks nothing like the M41A from Aliens. It's a very different... Okay, he knows this. But it still has the sound. The audio imprint, you can still tell that it's a pulse rifle. And that's quite cool. Because it didn't look like one, it didn't have that kind of slammed fan moment for me. I was like, oh, sound, I recognized it, but it didn't. Whereas if it had actually looked like one, I'd have been like, oh, that's really cool. And if he'd said in Yowchie, get away from her, you bitch, or something. Got up and walked out of the cinema.

52:21I'm so glad they didn't go down that route. Yes. Because as much as I liked Alien Romulus, we've all talked about that moment in that film. That moment is hateful.

52:28Chris Hewitt:And I was really hoping, especially when Tessa does Commodir the giant power loader and starts walking into frame much like Ripley does, I was like, please, please, don't, please, Don't say it. Don't say it. And she didn't. No. Yes. She's just a baddie. Yeah. It's very well calibrated that way, where it's fan service and it's cool, but it's not cringe. Yes. And that works nicely. And I thought that was, yeah, it's a lovely moment. And actually, the power lighter thinks it's kind of cool, isn't it? And you're like, oh, it's going to be you versus the callous. That's kind of mad. Yeah. I liked all that stuff.

53:01I liked the pulse rifle bit. I liked the whole dynamic, actually. Like the fact when it turns out that she's been stringing them along the whole time. and actually she's not going to help him in any way, shape or form. And she's very apologetic about it. Yeah. But, yeah. She just wants her legs back and to find her sister again. Yeah, who doesn't? Who doesn't want their legs back? Matessa's a delight. Why wouldn't you want to be reunited with her? That's what I say.

53:25Chris Hewitt:The stuff with the legs, I thought was so clever, so inventive. Yes. The original working title, of course, was never meant to be the title of the movie, but it was Backpack. All that stuff, I thought, was just absolutely brilliant. And Nick pointed out to me afterwards, because I'd forgotten about this, I was gushing about the movie, and he was going, Predator with a pulse rifle. I was going, yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about this? And then Nick was like, there's a bit where she high-fives her own legs. I know, I know. It's amazing. And I'd forgotten that. I was like, fuck, you're right. She high-fives her own legs.

53:55That bit where she's fighting in concert with her torso, like both parts. Oh, it's so good. But the thing is, again, it's all these things, the invention in this film. Exactly. So that, I've never, I mean, understandably, I've never seen that before. But you know, the bit with the tree, the bit with the kind of razor glass, there were so many things. The bit with the tentacles, I mean, it's Evil Dead-y, but it's very, very cool. Like, there were so many moments where I'm like, that's a really cool idea. That's a really cool idea. And I think if you're going to have CG things hitting CG things, you need that level of invention or you get Transformers fatigue.

54:24Exactly. And you rarely, rarely get that in this film. No, I think that worked super well. And like you say, something I've never seen before. I feel like action movies, not across the board, but there have been a couple recently where I'm like, oh, you are taking the challenge that a lot of things have been done now. You know, because first of all, we had a lot of people doing a lot of things. Then we got VFX to a level where they could suddenly do impossible things and they've been doing all of those now for 20 years, 25. But now we're getting to kind of the limits, I think, of just doing impossible things and now we need genuine, like I say, invention and weirdness and throwing everything at the screen.

55:07And that was one of those moments recently where I'm like, oh, wow, I still have the capacity to be completely surprised by an action beat. And this last act of this movie had quite a lot of that going on. Even the blowing, you know, turning on his ship's engine so the sandstorm would enable him to see his dad. That's not so, you know, fresh. We've seen sand used to, you know, reveal invisible things before. but it was just really well deployed. It was really well timed, really well executed in both the literal and figurative sense. I just thought, yeah, it's such a well-made movie.

55:43Chris Hewitt:Yeah, we should say as well that obviously Dan Tractorberg directed this and co-wrote the story but the screenplay is Patrick Eisen. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Maybe Eisen. I've actually never heard his name said out loud so I'm completely grasping in the dark here and it's a really, really good screenplay. Again, the dynamic. fast-talking Thea bonding with Taciturn, Deck. I think that all that stuff is just beautifully, beautifully sketched. And just the moment where he's dragging her along various locations and she's just bombarding him with questions that you've always wanted to ask a Predator.

56:22Chris Hewitt:How do your mandibles work? How do your fangs work? I mean, do you open, do you eat with your, do you chew with your inner teeth or your outer teeth? You know, all that sort of stuff. I love the fact that and she's also clearly many many Yautja have been to this planet to try and kill the Kalisk and have failed and she's witnessed it at close hand yeah it's so it's so beautifully written shall we talk we've got to wrap it up in a second it's a question I was going to say do we want to talk about Predator for another four hours but yes we do I had a question you were talking about you know the civil service the Yautja civil service the admin brigade it's astonishing that they can they can find out who isn't is not a sort of secret serial killer on earth but they can't do basic research.

57:02Oh, this thing fucking regenerates its cut-off head. That feels like a piece of information that they could have used. I feel like they're just, you know, fucking with each other at that point. They're just like, look, we told you it was unkillable. We didn't tell you how and why. It was in the dossier. It literally said, death planet, unkillable, leave it alone. You didn't listen, it's on you. I don't think they know. I think every youcher who has gone back, who's gone to Gena, the death planet... Has not come back. Has not come back. and they've gone, well, okay. Well, even Father fears the Calus, apparently.

57:35Yeah, because he's probably had loads of people, loads of mates go off and try and kill it. I don't think he's ever tried to kill it himself. Because it's unkillable. I guess so. And it lives on a death planet. I did have that moment when it turned up because, you know, I expected it to be bigger, honestly. You know, they've been hyping this thing up the whole time and we've seen a bunch of, like, dragons flying around and I thought the first one of those was the Calus. But again, But I was like, oh, okay, I guess not. And then it turns up and you're like, I mean, it feels like the predator should be able to kill this.

58:03Helen's like, I mean, I could take that. I mean, I couldn't, but I feel like he could. This doesn't seem like that big a deal. He does. He cuts his head off. Well, this is it. Exactly. And then he regrows his head and you're like, okay, now I see why that might be a problem. Okay, I get it. I understand.

58:18Chris Hewitt:Helen, as someone who likes things to make sense within the logical order of the universe, did you have notes about that? Oh, of course. because I mean you know it's like anything that's self-regenerating like Frankenstein the creature has the same problem like where does it get the mass where does it get the matter it's Catholic so to regenerate itself like how and in this one actually there's a little bit more sense to it because it's kind of almost like tentacles yeah and it pulls the missing bits back together that makes a little bit more sense than some things not a lot but a little well we've all had fun walking down the old badlands of Predator Phil.

58:59Chris Hewitt:Some of us have learned to say Predator, some of us have not, but that's fine. Anything else you want to say before we wrap this up and talk about Predator 2 for another 45 minutes? Oh, is it that time already? Oh, come on. You love talking about Predator and Predator 2 and Predators and the Predator and Prey and Predator Killer of Killers and Predator Badlands. You're right on some of those, but not all. All right. so I'm going to look at my notes and see if there's anything else we can talk about the title card reveal this is literally the first thing I have written down Badlands spoilers the title card reveal four exclamation points because it comes 20 minutes in yeah and I loved how old school it was 20th Century Studios presents Predator Badlands all rights reserved yeah it's quite busy isn't it oh it was so good and just finding a perfect point to deploy that oh lovely stuff these are my questions given the film a humanoid antagonist that was interesting Demetrius also voices father did you notice that?

59:58no he voices father and Kwai Kwai Kwai Kwai Kwai maybe because he was the one who learned Yautja and then just kept going from there there was a limited pool of Yautja speakers it's Kwai because Bridge of the River Kwai Kwai alright Dex Mother who would you like to see what would you like to see happen with Dex Mother? Judi Dench oh my god Judi Dench 100%. It's Dame Judi Dench. Meryl Streep. As a youcher. Meryl Streep. I mean, that would work too. Meryl Streep. I don't know what I want to happen. I just like the idea of her being absolutely terrifying. Maybe bigger than all the guys. Yeah. There's precedent in the animal kingdom.

1:00:41It could be fun. Do you want to see her grab Deck by the ear and drag him home? Like, oh, mom! No, I don't think so. Deck, have you killed your father again? Deck. Explain yourself. Is that your dad's head lying at your feet?

1:00:56Chris Hewitt:Yeah, mum, sorry. Went to the death planet again. Killed the callus glow. He didn't, though. No, he didn't, did he? No. He's a fucking fraud. Yeah. I came back with this random android's head, and his dad's like, what the fuck is this? Are you going to introduce me to your new girlfriend? She's not my girlfriend, mum. We're just friends. That thing better stay outside. It's not coming in the house. I hope you've got a litter box for it. Wow. what are you talking about the callus oh right oh my god no ew I was going to say that's harsh well Bud could be his girlfriend Bud is a girl that is true Bud is a girl yeah could have hot youcha on callus action no no that's wrong no everything's fan service everything's fan service and this fan wants to be serviced it's not only fan service

1:01:47Chris Hewitt:let me see what else I wrote loved I just wrote loved and a lot of stuff loved the final assault on the Weyland-Yutani base where Deck cleverly uses everything that's almost killed him. The eel things with the acid spit, the razor grass, the little slugs that explode as a defense mechanism. Thea's legs. Almost magnificent seven. I think it might be seven. I think he might have he might have seven teammates or six teammates and he's a seventh. Okay. Devesting Deck. Oh, and Deck makes a joke. Find sister and legs. And he loves that. He makes it twice. So, there we go. oh, I love this fucking film.

1:02:23Chris Hewitt:I love every movie in this franchise, even the terrible ones. I mean, to an extent, so do I. Except for the... Except for the Predator and the crossovers. Yeah, the Predator makes me a bit sad because it should have been great. It should have been great. And it wasn't. Yeah. All right. Oh, well. Should we say something nice about Predator to get the mood back up again? Christmas movie. Woo! Is it? You could watch it with Prometheus. Which one? But also a Christmas movie. Predator is a Christmas movie. The Predator is a Christmas movie. The Predator is a Christmas tree, yes. Well, it's not, I mean, it's not.

1:02:55Because I remember, I remember... There's a Christmas tree at one point. Well, no, there was a bit where I was on set and there were a bunch of what looked like kind of little cypress trees. And I said to him, I said, are those Christmas trees? He went, no! He just shut it right down. I was like, okay, sorry. Sorry, Shane.

1:03:13Chris Hewitt:Okay, well, let's knock this on the head. And that is it for our Predator. Predator Badlands spoiler special. Sorry for all the times I've had Predator. Predator, it's so hard to say. If you're Northern Irish, I think it's one of the hardest words to say. After sorry. I don't know. Sorry. I guess Elton John's classic hit, Predator seems to be the hardest word.

1:03:40Chris Hewitt:Oh, dear Lord. All right. Okay, let's call it a night, shall we? More spoiler specials coming your way? I don't know. One of my made-up schedules. Helen, bye. Frank and... Oh, bye-bye. Frank Assign, Running Man. Yep. Now You See Me, Now You Don't. What? Wicked for Good. Wicked for Good. Naked Gun Interview with Akifa Schaffer. Springsteen Deliver Me from Predator. Wake Up, Predator. Wake Up, Dead Predator. Predator Topless 2. Suopolis. Whatever it's called. That's confusing. Yeah, I know. I think it's a topless predator. I was going to say, we're back on only fan service again. Oh, hello. Hello.

1:04:20Oh, wait a second. Well, you do see the Predator's nipples, don't you, in this movie? Yeah, that's true. He's wearing fishnets. He is. He's very sexy. Very sexy Predators. I'm worried about you both. So many words that if you did a search for, you know, very sexy Predators, I'm not sure. Well, there is a Predator fleshlight. We know we've seen it. Is there? Yes. I love that you just assumed. We know. We've seen it. We've seen it. Is this the royal way, James? I do not own a predator fleshlight. I must emphasize that value. You said what happened at that party. We'd stay at that party, James. Anytime.

1:05:00Turn around. Oh, stop it. Over here.

1:05:08Oh, dear Lord. I said to my girlfriend, geez, you've got a big fleshlight. No, anyway. Hey, that's not funny. oh well no damn fool would accuse us of being the best I think that's fair to say how does a predator fleshlight work no no genuinely like what is it like where do you put the mandibles that's very I don't want to know people are going to google it as a result of you guys talking about it never ever google it very very sexy predators sorry Helen I have to investigate this I have to explore the fleshlight is what is the look it up go on google it now oh fucking hell I'm sorry I have to explore the flashlight there are so many back-to-end chosen words there

1:05:57Chris Hewitt:oh deary me

1:06:01okay

1:06:02Chris Hewitt:images oh no no you can never unsee it now how would oh is that is that it yes that's it That's it. There you go. It's just a Predator's face. Yes, it is. But Danny Glover in Predator 2 calls it pussy face. He does, yes, that's true. Perhaps that's where they got the idea from. I thought you were about to say Danny Glover uses one of these in Predator 2. It's because I've not seen that cut.

1:06:35I really haven't. This might be why he's sweating all the time. That's the thing about Predator 2. It's set during a heat wave.

1:06:42Chris Hewitt:Yeah. This year it grows hot. It grows hot. this year it goes hot again thank you for not doing the accent and everybody in that movie despite the fact that it's like a hundred degrees in LA they're wearing layers of very heavy clothing and every scene they're just sweating and sweating and sweating and sweating and it's just like wear a fucking t-shirt mate t-shirt and shorts what are you doing? something in linen you know honestly Danny Glover's costume in that film is off the fucking chain. It's absolutely wild. Anyway, that is definitely it for our Predator Badlands slash Fleshlight Spoiler special.

1:07:26I mean,

1:07:27Chris Hewitt:I just don't know. How much? No, I'm not buying that. Bye, Helen. Toodle-oo. Thank you for releasing me from this increasingly depraved hell. Yeah. Bye, James. Anytime. Anytime, Helen? Anytime. See? She wants to top her predator for another 45 hours. And it's goodbye for me. I am off to delete my search history from my phone. That is wise. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye-bye.