Speaker 1: This is a podcast from Minute Media. I'm not with
gu ne'sa de grave and that is all the commandchies
that I have for you today. Ladies and gentlemen, thank
you very much for joining us on the Shirley You
Can't Be Serious podcast. I am here with my co
host and friend, mister Jason Colvin.
Speaker 2: How's everybody doing. I was gonna try Comanche, but I
have no chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all good. You went to the museum before
you went to see the movie, so that is quality enough.
Ladies and gentlemen. We are here to talk to you
today as a special bonus episode about the new Predator
movie called Prey. Jason and I just finished up with
our summer of nineteen eighty seven matchup of Predator versus RoboCop,
and as a nice little coincidence it seems to always
happen with us, thirty five years later, they released no
with installment for Predator which is called Prey, and we
both watched it and we both love it.
Speaker 2: I barely knew that this was on the like, this
was not really on my radar at all, right, and
then we did RoboCop and Predator and it was like
there's a new Predator movie.
Speaker 1: What yeah, I mean in our research on Predator, I
came across, Oh, hey, they're making another one. It's due
out in just a couple of weeks. I had no
idea about it. And then even as I was like
driving over as we were doing one of the episodes,
it pops up as a preview and I'm like, oh, wait,
this actually looks really good. Like it was the preview
lead you in, not letting you know what's going on
until you're three quarters in, and I could hit skipped ad,
but I didn't. I was like, this looks good, And
all of a sudden, whenever the Predator lifts the Grizzly
Bear up in the air, I was like, Oh, this
is it. Yeah, this is the new one. I really
want to see it, And man, I'm glad I did.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is the fifth Predator movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The First Woman came out in nineteen eighty seven. As
we've talked about July of nineteen eighty seven. It was great, Yeah,
eighties iconic. We both loved it.
Speaker 1: We discussed Predator and RoboCop in our past two episodes.
If this is your first time to listen to the
Shirley you can't be serious podcasts. Go back and check
those out. If this is what you're listening to before
you watch the movie Prey. I can tell you that
you don't have to watch the other movies, but you
will be best served if you at least watch part
one and part two. Predator and Predator two both are
key movies that have not necessarily Easter eggs, but lead
ins in this movie.
Speaker 2: I would call them easter eggs. Man. There are some
really really cool throwbacks that I didn't get the first
time through. And when you were telling me, he like, hey,
what do you know about this or what's this thing?
Speaker 1: I was like, what, yeah, I saw before you did,
and you were like you were engaged.
Speaker 2: I think, So this is how much I was in
to this movie. Okay, barely registered on my radar. And
then you're like, hey, man, Preditor movie coming out on Hulu,
and I was like, well, crap, I need to watch this.
So I jumped on Hulu. I was on a you know,
adults only, you know, weekend away with my wife and
I made her watch this because I was so excited
to watch it.
Speaker 1: Well, and she's native American as well, she's Cherokee, and
the Friday.
Speaker 2: So we did a we did it two night right
Friday night, Saturday night, comeback Sunday, you know. And on
Friday in Oklahoma City, there is a what they call
the First Americans Museum, and it's in downtown unplomas. I've
seen it for a while. I just we had never visited,
and so we went on Friday afternoon. So my wife's Indian,
of course, my kids are Indian, and then I go
to this museum. I was like primed for this movie.
I didn't even know it at the time, but I was.
It got me ready, really ready to watch this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am super glad that this coincided so nicely.
We're about to give you a spoiler free review and
talk like we normally do on our podcasts about this movie.
I'm gonna tell you some things to know from prior
movies so that you could be prepared for some of
those throwbacks and those Easter eggs. But I'm not going
to spoil anything.
Speaker 2: Before you get into the development story here. I was
just gonna say, this is the fifth Predator movie. Yes, okay,
that means that three other Predator movies sucked. So there,
I am stuck in grink two stud right, it doesn't
necessarily mean that. But Predator to Predator versus aliens, and
then the other Predator versus aliens, they all let me
down disappointed.
Speaker 1: Well, you had you also had predators, you also had
the Predator.
Speaker 2: Oh that's right.
Speaker 1: So, like I don't know about the aliens crossovers, if
those are even considered. I think that the five if
you will, our predator, Predator to Predators. The Predator, which
is we talked about in our last episode, is the
one that Shane Black, who was Hawkins in the original
and writer of Lethal Weapon, and his buddy from college
who wrote RoboCop three, they got together and they created
The Predator, which did not do very well at all,
not good. And it was actually during that one that
this one basically got realized.
Speaker 2: So I loved the nineteen eighty seven versions so much
that I can't say no to any Predator sequel. Okay,
I can't say no, right, yeah, no, I understand. So
I did see Predator two in the theater. I was
pumped for alien versus Predator. I did see predators, I
did see the Predator, and I, to varying degrees, was down.
Speaker 1: By all of them. Obviously, Predator one is the is
the favorite.
Speaker 2: It's the gold standard guy.
Speaker 1: And then it's kind of between Predator two and Predators
as to which one is finished as second.
Speaker 2: Amongst those both have moments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, amongst the pre prey movies. Okay, so our story begins.
Dan Krackenberg, yes, is in third grade when this movie
comes out. He's born in eighty one. He's in third grade,
and like me, he was not allowed to watch RATEDAR movies,
and like me, he didn't get to watch it. One day,
he's going to a karate tournament with a bunch of
sixth graders and they start talking about the movie, and
they start talking about the billy fighting the Predator scene,
you know, and the billy cutting himself with a knife.
And then they tell him like, they go and have
this epic fight across this bridge that's going over a waterfall, and.
Speaker 2: He was like, this sounds incredible.
Speaker 1: And then finally when he's old enough to finally see
the movie, that seems not in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they made it up. The Mandela effect we talked.
Speaker 1: About, right, Yeah, so a bunch of sixth graders, by
over zealously telling what they thought the story was to
little Dan Krackenberg inadvertently say in motion the inception of
this movie, that is awesome thirty five years ago, thirty
something years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that kill totally happens off screen too. I mean, yeah,
you're here and Billy screaming. That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean everybody knows. You don't get to see
the Billy fight. It's a disappointment. Everybody wanted to see
the Billy fight, but they don't. But as long as
we're throwing in the throwbacks in the Easter Eggs, there's
a moment I won't tell you what happens, but what
happens to Billy right before he dies. There's a throwback
to this in the movie.
Speaker 2: Are we not talking about the Easter eggs? Because that's
what I really want to talk Tell you.
Speaker 1: What here, let's do this. We will save the Easter
eggs until the end, and we'll say, okay, folks, we're
not gonna spoil it for you, but here are some
Easter eggs to kind of keep an eye out for
when you do watch them.
Speaker 2: Okay, sounds good.
Speaker 1: Okay, So young Dan Trackenberg gets this idea of how
awesome Predator is going to be. Ultimately he sees it
and is disappointed that this scene is missing, but he thinks,
man a Native American fighting the predator sounds like a
great story idea. And then he goes on to become
a podcaster.
Speaker 2: How awesomere hero right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he was part of a few different podcast
conceptions from quite a while back. He was a former
host of geekdrome dot com. He was a former host
of The Totally Rad Show. And I sent you a video.
I mean it's it's guys in a small room with
bad film making horrible jokes. I mean, it's not high
quality stuff, but it's just funny that somebody who started
there is now making the what is arguably one of
the best predator movies of all time.
Speaker 2: Well, which I would say is one of the very
reasons why this movie is so good is because it's
made with love.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I gotta say I love doing podcasts because
it allows us to dive in and learn about these
people and where they come from, and it makes them
real and it gives me inspiration to go, hey, let's
keep learning about this and let's keep doing stuff so
that we can be one of these guys. Someday this
stuff will make you a sexual Tyrannosaurce just like so
this movie geek like us finds his way into the
real movie business, and a year after Amber mid Thunder
is born, he gets his first real job in a
real movie. He is the key grip for Fantasm for Oblivion.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: If you don't remember Phantasm for Oblivion, you're probably not alone.
But they did use the ivy in the middle of
Oblivion for their little Roman numeral for Eventually, he directs
his own short films. He does some commercials for Lexus
and Nike and Coca Cola, so he's kind of moving
up the ladder. Does an episode for a TV series
called black Box TV, and then he directs this short
which is based on a video game called Portal Okay,
And the short is called Portal No Escape And it's awesome.
I send it to you. It's this woman trapped in
a room and there's no dialogue. She's trying to seems
to have no memory of why she's there. And this
video on YouTube has gotten twenty seven million views at
this point, right, So it kind of starts opening some
doors for him, and he gets to direct his first
movie called ten Cloverfield Lane. Yeah, now that name Cloverfield
might be familiar to you. Yes, it is the second
installment of the Cloverfield series. First clover Field movie was
by Matt Reeves, who we talked about when we did
our show on The Batman. Go check that one out right,
ten Cloverfield Lane. I haven't seen it yet. I've been
trying to see it, but it's not available free yet.
But it's well received. It's a seven point two on IMDb.
Speaker 2: Called the first one, but I don't think I saw
the second one.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking on IMDb. I see he's done an
episode of Black Mirror. I've seen like two or three
of those. I've seen that he's done an episode of
The Boys. I watched the first one of those. I'm like, okay,
let's see which one he did. The first one he did,
the first one of the Boys, which blew my mind.
I mean, dude, check out the first episode because it's fantastic.
And then Black Mirror one of the two episodes I
saw he did, and it is one that still haunts
me to this day. It's like, okay, virtual reality that
is connected to your brain at the brain stem in
the back of your neck. Whole storyline there, it's frightening,
it's awesome. Go check it out. Right. That episode is
episode two of season three and it is called Playtest,
Terrifying and awesome. Okay, So in between directing those two
TV episodes, he manages to get a hold of John Davis,
who we talked about in our last episode, one of
the producers for Predator, right, all of the Predators, right,
including the most recent one, the Predator. And so he
and this guy named Patrick Ason, who has been a
writer for TV also did an episode of Jack Ryan,
an episode of Treadstone. But they are like, we've got
this story idea, what do you think? And he says,
I think it sounds fantastic.
Speaker 2: Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute, just for clarification.
So he contacted one of the original producers of the
Predator movie and just said, hey, I've got this idea.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that guy was like, sounds awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I mean, who knows how complicated it actually
was to get a hold of him, but I mean
he had had those director and credits under his belt,
he'd done two great TV episodes, he had done ten
Cloverfield Lane, which it's not that he's a nobody. He's
got some mojo, if you will. Sure, But honestly, looking
at these you're looking at a guy who's written a
few TV episodes. You're looking at a guy who's done
a couple of TV episodes and one movie, and you're
going to entrust them with the Predator IP. That's a
pretty big deal. But I guess was so good. I mean,
not only did Davis buy in, but Emma Watts, who
was at that time the president of twenty Century Studios,
she put it on the fast track. She's like, this
is great, let's get this undone. Yeah. And so this
was about twenty eighteen, So this four years ago, and
they had been they had started writing the story together
in twenty sixteen, and so it gets on the fast track.
Dan's going to direct, and they got to pick somebody
to act in it. And the person that they pick
is a young early twenties girl named Amber Midthunder.
Speaker 2: She was incredible. I loved it.
Speaker 1: She makes this movie and she has to make this movie.
And she realized at the time, She's like, you know,
this is not just a movie where I got to
carry the movie and it's gonna just be a movie.
This is the first time that you have got a
indigenous woman not only as the main character, but the
main character in a movie that is almost exclusively indigenous people.
It's about them, right, and so that's a lot of
weight for her to carry. But she, I mean, she
does a fantastic job in this movie. She is so good.
She's so communicative. I mean, if you just watch the trailer,
If you just watch the trailer and you look at
her and see the fear in her face as the
predator lifts the grizzly bear above his head, and then
you think she's not actually looking at anything, right, this
is all just acting. You're like, oh my gosh. She's
so good, so expressive, very skilled physically. And another interesting
thing about this to me is they non sexualized her
as much as you could possibly do in this movie,
Like there's virtually no skin. There's far more skin from
the male characters than there is from her, and it's
not tight fitting clothes. It's all very true to the
time period and not immodest in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 2: Watching her do this role, she's like, why ching a
woman athlete plays soccer or something like that. Yeah, she's sweaty,
and she's dirty and muddy and grassy, and you look
at it and you think that's a beautiful woman who's
very sweaty and gross and dirty, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, she's Native American. She's on the rolls for
Fort Peck Indian Reserve out of Montana, which is a
Lakota tribe. Her dad has been in a ton of stuff.
His name is David Midthunder. He was in Commanche Moon,
he was in Longmire, which she was also in as
a little kid, Westworld Hostiles. He's been in a ton
of stuff. And then her mother is a casting director
who has been an actor before, but she has. She's
been nominated for an Emmy and an Aritos nomination for
her casting work. She casted Captain Fantastic. Her name is
Angelique mid Thunder. But it's in the blood of this
girl and she what you probably if you've seen her before,
you've probably seen her in either Legion, where she's been
in about twenty seven different episodes, or Roswell, New Mexico.
She's also in Hell or High Water. But if there's
a breakout role, this is it.
Speaker 2: She's got a very scorny weaver type of quality. I
think there's a lot of aliens feel with this, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean she's the underdog.
Speaker 2: I mean she is the underdog. She's not a dominating presence.
She's like the little sister who will not be denied.
Speaker 1: And by the way, she has got a lot of
different cultures in her heritage. Okay, mid Thunder although it
does sound Native American, yes, it's actually Norwegian. It was
originally mid Thunder.
Speaker 2: Wow. Now that crazy shocks me.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: By the way, my wife, as you know, is Jerkie,
which we talked about, really enjoyed the performance of this
girl as well.
Speaker 1: She does an amazing job. So let's talk about some
of the other actors in the movie.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, there's about five of them, so should be
a short time, right. Are we talking about the dog first?
Are we waiting on the dog? So the dog is great,
The dog is awesome. Here is the shocking thing about
the dog. Okay, normally you have a trained dog they
bring to set, right, That's not the way it worked
with this one. So they deliberately found a dog that
looked like what a Comanche Indian would.
Speaker 1: Have as their dog. Okay, and rescue that dog okay,
and then trained it for two months like that's it.
Like they said, okay, we need a dog for the movie.
We don't like any of the trained dogs for this movie,
so we're gonna go find a dog, rescue it, and
train it ourselves.
Speaker 2: Well as I understand it, there's a part in the
movie where the dog runs off and she's like, where
are you going? That was legit, Like that really happened
at that moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it actually probably happened pretty frequently. And you know,
they say don't work with kids or animals, there's a
reason for that. But when the dog is on, the
dog is really on. I mean I bought in. And
as you watch the movie, as you can expect, you're
constantly like, oh my gosh, there's something gonna happened to
the dog, right, because that's what always happens when you're
when you have a thriller horror movie, you've you're like, oh,
what's gonna happen with the dog.
Speaker 2: I was prepping myself. I was like, if this predator
pulls the spine out of this dog, I'm going to
have a problem.
Speaker 1: Right right, Well, don't spoil it, okay, Okay, So Amber
mid Thunder is playing nardou in r u is pronounced nardu.
Speaker 2: Do you say so, dude? Okay, you watched the movie.
And then we have sounds like they roll that r
a little bit.
Speaker 1: That's the sound. Is that that follow up?
Speaker 2: D okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Nardo. And then we have for her brother Tabe,
we have Dakota Beavers. Yes, this is his acting debut,
and I think he does a great job for having
no experience whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Just to kind of expand on that a little bit, Yeah,
he has this air about him without words. Yes, this
sense of confidence, the sense of superiority of an older brother.
But he's actually three years younger than here is understanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. So we should talk about the Predator.
Speaker 2: Dane Deliillerco.
Speaker 1: You want to do that one again?
Speaker 2: As you can tell, I'm a linguist.
Speaker 1: Right, Dane Dileegro, Dilierragro. He's from Massachusetts, so who knows
how they pronounce it up there. His dad is actually Italian,
but he was, as you can imagine, a basketball player,
played professionally over in Italy and Israel, I believe, and
then decided to come back and be an actor. He
had a YouTube series a few years ago called Adventure Monday,
where he would go and like do it was like
a culinary show where he was visiting food producers and hit.
One of his best received episodes was the ten best
Taco Trucks in LA that You've never heard of? Wow,
I really want to go check those.
Speaker 2: I like to hang out with this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, the original Predator Kevin Peter.
Speaker 1: Hall, also a basketball player.
Speaker 2: He was seven foot two, right, Dane did deliergro You
want to do it again? Not really Dandelier gro all right?
He was six foot nine. Yeah, shrimp. He does a
good job. Man. He looks imposing to me.
Speaker 1: Okay, So here's the thing with him, right, Yeah, the mask,
the head piece that he had to wear as the actor. Yes,
they they wanted a slimmer actor. He's a slimmer guy.
He's more spelt more like swimmer, right, Because they were
getting a little top heavy. They looked a little bobbleheady
with our you know, Rastafarian monster. Well, so they they
hitched Bobbleheady. Yes, they used practical effects still on this,
which is great.
Speaker 2: We are all four practical effects exactly.
Speaker 1: But the practical effects were all electronics that were inside
of his head piece, and they were so big that
he literally had to look at his feet the entire
time that he was performing. Wow. So everything that you
see him do. You know, once you go back and
watch the movie for the second time, everything you see
him do, You're going, oh, my gosh, how did this
guy do this without being able to see? Like he
told he told to go to Beaver's At some point
during their fight sequence, He's like, listen, man, I'm just
gonna swing.
Speaker 2: Okay, you just got to get out of the way.
I feel like there's one guy we need to mention
as well. Then Itt Taylor plays Raphael and Olini.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, don't say any more than that. Yes, that's all.
We'll say. He does a great job. I think he
does a great job. Did you have more to say?
Speaker 2: I have tons more to say about here, but I'm
not going to You're gonna save it until the end
so that we can give people a little bit of
a spoiler warning, right right, Okay, all right, So we've
got Amber mid Thunder, We've got Dakota Beavers, We've got
Dane de Leage grow, We've got Coco the Dog, and
those are the key actors. In the movie, right right,
So we've got this together. They had one woman that
they use in the writing of the script who passed
away in the process to help them keep this as
authentically Commanche as they could, right, okay. And then they
had another woman named Jane Myers, who has been a
production consultant for many Native American movies and she was
key in this one. And the first thing.
Speaker 1: That she said when she read the script was there
are no horses. Yeah, And they were like no. She's like,
you cannot have a Commanche tribe and no horses. There
have to be horses, okay. And there are some beautiful
horses in this one, paint horses, which you would expect,
and there is a great horse riding scene sequence they delivered.
She said, this needs to happen, and they delivered.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. That's a good insight right there. And there
was even a good little sort of mention in the
movie about that where he's like, I gotta get me
a horse.
Speaker 1: So, just to kind of dive into what they were
doing with this movie, you see at the beginning the
movie takes place in seventeen nineteen. Movies that have come
out have been very influential. Dan Trackenberg said that Fury
Road was one of the movies that he said, Wow,
you can almost have an entire movie that is telling
the story with action only, and so he was kind
of looking for that in this storyline. Let's tell a
story that you don't need a whole bunch of dialogue,
and there's not a whole bunch in this one, right.
But another movie that was super influential for a lot
of people is a movie called Searchers, And in that movie,
it's John Wayne movie The Searchers. The Searchers, Yeah, it
does not paint the Native Americans in a good light
at all. Right, it's horrible. If you see the movie,
there are some key moments from the Searchers, just cinematically speaking,
that they borrowed from okay and made their own. And
I'm just that's all I'm gonna say about that. But
if you're familiar with The Searchers, and it's cinematic awesome,
it's john Ford movie, fantastically shot and done. But they
borrow some ideas from there and make it their own
and do a fantastic job with it.
Speaker 2: Let me just say this about the scenery and kind
of the setting of this movie. Yeah, it's gorgeous. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Our cinematographer for this one is a guy named Jeff Cutter.
And Jeff has done a ton of movies, a ton
of movies. He worked with Dan on Tin Cloverfield Lane
and some of the TV episodes that he did. He's
made a beautiful movie with this one, right.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 1: I told you, I'm like watching this movie and I'm thinking,
somebody said Last of the Mohicans meets Predator, and somebody
else said, that's a brilliant idea. I hear that, and
I'm gonna like what. But man, they nailed it.
Speaker 2: You know this movie was shot in Calgary, ye, and
you really feel like that's like a character in the movie.
The mountains and the streams and the trees and all
this stuff plays a big part in what's happening.
Speaker 1: It is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2: I watched it on a laptop.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry, I watched that laptop and.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are we doing here? This needs to
be on the big screen. Why did this not get
a big after what Maverick did?
Speaker 1: Yeah, after what Maverick.
Speaker 2: Did at the theater, this totally they should have been like,
we got to get this on the big screen, people
will go see nostalgic movies that are good.
Speaker 1: Yes, I don't know if there's been any push to
have them display this on a full Imax big screen,
but if they did, I'd go watch it.
Speaker 2: I feel like they've got to.
Speaker 1: Okay. So they had the actors go through four weeks
of weapons training for this, which is interesting because they
had the other actors and the original Predator go through
training as well. That's true, entirely different type of history. Right.
You don't have any Gatland guns with Jesse the body
of Entur carrying them around.
Speaker 2: Right, Just to come in on that. Yeah, if you
handed me a modern gun, I can figure out how
to shoot it. Yeah, it doesn't matter. I can figure
out where the safety is. I can figure out how
to load it, fire it. You give me a flint lock,
I'm like, I don't know how to How does this.
Speaker 1: Thing work exactly? Okay. So they've got their script, they've
got their money, they've got the fast track from the studio,
they've got a producer who knows the commandchee Ways who's
guiding them through this process, and so they are ready
to go up to Canada to shoot the movie. They
shoot it in sixty three days. Yeah, it was just
last summer. Yeah, which to me, I'm just thinking that
seems really fast. To the actors, it was like, I
don't think I'm ever going to leave this place. Because
you got to keep in mind, they're out in the
wilderness every day shooting this stuff. Their day to day
job is going out in the cold Canada mountains and
shooting this stuff. And not to get into spoilers, there's
some scenes that are yucky. You don't want to be
doing what they're doing in the scene, and certainly not
for day after day after day.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about the yucky bog, but we'll
save that for.
Speaker 1: We'll save that for spoiler time, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: So let's compare that to Maverick for just a second.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this movie was shot in summer of twenty twenty one,
released in summer of twenty twenty two. Maverick was shot
twenty eighteen. This was a great movie, but this is
made post twenty twenty, post pandemic.
Speaker 1: Interestingly, like The Batman, they did have to communicate with
Dane through his head piece, you know, on the as
the predator talking to him in his ear, same type
of thing. I got interesting story for that, So okay,
this won't spoil anything, Okay, okay. So at some point
they're shooting a scene and he's they've been shooting days
in and days out, and he said, and I noticed,
you know, I always hear the mc cannics of the
head piece going on. I hear the electric current going on. Yeah,
and he says, and then they'll say cut and then
the noise stops, right, And so this time I'm shooting
this scene and all of a sudden, the noise in
the head piece stops, but they haven't said cut yet,
and I'm like, huh, okay, well, I'll just keep going
and then eventually they you'll cut. And He's like, all
of a sudden, I feel like I'm getting stung, like
their bees in here. What's going on? And all of
a sudden I hear in the head piece is he
on fire? So he had it was his fault, he says,
my fault. He goes the way that I had thrown
the punch over and over again. I had rubbed the
wires raw, and literally my head piece can of fire
and I'm bolted in. Oh yeah, So they're running over
there trying to unbolt him. No significant burns occurred, but wow,
at one point the monster was on fire.
Speaker 2: The shark is not working. The predator is on fire.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine hearing that? Is he on fire?
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they make the movie, Yep, they release it.
The reception is fantastic. I haven't heard anybody say negative
work worried about it.
Speaker 2: It's it's somewhere in the nines on Rotten Tomatoes. It's
ninety three percent. Yeah, you know something like that.
Speaker 1: Without spoiling it, I can I can tell you all
that they went back to the original formula. They went
back to this is an action movie that becomes a
thriller horror movie. Right, it's right, it's good.
Speaker 2: Well, let's go back to what you originally said.
Speaker 1: Simple story.
Speaker 2: The original Predator was like the Dirty Dozen collides with
the movie Alien. Right, Yes, so you have this one
story that's happening and then all of a sudden it's
invaded by this alien. Yeah, it really is like dances
with wolves and it lides with an alien. I mean,
it's what an interesting idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and here we are.
Speaker 2: Instead of aliens versus Predator erecly On, which is total garbage,
but okay.
Speaker 1: Right, okay, So they had these guys at Comic Con.
They showed this at Comic Con last month in July, okay,
and then they had them as a panel after the movie.
Those people got to see it on the big screen.
And so at some point they ask all of the
actors who their favorite characters were from the original Predator. Okay,
and so of course Amber mid Thunder says Dutch, of course,
and of course Dakota Beavers says Billy.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 1: And then Dane Dilerego says, I like the helicopter pilot.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 1: And if you don't get that joke, go back and
check out our previous episodes on the Predator to hear
why that's funny?
Speaker 2: Right, that's brilliant.
Speaker 1: And then Jane Myers, the producer, said, I like the
guy who told dirty jokes.
Speaker 2: Hawkins, why'd you say that twice? I didn't. There's an
I count.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Hey, let's talk real quick about the CGI. Okay, okay,
So first of all, right out of the gate, you
and I are practical effects guys. Yes, even if they
look a little hokey. We prefer practical effects to CG.
They did use CGI. All the animals in this movie
are CGI.
Speaker 1: Well, they did a neat thing. And I think if
you're gonna have CGI, it should be practical followed by
CGI followed by practical. And I think they did a
really good job of that with the animals. I think
there's some real animal footage in here, and there's some
some CGI that you can say that's CGI, but they
do it so quickly and they put in real footage
to sandwich it together that it's it's pretty well done.
It's not perfectly done, but it's pretty well done.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, I think they did a
very good job. And it's it's not the entire focus
of the movie, right, right, And so the you know,
there's a wolf, and then there's a rabbit, and there's
a mountain lion. They all look about as good as
it can looked. Yeah, you know, there's a grizzly bear
and then I yeah, how can you forget the bear?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And of course the predator.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now the predator.
Speaker 2: They use the invisibility cloak and do some other stuff.
Speaker 1: And that's fine. I mean that looks computers.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's supposed to look computerized. It's okay, right,
that one is. The Predator effects are flawless. There there
is no point that I went, uh when I was
watching the Predator stuff. I kind of had that moment
with the mountain Lion, and I kind of had that
moment with the grizzly bear.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But definitely, as far as the whole is concerned, minor
minor criticisms looks good. Yeah, and but yeah, the Predator himself,
they kept it practical. And then the the invisibility, which
you expect, it looks on point.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So interestingly, they had initially planned for this movie to
be completely in Comanche I know, right, I mean what yeah,
that and that would have been cool. I mean I
love the Passion, which was all in ancient Aramaic. I
mean that's hard.
Speaker 2: That did not detract from the enjoyment of that movie, right.
Speaker 1: I have not checked out the Comanche version yet, but
ultimately they made the decision we're gonna shoot this in English,
and then they toyed with an idea that they called
the Hunt for October. Question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so at the beginning of Hunt for October, all
the Russian characters speak in Russian and they get to
a point in the movie and then they switch to English.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2: Good for the viewer because you understand, these guys are Russian.
They're talking Russian to each other. I get all that.
They switched to English to help me, thank you very much.
And the producers of this movie were like, well, maybe
we could do the Hunt for October thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, what they ultimately decided was, no, We're going
to film the whole thing in English except for the
French speaking parts. Did you have subtitles for the French No?
Speaker 2: Okay, so no, But I thought that was good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I enjoyed not knowing what they were saying, because
it put me in the position of the character that
they wouldn't know what they were saying, Like you were
having to guess by the action of the movie what
those guys were talking about. Apparently, if you put the
I think if you put the English subtitles on, it
will translate the rich into English.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: I planned to watch it again and this is what
I was going to get to. They shot it in English,
but then they had all of the actors come back
and do voiceover work in Comanche, so that you can
watch the entire thing in the Comanche language.
Speaker 2: I do know a couple of things. Yeah, okay, So
I think that's a homage to the original Predator movie.
If you'll remember when Pancho is speaking Spanish to Anna
in the jungle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't.
Speaker 2: Get any subtitles there or any translation.
Speaker 1: No, that's true.
Speaker 2: He's you know, he's speaking to her aggressively, and you
understand that he's pumping her for information, but I don't
understand what he's saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then he translates and basically says.
Speaker 2: He says, well, she says the jungle it came alive
and it took him. And Carl Weathers says, that's not
what she said. Well, we as the audience, I'm like, well,
what did she say?
Speaker 1: Right right?
Speaker 2: We never really get that answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Unless you speak Spanish, you really don't understand what she's saying.
So I think that that's an homage to the original Predator.
They're speaking French. We don't understand. We understand what's going on,
but we don't understand the words that are coming out
of their mouth, so to speak.
Speaker 1: So the original idea that they had for the soundtrack
for this movie was much more subdued and kind of
ethereal than what they got they had. If you've seen Cecario,
yes it's they had that as an idea very minimally
kind of soundtrack to go along with this movie. But
I'm so glad that that's not what they did. They
ended up getting a composer named Sarah Satcher. Okay, she
is not a big time movie composer. Okay. She has
worked with Brian Tyler on Transformers, which is one of
my I have a couple of those songs on my
workout playlist. I love Brian Tyler's Transformer soundtrack. And she's
done arrangements for Iron Man three and The Expendables too
and now you see me. So she's got some experience
in the movie field, but where her main composing experience
is is with video games. And she has done Call
of Duty several of them, you know, like Modern Warfare
and Origins. And she has done the Assassin's Creed soundtrack,
which is I mean, it's awesome, But the music in this,
I mean it did a perfect job of taking the
sound of like The Last Mohicans, which is a fantastic soundtrack,
and then bringing in the style of the original Predator
by Alan Selvestri and kind of letting you, like leading
you in that hey, I'm about to hear it. I'm
about to hear the Silvestri music, but really just leading
with that last of the Mohican style of music. And
of course it's got her own, you know, her own
special SARAHS. Sachner feel to it. It is a great soundtrack.
I've listened to it from beginning to end. It's over
forty five minutes of music. I mean, that's that's an
incredible feat to accomplish in such a short amount of
time that she had. But it helps make this movie
as good as it is. Listen this movie, as I
was trying to alludes to earlier, you have got a
bunch of people that you would think they're gonna put
out a B movie because it's not any well known
names at all. The writer's not, the director's not, the
composer is not. They are all people who are working.
The main character in the movie, the actress is not
a super well known name. But they I gotta say,
they've got to be our up and comers. They from this.
I see this as the breakout for all of those
folks that they have big things in store for them.
Speaker 2: Never heard of any of these people, of course, I'd
never heard of anybody when I went to see Star
Wars for the first time exactly.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's like they said, you know that Mark
Hamill had never seen a single Star Wars movie before
he made a.
Speaker 2: New Hope, that's good. Can we can we can we
talk about Okay?
Speaker 1: All right, all right, all right, so, dear listener, we've
we've said this is going to be spoiler free, and
we've done our best to keep it spoiler free. But
right now we're going to start talking Easter eggs, and
we may let some spoilers slip out. World try not to,
but I'm going to tell you there are some things
that if you know it before you go and watch
the movie, you will appreciate it when it comes up
in the movie, starting with the gun.
Speaker 2: The gun, the gun. Okay, so you sent this to me.
I didn't catch it the first time I had seen
Predator two. But at the very end of Predator to
Danny Glover's character Mike, I can't remember his last name,
Mike defeats the.
Speaker 1: Predator on his own ship.
Speaker 2: On his own ship. Yes, with his predator's buddies.
Speaker 1: Hanging around, Yeah, watching in silence.
Speaker 2: In silence, And when he defeats that predator, huh, they
give him a gift.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Before that scene happens, as he gets on the ship,
this is the memorable moment where you see the skulls
like they've got that. He's got the collection of skulls,
including human skulls and also including a xenomorph the skull.
Speaker 2: Can xenomorph skull.
Speaker 1: Yes, and that was mind blowing. It's not subtle at all.
It is not remotely subtle. So it's the predator. People
from Predator two were saying, yeah, Predator and alien fought
and Predator one and now has alien skull, which doesn't
make any sense anyway because it's a freaking exoskeleton. Well whatever.
Speaker 2: For the record, that's the coolest moment of all the
Alien Predator movies.
Speaker 1: So, after he ultimately defeats the predator, other predators show
up and it's this little panic moment of Okay, I write,
you know they killed yeah, about killed myself fighting one
and now here's five in front of me, right yep.
But it turns out they're just showing up to take
their fallen comrade away and they acknowledge him as like
a worthy opponent.
Speaker 2: That's right. It's like they respect him, and out of respect,
one of them tosses him a pistol that has engraved.
Speaker 1: On it Raphael Adelini and it says seventeen fifteen on it,
seventeen fifteen, right, as a reminder, the very beginning of Prey,
it tells you location and date, and the date is
seventeen nineteen.
Speaker 2: Pretty close.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So keep that in mind, keep that scene in
mind as you watch this movie, because that is absolutely
the biggest one that you have on this one. Okay,
So a couple of throwbacks, you know, just so that
you know from Predator one, the line if it bleeds,
we can kill it.
Speaker 2: When they drop that, I stood up. I was like,
what all my.
Speaker 1: Slow clap, let's go right. I mean, it's this wonderful
moment where she's talking to him, trying to tell her
brother about this thing that they've never encountered before, and
she's like, I don't think that you can kill this thing.
Speaker 2: And he says, if it bleeds, we can kill it.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And the thing is about that line when you're watching
the movie, if you've never seen the original Predator movie,
it makes total sense. It absolutely fits the moment. It's
a great line. But if you've seen and are familiar
with Predator nineteen eighty seven, yep, you're like, if it bleeds,
we can kill it. You know. I'm like, there's that
line right there.
Speaker 1: Yep. So there are a few more lines like that
that you need to be aware of. From Predator one,
do it? Do it now? Would remember that?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Remember the mud from Predator one. That is a key
factor as well.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: The cut chest when Billy cuts his chest, that is
a key scene. Sonny Lanham does that. I mean, it's
a very memorable I'm about to go sacrimffice myself fighting
this guy if I have to, and he cuts his
chest and that is a key moment in this movie
as well. Yes, which as we know, I mean, it
was the inspiration for the story crazy back when Dan
Trackenberg was a little kid.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And then finally, finally Bill Duke can't get left out
right And it's not a line, it's a sh it's
there too, baby, And they do. They do a great
job plugging those every single one of those things in
They had to ask the question over and over like
how much do we want to do?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: And Dan Trackenberg said we even considered having a horse
named Chopper. Great, but he was like, that would have
been too far. That would have been pushing it too far.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's one other thing. I think there's
some other things that they do. There's a moment where
she picks up a cigar that one of the trappers
has smoked, and I think that might be an homage
to Dutch maybe yep.
Speaker 1: And this one, the predator is wearing a different face mask.
It is not the metal mask that you've seen in
the other movies. It is a more like a bone mask.
I saw somebody I think it was on IMDb referred
to it as the river ghosts from Predators.
Speaker 2: Comes from one of the animals and Predators.
Speaker 1: When I looked at that, I don't see the similarity.
I don't know if I agree with them on that one. Okay,
but it's got it. It is definitely more bony. It
almost looks like a tortoise shell, except oblong. But despite
the fact that it is more primitive looking, it still
has the technology. You still have the lasers.
Speaker 2: Yes, he doesn't have the little the shoulder cannon right
that he has. But they does you know the three
red dots, you know, which is interesting because in nineteen
eighty seven those guys understand what lasers are and how
you know those are you know, aiming devices, and when
when the commanding people and first come into contact with it,
they're like, what is this weird red dot on her
chest here?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: They have no idea what it is?
Speaker 1: Absolute mystery.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, so okay.
Speaker 1: And then I mentioned the mudpit. There is a key
scene which she's in the mudpit and if you see it,
being a predator fan, you're like, Okay, I know what
this is going to come up later. Well, it does
come up later, but they they maneuver it very well
to where you're surprised with how it gets it ends
up getting used. And she said that was the worst
part of filming because that mud pit, the Pete Moss
mud pit, smelled horrible. Apparently, however, it did not smell
bad until humans got in it, so it was actually
something in the human skin that made it smell bad.
But Dane de Leegros was like, okay, imagine raw human
sewage multiplied by ten and then you have a fraction
of how bad.
Speaker 2: That stuff smelled wow.
Speaker 1: So she had to do that, I mean for several yeah,
several days of filming to get that, and she's in
it up to her ears.
Speaker 2: I will tell you this, that scene where she's got
that tomahawk, she's got a tomahawk at and she's got
it roped to her wrist and she is like sinking
in quicksand which you know, as the seventies kid, we
were always worried about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tray you and the never ending story.
Speaker 2: That's exactly. And she is going down and she realizes
I'm in trouble.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let me ask you this. Anything you you
love the movie? Correct?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: I did? Okay, anything that you didn't like about the movie?
Speaker 2: No, I got no problems with it, no complaints, no complaints.
I think the CGI could have been a little bit better. No,
I got no complaints. I thought it was excellent.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it was like Maverick. I mean, what am
I going to complain about on Maverick? It it wasn't
Top Gun. Well, I mean, crap, it was.
Speaker 1: It was great right well, And I still think that
that Maverick was better than Top Gun. And I think
that we've had kind of a resounding. A whole lot
of people are on my same page. When that one,
I realized, you can't get past the nostalgia. But I'm
very nostalgic, right, But I agree with you. I think
that there were there were moments where the CGI took
me out of the moment because it was like, that
doesn't look like a real lion right now. But they
were so small and so it happened so fast that
it didn't have time to mess the movie up for me.
And then, as I said, Amber mid Thunder as an
actor is so good that when she's in a scene
with other actors, I couldn't help but think they're really
not up to her level. They're not bad actors, they're
just not sell on the scene as much as she was. Yeah,
but overall, those those are minor, minor, minor, minor criticisms.
This is a fantastic movie. And I'll present you with
the question, just like I did with Top Gun, Maverick,
are you picking this movie or are you picking Original Predator?
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is an easy call for me because
I am so nostalgic. It's going to take a lot
to you know, dissuade me from Arnold's bulging biceps. So
I am going with the nineteen eighty seven version as
the first overall Predator. I do love that movie so much,
but this was really really good and it's a close second.
It far far better. It's far better than Predator two,
or In the Predator or Predators any of those other ones.
Predator two has some moments that are pretty good, but
it is not even close to this one. So this
is clearly the second best out of all those movies. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, as you can expect. Since I didn't pick Predator
in our previous matchup and I'm obviously gushing over this movie,
I definitely picked this one over the area. I think
this is a far better movie. I enjoyed watching Predator.
It's fun, it's popcorn. This movie had me more engaged,
more concerned for the characters. I thought it was much
more beautiful. I mean, it's just gorgeous. All of the
cinematography and the acting is on point. The guys in
Predator were good actors. This young actress in this movie
is a She's great. She is great.
Speaker 2: She did a great job. Yeah, interesting love it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, fans tell us your opinion, pray or predator.
Hit us up on Twitter at Shirley Podcast, on Facebook
at Shirley Podcasts, or if you want to email us,
you can hit us up at Shirley podcast at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2: Hey, check us out on Patreon. We've got a cool
Patreon page. We've got bonus episodes over there. We've got
uh we're gonna ready to record our fourth third Patreon.
We're getting ready to record our third Patreon episode today.
It's one hit Wonders of the eighties and nineties and
it's really cool. Today we're doing Nothing Compares to You
by shenand O'Connor, which is a fantastic song.
Speaker 1: Okay, guys, thanks so much, look forward to seeing you
next week.
Speaker 2: Bye, guys. Starting with the gun, the gun, the gun, okay,
and out of respect, one of them tosses him a
pistol that has engraved on it. Now we can't tell
him what happens, can't discuss it.
Speaker 1: Do you really want to discuss it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, then go ahead?
Speaker 2: Well okay, I mean obviously if you know that going
in amber min thunder Nahu, she has to arm herself
and the guy has to teach her how to use
this flintlock pistol, and that is the exact same pistol
that the Predator gives to Danny Glover's character and Predator
to right.
Speaker 1: The question is, okay, wait a minute. If she has
the gun, right, how do the predators get the gun? Well, okay,
I told you. You watch the end credits and there's
an animation that's going on, and the animation is like
a kind of Native American style cartoon type of thing,
stick figures reenacting the entire movie from beginning to end
right seen by scene, a storyboard of the movie. And
then you get to the end and unlike the end
of the movie, there's a little bit more. And the
little bit more is three spaceships show up in the sky.
So I think that this doesn't mean that the you know,
the predators come to wipe out the try. I think
it's going to be the same. It's the same as
Predator too. They show up and take their fallen comrade away.
They acknowledge her as a worthy opponent, and maybe she
decides at that point to hand the flintlock pistol to
We'll go with the predators. I think that's got to be.
So then the other question, of course, is if I'm right,
if they determine that she's a worthy opponent, and we
know that Danny Glover got a gift for his worthiness. Yes,
what gift did she get?
Speaker 2: What did she get?
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a great that that may be
the thing that leads us into our you know, next
installment in the series, which this movie resurrects in my opinion, Okay,
that's really cool.