The Big Picture - ‘Predator: Badlands’ and the 'Predator' Movie Rankings

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

Sean is joined by Chris Ryan to avenge their Yautja brethren on planet Genna and cover Dan Trachtenberg’s ‘Predator: Badlands,’ starring Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. Before diving in though, they briefly cover a handful of movie news headlines, including the reporting that Ryan Reynolds is remaking the 1970s crime film ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’ for Amazon MGM (2:35). Next, they unpack the new 'Predator' legacy sequel and make the case for why it wouldn’t work without Fanning’s performance, explain why Trachtenberg has a clear eye for titillating action set piece filmmaking, and discuss its big box office success and wonder what it represents at large (7:39). Then, they rank every film in the 'Predator' franchise (43:38). Host: Sean Fennessey Guest: Chris Ryan Producers: Jack Sanders and Bex Donnelly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From 20th Century Studios and the director of Prey. Predator Badlands. Welcome to the most dangerous planet in the universe. Now playing. Everything in this world is trying to kill you. You are prey until you become the predator. Experience it in IMAX and 3D. We might not be alone in this hunt.

Predator Badlands. Now playing, only in theaters. I'm Sean Fennessy, and this is The Big Picture A Conversation Show about Badlands. You gotta live it every day. On today's episode, Chris Ryan joins me to Breakdown Predator Badlands, the ninth film in the Predator series, and a major box office hit this weekend.

Badlands is the second Predator film of the year, actually, after the animated feature Predator Killer of Killers, which debuted on Hulu in June, CR and I avowed Predheads. So this will be a fun conversation. Chris, how are you? I'm doing great, man. I'm in London.

It's great to see you across the ocean, across the nation. And yeah, man, blue wave, just sweeping London. We're all feeling it. Is that true? Very excited for Abigail Spanberger, the original Lioness, my spy mommy. You really did want to just JMO it.

You teased it. I told you. Yeah, I was like, I'm ready. It's five o'clock here. I'm fucking ready to go. I was listening to the watch and you guys were just trading mom-dani jokes back and forth like in a spirited fashion. And I was like, I guess maybe that's just what the watch is now.

It's just two very gentle men in their 40s thinking about democratic socialism. We don't even have Apple TV accounts. We don't even know it's on anymore. I got to say, you know, not to tread on the watch's tail at all. But plurvis, hey, pretty good. You approve. Yeah. Okay, good. Two thumbs up.

I watched it on, I watched two episodes on Friday. Enjoyed myself. Enjoyed your conversation with Vince Gilligan as well. Nice job. Thank you for the shoutout. That's a real, that was a breath of fresh air television show. That was like we can still make things in this country, and specifically in Albuquerque. It was interesting because we talked about Frankenstein last week on the show, and I revisited

the postmodern Prometheus episode of the X-Files, because that is, of course, very inspired by Frankenstein. And so I had X-Files on the brain, so it was cool to hear you and Vince talking about that show and his origins there too. Yeah, he's a really fun guy to go back and sort of watch his career evolve from that early working under Chris Carter era and then just like even the way his voice is sharpened over the course of Breaking Bad and Breaking Bad kind of starts and it's a bit of a almost slapstick black comedy in the beginning and then it obviously becomes this huge tragedy

and crime noir over the course of the seasons. But what an amazing guy. Yeah, really, really interesting creative. mind. Yeah, Plurbus definitely, if you're into films, a lot of cinematic energy, especially in that first episode. A lot of really interesting camera work. Okay, let's talk about some more interesting camera work and another visionary. I'm talking about Ryan Reynolds, who news broke over the weekend that he is eyeing a remake of the 1970 crime movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which starred Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. And when I say Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, my first

thought is Ryan Reynolds? Yes. Is he playing both parts in this radio? What have you heard? He's doing the sinners thing he saw sinners he's like I can do that speaking of sinners you know we learned earlier this year that Michael B Jordan is remaking the Thomas Crown Affair

he's directing the film and he's also starring in it I think the script is going to be by Drew Pierce I guess this is a is this the grown up JMO version of IP now where all these big boys

in their 40s who have amassed some box office power or just remaking incredibly cool movies made 52 years ago it's probably also just like the rights on some of this stuff in the libraries of these film companies

or either they're going to expire or they're like if there's anything here you want to play with, let us know. It's not entirely surprising that Reynolds would gravitate towards this for as much as maybe he's come in for some heat on this pod and I've been a part of it over the last couple years. Like, dude made Mississippi

grind a few years ago which is a movie we have a lot of time for. It has a distinct California split energy. And so I wouldn't be surprised if he enjoyed this kind of movie in his spare time. The question being, is he going to take Michael Chimino's vision of the American West and these two lovable losers like doing heists across what I can't remember

where we're about this is set? Like is it Wyoming or Montana or is it doesn't matter. I'm not sure. It's the United States. It's the West, you know. And is he going to make this into like a kind of glib digital action? action farce, or is it going to be something a little bit more human?

You know, you've just reminded me of something. I watched Play Dirty, the Shane Black film. Did you watch this film? Yeah, of course I did. Yeah. The Mark Wahlberg-Lekeith Stanfield streaming movie that's on Amazon, MGM, which is also the studio that Reynolds is working with to potentially remake Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Thoughts? Very strange. Another Shane Black movie that I'm not convinced wasn't completely recut on him. Another Shane black movie where Thomas Jane

is only in it for like 10 minutes the other one being a film we may discuss later in this pod the Predator Yeah

Todd Parker he's still one of my favorite dialogue writers so honestly like even though this movie was pretty inane

in places and there's much better adaptations of like the Parker universe over the course of cinematic history

I still had kind of a good time watching this what did you think I thought it was quite poor but there were things about it that were entertaining I think I'm having a hard time

with Mark Wahlberg at this stage of my life and his I think I'm just, it's a little bit harder to he's just giving the exact same performance in every movie now Yeah, well he's got other concerns He's got other interests

What are they? Breakfast eating it at three in the morning Working out six times You know he plays 18 every morning I do know that But like runs it He runs the course

I believe he owns Of course, yeah Sure, yeah And just, you know, enjoying life in Nevada It's been a very long time When's the last really good Mark Wahlberg Like a film where he gave a crap? Is that gambler?

Probably. No, that's a long time ago. Yeah, that's 12 years ago, 13 years ago. It's funny to remember This guy was in like Huckabee's and the Fighter, you know? Well, he really cared about Father Stu. Did you ever check that one out? Oh, I didn't.

No, sorry. Okay, that's too bad. I believe the first ever Hall of Fame we did was Mark Wahlberg's Hall of Fame for the release. It was Spencer Confidential. You remember that? I do remember that. I think I passionately spoke about the gambler on that podcast.

Deepwater Horizon? Not bad. There's a lot of oil platforms off the cliffs of Dover where I was this weekend. I saw some rigs. Interesting. I thought about Deepwater Horizon. It's funny for drill baby drill CR.

That's got to be exciting for you. Do you get a little tingle down below whenever you see an oil? It was really there, I was fact-checking Dunkirk. I just wanted to see what the straits looked like and whether Loudon and Hardy really could have made some of those moves in the dog-fighting sequences, and it turns out that they did. Did you let any planes on flyer at the end of your journey or no?

No, but I offered all the tour guides. I was like, if you want to make me a POW, feel free. Well, Chris. You know how crazy that on the cliffs of Dover when you are walking out there and you could see France, your data, plan changes to France for a few minutes. No kidding. That's how close you get, man.

That's how close they were. And did you immediately begin speaking French? Like what happened? Did you transform in some way? I began speaking yautja. Well, thank you for setting us up. Let's talk about Predator Badlands because it's sweeping the nation. Is it sweeping France in England?

Hard to say. You were able to see the film in London, England. How nice for you. In IMAX at the glorious BFI complex. And if any big picture listeners are on vacation here or, get a chance to come here. I highly recommend spending the afternoon getting lost there.

The South Bank one? South Bank one, yeah. Nice. And just like that whole complex, there's like a, they're showing like a Frederick Wiseman documentary about Laura Mulvey. They've got libraries.

They've got gift shops. They've got so many screens. They've got such good programming. So all BP heads are welcome. There is an elite collection of Blue Raisin 4Ks on sale at that BFI shop. They have also like a library system where you can like select a film.

and go watch it privately, which I took advantage of with some of my favorite 70s exploitative films, you know? So when I was last in London, with you, I did go to South Bank and the film that I saw was Todd Browning's The Unknown.

And the film was made in 1924, I believe. And you went to go see 100 years later Predator Badlands, which is kind of related in terms of the Todd Browning cinema, right? Freaks and Dracula. And, you know, you could see something in the connective tissue of genre about monsters

and are they really as evil as we think? Because that is really what Predator Badlands is. It's a story of... Yeah, Predator heal thyself. That's what this movie is about. So this movie comes to us from Dan Tractenberg. He has become the creative shepherd of the predator's story over recent years.

In 2022, he made Prey, which was the last time we spoke about this franchise three years ago. And he has been working with Patrick Ais and the screenwriter to write these stories. And this one is very, very, very different. It stars El Fanning, primarily,

essentially the only, you know, human face we see, even though she is not playing a human in the film. And Demetrius Schuster Colomotanji is the, is, is, is Deck, who is a young predator, a young Yautja.

He's a fail son. Well, is he? That's what this, this is not, this isn't no Eric Trump movie, you know what I mean? This is a different situation. This is yeah. You know, somebody who might have something to him, but we don't know. He definitely has, he definitely has some shit to him.

You know, he definitely has some game, but not like his older brother, Quay, and certainly not like his asshole dad. So, as you say, the story is about this young outcast predator who lands on a deadly planet. He lands there because he needs to prove to his tribe that he is worthy of Yautja honor and to become a proper predator. And he has to go retrieve a trophy in the form of a giant monster. known as a callusk. He gets on this, he lands on this terrifying planet and he very quickly comes

across a droid named Thea, which is just the torso and head and arms of El Fanning. And they need to work together to potentially capture this trophy. And that's the whole, essentially the whole plot of the movie. What did you think of Predator Badlands? Really, really good. Really, really, really excellent genre filmmaking. I think I've seen a lot of Predator, fellow predheads and fans of especially the first two

reject some of the kinder gentler notions in this film because this is hilariously given how much we've talked about this with the horror episodes we've done. This is like a recovering from trauma movie. This is about finding your family. This is about the Yautja who made me feel it was okay

to be weird, you know? and it's it's goofy in that way and it has a little bit of i don't know if you would want to call it smarmy but that like kind of latter-day disney marvel dialogue like there's a lot of like the jokes are kind of tongue-in-cheek and a bit buffy the vampire slayerish for predator but that being said i thought like all the other tractenberg stuff that he's done with this series is i find it has like a really refreshing energy Like he comes at these movies without a lot of stress attached to them with like, okay, how am I going to make this franchise explode and intricate world building

that people need to read a Wikipedia entry to understand and need to have seen the cut scene of prey and you must have watched killer of killers to understand what's going on badly. You don't really need that. Like I could tell from the crowd that I watched it with, these people who were like, I saw the trailer, the predator seems like he kicks a lot of ass in this movie. I want to watch it for two hours. And that's what you got. I generally agree. I like this movie a good deal. I wouldn't say I'm in love with it.

And I'm, there's a part of me, I'm battling myself and I'm battling the potential of personal hypocrisy by kind of digging into what is and is not a predator movie. And obviously, Tractenberg knows more about making a predator movie than we will ever know in a million years. But there are some things in this movie that feel like they are really the opposite of what we've come to expect from these kinds of films. And yet, like, I think you can accept it on its own terms. I did send you a note a couple weeks ago and I said, ooh, this movie is rated PG-13. That seems not ideal. This is one of the signature violent action franchises of the last 40 years. And the first film in particular is an absolute masterclass in severe action filmmaking.

First two, really. I mean, the second one, while it coked out of its mind in Los Angeles, still has a lot of incredible gore. Yes, very, very violent. And so I had a little bit of concern around that. And then I saw someone compare this to the Mandalorian before I saw the movie. And I got a little nervous. and it turns out that there definitely are some shades of the kind of Disneyfication

of Fox properties going on here but I generally found it pretty sweet and inoffensive those aspects of it and rather than the Mandalorian what this movie made me think of in terms of the relationships not just between the droid

and the Yautio but also this little guy, bud, this little character this little kind of monkey hybrid figure who comes into the movie it reminded me a little bit more of Luke Skywalker and R2D2 and C3PO, which is a more acceptable version of the like cranky companion adventure sci-fi movie. And we don't get a lot of adventure sci-fi movies these days.

I honestly welcome. I welcome and acknowledge that it's hypocritical to sort of be fine with this movie and so angry in the newspaper about Alien Earth and about like there are certain franchises. I think this is pretty common for film fans. It's like there are certain things you're very protective and you know you're like a originalist about and you're like no actually wayland utani corporation did this in this year so you can't do that next I did hear you say that a couple times a hundred times during alien earth I was so mad and then this time I was just like oh yeah it's okay that the predator is basically like Lloyd Dobler from say anything and he's just trying to figure it out like I just had a much like looser kind of relationship to this and I

dig predator movies but do not think deeply about the yautja and their code and where they've spread their hunts and all that stuff like i i really like these i i think i was almost pleasantly reminded of like an older version of franchise films like almost not not the same but like an old bond movie where they just kind of like soft reset every film and i'm like maybe that's better maybe this is a better way to watch what we're on the ninth predator movie, you know, maybe this is where aliens should go, where it's like rather than trying to solve the mysteries of the universe or explain the mythology behind things, it's just like, can you scare me for two hours? Can you thrill me for two hours?

You know, I had a very similar thought that the low leverage in terms of the lore around this series is very helpful for enjoying this movie. But then unlike a James Bond movie, what's been really interesting about what Tractenberg has done with these last three movies is he has radically shifted the primary perspective of each movie. They're all set in different times in the case of killer of killers

across multiple periods of time. And this is the first one. It's really notable because this is the first one. It's really through the eyes of a predator. We've not had a movie in which they are the sympathetic protagonist. Yeah. It's a pretty bold choice

because of the viciousness with which they kill. I guess the movie works in part because this is an unproven predator, right? It's a Yautja who is younger, smaller, who is the runt of the litter. And so it's a lot easier to get on their side despite the fact that they are brutal

in the way that they attempt to pursue the mission that this character goes on. Also, this movie works because of El Phanning. Well, speak on that. Yeah, I mean, I just thought, you know, I really was taken with than enjoyed the like dad beheading his son

for being a cuck early you know the 20 minute pre-title sequence of this movie but it really kind of comes to life when he comes across El Fanning strapped to a thorny bush somewhere in the middle of this wasteland and she becomes his backpack

I noticed that the film its code name when they were shooting it was backpacker I think and it's just kind of an ingenious pairing of an absolutely brutal killing machine with a fairly charming piece of technology sitting on its back, kind of making conversation. And I've seen people say that, like, well, the reason why this works is because L. Fanning's

character is curious. Like, she's asking the predator questions that maybe a general audience member might want to ask. Like, well, how do you decide what to kill? Or, like, do you have to eat and do you have to sleep and what are you doing? These kinds of things are very helpful storytelling, device or movie exposition device. It is convenient slash smart that she is also a droid who specializes in these other creatures. And in fact, she understands Yautja and the language. And, you know, there was no predator language prior to this movie. I read that they created this language, the same person who created the language of the

Navi in Avatar, which is a film you haven't seen. And there's a very sophisticated language in that film as there is in this film. How did you feel good about the Yautja talking? They talk about it the way I would figure they talked. You know, like kind of a translated samurai sort of language, right? Sure. I thought that the deck got funnier over the course of the movie, and I couldn't figure out where that was coming from.

Like, deck had some bits, you know? And especially when Bud shows up, he starts to get, like, some sort of buddy cop energy going with him. So I don't know if that's something that a predator is like doing a quick 10 minutes at the comedy store. I'd like to see it. Maybe Ted Tractorberg can do it.

Is this thing on for the deck next? That would mean that deck is divorced at this point, you think? Yeah, Dex divorced. Okay. He's like, yeah, Theo leaves him and he's just like, ah, you know, I'm going through a lot. I'm thinking of all the permutations. What about Deck and like a home improvement style sitcom show

where he's got three little decks running around and he's got a wife deck who's like, I don't know, deck. Seems like you're going to be in big trouble this time. Would you put the bar all night deck? Would you green light for the ringer deck straight to camera like Tim Dillon just going through the news?

Just being like, this is why they don't tell you. The answer is yes. Yeah. Elle Fanning, who you mentioned plays this droid and she also plays another droid, a droid that she identifies in the film as her sister. and has a very different energy than the character

she's portraying opposite the Yautja. What's your relationship to her as an actor? Interesting time for her. I'm just pretty delighted by her. She's wonderful. And I think she actually just makes really nice,

really cool choices. I've been a fan since Neon Demon. Interesting. And she's fantastic in The Great, which is sort of her signature role, I guess, a TV show on Hulu. but I find that like you know I know she's got a big year with sentimental sentimental value so it's like she's just as one of those people that I think is like

I'm not really trying to be the third person in Ant Man I'd like to just work with interesting filmmakers I honestly between her and Dakota I'm sure life's pretty good you know they don't have to like scratch out rent money and make it sound like they are like relying on each other financially they share a bank account like the Morris twins Remember the Morris twins got paid like 40 and it was like it's just up to you guys you guys split it up depending on who averages 8.2 rebounds a game and 6.6 rebounds a game? Do you think they left some money on the table here by not having L play Tessa in this movie?

Or have Dakota play Tessa? Oh, Dakota play Tessa. No, because I think they needed the consistency of all of the female droids looking the same and all the male droids looking the same that was consistent. We do see a lot of male droids get their heads absolutely. blown off classic stormtrooper situation with those male droids those guys really just totally incompetent like they have no idea what they're doing they really did so they got beat by a pair of legs yeah pretty sad I really enjoyed that you know there's a series of great set pieces in that film that's one of the best ones near the end of the film where we we do find eventually thea's legs and those legs have a mind of

their own and they're put into action to help deck and bud and thea attempt to overwhelm the other side. But there's a lot of, you know, unsurprising. If you watched Prey, you can see Tractenberg has an incredible mind for these kind of action set pieces. I just watched some of Prey over the weekend. And even just that sequence where Amber Midthunders character is watching the predator battle, the bear, which is just crazy.

This one also has the sort of snapping tree vines in the very early sequences of the film who come back later on. We see the razor sharp blades of grass. There's a series of, like, ideas in the bad lands that make this fun. Before Thea showed up, I did have some concerns that this was going to be, like, video game cutscene energy the whole time where there's not, like, a single living thing on screen. If it had just been predators being like, Father, give me the cloak. I would have just been like, all right, man, like, this is...

But I think it just gets a little bit more charming. And then for men of a certain age, the introduction of the Waylon Utani Corporation, shouldn't as meaningful. Like, it's popped up before. Obviously, there's the Alien versus Predator movies. Lance Henriksen plays Charles Whalen in one of those movies,

although they don't make a huge deal about... I believe it's the first Alien versus Predator movie. Yes. Right. And I think there's an alien at the end of Predator 2. Shane Black had designs on expanding the universe and stuff like that. These two movies or these two franchises

are both Fox Disney properties, so there can be pretty easy, integration, I would be the first person to be like, get this shit out of here. I thought it kind of worked. And the thing I think I'm most charmed by, after spending close to two months discussing the stewardship of the alien franchise with Alien Earths, is the idea of Tractonburg taking over both. Right. Which is very interesting because we, you know, we both were, I think this is similar to Alien Romulus, where we were fans of that movie with some reservations. It's kind of, it's a fun time with the movies that doesn't necessarily feel like it

is entirely violating what's very special to us about Alien and Predator and aliens and all the great installments of those films. You know, it's slightly lesser than. It's never, it is IP management for decades post-haste, but there is something, when you have a very competent

and creative filmmaker in charge of the properties, it's that much more exciting. I thought Alvarez was really good at the haunted house stuff in Romulus. I think Tractenberg is really good at scaled action, which is something that is really necessary for predator. I'm a little bit torn on the long term of this. Part of what was really effective to me about the Whelan Utani stuff

is that they just operate in the same way that they do in the alien films, which is that they are a corporation in search of powerful technology to take over the world. Bio-weapons, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much all that they do. And that is, I think, a fairly coherent big bad for any sci-fi movie. Yes.

And they map quite neatly onto this world. The same way that honestly they did in the Alien versus Predator movies, the problem is that those movies are really poorly made and they're not well-written. But the idea of them and the idea of those two creatures

coming into each other's paths is kind of logical, right? And that some earth-bound company would have humorous to think that you can master that, that you can pull something out of these things that would be of value. Yeah.

What do you think about a movie with no humans? I suppose this movie did a pretty good job about as good as you can do in that scenario. I'm not a fan, as you know. I mean, like, it's hard enough for me to sort of stay locked in on animation,

much less a film that's largely about, like, other creatures talking to each other. They obviously anthropomorphize the hell out of a lot of these things. And so they have a lot of sort of Disney charm and Disney humor. Even the snapping tree branches kind of have like this amusement park, you know, Tower of Terror kind of, vibe to it. And especially

the bud character gets grogood even though it is supposed to be a galaxy champion killing machines son. Yeah. You know, it's tricky. I think obviously they've created this very smart

saw by having the droid at the center of the movie, you know, casting an actor who has just a ton of charm and a ton of personality in El Fanning. But there were times where I was like, we're in the smear. You know, we are in the thing that I talk about on the show from time to time that I think held me back from being like a full-blown major advocate for this movie. Dude, I, it's just going to, I think it's going to happen to everybody with a different movie

where you're watching. And it's just like, some days you just hit the lottery or you just hit in that slot where you're like, I saw this at like 1230 on IMAX. I was like, this is really a pretty fun experience. If I had watched this on like a 42-inch screen, I think I would have turned it off midway. There was something, like, very enveloping about the landscapes, albeit, obviously, CGI augmented, the sound, the music was pretty good. I found the story pretty compelling. The mirroring of Dutch's sort of learning how to beat the predator in the first film with the predator learning, like, oh, here are all the different things that I have encountered and crossed my journey that I will bring together, the exploding berries, the dart throwing eels, you know, the razor glass, like you said.

It was just like a nice touch But none of that felt too heavy-handed Like oh we really must honor to the predator I completely understand if you were like This movie doesn't count unless a man gets his chest Excavated by another alien And like I'm I'm the guy who rewatches Bill Duke and Jesse Ventura scenes

When I want to get hyped up like I get it I see you When you want to get hyped up to go do what? Just do a pod with you man yeah that's what you do i ain't got time to bleed i have to pod yeah um yeah i i generally agree with you i was thinking about what what sci-fi action is in 2025 because you know this week we've got the running man coming out starring glen powell the the rare dystopian action movie that's something that used to happen all the time when we were growing up and now is is less and less common there have been some really big sci-fi movies this year though we did an entire episode about

the electric state, which was a deeply unfortunate Russo Brothers directed Netflix production. Megan 2.0, one of the least successful, you know, most kind of most talked about failures at the box office this year. Also, you know, attempting to recreate some of the energy of Terminator 2. Mickey 17, the Bong Joon film, which also did not do very well. Jurassic World Rebirth, which I thought was a dog baby of a movie. That was another good example of like, I should, I should hate this, but I was not offended. I wouldn't say I was offended, but I could have used my time better.

You seemed pretty offended. Maybe I was a little offended. 28 years later, another example? Yeah, that horror sci-fi blend. Yeah, there's the virus aspect of it, for sure. There is killer of killers. Did you watch Killer of Killers? You did.

So, you know, you're on the record. You're not a big fan of animation. You've been creeping towards, I guess, adult animation. And by that, I mean pornography over the last few years. You know what my relationship to animation is now? It's like the dude who only listens to Jason Isbell.

And he's like, have you heard this? This is really solid. You know? So that's like, I'll watch blue-eyed samurai and be like, these guys can really draw. What a compelling tale. You watch Scavengers Rain, right? Yeah.

That was a cool show. Killer of Killers is more in that vein. And Killer of Killers was really interesting to me too because we're in the midst of this big anime wave. Killer of Killers is not an anime film per se. But there is some influence there for sure. And Tractenberg also directed that movie, which I think is really cool.

I think it's pretty... I wonder, I was going to ask you, how would you have felt if Badlands had been the animated movie and they had tried to make Killer of Killers as the live action? I mean, I would have loved to have seen the live action of Killer of Killers, but it would have been extremely expensive because it's four different stories across history where real life... Yeah, Viking, Samurai, World War II,

and then a team up at the end, right? Yes, the battle. the end and you know you'd have to do the ninth century the 17th century and the 20th century um but man i just just purely in terms of the design of the action sequences the battle sequences really really cool stuff and a movie that just i love the viking chicks uh blades shield that she uses yes that was awesome incredible creativity and just a cool a clever idea for the use of the predator character and one that doesn't really develop the character of the predator that just kind of lets it be a killing machine which made it a lot of fun people haven't seen that they should

check it out on a hulu but just thinking about that movie a little bit it did have me thinking about something that happened with the predator series because this movie made 40 million dollars over the weekend this is one of the biggest hits of the fall now you could probably tell that was going to happen a couple of months ago for a few reasons one especially the running man was supposed to come out on november 7th and it moved a week and it moved off of the date the predator had landed on And it was like, I don't know if I want to mess with this. And so the movie does very well. And I think there's something going on here that feels like the inversion of what has become commonly accepted wisdom.

So Knives Out came out in 2019. And after it came out, Ryan Johnson signs this deal with Netflix to do the next two films. Now thinking is very clear. It's like that movie was a box office hit. It's an established brand. Now we can make it a streaming property. And that did work, clearly. Glass Onion clearly drove a lot of views.

He got an Academy Award nomination. Wake Up Dead Man is coming out later this year. I feel like the opposite was true for Predator, where Prey and Killer of Killers reseeded the land in terms of predator interest and got more and more people kind of hyped up for what a Predator movie could be. Prey was one of the first movies

I remember people being like, God damn it, put this in fucking movie theaters. I'm sure I said it on the episode we did. There was, that was, and also was that, post-COVID, like Fox was like doing that with some streaming stuff, right? Like, there was that thriller set in the, like, Park Ranger building that we really liked. Was that...

I can't even remember what it was called now. Right. So the movie you're talking about is called No Exit. That's right. Which was a crafty little thriller about a bunch of people who were all trapped in a cabin with a criminal. And they've done this a few times. You know, deep water went straight to streaming.

Prey went straight to streaming. You know, Barbarian could have gone straight to streaming. I'm very thankful. that it did not, but the same studio. Rosaline went straight to streaming with Kailen Deaver. The White Man Can't Jump remake.

No one will save you two years ago. Another Caitlin Deaver film, the sci-fi movie, which was very good. And so this is part of the studio strategy is to kind of keep bouncing back and forth.

They release Romulus in theaters. They release the amateur in theaters. But Killer of Killers goes on streaming. They just released Swiped on Hulu. Did you see Swiped? No. That's the, is it dating horror or is it just

like a rom-com? No, it's a biopic about Whitney Wolf Hurd, the founder of Bumble, starring Lily James. Oh, I've seen ads for it. So kind of a dating horror movie in a way. How's your Bumble account looking? Well, it's also just so funny that you're like swipes and I'm like, so

she swipes right and the guy's a killer, right? Like, can I just need to maybe take some air? Swiped right to hell. The Handelops the Cradle also just came out straight to streaming, the remake of that movie. It's like, this is what 20th century studios does. Some of these things I think have like legs to be franchises and some are kind of interesting just gambits of like this would be a programmer.

This would be to quote Bill Simmons's dad, a five o'clocker. You know, the kind of like, it's Thursday. I'm on my way home from work. Don't feel like going there yet. Let me stop at the movies. What's on kind of thing. Now that is streaming. Now that is when you go home and you're just like, I'll just fire up Netflix or Hulu and

see if they've got anything new. one thing I wanted to talk to you about is something that I think is becoming pretty common with these franchises is the use of essentially a television writer's room now I don't have any like deep reporting on this I glean this from the internet but I've heard about it with other big franchises especially Disney ones

where they get five or six pretty talented screenwriters in a room just to whiteboard blue sky it let's talk about like where this could go what this should do what if this happened on Predator Badlands, at least there was reporting and there was WGA like kind of, you know, extra literary credit given to Brian Fuller, who's probably best known for TV work

like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. Patrick Somerville, who did Station 11, obviously, and I believe Brian Duffield, who wrote a movie that we're really big fans of where I am, underwater. Yeah. He wrote and directed, No One Will Save You, Brian Duffield. Right. And I don't know if those guys are just like sounding boards for

Tractenberg and Azen to be like, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? Or how would we do this? But it's an interesting inversion of the development process. Or maybe it's something that Disney feels very confident in doing

because of the way that they've made Marvel movies over the years. But, you know, Chris Storer and Aaron Sorkin had extra literary credit on F1. This is something that I think is a little bit more common than we realize. And maybe it helps for something

like predator come up with a bunch of different takes on something like this that is essentially like, I want to see the predator kill some things, but like what we do around it is not that important. I think it's incredibly logical for this kind of material management of, you know, I think it's not ideal when it's a movie that is meant to be. Yeah, you don't need it for tar. Right. An original story that's like character driven and meant to be from an otore. Like that's, you don't want to hear that nine guys had to get into a room to say here's how to improve your movie, but when you're talking about managing the next phase of a Predator movie, this has been happening for a hundred years in Hollywood.

There's an entire scene in Mank. It's just nine guys who went to Yale talking about how to make a Frankenstein movie. You know, like this is, yeah, and being absolutely hammered. But, and those guys were all geniuses, and they were talking about like the same sort of low rent monster material, uh, that Predator could be. And there's something wrong with it. It's honestly probably a good idea. If this was, if these were the great works,

maybe you'd have a slightly different feeling about it, but I guess the idea of it being more public is kind of interesting. This is something that has historically gone on behind the scenes. You know, back in our days of writing about rap, you would always hear about ghost writers. There would always be like, oh my God, did you know that Jay-Z wrote half of 2001?

Like, isn't that so crazy? And these things were kind of, they became mythological over time. But I think for guys like you and me... It should be public. Yeah, I mean, but we're, We're big fans of like the hidden lore of PTA wrote Killers of the Flower Moon kind of stuff. But it took less than a year to half for that to become not hidden anymore.

That's the point is like nothing can really stay quiet in that way. I remember the first time, I told you this, the first time that someone called me and they were like, PTA wrote Killers of the Flower Moon. I know it. I'm looking at the screenplay. I was like, that makes all the sense in the world when you go back and watch that movie and the fact that it did actually trickle out that he worked on that and that he wrote Napoleon at least.

that makes me appreciate the movies more it makes me understand the movies more I don't have the idea of Patrick Somerville being able to contribute to Bud's energy in Predator Badlands I'm about it that's cool yeah and your main analogy is very good it's just it is like nine guys

being like this wrestler needs an orphan that he's taken care of because we need people to care about the outcome of this I mean I I had high hopes I know we're going to talk about those sort of other films in this franchise I hope's for the

shame black version of this it seemed like something in my mind was Taylor made for him and that he would obviously since he appeared in the first one and I think maybe did some uncredited work on it was going to be a perfect union

of like writer-director and franchise but that obviously didn't work out do you feel like Tractonburg staying on this and I think he's going to make another predator movie with the success of this one I think he could make probably as many as he wants, is this a waste of his talents or is this a good use of his talents? It doesn't have to be a binary, I know. It's a really interesting question because the only other film that

he's directed that is outside of this franchise is 10 Cloverfield Lane, which is a damn good thriller. And that's a movie that used the Cloverfield brand to kind of get through the door, but if it had nothing to do with Cloverfield, still would have been tremendously effective. So you can tell that there's something, he could probably do a lot of different kinds of genre storytelling. And we need guys and women like that making these kinds of movies. Him being in predator mode for 15 years is a little depressing to me. Sure. However, I would rather someone talented be making these movies if they're going to get made than someone who is less talented. And we saw, like, an alien versus predator, we saw like, you've got to be careful who you give these characters

to because you can kind of torpedo the whole thing if it's not the right. A steady pair of hands. Yeah. And you're not going to be able to make a large-scale action film about a commitment. Manchi woman in, you know, the 18th century or whenever Prey is set, I can't remember. But it's like that, you're going to have to have a predator show up in that movie for it to be economically feasible for something like Disney or Fox to get to work with. Yeah, it's definitely true. I think, to me, it would be nice to be able to have both. It would be nice if Tractenberg's next movie was a scaled down $25 million thriller.

And we could see if it's commercial and it could be a studio movie or we could see if it's going to be something a little bit smaller than us to go to streaming. and then he can make now to $150 million alien predator movie. Can you handle an alien predator movie in 2028 if that's announced? If he's doing it, yes. And I think weirdly audiences have now arrived at the fact that they would actually enjoy that. Whereas when those Alien versus Predator movies came out, I just remember that being like this is used bin stuff.

Like this is pretty cut rate movie making with no disrespect to the people involved in. I didn't take them very seriously. He is obviously with all the Whalen stuff, with the fact that Ridley Scott's getting on years, the alien franchise is, you know, tussled over, but will belong to Fox long after some of these figureheads are no longer working on them. You could very easily transition over to this.

And I think the direction these things are going is going to be more stuff. Throw it against the wall, see what works, see which way we want to go rather than we're banking 15 years. and it's like, whoops, we got Jonathan Majors on our hands or something. Like, you have to kind of be nimble. And so I think that I could very much see Tractonburg taking a bigger role in the alien stuff. Does that mean I want to see Ripley in it?

No, but... Yeah, yeah. Do you think that these movies can continue to successfully be one-offs? That, like, it doesn't really matter what came before. That's an interesting journey. I have been wondering, this is probably not going to happen. I don't ever, ever, ever want to see a trailer for a... Predator movie that says

the epic conclusion of the decade-long saga. I just don't care. I don't want it to feel like Fire and Ash or Return of the King ever. I want it to just always be like, what if we put the Predator? Chris, Fire and Ash is the third in a planned five

film series. He said he's not going to, he's giving up. Even he knows. He's like, I can't keep making these. He's who's giving up? He'll never give up. Yeah, he is, man. He's like if people don't see Fire and Greed to make those films officially. CR has already, C.R. is out there pounding the pavement, asking people what they're doing with their lives. Maybe I should go make something else, you know?

I'm pleased to announce right here on this podcast, roughly an hour into our discussion that on December 2nd, we'll be recording an audio commentary live watching Avatar The Way of Water. So we have to, we have to ask you right now, will you be watching the first Avatar film before you record that commentary with us? what do you think would be better for the pot I think there would be a lot of explaining necessary I don't know if you would enjoy it if both me and Amanda are like what's this who's that I'll firmly agree with that

Amanda has seen the way of water though so I don't know what questions should she be asking Do you think she retained a lot of it though Do you think it's like still like right under fingertips? Yeah I mean she learned about the Navi when she was studying the classics back in college So that's true I just think she's going to hold on to that for

a long time. I am, I'm very interested in where they take this. I think this movie was a fun time at the movies and I also

as all, you know, middle-aged dudes who grew up obsessed with Alien as soon as the words Whale and Utani were uttered,

I was like, hmm, don't screw this up, but I'm excited. Yeah. And... Did you like the loader, the mech loader? To CGI.

Okay. Part of the magic of aliens is that all of that is practical and feels real. And the movie does, it does slip into a big conclusion with a big CGI monster

and a CGI power loader and Bud and all of these. There's just a lot of stuff on screen that I find a little bit disorienting. But when we're on the ground with the actor playing deck and L. Fanning, that stuff is really cool to me. Where this stacks up is interesting

in terms of ranking these films because we did do this last time and I actually don't know where we landed and I'm not going to look because I don't want to have to... I just want to go off the vibe of seeing this movie and seeing how it connects to the other films.

Now, it's safe to say that the first film is still the best film, right? Yes, goaded. The first film is a five-star masterpiece. Yes. One of the leanest, meanest, just one of the greatest achievements in action filmmaking, John Mc Tierney.

And one of the most searing portraits of American military interviews. prevention in the Southern Hemisphere, you know? When you were talking about how you sometimes watch those scenes to get fired up, you think Heggseth does that as well before he gives a big speech? For his calf exercises, yeah. Oh, boy. Do you, would you leave the ringer to go work at the DOD?

Do you think me and Pete Heggseth have the same letterbox top four? That would be really fucked off. Let me see if I can guess it. So, Predator, obviously, Sergeant York, a lone survivor and an American tale. He doesn't like lone survivor because we lost. It's all about winning.

It's all about winning. Predator is the best film in this franchise by a pretty wide margin, even though I think there are some very good movies here. Now, what comes next? I don't remember what came next last time. I think there's going to be a nostalgic contingent for Predator 2.

There's going to be a... hipster action contingent for prey? Yes, that's not. Neither of those are my number two. Are you going to say predators? I am going to say that. That's a very bold take. Yeah.

Now, I like predators. Nimrod Antal's story about like a prison camp, like a space prison that is crash lands. It's a bunch of mercenaries and criminals are marooned on like what is essentially a giant hunting ground planet a game like a game warden

this is probably heckset's favorite as well when you think about it it's kind of got a similar training ops vibes this bitch is like a bonkers cast of Adrian Brody

Walton Goggins Mahershala Ali Lawrence Fishburn and oh Tofer Grace this is funny because like I think that we should go

one of these days is most stacked cast movies or most random stacked cast movies because you know what might be like the clubhouse leader of that that I was just watching the other night

hostels. Hostels. Oh, yeah, hostels. Hostels has a crazy. Salome is like the ninth dude in hostels. Yeah, you really are holding that Cooper stock. Even after the bombing of Springsteen, you are not letting go. You know it's still raining around your heads.

I know. Badlands, what a jam that song is. Predators is really cool. I haven't revisited it. I did see it in theaters and I was like, this is what the world needs right now. we need to let mercenaries get hunted. Yes.

You know, it's very clearly a riff on the most dangerous game. It's like a clever movie, but kind of a dumb movie at the same time. Yeah. I really wish I could have rewatched this before. I agree to why you put this at two. Fishburn basically is what El Fanning is in this Badlands film

where it's like, for a long time, you're like, this is pretty cool, but like they are really holding the reins tight on this cast who are just like kind of just like look at each other and be like

brother don't get my six don't follow me you know whatever and then Fishburn shows up and he's just like welcome to the continental you know he's really hamming it up

but he's been living there for years right isn't that the reveal that he's like he's made it through several tours and is like living in a bombed out

spaceship somewhere how do you think you do face to face of the youcho you think you'd be able to hang no I mean not after watching killer of killers

It just seems to get everybody who tries to reason with the oucha gets put in cryosleep or beheaded. But you have the secret sauce of you could do impressions. You could do funny bits. Sure. You can be like, she's got the greatest. And then the youcho would be completely neutralized. You putting predators at two is kind of crazy, but I'm going to do it. What's the alternative?

Prey? I think prey is probably the best made. I think Predator 2 is probably the most satisfying. because it's just so crazy. The third way. The third way. The third way. Yeah.

Like Mom Donnie. Yeah. Okay. Prey or Predator 2? That's the big question. Inside of me are two wolves. I think I will rewatch over the course of my life, Predator 2, more than I rewatch prey, but acknowledge that prey as a more water-tight movie.

I'm, this is what's going to happen. It's going to be 2052. Yeah. You're going to be into your 70s. You're going to be living on a sky planet somewhere. And I'm going to buzz. I'm like, posse weight in inception. I'm going to buzz you on the video phone.

You're going to pick up. You're going to be in your smoking jacket. Yeah. You've got a pipe in your mouth. It's full of Zinn. And you've got a 360 degrees, kind of counteracts and what the purpose of Zinn is.

And you're watching Predator 2. Yeah. And you're like, Sean, it's nice to hear from you. It's been some years. I just wanted you to know that when we had our Predator's conversation, I was true to my word. I've revisited Predator 2 38 times since we last spoke of these films. We haven't talked.

So this is this in this version of this time. This is our last conversation. This is our last conversation. but you at least will be doing the work with Predator 2 you'll be logging it several times over the next couple of decades I'll do you one better it's going to be the same thing you've you've gone through on your oft-made promise that you're just going to abandon city living

that's right we did in Zawantanao working on a boat and I show up one day I take off my hat I have a full head of hair and I'll be like just want to let you know Predator 2 won 32 to 15 over prey And I dropped dead right in front of you I'll bury you at sea It'll be perfect

Oh God That's gonna be beautiful I'll be putting the whole thing on TikTok By the way when that happens Just 20 seconds at a time the burial Let's see It'll be like when they buried Megatron at sea In the Transformer films

Okay Predator 2 at number 3 Yeah And pray of 4 Okay Wow That's I got bad lands at 5

This is like incredibly unwoke of you This whole list This is No the unwoke version would be If I put the Predator 2 Which I won't do Oh well that yeah that's that would be truly unwoke Okay pray

God No I was just gonna pray Pray is I think A more like Solid film than Predator 2 but Predator 2 just has Busey and Paxton. And so just by thus needs to be higher. How do you feel about all the Rastafarianism in Predator 2?

You think it works? Was that your introduction to Rastafarian? Honestly, probably was. It really was. That in Steven Segal. I mean, that movie came out in 1990, so I was eight. I probably saw when I was nine on cable. Yeah.

The cinema of Stephen Hopkins, we don't talk about it enough. You know about Stephen Hopkins' work? Did he do cliffhanger or was that Rennie Harlan? No, that's Rennie Harlan. How dare you? Come on. Stephen Hopkins. Let's talk through his filmography.

First of all, the movie he made before Predator 2 is Nightmare and Elm Street 5, The Dream Child, which just came up in our 1989 movie draft. He followed up Predator 2 with Judgment Night, which features a remarkable soundtrack and is a dog shit movie. 1994 blown away. Now, that's a picture. That's a quality film. Incredible accents in that film.

One of Bill's favorite movies. Boston movie? he hates that movie Jeff Bridges Tommy Lee Jones Forrest Whitaker right after that Ghost in the Darkness honestly a fiasco

should have been the coolest movie of all time Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer go on a lion hunting expedition in Africa so they can build trains and it's kind of boring unfortunately

1998 Lost in Space it's pretty much over from here do you remember the Lost in Space remake I do yes this was a a I mean, it seemed like they couldn't build a jail that could hold Stephen Hopkins in there, a director's jail, but then he found it. How many of the two, four, six primary cast members of Lost in Space? How many of them can you name? Well, it's, oh no, you know what I got confused between Lost in Space and Galaxy Quest? Because I was going to say Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver.

No, Galaxy Quest, wonderful movie. Okay. Lost in Space. I don't know anybody in Lost in Space. You can't name a single, there's a very famous TV actor. This was one of his first big film. film roles in the late 90s. Is it David Caruso? It's not. No, David Carre, come on. He'd been in, King of New York, come on. This guy started

on the film Friends. Swimmer? No. Oh, my God. What are you doing? Who is it? Is it Perry? Matt LeBlanc. Oh, is it LeBlanc's big screen debut? Well, I think that was Ed, the monkey baseball movie. Have you seen that film? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Um, no, the cast of this movie is, is deranged. Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, and Lacey Chabair in her feature film debut. See, this is why we have to do Stackcast movie, uh, podcast. I mean, that is, that's, that's battling with predators for sick cast. Okay, we got prey at four. We got predator badlands at five. You agree with that? Killer of killers are badlands. there's like dead even to me

there's like a limitation on how great Killer of Killers can be to me because of its filmmaking style but it is more satisfying as a Predator movie for my taste so it's like they're almost tied at five yeah if they I mean Killer of Killers would have been like NC17 if it had been live action

yeah yeah there's a lot of hurtling blood will you would you consider getting into anime with me I would but I do feel like we're reaching the limits of the amount of things that I can get into as a man. Wow. Interesting. What are some of your other hobbies? And I also don't want it to be like

old guy tries to get into anime to relate to people, you know, or to stay relevant. But this is the work. I mean, this is not, you're not getting into it to relate to 14-year-olds. Like, that's a little creepy. You're doing it so that, you know, 14-year-olds will listen to your deep thoughts. But they're not going to want to listen to me on chainsaw, man. You know what I mean? I disagree. me about degrading, you know, depraved men in the 70s, you know, hustling. Like, that's what they want. I disagree.

I honestly, I think the listeners are at least curious about my thoughts about chainsaw man. And I will share them. It was really, really fun. And I enjoyed myself. I found it to be largely incoherent. I was not aware of the fact that it was basically before sunrise meets Killer of Killers. Okay. But that's what it is.

The first 40 minutes of Chainsaw Man, Reza Ark, is like, basically a romantic comedy or like a romantic dromedy it's kind of 500 days of summer walking around okay a guy with chainsaw head and chainsaw arms battling a girl who he's fallen in love with

who is secretly the bomb devil meaning she's a devil that is terrorizing him and she is working for an even more powerful devil source and she's just she's made of bombs so like if you get close to her she's like, boom, you're dead. That just keeps happening over and over again.

Yeah. You know, she's the real killer of killers. She's extraordinary. Chainsawam, man, I thought pretty fun. And I want you to come on the journey with me. Well, I mean, they print money now. Like, pretty soon it's going to be like, you know, black bag will be like something that you can,

you can maybe rent as like a two-minute video on your phone and we'll just all be going to see anime. Yeah, we're going to have to put you in the, let's get you to bed, grandma meme when you explain Thunderbolt and Lightfoot to the listeners. of this podcast. Okay, Killer of Killers at number six. That means, okay, so the Alien versus Predator

and Alien versus Predator Reclamation are terrible. The Predator is also terrible. The Predator has been dramatically recut to become incoherent. And there also was some scandal during the production of the film. It's kind of hard to rate the predator highly. It's more enjoyable to watch for me.

The first half of the predator, where it's like the PTSD soldiers led by Boyd Holbrook and then they team up with Olivia Munn's I think she's like a scientist Yeah, Dr. Christmas Jones situation But when it pivots in the middle and it becomes about her son played by Jacob Tremblay who's autistic and that's why the alien

predators want his DNA that's where it starts to go off the rails and then the end it makes zero sense did a good job remembering that I forgot Sterling K. Brown is in this film as well Why did Sterling K. Brown not become a big action star? I don't know, but he's still doing great.

He's killing it up. He's in paradise, right? Yeah. Did you watch House of Dynamite? Not yet. What's your story, man? I'm sorry, dude. It's not like I'm not doing the work over here.

I was at the night of the jugglers, like, screening. Like, I'm here for cinema. How did that go? It was so great. It was so awesome. I was so jealous to not be there. Yeah, I can't wait for people to see it if they haven't seen that film before. It's like really like legitimately like, you know, you were talking about like sometimes

you'll watch like a 70s crime film and you'll be like, I dig it, but this is not actually like a film that needed to be excavated from the animals. This was like an excellent movie. I hope people check it out. Yeah, that's a movie that for years had been on the cult list of you got to see it. I think I first saw it on YouTube because I had read enough people talking about. I think it had played the new Bev a couple times. but it has been fully restored now

and there's this great transmission radiance release in the US there's a Kino Lorber 4K as well available so there's a number of ways to check it out they should just drop a drop a predator in the middle of that movie and remake it maybe that's Trackingburg's next movie is like 1980s New York

dog day like dog day predator that would be sick Predator versus Serpico like and bro I mean James Brolin is still alive should we get him back out out there? Sure.

As Detective Sean Boyd. Yeah. What if we were like Alien versus Predator Requiem is way better than Alien versus Predator? I just can't do it.

I don't have... So you want to do the Predator and then the two Paul W.S. Anderson movies? That's my personal feeling and it's like there's too much good Shane Black dialogue in the Predator for me to rate it below either of the Alien versus Predator

movies. I'll be completely honest with you. Which one takes place in Antarctica? That's the first one, Alien versus Predator. And is, is there another one that's in Colorado, right? I guess that's Requiem. I think Requiem is set in Colorado, and it's like, I don't quite understand the relationship of the predators to the aliens. They seem to be like basically protecting humans,

because if the aliens get loose in America, like they will lose their fertile hunting ground. That's, I think, kind of what's going on there. It's been a minute since I've rewatched these, though. I forgot to bring up something else in our news segment that is related to all of this which is that there was an announcement last week

that Gremlins 3 is happening written and directed by Chris Columbus who of course wrote the original Gremlin's film and I'm a little concerned about this yeah if you look at

Gremlins and Gremlins too extremely meaningful to me and of a similar vintage of fun genre movie as the Predator and Aliens films The Predator and Alien films are much more serious. The Grimmon's films are kind of a laugh. But do you know what Chris Columbus has been up to in the last 10 years?

Can you name a single film he's directed since 2009? He produced somebody's movie where I was like, good job, Chris Columbus. Oh, yeah. And Robert Eggers spoke frequently on his press tour for that film about the Hollywood Orthodoxy that Chris Columbus brought to that film, which I thought was interesting. thing. But literally the movies that he's actually directed a film that came out this year, which

I have not seen, but Amanda Saw and talked about on the show. But here's the 20 years in Chris Columbus directorial films. 2005 Rent, I would say not a beloved adaptation of the beloved musical Rent. 2009, I love you, Beth Cooper.

Have you seen that? Oh, yeah. That's the zombie movie, right? No. Okay. It's a teen comedy. Cool. 2010, Percy Jackson and Olympians the lightning thief. Lerman.

Cooking. Logan Lerman is the star of that film. Yeah. 2015 pixels? Don't know what that is. That's an Adam Sandler movie where the video games come into the real world.

Okay. That guy gets a lot of mileage out of inanimate objects, like remote controls. Well, he's about to take it even further because in 2020 he made a film called The Christmas Chronicles Part 2. You know about this movie?

Nope. Kurt Russell plays Santa Oh, yeah, for sure. And Goldie Hawn plays Mrs. Clause. What the hell? 2025, the Thursday murder club. Yeah.

Which seems like a kind of a harmless. Enjoyable. Old person, yeah, detective movie starring Pierce Brosnan. I, maybe, I don't want to tell Chris Columbus how to live his life. He's given me a great many things.

I think he's doing fine. Primarily Home Alone, which is a masterpiece. This is Dalfire, film I like I would appreciate it if he didn't make Gremlins 3. Joe Dante

should be making Gremlins 3 and if not Joe Dante someone younger and cooler in my opinion. I was at the running man screening a couple weeks ago and Joe Dante was at the screening as was Walter Hill.

I got to meet Walter Hill. Two of the goats of genre filmmaking. What did you say to Walter Hill? I said I love extreme prejudice. You said I relate to the Nolty character in that film? I tried to just

like go deep with him and he was like oh powers booth guys great in that he was awesome though Walter Hill is the man uh here's our ranking are you ready this has definitely been one of the most

so you just let me do it you just let me rank it you're not gonna I mean predators is not number two like prey or predator two are both better Predators is sick on the page and has a couple of cool moments but it is also dumb as shit Adrian Brody plays a mercenary named Royce.

Yeah. Is it a sequel or a prequel to the Brutelist, do you think? He has said, he has openly said he would welcome returning to that world. I'll bet.

You know why? Returning to the character of Royce. Money is good. But there's a few guys in dotted throughout Predator franchise history that I think Tractonburg

could be like, what if he was frozen? We could, you know, get him, you know? What if he was frozen? Yeah, Because like the end of killer of killers, you find out that a bunch of the protagonists of Predator movies have been cryo, have been frozen in cryosleep for the predators to, you know,

do whatever they do with them. If you could bring anyone back, would you bring back Jacob Tremblay? No, I'd bring back Jesse Ventura, saw him back up. Well, he's, I mean, he was annihilated. I don't know if that's going to be feasible. Uh, gosh. No, I bring back Billy, Billy, Billy who fucking cuts himself across the chest. Billy, yes.

Yeah. I love that. That's a great call. We're going to put this on social media, and we're going to say courtesy of CR. Okay. I'll turn my notifications off and enjoy London. Number one, predator, number two, predators. Number three, predator two, number four, prey.

Number five, predator badlands. Number six, predator, killer of killers. Number seven, the predator. Number eight, alien versus predator. And number nine, aliens versus predator, Requiem. If you live in London and you agree with me about predators being number two, come up to me and I'll buy you a beer. Chris, you just sealed your fate.

You're going to be murdered in the street. This is unbelievable that you would save such a thing. How are you handling that now? What, homies? Coming up, saying what's up? Being a beloved icon of culture podcasting. Several big picture fans out here have said, sir, you always deflect and be like, oh, no, it's big picture.

No, no. There are men who are like, thank you for everything that you said about internal affairs. You roiled my loins with your. commentary on Andy Garcia's beauty. Yeah, that's true. Your Byron Mayo got me through COVID. You know, I did a rewatchable's in your absence. It really was like I was in the Chris Ryan seat.

And I did. I was trying to detect what you guys were doing based on Bill's, the excerpt of the pod that went on Bill's show. So yeah. I'm happy to say it was snake eyes. It's not a big deal. For a second, I thought it was Carlito's way and I was getting like honestly mad. No, we wouldn't do that.

We talked a lot about how there will be. a running man style game show between me and you and van for who gets to be on the Carlito's Way Pod which was pretty funny. I... We need to go yautja and take Bill out for that. You know, we just say...

Oh, you want PS off the Carlito's Way Pod? Well, I was doing, like... I was literally doing Pacino for that with the whole, you know, you want to be big time! You're going to die, big time! But I did do a little Byron Mayo. Even though I know I couldn't come

within one one hundredths I think I may have to retire all those guys because I just got blanked so hard when I did Wayne Jenkins in front of Glenn Powell and he was like, cool man it seemed like you got a lot of interests he was so nice and he was really like didn't make me feel bad about it

but I was like holy shit I just exploded oh my god it was just like I was like just jumped right off the edge of a building there yeah nobody caught me Did you bring up Predators to him about how cool it is? I was like, you know, you might want to look at that.

It's a lot of meat on that, the Roy's character mode. Do you revive that? I think Glenn would do well in the Predator world. Fuck yeah. The action in Running Man is extremely good, extremely good action. Too bad you're not going to be on that pod. What the hell, man? Come back to America.

Sorry, brother. I'll be back on Friday. Okay, and what are you going to do when you return? If they let me back into the country, I will be probably talking about prestige television and movies with you. What's coming up in the world of TV?

Anything cool? Industry's coming back. This year? I think so. I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that. I feel like I would have heard about that. And yeah, Stranger Things is kind of taking up all the oxygen.

I'm not going to let you leave until we talk about Sydney Sweeney for a minute, okay? Sure. This is the most recent run of her films. I wanted to go through this with you because she's just had Christy come out over the weekend and it didn't do that well at the box office. I saw the film, I thought it was perfectly fine.

I think she gives a really good performance in the movie as it's a biopic about Christy Martin, the boxer. And it's a very sad story, very complicated story, but it is a kind of a rote drama. Directed by David Michaud, who's directed some movies that you and I like quite a bit and has been a little bit on a wayward journey in the last five or six years.

But in 2021, she made a movie for Netflix called Night Teeth, where she played a vampire, didn't really connect. I don't think I saw that. In 2023, she played a reality winner in a film called reality that was on HBO.

That was a fucking banger. Interesting film. Very good performance by her. She's great in it, yeah. Then she was in the smash sensation, anyone but you. Yep. With the aforementioned one pal.

Correct. Our boy, Glenn. 2024, Madam Webb. Not her fault. Not ideal, I would say. Maybe nobody's fault. Who knows whose fault that was?

Fair to say the filmmakers The studio Everyone who participated They're all kind of in the wrong on that one Then Immaculate An amusing None horror film That did modest business

We dug that We saw that Yeah we talked about it on the pod Then she made Eden With Ron Howard Which was just released this year Didn't do very well Echo Valley

Which is a film that went straight to Apple TV Plus That was Julian Martin Moore Sorry. Yes. Did you see that movie? No, I've seen that it's on Apple TV. Okay.

Thanks for your commentary. And then the film, Christy. So we've got anyone but you, smash sensation. Uh-huh. And then not too much. Not too much. We did have a jeans controversy at this time. Like a pretty, like gritty B movie, like with Paul Walter Houser that came out.

She did. She made Americana, which I have not seen yet. I've not seen that either I think that played at South by in 2023 but was only released this year but I will see Americana it's on my list

now I bring this up for two reasons one her next movie is the housemaid have you seen the trailers for the housemaid I haven't but I know what it is about

what's it about isn't it about her and Amanda Seafried and it's like a thriller yeah I wouldn't say that's like what it's about it's a great logline I'm sorry yeah

is it about a woman with a maid and the maid might do something wrong Like, what did I miss? I'll read you the log line. A young woman with a troubled past becomes the live-in housemaid for a wealthy family. However, there's seemingly perfect life unravels

when she discovers their household hides darks darks dark beneath the surface. This movie's directed by Paul Fieg. I think it's going to be a very big hit. And I'm wondering where we're at with Sidney Sweeney. At the box office with him. Look, she's a controversial figure right now. I continue to find her choices

as a performer to be very interesting. And I look forward to Euphoria Season 3 coming sometime in in 2029 when they finished filming it. Shot entirely on VistaVision. Yes. Is it 70? I can't remember what it is.

It might just be 70. I can't remember, but it's like something where I'm like, why are you shooting this on VistaVision? I'm trying to think of it. I think reality is probably my favorite performance, her as of yet. I admire the fact that she's

real big, she's a big believer in Bill Simmons's bet on yourself doctrine. Like not a lot of like I'll be the fourth person in this movie. More like I am the star. I don't know, she seems like a little earlier career to go

ward hunting with like Christy and stuff like that but like I, whatever. You know, we'll see what we'll see how shakes out. I think it's cool that she's trying to make films like that. I think it's smart to be, under 30 and to not limit yourself to being the bombshell and everything that she does. She drives people insane. So I don't know if she's going to be able to ever like just be like herself or like truly be seen as a character because I think she's such a like a controversial figure

in pop culture. And people use her as like a litmus test. Like oh, do you like Cindy Sweeney? You must have you know enjoyed the government shutdown. Who is the last America's most wanted. babe that elevated up to credibility. Is it Hallie Berry? I'm trying to think of who is the last actress who really... Because, you know, we've had a lot of young actresses become very successful at a young age, become honored, you know, beautiful actresses, but maybe not in the same category of, like, desirable, I guess.

Like, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence. Like, these are, like, really glamorous actresses and who are celebrated in their work. But it's a different thing where, like, ogling is a part of the persona. Yeah, I mean, she is kind of a... throwback to like the Maxim era, you know. Or the Maryland Monroe era, you know, like there is like a long history of actresses trying to elevate utilizing what people think of them. I can't think of the last person who's crossed over from that world,

mostly because it's become so lucrative to be in that world now with the ways you can kind of make money that, you know, like you don't necessarily have to become a serious actress to sort of elevate your career financially. That's another reason why I think it's cool what she's doing, which is that like she keeps making independent films, She works with the filmmakers that she likes. She's trying to make movies.

She cares about movies. She's producing movies. I mean, you know, she could just have like a reality show called like Simply Sydney and probably do quite well for herself. So the fact that she's like... Stop giving ideas away. That's insane.

You just gave away literally a $10 million idea. Simply Sydney. It's just Sidney. She wakes up. She makes eggs. And she looks at her phone. Yeah. And everybody's like, wow, this is incredible.

This is slow TV. This is amazing. Sierra, just nice to spend some time with you. This is the first we've spoken. in 10 days. I know. I got to run out. Still happy hour.

It's always happy hour here. So I'm going to go meet my wife for a lovely like some pheasant or whatever we eat here. Give her my best.

If you eat pheasant, that's weird. Do me a favor. Ask Phoebe to just text me her thoughts like right off the top of her head about Sidney Sweeney. Like I just want to know

unfilled. Don't give her any setup. Don't like just I want to know what Phoebe thinks. She sometimes next to me in bed will watch an Instagram video like the GQ interview that's obviously gone quite viral.

She'll just keep watching those clips and like plays the audio out loud and then like out of the side like looks at me to see what my reaction is and I'm like I don't know what you expect like I'm not gonna be like Sylvester the cat like with my eyes popping out I uh you know who she reminds me of in that very specific respect is Jennifer Love Hewitt where Jennifer Love Hewitt kind of drove a generation of women at least women that I knew crazy because they were like she's not that hot what's the deal and I said nothing I just said

whatever you say thank you yeah we'll give you be my best I will give the youcho my best and are you dining with Hegset tonight or what are you doing

no no we couldn't make it work timing wise too bad when are you going to be back in American Shores Friday Friday yeah so look for me hitting LAX you said the TMC cameras

and just so we can circle back you said if someone agrees with you about predators on this list they should kiss you on the mouth in the street. No, I said if you come up to me in a bar, if you see me in a bar or whatever, and you're like,

I also think Predators is number two, I will buy you a drink. That's a beautiful sentiment. Then I'll put it on my expense report so you can approve it. C.R., nice to see you. Thanks so much for your work. Bye.

Thanks to Jack Sanders for his work on this episode as well. Later this week, number five. Thanks to Beck's for staying late in London for producing on this same. Oh, thanks, Bex. Later this week, Chris, we're doing number five on 25. for 25. I told this to the live audience when we did our show on Saturday night, our secret screening.

The number five is Freddie got fingered. So, congrats.