‘Predator: Badlands’ and the 'Predator' Movie Rankings

Summary

The Big Picture – Episode Summary

Episode Title: ‘Predator: Badlands’ and the 'Predator' Movie Rankings
Date: November 10, 2025
Host: Sean Fennessey
Guest: Chris Ryan

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Overview:

Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan (“CR”) dive deep into Predator: Badlands, the latest entry in the long-running Predator franchise. They break down the film’s unique approach, its director Dan Trachtenberg’s stewardship of the series, and where it sits in the overall Predator movie legacy. The episode also includes genre talk, thoughts about IP management in Hollywood, and a comprehensive, lively ranking of every Predator film, with entertaining digressions on Elle Fanning’s performance, sci-fi trends, streaming vs. theatrical releases, and a playful preview of upcoming projects.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Scene:

• [00:39–09:32] Movie & TV Banter: Sean and Chris catch up long-distance (Chris is in London), riffing on recent TV, Ryan Reynolds’ remake ambitions, and Shane Black's latest streaming efforts. They touch on how modern IP—the Thomas Crown Affair and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot—keeps cycling, with middle-aged male stars helming nostalgic remakes.
• [09:32–11:16] London Film Experiences: Chris describes the joys of London’s BFI IMAX and indulges in cult and classic film screenings, tying in the genre roots that feed into the new Predator.

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Predator: Badlands – In-Depth Review

The Film’s Direction and Approach

• Director & Franchise: Dan Trachtenberg continues to refresh the Predator franchise, following up on his acclaimed Prey (2022) and the animated Killer of Killers.
• Premise: The story centers on a young, outcast Predator (“Dec”) who must prove himself by hunting a deadly creature on a hostile planet, forced into alliance with Thea, a snarky Elle Fanning-voiced droid (who’s just a torso/arms/head for most of the film).

Genre Shift, Tone, and Themes

• [11:16] Chris Ryan:

  “This is like a recovering-from-trauma movie. This is about finding your family...it has a little bit of… latter-day Disney Marvel dialogue... tongue in cheek and a bit Buffy the Vampire Slayer-ish for Predator.”

• Emphasis on a “kinder, gentler” Predator, with some old-school franchise DNA, but new emotional beats, character focus, and surprisingly (for some) a PG-13 rating.

Concerns and Comparisons

• [12:47] Sean Fennessey:

  “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... this movie’s rated PG-13. That seems not ideal. This is one of the signature violent action franchises... But I generally found it pretty sweet and inoffensive, those aspects of it.”

• Sean grapples with personal hypocrisy, admitting he’s okay with the franchise’s evolution, even though he’s “more protective” of Alien.

Perspective Shift

• Badlands is the first Predator film told from the actual Predator’s point of view.

  “This is the first one... really through the eyes of a predator. We've not had a movie in which they are the sympathetic protagonist.”—Sean [16:01]

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Performances & Key Characters

Elle Fanning’s Stealth MVP Turn

• [17:01] Chris Ryan:

  “This movie works because of El Fanning... it kind of comes to life when [Dec] comes across Elle Fanning strapped to a thorny bush somewhere in the middle of this wasteland and she's becomes his backpack... an ingenious pairing of an absolutely brutal killing machine with a fairly charming piece of technology.”

• Elle Fanning plays both the main droid and her own “sister” droid in a clever dual role, injecting curiosity and a smart, humanizing touch.

Predator Culture & Language

• The film introduces a spoken Yautja (Predator) language, developed by the linguist behind the Avatar Na’Vi tongue.

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Worldbuilding and Franchise Integration

• Wayland Yutani (the infamous corporation from the Alien franchise) features prominently and is plausibly integrated.

• [23:49] Sean:

  “When you have a very competent and creative filmmaker in charge of the properties, it's that much more exciting... I think Trachtenberg is really good at scaled action, which is something that is really necessary for Predator.”

• Sean and Chris muse about the future—what if Trachtenberg handles both Alien and Predator? Can the franchises still work as “one-offs,” soft resets with fresh ideas rather than convoluted continuity?

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Sci-Fi Landscape & Release Strategies

The Streaming vs. Theatrical Tug-of-war

• Prey and Killer of Killers were streaming hits, quietly building buzz, which “re-seeded” appetite for a big-screen Predator event.
• [32:19] Sean breaks it down:

  “Prey and Killer of Killers re-seeded the land in terms of Predator interest and got more and more people hyped up... Prey was one of the first movies I remember people being like, God damn it, put this in fucking movie theaters.”

Contemporary Sci-Fi and the Market

• They talk about other 2025 sci-fi fare—Electric State, Megan 2.0, Mickey 17, Jurassic World Rebirth—and how Badlands stands out for memorable action and heart, even as the genre’s box office hits and misses pile up.

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Writers’ Rooms and Modern Hollywood

• Trachtenberg’s creative team for Badlands reportedly included TV veterans (Brian Fuller, Patrick Somerville, Brian Duffield) in a whiteboard/"blue sky" idea session—a symptom of franchise IP stewardship post-Marvel.
• [35:16] Chris:

  “Maybe it helps for something like Predator to come up with a bunch of different takes on something like this... I want to see the Predator kill some things, but what we do around it is not that important.”

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Predator Franchise Rankings

[Started at ~45:08]

Their Updated List (Chris’s “controversial” order, debated with Sean):

1. Predator (1987)

   • "Five star masterpiece... one of the greatest achievements in action filmmaking." —Sean [45:27]

2. Predators (2010)

   • “That’s a very bold take…Predators is really cool. I haven’t revisited it…It’s what the world needs right now: mercenaries get hunted. A clever, if dumb, riff on the Most Dangerous Game.” —Sean [46:47]

3. Predator 2 (1990)

   • "I rewatch Predator 2 more than I rewatch Prey, but acknowledge that Prey is a more watertight movie." —Chris [49:48]

4. Prey (2022)

5. Predator: Badlands (2025)

6. Killer of Killers (2025, Animation)

7. The Predator (2018, Shane Black)

8. Alien vs. Predator (2004)

9. AVP: Requiem (2007)

Debate: Chris controversially puts Predators at #2, with Sean noting “Prey or Predator 2 are both better.” [64:30]

Memorable Ranking Banter:

• [46:41]

  "Inside of me are two wolves: I think I will rewatch Predator 2 more than I will rewatch Prey, but acknowledge that Prey is a more watertight movie." —Chris

• [65:48]

  “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

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Predator franchise’s flexibility:

  "Maybe this is better. Maybe this is a better way to watch what we're on: the ninth Predator movie… rather than trying to solve the mysteries of the universe… it’s just like, can you scare me for two hours? Can you thrill me for two hours?" —Chris [15:01]

• On franchise world-building and audience expectations:

  "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. Like I want it to just always be like, what if we put the Predator..." —Chris [41:39]

• On Elle Fanning and acting choices:

  "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… And she's fantastic in The Great, which is sort of her signature role, I guess…" —Chris [20:18]

• On the current state of sci-fi:

  "What sci-fi action is in 2025... the rare dystopian action movie... something that used to happen all the time when we were growing up and now is less and less common." —Sean [27:58]

• On streaming vs. theatrical:

  "Prey and Killer of Killers reseeded the land in terms of Predator interest... Prey was one of the first movies I remember people being like, God damn it, put this in fucking movie theaters." —Sean [32:19]

• On studio writers’ rooms and “hidden lore”:

  "There's an entire scene in Mank. It's just nine guys who went to Yale talking about how to make a Frankenstein movie..." —Sean [36:09]

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Other Segments & Sidebar Topics

Sci-Fi Trends and Animation

• The animated Killer of Killers impresses, dovetailing with the growing popularity of adult animation (Blue Eye Samurai, Scavenger’s Reign). Sean tries to lure Chris further into anime; Chris admits limits to his “old guy tries new things” energy. [29:06–30:46; 55:41]

On Upcoming Projects and Culture

• Gremlins 3 (Chris Columbus returning), the crowded landscape of old directors doing legacy sequels, and general skepticism about handing over beloved properties without new creative blood.
• They go on a memorable tangent about Sydney Sweeney’s career, box office “witness tests,” and her throwback, controversial star persona vs. the production of more independent films. [69:00+]

Lighthearted Predictions & In-Jokes

• Playful speculation about long-term Predator/Alien franchise ambitions, Hollywood’s endless IP mining, and future live commentary podcasts (Avatar: The Way of Water).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [09:32]—Badlands begins: Discussion of Predator: Badlands plot, concept, Elle Fanning’s casting
• [11:16]—CR’s summary of Badlands’ refreshing energy and gentle twist
• [12:47]—Sean’s initial concerns: PG-13, absence of series signature violence
• [16:01]—Perspective shift: “Through the eyes of a Predator,” new franchise direction
• [17:01]—Elle Fanning’s contribution discussed
• [23:49]—Weyland Yutani/Alien franchise integration
• [41:39]—Sean & Chris: “No epic conclusion” plea for Predator movies
• [45:08+]—The Great Predator Movie Rankings: debated, relived, and ranked
• [46:41]—Nostalgia vs. craft in Predator 2 vs. Prey ranking
• [65:48]—Chris’s pub challenge to London listeners

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Final Predator Movie Rankings for 2025

1. Predator (1987)
2. Predators (2010)
3. Predator 2 (1990)
4. Prey (2022)
5. Predator: Badlands (2025)
6. Killer of Killers (2025, Animation)
7. The Predator (2018)
8. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
9. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

(with much spirited debate!)

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Episode Tone & Style

• Lively, frank, affectionate toward the genre, with plenty of playful teasing and inside jokes.
• Heavy on comic digressions about cultural trends, actor careers, and the existential ritual of IP cycles.
• Respectfully debates what makes a “real” Predator movie, acknowledging nostalgia, genre changes, and Hollywood realities.

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Closing

The episode wraps on a friendly note, reminding listeners to seek Chris in London pubs if they agree with his controversial Predator rankings—and teasing more “25 for 25” film discussions to come.

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For fans and new listeners alike, this episode delivers a smart, funny, and thorough dissection of the Predator series, attempts to pin down what’s still surprising after nine films, and invites the audience to join in the never-ending franchise debate.

Transcript

[A]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp Message Privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail].

[B]

I'm Sean Fennese 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 break down 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 Killer of Killers, which debuted on Hulu in June. CR and I avowed pred heads. So this will be a fun conversation. Chris, how are you?

[A]

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.

[B]

Is that true?

[A]

Very excited for Abigail Spamberger, the original lioness. My spy mommy.

[B]

You just, you really did want to just JMO it. You, you, you teased it.

[A]

I told you. Yeah, I was like, five o' clock here. I'm fucking ready to go.

[B]

I was listening to the watch and you guys were just trading Mamdani 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.

[A]

We don't even have Apple TV accounts. We don't even know it's on anymore.

[B]

I gotta say, you know not to, not to tread on the watches tail at all, but pluris. Hey, pretty good.

[A]

You approve?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, good.

[B]

Two thumbs up. I watched it on Friday. I watched two episodes on Friday. Enjoyed myself. Enjoyed your conversation with Vince Gilligan as well. Nice job.

[A]

Thank you for the shout out. That's. That's a real. That was a breath of fresh air television show that was like, we can still, we can still make things in this country and specifically in Albuquerque.

[B]

It was interesting because we talked about Frankenstein last week on the show and I revisited the post modern 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.

[A]

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.

[B]

Yeah. Pluribus, 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.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Is he playing both parts in this remake? What have you heard?

[A]

He's doing the sinners thing. He saw Sinners. He was like, I can do that.

[B]

Speaking of sinners, 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. The grown up JMO version of IP now, where all these big boys in their 40s who have amassed some box office power are just remaking incredibly cool movies made 52 years ago.

[A]

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 it, 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 podcast and I've been a part of it over the last couple of 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 on his in his spare time. The question being, is he going to take Michael Cimino'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.

[B]

I'm not sure. I can't recall.

[A]

It's the west, you know? And is he gonna make this into, like, a kind of glib digital action farce, or is it gonna be something a little bit more human?

[B]

You know, you've just reminded me of something I watched. Play Dirty. The Shane Black film. Did you watch this film?

[A]

Of course I did.

[B]

Yeah. The. The Mark Wahlberg lakeith 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?

[A]

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.

[B]

Yep. Todd Parker.

[A]

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. A good time watching this. What did you think?

[B]

I thought it was quite poor, but there were things about it that were entertaining. I. I think I'm. I'm having a hard time with Mark Wahlberg at this stage of my life and his. I think I just. It's a little bit harder to. He's just giving the exact same performance in every movie now.

[A]

Yeah. And. Well, he's got other concerns. He's got other interests.

[B]

What are they?

[A]

Breakfast, eating it at three in the morning, working out six times. You know, he plays 18 every morning.

[B]

I do know that, but, like, runs it.

[A]

He runs the course, so I believe.

[B]

He owns the course. Yeah, sure.

[A]

Yeah. And. 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?

[B]

Gambler, probably.

[A]

No, that's a long time ago.

[B]

Yeah, that's 12 years ago. 13 years ago.

[A]

It's funny to remember this guy was in, like, Huckabees and the Fighter, you know?

[B]

Well, he really cared about father Stu. Did you ever check that one out?

[A]

Oh, I didn't. No. Sorry.

[B]

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?

[A]

I do remember that. I think I passionately spoke about the gambler on that podcast, Deepwater Horizon. Not bad.

[B]

Not bad.

[A]

There's a lot of oil platforms off this. The cliffs of Dover, where I was this weekend, I saw some rigs.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

I thought about Deepwater Horizon.

[B]

It's funny for Drill baby Drill cr. That's got to be exciting for you. Did you get a little tingle down below whenever you see an oil.

[A]

I 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.

[B]

Did you light any planes on flyer at the end of your journey or no?

[A]

No, but I offered, 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 is 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.

[B]

No kidding.

[A]

That's how close you get, man. That's how close they were.

[B]

And did you immediately begin speaking French? Like what happened? Did you transform in some way?

[A]

Began speaking Yautja.

[B]

Well, thank you for setting us up. Let's talk about Predator Badlands because it's sweeping the nation. Is it sweeping France and England? Hard to say. You were able to see the film in London, England. How nice for you.

[A]

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.

[B]

The South Bank, Fantastic.

[A]

South bank one. Yeah, nice. And it's 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, all BP heads are welcome.

[B]

There is an elite collection of blu rays and 4Ks on sale at FBI.

[A]

Also, like a library system where you can like select a film and go watch it privately, which, you know, I took advantage of with some of my favorite 70s exploitative films.

[B]

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 that 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 Tod Browning cinema. Right. Freak 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 predator.

[A]

Heal thyself that's right. That's what this movie is about.

[B]

So this movie comes to us from Dan Trachtenberg. He has become the creative shepherd of the Predator 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 Asen, the screenwriter, to write these stories. And this one is very, very different. It stars Elle Fanning primarily, essentially the only, you know, human face we see, even though she is not playing a human in. In the film. And Demetrius Shuster Colomitanji is the. Is. Is Dec, who is a young, young predator, a young Yautja.

[A]

He's a fail son.

[B]

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, you know, somebo might. Might have something to him, but we don't know.

[A]

He definitely has. He definitely has some to him. You know, he definitely has some game, but not like his older brother Quay, and certainly not like his dad.

[B]

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 Kalisk. 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?

[A]

Really, really good, really, really, really excellent genre filmmaking. I think. I've seen a lot of Predator fellow print heads and, and fans of, of like, 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, like, 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. 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 Trachtenberg stuff that he's done with this series is. I find it has like a. 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 you 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.

[B]

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 Trachtenberg 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 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's 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.

[A]

First two, really, I mean, the second one, while coked out of its mind in Los Angeles, still has a lot of incredible, incredible gore.

[B]

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 Disney fication 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 Yautja, 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 cranky companion adventure sci fi movie. And we don't get a lot of adventure sci fi movies these days.

[A]

I honestly welcome. I. 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, I. There are certain franchises, I think this is pretty common for film fans, is like, there are certain things you're very protective and. And, you know, you're like a originalist about. And you're like, no, actually Wayland Yutani Corporation did this in this year, so you can't do that.

[B]

I did hear you say that a couple times.

[A]

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 Dobbler 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. Their hunts and all that stuff. Like, I. I really like these. 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?

[B]

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 Trachtenberg 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, you know, 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.

[A]

And also this movie works because of El Fanning.

[B]

Well, speak on that.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I just thought, you know, I really was taken with and 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 Elle Fanning strapped to a thorny bush somewhere in the middle of this wasteland and she's becomes his backpack. I. 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 Elle Fanning's character is curious. Like she's asking the predator questions that maybe a generic, 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 it? These kinds of things are a very helpful storytelling device or movie exposition device.

[B]

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 Na' Vi in Avatar, which is a film you haven't seen. And, 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?

[A]

They talk about it the way I would figure they talked, you know, like kind of a translated samurai sort of language.

[B]

Right? Sure.

[A]

I thought that the, 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. A quick 10 minutes at the Comedy Store. I'd like to see it. Maybe Trachtenberg could do it. Is this thing on for Deck next?

[B]

That would Mean divorced at this point, you think he has to get divorced? Okay.

[A]

He like, yeah. Thea leaves him and he's just like, ugh. You know, I'm going through a lot.

[B]

I'm thinking of all the permutations. What about Dec in like, a home improvement style sitcom show where he's got three little decks running 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 be at the night deck?

[A]

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.

[B]

The answer is yes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

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.

[A]

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.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

And she's fantastic in the Great, which is sort of her signature role, I guess, 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 is 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. They don't have to, like, scratch out rent money and make it sound like.

[B]

They are, like, relying on each other financially. They share a bank account like the Morris twins.

[A]

Remember the wars? Twins got paid like, 40, and it was like, it's just up to you guys.

[B]

You guys split it up. Depending on who averages 8.2 rebounds a game and 6.6 rebounds.

[A]

Do you think they left some money on the table here by not having l play Tessa in this movie or have Dakota.

[B]

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 suck.

[A]

They got beat by a pair of legs.

[B]

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 do find eventually Thea's legs. And those legs have a mind of their own. And they're put into action to help Dec and Bud and Thea attempt to overwhelm the other side. But there's a lot of, you know, unsurprising. If you watched Prey, you could see Trachtenberg 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 Midthunder's 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 ideas in the Badlands 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 a single living thing on screen.

[A]

If it had just been Predators being like, father, give me the cloak, I would have just been like, all right, man, 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 Wayland Yutani Corporation is meaningful. Like it's popped up before. Obviously, there's the Alien vs. Predator movies. Lance Henriksen plays Charles Whelan in one of those movies, although they don't make a huge deal about.

[B]

I believe it's the first Alien vs. Predator movie.

[A]

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 are. 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 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 Earth, is the idea of Trachtenberg taking over both.

[B]

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 at 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 four 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 Trachtenberg 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 Weyland Yutani 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.

[A]

Bioweapons. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. That's pretty much all that they do. And that is, I think, a fairly coherent Big Bad for any sci fi movie. And they map quite neatly onto this world the same way that honestly they did in the Alien vs. 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.

[A]

And that some earthbound company would have the hubris to think that they can. You can master that. That you can pull something out of these things that would be of value.

[B]

Yeah. What do you think about a movie with no humans?

[A]

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 off 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 personality Park.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, Tower of Terror kind of vibe to it. And especially the Bud character gets grogu'd even though it is supposed to be a galaxy champion Killing Machines son.

[B]

Yeah, you know, it's tricky. I think obviously they've created this very smart solid 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 are in. We're in the shmear. 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.

[A]

It's just, 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, you just hit the lottery or you just hit in that slot where you're like, I saw this at like 12:30 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 across my journey that I will bring together. The exploding berries, the dart throwing eels, you know, the razor glass, like you said 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.

[B]

When you want to get hyped up to go do what?

[A]

Just do a. Just do a pod with you, man.

[B]

Yeah, that's what you do. I ain't got time to bleed. I have to pod. Yeah, yeah, 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 rare dystopian action movie. That's something that used to happen all the time when we were growing up and now 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 is 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 Ho film, which also did not do very well. Jurassic World Rebirth, which I thought was a dog baby of a movie.

[A]

And that was another Good example of, like, I should. I should hate this, but I was. I was not offended.

[B]

I wouldn't say I was offended, but I could have used my time better.

[A]

Seemed pretty offended. Maybe I was scandalized. I was a little offended 28 years later. Another example.

[B]

Yeah, that horror story. But yeah, there's. I mean, the virus aspect of it for sure. There is Killer of Killers. Did you watch Killer of Killers? 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.

[A]

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.

[B]

You watch Scavengers Reign, 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 Killers is not an anime film per se, but there are. There is some influence there for sure. And Trachtenberg also directed that movie, which I think is really cool. I think it's.

[A]

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?

[B]

I mean, I would have loved to have seen the live action of Killer of Killers, but it would have been extremely expensive because you. It's. It's four different stories across history where.

[A]

Real life, Viking, samurai, World War II.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And then a team up at the end, right?

[B]

Yes, the battle at the end. And you know, you'd have to do the 9th century, the 17th century and the 20th century, 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.

[A]

I love the. The Viking chicks blades shield that she uses. Yes, that was awesome.

[B]

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 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 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, Rian 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 re seeded 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.

[A]

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 remember. I can't even remember what it was called now.

[B]

Right. So the movie you're talking about is called no Exit.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Which was a crafty little thriller about a bunch of people who are 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, Rosalind, went straight to streaming with Caitlyn Deaver, the white man can't Jump Remake. No one will save you. Two years ago, another Caitlyn 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?

[A]

No. That's the. Is it dating horror or is it just like a rom com?

[B]

No, it's a biopic about Whitney Wolf Herd, the founder of Bumble, starring. Starring Lily James.

[A]

Oh, I've seen ads for it.

[B]

So kind of a dating horror movie. How's your Bumble account looking?

[A]

Well, it's also just so funny that you're like, swipes. And I'm like, so she swipes.

[B]

Right?

[A]

And the guy's a killer.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Like, I just need to maybe take some. Some air.

[B]

Swiped right to Hel. The Hand that Walks the Cradle also just came out straight to streaming the remake of that movie. So it's like, well, this is what 20th Century Studios does.

[A]

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. 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 a. Essentially a television writers room. Now, I don't have any, like, deep reporting on this. I gleaned 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 or I Am Underwater.

[B]

Yeah, He. He wrote and directed no One will save you, Brian Duffield.

[A]

Right. And I don't know if those guys are just like sounding boards for Trachtenberg and Azen to be like, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? Or, what if. 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 mov over the years. But, you know, with their. 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, Maybe it helps for something like Predator to 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.

[B]

I think it's incredibly logical for this kind of material. Management of.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, I think it's not ideal. When it's a movie that is meant.

[A]

To be, you don't need it for tar.

[B]

Right. An original story that's like character driven and meant to be from an auteur. Like, that's that. 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 100 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 drinking. 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 that Predator could be. And there's nothing 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 writing about rap, you would always hear about ghostwriters. 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, it should be public. Yeah.

[A]

I mean, but we're big fans of like, the hidden lore of pta wrote Killers of the flower moon kind of stuff.

[B]

But it took less than a year and a half for that to become not hidden anymore. That's sort of the point. True is like none. 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, parts of 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.

[A]

Yeah. And that's 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 the. Those sort of other films in this franchise. High hopes for the Shane Black version of this. It seemed like something in my mind was tailor made for him and that he would obviously as a. 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. And franchise. But that obviously didn't work out. Do you feel like Trachtenberg staying on this and. And I think he's gonna 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.

[B]

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.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

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 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.

[A]

Yeah. And you're not going to be able to make a large scale action film about a Comanche woman in, you know, the 18th century or whenever Prey is set. I can't remember. But it's like that, 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.

[B]

Yeah, it's definitely true. I think to me it would be nice to be able to have both. It would be nice if Trachtenberg'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 that has to go to streaming and then he can make mount a $150 million Alien Predator movie. Can, can you handle an Alien predator movie in 2028? If that's announced?

[A]

If he's doing it, yes. And I think, I think weirdly like audiences have now arrived at the fact that they would have, like they would actually enjoy that. Whereas when those Alien vs. Predator movies came out, I, I just remember that being like this is, this is used bin stuff. Like this is pretty cut rate movie making with no disrespect to the people involved. And I, I, I didn't take them very seriously. He is obviously with all the WH and 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 Trachtenberg taking a bigger role in the Alien stuff. Does that mean I want to see Ripley in it?

[B]

No, but yeah, yeah, I 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.

[A]

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. Like I want it to just always be like, what if we put the Predator.

[B]

Chris, Fire and Ash is the third in a planned five film series.

[A]

He said he's not gonna. He's giving up. He even. He knows, he's like, I can't keep making these. He's.

[B]

Who's giving up, Jim? He'll never give up.

[A]

Yeah, he is, man. He's like, if people don't see.

[B]

Never agreed to make those.

[A]

Has already CR is out there pounding the pavement asking people what they're doing with their lives. I. Maybe I should go. Go make something else, you know?

[B]

I'm pleased to announce right here on this podcast, roughly an hour into our discussion, that on December 2nd, we'll be recording a. 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?

[A]

What do you think would be better for the pod?

[B]

I think there would be a lot of explaining necessary. I don't know if you haven't seen the first.

[A]

Enjoy it. If both me and Amanda are like, what's this? Who's that?

[B]

I'll. 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.

[A]

Do you think she retained a lot of it though? Like, do you think it's like, still.

[B]

Like right at the fingertips? Yeah, I mean, she learned about the Na' vi when she was studying the classics back in college, so that's true. I just think she's gonna hold onto that for a long time. I am, I am, I'm very interested in where they take this. I think this movie was a fun time at the movies. And I, I also as all, you know, middle aged dudes who grew up obsessed with alien. As soon as the words whale and yutani were uttered, I was like, don't screw this up. But I'm excited.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And did you like the loader?

[A]

The Mech Loader 2 CGI. Okay.

[B]

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 are on the ground with the actor playing Dec and Elle Fanning, that stuff is really cool to me. Hey, new to TikTok, here's a gift just for you. Join TikTok today and claim your $20, no minimum spend voucher completely free.

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[A]

Stays with VRBO this winter. If you need to work, why not.

[B]

Work from a chalet?

[A]

If you haven't seen your college besties since, well, college you need a week.

[B]

To fully catch up in a snowy cabin. And if you have to stay in.

[A]

A remote place with your in laws, you should save over $200 a week.

[B]

That's the least we can do. So you might as well start digging out the long johns because saving over.

[A]

$200 on a week long snowcation rental is in the cards book [e-mail].

[B]

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?

[A]

Yes. Go to.

[B]

The first film is a five star masterpiece. Yes. One of the leanest, meanest, just one of the greatest achievements in action filmmaking. John Doctierney.

[A]

And one of the most searing portraits of American military intervention in the southern hemisphere.

[B]

You know when you were talking about how you sometimes watch those scenes to get fired up. You think Hegseth does that as well before he gives a big speech for his calf exercises?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh boy. Would you leave the ringer to go?

[A]

Do you think me and Hegseth have the same letterbox top four? That would be really fucked up.

[B]

Let me see if I can guess it. So Predator, obviously. Sergeant York, Lone Survivor and An American Tale. Fievel goes, well, he doesn't like Lone.

[A]

Survivor because we lost.

[B]

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. I think there's going to be a nostalgia contingent for Predator 2. There's going to be a hipster action contingent for Prey.

[A]

Yes. That's not. Neither of those are my number two.

[B]

Are you going to say predators?

[A]

I am going to say that.

[B]

That's a very bold take. Yeah. Now I like Predators. Nimrod. Antal's story about like a, like a prison camp, like a space prison that is crash lands.

[A]

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.

[B]

This is probably Hexith's favorite as well. When you think about it. It's kind of got a similar training.

[A]

This fish is like a bonkers cast of Adrian Brody, Walton Goggins, Mahershala Ali, Laurence Fishburne and oh, Topher 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, it's what might be like the clubhouse leader of that that I was just watching the other night.

[B]

Hostels. Hostels. Oh yeah, Hostels.

[A]

Hostels has a crazy Chalamet is like the ninth dude in hostels.

[B]

Yeah. You really are holding that Cooper stock. You will even after the bombing of Springsteen, you are not letting Badlands, you know, it's.

[A]

It's still ringing around in your head.

[B]

I know. Badlands. What a jam that 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, we need to let mercenaries get hunted. 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.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I really wish I could have re watched this before I agree to let you put this at 2.

[A]

Fishburne basically is what El Fanning is in this, 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, just like look at each other and be like, brother, don't get my six, don't follow me, you know, whatever. And then Fishburne shows up and he's just like, welcome to the Continental. You know, like he's really having it up.

[B]

But he's been living there for years, right? Isn't that the reveal that he's like.

[A]

He'S made it through several tours and is like living in a bombed out spaceship somewhere.

[B]

How do you think you'd do face to face with a yautja? You think you'd be able to hang?

[A]

No, I mean not after watching Killer of Killers. It just seems like everybody who tries to reason with the yautja gets put in cryosleep or beheaded.

[B]

But you have the secret sauce of. You could do impressions, you could do funny bits.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

You can be like, she's got a great ass. And then the yautja would be completely neutralized. You putting predators at two is kind of crazy, but I'm gonna do it. I don't know.

[A]

What's the, what's the Alternative? Prey? Predator 2.

[B]

I think prey is probably the best made. I think Predator 2 is probably the most satisfying because I'm showing people the third way.

[A]

The third way.

[B]

The third way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like Mom, Donnie. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Prey or predator too. That's the big question.

[A]

Inside of me are two wolves I think I have will re watch over the course of my life. Predator 2 more than. I rewatch Prey, but acknowledge that prey as it's a more watertight movie.

[B]

This is what's gonna happen. It's gonna be 2052.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You're gonna be into your 70s. You're going to be living on a sky planet somewhere. And I'm going to.

[A]

I'm a possil weight in Inception.

[B]

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.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You've got a pipe in your mouth, it's full of Zinn and you've got a 360 degree screen.

[A]

I'm not saying what the purpose of Zinn is.

[B]

And you're watching Predator 2.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

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 Predators conversation, I was true to my word. I've revisited Predator 238 times since we last spoke of these films.

[A]

We haven't talked. So this version of this, this is.

[B]

Our last conversation ever.

[A]

This is our last conversation.

[B]

But you at least will be doing the work with Predator 2. You'll be. You'll be logging it several times over the next couple of decade.

[A]

I'll do you one better. It's gonna be the same thing.

[B]

You've.

[A]

You've gone through on your oft made promise that you're just gonna abandon city living.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

We've been in Ziwantineo working on a boat and I show up one day, I take off my hat, I have a full head of hair, you know, and I'll be like, just wanted to let you know. Predator 2 won 32 to 15 over prey. I dropped dead right in front of you.

[B]

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 at sea, it'll be like when they buried Megatron at sea in the Transformers films. Okay. Predator 2 at number three.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And prey at four.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Wow, that's.

[A]

I got badlands at five.

[B]

This is, like, incredibly unwoke of you, this whole list. This is.

[A]

No, the Unwoke version would be if I put the Predator too, which I won't do.

[B]

Oh, well, that. Yeah, that's. That would be truly unwell. Okay.

[A]

Like, I.

[B]

Go ahead.

[A]

No, I was just gonna pray. Prey 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.

[B]

How do you feel about all the rastafarianism in Predator 2? You think it works?

[A]

Was that your introduction to Rastafarian?

[B]

Honestly? Probably was. It really was.

[A]

That and Steven Seagal.

[B]

I mean, that movie came out in 1990, so I was 8. I probably saw when I was 9 on cable.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The cinema of Stephen Hopkins. We don't talk about it enough. You know about Stephen Hopkins's work?

[A]

Did he do Cliffhanger, or is that Rennie Harlan?

[B]

No, that's Rennie Harlan. How dare you. Come on, Stephen Hopkins. Let's. Let's talk through his filmography. First of all, the movie he made before Predator 2 is Nightmare on 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.

[A]

Incredible accents in that film. One of Bill's favorite movies, Boston movie. He hates that movie.

[B]

Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Forest 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 in order 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?

[A]

I do, yes. This was a horrendous. 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.

[B]

How many of the 2, 4, 6 primary cast members of Lost in Space? How many of them can you name?

[A]

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.

[B]

No, Galaxy Quest. Wonderful movie.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Lost in Space.

[A]

I don't know anybody in Lost in Space.

[B]

You can't name a single. There's a very famous TV actor. This was one of his first big film roles in the late 90s.

[A]

Is it David Caruso?

[B]

It's not. No. And David, come on. He'd been in King of New York. Come on. This guy starred on the film Friends.

[A]

Schwimmer.

[B]

No. Oh, my God. What are you doing?

[A]

Who is it? Is it Perry?

[B]

Matt LeBlanc?

[A]

Oh, is it LeBlanc's big screen debut?

[B]

Well, I think that was Ed the monkey baseball movie. Have you seen that?

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

No, this, the cast of this movie is deranged. Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham and Lacey Chabert in her feature film debut.

[A]

See, this is why we have to do Stacked Cast movie podcast.

[B]

I mean, that is, that's battling with predators for sick cast. Okay, we got prey at 4. We got predator badlands at 5.

[A]

You agree with that Killer of Killers or Badlands?

[B]

They're 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.

[A]

Yeah. If they, I mean, Killer of Killers would have been like NC17 if it had been live action.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of hurtling blood. Will you. Would you consider getting into anime with me?

[A]

I, 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.

[B]

Wow, interesting. What are some of your other hobbies?

[A]

And I also don't want it to be like old guy tries to get into anime to relate to people, you know, or stay relevant.

[B]

Like, 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's, you know, 14 year olds will listen to your.

[A]

Deep thoughts, but they're not gonna wanna listen to me on Chainsaw Man. You know what I mean? They want me about degrading, you know, depraved men in the 70s, you know, hustling like that's what they want.

[B]

I disagree. I, I honestly, I think the listeners are at least curious about my thoughts. About Chainsaw man. And I. 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.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But that's what it is. The first 40 minutes of chainsaw Man Reza arc is like a. Basically a romantic comedy or like a romantic dramedy. It's kind of 500 people walking around.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

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.

[A]

Explodes.

[B]

That just keeps happening over and over again.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, she's the real killer of killers. She's extraordinary. Chainsaw Man, I thought pretty fun. And I. I want you to come on the journey with me.

[A]

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 animes.

[B]

Yeah. We're gonna 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 vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator requiem are terrible. The Predator is also terrible. The Predator has been dramatically recut.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

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.

[A]

The first half of the Predator where it's like the PTSD soldiers led by Boyd Holbrooke and. And then they team up with Olivia Muns. I think she's like a scientist.

[B]

Yeah. Dr. Christmas Jones situation going on when.

[A]

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.

[B]

You did a good job remembering that. I forgot Sterling K. Brown is in this film as well. Yes. Sterling K. Brown not become a big action star.

[A]

I don't know. But he's still. He's still doing great. He's, he's killing.

[B]

He's in paradise, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Did you watch House of Dynamite?

[A]

Not yet.

[B]

What's your story, man?

[A]

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, I'm here.

[B]

How did that go?

[A]

It was so great. It was so awesome.

[B]

I was so jealous to not be there.

[A]

Yeah. I can't wait for people to see it if they haven't seen that film before. It's like a 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, from the annals. This was like, an excellent movie. I hope people check it out.

[B]

Yeah. That's a movie that for years had been on the cult list of. You gotta see it. I think I first saw it on YouTube because I had read enough people talking about it. I think it played the New Bev a couple times, but it has been fully restored now. And there's this great Transmission Radiance release in the, 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 Trackenberg's next movie is like.

[A]

1980S New York dog Day. Like, Dog Day. Predator.

[B]

That would be sick. Honestly.

[A]

Versus Serpico and bro.

[B]

I mean, James Brolin is still alive.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Should we get him back out there?

[A]

Sure.

[B]

As Sean Detective Sean Boyd. Yeah. What if we were like, Alien vs. Predator Requiem is way better than Alien.

[A]

I just can't do it. I, I, I don't want to do.

[B]

The Predator and then the two Paul W.S. anderson movies.

[A]

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 vs. Predator movies. I'll be completely honest with you. The. Which one takes place in Antarctica?

[B]

That's the first one. Alien versus Predator.

[A]

It is. Is there another one that's in a. In Colorado, Right?

[B]

I guess that's right.

[A]

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.

[B]

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 Gremlins film. And I'm a little concerned about this. Yeah, you look at gremlins and gremlins 2, extremely meaningful to me. And of a similar vintage of fun genre movie as the Predator and Aliens films. The Predator and Aliens films are much more serious. The Gremlins 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?

[A]

He produced somebody's movie where I was produced.

[B]

Nosferati. Yes.

[A]

Columbus. Oh, yeah.

[B]

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. But literally, the movies. He 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?

[A]

Oh, yeah. That's the zombie movie, right?

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

It's a teen comedy. Cool. 2010, Percy Jackson and Olympians. The Lightning Thief.

[A]

Luhrmann cooking.

[B]

Logan Lerman is the star of that film.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

2015 pixels.

[A]

Don't know. That is.

[B]

That's an Adam Sandler movie where the video games come into the real world.

[A]

Okay. That guy gets a lot of mileage out of inanimate objects, like remote controls.

[B]

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?

[A]

Nope.

[B]

Kurt Russell plays Santa.

[A]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[B]

And Mrs. Claus. What the hell? 2025, the Thursday murder Club.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which seems like a kind of a.

[A]

Harmless, enjoyable old person.

[B]

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.

[A]

I think he's doing fine.

[B]

Primarily Home Alone, which is a masterpiece. This is Doubtfire 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.

[A]

I was at the Running man screening a couple of weeks ago and Joe Dante was at the screening, as was Walter Hill. I got to meet Walter Hill, two.

[B]

Of the goats of genre filmmaking. What did you say to Walter Hill?

[A]

I said I love extreme prejudice.

[B]

You said I relate to the Nolte character in that film.

[A]

I tried to. I tried to just like go deep with him and he was like, oh, Powers Booth. Guy's great in that. He was awesome though.

[B]

Walter Hill is the man. Here's our ranking. Are you ready? This has definitely been one of the most.

[A]

You just let me do it. You just let me rank it. You're not gonna.

[B]

I mean, Predators is not number two. Like Prey or Predator two are both better. Predators, I don't know, is sick on the page and has a couple of cool moments, but it is also dumb as shit.

[A]

Adrien Brody plays a mercenary named Royce.

[B]

Yeah. Is it a sequel or a prequel to the Brutalist?

[A]

Do you think he has said. He has openly said he would welcome returning to that world.

[B]

I'll bet you know why.

[A]

Returning to the character of Royce.

[B]

Money. Good.

[A]

But there's a few guys in dotted throughout Predator franchise history that I think Trin Bird could be like, what if he was frozen? We could, you know, get him.

[B]

You know, what if he was frozen?

[A]

Yeah, cuz like the. The end of Killer of Killers, you find out that a bunch of the protagonists of Predator movies have been cryo. Been frozen in. In cryosleep for the predators to. To, you know, do whatever they do with them.

[B]

If you could bring anyone back, would you bring back Jacob Tremblay?

[A]

No, I'd bring back Jesse Ventura. Sew him back up.

[B]

Well, he's. I mean, he was annihilated. I don't know if that's going to be feasible. Gosh, no.

[A]

I bring back Billy. Billy. Billy who fucking cuts himself across the chest.

[B]

Billy. Yes. Yeah, I love that. That's a great call. I. We're going to put this on social media. We're going to say courtesy of cr. Okay, it's going to be.

[A]

Turn my notifications off and enjoy London.

[B]

Number one, Predator. Number two, Predators. Number three, Predator two. Number four, Prey. Number five, Pred Predator Badlands. Number six, Predator. Killer of Killers. Number seven, the Predator. Number eight, Alien versus Predator. And number nine, Aliens versus Predator Requiem.

[A]

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.

[B]

Chris, you just sealed your fate. You're going to be murdered in the street. This is unbelievable that you would say such a thing.

[A]

How do you.

[B]

How are you handling that now?

[A]

What homies coming up saying what's up?

[B]

Being a beloved icon of culture, podcasting.

[A]

Several Big Picture fans out here have.

[B]

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.

[A]

Yeah, it's true. Your Byron Mayo got me through Covid.

[B]

You know, I did a rewatchables in your absence. It really was like I was in the Chris Ryan seat and I did.

[A]

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.

[B]

So, yeah, I'm happy to say it was snake eyes. It's not a big deal.

[A]

For a second, I thought it was Carlito's way, and I was getting like, honestly mad.

[B]

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 Waypod, which was pretty funny.

[A]

I need to go yautja and take Bill out for that. You know, we just.

[B]

Oh, you want PS off the. Off the Carlito type pod? Well, I was doing like, I was. I was literally doing Pacino for that with the whole, you know, you want to be big time, you're gonna die big time. But I did do a little Byron Mayo, even though I know I couldn't come within 1/100.

[A]

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 Glen Powell. And he was like, like, cool, man. Seem 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. I just exploded. Oh, my God. It was just like. I was like, just jumped right off the edge of a building there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Nobody interesting.

[B]

Did you bring a predators to him.

[A]

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.

[B]

The.

[A]

The Royce character. Bone revive that.

[B]

I think Glenn would do well in the predator world.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The action in Running man is. 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. What's your story?

[A]

I'll be back on Friday.

[B]

Okay. And what are you going to do when you return?

[A]

If they let me back into the country, I will be probably talking about prestige television and movies with you.

[B]

What's coming up in the world of tv?

[A]

Anything cool industry's coming back this year, I think. I think so. I'm not sure. Don't. Don't quote me on that.

[B]

I feel like I would have heard about that.

[A]

And, yeah, Stranger Things is kind of taking up all the oxygen.

[B]

I'm not going to let you leave until we talk about Sydney Sweeney for a minute. Okay?

[A]

Sure.

[B]

This is the most recent run of her film, so 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. Didn't really connect.

[A]

I don't think I saw that.

[B]

In 2023, she played reality winner in a film called Reality that was on hbo.

[A]

That was a banger.

[B]

Interesting film. Very good performance by her.

[A]

She's great in it. Yeah.

[B]

Then she was in the smash sensation Anyone but you.

[A]

Yep. With the aforementioned Glenn Pal.

[B]

Correct. Our boy Glenn. 2024. Madame Web. Not.

[A]

Not her fault.

[B]

Not, not. Not ideal, I would say.

[A]

Maybe nobody's fault. Who knows whose fault that was.

[B]

It's 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 non horror film that did modest business.

[A]

We dug that. We saw that.

[B]

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.

[A]

Plus that was Julianne Marley. Julianne Moore.

[B]

Sorry. Yes. Did you see that movie?

[A]

No, I've seen that. It's on Apple tv.

[B]

Okay, thanks for your commentary. And then. And then the film Christie. So we've got anyone but you. Smash sensation, huh? And Then not too much. Not too much. We did have a jeans controversy at this time.

[A]

Like a pretty, like, gritty B movie, like, with Paul Walter Hauser that came out.

[B]

She did. She made Americana, which I have not seen yet.

[A]

Which I have not seen that either.

[B]

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?

[A]

I haven't, but I know what it is about.

[B]

What's it about?

[A]

Isn't it about her and Amanda Sey Freed and it's like a thriller?

[B]

Yeah. I wouldn't say that's like what it's about.

[A]

I mean, it's not 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?

[B]

I'll read you the log line. A young woman with a troubled past becomes the live in housemaid for a wealthy family. However, their seemingly perfect life unravels when she discovers their household hides dark secrets beneath the surface. This movie is directed by Paul Feig. I think it's going to be a very big hit. And I'm wondering where we're at with.

[A]

Sydney Sweeney, the box office witness. I mean, look, I. 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 three coming sometime in. In 2029 when they finished filming.

[B]

It shot entirely on VistaVision.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I can't remember what it is.

[A]

I can't remember, but it's like something where I'm like, why. Why are you shooting this on Misdivision? I'm trying to think of what I think reality is. Probably my favorite performance by 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, it seems like a little earlier in her career to go award hunting with like, Christie and stuff like that. But like, I. Whatever, you know, we'll see what. We'll see how it shakes out.

[B]

I. 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.

[A]

Does, but she drives people insane. So I don't know if she's gonna 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. 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.

[B]

You know, who is the. Who's the last America's Most Wanted babe that's elevated up to credibility? Is it Halle 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 the, like, ogling is a part of the Persona.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, this. She is kind of a throwback to, like, the Maxim era, you know, or.

[B]

The Marilyn Monroe era, you know, like, there. There is like, a long history of actresses trying to elevate, utilizing.

[A]

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.

[B]

That's another reason why I. I think it's cool what she's doing, which is that, like, she keeps making independent films. She works with 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.

[A]

Have, like, a reality show called, like, Simply Sydney and probably do quite well for herself.

[B]

So the fact that she's like, stop giving ideas away. That's insane. You just gave away, literally a ten million dollar idea. Simply Sydney. It's just Sydney's Sweeney. She wakes up, she makes eggs, and.

[A]

She looks at her phone.

[B]

Yep. Yeah. And everybody's like, wow, this is incredible.

[A]

This is slow tv. This is amazing.

[B]

Sierra. Just nice to spend some time with you. This is the first 10 days.

[A]

I know. I gotta run out still. Happy hour. It's always happy hour here. So I'm gonna go meet my wife for a lovely, like, some pheasant or whatever we eat here.

[B]

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 Sydney Sweeney. Like, I just want to know. Unfilled. Don't give her any setup. Don't. Like, just. I want to know what Phoebe sometimes.

[A]

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.

[B]

Like, 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, well, gif Phoebe my best. I will give the yautja my best. And are you dining with Hegseth tonight or what are you doing?

[A]

No, no, we couldn't make it work timing wise.

[B]

It's too bad. When are you gonna be back in American shores? Friday.

[A]

Friday, yeah. So look for me hitting lax, you said the TMZ cameras.

[B]

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.

[A]

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.

[B]

That's a beautiful sentiment.

[A]

Then I'll put it on my expense report so you can improve it.

[B]

Ciara, nice to see you. Thanks so much for your work. Thanks to Jack Sanders for his work on this episode as well. Later this week, number five.

[A]

Thanks to Bex for staying late in London for producing.

[B]

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 that number five is Freddy Got Fingered. So congrats. It.