Too Scary; Didn't Watch - PREY with Dan Trachtenberg

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

It's 1719 and one intelligent, tough, young Comanche woman is facing off against one extraterrestrial super-fighting creature...that's right, we're recapping the best installment of the Predator franchise yet, PREY!  The director, Dan Trachtenberg, joins us at the end of this episode to discuss horror movies, sleepovers, the original inspiration for this film and so much more. We laugh, we cry, join us!! You can watch Prey on Hulu TRAILER Recap begins @ 20:46 Dan Trachtenberg Interview @ 1:12:43 Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fm Podcast artwork by @EllaTalkinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone, welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch for themselves. I'm Emily, and I am too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Henley, and I'm also too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy, and I love watching scary movies. And so I watch them, and I tell you about them, except for today where we all watched the movie. Ooh, you bet we did. Can you believe it? Can can you believe it and it is a freaking good one folks but we're not going to tell you about it just yet

first first you have to hear about us you have to hear haha haha have to hear about us um did anything scary happen to us this week um so i last night went to a concert oh my god uh to see the bands taking back sunday and third eye blind stop it oh my god it was i had so much fun and reminder or for those of you who don't know I don't like music I don't like concerts. I don't like live music I find it all quite stressful. Was it like nostalgia? It was just so nostalgic Yeah, and the kind of scary thing. I mean not actually scary, but it's just so weird I haven't listened to these songs in close to 20 years and I know all of the lyrics.

That's insane. I love that. It's so weird. And every time that happens, you know, something will come on the radio that you haven't heard in forever. And it shocks me each time. Holy shit. I remember all of these words. And why can't I remember anything useful? I just remember every word to every Taking Back Sunday song from their 2002 album. Maybe it's not that you don't like music. Maybe you just need more Taking Back Sunday in your life. You need more Third Eye Blind. I got it. That was actually truly one of the things I said when I left is I could use a little more Taking Back Sunday. I thought their set was a little too

short. Third Eye Blind played for so long and they were great i did i have heard some loose whisperings about the singer of third eye blind being a creep i don't know what he did but i'll just throw that out there just to say if he's a creep we've heard maybe he's a creep then you know that's not great but he did put on a great show did you recognize i don't i don't think i know that many third eye blind songs actually besides like i i knew more than i thought is jumper third eye blind it's Did you recognize? I don't think I know that many Third Eye Blind songs, actually. Besides like... I knew more than I thought. Is Jumper Third Eye Blind? It's Jumper, Semi-Charmed Life.

Okay. Do they just play those two over and over and over again? Those are the only two I know. There was a point in the show, because they played for truly close to two hours. Oh, that's absolutely too long. There was a point where I thought maybe they're not going to play those two. Maybe they're that kind of band that's like, well, we don't play those ones anymore. And I was getting more and more mad the longer they weren't playing them.

But of course, they were saving them for the end. And it was great. And it was really sweet. We left as they were playing Semi-Termed Life, like at the very tail end of the song. And I got to look back at the audience and seeing everyone singing it the whole stadium singing having so much fun it was so cute wow i just had a blast and yeah i don't know what that means i can't believe i guess i just have to go to nostalgia concerts yeah yeah that makes sense maybe the only kind of concert i would enjoy as well as like i'd absolutely i would lose my shit to go to the Spice Girls. Oh my God. Yeah. Can

you imagine? I can. Anyways, it was great. And I had a great time. Wow. And I listened to Take You Back Sunday this whole morning. And it was just really funny. What a funny, weird little trip down memory lane. It was great. But what about you guys? What's scary in your lives? But what about you guys? What's scary in your lives? So what's scary for me this week is that, sorry, I'm going to talk about my son yet again. It's the only thing I seem to be able to talk about. But nonetheless, I'm bringing up Silas.

He's 13 months old and he has only just started to get scared of things. just started to get scared of things. It's really crazy because babies don't, they're not, fear isn't really like a emotion they have besides like maybe to keep them safe. But like a more imaginative fear doesn't start happening until you're two or older. Oh, wow. But it's just starting to happen for Silas. And like, like kids don't need nightlights until they're two or older because they're not scared of the dark. Like, like your imagination isn't working in that way.

And so Silas, but just literally in the past, like few days has started to get scared of things. These are the things that he's been scared of in the past few days. First, a Jack in the box makes a lot of sense. Jack in the boxes are fucking scary, but we like did it, you know, the song,

whatever, and then it popped out and he screamed. Cried. Screamed, cried. He doesn't like a jump scare. Doesn't like a jump scare. Just like his mommy. Doesn't like a jump scare. And my mom, we were with my mom and she spent, I'm not joking, hours with Silas and this Jack in the Box doing it over and over and over again until he wasn't scared anymore. And she was like, she was she would she would pick up. It was like a little butterfly of a creature. It's like not scary at all. But she called him Busy Bee. Maybe it's a bee, but it looks like a butterfly. And she'd be like, it's Mrs. Busy B.

She would do it over and over again until he finally enjoyed it and would wave at Busy B and would be so happy to see Busy B. Anyway, bless my mother because there's no way in hell I'm going to spend that amount of time with a jack in the box. But there's two other things. The other thing is we opened an umbrella, scared the shit out of him. He started clinging to me, trembling, trembling in fear. And the third was a finger puppet that he thought was real. And this is a brand new thing. Brand new. Brand new.

And so, yeah, finally have to be aware of things that might scare Silas. Oh, my God. That's it's so cute, though. That's really cute. When he was clinging to me after the umbrella opened, he was trembling. He was looked so scared and his little scared face. He was tracking back and forth in the room, looking around the room, looking for the umbrella. Wasn't sure where it had gone.

Like so scared, like eyes wide open open like literally like shaking in my arms and it was really sad but also i mean love to be loved in that way i mean felt really like you're a safe you're the safest place yeah wow we'll see we gotta want to be careful about little silas now i'm so i'm so curious to see his journey with fear throughout his life all the way up until he gets to see some horror movies what's his thoughts gonna be on horror movies how when are you gonna make him start listening to the podcast oh already i put these headphones on him every night. He goes to sleep listening to us. Just the Event Horizon episode over and over. Yeah. I wonder what will be the horror movie that traumatizes him. There will be one.

There will be one. There's one for all of us. So I wonder what it'll be for him. Wow. I can't wait to find out. Emily, what about you? Well, I don't really have anything. It's been a nice little week. I was just going to say something surprising that happened, which surprises near to fear. I went to Palm Springs this weekend for two nights for a friend's birthday. And while we were there, ran into another friend, had no idea she was going to be there. Her and her husband, who I had just met on that trip and it was like

so it was so lovely when I was spending the whole weekend with them and it just it was one of those moments where I just it felt like it absolutely needed to happen you know like afterwards it was like oh my gosh I'm so glad to have spent this time with these people and to get to know

them better and it just wasn't planned at all and it just was a little moment of of being like is fate real oh that's beautiful i don't know because so much happens that's outside of our control that ends up being like so really lovely and you just can't and it's just it was very special and I really it was like a real little treat from the world. Oh, that's great. I love that. It was nice. A little dose of kismet. I also did get

really hungover another day. So that was not me. That was me. That was me making mistake. But it's just so dang hot there. You know, you really it's real easy to to get to overdo it. You dehydrate it, you know, and so you got to. And you're not I feel like when you're really hot, you're not as hungry. You're not eating as much.

I did not eat. I didn't eat enough. And you have to drink like three times as much water. Like if you drink so much more water than even when you think you're drinking a lot of water, it's like still not enough. Oh, well well that sounds Lovely It was lovely Minus the hangover

Shall we talk about this week's movie? Let's do it! Oh my freaking god Yes I'm so excited This week we are talking about Prey Just came out on Hulu On August 5th it is directed by dan trachtenberg written by patrick azan story by dan trachtenberg based on characters by jim thomas

starring amber midthunder dakota beavers and dane liguero and we folks And we, folks, buckle up. Buckle up. Are you sitting? You should be. Are you sitting down? Sit down. Sit down if you're not already sitting. Sit down.

Buckle your seatbelt. We got to chat with Dan Trachtenberg himself, the director of this movie. He also directed 10 Cloverfield Lane. We covered that movie. Ever heard of it? One of my fucking favorites. Ever heard of it? Ever heard of that one? He directed the pilot episode of The Boys, which is...

Ever heard of it? Ever heard of it? Starring friend of the pod, Jack Quaid. Ever heard of it? Ever heard of him? And he directed what I think is the scariest episode of Black Mirror. It's one of my favorites called Playtest. And he's just the best.

And I'm so thrilled that we got to talk to him about this movie. And you guys aren't going to want to miss it. And that interview is going to be at the end of this episode. So just make sure you stay tuned to the very end because it was just delightful to talk to him. Oh, he was the best. It was so special. It was so special it was so special really cool this movie is great it was so fun to get to watch this movie really really enjoy it and then just talk about it and learn more about it and the process of making it and

you guys are gonna love it yeah it's a great it's a great film so if you guys haven't seen it yet yeah you know maybe we'll give you permission to pause the podcast. Go watch it if you want to watch it before we do the recap. Or do both. Listen to the recap, then watch the movie. You know, it's up to you. But no matter what, just go see it because it's really good. I saw it.

I did it. If Henley can do it, you can do it. If Henley can do it, you can do it. Also, I'll just go ahead and say, it's a crisp 90 minutes, maybe 95, but it's right in the pocket. It's exactly how long you want it to be. Perfect length. Who doesn't have time for a 90 minute movie? Everybody has time.

But yeah, well, let's freaking talk about this movie. Okay, so we got a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes Huge, so high 71 Metacritic, 7.2 IMDb Pretty high for both of those two Pretty high Tracking high for IMDb And some trivia, this is the seventh installment in the Predator franchise

Wow, seven Counting the two Alien versus predator movies okay and as of right now this is the highest rated predator movie in the entire franchise oh my god oh my gosh even more than because the first one isn't as high armor as i thought it would be last time i think the first one is 87 or something so this has yeah the highest um according to Rotten Tomatoes. And it is also the all time highest viewed premiere of any TV show or movie on Hulu ever. Holy shit. That's crazy. Isn't that awesome? Isn't it insane? It's not Love Island. I don't know. I'm really putting in work for Top Chef personally, so I don't really understand. Holy, that's amazing.

That's really cool that Hulu even, like, released, I mean, I guess they would release that information. I just feel like it's such a mystery all the streaming, all the streaming numbers. I know, I never understand. I do desperately want to see this movie on a big, big screen. Me too! It would be so good on a big screen.

Someday, perhaps. Someone with a screening room, invite us over. Hey, somebody with a screen. Somebody in the movie theater. Put it up. Put it up. And Dane Leguero, who plays the Predator, is six foot nine. Holy shit. Oh, my God.

But if you'll remember, Kevin Peter Hall, who played the original Predator, was seven feet, right? Seven foot two. Woo! So tall. So at six nine, he is five and a half inches shorter just so crazy so tall how high are doors normally i'm sure they i'm sure they bump their heads on some doors absolutely how high are doors i think like seven feet is a standard door size can you

imagine every time you go through a door you gotta like duck under like you're going into your little Hobbit I mean imagine imagine being on planes. Imagine buying clothes. Yeah being on planes. It just can't it just simply you don't fit. You just don't fit. I did look up Joel went to

was able to go to a screen. So he did see it on big screen. Nice to be Joel. Went to a screening of this movie with a friend and uh there was a q a after with dan and with um some of the cast including uh dane the predator and he said he was really funny and cool and so i looked him up on instagram after i'm obsessed with his instagram presence look him up he's so funny he plays a lot of creatures and he's like a former pro basketball player maybe in europe he's getting into that like javier botet i was trying to remember his name he's like doing a lot a lot of creature acting and um seems just absolutely delightful so i love that i

mean javier botet also uh delightful. Everybody in this movie was fucking great. Also, by the way, the performances were so good. I really like Amber Midthunder. She's also wonderful. She's also in Legion. And she's great in that as well. And I'm excited to see her in more stuff. I also just, I mean, I loved.

Okay, whatever. I can't even go into it. Okay, whatever. I, okay, whatever. I can't even go into it, but I really, I really, I really loved, um, being able to see the native American experience on the screen in a way that we've like, I've never seen it before. And to be completely frank, it made me think about how deeply unprepared I am to face the elements like ever and how weak and vulnerable I am of any time I'm outside. And the only time I could And the only thing I could think was like, wow, these people

fucking knew what the fuck they were doing. They were so powerful and intelligent and like, God, we have come so far. Imagine if we all prioritized being in touch with the physical world.

Can you imagine how different everything would be if we hadn't outsourced our brains to our phones and technology like completely? I don't want to think about it. I don't want to think about it either. I would be a stronger, better person. I think you're strong and great. OK, thanks. That's nice. The last little piece of trivia, I I listened to an interview and they were talking about

there is a scene involving a bear in this movie. Yep. And when they were filming it, where they were filming it, bears were waking up from hibernation at that time in that place. And so there was a person whose entire job it was to just look out for bears. Oh, my God. That makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. And his name? Oh, what's his name?

What's his name? His name's Barry. No! No! No! Sammy, we got the wrong... I wish... This is an auditory medium so you can't see Sammy's face, but

I knew how much she was excited to tell us that information to see on your face the eagerness to say that his name was barry a real treat for me a real treat for me personally what was he gonna do if he saw him just be like bear bear like probably maybe a bear spray that would be yeah would you be able to like oh yeah because you wouldn't be able to pack up a whole fucking i know because i was gonna say have you guys gone camping in a place where you have to like pack up things and put them up in a

tree and stuff yes i had to go to a place where you had to have bear spray too they like required bear spray and it was so first of all it's pretty expensive i had to buy it and it's expensive oh sure second of all imagining basically pepper spraying a bear it's like just like what i mean i'm gonna look at spray bear spray in a bear's face obviously i'd try it if i'm being attacked by a bear but it just see you absolutely try it yeah it's just imagining this scenario is so crazy like a we're gonna a, we're going to be close. We're going to be close enough where the spray will make contact. That's how close I'm going to be to a bear. Right. And also,

it's not just going to piss the bear off and make them want to eat me even more, but I guess not. I, with all camping situations and all wild animal situations, I'm all, I mean, it's like one of my biggest fears.

I, I'm not a good camper, but I always get confused which one you're supposed to do with what animal, like when you're supposed to try to look big and scary and when you're supposed to play dead. And I just know that if it ever happens to me, I'm going to fuck it up. I'm going to do the wrong thing. I'm going to play dead for a wolf or something when that's the one you're supposed to look big for. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know the answer because I've outsourced my brain to my phone, so I wouldn't have time to Google it. I would be like, I need to Google that. And I don't have time because I'm going to get murdered. I can't imagine being in that situation to begin with. I'm not in nature that's that intense, basically ever. Yeah. Should we watch this freaking trailer? Yes, we should.

Let's do it. Let's do it. Why do you want to hunt? Because you all think that I can't. I saw a sign in the sky. I'm ready. I'm ready. I saw a sign in the sky. I'm ready.

My little girl. It knows how to hunt. I know how to survive. Whatever did this, I can kill it god it's so awesome love it all the sound design it just predator sound a little like oh the clicking oh i love it i love it i love it i love it so much i just can't get over the setting like i can't get over how beautiful the film actually there was a really

it was yeah stunning really beautiful cinematography it made me want to just like be out in the world more i'm like damn it i'm spend way too much time you're really having a hard time right now small rooms small four-walled rooms yeah in the past few years i have hit a point where i only want to be wearing clothes that are comfortable it happened it happened to me but you know what i still also want to look cute and these are two desires that are often extremely opposing and i don't want to have to sacrifice i want want both. I want comfort and I want to feel cute and confident and guess what? Skims has freaking done it again with their soft lounge collection. I am currently very, very obsessed with, I have the soft lounge tank and boxer set. Okay, this

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a monster came here. And I think this is Amber Midthunder speaking and she says it in English and in Comanche, which is another thing we should mention is that this movie has like a full Comanche dub. You can watch it fully in Comanche, which is awesome. But yeah, we are basically introduced to her character, Naru. She's trained as a healer. We see her with picking flowers, but secretly practicing her axe throwing. And so she is being told by her. The tribe basically wants her to be a healer and she wants to be a warrior and a hunter. Yes. And she

and she's like with a group of women, basically. They all have their little baskets. They're all collecting yeah, like plants and herbs and flowers. And she and she also has a dog with her. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

Beautiful, beautiful dog. Very cute dog. dog and yeah she is we see much more interested she's got her little hatchet and she's throwing it really fucking really accurately very strongly yeah this is where the sound design also is so cool you see that like yeah i love it and so she's we see her sneaking off to hunt basically in secret by herself. This is what she likes to do. And she sees a deer while she's out with her dog and decides, we hear a weird noise and it spooks the deer and deer starts running and she's chasing it and still trying to get it. And the deer gets away. And in this chase, the dog gets his tail caught in a trap. And Naru puts some of her herbs, herbal medicine on it, some sort of salve that she has made. And she picks up the trap and has maybe not seen this before.

And so it's like a moment of acknowledgement of what is this? Why is it here? It's made out of iron. And I'm assuming that's something they don't have, the material that's not seen. She's not seen before. And after this scene, she's walking back to her home and she sees something in the sky. It looks like a dark storm cloud. We like hear a rumbling in the clouds, all sort of like it's like when you like move your hand through water and it like comes back over on itself the clouds are like doing that and she it's so cool

sees this and there's some like red lights flickering in it doesn't look like a natural phenomenon no and the shot holds on the sky in this gray cloudy sky and the title comes down from above prey. And it's so cool. I love the font is perfect. And yeah, I just loved it. And then we go to a scene in which she is with her brother. Her brother is Tabe.

And the sky like transitions to a Hawk flying through the sky. And they are talking about their Kutamiya, which is basically the hunt that you have to do to prove yourself. It's like a rite of passage. Basically, you return with the head of an animal

that you've killed. It proves that you are ready to be a hunter in the tribe. Right. And she tells Tabe that she saw a sign, the Thunderbird in the tribe right and uh she tells tabe that she saw a sign the thunderbird in the sky and she's ready her for for her kutamiya and at this point i think he seems he's he's cautiously like are you sure hunting an animal that hunts you like that's gonna be pretty scary this is their older brother he's yeah they have like a good sibling dynamic but he he thinks she's maybe he like clearly does respect her but is sort of

like i like you're a little maybe too eager you're maybe not quite ready yet like it's maybe thinking she's a little too ego driven and like you gotta wait for the right time they're having this conversation while they're both kind of pointing their arrows at a bird as it's circling the lake and he shoots it and he's like, see, like you waited too long. And she's like, oh, I was waiting for him to circle back. I was waiting for the bird to circle back so I didn't have to cross

the lake to go get him. So already signs of like him not really trusting her, but her clearly like one step ahead. She's got a plan of her own. She has a different perspective. Yeah, exactly. We see a scene with her and her mom with flowers and herbs, preparing medicines. And her mom asks her, why do you want to hunt?

And she says, because you all think I can't. She does say you have so you have so many other talents. Like, why? Why not just pursue those? This is she's making the mom is making a kind of a mixture medicine for I don't know if it's the chief or someone who's hurt their knee. And Naru at this point points out, she's like, oh, you're missing this one flower. And the mom is like, who told you about this flower? And she's like, you did. You taught this to me.

And so she asked her to go gather it, to go pick it. What's the name of the flower? I don't know. It's an orange flower. We can call it the orange flower. Orange is definitely a name. We will be calling it the orange flower. We will be calling it the orange flower.

From here on out, it is the orange flower. Okay. Great. Orange flower from here. It is the orange flower. Yeah. So she goes, she grabs her basket and she goes to collect the flower. As she leaves the tent, someone there's commotion happening in the village. And someone is saying, uh,

so-and-so one of the hunters has been attacked by lion and they want to go kill the lion. And she wants to go with as part of the hunt and her brother tabi says you can come with for the medicine part because if we find him and he's hurt you know you're a healer and it's it's for the medicine part and apparently she's a really good tracker so they're like the other men on the hunt with her brother her brother is clearly like the leader of them he's maybe the most experienced and most respected and he they don't want her to come with at all. And he says she can come with. But yeah, for your healing and she's a good tracker. She'll help us find where he is. find him. Right. And she's like, yeah, I can. And he's like, well, now you have to like,

the stakes are really high. The fact that she's put herself out there in this way is like, well, you better fucking prove yourself then because I've put myself on the line for you a little bit. So you have to like step up and prove your worth. Just one of the first of many examples of her having to be better than everyone else, because none of the men know how to track or do medicine, essentially. I mean, maybe they do know how to track, but. Seems like she's better than them, though. Yeah. And so they all set out to look for the injured guy. And in between this, we see a shot of a rat or rodent or something.

Oh, yes. Oh, this shot was so creepy. And we see a snake watching it. And you know that the snake's about to get the rat. And it does. Snake attacks the rat. And then we see the snake get stabbed through by something invisible. And just hear...

Can anybody do a predator noise? I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it at all. The snake is like mid-bite, so his mouth is wide open. You see the predator claw just like fucking go through the head of the snake, and the snake is like stunned

and this horrifying profile of a snake. And he does the classic fucking spine rip on this snake. Ooh. And he does the classic fucking spine rip on this snake. I love a predator spine rip. It's my favorite part of

all the predator movies. It's the best. And yeah, we just we see it's pretty gnarly. There's an apex predator in this wilderness. Uh huh. And so then they find, they do find the person who has been attacked by the lion, and

Naru administers the orange flower to him and gives him kind of a lot, and they say like, oh, that much might kill him, and she says no, it's just gonna cool his blood. Because if he gets too warm, he'll bleed out. Yep. And meanwhile, so she's healing him, and the rest of the hunting party.

They're like making a make a little stretcher for him. Put him on it. They go to carry him back. Half of them go. No, all of them are going to go to bring him back home. But her brother is like, I'm going to go find the lion. I believe she has also seen at this point the snake she sees the body of the snake on the ground

Tabe leaves and then she sees the snake and she says I need to warn Tabe there's something else out there like a lion clearly didn't do this yeah and she sees the tracks and she sees a really big track that doesn't look like a lion track and the rest of the hunting party is like

oh it's a bear. And she's like that. I don't think that's a bear. They're not really taking it seriously. And they want her to come back with them. She says, no, I got to go. I got to go warm my brother. And so she goes after Tope.

And they go to hunt the lion. And he tells her this is her Kutamiya. So she has a strategy of gutting up into a tree to sort of wait. And here's the moment where I felt very stupid. Joel and I both were like, a lion? And then we're like, oh, mountain lion. Like, I only ever think of lions as like the same thing.

Like fucking Simba. Mufasa. But no, I was like, oh, duh, mountain lion. But so it's anybody else who's going, what? There's a lion there there that's what we're talking about but she goes up in a tree to like wear the lion out I think is like her strategy she goes into the tree with

the other hunter that came with them while her brother sort of waits in the grasses I think to come at it from another angle and she's in the tree with this other hunter. And he is basically has no respect for her. It's like, you're never going to be a hunter.

You've never seen a lion. You've never interacted with a lion. Looked at its mouth full of knives. It'll kill you like. And then the lion just fucking kills him instantly. Yeah. Which I was like, what a bad way to go. It would be a real bummer to be killed while you are bragging and then the lion starts coming for her she does sort of panic she starts

backing up on this to the end of this tree branch uh to get away back and get some distance from this lion and she gets the end of the tree branch which is you know thinner and can't really hold her weight she hears something and it distracts her for a second she hears the little clicky clicky sound and turns her head and in that moment she she trips and falls she falls and oh falls and hits her head on a rock and it the screen goes black she wakes up with a jolt back at home um with her mom who is is like he tending to her healing her um she says the mom says your brother carried you back and she is very like i have to i have to go back to him he needs me i have to warn him because she again she heard this other thing she knows there's something else out there besides

this lion and her mother says if he needed you there he wouldn't have brought you back which she sort of hears that and resigns herself to to realize like oh okay i i will stay here and then i believe we hear like a commotion outside everybody goes out and her brother is walking back up with blood on him and the head of the lion. He has killed it. And everybody comes out and honors him for doing so. Yeah, this is his Kutamiya and he gets the title of war chief now. It's like a very celebratory. I love the way that this scene was filmed.

It was filmed. It was beautiful. They like gather around a fire. And yeah, there's a little ceremony for him. And Naru sort of wanders off away from the main circle as this is happening. Clearly very frustrated with herself and disappointed. Her brother sees her, comes to her. And she tells, I believe it's just like there's something else out there she's trying to convince everyone that the thunderbird she saw the thunderbird she still

thinks it's um a sign of something else but it is a bigger than the lion she's she knows that it's bigger than he seems i think to imagine she's just being like a little surly about her failure with the lion and sort of walks away. And then it's the next morning. All the women start walking out towards where she was collecting the plants and herbs and flowers the other day. And we see her just decide and herself, you know what? Nope. Not going to do that. And she goes the opposite direction into the wilderness to track down

what she knows to be out there on her own. And then we get a scene of a rabbit looking all cute in the grass. The food chain in action. The food chain in action. We see the wolf

squaring off towards the rabbit like doing that little like preparing to get it thing and we see our first thermal vision shot. Oh yes. Then we see all of a sudden thermal vision which we're like okay fuck yeah here's the predator. He's here. Seeing the rabbit

registering it as not a threat. Seeing the wolf registering it as a predator and locking in on that. So, yeah, then the wolf charged at the rabbit. But we see it. I think it does get the rat, which once again, I was like, oh, sorry, rabbit. You still got got. And as he gets it, he's like knocked completely sideways very forcefully. And then they have a standoff

and the wolf gets a bite in wolf gets a bite in wolf gets a bite in gets some of that neon green blood on its teeth love it and the predator at this point is mostly invisible it does have the cloaking device but when he bites when the wolf bites him we get a little glimpse of the visible leg and then i think the shield the cloak comes back up then the wolf it's like gonna charge again they're doing another little standoff and it runs at him and runs past him and we hear a sound like a slicing sound but the wolf keeps running like it's about to turn around to try again and then all of its guts fall out of its belly and he has been sliced and he collapses and

he dies and we get another spine rip we get a spine rip this spine rip I think was the gnarliest yeah this is a good one this is a real real clear cut spine rip oh I don't like the spine rips I loved them I loved it

and do we get cut spine rip. Oh, I don't like the spine rips. I loved it. I love it. Do we get Predator going back to its lair and we see it using its acid mist to clean off that skull.

Get a little skull trophy. Predator loves his skull trophies. And we see the predator from its lair turn it hears naru's dog barking and so it does a little like oh something else is out here we see naru now tying a rope to her axe and making this awesome little boomerang axe weapon. Again, practicing throwing it. Now she can throw it without having to retrieve it. So she can continually be fighting and like saves time. It looks so badass.

It's so cool. She like throws it, pulls it back and grabs it in her hand, like catches it back in her hand instantly. It's like throw, catch, throw, catch, throw, catch. It's so cool like throws it pulls it back and grabs it in her hand like catches it back in her hand instantly it's like throw cash throw cash throw catch it's so cool and she's again just out hunting for whatever she has seen the tracks of she finds a track and uses a stick to measure how long it's like puts a stick down and breaks the stick for the length and it's absolutely massive like not at all a bear, even. It's huge. So she is on the right path here. And she stumbles upon a herd of bison that have all been skinned.

It's so upsetting. There's so many. They've all been skinned. And she sees they're in metal traps, like the one she found that got her dog's tail and she finds a bullet casing on the ground and she like puts a one of her plants something on

the head of the bison clearly a sign of respect puts her hand on its head does a little like you know says a little I don't know blessing or something for this bison these moments were so impactful i felt like yeah like you were saying earlier henley it like made me want to be vegetarian i was like nature is so incredible like i want to respect everything every living creature yeah she's very

affected by this and and is upset at well it's it's it's also really and the shot is really crazy because it's a wide shot and you see the entire field and you just see there are so many bodies of the bison spread as far as you can see yeah yeah they've just been decimated the entire herd which is a really cool moment as if you're going oh shit there is another enemy out here because you're thinking we're just looking for the predator then this happens and you go uh-oh uh-oh it's white people the worst enemy of all i so i had a different thought process which was well i think i think you're maybe meant to be a little tricked by it by like why is predator doing this yes because i was like why does he skin some people and not others?

That confused me. Well, I was confused by the bullet case because I was like, that's not a Predator weapon, right? And then I was like, ooh. It's meant to be a little like, hmm, what's going on here type thing? Because, yeah, I was confused because Predator doesn't kill just for fun, it seems. Predator would have

taken those skulls, baby. There wouldn't be no heads on there. There would be no heads on there. Yeah, he wants to decorate his lair with the skulls. Who can blame him? We've also seen Predator recognize the threats, right? Like, Predator didn't kill the rabbit. Predator killed the

wolf. So it wouldn't make sense for Predator to kill his bison. Yeah. But it is a bit like predator does skin people so you know yeah a little confusing intentionally like confusing i believe yes and then naru continues on her tracking and she falls into like a bog yeah a quick sandy like mud type stuff deep thick oh i hated this scary honestly this was weirdly this was weirdly like my the scariest part of the movie to me like i had to i had to fast forward through some of this just watching her slowly sink into this bog no no no

didn't like it one bit but she is able to get herself out by using her nifty axe with the rope on it and getting it into a tree there's like an overturned tree with all the roots up that she has is throws her hatchet up a couple times and it's really scary is it gonna work is it gonna work does pulls herself out in the process gets completely covered head to toe in mud and i'm thinking okay we know how it works we've seen the mud yeah because that's in the in the original predator yeah that they use mud to to hide from the heat sensor that's arnold's big discovery at the end is that when he gets accidentally covered in mud the predator can't see him because it makes his body temperature too cold.

Cut to a shot. She's rinsed all the mud off. She's in the water rinsing all that mud off and I'm like, excuse me mud is helpful here. But rinses that mud off. She rinses it off. Yep. But in doing so in that water she realizes

discovers there's a bear there. And so she squares up and prepares to try to take down this bear. And the dog, sorry, like runs at the bear. The bear turns to focus on them. So now the bear is coming. She gets ready to shoot an arrow at the bear, but her bow breaks. So then she's like, oh, fuck, oh, fuck. She's restringing her bow. The bear is coming. She gets ready to shoot an arrow at the bear, but her bow breaks. So then she's like, oh, fuck, oh, fuck. She's restringing her bow.

The bear is coming. Her dog runs away to get the bear to run towards the dog. Bear starts chasing the dog. Dog starts running back towards them. And so now she's squaring up, trying to shoot an arrow at the bear, shoots the bear with an arrow. But of course, one arrow is not going to take down a big fucking grizzly bear. an arrow but of course one arrow is not going to take down a big fucking grizzly bear so she starts having to run away jumps in the water and like gets under this like beaver dam basically like this like bundle of sticks that she's able to sort of get under but the bear is coming for her

breaking through those sticks chomping at her you see a lot of bear teeth it's so close and then the bear collapses next to her dead and she's totally freaked out like what the fuck just happened so shocked we see the bear get dragged its limp body dragged plopped down so crazy to see a bear's limp body dragged. And then by an invisible cloaked figure, that bear gets lifted up in the air. And because that bear's blood is now pooling down from its sliced body, the blood forms the shape of the predator. I love this actually. It was so smart. It the first time. It's so cool. It's so cool. And so now she's like, okay, yep.

There's something here and it's this and oh my God. Completely terrified. And she runs, right? She runs. She gets the fuck out of there and runs into another group of hunters that want to take her home like you've been out here we've been looking for you yep it's uh yeah it's comanche uh hunter

is and she knows them i think it's some of the same hunters from before um and yeah so she runs runs into them and she's like what are you doing here and they're like we're here for you and she says i saw like i knew there was something out here i just saw it and they're like yeah there's a bear and she's like no no It killed a bear like you don't understand And they they none of them Take her seriously and they are like Look how scared you are They bind her hands

She gets in a fist fight with One of them yeah because she's like they're trying to bring Her back and she's like no no you don't understand there's something out here We need to fucking get it they're Not taking her seriously so she They try to like grab her she fights back gets in a fucking gnarly fist fight with one of them she's has the upper hand she is punching him she bites him makes him bleed but he eventually does well one of the other guys is because they gang up and one of the other guys grabs her and throws her into a punch in some very fun fight

choreography and that knocks her out yeah and so they and then she comes to you and they have bound her wrists because you know she was biting them and fighting them and they don't they think they just need to bring her home and as they are making their way, she hears the predator sound, turns wide-eyed, absolutely terrified. Untie me. Untie me, untie me. It's here. They are like, look how scared you are. Oh, my gosh.

What? Like, look at you. You wuss. That's not what they say, but, you know, that's the vibe. And then they see a bunch of opossums Cross their path and so they're Like oh that was the noise haha it's a bunch Of opossums like no big deal and she

Says what do you think made them come Over here And one of them Shoots one of the opossums With an arrow gets it and it's like haha Got it goes out to pick up The possum And we see That was predator I think Possums with an arrow gets it. It's like, ha ha. Got it. Goes out to pick up the possum.

And we see those predator. I think we do see we see more thermal vision. We see the predator seeing all of them and locking eyes as it does or focusing on their weapons. You know, predator is always very aware of who has a weapon and who doesn't. Yep. So he registers the comanche boys as a threat and as this main guy is like basically mocking uh naru and laughing at like oh look i got the possum we see the predator lasers three beams pew pew pew lock on his body he sort of sees them they are all seeing red laser dots on him obviously i've never seen this before so all the boys are like what what's this what's

going on and then pew pew pew three the predator arrows predator type arrows shoot oh it's gnarly one goes straight through his eyeball one goes they go places and it's bad and i think he's dead yep he's dead he's dead and then it's on they they start firing back trying to find where the predator is predator stars this part is so this is when i was like oh my god this movie is gonna be so gnarly the violence here is the here we get the what i found to be the most difficult to watch moment meanwhile uh naru knows who this is and what's going on and is trying to untie her by you know wrist bind realizes that uh the guy who is dead on the ground now has her hatchet weapon so she like goes over to that like has to

sort of tumble over stay low like slices her wrist rope on that grabs it meanwhile predator is in an all out fight with these other Comanche boys and then yeah goes up to this this one boy slices his arm off you know I hate it You know I hate it very

much. And what I really hate is then he's just like screaming in pain for like a minute. Because he slices both of his arms. Oh, then he slices the other one. I don't know. He's just really in pain before Predator ultimately gets him

fucking, I think, through the neck and the head and kills him but they I mean they are all getting wasted by the Predator and I believe it comes down to just

and yeah and she maybe is gonna try to use her weapon on the Predator and decides nope I'm gonna fucking run she runs for it she runs out of the tree line through some tall grasses and is pulled down to the ground by yeah one of the other Comanche

boys who got away and they're like stay low stay low they hear some rustling meaning that the predator has come out of the trees as well and is following them and so he the Comanche boy like preps his bow, has his arrow pointed in that direction. He says to Naru,

we got him. And she looks at him and sees three red laser points on his head and goes, Nope, he's got us. Drags the boy down. They make a run for it. They keep running. We see this fucking cool shot of from above through the grasses,

the two of them running through the grasses and then just a trail being like plowed through the grass behind them but the predator is cloaked so we can't see him we just see the grasses falling but yeah he is absolutely gaining on them and we just see from above we see the Comanche boy just like

fucking explode basically I don't remember what he does to him but it just goes like poof yeah basically he just to him but it just goes like poof Yeah basically he just goes down And it just is a fountain of blood And it sticks a bit on on predator Yep on the invisible cloak And but I don't think

It stays on it for too long it just looks really Cool and gnarly it's fucking cool Natter gets away Oh but in running away Gets her leg caught in a trap um one of those same iron traps predator does come up to her and because i think she has maybe dropped her weapon and her leg is in a trap he scans her and he does he leaves yeah she's not she is not a threat not interested and then she gets knocked out and wakes up captive by some French fur trappers.

They've got a little encampment set up. They're extremely French. Oh, by the way, at the beginning, we got a chyron at the beginning. It lets us know the year is 1719, I believe. We've been told this. Early 1700s. Just for context anyway but yes these are some very very

very very Frenchmen they sort of look like all the dudes in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride yes like that kind of like mustached and I don't know that vibe and yeah they have got her captured

and I believe she also sees they have her brother. Yeah. And one of them speaks to her. He's the translator or something. He speaks a lot of languages. So he's able to communicate with her. And he asks he tells her that she should help them that he has seen it to whatever. He's being a little kinder to her than the rest help them that he has seen it too whatever he's being a little

kinder to her than the rest of them yes yeah she's in a literal cage she's in a cage the rest of them are a little like rapey yeah and sort of like one of the guys is like she i think is able to like slice she cuts she cuts one of them because he's like sticking his hand in her cave. It's really a very unpleasant situation. And so they're all awful. But this one translator seems a little kinder, slightly better than the rest. And it's like, yeah, you should you should be helping us. And I believe as punishment to her for her cutting this one guy, he takes her brother out of his cage. for her cutting this one guy.

They takes her brother out of his cage. She sees they have him and he just slow slices him across his chest. Not killing him. Oh, I didn't like this part either. But just cutting him and making him bleed and suffer. I gotta also say, Dakota Beavers, who plays Tabe, loved him. So good. Absolutely loved him.

I think this is one of the first things that he's done. Oh my gosh, he was so good. I loved him. I want to see him in more things. Hopefully he will be. Both of them are so good. And they had great. I really liked their sibling dynamic. I thought they had great chemistry together.

It was. Yeah, it was great. But so that I think we basically cut to they are both tied back to back around the trunk of a big tree. the trunk of a big tree. They are being put out as bait for Predator because the fur troppers have obviously realized that there is something out here and is using the two of them as bait to lure the Predator towards them. And I believe she so Naru and Tabe are talking and she's saying, I saw it. I know what this thing is. is oh he says a really sweet thing to her where he says your Kutamiya your plan worked like the only reason

I was able to get the lion is because you wore it out with the tree it was a good plan which is very sweet yeah he says like you always see the things I don't see the things I don't oh it's a very sweet moment it's really good and she says to him this isn't how that like the the

whatever this is it left me and it didn't kill me earlier this isn't it doesn't want bait this isn't how it hunts yep um so she's realizing this this is not going to work and that and that also that they are probably safe actually and safer than everybody else in this moment because they do start to hear it come and they know okay It's coming and then we get Oh my god Sammy do you want to describe this sequence it's So fucking Cool well obviously

The yeah predator Does not fall for this trap Not at all Yeah so we see It's like in the fog and Like me very early morning perhaps I fog And like very early morning perhaps I believe it is very early morning And so there's like this little this dim

Like misty light and we see They're all like we see all the fur trappers In this like formation They've got an exterior with their guns pointed And we see some men on horses Ready to go and We just see these two These two guys sitting

and wait for the predator and then and there were previously a few men behind them on horses and these the guys in front just see all of a sudden the horse is running off with nobody on them and they turn around and I believe they go mailed which

is French for shit and they get destroyed so we see the predator is like i see you he's picking him off from the outside in uh he can see everybody in thermal vision yeah there's a few that are laying on a little overlook stabs them kills them they're done he's just picking them off one by one and yeah we just get like a display of all the gnarliest fucking weapons that Predator has. Yeah, we're really seeing Predator's tech in this moment. And I don't, I mean, I don't know the order. Okay, so let's just describe the moments in this.

One is he has this shield thing that like expands and can try like fans out in a big circle. And I think he like holds that up to somebody and it fans out and chops his head off oh you know what there's a scene it's it it looks as if they might best him at one moment he steps into a trap and then falls into another trap and then they put a net over him and it kind of looks like oh they got they got predator this happens in the original predator too they get predator and trap and then he just uses a fucking laser to shoot himself out of it because he's goddamn predator and yeah it's like okay cool you got me for one second

yep same thing happens here he bursts out of that net and he just starts absolutely murdering all of them and my favorite was he has a little net that shoots out of his somewhere and it goes on this man and how do i even describe it it just like closes it shrinks it like wraps this man in this net in a way that chops him up to literally like a million tiny little pieces so gross there's like a stress ball thing that literally like a million tiny little pieces. It was so gross. There's like a stress ball thing that's like a ball inside a net and you squeeze it and the ball pushes out between the little hole. And it's like that.

But it's his whole body going just like whole body. We rewound this scene I think three times. Our jaws on the floor just screaming. It's amazing. God it rules. and while this is all happening we see naru and tabe like trying to break free

and you know using this moment to escape yes and naru is telling um uh a story of she's like remember when there's that big flood i saw this beaver oh because she is she sees a trap on the ground again one of those traps um

she knows how they work now and she's like i saw a beaver once in that flood realizing the water was coming too fast and he was stuck and i watched him uh chew his own leg off because he knew that was the only way he was going to get out and it's it's like crazy what you'll be willing to do to get yourself out of a situation she's lowering uh her arm which is you know tied to the tree to that trap and i'm thinking oh god oh god oh god oh god she's gonna fuck up her arm in this trap and then she just puts the rope in and activates the trap and it it breaks the binding and she goes i'm smarter than a beaver and i really liked it um and so yeah they get free and her brother is like i need i'm gonna go get one of

those horses so he goes to get horse she goes back to the uh frenchman's camp she yeah her dog is there and there are still french fur fur trappers there that she has to fight them and she has her she finds her axe she She gets like a knife. I mean, this scene is very intricately choreographed. And this is in a continuous take where she is killing these guys left and right. It's a really cool sequence. And then, yeah, she gets her dog back. She gets her axe back.

She gets all of her stuff. And she finds the one guy who is a little bit kinder to her than the others. He comes up to her and we see that his leg is gone. He is missing the leg. And he asks her for her medicine, her help with medicine, and he'll exchange that for his gun. So I'll give you this if you help me with this she agrees he just shows her this is where you put the powder in and you pull this back and you shoot and she applies the or gives him the orange flower thing and he immediately he eats it and is like what's happening i'm so cold but she doesn't have time to explain it because then we hear predator coming this frenchman immediately plays dead which was smart

um she runs and hides behind a tree and yes predator comes in surveys the area and we see in thermal vision he doesn't see this frenchman as as being alive and not who sees this, too, and is like, oh, shit, he doesn't see him. And I'm like, we see her look at the flower and make the connection that just like in the original Predator where the mud made Arnold invisible. She realizes this flower is going to make people makes people safe from the predator's vision. Predators about to leave the French guy alone. And then he steps on him and he screams out in pain and predator stabs him right through that chest, kills him. Yeah. I just need you guys to know it's at this point in the movie that I'm really getting in my head about what I would do if I ever needed to survive in the wilderness.

Like really thinking hard about it. do if I ever needed to survive in the wilderness, like really thinking hard about it. And I was zillowing land in New Hampshire. Okay, wow. Really going to put it to the test. To see how much it would cost. Not expensive. You know, we can buy some land in New Hampshire.

Then I was Googling. What, to like practice or just to have? No, just like in case our society falls apart. If our society falls apart, I don't want to be in New Hampshire. I'll just put that out there. I don't want to be in L.A. Well, what if climate change is an issue and things are heating up? That's true. And we want to have access to water.

We don't want things to be too hot. And, you know, of course, land rights aren't going to matter if society really falls apart. But nonetheless, we could get ahead of it by buying some of this land. We could clear it. I Googled how much it costs. Not too expensive. Not too expensive to clear the woods. This is great to know. Henley, it sounds like you've been spending some time on that subreddit collapse. I have not actually looked at that subreddit. Maybe don't. I wish you hadn't told me. But I did hear someone casually mention that people are buying up like water rights because like people are worried about access to water. So that also made me spiral a little bit.

So watching this film. I remember actually in the big short. Michael Berry. It's Michael Berry. Yes. That's the guy. Oh, it is? Yeah.

Yeah. Because I remember that and being like, oh, fuck. Oh, no. Water is going to be the next thing. Oh, no. He always knows. I know. Or maybe he only knew that one time. He might have only known the one time.

He is worried about water. And that made me worried about water. I just got so thirsty. Anyway, that's just where my head is right now. Very cool. But let's get back to what predator's up so predator's here and naru's behind a tree and kind of waiting it out and then sari arrives barking and predator is gearing up to kill sari and he's about to shoot him and then tabe arrives back with the on horseback and it's fucking cool

stabs predator like right through the neck yeah it's like a really good like he throws a yeah like spear from the horseback which is just i love watching somebody fucking hunt on horseback really well it's something really satisfying about the skill of that uh and yeah and he's also he's like circling around the camp on horseback so predator can't really get at him and he's just moving really quickly and he's clearly so very skilled but does eventually oh he jumps off the horse at some point he knocks predator's mask off. Predator has this skull looking mask that is also where the lasers shoot from. And Predator picks up the mask and puts it back on

and then turns invisible and Tabe yells out at this moment in Comanche, but I guess what he is saying is cheater. I just liked that. Oh, I like that. Basically, he is saying is cheater. I just liked that. Oh, I like that. Basically, he is occupying Predator's attention, basically, over Naru and has a moment where he says to her, I think he says again, like, you can see what I can't. This is your Kutamiya.

Like, you will take it down. But this is as far as I go. Yeah, that's been that has been a recurring line that he says. This is your Kutamiya. Like you, you will take it down, but this is as far as I go. Yeah. That's been, that has been a recurring line that he says, this is what you say to the lion. When you kill it to say like, this is the end for you.

This is as far as you go. And he says it to her and I cry. And yeah, the predator, predator stabs him. She watches it happen. She sobs, predator stabs him she watches it happen she sobs but does manage to get away because of her brother's sacrifice yep um and so she she gets away but her brother dies and it is very

sad and i was not happy about it i know i was hoping i was hoping he wouldn't die happy about it and we see intercut then her mourning the death of her brother and someone coming back to their home and telling, basically telling their mother that he has died and her mourning it. And it's very sad. But I believe at this point we get ready for our final showdown. So now she's she knows how to arm herself

against she we see her eat the orange flower. So she as she's like preparing sees the one of the French men on at the river. I think it's the one I think it's creepy to her and the one that cut her brother.

Yes. Yes. She goes up to him and knocks him out and he wakes up missing I think it's the one I think it's the one that's creepy to her And the one that cut her brother Yes yes yes yes She goes up to him and knocks him out And he wakes up missing a leg With a fucking rat Gnawing at the stump It's so gross It's so gross And she's like putting on her war paint

She is on a fucking mission And she's saying all this cool shit To him like she goes you made my brother bleed so i make i'll make you bleed i'll make you bleed and like you you don't register as me as a threat same as him and that's like what makes me more dangerous you don't even know i'm killing you right now and neither will it meaning the, because she has eaten the flowers. And so sure enough, predator walks fucking right past her. Oh, because she leaves, sorry, she leaves a shotgun. She leaves his shotgun on the ground next to him.

And so he gets the shotgun. So it looks like he's, it looks like he's trying to kill her. And we see him, the fur trapper go to shoot her. There are no fucking bullets in the thing. She learned how the gun works because the other Frenchman gave her the gun and explained it to her. And he goes to shoot her. Nothing comes out. But the predator has now yet can't see her because she ate the orange flower, sees the fur trapper with the gun and goes for him.

It's such a cool shot. She senses the predator in a way with because he's invisible at this point. And she feels him coming and just takes like one small step sideways out of his way so she he doesn't bump into her it's such a cool moment and yeah he he kills this french man sure does and then she is right behind him he can't see her and she has the gun now and she shoots him right in the back of the head, knocking his mask off. And she is able to retrieve it and she bolts. She gets out of there.

So that's part of her plan. She takes the mask, runs. We see Predator now knows that there's someone there that he can't see, that it can't see, but still doesn't totally know where she is, but she runs, takes the mask, lodges it in a very specific spot in those uprooted tree roots that we saw earlier by the mud pit. Puts it there. I guess he can see his mask. He knows that she has it. And so he's trying to get to it. Yeah.

And this like sequence of fights here are so cool. She fights a few times, like fights. There's a few little chapters to this fight. Yeah, she's like running around it. And there's a point at which he tries to punch her and punches into a tree, gets his hand stuck, and somehow

she's like coming at him and he uses his shield to try to block her. And he cuts his own arm off. He's so fucking cool. And he's pissed and he's coming own arm off. It's so fucking cool. And he's pissed and he's coming for her again. And there's a part in which she gets backed up into these rocks and he has his shield again. It's like this round metal and he's trying to use it to decapitate her, but it gets stuck between these rocks.

And he's able to push it literally through the rock, but just very slowly. And so it's getting closer and closer to her. And am I mistaken? Does she pull out one of his teeth and stab him with it? She pulls off one of his mandibles. Remember how much we talked about mandibles?

Oh, it's mandibles! She grabs one of his little hang-off mandibles with the big saber of his little hang off mandibles with the big saber tooth on it and stabs him with his own tooth which he roars and gets up. She's able to get away.

And she lures him into the same bog and he goes down and I mean he's missing an arm and she's hit him a lot with the ax. Like it's seeming like, you know, part of it was part of his mandible. And he sinks down out of sight. And we're, you know, wondering, is he is he dead?

What's going to happen? And he rises up so slowly, like in the descent. One of my favorite shots in the descent where she comes out of the blood. It's the same kind of thing where it's just like really slowly he comes up and he gets out and he's coming towards her and she's giving that freakish speech she's laying her it's a perfect mirroring of predator where she's like against the tree roots just like when arnold is has his back to that tree and he's covered in mud and she says do it come on do it which is which is you know if you can recall do it do it i'm here do it kill me i'm here um so it's sort of like that and she tells him this is as far as you go and we see him activate his own helmet. But because she's got it behind her on the tree roots, it laser focuses on him.

And pew, pew, pew. He kills himself with his own weapon. She did it. She did it, folks. Dead. She did it. She was so smart. She sees what they don't see.

And this is where she yells in triumph and it's a very emotional moment i could cry just thinking about it yeah does like the war the war cry and returns back to the village carrying his decapitated head. She is covered in his blood now, same as how Tabe was covered in the mountain lion's blood, except Predator's blood is neon glowing green. Originally, I should have asked Dan if this is

the case, because in the original Predator, the green blood was a mix of glow stick, fluid, and KY lube. Is that what they used this time oh yeah what did they make it out of um damn it dan we just we just tell us what what it was yeah and she is given the same honor and named award chief as well and that's the that's the end of the movie. It's just this triumphant. But in the end credits, there's like a little bit of a teaser, perhaps, of what might be to come at the very end. The credits are these animated, these hide paintings.

And the very last one we see is of, we see some Comanche people on a cliff or something. And the clouds parting up ahead and three ships coming down. Wow. You guys, it was so good. You did such a good job retelling it. It was so good. I want to see Amber Midthunder in everything now.

She was so good. I loved her. So powerful. And she like, yeah, for how there's a yeah very little dialogue and and very it's just very she has to convey a lot with a little and she really does and um man it's so cool it's such it's like a fucking fun gnarly action movie like you want predator to be um and it also is really emotional and like a very powerful story and represents a group of people who are so rarely shown on screen,

certainly as the protagonists in a way like they are in this movie. And it just feels, it was just real, it's really cool. It's such a very cool direction to take this franchise. And I, you know, I've only seen Predator and this. So for me, it's a perfect franchise.

I think I've seen all of them. Wait, what? You've seen all seven? I think so. I kind of like them all. I mean, they're certainly bad, but the Alien vs. Predator ones I feel like are like fun enough. Joel thinks Predators is fun as well. Whichever one that

is. I don't know. I haven't seen actually, you know what? I haven't seen Predator 2. I've seen Predators and I've seen both of the Alien vs. Predators. Some great spine rips in those ones. Oh my god. I'm not here for the spine rips, I gotta say. Wow. It just it really. Yeah, it's it's such a good movieips i gotta say wow it just it really yeah it's

it's such a good movie i really loved watching it i will watch it again you all should watch it it's on hulu um and yeah freaking stay tuned because you're about to hear some really cool information about it um and about the making of it and just about film making from dan trachtenberg and it was such a goddamn delight to talk to him and i'm still absolutely i used to love back to school shopping so much that i would tell my mom that i wanted to work at staples when i grew up because i just loved getting all the things that i needed that I would use every day in class. I still to this day have nightmares about showing up in class without notebooks or number two pencils. Really scary stuff.

But luckily I wake up and I realize I don't actually need notebooks or number two pencils anymore, but this fall there is something that I will be using every day and would be terrified to be caught without, and that's Raycon's best-selling everyday earbuds. I've been trying to go on walks every day, and so I need earbuds that I can rely on to listen to all my favorite podcasts podcasts and I know you guys listen to podcasts as well so you know what I'm talking about. I got my Raycons in carbon black because that's my vibe but they come in other cool colors as well like forest green and brush violet but my favorite thing about them is the battery life. They stay charged for 32 hours and they have a new quick charge function. So 10 minutes of charging gets you 90 minutes of battery life. Really freaking convenient for, I don't know, say a long morning

walk. You forgot to charge them and you just need a little bit of juice to listen to one episode of a podcast. It's only going to take you 10 minutes. It's incredible. So go to buyraycon.com slash too scary today to get 20 to 40% off site-wide. get 20 to 40% off site-wide. That's right. You'll get up to 40% off everything on Raycon's website when you go to buyraycon.com slash too scary. Buyraycon.com slash too scary. Buzzing over it. And here it is, you guys, our interview with Dan Trachtenberg. Dan, thank you so much for being here. Welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk

to you guys. I'm a fan. Wow. I've listened to a few of these, and specifically, I think the first thing I heard was with Jack Quaid. Oh, fun. He was so great. Love Jack. He is great. Yeah. He came to the premiere of this. Oh, fun. Shaun of the Dead. Yep. Oh, he was so great. Love Jack. He is great.

Yeah. He came to the premiere of this. Oh, fun. And was very sweet about it. Yeah. He's great. He's a very sweet person. He's a very sweet person.

Well, we are big fans as well. Just got to say, 10 Cloverfield Lane is like one of my favorite movies ever. Love it. So. I heard that episode. The feeling is mutual. Yes. We are also big fans.

Awesome. Awesome. And loved this movie. This movie was so prey was so good. As someone who doesn't watch a lot of horror, even like action thriller movies, I loved every second of it. I had such a good time. I can't wait to talk to you about it. Well, maybe if you

had seen other Action Horror movies, it would not have been as good. No. No. No. We've seen them. We like them. Have you guys done Predator yet? We have.

We just did it pretty recently. I love Predator. So so emily you watched and you described or i watched and i described it was not my first time seeing it i've seen before i love predator it's actually but what's interesting is also my my boyfriend loves predator but i i have not seen i've only seen predator and prey i have seen none of the other franchise movies um which i from what i hear is basically the way to go um but i it's yeah so i feel like it's an interesting perspective going in because i feel like people are either i mean it's such when we'll get into it's such a it's fucking predator like it's like it's it's iconic iconic is a whole, they carry so much weight.

And so I'm sure in doing it, like people have a lot of thoughts. People have a lot of feelings about predator. I guess. Okay. Getting ahead of ourselves. I do want to know first off how you feel about scary movies in general, just for the purposes of our podcast.

Like what your history with horror film is when you, when you got into it, what are some of your favorites why in my mind i went to therapy when i was a kid because of nightmare on elm street later learned there was other families sense to me there might have been some other stuff i later learned there were other reasons but in my mind i had seen only the commercials For it And was truly truly terrified And then I eventually Saw either the first one

Or the third one third one's a great Dream Warriors is a great is that the one where he rides a Broomstick I don't know if Freddie Warrant the later ones I think I think that I think that's when it starts getting like Pretty weird about this this one where he rides the broomstick the third one the third one is there's like a kid who's the dungeon master

dnd were like was like never in movies so that was like a fun thing um great great but i remember seeing it for the first time and going oh it's funny right and that made it finally seeing it made it way less scary to the premise of your show than having my imagination run wild. And before having done that, because I wasn't allowed to see R-rated movies as a kid,

I always just wanted to be like near them by proximity. And so the first audio cassette I'd ever purchased were two soundtracks. It was Rambo three and, and nightmare and Elm street part four. So I would listen to that score all the time and would freak myself out.

It was put at ease when I finally saw it, but I, I loved, I loved horror movies because they were like the ultimate R rated thing. You know, they were the ultimate test for like, oh my God, could I survive this viewing of a movie? I think the scariest movies in my mind growing up were It,

the miniseries. Did you guys do that one? The miniseries with Tim Curry? Is that who Tim Curry is? Yeah, no, we've just done the newer movies. I saw a trailer of that in like high school and it ruined my life. I was like 17 years old and I couldn't sleep.

Well, there was a part in that where a photograph winks at someone. I remember me and my friend Alan Goitman, we were asleep over. We both threw our covers up and his blanket landed on me,

my blanket landed on him. And I remember we had to go to the bathroom and he i made him stand guard while i went to the bathroom and then he made me and i was so freaked out that i just ran back to the bed like i couldn't stand in the darkness oh i love it everyone has a sleepover story. I feel like that's where the horror movie experience starts. And then Candyman was the next. Oh my God. To this day, those are the two scariest movies for my memory. The bees. And just the idea that you could say

a name a few times and conjure something really scary. No, thank you. I always feel like when someone tells me, I'm like, I'm going to accidentally say it like it feels like that becomes it gets like outside of your control even though you could literally shut up but it's like no what if it just happens to me and i say it did you guys experience the bloody merit like was that a thing for sleepovers like yeah i would never do i would never do it yeah even the idea of standing in a bathroom with the lights off

looking in a mirror yeah any that's i won't do that now i will not go in a bathroom with the lights off, looking in a mirror. Yeah. I won't do that now. I will not go into a bathroom and not turn the light on. Can't do it. I feel like everyone had a story of at this sleepover. Like it happened for real. And then she had a cut on her finger. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, Sammy, you should say what happened to you when you watch The Exorcist. That was at a sleepover, right? It was at a friend's house. Yes. And we were watching it and one of the windows exploded in the house. Can you believe that?

It was just like a loud crack. Because it was so windy or what? Literally, I don't know. It was demon. It was Pazuzu. And we were so scared. We obviously immediately turned it off and we're like, well, demons are here.

So I guess we'll just panic and freak out for the whole rest of the night in silence. And we, years later, tried to watch it again and another window broke while we were watching it in the bathroom. A different window. It was... Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that crazy?

That's weird. Isn't that horrifying so i was very scared of the exorcist specifically for a long time i only watched it in its entirety for this podcast because i was i just assumed that a window would break yeah it was cursed for me but i have now watched it fully and nothing bad happened that time yeah so interesting but wow pretty scary yeah That's so weird. That's like, like the, I think that means that it's more likely that there is a demon.

Right. The Occam's razor. Like, yeah, it does. Yeah. It's more, that is probably what it is.

Yeah. Well, at least it wasn't your house. It wasn't my house. Right. It's your friend. Is she okay? Your friend?

She's okay. Yes. She's still with us. Okay. She's still with us. Luckily, it'd be a much less fun story if she were not. That's friend? She's okay. Yes. She's still with us. Okay. She's still with us. Luckily. It'd be a much less fun story if she were not. That's true.

That's true. I don't think. Hopefully you wouldn't be telling it and giggling. Yeah. She was killed by a demon. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. But we still don't know.

I mean, we just don't know. Like maybe. It could have been different. It could have been different. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk.

Let's talk about prey. Yeah. And different. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk. Let's talk about prey. Yeah. And yeah, what going back to how massive predator is. I'm curious how you got to being the person who brings a new predator sequel prequel in this case. And what was that? What did that feel like being like, okay,

I have to direct thing that people have a lot of thoughts about. Well, interestingly, um, to tie it back to what we were just speaking of, I was in third grade when, or no, no,

no. I thought I've been saying this the entire, I just realized, no, I was in first grade. Wow. You've been aging yourself. I have.

I was in first grade when predator came you've been aging yourself. I have. I was in first grade when Predator came out and I was not allowed to see it because it was rated R and I remember being in a carpool on the way to a karate tournament and all

the sixth graders had just seen it who were also in karate class with me and they described the entire movie to me on the way to the tournament. And I distinctly remembered one of them saying, there's an awesome scene where Billy, the native American tracker has a fight with a predator on a bridge over the, over a waterfall. And then I eventually saw the movie

and that scene is not in the movie it's just alluded to you know yep so and I always like wanted to see that scene so that was sort of the first speed of of this and then I recently I

think after seeing Mad Max Fury Road I was very excited about the idea of making a movie that could be primarily told through action, that has as little dialogue as possible and was a very visceral experience. But I didn't want to just be for thrills. I really thought it would be awesome if you could do that, but also have it feel emotional as well. And so I thought maybe if I took the engine of a sports movie of an underdog story and, and infuse that into this genre movie,

then you could really be firing on all cylinders. And I had always been thinking about period sci-fi like that's such an interesting combination that's um not often done um and in thinking of underdog story i was thinking about protagonists that we just never see and um native american and and coman's in particular are so often relegated to playing the sidekick or the villain and never the hero. So all of this, those things rolled together. And in thinking of underdog story and like, what could this person be up against?

That isn't just the elements. What? So putting the most like impossible threat in front of them, which became predator. And then you guys don't know, or maybe you, I don't know or maybe you I don't know because you only seen the first one but in Predator 2

at the very end of Predator 2 one of the because Danny Glover defeats a Predator in that movie and then more of them come and because he was the champion of the film in respect and honor one of the Predators throws him honor one of the predators throws him

a trophy and the trophy is a pistol that's engraved on the pistol is Raphael Adelini 1715 so that remembering that was like oh my gosh yeah this movie

could exist there's a precedent that's fun that's so cool yeah so anyway so that that was all the origin of it um and i pitched it to 20th century fox um and it was gonna happen at one point very early on uh or many many many years ago five years ago um and then the fox disney merger happened oh yeah oh boy and it went away the irony is when i on or many years ago, five years ago and the Fox Disney merger happened. Oh yeah. Oh boy. And it went away. The irony is when I pitched it it's like an R-rated Disney princess

movie. Right. Yeah. Fuck yeah. And then it became literally an R-rated Disney movie. So anyway, that's the origin. Man, that's cool. Was the experience of directing it so vastly different than 10 Cloverfield Lane? Because 10 Cloverfield Lane is so tiny. It takes place in like such a small space.

And this I think one of the things that was so amazing about this movie to watch is it's like stunning. I mean, it's so beautiful and so vast and wide open spaces. I mean, it just it feels like two such different movies. Yeah. I mean, Tango Lane was like way more comfortable to make. This was deeply uncomfortable the entire time. It was, as you said, outdoors. And was it Canada that you shot in?

Outside of Calgary. Yeah. Alberta. Cold of Calgary, Alberta. Cold and hot and a dog and a guy in a suit. Beautiful dog. Yeah, the dog ended up being incredible. The dog was like a rescued. Dog was not a trained movie dog because it had to be a very specific dog that would have been a dog that was in the 1700s in this part of the country so um so we found a dog they rescued it and they had a couple months to train it and oh my god as best they could and you know you're in the movie is every

usable frame where the dog was doing what it was supposed to be doing. There's a lot of frames with the dog. I mean, the dog is very important. Yeah. I loved the imagery of also inspired by Mad Max 2, Road Warrior, which is Mad Max and his little dog. I just love the silhouette of her and her dog. Especially because so much of the movie is just nonverbal and her out. Wanted there to be something to interact with and there to be still a relationship that you're invested in and you're feeling. But yeah, it was very challenging. I thought on 10 Clever Lane and, and try to create, try to box myself in because it's just so overwhelming.

Like when you're looking at location, scout photos and it's just trees, you know, it's like, which trees would you like to shoot those trees or those trees? And I was like, I don't even know. So we try to create,

you have all of Canada. Where do you want to go? The same in a photograph, you know? Right. So try to make it feel authored and steered and like the find find compositions and frames that um uh were focused you know so it wasn't just like cinema all cinema verite and wide lenses and just look we're outdoors and um like still wanted to feel like uh

suspense language um on top of eventually action movie language and thrills and all the all those things very cool okay i have a sort of spoilery question but as we've established we are free to speak um so you talked about your inspiration for this predator um with the comanche nation and and you're like you know r-rated princess and native american heroine when i want to talk about the flower the history of the flower how you learned that and like where that factored into the culmination of this story because it is so perfect. It is like the moment of realizing like, oh shit, the flower makes you cold.

As a viewer, it was so exciting for me. And so I just I'm curious about how that came to be in the progression of the film. Well, we wanted someone using nature to outsmart the predator again.

And didn't want it. I felt like it would be boring if it was just the mud. We know the mud. We had to wait for her to figure it out. You put in a little mud fake out, I felt. Was that an intentional mud fake out? She got covered in mud and I was like, okay, mud. And then she washed it off and I was

like, okay, give me all my toes you got us that was the fun of like exactly what we wanted was for me to be like ah I see here we go mud and then as soon as you wash it off you're like oh this movie I don't know what's gonna happen this movie could do anything but really

really really was desperate to make sure the story was not about a girl who wants to fight like the guys you know like just about a girl becoming a guy quote-unquote using um generalizations that really it's about um her wanting to prove herself in that way. And we're in spoiler, you know, we're talking to, you know,

but like, but the lesson that she learned, the thing that she's rejecting from her mother in the beginning of the movie is the thing that she needs to embrace. And that makes her stronger. She's able to incorporate all these parts of herself. Stronger than any guy that has fought. She's stronger than anyone else in this movie. She's stronger than the predator because she's

embracing all sides. Not just, I'm going to become the other thing. It's like, no, no, no. You need to be all those things. So that was the main thing. And then they're sort of combining two

truisms. There isn't. I don't know that there actually is a flower that makes you cold. But we do know that Comanche used a lot of, obviously, herbal medicine for things. And also, it is true that we do in medicine today, lower in certain surgeries and you lower the body's temperature to slow down the blood. And, and it does a thing.

It's such a satisfying payoff to have learned that early on and then be like, Oh my God. Oh my God. I just love, I love that. The simplicity of that predator rule of like if he can't see you if you're not hot it's like it also is the thing of watching the original pretty real like just fucking that's so stupid just like use your eyes but that's not how predator operates and it's like

to get to watch it culminate and that to still be true but in a a new way. Well, it's also... Yeah, it was really satisfying. It's worth mentioning too. It doesn't make any sense in the Federer or this movie. Because as we learned... I mean, we knew this anyway. But we shot with actual infrared cameras for those beats. And it was useless during the day because everything is on fire. Because it's hot. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You put mud on your body, but the mud would be hot. Yeah. But what is true is like you couldn't see them through trees. And actually what the fur trappers end up doing being underground and with blankets and then

or hide and then they actually would be invisible to the predator that's the most useful tactic right so if you confront a predator that's what you got to do hot tip hot tip that's the only part that'll work man i love i just love the expansion on the Predators so much. I mean, when Emily did the recap, the main thing we talked about was Arnold Schwarzenegger's muscles. Emily described them as a child's drawing of a cloud, which will stick in my head. I love that. That's genius. That is what they look like. I feel like we were just like searching for words the entire time.

And what's so good about Prey is that it takes that and like completely turns it on its head. I mean, it's about the polar, it's about the complete opposite of what it means to be strong and I also loved the scene where I guess

it was the French, the fur trappers who use their like one bullet guns. What kind of guns are those called sorry i don't know what they're called well there's muskets yeah muskets yes smooth board musk yeah yeah when they're all when they all shoot off their muskets it's just one bullet and it's like such a perfect uh counterpoint to arnold schwarzenegger's like millions of machine guns Man I just really enjoyed it

It's funny that it is the Inverse this movie is the inverse but it's But Predator is saying A similar thing It's just coming at it from the other direction Exactly it's like showing the other Side of why that doesn't work And where Arnold ends

In that movie is sort of where nadu begins inherently but there's obviously there's much more for her to learn and much more to happen but um it's just the collective memory of predator sometimes is different from the truth of it you know the collective memory is what there's there was a meme going around of like oh really she's gonna be able to do what these guys with guns and it's like, yeah, that's the point of that movie, dude. The point is they all die and the guns don't fucking work. It doesn't work.

So actually she's better off already from the beginning. It doesn't work. He didn't kill Predator with the gun. And I don't want to say, I don't want to correct that because it helps the movie. The movie, the power of the premise is like feeling like oh my god this is impossible if you think too much about you go oh wait a second she actually would be better off um have a better chance than than those guys she understands the yeah how to manipulate the earth um also though this this

predator is is different from the predators predator um so yeah i want to like obviously he's a little bit different it feels weird to use gender he um i always try to say it because it's not really who knows what's explore there right

but it does you know yeah the predator physically is different. But I also wonder if it seems like there are maybe some philosophical differences with this. But this predator behaves slightly differently. And I'm so curious how you came about determining who this predator would be. Well, in part, it was thinking because this is 300 years ago, a much earlier iteration of what we had seen before and then but wanting to fully embrace that because truthfully i don't know that the shape the form of

some someone would be you know we don't look that different than humans right years ago um but then so we started thinking well maybe it's not just that it's also that he's like from a different hemisphere of the same planet and so it gave us freedom to make it feel yeah much more different than they had previously I think one of the things that you guys don't know from the sequels but the power of the of the original predator

was that when you see the cloaked thing you go oh cool that's that's the predator. That's the alien predator thing in this movie that I've been hearing about. And then it decloaks and you see with the bio mask and you go, oh, no. Oh, that's the cool predator that I've been here. That's the predator in the movie, you know.

And then the mask comes off and you go, oh, no, that's the that's the thing. That's in Bangoria magazine. And, you know, and that was so special when we first saw that movie in 87 or whenever you were. It's like, oh, cool. It evolves. None of the sequels have really capitalized on that formula. That was something that I

was excited to do was to give that, recapture that. Even for diehard fans of the franchise that are so familiar with all the Predators forms, to still have its cloaked form feel distinct and unique, have its mask form feel quite different. And then also when it takes the mask off that it still feels like there's surprise there. And and all of it really wanted to feel much more alien creature like really remembering what that initial premise was because so often i think you can feel the man in the suit driving it in sequels and what have you

um and and it sort of lumbers around like a professional wrestler um and even some of the designs it's got this mesh shirt on like it's very 80s, you know, and really want this to feel much more ferocious, much more alien. So from the look of it, and then also needing to feel more archaic. So less armor, less advantages, or less technological advancements than the other movies,

but still feeling far more advanced than anything uh on earth you know that was a tricky balance of like it's gotta feel prior to what we've seen but i don't want to neuter it i don't want it to feel like oh we've made it easier for for nadu to take and in fact that was the other thing i wanted to course correct a little bit is it always bothered me even though it's sort of a story point about the creature but in the end of the original predator it it disarms itself to fight arnold which is a sign of respect and once again it makes narrative sense but it also is like oh it made it easier and i didn't want there to be a

moment in this movie where it decided to make it easier for her in fact she everything that it does for arnold she has to do for herself she has to get its mask off she has to get its weapons away from him and find a way you know like she has to do it herself um so anyway i digressed off of the like the design of the predator but but yeah and it was just a way of wanting to make it feel much more what the premise is, making it feel like this alien crazy creature that's still bipedal and advanced

and intelligent and all those things. I'm curious about the fight choreography and the training that the actors had to do. The fights are so cool. And how much work did that take for those actors? Hard seemed hard.

Collectively, they did I think four to six weeks of a boot camp, sort of inspired by the stories that we hear on Saving Private Ryan or any war film where the guys all go to boot camp to bond and obviously learn how to be soldiers.

Comanche were sort of the SEAL Team 6 of the 1700s. They're the most badass to ever badass. So they spent time learning how to handle bows and tomahawks and lances and then Amber and Dakota respectively, you know, to spend a lot of that, a lot of those days in the, in that four week period training to fight. Yeah. And it was challenging because I,

I wanted, I wanted her to have a great fight hand to hand fight sequence. And I'm a, I grew, I was raised not just on horror movies, but on Hong Kong action movies and Jackie Chan and Jet Li and all these all these all the great all the greats. And I'm very particular about what I enjoy in a fight sequence. But couldn't obviously she could not be doing martial arts. You know, so it was it was challenging to find a fighting style that made, that would also be exhilarating and fun to watch.

And luckily had a great stunt. This guy named Stephen McMichael and then Jeremy Marinas for some of the fights as well. So Amber trained really hard. She, she, she, even before she showed up, she was shooting Roswell before she came to Canada. We sent her the prop tomahawk. Hell yeah. That she could, I just like,

as I carry it with you all day long, like, just get, feel like that's second nature so that when we're doing fights,

you have to learn the choreography. You don't have to also learn how to handle the tomahawk. And there was... She could throw that thing. I mean, she... It looked great. You could tell. I mean... Yeah. She's very comfortable with it. It's a thing.

You could tell. I feel like you said your appreciation for a certain kind of action and knowing what you like and want to watch because as someone who really loves action movies and I know what action movies I like and what I don't what i like is i like watching people that like like john wick movies are my favorite movies because of the skill of like real people just like using it's like dancing and and it really pays off and so you can feel the like true appreciation for actually getting

in there and doing it and um it's also really the john wick is very clean choreography which is what the the hong kong movies did because that is the the way that the stunt people work over there is they're really doing stuff they're really getting hit and it's very different than what it was in the states so it was it's always challenging there's like the born style of action that's very visceral and you feel it more than you understand it because of the camera work and the editing style of that. And then there's stuff that's in John Wick, which is directed by Stuntman, ex-Stuntman. And it's like really showing clear geography in an action scene. scene and you know and this you know it was challenging especially her sequence to cover it in a way that felt very gritty but also gave you a very clear understanding because the moves

that she's doing are so cool but i never wanted it to feel sometimes in action we can feel like action porn like just look at the you sort of feel separate from what the character is going through what the story is and you're just just like, oh, look, a cool action happened. And I didn't... Sometimes that's the byproduct, the side effect of having too clear choreography. It's like showcasing choreography. You want to

hurt a little when you're watching someone in a fight scene. You sort of want to be like... Yeah. Got to feel it in your body. Totally um did you at any point speak to anyone that was involved in making of the other predator films just one of the movie's producers um john davis um has been there from the beginning and then of course the adi the guys who built our predator oh cool they they work with stan Stan Winston on the first Predator movie.

Awesome. And then formed their company. And as their company, they did a number of the previous Predator films. Not only did they build the Predator, but they built the weaponry as well. Awesome. I thought when I got the job, there'd be the Predator Bible.

Like, okay, here that Fox has in a vault somewhere. Here's the rules and here's all the designs. there'd be like the predator Bible, you know, like, okay, Fox has an evolved somewhere of like, here's the rules and here's all the designs. That IP can be so like limiting in a way. Cause it's like, you've got, you can't move outside this box. That doesn't exist.

That didn't exist. Like no one there really had that intention. And, and there wasn't that information, unfortunately for me. And it wasn't until meeting the ADI folks and they had their own sort of Bible and stuff that had been in previous

or pitched in previous movies that never made it. And that really helped us design all of his arsenal and suit and stuff. So no conversations with Arnold? No conversations with Arnold. But there's been this thrilling moment now on Twitter where

Jesse the Body Ventura tweeted out to Amber and Bill Duke as well. So it's two guys from the original. Oh, cool. That's great. Twitter is a great place. Sometimes Twitter can be good. Sometimes it's good. Totally.

Also, I just want to know, for you making this movie, what was the best part? Like, what was the most exciting part of the experience for you? And it's hard to pick one, I'm sure. I mean, well, this part is making a movie anyway with good people. You know, that's the joy. Growing up, it was during the making of this that I remembered this and realized this about myself. and had a dabbled with friendships here and there that, but no one really loved it as much as me. And I, and I, I didn't, I didn't have the same interest that most people in my neighborhood school,

whatever were, I never had sort of mainstream interest. So I, I always, I always, you know, part of the, part of the joy, I know people like rag on LA a lot. I happen to like living in LA because it's an industry town, because most people here like the thing that I like finally. And, and so when I'm making a movie and my favorite thing to happen ever is when, well, first of all,

just in the, in the prep phase, my favorite phase is prep because everything is like going to be great. You know, no challenges, my favorite phase is prep. Because everything is like going to be great. You know? No challenges. So much potential. The weather is going to be great.

Everyone's going to show up. No one's getting hurt. But also, you know, you find yourself sitting in a room with grown adults taking very seriously the idea of make believe, you know? seriously the idea of make believe, you know? And so when I see two other people on the crew trying to figure out something about this thing that I'm dreaming up, like that's my face. It's not like me talking to them. It's when they are talking to each other.

Cause it's like the frustrations I had as a kid, trying to get people to make the movie with me and on the weekend or whatever, like it's like whatever that was that was that open wound like heals every time that i like have that moment and then seeing amber some some there's some bits of this movie that she is like having a very spiritual experience and it is not it's not really acting it's not it's like she's really going through a thing and witnessing those and then and in the final product of the movie and the way that's

like it it just gives me such so many goosebumps and and the react like like we well we screened the work in progress um in comanche nation as we were working on it but since then we've gone back the movie finished and Jane, the movie's producer, she's Comanche. She's from Oklahoma. And she said there were four screens screened the movie. And at the end of the movie, there's a title card that says for Comanche Nation.

And the women were luluing. And you could hear them through the screen. It's going to make me cry right now. I know. I'm tearing up. and you could hear them through the screen like from what like and it's like it's gonna make me cry right now I know I'm tearing up right now I just got the chills

that kind of that stuff is like that's the best you know it's good it's cool to make a movie that is like does good for you know that you don't just have to make medicine you don't just have to make ice cream you know you can like do both things so that's been the best part man that's cool those parts wow

that's really beautiful so beautiful thank you so much for spending the time to do this with us this has been amazing thank you guys thank you like i Like I said, I'm a fan. I'm honored to be invited. And I look forward to listening to the episode. On the one hand, I was like, as always, I'm

like, oh, I want them all to watch it, though. I don't want one person, someone to spoil it for everyone. The dream came true. But I also do enjoy the questions that you guys have when you haven't seen it. Like you said about Nightmare on Elm Street, it brings

up things if you're not watching that you go like, what about this? How'd they do this? And what does this mean? But I'm very pleased that you guys all watched. Now I really can't wait to listen back. Spoiler alert, we loved it. Awesome.

And yeah, it's a huge hit. Huge. Yeah, seriously. Everyone's loving it. It's not just us. And yeah, it's such a thrill. We can't wait for what's next. And please come on after your next movie, too.

We can't wait to talk to you again. Not before. But what if it's talk to you again. And not before. But what if it's not a scary movie? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Free pass. Okay. That's even better for me.

I prefer it. Awesome. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. What an excellent, excellent conversation with Dan. Thank you, Dan, again for coming. What a wonderful, wonderful interview.

Oh, so cool. So thrilled. We got to do that. Um, and can't wait for the next predator movie. The next movie that Dan does, maybe a lighthearted romp.

Yeah, that's what it seems like. It's going to be a rom-com. Easy, breezy and delightful but until then we'll bring you something probably less delightful next week

should we do our predator impressions yeah yeah I could edit it in oh yeah it's okay there perfect from all of us here at Too Scary Didn't Watch. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. If you like the show, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating, a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

podcasts and give us a rating a review on apple podcasts or spotify you can follow us on social media at tstw podcast on instagram and twitter and if one episode a week just is not enough for you head on over to patreon.com slash tstw podcast to become a patron and receive all sorts of extra goodies from us including bonus episodes, trailer reactions, and more. And no matter what, we will see you right here next week for another episode. We love you so much. Bye. That was a HeadGum Podcast.