The Fandom Portals Podcast

Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) – Lore Upgrades, Animated Carnage, and Badlands Teases

• Aaron Davies • Episode 41

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Episode Summary:
Aaron and Brash dive into the high-octane, lore-deepening animated film Predator: Killer of Killers directed by Prey’s Dan Trachtenberg. The hosts unpack the Predator Codex, dissect each gladiator-style hunt from Viking to feudal Japan to WWII, and debate the ethics of cryo-trophy warriors. Plus, what this means for the upcoming Predator: Badlands, surprise returning characters, and a stacked Fandom Fact Face-Off trivia showdown.

Topics:

  • How Killer of Killers rewrites Predator lore with gladiator arcs
  • Animation style by The Third Floor Inc. and visual callbacks to Arcane
  • Brute Predator, Ronin/Yokai, and Baron: Three eras, three styles
  • The Predator Codex and honor-bound combat rules
  • Easter eggs and cameos: Dutch, Naru, and Hanzo connections
  • Why the Yautja are suddenly the heroes
  • Reddit reactions, fan theories, and lore expansion
  • Set-up for Predator: Badlands and Deck’s controversial CGI
  • The ethics of cryo-frozen trophies and fair fights
  • Voice actor deep dives: Michael Biehn, Louis Ozawa, and more
  • Top picks for future historical Predator matchups (Spartans, Arthur, Hercules?)

Key Takeaways:

  • Predator: Killer of Killers shifts focus from survival horror to myth-building and lore expansion.
  • Trachtenberg positions Predators not just as monsters—but as complex, honor-bound hunters.
  • The film teases an MCU-style connected Predator timeline—Dutch, Naru, and more may return.
  • Each battle reflects a code-bound test: match your prey’s tech, hunt with respect.
  • Animation allows unmatched scope—but occasionally trades realism for flash.
  • The arena twist split fans: some love the gladiator vibe, others feel it breaks the Predator code.

Quotes:

“If you’re going to fear one species, fear the Xenomorph. But respect the Predator.”
 “They’re not trophies. They’re drafts—the universe’s most elite warriors.”
 “You survived your movie? Congrats. Welcome to the coliseum.”
 “Dan Trachtenberg’s love for this franchise bleeds into every pixel.”


Apple Podcast Tags:
Predator Killer of Killers, Predator Badlands, Predator Lore, Animated Action Films, Yautja Codex, Dan Trachtenberg, Predator Franchise, Sci-Fi Animation, Alien vs Predator, Gladiator Movies, Predator Cryo Lore, Fandom Portals Podcast, Geek Freaks Network, Movie Podcast, Voice Actor Trivia


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Speaker 1:

All right. So we are indeed talking about Predator Killer of Killers made in 2025. And in this episode you will learn how Predator Killer of Killers rewrites the Predator lore for better or worse. You'll learn why Dan Trachtenberg packs this film with nods, Easter eggs and prey powered passion. You'll also learn whether animation is a game changer or a misfire for the Predator franchise. And we'll also talk a little bit about how Killer of Killers teases the new and upcoming movie Predator Badlands.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, the podcast that explores how fandoms can help us learn and grow. As always, I'm joined by Mr Brash Rackham. How are you today, Brash? I'm too bad yourself. I'm going very well. Today we are talking about the brand new animated flick on Disney Pass called Predator Killer of Killers, made in 2025. This is a story about three of the fiercest worries in human history become the prey to the ultimate killer of killers. But before we get into that, let's do our gratitudes. I'm going to go first, Brash. I am grateful this week for Spider-Man. My son adores Spider-Man and before bedtime tonight we ran around the house. I was an evil spider-man and he was a good spider-man and we just kept playing that for a very long time. So I love his imagination and I love the fact that he's fallen in love with the character as awesome as spider-man, because what a great role model one and an awesome game to play. So thank you, spider-man, and thank you for time with my son, very grateful. What are you grateful for?

Speaker 2:

I am grateful for my Playstation oh yeah, I mean, and my computer, I suppose as well, but always after a shitty day I can always rely on my Playstation and my computer to fill me with endless hours of distraction from the world. I even started, I even started playing a game again that I haven't played in a while, and that's always good, always going back to those nostalgia hits.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you know it's like an old friend that's waiting for you, but also your computer helps us do this sometimes. Yes, that's exactly Connecting together, doing that thing that we love to do talking about movies.

Speaker 2:

Yeah 100%.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, I'm, that is not bad at all. That is good, all right, so we are indeed talking about Predator, killer of Killers, made in 2025. This movie was indeed directed by Dan Trachtenberg. He was the one who was responsible for Prey Brash thoughts on Prey. I love Prey. I thought it was a really good revisiting of the Predator franchise because there has been a few movies come out almost every five to seven years or so. Some of them are okay, but I probably wouldn't move them past. Okay, but Prey, it was a new take, it was a new concept and it did answer a lot of questions, really for a lot of the fans of the Predator series, because it showed one of the very first, or you know, before this movie Killer of Killers, the first interaction between a human civilization and a Predator species, which Brash and I looked up how to say and I've forgotten how to say it. Do you remember how to say it, brash Yautja?

Speaker 2:

Or.

Speaker 1:

Yautja, yautja.

Speaker 2:

Yautja, there's probably like, yeah, there's probably like the one thing that they've done really well in the predator sort of universe is made every single alien word really hard to pronounce. Oh yeah, the aliens names that, like predators in the comics have killed. Their names are just like just horrible to try and pronounce a bunch of letters all stuck together.

Speaker 1:

It reminds me of that ever loving joke where, uh, the creature from a different alien planet is like, if I wanted you to say my name phonetically correct, then I'd have to rip out your tongue for you to do so, because it's just so hard. But yeah, fully understand.

Speaker 2:

But I'll actually say I like to say I think the Yucha that's how I sort of pronounce it, and when I looked up I'm like the closest thing I can think is Yucha. I sort of make the A sort of silent and yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think we'll go with Yucha today and if we're saying it wrong and it annoys you, we're very, very sorry. But you know, write us some feedback. I guess I don't know, is that.

Speaker 2:

Yucha.

Speaker 1:

Yautja, it's like Leviosa or Leviosa. Which one is it? But yeah, we're going with you, jude, today. Did you know, brash, that Dan Trachtenberg also directed an episode of the Boys? I did not know that, but it does make sense.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he directed the very first episode of the very first season, so you could say he was responsible for the trajectory of that show, because obviously pilots are the ones that get that show greenlit. So he directed the name of the game this he directed the name of the game. This was actually co-directed by Josh Wassong as well, so Trachtenberg is very much involved in the Predator franchise now, with this being his second run at it with Predator Killer of Killers. The writing for this movie it was also written by Dan Trachtenberg, but Miko Robert Ruttare was also one of the writers on this one. It's starring Linda LaVancey, who played Ursa, the Viking warrior in this one, louis Azawa, rick Gonzalez and also Michael Biehn. Now this movie obviously comes before the Predator Badland movies, which is supposed to be coming in late 2025. So in time of recording, that's about six or so months away. There is a trailer dropped on IMDb. What do you know about Predator Badlands so far, brash?

Speaker 2:

All I know is people are a little bit upset about how he looks because they're using CGI for his face instead of the classic animatronics, yep, but that's to sort of show some emotions. People are coping with that by saying it's because his dna is um blended with a more humanoid or human dna. That makes them sort of look like that. But um and other things are, because realistically, um deck is a younger, a young um predator, so it hasn't matured to look more like other Predators. And that's really all I've. I'm trying not to spoil myself too much with it. All it seems is that he's like the run to the litter who gets bossed out of the clan and either has to work, because usually if a Predator gets kicked out of the clan they have to then prove themselves to get back into the clan so that might be what he's up to, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm not entirely sure. Yeah, they're very on a base. The U-Tour and you know the synopsis on IMDb says a young predator is outcast from his clan and he finds an unlikely ally on his journey in search of the ultimate adversary. So I guess he's been trying to prove his worth. So it's probably like you could say it's an alien, coming-of-age story. But looking at the images of Deck that I have seen, the pictures of him do look like I hate to say it, but they look like an AI-generated picture to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he is Just because it's CGI, obviously, but they look kind of AI-generated and I can see how people are a little bit deterred by that, because Predator is famous for its animatronics. But I think one of the other reasons, or one that I surmise is the reason they're going with the CGI, or the motion capture CGI for this film in terms of the Predator, was because Dan Trachtenberg wanted to make the Predator the main character of this story, instead of it featuring on a bunch of humans who are being hunted by the Predator.

Speaker 2:

I mean, in a way I think that's brilliant, because every single Predator movie it's the Predators hunting down humans they might see. Well, for a lot of movies you don't see the Predator until they actually kill everyone. And then I mean the most you probably like, as the movies have gotten on um, you see more and more of the protos because tech like technology has gotten better, so they're able to because, like in the first one, happened to run around that apparently run around that costume, the proto was really bad. So, um, as it's gone better, it's easier to put them in the spotlight. But having actually proto as a main character will allow them to actually dive into the lore and the culture of the Ucho instead, which I think is going to be fantastic because most of the like, I don't mind the old Predators because you sort of get bits and pieces and you have to sort of.

Speaker 1:

I love the old Predators. This might be where we disagree because, yeah, I think that the less we know, the better. Well, this is, yeah, the less we know, the better in terms of a fearful antagonist in future movies. I will get into this a little bit later when we talk about it, but I think, yeah, having a look behind the curtain of the Uter, especially if you're trying to make a personal connection with one, it takes away that fear aspect, which I think is something that Predator movies are kind of known for as well. Yeah, that's my worry.

Speaker 2:

The only thing with that is, realistically, if you compared, say, a Xenomorph to a Uter, in terms of scariness. Ayuja, in terms of scariness, the Xenomorph is probably scary because it's more animalistic, it just kills to kill, whereas a predator is a hunter by its nature and its upbringing. So, realistically, it's not that they're not meant to be a scary thing, they're just really good hunters and half that is stealth and being able to trap and track, and so they're not like when they first, and half that is stealth and being able to trap and track, and so they're not like when they first, even in the first movie, like it's not so much that like they were meant to be like, even it was meant to be scary, it was just hunting them. Like you saw from its perspective, it hunting them. And then I can't remember his name, but one of the guys with Dutch- who's really attuned to the name Billy he was always like gone, always like there's something out there

Speaker 2:

and he's like he knew because, as probably like a natural sort of hunter himself, he knew that they were being hunted. So I find it more like if you want to be scared of something, be scared of the zoom wolf who's just going to come at you and kill you, rather than like you'd still be scared of a hunter because, shit, you don't want to be hunted either. But that's more of the like if you were to pose zero threat. Realistically, in a predator's eyes you're not worth hunting.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's exactly what happens in the first Predator movie, isn't it the Anna, the girl that they pick up as one of the survivors of the camp, that they completely obliterate with fire and bullets? The only survivor there? Yeah, he basically says, you know, dutch says don't pick up a weapon because that's why I didn't kill you. So they are honor bound in that way. And with Predator Badlands coming out and with the, with predator badlands coming out and, uh, with the yuja becoming the main character, obviously named deck um. Dan trachtenberg actually didn't ask me anything on reddit, uh, about two weeks ago at time of recording, and he was asked what his inspiration was for taking a very drastic sort of change away from the original predator movies when he sort of created prey. And then this movie killer of killers is even bigger step away from the original Predator movies when he sort of created Prey. And then this movie Killer of Killers is even bigger step away from those original sort of movies where the Predator was seen as something in the jungle to be feared. He's diving more into the backstory of it and he's actually said here on Reddit that he said so many sci-fi films feature creatures and alien races as sidekicks or villains to the human characters. Well, oftentimes those creatures are the most interesting. I just thought how cool it would be to see a movie where the creature was the main character. And what if that creature wasn't the most obvious choice, but one of the most badass, vicious and formidable in all of sci-fi? What if a predator was Arnold this time? What if he was the David on a planet filled with Goliath? And then he says would anyone let me make that? Turns out the answer was yes. So I think it was a curiosity that he had and he kind of just wanted to flip it on its head. But I'm interested.

Speaker 1:

But I think you said before about the xenomorphs and the predator. If you're going to fear one in the Alien vs Predator movies, I don't know anybody who roots for the Xenomorphs, for one, or is rooting for the Predator and for two. I think that for me, if you wanted to tell my 14 year old self not to be scared of the Predator, then I probably wouldn't listen to you as well. Because, yeah, this movie as well was another late night watch for me when I was a young girl, 14 years old, old Predator. The original was with Arnold, but yeah, I think that this one Killer of Killers. I'm not sure where I sit on the change for me.

Speaker 2:

I know, when I was younger watching the original Alien, the fact that that thing was so big yet so fucking sneaky and fast yeah. And fast. They'd be like walk along. Like they'd be like walk along and it'd be like it matched with the pipes, like in the walls and shit, and it was just sitting there like you wouldn't even know it was there, and then all of a sudden hair just creeps up. That's me done.

Speaker 1:

I'm out, wipe my hands of that with the xenomorphs as well. I would always feel safer when the protagonist had a big weapon full of bullets. Uh, when there's enomorph, if you piff it with bullets, then you're obviously dealing with the acidic blood that you know puts holes in you and your spaceship as well. So, yeah, there, there are different kettle of fish as well. I think that the honor bound yucha is is something that I would prefer, if I'm going to choose between the two, but I think I like my Predators as villains and sidekicks, as opposed to main characters.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, we'll have to wait and see what they do with Badlands, but yeah but I also have a feeling that they're not going to humanise it too much because, realistically, the only person or the only other thing so far that they've named sort of humanoid is the character of the Ellie.

Speaker 1:

Fanning's playing yeah, and she plays Thea, and there are some rumors to say that she is a one of the androids that feature in the Alien franchise. Yeah, as well.

Speaker 2:

Which also mean that, realistically, if he's just on a planet full of other sort of monsters that he's killing, then yeah, realistically, there's no humans to dehuman, like sort of like to contrast him against. So it's just like a badass normal who, normally, who's someone, who's a villain or, in our eyes, a villain because they're always hunting humans um, is now just hunting other monsters. So it's just, it's just like I said, they're hunting us. Now we're watching it hunt something else yeah, very true, very true.

Speaker 1:

all right, let's jump into our hot takes quickly and then we'll get into our Fandom Fact Face-Off, all right. So our hot takes is where we discuss our first thoughts on the media and unpack the boldest opinions, from what surprised us to what split the room. We'll also highlight your hot takes from our threads, instagram and Reddit community. So check out the show notes to get involved. All of our show notes feature our social medias and if you want your comment read out on our podcast, make sure you go and join us at ThenPuddles on Instagram and threads and on our Reddit as well. We already pretty much talked about our first thoughts of the Predator sort of franchise. We touched a little bit on what we thought about Predator Killer of Killers. We might go with you first, brash. What do you think of this one?

Speaker 2:

I was apprehensive at first because I saw this out before we even talked about um watching it and I I like usually I'd probably jump on it and watch it, but, um, I hadn't, and I knew it was there and I hadn't watched it. And then we said, when we said we're gonna do this, I was like, oh, I've got to watch it. Then like I'm a huge anime fan and all that kind of stuff, so like that's not the thing, that sort of, because it's the first time I've seen a Predator in animated form. Yeah, but my first thought was they're going to butcher it by making it so incredibly unrealistic, which it kind of was, but it was in a fun, flashy way, which I loved. So yeah, that's what made me apprehensive at first. But then after watching it, I absolutely loved it. But it was in a fun, flashy way, which I loved. So yeah, that's what made me apprehensive at first. But then after watching it, I absolutely loved it. I thought it was a brilliant movie.

Speaker 1:

When I watched this I was always interested because I really love the animation style in Arcane, which was made by the Third Floor Inc, and this one is produced by the same company. It's the same 3D styles of animation with the 2D sort of overlays as well. So I was interested to see that and I do love the Predator movies as well, as much as I'm not a horror guy. These are more like action thrillers. So I did like the mash. There's a lot for me to talk about later on when we actually rate this in terms of how it sort of landed. I was excited and then was let down, so we kind of went through the opposite journey, I guess, with ours. But we'll go through that a little bit later. Let's jump into our reddits to see what our redditors have said.

Speaker 1:

All right, so we have downton agent 3323 that says I need dan to take this franchise as far as he can. Apparently, downton agent was born too early to explore the galaxy, born too late to explore the earth and born just at the right time to explore the experience. That is the predator renaissance, um, so obviously a fan there. Uh, we also have constant resa, uh, who has also agreed saying that being a predator, an alien fan, is finally pretty damn good. Again, I probably disagree with that, because I feel like being a predator fan was always good. You know that I don't feel like there's been a bad Predator movie. I even like Predator 2. It's gotten 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I actually like Predator 2 with Danny Glover. It's always a fun ride for me. So alien movies, though they don't really hit for me.

Speaker 2:

I think the only Predator movie I'm sort of like eh, this is shit, was the Predator Not the first Predator, but the original Predator, the it was like 2018 one yeah, that one had Boyd Holbrook and the Predator went to the suburbs yeah, like I'm like thinking wrong. Like the cast that had, it was all. They had really good actors in it, but like I just, I just feel it man.

Speaker 1:

It was just a bit man, I think my favorite one other than the original, of course was Predators, the one that came out in 2010 or so.

Speaker 2:

That is an underrated and very excellent movie.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, with Topher Grace, Adrian Brody, Lawrence Fishburne is in it as well. Walter Goggins is in that.

Speaker 2:

That's a stunning cast man.

Speaker 1:

If you want to watch a Predator movie and you want something that's a little bit updated from the 87 original, that's the one to go with, in my opinion. I think that one was pretty good. You don't see Topher Grayson enough. I reckon I like him. He obviously is famous for Eric Foreman from that 70s Show and Venom from Spider-Man, among other things.

Speaker 1:

Of course, we have VariableSharmon3825 that says I need more of these stories Predator vs Gladiators, predator vs Spartans, predator vs Paladins. Keep them coming Also. Oh, this is a spoiler everybody, so turn off. Don't want a spoiler if you haven't seen it Also was that Naru.

Speaker 1:

In the end Does that mean they captured Dutch and Harrigan as well? So that might be something we talk to a little bit later, brash, when we look at how this sort of affects the predator lore going forward and what it might mean for Badlands in terms of some predictions that are going around the internet right now. It is getting a lot of love. I think that ScreenRant Dan's service rated it a 9.1 out of 10, but the critics of ScreenRant rated it a 5 out of 10. And it's going very well on Rotten Tomatoes as well, with it sitting at 96% approval rating and a 7.6 on IMDb. So I think it is is pretty well loved.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot more people in your corner than mine on this one, brash, it seems yeah, yeah, I, because I've already sort of watched some reactions of people who watched it and what they thought of it, and you know the vibe I'm getting is that everyone really enjoys where they're going with it, where dan's going with it.

Speaker 1:

So I think so, and he seems like a very passionate fan of the franchise too and he he's been on a couple of podcasts now where he's talked about it and you can just see his passion shining through. So as, as a filmmaker, if they have that much passion for you know they're going to put their best effort forward. They're not going to ruin the IP. So I'm looking forward to Badlands as a Phantom Predator, but I don't know what this one did for me. Predator Killer of Killers. It's sort of. It's made me a little bit apprehensive in the future.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, we'll get onto our Phantom Fact Face-Off, shall we All right? So this is where hosts go head to head with trivia about the focus of media learning new facts along the way. When the hosts collect 25 points, we will give away a movie voucher to someone on our mailing list. Our mailing list is available for you to sign up at at wwwbandandportalspodcastcom. All right, so I might go first with this one, all right? So the Brute Predator, which is the Hulkling yutja warrior that fights the Vikings in the first instance of this movie, predator Killer of Killers, has a very technologically rudimentary weapon in comparison to ancestors that come after him. Can you explain why he only has a stupid little hammer and nothing else?

Speaker 2:

I don't know if this is correct, but from what I know of predators, when they go to hunt something they go with sort of a semi-equivalent type of weaponry, so they wouldn't go with their whole entire arsenal against people with just hammers. They'd be a bit more, because otherwise it's too easy, it's not um, a challenge. So that's why, well, that's why that's my understanding of how they act. But they've all, they've still got all the cool gadgets, so like, even, like um, but like uh, because if you look at the era period one where in japan his sort of weapons was chain whips similar to the kunai on the chain for ninjas and stuff like that, and he also had throwing stars that did explode. But that's because their technology was more advanced, but they sort of had similar-ish weaponry. I think is that the reason Because they have to match the time period.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so the UGA have a very strict code of honor and most of the time they will match their opponent, but they will also use the technology they feel is equivalent. In this particular case, in the Brute Predator, he was kind of unique to the franchise up to this point because he actually voluntarily discarded his cloaking device early in the fight and basically he is somebody who preferred to do his killing with bare hands, and I think he kind of did that because the technology of the people he was fighting at the time was very basic. The other reason that I have here is because the predators also learn from all of their previous defeats. So as they advance in time their technology also advances, much like the human race does. But you'll notice as well, like this first predator, the brute predator was damaged heavily by the spear. That sort of was part of the weaponry of the Vikings out there, and then in the very next iteration, the stealthy predator in feudal Japan. He actually utilized a spear but had modified it slightly as well to have the kick out of the sides.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so they're always constantly learning and evolving and that's part of their survival, of the fittest mentality, but they're also bound by that strict code of honor as well. So I'll give you a point for that one, because you're absolutely correct. They match their opponents in technological advancements as well, and you can even see that that's a callback to the original predator in 87 with arnold gorschenegger. When the predator does find dutch and holds him up by the the neck at the very end and climax of the movie, he could kill him and rip out his spine right there. But he sort of stands there and goes to fight him hand to hand or blade to blade and does that sort of honorable warrior sort of fight at the end, whereas if that was a Xenomorph, you know, would beat his head off straight up. So one point to you, brash.

Speaker 2:

One of the voices in this film had also played a character in one of the other prologues. Do you know who it is?

Speaker 1:

I read this one and I love this one Louis Azawa yes. One Louis Azawa yes.

Speaker 2:

I love Louis Azawa. He's such a.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he was in the original Predators and he played Hanzo, who was the Japanese warrior that had the samurai sword, and in this one I believe he plays Kenji is one of the twins' names.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he plays the main character. Yeah, from the Little.

Speaker 1:

Japan arc Yep Through this one so Well. He plays Kenji and Kiyoshi, yeah, yeah, both of the brothers. He does the voice of those two, but I thought that was a really good nod and I think it was purposefully done by Dan Trachtenberg as well. There are rumors circulating that, obviously.

Speaker 2:

Ah, so Kenji survives, and so does Arthmore and Torres. Yeah, above us.

Speaker 1:

Yes, correct. Yeah, there are rumors going around that Kenji is actually a predecessor to, or an ancestor to, hanzo, who appeared in the Predators movie, and the samurai sword that he uses may be one of one in the same as the one that Kenji uses as well, from the ship.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a. That'd be a cool callback.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, this movie is rife with Easter eggs like that and just sort of like fan touched moments or little nods to what came before. So, yeah, I think I got that one. Yeah, yes, you did Beautiful. So that's 19 points total so far. All right, my turn. Another voice actor question. Michael Biehn is a voice actor who? Well, he's a voice actor now, but he was a full screen actor and he had previously played, and been famous for playing, kyle Reese in the Terminator movie. Do you know what other role he has had that has made him one of the only actors ever to complete this trifecta?

Speaker 2:

Was he also in.

Speaker 1:

Aliens yes, correct, so he is one of the only actors to have been in a Predator movie, an Alien movie and a Terminator movie, kyle Reese being the father of John Connor, and he plays Hicks in Aliens as well, and in this one he plays Vandy, who was in Torres' arc. He was his mentor in the plane. Yeah, so there you go. Another point to you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Aliens 3. Yep Well, Aliens 3. Mine was so. In each of the periods, the aliens, the predators were all given names. Do you remember the names of all three predators?

Speaker 1:

Are these the names that the?

Speaker 2:

fans are sort of calling them no. No, these are the names that the characters named them.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so was the Hulk, the Hulk King Yutja, they called him Grendel Yep from the beowulf, yep from the beowulf mythos yep, the stealthy predator from feudal japan was now this one.

Speaker 2:

They sort of gave him two different sort of names one when they didn't know what he looked like, one when they did know what he looked like yep, the only one I can think of for him is ronan yes, so they did call him ronan before he I was unmasked, and then, once he was unmasked, they started calling him Yokai, which is demon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, both extremely cool nicknames, by the way, like if you're gonna be called something Ronin or Yokai, that is, yeah, really awesome. Um, after this, we might talk about our favorite one of the three, because, yeah, and the pilot, I don't know this one. I've read that fans are calling him Baron, like the Red Baron, but I don't know if that was done on screen or not. It was Baron.

Speaker 2:

Yep, very cool, yeah, and obviously you know, red Baron being a famous plane famous plane yep, and also, like some fans are also calling the pirate pirate Utah, because he's got the eye patch, oh yeah that's cool too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, baron, very nice. Yeah, the bald pirate of the Skies, very good. Okay, let's get mine this one. We've kind of touched on before. The end credit scene for this movie, predator, killer of Killers, features a few people that we can see in cryo tubes that are characters from past movies. One is very obviously naru from the prey movies. The one that shows before her is rumored to be a famous character from the predator franchise. Do you know who that was?

Speaker 2:

so people have been that either it's going to be either Dutch or Royce, but realistically it can't be Royce. Explain so with Royce at that time period of where they currently are Royce isn't alive yet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because that one's set in the future, isn't it? Predators is set in the future and currently, from what we can tell, Predator Killer of Killers is set at a particular point in time and the Predators have been collecting champions up until that point. So in order for it to be Royce, they would have to have some time travel technology to go forward in time in order to collect him, and currently that hasn't been explained or put into the movie. So realistically it's more likely Dutch has to be Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I reckon it'd be awesome if they get Dutch back, because they got him in the earlier game. Yep, it'd be cool for him because it depends. If they continue on with the anime it'll be a lot easier. Oh 100%. You could get Arnie back for that was going to say they're probably not going to be able to get him back for the actual movie movie, because if he's meant to be cryogenically frozen from that period of when he got stolen, there's something wrong with the crisis freezing process.

Speaker 1:

I would you know what's that thing? Deniability what is it plausible? Deniability if he was to return, because I'd love to see that so much, if he just came in and said my cryo tube broke, or something like that Like there's just been a hole in it the whole time.

Speaker 1:

Just stepped out. I'll be back, yeah. Yeah, just the cryo gases have just been slowly leaking, so he's aged slower than everybody else. Yeah, I'd love to see him back because he built basically the popularity of this franchise and his character was so iconic, macho and just bombastic. Really it's fun to watch now when you look back. It's so fun to watch him and his boys now because you're just like wow, these guys are like meatheads going into the forest and they just get grinded. So I think it was funny.

Speaker 2:

And I did also hear that. Well, some people were saying that it also could be what's his name from, from the predator. No, no, uh, no, uh, quinn mccann. Quinn mccann brought boyd holbrook, oh right, oh. But I sort of also disagree with that one, because he's meant to have started a organization like a secret military organization to combat against predators with these new Predator armor suits.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, look, I don't think he would be taken or captured easily on the Predator ships, or not as easily as Torres was, at least. So I'm hoping for Dutch. Fingers crossed for Dutch. I think a lot of fans are too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because Dutch would be a way better. Callback yeah, and it is your last question. My last question, um, my last question, which? Um? So, uh, so my last question um, there's an object that appears in the movie, that has appeared in two other movies. What is that?

Speaker 1:

object. That's the pistol. I don't know what's inscribed on that it's a year and then a name but I know that that one was in prey, gifted at the end to Naru. It's also gifted to Danny Glover's character at the end of Predator 2 as an honorable trophy of their victory, which suggests that Naru was captured before the gladiatorial fight at the end of this movie because they'd obviously already had the pistol to then give to Torres. But it's interesting that that through line has come through. Is there any other history associated with that pistol that we know about? Or is it just so far that that pistol has shown up three times? And it's interesting and a nice little nod.

Speaker 2:

So in the comics that pistol? Well, first of all, you had the question right, thank you. In the comics, that pistol? Well, first of all, you're the question right, thank you. It is the uh, it is the flip mock pistol. It was rafael adelini's pistol. In the comics it belonged to a pirate captain, rafael adelini, and was taken later on. But in the comics the pirate captain had to fight off a bunch of native people on an island and he actually teamed up with the Predator to kill all these other people. But that's now since sort of been retconned.

Speaker 2:

Because Raphael Ali turns up in the Prey probably the same character perhaps than the comics, but it's not in canon. The comics aren't in canon. But yes, he appears to be someone who's with Furrows Yep, the people involved in the fur trade, the fur trade but throughout the whole movie he doesn't seem to be exactly with the group. He's just tagging along, uh. And in the movie, uh, prey, he gets his leg cut off by the predator and helping him, uh, patch up his leg, he shows her how to use the gun and then she feeds him some medicine which cools his blood down and she notices the predator can't see him, which is how she ends up figuring out how to a way to beat him by making herself invisible. When she finds the furrow, captain and Dan's there as the predator walks past her, even though she has a pistol. But she can't see the predator with his heat vision can't heat vision, not heat vision. Thermo, thermo vision can't see her. And that's how she's like ooh yep, he can't see me. Bang in the back of her head, steals the mask. But very clever then. So it is.

Speaker 2:

She has the pistol at the end of that movie, but it is believed that she's taken and so is the pistol. And then in Predator 2, at the end the Predator 2, at the end the Predator is Greyback. After the City Hunter is killed, greyback then presents Danny Glover's character with the pistol as sort of a trophy, the fact that he won. But I believe that this is a thing that they do. They say, hey, look, you won, yeah. And because we don't understand them, they're probably also like, hey, in a couple of weeks we're going to snatch you up. Yeah, we're going to snatch you won, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And because we don't understand them, they're probably also like hey, in a couple of weeks we're going to snatch you up. Yeah, we're going to snatch you up. That leaves us we'll get onto that in a minute but that leaves us with 23 points at the end of our Fandom Fact Based Off. Next week, when we do it, we will most likely hit portalspodcastcom. We're now going to go into our set secret segments, but we're going to talk about all of the predator code law and what this means for the future of the predator franchise. The set secret segment is where hosts look behind the scenes of the focus movie to give you all the information of what went right, what went wrong and what was interesting about the way this movie was made. This week we're going to dive a little bit into the lore because there is a and it feels weird to say predator quote lore rash, considering this all originated in 1987s with a popcorn bullet and explosion flick in terms of where this creature originated, but actually has exploded in the last 40 or so years to the point where we now have from this movie predator killer of killers the notion that there are lots of different predator types. So in this one we're obviously introduced to the brute predator and then the stealthier predator, and every predator in every movie has looked different and specialized for the time period that they have arrived in. Uh, even the one in prey was more of a savage animalistic kind of predator than before. But one thing that bands these Ujur together, even though they all look different, is they all follow this strict code that they all must stick to, and it's been hinted at lots and lots throughout the movies where they have this strict code of honor, and I think it's been more further explained in the comic books and things like that. But when we're talking about the Yutja specifically, there are things that they're not allowed to do, and when they're fighting or hunting, rather, these code violations can cause them to be exiled from their clan, which I think is something that's going to be explored in Badlands. So some of the things, or when a Yujia is actually expelled from their clan and we know that there's lots of different clans of Yujia and some of them take this a little bit more seriously than others, don't One of the things that happen is you're labeled as a bad blood, and when you're a bad blood I think this was explained further in the comics as well it's an insult to the Yujia culture and basically they're marked for death and they're also exiled. So once that has happened, there is actually also a way that they can take backseas, almost like get back in. It's like they have one chance or something. So here it says when a Yujia wants to restore its own honor, it's sometimes permitted, after being outcast from that clan, to prove itself. Basically it's usually only for Yujo ranks, starting from the elite, and only one more chance is usually given after that severe punishment.

Speaker 1:

The Scarface Predator from Predator Concrete Jungle was a disgraced Yujo who brought great shame to his clan by letting his ship self-destruct in the middle of a city, and some of his technology fell into the hands of humans, which is also part of the code of the yujas. They're not allowed to share their technology and they're also not allowed to use technology. That is what's the word I'm looking for here. They have to use technology, that is, mimics the mimics, those that they're actually fighting at the time. But they also can't use technology that is not hunter worthy. So if it's like a massive grenade launching machine that destroys buildings and flattens them, uh, even though they have the technology to do that, it's not permitted and not honorable for them to use that in their hunts.

Speaker 1:

So because this this predator, scarface, did that, he was outcast to a hostile and desolate planet, uh, for about a hundred years. But after surviving these ordeals he was given a chance to redeem himself. So he proved that he was able to continue to meet the Yutja code. And he still had to go and reclaim that stolen technology as well, because one of the other code rules is that they have to leave no trace. Basically. So wherever they go, they have to leave no trace. Basically so wherever they go, they have to leave no trace behind, which basically means it forbids lesser species from possessing any future technology.

Speaker 1:

And if it is found that a human has a piece of future technology, then they are allowed to go and collect it with lethal force. So I think we see that a little bit in Killer of Killers as well, because we do see lots of different predators who engage in lots of different technologies for their time. But even when we're talking about Torres in the planes, you know it's technology that is like, for like they're both in flying machines. But we know that the Yutja have laser and homing and heat seeking weaponry. However, in this one, the baron only used the retractable chain to try and uh defeat his foes. So in that manner, you can see that they're using uh technology that is equal, so equaling the odds, and they they also then also were hunting on equal terms as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the only real thing he used was, well, he used a net pretty much, but they had the laser net, the normal net and the anchor hook that rips out the engines and tracks on the heat.

Speaker 1:

Exactly right. So, yeah, I think most of the times when I've watched a Predator movie, they have kind of stuck to that code and it kind of makes sense. Now, at the end of every movie, when they're facing that final showdown, you always see a Predator reveal themselves. That's actually part of their code as well.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, the last one's, sort of the one that they have their last face-to-face combat with.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so when the Predator's in a duel, it's also said in the novelization of the Alien vs Predator book that it is actually a rule from the Yuja Code that they must then reveal themselves to their final prey, and it's part of they call it the hunting ethic to reveal oneself to the enemy at the climax of a fight.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it makes sense. So like they've killed everyone, there's one left. So that must be the most like, that must be the most formidable of the prey. Then they do the one-on-one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I think that was also mimicked by Billy from Predator 1, where he stands on that log bridge and basically reveals himself. He gets rid of all his technology and stands there with a knife and the blade. One thing I don't like in the Predator movie is that he gets killed off screen and just screams After such a badass character the whole way through. He doesn't meet a worthy end, but obviously the Predator claims another victim. Some interesting things about what the Predators are not allowed to do whilst hunting. Do you know any of these Brash, when it comes to the prey, has to be obviously of age age. They're not allowed to kill children, but there is a caveat to that. Do you know the only time that they are allowed to kill young people?

Speaker 2:

I'll assume if it's if they were like hacking uh, no, not quite.

Speaker 1:

It's when they have a chestburster inside them ah right, if they've got a xenomorph, yeah they're basically allowed to use deadly force whenever it occurs with a xenomorph threat.

Speaker 1:

One of the other ones is that they're allowed to, or prey is not linked to anybody that is suffering or weakened by disease. They're not allowed to do that. They're not allowed to kill anyone that's elderly and anyone that is sick. Yeah, that's sick as well. An interesting thing about if they fail their hunt. So if they're not allowed, or if they're unsuccessful in their hunt, then basically the Ucho should take their own life to retain their honor and live in shame. However, this is not always done. Some cowards do live in obscurity rather than die, and it's considered a dishonorable and heinous act, basically. And then on occasion, the Uteger will send out an enforcer where their end-of-life use, you might say, would be assisted in quote marks, meaning that they would basically be killed as well.

Speaker 2:

In a way kill each other intentionally.

Speaker 1:

No, you can't kill another Uteger, unless that's the self-defense Yep or been dishonored before.

Speaker 2:

Yep or to settle a dispute. Murder is the worst crime on the planet.

Speaker 1:

Which is interesting because in Predator Killer of Killers, we do see I think it was a nod to the first Predator where they bring out the original Predator from the 87 series just before the climactic gladiatorial battle and in order to demonstrate what the collars do, the Grendel King as what they're being called the massive xenomorph with the sorry, the massive Ucha with the xenomorph cape, he basically explodes the head of one of the Ucha as well and I don't think he was shamed, but he did lose, but I thought he died at the end there.

Speaker 2:

Well, if that's the original one, he got blown up because he blew himself up, but I feel it's just probably another Utah that was either shamed or something like that, or did something cowardly or something like that, and this was his punishment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, that's true as well. Well, thinking back to the original Predator as well, he did lose to Dutch. Therefore, he was following that, that code where if he fails his hunt then he needs to end his own life. Basically. And also destroy any, because he had evidence of his technology yeah, technology as well yeah, but I think, deriving from that 87, there is that 87 movie predator.

Speaker 1:

There is so much yuja lore that they've carried over into this movie as well. Um, one thing that I thought was interesting was that little tidbit that they played at the start of predator killer of killers where it says go forth among the stars and seek only the strongest prey. They shall be your trophy. Become the killers of killers. The one thing that severely changed the Predator lore from Killer of Killers, from all the other Predator movies that came before it was I think everybody thought that those trophies were like skulls and things that they collect from their victims or prey. But from this movie they've kind of revealed that their trophies are actually the people that they then go back and abduct.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but I think I mean like if, if the predators had have killed those people, they would have taken its gulls Cause ultimately. I don't understand the other predators movies. You see them collecting the skulls from the people they kill, from like everyone there. But then I think later on it's more so that they take the skull of just the final person. But like cause, in the I think it's in the first one. In the original you can see him he's up in a tree, he's cleaning off one of the skulls. Yeah, I think it's in that one, or is it in?

Speaker 1:

the yeah, it's in the first one. The first one yeah, he cleans it off. That's when he takes Billy's spine and skull.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I say maybe that's and maybe I am correct, because I don't think he takes anyone else's skulls in that movie. So it might be the people he seems worthy enough to take trophies from, enough that their skulls are worthy trophies. So, billy, back then he stood there and he's like, yeah, come on. Like he faced him, he's like, yeah, you're worthy enough to be a trophy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, that's true, and you know, billy was also pretty dangerous and we know that the Ute consider more dangerous prey, a greater glory and honor to defeat and hunt. So it may be more prized in terms of, uh, that particular trophy, but I thought it was interesting to note that even at the end, when ursa does basically sacrifice herself to let the two other characters, kenji and torres, escape in the ship, they don't kill her. They keep her because she was one of the trophies as well and they, they basically put her back into cryo freeze to serve another day, I guess. But that's kind of the part of this that I didn't really enjoy, because I, I, I think it's, I think it's like if, if a human being is strong enough to defeat one of the yuja and they're so honor bound by their tradition, I don't think it's a very good prize or very honorable for you to go back then and catch them and put them in gladiatorial combat, because I think that the best thing that humans can do and the reason why humans are hunted so much by the yuja is because of their ingenuity, their ability to use the environment around them and the challenge they present to the predator species.

Speaker 1:

But if you pick them all up and you put them into an arena, then you're really just placing them in a disadvantaged situation where the yutja would then shine. So it's almost like that's not an honorable fight, that's not equaling the odds as part of the Yutja code, that's almost like playing into their strengths. So I don't know if I liked the end sequence of this movie and how it sets up new law for the Yutja species, because I think it detracts from that honorable victory and the fact that these humans have earned their freedom, because now, whenever I think of a predator movie previous and I watch them again knowing this, I'll think okay, was this person then surviving this movie? Picked up three months later, taken to the alien planet in the coliseum and then killed in a disadvantaged situation where they're versing a grendel king?

Speaker 2:

yeah, well, see the thing is where they're versing a Grendel king. Yeah, well, see the thing is. For me, I enjoyed that part because it sort of seemed like a War of Worlds, war World type situation where what they gather is just the strongest of all races and everything they can find, anyone who's beaten a Predator, because they go as the stars to find the strongest beings that can out in the universe. And I'm not sure if they're going to touch in on this, but there are so many different types of yuja and some look like they, some look very different and I'm wondering if that's because they may, even if one proves themselves like another species proves themselves enough, they will use that DNA, add it to their own to make themselves, and that's I mean. I don't think that's the case, but that's one way they could maybe show why dex looks so different. But I do like.

Speaker 2:

I do like it because their whole thing is fair fights. So even if it is a gladiatorial fight, they will make it fair. So, even if you have to fight, like the only reason why it probably seems unfair, well, it really seems unfair because the Grand King, he is huge, yeah, massive, bulking dude, but the ingenuity of, say the human race, because even when, like they were on three on of, say the human race, because even when they were on three on realistically it was only just Ursa and Kenji they were not so bad. They didn't really have a chance, but they were personally injuring Kenji.

Speaker 1:

See, that's where I think it's fine, because you had Ursa and Kenji there and they were given their weapon of choice.

Speaker 2:

That's not a fair fight, though.

Speaker 1:

Well, three versus one, realistically yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, two. She really said two versus one.

Speaker 1:

The Yujia have to stick to their code. The humans definitely don't.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's realistically not true. That's two on one. That's what I mean. No-transcript. Like she is quite talented and um, if she played it smart and was like sort of like counterattacked more than sort of just attacked she probably could.

Speaker 1:

I think that's that's like. Her strength was obviously a strong offensive style, and then Kenji's was almost reactive and defensive in that way, and then Torres's was the ingenuity of humans based on his machinery, knowledge and wiliness. I think he's the one that got the short straw in this and why I don't think it can be considered kind of a fair fight for him, because if they wanted to play to his strengths, then give him a flying vehicle. That's kind of. Or give him a vehicle, not a flintlock pistol, because he he didn't shoot down the predator with a flintlock pistol, he shot them down with a, with a, with an aircraft. That's yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's the part that kind of flunked me on that and how it doesn't really fit with the, the yuja code, but then also the fact that they're taking humans that have survived and gained their honor through the Yutja code and their survival. They've earned that and then now they're going to come and pinch them and take them and put them in cryosleep to serve another day once they've completed. It's almost like when we do it in schools. It's like, okay, you've completed your assessment here, but now here's another assessment after that. That's just as hard and almost twice as deadly.

Speaker 2:

It's just like but the predators are all about the hunt. The Utyr are always about the hunt. So even the movie predators that's what I think they are I think all those people that are in the predators are cryogenically frozen people that put them on a planet?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because they're in a game preserve, basically, yeah, yeah. And I think it's important to remember as well that the Yutja are a bunch of different clans, it's not just one clan representing the whole thing. So if we see that that happens, for example, where this one Yutja clan places a bunch of people onto a game reserve and hunts them, that might be them honoring their portion of the code or their interpretation of the code, whereas this one that we saw in Predator Killer of Killers, the Grendel King, this is his interpretation of that Predator code, where he believes in the hunt for one thing but then also obviously believes in that survival of the fittest, because it's almost like round two ding, ding, ding, let's go. But yeah, that's kind of why I didn't really sort of like it, because of how it changes the predator law and it's almost a fundamental change in terms of the yuja's like core belief. So I don't know if I can sort of get past it, like if it was just the first three segments in terms of the, the sword, the shield, the sword and then the bullet. If that was it, I'd be fine with that, um, and I'd scrap the last coliseum fight and extend those pieces out more so we can get more character depth.

Speaker 1:

Because, yeah, I think for this one as well, one thing that I didn't sort of take to was because the pieces were so small, the predators didn't like they're supposed to be hard to beat, they're supposed to be formidable and you're supposed to feel like the odds are tremendously against you. And I did feel like that. That was the case, but I feel like in the short time frame that we had with them 20 or so minutes there wasn't enough for for that to to shine. And if you're thinking about fair fights as well, where do we sit on the the kenji and uh kiyoshi versing the ronin predator like a two versus one? Where do we sit with that? It's just too many.

Speaker 2:

Well, the Predators are advanced and that's why they always hunt multiple people. So they are stronger, they're better at technology, so they hunt more people because they are advanced and that them is making it fair. So more of them versing people is more fair, because they're like well, stronger, we're smarter, we've got more, better technology, we're probably going to kill you all. You're probably not going to survive. And then one survives and it's like, oh, heyo, that doesn't happen often.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, in every Predator movie that we've seen, it has happened well that's it like but yeah, but you can't just have a predator movie where, like, just everyone just dies.

Speaker 1:

It's like I would watch that movie. No, the predator wins.

Speaker 2:

It's like yeah, because, like those movies are like, oh, you meant to, you meant to root for the humans to win, yeah, or the main character of those humans to win. He's meant to be the big heroic person who beats the big alien. But realistically, like even with dutch and that and even with these ones and any other Predator movie, the Predators would absolutely just annihilate all of them with ease, yeah, in a gladiatorial combat.

Speaker 1:

if he picked all of Dutch's crew and Dutch up and put them in the gladiatorial combat arena, he would absolutely cream the floor with all of them. But he used the environment and the places around him in the original Predator movie to take them out one by one and then revealed himself to Dutch, who was the last surviving member, fully succumbing to the Uteja code. And then Dutch gets taken away in a helicopter and two months later he gets taken up again to fight in an arena all by himself. Well, we don't know. That's Dutch, it's Dutch man.

Speaker 2:

Well, no, that's the thing, though. Just because they may be a special case, like with Dutch, like he gets fired from the helicopter, he may get taken later on, like who really knows. But I feel like, because, if you look at it that way, what? So we've got Dutch survives. We've got Donald Glover's character who survives. We've got Nuru's character who survives. We've got Nuru's character who survives, yep, nuru, nuru's character who survives. Royce survives as well. But got Royce, that's in the future. Yep, but then that's what?

Speaker 2:

four, yeah and I think over, like if you don't count the new ones, now four, over a period of since 849 BC. Thousands of years, probably, even probably before um.

Speaker 1:

Before.

Speaker 2:

Ursa. Even before then, like before Ursa, yeah, Um, they've been hunting there.

Speaker 1:

plus Hadeon caught other planets and other aliens around the universe, which we saw in the cryo chamber as well in that last scene showing that they don't just hunt humans. I think that was actually an important addition, because it's not just humans that they go and they find and they hunt. They do go to other planets, which basically expanded the universe even more. I actually saw this thing that Dan Trachtenberg was talking about, because a lot of the people that have been watching trailers and closely watching some of the media have spotted one of the alien skulls from Independence Day as well, which is also a product owned by 20th Century Fox. So there's even talks of integrating all of that, which I'm not sure how I feel about, but I think it's. So far a lot of the nods and Easter eggs in Predator Killer of Killers has been handled pretty well and it's almost like, oh, that was cool because I know it and it's not like a bad sort of crossover at this point anyway, yeah, but it also means that Donald Glover's character probably got captured as well.

Speaker 2:

So, like, here's your trophy and now for the next trick. But yeah, because I don't mind that, because, like, what they're doing is they're finding the best of the best, like they're going out to the stars to hunt the best things they can find to hunt, and then, when one, when something wins, they're like damn that's something special, like they're drafting the best team of killers that the universe has to offer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and if they can get the best of the best, because if they just go around and just keep killing everything and let the ones that are really good just grow old or die, then they're missing out on some other future u-type um, challenging that same thing that has killed one before and beating that person, escalating them to a high echelon because they beat some, beat a person or a thing that another one couldn't that a previous iteration?

Speaker 1:

yeah, because it's almost like they would get stagnant or stale if they didn't defeat what had previously defeated them in the past and the process of time. Obviously, time is the biggest killer of all. So if you're going to let Dutch age out until he's 87 and becomes the governor of California, and then you come to get him, it's like it's going to hit a bit different. Yeah, it's going to hit a bit different and send all your progeny out to get him in and test against the same metal.

Speaker 2:

And, as you said before too, it's also about learning from their losses. We lost that person before. Do you want us to try again, different?

Speaker 1:

tactics and see if we win. Yeah, I can see all your very valid points in terms of I'm thinking of it in terms of the human's perspective, where it's just like I just survived. It's just like I just survived, I get my honor, I get my survivable, and then massive tractor beam in the middle of your backyard while you're cooking sausages for your family, safe and sound In the shit again.

Speaker 2:

But fuck the humans, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, predator Badlands is going to talk about the predator being the protagonist, so we are definitely on the fuck the humans train right now.

Speaker 2:

But I think, yeah, with the Bad Badlands. I think the good point and the one like is yeah, I'm a bit I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I think the best thing that they could do is not include humans yeah, or at least have them play as secondary characters no, I reckon don't even have them at all, because I think that's going to detract from, as you said, like it's going to detract from the predator, cause, like a lot of people, we change more for the humans.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like there are some people like me who would much rather the predators killed the humans, but there are some people who, like, just sort of automatically just lean towards the humans as the heroes, protagonists, people of interest. Yep, yeah, like people. It's like people in D&D who always pick humans instead of picking other races. I do that. That's probably why you don't like it. That's probably why you hate the fact that it might be the Predators being the protagonists and not humans.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's probably it too.

Speaker 2:

Because you're a human picker. You're a human picker, you're a human lover.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, predator of Predators actually gives us like the first formal look at the Yutra Codex, like the actual text. And that's what we were talking about before when we said you know, go to the stars, collect the best trophies ever. The killer of killers, and you know, what they've done here is they've expanded the universe to the point where they can really do anything. In this one they've decided to go. We wanted to talk a little bit about that. What are your thoughts on how this opens up the franchise and do you think it was a good move to animate this movie? Killer of Killers Brash.

Speaker 2:

I think it looks cool, like everything looks cool. The only issue I have is now it's set a precedent of look at all these humans doing cool shit jumping from buildings to buildings, throwing out smoke bombs and throwing knives at the same time time, or busting through walls and landing in ponds and shit getting up like it's fucking nothing, like it sort of takes away from the realism of what you've found in that, like you find the movies, even though with even the newer movies, like they do some things that you're like that probably couldn't happen, because if you're like, wow, all these humans don't like, even like earth is just going apeshit with the shields, just absolutely decimating a whole, entire army of people, yeah, it's like I think, yeah, it's obviously not realism, but I think that's why the we, we have to know as an audience, why the predators selected them out of every human on the, on the entire planet.

Speaker 2:

So they have to be the best of the best at the time.

Speaker 2:

So they're going to be performing at a, at a level that is inhuman almost which backs up my human lover argument here because they're not quite human, they're better than human, they're ultra human yeah, that's the thing I know like, but, um, but it was also really cool and I really enjoyed it, like as much as I was just harping on about um kenji's scene and that how he's jumping around roof tops and shit and doing his cool stuff like it was fucking cool and I loved it every second of it. It was like, wow, if I had a D&D character, that's what my D&D character would be like. Yeah, a human, no, a tabaxi monk who can jump from rooftop to rooftop and slide around doing acrobatic cool shit.

Speaker 1:

I think that the animation, for me, was good. It allows them to do a whole lot more in terms of that, because getting a stunt double to do those kinds of things is absolutely, you know, out of the realm of reality. So it opens the door to that. It's visually stunning to watch. I think the art style is beautiful.

Speaker 1:

The thing with me was there were some moments throughout this where I thought like that, because it did look a little janky on occasion. I remember a fight, specifically in the sword arc, which featured ursa and the viking, when she when it was the back shot by the shield, the shield arc, the shield arc, yes, sorry, and she was moving through the the town and slaying everybody left to right and you were seeing her from the back. I felt like the frame rate was just lagging on that and I didn't. It sort of drew me out of it and became distracting at times. I don't know if that is a feature of this animation. It wasn't intended that way. If they're going to do more, I hope they'll sort of fix that, but that kind of detracted me from it as well.

Speaker 1:

But I do enjoy that. It allows us to then also get lots of different looking predators, because that expands the species as well. It expands the lore and the canon, because we can see lots of different types of predators that are adapted to lots of different specializations, instead of being limited by prosthetics but then also limited by whatever cgi we can do at the time. So to me, I think animation is a good move. Doesn't mean I don't want to see any live action predator, don't want to not see any live action predators anymore. I definitely do, but I think this will give us more cool shit that humans do basically.

Speaker 2:

I think one of the reasons that I said it the best. I want to see more of this like them against Spartans, them against the Athens, them against Romans, them against Celtics, them against fucking Persians, people from all eras. And because every single one of those things people from all eras and shit like that, because every single one of those things like those sort of eras have some sort of person that could like what if they go back to Greece and Athens and they fight abandoned people and one of them like is Hercules.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And then one of the trials that we know about, where he fought, you know, the Nemean lion or whatever it was, was actually a predator. That's cool.

Speaker 2:

Same with like the Spartans, and maybe it was like the.

Speaker 1:

Well, how could they not pick a Spartan to fight a predator?

Speaker 2:

because 300 of those guys just yeah, absolutely but like maybe in that Persian army, instead of like when they have fought the Persians at the Battle of Thermopolis In amongst that battle. They could have been like because in the movie 300 they had like put like some of the Persians that were all like balking, weird looking, yeah, a bit deformed. They could have had like one of that like they could have thought it was a Persian but really it was a um predator, and it could be like the king arthur and the knife of the round table.

Speaker 1:

yes, that would be cool too well, yeah, so going in the green knight and the green knight was actually a predator like that's where this shines. I think that's where dan trachtenberg shines, is where he he has taken the predators, put them in different time periods, and I think that's what everyone loved about it, which is why I do like the first three iterations. I would have watched an hour and a half animated movie on ursa, an hour and a half animated movie on Ursa, an hour and a half animated movie on Kenji, and then an hour and a half animated movie on Torres. I didn't need the end part and that's what sort of detracted me from it. I would happily watch more of those in different time periods.

Speaker 2:

The only reason why it was done is probably a precursor for the Badlands movie.

Speaker 1:

I don't like that either. I don't like media and movies serving as precursors for the next thing that's coming, just for the sake of it being the next thing that's coming, if it's the second in the trilogy there's also like dip these toes in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so he's like all right, so I've got this bad little movie coming up. But what if we do this project first the lore they'll show you some like. At the end they'll show you some more about lore. They'll also dip some toes into animation and some fight scenes and see how people like it and see if they want more. So maybe they'll do like a whole animated series of just or more movies or just even maybe a series of like hour long episodes of pros fighting different humans in different time periods and then maybe even fighting other aliens, like the first time they meet a xenomorph or something.

Speaker 2:

And they could do that as a whole, entire TV series of just hour long, I'd watch the shit out of that. Yeah, shows of just predators hunting different things and different humans in different time periods, and then the movies will go on talking more about their lore and shit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I think that's what this one does. It kind of introduces that codex, and I think that's what Dan Trachtenberg wanted us to know. He wanted us to know that this is a diverse species. They do have a lore, they do have a code. He wanted to update us on things that have been happening to Naru and the fact that we may see characters in Badlands from hype as a movie that stands alone on its own, though I would take the first three parts of this the shield, the sword and the bullet.

Speaker 1:

That was enough for me. Yeah, the end was just yeah, not so much. Alright, let's get into our MVTs and then we'll rate it. Alright, this is our most valuable takeaway, the heart and soul of the podcast, where we break down the one thing that hit harder, stuck longest and taught us something new from what we just watched. It is our moment to spotlight the takeaway that made us think, feel or see things differently. This is what we learned from Predator Killer of Killers 2025. We learned that it is not beneficial to be the strongest human on the planet.

Speaker 2:

Be weak, be defenseless, oh, on the planet. Be weak, be defenseless, oh, but no, but don't be the weakest, because that's who they hunt for food.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Be middling Be middle Average Be mediocre.

Speaker 1:

No, but for real. We actually had a bit of a chat about this and we talked about that end scene and how they all overcame their differences in the end to then become a team and a unit. They overcame language barrier and they saw the strengths in each other and they were able to defeat a superior foe. So that was kind of our MVP for this movie, where, you know, they faced insurmountable odds. They were in a situation all of them, even in their individual stories where they were, their back was against the wall, basically, which is a feature of all Predator movies and it shows that human ingenuity, that rascliness of us as a species and, um, basically the fact that we work better together than we do alone. We are the sum of our individual strengths. When combined with others, individual strengths can pay off massive dividends. When you're facing a challenge doesn't have to always be when you're fighting a predator either it.

Speaker 2:

It can be in lots of different situations, just in life imagine if we all, every single person on this planet, put their heads together and put all their technologies together and work together, we could already be out in the stars. Yeah, I got a little bit off topic, but my hope for the future is that of like Star Trek.

Speaker 1:

Frank is listening to this right now and he is just like clapping your praises, because Star Trek is 100% aspirational and it's basically Gene Roddenberry's theory of what if humans did basically this what if they all worked together? What if they put aside all their differences? What if they pooled all their resources and just worked for the betterment of humanity? And I think they do this in a mini sort of way in Predator Killer of Killers in the end Colosseum, when they're given all their weapons, they're given all their tools and they use all of their strengths and you know, even to the point where Ursa sort of sacrifices. At the end she sort of knows what she wants as her purpose and she helps the other two get away in that manner as well. It's that, that strength values that they're talking about when you're sort of moving towards a common goal and and the taurus is sort of like the linchpin for it.

Speaker 2:

so when he, but both of them pretty much at the same time. So when ursa is about to kill Kenji with the axe, he shoots the axe. Yeah, and in the post it looks exactly like the last time she pretty much saw her son alive after he's thrown the spear. Yeah, Anders, and for Kenji it's like when he was about to get killed by the Predator and then his brother came in and blocked it out of the way and sort of took that.

Speaker 1:

The way that he did so for Ernst's axe. Once again, onto Torres, yeah, onto.

Speaker 2:

Torres by shooting the axe and blocking the axe away, and then, immediately after that, he had a scooped up knee. But then he seized the hand of the other Predator with the arm and he goes ooh, they've used this thing to set off that person's wristband, and that becomes like the perceptiveness and the ingenuity of Of his strength. Yeah, yeah, and he uses that.

Speaker 1:

That's the other thing. How is it a fair fight when you're bringing in creatures and animals and vehicles and stuff to?

Speaker 2:

fight Because they weren't killing each other. They had to get rid of it, that's the point, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

that's the point. They were supposed to dwindle each other down to one one person and they and Kenji stopped fighting.

Speaker 2:

Hester was like oh, I'll kill you, and then was like hesitant about it because they were like after seeing what happened to Torres, and then like that they were hesitant. Then they're like, well, oh, they're hesitant to start because they like talking everything's like these guys aren't doing much killing, yeah, and then send in the beast exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I think that the teamwork shines through at the end of this movie and um, all three characters, or two of the characters, are able to escape as a result. So three did escape, but yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then Ursa's line at the end don't avenge me. Yeah, the opposite from like her father when the wizard told her to avenge him. Are you trying to?

Speaker 1:

tell me, brash, that all three of these characters in a 20 minute or 25 minute period did actually go through some character arc and journey, huge, huge. Oh see, I don't know if I got that, but Because, yeah, because Ursa's father told her to avenge him.

Speaker 2:

She then told her son, if she is to fall, to avenge her, yeah, and then it's just a constant, repetitive vengeance cycle that's never going to end. And at the end, when she sees them working together and she's like I can help these people escape and live and if I was to tell them to avenge me, all that would happen is they come back and be in the same situation so she's like there's a repetitive cycle yeah, and so she's like don't have, don't.

Speaker 2:

She says so she's like sending him off, saying don't avenge me, escape and be free, and then she sacrifices herself to let them escape, and then with kenji, kenji, um, he's the one who loses a leg because instead of he loses an arm.

Speaker 2:

I'm who loses a leg because instead of no, he loses an arm Arm sorry Because instead of the brother stopping him from getting hurt, he sees a coming and pushes Ursa out of the way and takes the hit. So it was him sort of returning the favor from what his brother did to save his life, because his brother ended up dying because he didn't take the hit. Brother took the hit instead and his brother ended up dying. So that's why he didn't want to see her die taking a hit that he can see coming. So he pushes her out of the way to take the hit instead.

Speaker 1:

And then Torres was flying a plane. Yeah, that was the one where I had to suspend the most disbelief, because he sat in the chair and he's just like. He just felt it. You know, he just felt it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's got that. He gets that mojo from his dad when his dad's in the car.

Speaker 2:

And the same thing when he the plane, he's like. He's like, yeah, she's ready to fly. And this time, instead of panicking and searching, he's trying to fix the plane. And he's complaining about not being. He's like, oh, I'm not a mechanic, blah, blah. And then he goes um, if I can get to work, I could fly. And the guy's like, all right, and he turns on and the engine bus. And he turns on the engine bus and they all go out to fly. And Anders is like no, you're not coming. He's like, but I'm a pilot. He's like, are you? Because he wants to be a pilot. But, like his father said, he wants to be a pilot but he doesn't know how all everything works to be a pilot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, or even I think think it also he hadn't developed the instinct which is how he's able to feel, how, how to fly? Yeah, and I liked how none of those characters ever told him he wasn't. They never told him he wasn't a pilot, they just questioned him.

Speaker 2:

So he would then question what he needs to do, and he would think about it more and try and become what he wants to be?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so encouraging him in that way. All right, you ready to rate it? Yes, all right, let's rate it and rank it. Each host gets five stars, one for each category. We have story and script, characters and performance, direction and tone, visuals and soundtrack and also our overall enjoyment If it nailed it, it gets one of our stars. If enjoyment If it nailed it, it gets one of our stars. If it flopped, no star at all. If it almost stuck the landing, it gets half that star and at the end each host lands on a personal score out of five and we take the average to update our official Letterboxd on a board. If you want to follow that along, you can track us. We are at Phantom Portals on Letterboxd.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to disappoint you with this one Brash, first off story and script. I gave it no star. I think that this was an action blockbuster smash, like there is a lot of great fight scenes in this. I think that the script and the dialogue there wasn't that much of it and Torres' dialogue, especially like the protagonist just kind of like talking to himself, that's yeah. I guess it felt like filler dialogue to me.

Speaker 1:

There wasn't much emotional sort of resonance there for me anyway, but with the script and the story, as we said before, I think that this purpose of Predator Killer of Killers was to bridge the gap between Prey and Badlands, just to get people excited and talking in the conversation about Badlands and maybe drop a little bit of lore that Dan Trachtenberg wanted us to know before Badlands came around. So there weren't too many questions about the movie that is coming out In story as well. I gave it no star because I feel like it messes with the Predator lore a bit too much with that end scene In my opinion. I may be wrong, but in my opinion, yeah, no star. Sorry, what about you?

Speaker 2:

I'm giving it a half star because I thought it was absolutely amazing. I loved Ursa's story.

Speaker 1:

I loved Engie's story that's common from what I've read um I just yeah, he just for me, he just didn't fit the bill.

Speaker 2:

I mean, like it showed, like if he had a bean, um say, less mechanically minds, but just smart, and then then relied on things he'd like photographic memory, assumption of things he'd learned from his father, who was a mechanic, and added those two together, I think that would have been a lot better, because that would, because he seemed, he seemed to like see it in realism a bit more other than yeah, he seemed to be the most unreal, like climbing out in the realism a bit more other than, yeah, he seemed to be the most unreal, like climbing out in the wing and kicking off the thing, kicking off the engine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it just all seems, yeah, just a bit too unreal, whereas, like I can get past Kenji jumping from rooftop to rooftop and sliding down things and stuff like that. I can get past that because he probably went through an immense amount of training to do that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was basically his whole life, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Whereas Torres was a kid that got drafted, and then, a few years later, he became a pilot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was like two or three years, and before that he was just watching the plane fly by. He was like why?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I want to do that. And I was like oh yeah, I liked the character and I liked what they did with him to unbelievable yeah.

Speaker 1:

That character also, by the way, we have not mentioned is voiced by Rick Gonzalez, who is famous for playing Timo Kroos in Coach Carter. He's the guy that has to do all the push-ups, so I think he does a like he's also.

Speaker 2:

I can't remember the superhero name, but he was in Arrow for like the last, like five seasons of Arrow, varro's sidekicks Hmm, mad Dog.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, he is too Correct yeah.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and like Anders, the voice of Anders Yep, there's Damien Hoss from Smosh, the YouTube channel.

Speaker 1:

Oh, there you go oh yeah, damien's here, very nice.

Speaker 1:

Oh, hass, sorry, hass, damien, hass. Let's get into characters and performances. I liked the concept of each character, but I don't think there was he talking to you. Make makes me rethink, because initially when I watched it I was like there's not enough depth here for me to like these and root for these human characters versing the predator. Basically, when they were fighting the predator, I really wouldn't have minded if they lived or died. But now, looking at it, I think there was some subtleties that I missed. But I think I've unfairly given this zero stars performance wise. I think all the voice actors killed it. There wasn't one where I was like that's jarring. I think they all did quite a good job, nothing like completely outstanding that blew me away, but there wasn't anything wrong with it. Um, I think I've been a bit harsh on the characters, though I think I'm going to give it half a star when I initially gave it zero. So, brash, you've changed your mind today. Half a star for me.

Speaker 2:

I'm giving it a half star as well because I, again, I love the characters, especially Kenji and Ursa. Again, they were my favourite characters, but probably more so Ursa yep, who was your favourite.

Speaker 1:

Predator.

Speaker 2:

I would have to say the Ronin Predator. He was probably my favorite just because he was cool as shit. Yeah, and Kenji was cool as shit as well.

Speaker 1:

Well, my favorite character was Kenji. My favorite Predator was Grendel, the.

Speaker 2:

Brute.

Speaker 1:

Hulkling at the start.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so yeah. No, I just loved Ursa because I reckon, out of all of them, she has the biggest growth.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yes, 100%.

Speaker 2:

Then probably secondary would be Kenji, yeah, and then Torres, sort of really he more, just so starts to believe in himself more. Yeah, I think that's sort of his growth. He sort of understands himself more and understands what's going on around him more.

Speaker 1:

I feel like there's more to come from Torres, Like maybe I don't know if he's going to be in Badlands.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because he's in Badlands, so he can't fully intact.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like maybe he's the one that we'll see later on in Badlands, because we didn't really get an arc from him per se. So I think that maybe Dan Trachtenberg has some more plans for him in the future. But all right, let's go on to Dan Trachtenberg and go direction tone. So I think for what they were trying to do, they picked the perfect medium in terms of animation. That was a very good choice.

Speaker 1:

This is loud, fast and fun. It's like it's a brutal spectacle as well, obviously not an animation for kids. It's rated R and I think that that carries on with the predator style as well. It enables them to do heaps and heaps. In terms of the human protagonist, which we talked about as well, I think the tone fits. The only thing for me was some of the director's choices around duration and the four act structure in terms of having the shield, the sword, the bullet and then the Colosseum fight at the end. I think it would have been better if they decided to do just those three acts with the people, without the Colosseum act at the end. So for me, I think it's going to be half a star.

Speaker 2:

This is probably where I'll give it a full star.

Speaker 2:

Love Dan's work I do Like, especially coming from like Prey Yep, that was amazing, loves Prey and then coming to this and, yeah, because this is where we different opinions, because I loved the culmination of everything coming together at the Coliseum at the end, mm, because really, like I don't know, because I haven't really read any of the comics, this whole thing with the Coliseum and I don't know if it's in there or not, but like in the comics, it could explain that they do this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they might be things we're missing and even though, like the comics technically I think most of the comics technically aren't canon or anything like that I think they pick up the ideas in that from the comics. So there might be things in the comics where this is something what they do and for me, like the way I look at it, makes sense for them to do this because, as I said before, why waste talent when they find it? Yeah, but so, and I think it's, yeah, dipping the water and I'm hoping it's dipping the waters into showing more of the different fights between different humans and predators in the future, possibly in animation, cause I think it was probably the best thing to do go to animation with this, especially when they want to, if they want to show off different phrases and different um humans, different errors.

Speaker 1:

The easiest, probably the easiest, the best way to do that is through animation yeah, I feel like that's um answering a lot of the fans want as well, because that's echoed throughout. As soon as prey came out, everybody would be was saying give us this in different time periods.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, which is amazing for a filmmaker to hear, because that's easily replicated, you know oh and yeah, because, like, we've got how many different cultures on this planet and in different time periods, and then if you outstretch that to different planets with different creatures, like it's almost endless the possibilities they could do. So I, I believe direction wise dan is going in the absolute correct direction and this was just sort of a taste of things to come, which got me really excited. And, as I said, like, as you said, like um, being a predator fan toys has always been good, but I think this has really rekindled. Like whenever, like, a new predator movie came out or a new alien movie came out or something like that, like Alien Romulus that just came out not so long ago, that sort of re-spiked my interest in like the whole Aliens again.

Speaker 2:

Because really, when they put out like Alien vs Predator, I was like what the fuck is this shit? Yeah, it sort of dwindled and I was like ugh, okay, they just made. Yeah, it sort of dwindled and I was like ugh, okay, that just meant to shit. And now it's sort of like with Alien Romulus tying in like a bunch of the Aliens movies and Prometheus and everything like that, and then down with Killer of Killers, it sort of, and with Prey and Killers of Killers. It's sort of all bringing everything back up in an starting way. That's motivating me to be like fuck, yes, I can't wait for more of this shit yeah, well, that's exactly what they would have wanted to do.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, full star seems well deserved from your perspective. Let's go to visuals and sound. So for this one, I think the animation was a good choice as well. The 2D animation looks absolutely beautiful like it's beautifully drawn and the style is really amazing too. The sound design does carry through the whole entire film.

Speaker 1:

The only thing that I had a problem with was the call it janky, I guess, or jarring sort of frame rate in some instances, and it picked up, but then it would drop back and I think it was. Yeah, it was a little bit too distracting for me in that way, which is a shame, because I liked the actual art style. I think there's still images. They looked absolutely perfect and amazing and beautiful. I think.

Speaker 1:

In terms of character design, each character of the human characters were really well designed, and even all the predators and the way they designed them and the way they presented their technology was really good as well. I think the jankiness of it in a few scenes here and there isn't enough for me to detract it from what I want to give it, which is a full star. So 100 full star for me on visuals and sound looks good is a beautiful, amazing choice to go in as animation. Just a few things to sort of pick up from there, but not enough to detract any points I'm a huge fan of two because I love the arcane series.

Speaker 2:

He's trying to league of legends, like the animation is really cool, sounds really cool, everything's really cool. But I don't know, is there something about this kind of animation that it I don't know, like it all looks really cool and flashy, but for me it's just especially in high, like speed and like, especially like the plane, like the dog fights when going through the city. I just watched that and it just seemed like a blur of color to me, yep, and it was like it's like a little bit too much. I would have preferred that like a like for that kind of style. Like that, this kind of style, something a bit more like.

Speaker 1:

Firm lined.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, a little bit more firm lined Cause, like even, yeah, as you said, like I think that's what it was with two, when I was watching the Ursa scene, when she's taking out lots of people because everything's moving around so quick, everything just seems a bit blurred and frazzled and like I was trying to capture because you can see in the background of, like her other warriors coming in and killing people in the background and I was like trying to spot them at the same time or trying to watch Ursa run through and like like I don't know, and because it's how it's drawn it, just it just yeah, seemed really blurred like for me.

Speaker 2:

I think the best fight scene for me was the, or the best drawn fight scene for me was the Kenji one yeah, I agree with that um, and I think that's because, especially like with somehow summer fight, it's more purposeful and more graceful and fluid as well yeah, instead of being more chaotic, like what's um ursa and the vikings are, and let's carry like a dog fight in the sky with a bunch of planes going like what in all?

Speaker 1:

yeah, that that was ambitious. I've got to give it to dan track them both for that.

Speaker 2:

Animating that in this style very ambitious, oh 100 and like it doesn't say like nothing wrong. They're still absolutely amazing, but I think especially, yeah, with the Ursa and Taurus ones, because of how chaotic and how everything was going at once and I found this too in actually Arcane in some of the fight scenes there that it seemed a bit too chaotic for the type of art style. Yeah, yeah. So for me I think I'll have to give it a half star.

Speaker 1:

Half a star, all right, and then down to our last category, which is enjoyment and rewatchability. I'd probably rewatch this. I think it would end up sitting in one of those guilty pleasure zones for me, especially for the action sequences if they were better animated in some points as well. But enjoyment-wise I think it like I couldn't get past the fact that it took away a lot of what I perceived is what I loved about the predator race, the yuja. So I'm gonna give it half a star for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I wouldn't say that they carnage the predator lore, because I think that there are a lot of things that they did touch on and there are a lot of things that you can look at the predator codex or the yuja codex ads and say, yes, a couple of those boxes were ticked. For me, I think that there's kind of like not enough for me to say whether it was damaging to the lore or whether it was adding to the lore in a positive way, because there is a lot of movies that came before it that they'd be detracting from and a lot of comic books and things like that that they'd be detracting from too. So yeah, I think half a star for me for that one.

Speaker 2:

I'm giving it a full star. I loved it. I watched it again many times more, so I'll probably more so watch it for the fight scenes. That'll probably be like the reason why we're just because I'm like, oh something cool. I'll watch those fight scenes and try and focus more so I can try taking more detail instead of just seeing blurs or color. But, um, maybe, maybe slow it down a little bit and run it like 1.75 speed or something.

Speaker 1:

So that means that I've given it a 2.5 and you've given it a 3.5. So it sits firmly on an average of 3 out of 5. So let's see where that'll sit for us on our fandom portals on a board, all right. So we've got it rated at 14th place. It's sitting below Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and above Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the 1990 version with those horrible animatronic suits. So that is where it sits. Let's do our sign-offs.

Speaker 1:

That was the Phantom Portals podcast episode on Predator Killer of Killers from 2025. We want to thank you for joining us. As always, our giveaway will be active pretty much as of next episode. I reckon Barash and I will get our stuff together and get some points to get those 25 points for you, and a movie voucher will be up for grabs for you. If you wanted to join our mailing list and be in the running to get it, you can do so at wwwfandomportalpodcastcom. If you want to have your opinion read on the podcast, then you can do so by joining our socials, which is Threads, instagram and Reddit.

Speaker 1:

We're always everywhere at Fandom Portals and next week we have a very special guest coming on the podcast. It is Jeffrey Reddick, who is the amazing creator of the Final Destination franchise. He wrote the screenplay for Final Destination 1, and he is coming on the podcast to talk everything about the Final Destination series, his career so far and also the newest movie in that franchise, final Destination Bloodlines, which I really, really love. So tune in next week for our episode with our special guest, jeffrey Ruddick, and share all our episodes with a friend. Those that like movies, those that like Predators we had a bit of a debate here on Killer of Killers, but tell us what you think. Brash In the trees? What's in the trees?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm pretty sure. Isn't that one of the lines from the first movie?

Speaker 1:

yeah, it is if it bleeds, we can kill it. Alright. This is Aaron signing off. And, as Arnold Schwarzenegger said in the original Predator movies, stick around, dylan, you son of a bitch.

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Aaron Davies

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Adam Brasher

Co-host

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