Newsflash: Dillon Is the Lando Calrissian of 'Predator'

🖐 The Friday High Five #128

It’s not just the mustache. 20th Century Fox

Welcome to another Mullet edition of the Friday High 5.

• Business in the front: 5 things I enjoyed this week, free to all.

• Party in the back: A deeper exploration of something on my mind, for supporters everyone this week!

Business in the front

Predator

20th Century Fox

Vibe: The greatest action movie of all time?

I know all the contenders and we’re not going to have that debate here, not now. But for me, personally, Predator is my favorite. It starts a little slow and the raid on the communist camp is full of 80s cheese. But the last hour is just incredible. It’s also secretly a movie about bromances.

I revisited it this week to introduce my son to it, that way he’d have context on more of my movie references. Eventually he’ll fully understand everything I’m saying, because movie quotes are my love language.

It’s funny when you rewatch a movie you know so well and something new occurs to you. It doesn’t always happen, and it only happens to me with certain movies. Predator is one of those. This go-around, I was struck by how much Dillon (Carl Weathers, RIP king) reminded me of Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams). More on that below.

Landman

Paramount

Vibe: Yellowstone, but oil instead of cattle.

It should be said that Landman has a very specific PoV: Oil isn’t bad, actually. It’s not even a necessary evil. It’s just necessary.

Take that how you want, but the argument Landman makes is persuasive enough to make me stop and think. It directly takes on green energy—what the show calls alternative energy—and points out how oil enables it all. The fact that a lifetime oilman (Billy Bob) is the one making the argument almost doesn’t matter. The drama’s so good, and Billy Bob is so riveting, you get sucked in even when you believe oil is the most bad.

Landman has that familiar Taylor Sheridan aesthetic—stoic, wind-burnt men working dangerous jobs and sexy-but-smart women who cuss and drink like pirates. I’d almost wonder if Sheridan was trying to say something novel by repeating these themes, perhaps that this rugged, life-or-death living creates such men and women. But it also could be that he just really loves when women in bras or pant suits drop f-bombs.

I don’t think there’s any greater meaning behind it, is what I’m saying. Landman is very smart, but also not that smart. It is addictively watchable though.

Landman streams on Paramount, which I wouldn’t pay for because they’re the shit heels that canceled Colbert after Trump’s feelings were hurt; worth a free trial if you can swing it, like I did.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Vibe: We’re gonna die out in the long run and the long run isn’t that far off.

I don’t even remember how this book got on my ‘books to checkout from the library’ list. I don’t generally ponder the end of mankind. Though 2025’s unending wave of calamities continually forces my hand.

There have been 5 mass extinctions—as in, like 99% of everything dead—in the earth’s history, plus lots of minor ones. The premise of the book is that we are knocking on door #6. That mankind is actually speed running this extinction in record-breaking fashion. The book was published in 2015, and much of the research was conducted in the years prior, when there was still time, potentially, if we did the sensible thing.

We all know how that turned out. Not only have we done basically nothing about the pending apocalypse, America is actively taking steps to make it worse.

I keep thinking about how the world came together during the ozone crisis and banned products causing the hole. That was a world in which science wasn’t politicized. We’re no longer there, and I don’t see a way back. Instead, the worst, dumbest people are at the helm, many of whom won’t be around to reap what they’ve sown.

Reading a book like this makes you start doing some grisly calculus.

The book’s educated guess is crap will really hit the fan in 2050. That’s probably optimistic, but let’s assume they’re right. I’ll be in my 70s. Old enough to recognize the calamity, too old to do much about it. My kids will be the age I am now. Grandkids? Honestly, I hope not.

Michigan seems pretty well positioned for when fresh water becomes the single most important thing. Should we consider moving further north, to an actual democracy? Should I learn to use a gun? Grow food? Raise chickens? It’s not lost on me that all the skills I’ve spent my life acquiring are useless without electricity.

This is all very fatalistic, but if you believe the science, it’s also soberly realistic. None of us were prepared for how quickly life changed when COVID hit. Comparatively, that was nothing. I spent the pandemic playing D&D and watching movies. What a luxury.

The most damning thing is it didn’t have to be this way. We did it to ourselves.

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Since that’s super fucking depressing, here’s an addition to the newsletter: 5 things that made me laugh this week.

The accuracy of this dig.

Some geek in Saudi Arabia is quietly very happy with themselves.

Is the LEGO dick too big though?

Speaking of Hulk Hogan…

No Holds Barred could be its own entry on this list, but I’m having way more fun writing about it. A snapshot of the piece coming next week:

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled High 5.

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Inside the Den: Lions 2025 NFL Draft

Vibe: NFL pre-preseason is back baby!

I love this part of the NFL calendar. Before the games start, when hype and hope are running out of control. I’m also big into fantasy football, so the last months of summer are gifts that keep on giving.

While I’m impatiently waiting for the new season of Hard Knocks, I have the next best thing to tide me over. Inside the Den is a glossy, Hard Knocks-esque show that’s all about my Detroit Lions. Earlier this week, they finally released the 2nd episode of 2025. Focused on the draft—which was in April!—it’s goes behind the scenes in a way that allows fans to live vicariously through the process. Granted, you’re only seeing stuff about the guys they picked, not the ones that slipped away. Still a fun watch.

My favorite part is when they draft Michigan native Isaac TeSlaa. His reaction is so genuine and heartwarming. I actually teared up.

The Bear S4, Episodes 6-9

Hulu

Vibe: So chill right now.

The wedding episode was a treat full of cathartic moments. Some of them quietly so. Richie and Carmy have been at each other’s throats all season, but when Carmy’s mom showed up at the wedding, Richie intervened and sent Carmy on a phantom errand. Good looking out, Cousin. That’s love right there.

And, of course, the wedding was lousy with Faks. My favorites.

S4 has been full of surprises. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the show was over. There’s a finality to everything heading into the last episode that feels complete. Loose ends tied up. Relationships mended.

On the precipice of the final episode, I honestly don’t know where the show’s going. I mean, clearly, Carmy is looking to change up his situation. But how, exactly, remains to be seen. Can someone so talented walk away from the arena in which their talent lies? That’d be like me giving up writing, or flirting with my wife. It’d be a shame.

Party in the back

Subtitle: Dillon Is the Lando Calrissian of 'Predator'

Let’s get the obvious out of the way—I’m not saying Dillon = Lando because both are Black. Though, in a backwards kinda way, these movies being of the 80s, that may end up being true. Similarities in appearance aside—handsome dudes with a killer ‘stache game—what actually inspired this connection was their roles in their respective movies.

Dillon is Dutch’s old friend from way back. They’re bros, but it’s a competitive relationship. How else do you explain the handshake that literally turns into a test of strength? They haven’t seen each other in years—long enough for Dutch to shout with delight upon seeing Dillon—but that greeting quickly segues into midair arm wrestling.

Later in the film, as things go from bad to worse, it’s revealed that Dillon has betrayed Dutch. He knows Dutch’s unit only does rescue missions, so he lies about the purpose of their mission until it’s too late. Commence with lots of shooting and dead commies.

And then the Predator starts hunting the group, and all the inner group dynamics and history becomes a moot point. Because that’s the best part of the movie—to be honest, the first 40ish minutes drag—we kinda overlook how we got here in the first place. We wanted to watch a movie about a bad ass alien game hunter stalking elite commandos, and now that it’s arrived, we, like the characters, don’t have time to think.

This time through the movie, Dillon’s duplicitous turn felt more than a little familiar.

Consider Lando Calrissian during The Empire Strikes Back. He’s old “friends” with Han Solo, though their relationship seems more combative than you’d expect. (We’re going to overlook any backstory introduced by the Han Solo movie, given it comes several decades after both Empire and Predator.) The two men have a jovial, somewhat forced reunion with an awkward physical encounter.

Lando, like Dillon, is harboring a secret from his old pal. He’s thrown his lot in with Darth Vader—to be fair, Vader doesn’t really take no for an answer—and decided to trade his friend’s life in a business transaction. Lando is hoping to further his career through his friend’s unwitting involvement in a very dangerous scheme. Lando assuages his guilt by claiming—rightly—that Vader doesn’t want Han at all, he’s after Skywalker. But he’s still putting Han’s life at risk for personal gain. Just like Dillon does with Dutch and his men.

Dillon isn’t an exact mirror of Lando, but the similarities were enough that I noticed, and wondered if it was more than coincidental. It’s not like nobody saw The Empire Strikes Back. Every sci-fi movie in the 80s was made in Star Wars’s shadow, for better and usually worse. Predator isn’t trying to be a Star Wars clone, but there’s just enough sci-fi that the film may’ve unintentionally, inadvertently, borrowed some of its mojo.

What does it say then that both films notably feature a Black character who betrays the White hero? Is it a happy accident? A residue of 80s era racism? Is it less about the betrayal and more that Dillon, like Lando, needed to be a smooth character, and Carl Weathers could carry that better than Dolph Lundgren or Chuck Norris? Can we even attempt to answer this? Am I ever going to stop asking questions?

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how Dillon came to echo Lando. He does, if you look for it, or are uniquely positioned to pick up Star Wars signals. Even if it was subconsciously informed by racism, I’m glad Dillon’s a Black man. Carl Weathers is amazing in Predator. Even though he’s mostly a clumsy corporate stooge, dude is magnetic. I’ll go one step further: Dillon is my favorite Carl Weathers character. Yes, even over the time he played an actual Star Wars character.

I’m always happy when I find Star Wars hiding inside something else. It’s like seeing an old friend when you least expect it. (“Star Wars! You sonofabitch! What’s the matter? Disney got you pushing too many pencils?”)

Look for my next piece on Predator, in which I argue that Hawkins—the guy whose only notable character trait involves making jokes about his wife’s vagina—was modeled after Yoda.