Walton Goggins has been on the receiving end of several gruesome onscreen deaths, but none beat his demise in Predators. This was the third installment in the Predator movie franchise, which saw a collection of human killers – from soldiers to assassins – being stalked by the titular hunters on an alien planet.
The sequel earned over three times its budget with $127 million (via Box Office Mojo) and decent reviews. Predators is one of the most underrated outings in the saga and doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. It had a great premise, solid setpieces and a fantastic cast.
This includes Adrian Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Mahershala Ali and Walton Goggins, with the latter stealing the show as scummy death row inmate, Stans. Despite limited screentime, Goggins makes a meal of his role and is gifted Predator’s most memorable death.
Walton Goggins’ Best Death Is His Spine Rip In 2010’s Predators
Despite his horrid past, Predators grants Stans some measure of redemption during his last moments. During the third act, he distracts the “Berserker” Predator by stabbing it with his shiv so the other survivors can flee.
The hunter shakes Stans off, and after he insults it once more, the Predator variant rips Stans’ spine and skull out in one swift move. While far from the first Predator spine rip, Stans’ death marks the first time in the series that a character was alive when it happened.
It’s both shocking and funny; shocking for how unexpected it is, and funny for how over the top and bloody it gets. Certainly, in the annals of Walton Goggins’ screen deaths, it’s the most gruesome.
Walton Goggins Has Had Some Memorable Onscreen Demises
Over the course of Goggins’ career, he’s evolved from scene-stealing character actor to leading man in his own right. In his early career, he tended to die A LOT. This includes his slimy detective being impaled on a pipe in The Crow: Salvation to his surprisingly emotional execution in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses.
Outside of Predators, Goggins’ other most memorable death came in Django Unchained. His racist cowboy Billy Crash is the fight trainer at Candyland, who takes an instant dislike to Jamie Foxx’s Django and during a torture scene, almost castrates him. Django gets revenge in the finale, placing a well-aimed shot on Billy’s lower half before firing a kill shot.
Given how nasty Crash is throughout Django Unchained, his grim fate feels fitting. Goggins’ Tomb Raider villain also meets a nasty fate when Alicia Vikander’s Lara shoves an infected mummy’s finger down his throat, infecting him with a lethal virus that rots him from the inside.
Predators Is The Most Underrated Sequel In The Series
Predators is an interesting time capsule, given the ascension of both Goggins and Mahershala Ali’s careers in the years since. While the third film leans a little hard on the original film’s structure, it’s still a well-crafted entry with a great cast and one that opens up the lore of the series even wider.
Predator 2 is the most explosive and enjoyably vulgar of the follow-ups, while Prey is the classier piece of work. Still, Predators deserves more credit than it’s given, as it feels like only true devotees are the ones singing its praises.
Source: Box Office Mojo
Predators
6/10
- Release Date
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July 3, 2010
- Runtime
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107 Minutes
- Director
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Nimród Antal
