Preston Packard
Lieutenant ColonelPreston Packard is a character created byLegendary Pictures, and the secondary antagonist of the2017MonsterVerse filmKong: Skull Island.
Personality[]
First and foremost, Packard was a soldier, and was intensely loyal to the troops under his command and kept the dog tags of his deceased men. Upon the end of the Vietnam War and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country, Packard, like many Vietnam veterans, struggled with feeling discarded and abandoned by his government, and unwanted by general society. Packard blamed journalists likeMason Weaver for vilifying U.S. troops in the eyes of the American public, and believed that this sentiment was part of why the war was ultimately lost. Only knowing a life of war and desperate for purpose again, Packard eagerly accepted the opportunity to escort the Monarch expedition team to Skull Island. Packard also saw the mission as a way of prolonging him and his unit's military service, as they were all originally set to be decommissioned from the military upon the end of the war.
As a person, Packard was quick-witted and blunt with his words, and was very adherent to military protocol. Though he could interact amicably with those around him, and was especially close to the men under his command, his mood and demeanor could quickly flip at any instance of inconvenience. When pushed, he could become incredibly vindictive and threatening, as seen when he held William Randa at gunpoint and demanded to know the true purpose of the Monarch expedition. This spiteful attitude can especially be seen in Packard's intense hatred and rivalry with Kong, who had killed dozens of Packard's men during their arrival on Skull Island. ThoughKong, in reality, was only trying to stop Packard and his unit from waking theSkullcrawlers, Packard saw him as a threat that needed to be eradicated. Demanding his pound of flesh, he would stop at nothing to kill Kong, even when told otherwise and how it would have grave repercussions for the whole world. Packard would attempt to justify his killing of Kong by claiming that the people back state-side should not have to live with the knowledge that creatures as inconceivably large as Kong existed.
More simply, Kong was an enemy to Packard simply because he presented himself as one, and as days passed, Packard became increasingly erratic and willingly risked his men's safety to fulfill his desire for revenge. His drive to wreak vengeance on Kong and his inability to see that he was becoming a worse monster than Skull Island's creatures eventually drove him insane and led to his death at Kong's hand.
Relationships[]
Mason Weaver[]
Packard is initially civil to Weaver when they meet but quickly turns sour since he believes people in the media like her caused the troops in Vietnam to get a bad rep and made America pull out of the war without a proper victory, therefore making everything he went through and the lives lost under his command meaningless. He even goes as far as calling a camera a more dangerous weapon than a gun. Thinking little of Weaver, Packard brushes off and disregards whatever advice or words of wisdom she has to offer. To him, Weaver is a threat if not also a traitor, so as far as Packard's concerned if the predators of Skull Island don't get her, he will.
James Conrad[]
Packard respects Conrad as a fellow military man but still has reservations about him being a foreigner and the fact that he joins the expedition for money.
Kong[]
Since Kong presents himself as an enemy and kills most of his men, Packard is determined to make him pay regardless of the consequences in the grand scheme of things. Packard is a strong believer in "an eye for an eye", so because Kong attacked him, Packard feels it's completely within his right to strike back at Kong and bring him down through Old Testament-style justice. Plus, in Packard's eyes, if he doesn't bring down Kong, then man's evolution as a species would have been for naught.
History[]
Military service and Vietnam War[]
At some point in his life, Packard enlisted in the United States Army, and eventually obtained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He at one point had a wife, but the marriage was a strained one and eventually fell apart. Placed in command of a squadron of of helicopters known as theSky Devils, Packard and his men served in the Vietnam War until its eventual end, in which U.S. forces were withdrawn from the country. With the war over, Packard and his men were set to be discharged from the military. Despite all the awards and medals he got from his service in the war, Packard felt it was not worth it, believing they abandoned Vietnam.
Kong: Skull Island[]
Packard is the commanding officer of the Sky Devils helicopter squadron who flies the film's protagonists toSkull Island for an expedition to map and explore the uncharted terrain. Angered byKong killing some of his men during his initial rampage, he goes into a maniacal quest to kill Kong out of vengeance.
After gathering most of the survivors to him, Packard interrogatesWilliam Randa, aMonarch senior official, who tells him that the expedition to Skull Island was never about geology, as he had implied, but to prove ancient Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms such as Kong existed, and the threat they might pose.
As he and the remainders of his squad push on, they encounter and kill aMother Longlegs and eventually search for and locateJames Conrad and his team. They try to search forJack Chapman, who unknown to them has already been eaten by aSkullcrawler. Conrad and his crew try to reason with Packard, convincing him not to kill Kong as his absence would leave the Skullcrawlers alone to lay waste to the island and its natives, though Packard, slowly going insane, ignores their pleas, saying that after he kills Kong, he will kill the Skullcrawlers as well.
After Packard refuses, he sets a trap for Kong using napalm and knocks him out before planting the seismic charges around him, before readying to kill Kong with explosive charges. Most of his team turn against him when Conrad,Mason Weaver andHank Marlow intervene, but Packard threatens to kill Kong once more in a tense standoff. However, his actions end up awakening a giant Skullcrawler dubbed 'The Big One', and as his men flee, he tries to detonate the explosive charges to finish Kong off, with the ape crushing Packard to death under his fist.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters[]
Packard briefly appears in a stock footage recorded byWilliam Randa.
Trivia[]
- As per tradition for most Samuel L. Jackson roles, Packard is portrayed as a violent loudmouth with a penchant for expletives (particularly Jackson's famous "motherf---er" lines).
- Packard is portrayed somewhat like Captain Ahab fromMoby Dick, being so obsessed with killing Kong that he recklessly puts his men's safety on the line.
- He is one of fourteen characters in theMonsterVerse portrayed by an actor with a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being played by Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). The others areAaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver),Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch),Tom Hiddleston (Loki),Brie Larson (Captain Marvel),John C. Reilly (Rhomann Dey), Corey Hawkins (Navy Op), Rebecca Hall (Maya Hansen), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos), Eugene Cordero (Casey), Terry Notary (Cull Obsidian), Lexi Rabe (Morgan Stark), Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing), and Vera Farminga (Eleanor Bishop).
- His quote"Hold on to your butts!" as the helicopters traverse the storm is a direct reference to Samuel L. Jackson's line inJurassic Park.
- J.K. Simmons was originally going to portray Packard, but scheduling conflicts resulted in Samuel L. Jackson replacing him.
- ThroughoutKong: Skull Island, if one looks closely, they'll see Packard constantly switches between being clean-shaven and having a little bit of stubble on his face.
- Preston Packard is the first human villain in theMonsterVerse.
List of appearances[]
Films[]
- Kong: Skull Island(First appearance)
Television[]
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters(Stock footage)
