Predator 2: hunting humans, not pigeons

Title: Predator 2

Year:  1990

Director:   Stephen Hopkins

Running time: 108 min.

Country: United States.

Mike Harrigan is an LAPD Lieutenant who is in search of an alien which is slaughtering city inhabitants. Dorinda Seed is a female pigeon from L.A. She and her folks had a nice day and now are getting some rest on a roof (a place that they call home). In this sequence, Dorinda and Mike's lives are going to cross dramatically.

Mike is chasing the predator on a roof. He is very nervous, because this creature is a monster which slaughtered several colleagues of his. A common man would escape running away, but Mike wants to fix this mess.

On the other side of the corner, we find Dorinda and her friends, that are scared and fly away (scaring Mike too).

This is a nice picture of the pigeon, captured with its legs and tail feathers fully extended. This situation is also dramatic for Dorinda. It is not nice for a pigeon to fly in the darkness and it is ever worse, if it is flying in the middle of a violent duel.

This is not a pigeon, but the predator firing at Mike:

We can observe than when Mike returns fire, there are other pigeons flying in the background.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Predator 2. Starring moment: 1:19:39.
• Pigeon activity: They are pigeons sleeping on a roof which are scared by a night duel between an L.A. policeman and an angry alien.
• Symbolism: It is interesting to see how pigeons are used to scare the movie protagonist and increase the film's tension levels. This is a typical ploy used in many action movies.
• Relevance: Low. Pigeons interfere with a human-alien duel, but they don't change the storyline.
• Training level: High. It is not easy for a pigeon to fly with poor light conditions. Here, they exhibit a very good performance. 

Special thanks to Jen for suggesting this film.
 

Battlestar Galactica: an other-worldly pigeon

Title: Battlestar Galactica
Year: 2004
Director: Ronald D. Moore (Creator), Michael Rymer, Michael Nankin, Rod Hardy, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Robert M. Young, Edward James Olmos, Jeff Woolnough, Wayne Rose
Running time: 50 min.
Country: United States

The legend says that in a distant part of our galaxy, thousands of years ago, humans lived on a planet called Kobol. Then, there was an exodus and humans inhabited a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies. Caprica is an Earth-like planet belonging to the Twelve Colonies. It hosts the federal capital of the colonies.

Caprica city. A futuristic metropolis... with pigeons!!!

On Caprica, humans lived with an advanced technology level and created a cybernetic race known as the cylons. At the beginning cylons and humans lived together in peace and joy but they followed the same path towards a ruined relationship: while their romance was a comedy.... their marriage became a drama.

Mr. Adama Jr. A pigeon-maniac.

Anyway, we are not going to focus on the cylon-human relationship but the human-pigeon one. We will see that this is also another drama. One of the main characters in Galactica is Mr. Lee Adama Jr. At the beginning he is captain of the colonial fleet but later he becomes Vice President of the Twelve Colonies, having an active role in the series.  In some way, he is a hero…. but a hero with a dark past and a hidden hatred. In the picture on the left side, we can appreciate a spark of rage in his eyes.

During his youth (in the episode this is shown in a flashback) he arrives completely drunk at his apartment and finds a pigeon inside. Without thinking twice he grabs a broom and tries, unsuccessfully, to scare away the poor animal. In this case, his military training didn't help to solve the situation. 

It is very interesting to note one fact: humans emigrated from Kobol to Caprica… and they took all the valuable items…. technology, spaceships and pigeons!!! Actually, there are very few animals in the complete series and it is very remarkable to see as an exception, the pigeon appearance.  The complete scene can be seen here.

This is the first example in this blog of an unearthly pigeon. Are pigeons actually spread all over the universe?

 

Pigeon flying with wings fully extended while keeping an eye on Mr. Adama. Jr.

Pigeon observing Mr. Adama. Jr. It can't understand the hostile welcome that it receives.

 

Mr. Adama Jr. is prepared to attack the innocent pigeon.

The proof of the evil aggression of Mr. Adama Jr.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Battlestar Galactica. 4x19 Daybreak  Starring moment: 0:30:40
• Pigeon activity: It is a typical urban pigeon which enters inside the apartment of a pigeon-maniac guy. It suffers a very hostile attack with a broom. I would like to remark that the pigeon suffers actual harm and we can see that it is very scared. This scene reaches levels of real violence that are comparable to the ones found in Borat.
• Symbolism: The pigeon is used to highlight that the supposedly honorable character has several weaknesses and he is not honorable at all. 
• Relevance: Low. The pigeon is only used to describe with more depth one of the characters.
• Training level: It is a stunt pigeon that suffers a real aggression and safely escapes. A very risky interpretation.  

Mars attacks: the pigeon that almost annihilates the human race

Title: Mars attacks
Year: 1996
Director: Tim Burton
Running time: 106 min.
Country: United States

Humans finally met aliens. There was great joy on the human side. Everybody was thinking about how we were not alone in the universe and that we had found new friends. Probably the aliens were also excited.... but thinking of a very different kind of friendship. We prepared a big reception in the Nevada desert. Everything was fine, the alien spacecraft landed, the Martian ambassador went out and the first contact was made.  General Casey started the greatest speech of his entire military career.... "On behalf of the people of Earth, welcome!!"

Lovely...... Everything was fine until we made a mistake: a peaceful-harmless dove was released by a pseudo-hippie. This dove apparently scared the aliens and they shot it down as well as most of the human attendees. In the end, the aliens only wanted an excuse to start a military invasion... exactly like us during many moments of our history.  The analysis of the President of United States is very funny: [...] this could be a cultural misunderstanding. Yeah. Maybe to them, doves mean war. We all saw how they reacted to that dove. It frightened them [...]   It is like in “Lost in Translation” but with evil aliens. The complete scene can be seen here.

Just one technical comment: for recreating the flight and death of the dove a computer-graphic representation was used instead of a real dove. This imagery is of very poor quality because in 1996 the software models were not well developed.

Details of the pigeon starring

• Source: Mars Attacks. Starring moment: 00:40:04

• Pigeon activity: It was held in the pacifist's hands, then it flew freely and finally it was shot to death.

• Symbolism: The dove symbolizes peace. A peace that was not respected by the aliens.

• Relevance: Very high. It was assumed that the dove triggered a large scale interplanetary war. Even the President of United States complained about this animal.

• Training level: High. It is a lovely dove that is used to being caught in human hands.