Table of contents

• WYCU Part 1
• Appendix W: Predator
• Implausability: Adaptive Camouflage
• WYCU Part 2
• New to Dr Implausible's Bookshelf
• Multi-melting
• Recently on the blog

Welcome to the Weyland-Yutani Cinematic Universe, the WYCU.  We've been covering the entire shared meta-franchise of the Alien, Predator, and Bladerunner(!) universes in our look at one of the largest meta-franchises in film history. Let's get into it:

We're doing something different in our (re)watch of the WYCU: we've been watching the titles chronologically.  Not by release, but by where they fit within the timeline.

We mentioned this timeline last year, both on the blog and in this newsletter.  For those that are curious what it looks like, you can take a look here.

We're also taking this opportunity to return to Appendix W: as the original Predator most definitely fits on the list. Let's get to da choppa!

Some things, like the adaptive camouflage of the predator showed up quickly, in the cameleoline cloaks that could be worn as wargear by various characters in the game, though one could argue that these cloaks have as much in common with the Elven cloaks worn by the hobbits in Lord of the Rings and endlessly copied within fantasy and tabletop roleplaying games as to become almost banal.

But as the game grew, and the setting expanded on the lore and background of the alien Tyranids, a devouring melange of creatures directed through a gestalt hivemind intent on consuming all biological matter in the galaxy, design elements from Predator showed up: enter the lictor:

(note: the above isn't a lictor, but rather a unique tyranid named "Deathleaper", a slightly bigger version of the same.)

(also note: yes, I do have to spend a bit of time painting these critters.)

The lictor first appeared in 1995, with the second edition of the tyranid's codex, as is described as "an ambush predator" that is built for "specialising in infiltration, scouting, and assassination". The lictor's have chameleonic skin which they use to blend into the background, which isn't explicitly technological like the predator, but then all the tyranids use something called "biotechnology" to form their guns, armor, spaceships, and various accoutrements, so in this case it's appropriate.

Over the intervening decades they have morphed and changed, and become much more embedded within the Warhammer 40000 universe since that initial point of inception, just as the predators themselves have morphed and changed, becoming the Yautja, creatures with a homeworld, a society, a culture.

But the one thing that hasn't really changed is their stealth tech, their adaptive camouflage.

Adaptive camouflage isn't just something out of science fiction films like Predator and Star Trek (and the James Bond film Die Another Day, and countless others). It has real-world roots, both in the fields of the environment and on the fields of battle.

Within the environment, adaptive camouflage isn't wholly restricted to predators, though many ambush hunters do use it, from color-changing octopuses and chameleons that blend into the background. It's also often used for defensive purposes, to protect creatures from becoming an easy target within the ecosystem.  And these defensive purposes of adaptive camouflage are what first showed up in warfare, progressing from the dazzle camouflage painted on ships in World War I (which, while wild, is still just regular camo) to more active forms, such as using lights on planes and ships to change the outline of the target in daytime, and have it blend in to the background at a distance.

Trust me bro, this'll work.

As technology improved, it started to become possible to miniaturize these systems and build them into smaller and devices, to tanks, personnel, and even drones.  These could still include lighting, but also heatshields and other forms of infrared camouflage in order to make a tank or person look like anything but during a night fight or other combat scenario.  But nighttime combat isn't the only time when AC is useful.  There's other forms of nightlife too.

Enter Project Primrose.  Revealed in 2023, the collaboration between Adobe and a number of designers including Christine Dierk showcased a dress made of fabric that could dynamically adjust its design based on feedback from the user.  This allows for a host of new options in clothing and fashion.  Project Primrose is not the first of these, drawing on a lineage that stretches back to projects like a collaboration between Google and Levi's for interactive clothing, and the rise of wearable technology in the early 2010s.  Examples of those can be seen in the electric fashion designs of the events like MakeFashion, in Calgary.

You can see a video of what looks like here.

Of course, while color-changing fabric certainly has its uses in the world of haute couture, it's easy to see how it might get adapted to the battlefield as well.  But somehow, implausibly, the most obvious way we might see adaptive camouflage in the real world might be that of a simple color-changing cloak, bringing us full circle back to the Elven Cloaks from Lord of the Rings, as mentioned above. 

The WYCU contains more than just the Predator franchise, however, and we continued our exploration with a look at the Bladerunner films, and some related titles.  Yes, it all fits together...

Hey, wanna hear a story about a rock star with super obsessive fans, 3D chatrooms, nerds who built their own internet, an AI-generated actress, Russian mobsters, and new technology that has to get smuggled across borders.

Yeah, but it's science fiction?

Idoru (Gibson, 1996)

Released thirty years ago, as the second book in Gibson's "Bridge" trilogy that began in 1993 with Virtual Light, Idoru still contains that evocative wordplay and imagination that characterized the author's works.  It's just that reading back the elements of the plot now, thirty years later, a book that was forward thinking in when it was released seems utterly normal in 2026.

Perhaps this is it's true legacy - Idoru may be the most prophetic of Gibson's works, moreso than Neuromancer or his other writings.  The way it slots right into the current conversation, and there is hardly anything at all that would seem odd or out of place (save for perhaps the nanotechnology MacGuffin, but that isn't as core to the story as the idoru herself).

I'm feeling that this might warrant a deeper investigation thought, that process by which sci-fi becomes lo-fi.  We've talked about it a bit on the podcast before (E0026 Silicon Dreams), but lets look in depth on there soon.

Predator: Badlands

We've already mentioned this movie in our first episode of the WYCU, a fantastic film that expands the franchise and deepens the connection to the Alien franchise as well, strengthening the ties of the WYCU. Recommended.

Severance: Season 1

Aftger finishing Pluribus season 1 on Apple TV (mentioned last issue), I started getting caught up on some of the other shows on that streaming service that I had never seen before. First up, Severance, which seemed to be of the kind that would up my alley, as recommended by a friend.  Turns out, they were right.  Severance is a fantastic show, 9 episodes of twists and turns, and the kind of narrative that feels like the "twenty minutes in the future" earth-based sci-fi that permeates the best cyberpunk stories, a relatable world not too different from our own.

We'll talk more about the Lumen Corp in an upcoming podcast episode, and I'm holding off a little bit before watching Season 2. Highly recommended.

Fallout: season 2

We released a couple episodes with a roundtable discussing the first season back in December as this second season was about to drop. We'll have another episode or two covering season 2 in its entirety shortly after you  read this, in Februrary 2026. More on that next issue.

Join us soon for the conclusion of the WYCU, and some coming changes to this newsletter.  Next issue will be apocalyptic, however, as we look at life in the wasteland.