Welcome back to another weekly edition of Friday Night Lights. Last week we took a look at the FLIR RECON M24, a thermal monocular used by Alejandro in the movie Sicario. Well, this week we continue to look at Hollywood night vision myths part 6. We will take a look at the use of night vision and thermal devices in The Covenant (2023), The Contractor (2022), Predator (1987) and Predator 2 (1990) movies.

More Hollywood Night Vision Myths @ TFB:

• Friday Night Lights: Hollywood Night Vision Myths Part 5: True Lies, Troll, Sicario
• Friday Night Lights: Hollywood Night Vision Myths – Amazon’s Terminal List
• Friday Night Lights: Hollywood Night Vision Myths – Without Remorse
• Friday Night Lights: Hollywood Night Vision Myths – Part 2

Night Vision Myths Part 6: The Covenant (2023)

Warning Spoilers. If you haven’t watched The Covenant then do not continue reading if you care about spoilers. 

 

The Covenant is a recent movie and it is what kindled a fire in me to write this Hollywood Night Vision Myths part 6 episode. There is not a lot of night vision in this movie. But there are a couple scenes that warrant a closer look.

The first use of night vision in the movie was by the Taliban. Here is the POV of the scene.

From the scene, it appears to look like green phosphor night vision with what looks like a range finder readout. Not sure why there are those two red lines above and below the open red circle. But you can see the range displayed below that.

In the scene, the Taliban are looking for Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, John Kinley, and his interpreter Ahmed portrayed by Dar Salim. The Taliban are looking at this house but if you look closely, there is a lot of ambient light. You can see how much the building stands out from the background. It looks like day time and it is not because the moon is out.

Then the scene switches and the camera is pointed at the user of said night vision laser rangefinder. The ambient light is too bright tone using night vision. While the Taliban were looking for them at night, to have that night vision POV scene juxtaposed to this scene showing this guy holding said device seems like a bad choice. They should have filmed him with less light.

Regarding the night vision laser rangefinder, what he is holding could not be what produced that image above. A night vision myth busted! He appears to be holding some sort of monocular and while that could have been some sort of night vision device, since it is clearly big enough, what it can not be is a laser rangefinder.

Look closely at the image below. Notice anything missing? The laser range finder! While night vision laser range finders exist, see my review of the Northrop Grumman Mark VII, this does not have anything resembling a laser range finder protruding out the front.

Why can’t the handheld monocular not be a night vision laser range finder?

It is simple physics and technology. Look at the objective lens. There is no laser range finder emitter or collection lens. In the Northrop Grumman Mark VII, there is a single lens but there is a giant donut hole in the middle to allow the laser range finder to shine down the middle of it. Any other laser range finder has a minimum of two objectives. One is for the laser emitter and the other is for capturing the reflection and calculating the distance. I do not see that in the image above.

The second scene to use “night vision” in The Covenant is actually a pretty cool scene and it is my favorite in this Hollywood night vision myths part 6 because it is MWIR cool. Right as it seems it is the end for the protagonist and his party, they are saved by an AC-130 Spooky providing close air support. They light up the Taliban on the bridge. See the screenshot below.

The scene switches from an ordinary day camera to a cooled thermal camera. See the screenshot below. The bad guys pop out from the background. See all the little dots on the hillside? Those are the bad guys.

The thermal camera used on The Covenant was set to white hot. Now compare that to actual AC-130 close air support. This camera was set to black hot. For this night vision myths part 6, the production company did a good job with this scene. Either they are really goo da faking it or they actually got cooled thermal and filmed with it.

The Contractor (2022)

So The Covenant was an entertaining movie. It left me wanting more. So I gave The Contractor a try. Whoo boy, it is not as good as The Covenant. While it is a different plot, it was the night vision that made it worse. Again, there are spoilers so turn back now if you don’t like spoilers. Lets dive into The Contractor for this Hollywood night vision myths part 6

So the main character is portrayed by Chris Pine. Due to financial strain, he takes work as a private contractor and his first job is to infiltrate this facility in Berlin, Germany. The team is equipped with HK416s and GPNVGs but right away you can tell something is off. See the screenshot above. The actor is looking over the quad tubes. Why would he do that? Because they are not real night vision goggles. Also, the amount of ambient light makes using night vision goggles necessary.

Look at this screenshot below. Notice anything odd? The actor in focus is looking under his dummy GPNVGs. You can just make out the corner of his eye. The quad tubes don’t line up even to pretend like he is looking through them. Also, look at his HK416. Either he doesn’t have a BCG or it is locked back. Compared to the out-of-focus actor in the foreground who appears to have a BCG closed and chambered.

That is a lot of ambient light in this facility. Why did they need night vision let alone GPNVGs?

I thought this little screenshot was interesting. I caught a glimpse of green. But it isn’t actual green phosphor tubes. It is either green chemlight or green LEDs to give the appearance of green glow produced by image intensifiers.

It is kind of hard to see in the screenshot above but you might notice something missing in the next two images for this night vision myths part 6.

Did you catch the glaring omission in this night vision myths part 6? There is no counterweight or battery pack for the GPNVGs. At the bare minimum you need a battery pack to power the GPNVGs. They do not have onboard power. Also, GPNVGs are a little bit heavy especially when they are flipped up and further away from the CG of your helmet. Without a counterweight on the back of the helmet, the goggle will pull down on the front of the helmet and you would see the actors pushing them back up if they were real. Which they are not.

Another scene for this night vision myths part 6s with the dummy GPNVGs. There is no way he could be aiming even if those were real GPNVGs. While it is possible to passively aim with quads through an EOTech, Chris Pine is not lining up the objective in front of his dominant eye to look through the dummy EoTech. So maybe he is using active aiming like a laser? Only none of the HK416s that I saw had any active aiming solutions like a weapon-mounted laser. So Chris Pine’s character, James, is really great at instinctive shooting or spraying and praying.

If those were working GPNVGs, you still are not looking through them. Those objective lenses appear to be covered up by something. Real GPNVGs have a blue anti-reflective coating on them that is very specific for real night vision objectives.

More fake green glow from the oculars. But how are they powering them if there is no battery pack? (rhetorical question)

There is one close-up scene of Chris Pine looking through the GPNVGs. However, it is another fake in this night vision myths part 6. The color of the green is not like Gen 3 night vision. GPNVGs are built by L3 and they make the tubes that go inside those housings, they are always gen 3 image intensifiers. Green phosphor Gen 3 night vision tubes use P-43 phosphor. They have a yellow-green tint to them. That is not what we see below.

Compare the screenshot above with this photo my friend Ted took of me at last year’s East Coast Night Shoot. I was wearing my ANVIS-10 quad tubes. See the green eye glow? It does not bathe my entire eye socket and cheek like what they portray above. Also, you can see the tint from the P-43 green phosphor.

Predator (1987)

While Predator is not new, I have not taken a close look at the movie through the eyes of a night vision/thermal aficionado. So now is as good a time as any to see how good or bad Predator is in this Hollywood night vision myths part 6.

Wow, the thermal camera they used back in 1987 is straight-up garbage. Those people are not that far away and while it can detect them, that is it. You cannot tell if that is a woman, man, adult or child.

Here is a scene where the Predator picked up something from what looks like a box or table? Again this thermal is so bad you cannot distinguish anything in it. If this was the actual Predator’s vision, I would say he would be technically blind. It is so bad, how can he navigate the world around him with such poor vision?

Once the predator reaches for the blob on the box, all information outside of the hand is lost. This is due to poor software in the thermal camera.

The hand flips around and you can sort of make out what could possibly be a scorpion based on its shape and relative size to the hand.

In this scene the image is a little better. You can sort of make out the jungle and two distinct people. But this is still pretty poor considering how close they are to the thermal camera. Modern thermal imagers could easily allow you to positively ID these two people. You would be able to tell the gender and what clothes they are wearing.

Here is something that I never really thought about until I got into night vision and thermal. The Predator’s aiming laser for his shoulder thingy that goes up. The barrel shroud right? Yeah, a barrel shroud. LOL.

So It would make sense for an augmented, disturbed reticle would show up in the Predator’s thermal vision. Thermal only sees infrared in the form of heat radiation. Thermal imagers cannot see photons especially ones produced by visible lasers.

From a hunting standpoint, the Predators should know by now that the lasers can be seen by their prey. This is a big goof on their part. There is no need for them to produce and use visible lasers to aim their shoulder canons. Passive aiming is a smarter way to hunt.

Next, we have the famous scene of Dutch, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, covered in fresh cold mud. And he is invisible to the thermal vision of the Predator. Another myth busted in this Hollywood night vision myths part 6.

The original Mythbusters touched on this subject in their episode Crimes and Mythdemeanors 2 back in 2006. They tried to beat a thermal camera using mud to block Tori’s thermal signature. It did not work. His body heat warmed up the mud pretty quickly.

I know for the movie it is more aesthetically appealing to have Arnold flex his arms but that is a proper way to hide from an enemy especially when you do not know the Predator sees with thermal. While the mud does help camouflage him visually, it would have been more effective if he got behind or under something. He is rather exposed in that scene.

The funny thing is right before that scene, Dutch fell into a pond. Water is a great thermal barrier. He should have hidden under the water it would have worked better.

Then there is this gem. This is not the only one, there are many instances where Dutch stares at the Predator. Even if the mud did work to hide his thermal signature, his eyes would be hot glowing orbs to the Predator and would incur further investigation or at least a couple shots from the shoulder thing that goes up.

Here is an example of how hot eyeballs can be under thermal. I took this image using my FLIR See Spot III of an owl. The eyes look creepy but they are very obvious. Dutch’s eyes would make him stand out. While I do not know about Predators, people have an innate ability to sense when someone is staring at them. Dutch shouldn’t stare at the Predator just in case.

Predator 2 (1990)

Predator 2 seems to have used a slightly better thermal camera. The movie opens with a panning shot of buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

There was this scene looking down as a gang shoot-out played out in the streets, You can sort of make out the two vehicles and the red blob go gang members shooting their guns.

Here is the scene where Mike Harrigan, played by Dany Glover, sees the camouflaged Predator and aims his Desert Eagle mounted laser at it.

Just like the first Predator movie. The contrast is so high in the thermal camera that it only shows Danny Glover and not the background.

This extreme close-up is a bit strange. See the white circle with a red outline? That is the laser mounted to the top of the Desert Eagle. Not sure how or why it is showing up under thermal.

I thought this was cool and silly at the same time. That is an LS45 iMatronic laser sight mounted on an HK G3.

Here you can see distinct people. Not quite good enough for positive ID but much better than the first thermal camera in the first Predator movie.

Later in the movie, Garry Busey’s character believes he can capture the Predator. His team suits up in metallic jumpsuits allegedly to block their thermal signature. While I do not know what those suits are made of, normally your body heat will soak through the material and warm up your outfit giving you away under thermal. They also had radioactive powder so it would cling to the Predator and they could possibly track it. They also use ultraviolet lights but do not explain why UV lights would be beneficial. Thermal sensors and vision cannot see photons of light. They could have used normal white lights to see around.

Nope. Instead, they opted for massive search lights mounted over their shoulders.

In this night vision myths part 6, Gary Busey’s men have a device that will help them capture the Predator. The device allegedly shoots out liquid nitrogen. I doubt it is perfectly shielded from a thermal sensor. It would show up on the Predator’s thermal vision. The cold from the liquid nitrogen would show up very easily

Later in this scene, the Predator changes color palettes to combat the floating particulates but also to try and detect Busey’s men.

The last and final screenshot shows where the soldiers are. I am not sure how they got the flashlights to show up under thermal but it looks cool.

Final Thoughts: Hollywood Night Vision Myths Part 6

The Covenant was great and the use of night vision was ok. The cooled thermal AC-130 spooky scene was the greatest.  The Contractor on the other hand was not as great. The fake GPNVGs were so bad that it was more fun making fun of the movie than watching it. The Predator films are old so that is one excuse I can allow for the terrible thermal imaging. The techniques Dutch uses to hide from his predator don’t really seem to work in real life. Predator 2 was interesting since they used the different color palettes of the thermal camera as part of the story.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of the Hollywood night vision myths part 6. If you can think of any other movies, that I have not covered, that showcase night vision or thermal devices let us know in the comments below.