Get Ready to Rumble!
Boa vs. Python is a 2004 Syfy Channel Original Movie, starring David Hewlett, Jaime Bergman, Kirk B. R. Woller, and Adam Kendrick. It is supposedly a crossover sequel to Boa and Python.
A dangerous cargo containing a genetically engineered super-python is lost, again. This time the giant python escapes due to it waking during transport on a highway. To track it the CIA recruits the aid of a snake focused herpetologist and marine biologist who specializes in tracking equipment to apply the latter's tools to the former's giant boa constrictor. The hope, that the boa's tracking abilities and keeness to seek out a rival will help them locate and eliminate the python. At the same time, the amoral tycoon who arranged for the python's genetic engineering as the ultimate sport sets out with his team of big game hunters.
This film provides examples of:
- And the Adventure Continues: After the python is killed, Betty is revealed to have survived her electric shock and retreated back to her nest at the water treatment plant. The film ends with Emmett and Monica suited up and preparing to go back into the plant to try and recapture her.
- Behemoth Battle: Exactly what you'd expect, between a 75 foot Scarlet Boa and an 80 foot Reticulated Python. Starts in a nightclub during the climax and carries into the underground subway system. Betty wins by default when she's knocked out of the way of a train with the stun spike, leaving the Python to be decapitated by it. However, she was winning at the time anyway.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Boa vs. Python was made after two previous giant snake movies, Boa and Python.
- Casting Gag: While Broddick’s first name isn’t listed in the credits, his actor is named Adam Kendrick. The character’s girlfriend is named Eve, and they’re in a movie about giant serpents.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Dr. Emmett suggests using tranquilizers to try and capture the python while simultaneously protecting Betty from being accidentally killed by Agent Sharpe’s soldiers. Emmett later uses one on an insane Broddick, leaving him at the mercy of the snakes.
- Emmett also has an electric spike implanted in Betty’s head which will emit an 80,000 volt shock via remote control, though he’s not sure if it will merely stun her or outright kill her. He finally uses it on her while she’s fighting the python; which sends her flying out of the way of the train that kills the python; Emmett thinks Betty was killed at first, but she’s revealed to have survived.
- Continuity Nod: Agent Sharpe mentions the events of Python II a few times.
- Crossover: Technically between Boa and Python, though the events of the first Boa film are never mentioned and the boa in this film was selectively bred to be so huge instead of being wild.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While most of the other deaths happen fairly quickly, Eve is constricted to death by Betty, which takes about a whole minute. Somewhat justified, as Betty had caught her handling and accidentally breaking one of her eggs, which made Betty vengeful.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Monica invokes this to win a breath holding contest in her introduction by
untying the strings of her bikini top, shocking her opponent into releasing his breath. - Fanservice Extra:
- The wrestling match in the film’s opening features ring girls in bright blue bikinis, as well as a server in a Flag Bikini.
- Monica’s introduction at a pool features many swimsuit-clad people, most notably two women in thongs with their behinds shown in closeup.
- The rave that gets crashed by the snakes features topless strippers dancing on poles.
- Gentle Giant: Betty to a degree. She's still dangerous, but generally is fairly docile unless provoked. She's perfectly content for Dr. Emmett to feed her by hand and isn't bothered when Monica accidentally steps on her during her introduction.
- The Great Serpent: Both the titular serpent monsters are huge.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The boa's name is Betty.
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Follow the Leader: Likely the idea for selling a "Versus" movie came from Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason, which came out in 2003 and 2004 respectively. - Foreshadowing: The film opens with Broddick and Eve attending a wrestling match between two masked wrestlers: one wearing green named Python, and one wearing red named Boa. Python puts up a good fight, but the match is won by Boa. The fight between the titular snakes plays out more or less the same way.
- Interspecies Romance: When the giant snakes meet for the first time, the male python (a Reticulated Python, to be precise) is actually interested in mating with Betty (a fictional Scarlet Boa). Subverted, as Betty resists him due to being pregnant and about to lay her own eggs; when the python later finds her nest and eats some of her eggs, Betty chases after him to get revenge.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: The python’s early victims include a necking teenage couple in their car. After yanking away the boy and devouring him, he takes his place next to the girl, but she doesn’t notice at first and continues crying out in ecstasy; it’s implied that the python is smelling her with his tongue and accidentally stimulating her orally.
- Light-Haired Swimmer: Monica is a blonde woman who does research with dolphins for the Navy, and has prior experience sweeping for underwater mines.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Broddick’s girlfriend Eve gets an extended nude scene while aboard his private jet, starting with her taking a bath and followed by her trying to initiate sex with Broddick; everything is shown except for her genitals, including closeups of her breasts and butt. For most of the film afterwards, she wears a tank top that bares her midriff.
- Monica is an attractive woman in her own right, and her introductory scene showcases her in a stunning blue bikini.
- Off with His Head!: The python is run over by a train, decapitating him.
- Red Is Heroic: Betty is red in color in comparison to the green python and is the 'heroic' one, as while not necessarily 'good' she only attacks humans if provoked and is opposing the far more actively dangerous python. Notably, nearly all of her kills are members of Broddick's team, with the only two exceptions being a pair of soldiers who attacked her first, and even then they were largely killed by their own stupidity, as the worst she did was somewhat lightly whacking one with her tail.
- Ship Tease: Dr. Emmett and Monica bond together pretty quickly, discussing their backstories and their shared hobbies of working with animals. After Monica gives Emmett an Underwater Kiss to give him air and he’s amazed by that trick, Monica responds that they should try it on land sometime. The ending shows them preparing to recapture Betty, and Monica remarks that they make a pretty good team.
- Shown Their Work:
- While Dr. Emmett mentions Betty's species is the "Scarlet Queen Boa", which is fictional, his comment on her species being unusual in that it lays eggs is accurate. Unlike pythons, which belong to a completely different family, boas exclusively give birth to live young.
- A boa and python being antagonist to one another is correct as the two constrictor families, if brought together, perceive each other as rivals or prey.
- Betty is discovered to have laid a nest of eggs, much to Emmett’s surprise as his own attempts to get her to breed had failed. A female producing offspring without a male mating with her, a process called parthenogenesis, has been documented among several reptile species.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Played straight with the maneating python, who was genetically engineered to be aggressive and dangerous to make for a better hunt. Subverted with Betty, who is fairly docile and only attacks humans when she's provoked, and even then doesn't seem to eat them like the python.
- Summon Bigger Fish: The premise: in order to track down the python, they recruit a scientist's equally huge boa constrictor.
- Super Breeding Program: While not quite clarified in the film, trailers state Betty is the result of selective breeding to become so huge.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Monica is good enough at holding her breath to keep up with the dolphins she works with, and shows off said skill in a breath holding contest (though she technically cheated to win, as described above). She gets to demonstrate this again later when she and Emmett are hiding underwater from the python; when Emmett panics and loses his air, she locks lips with him to give him some of her own.