Reacquainted with Senator Leviathan

I had seen all of the Alien movies. I had seen almost all of the Predator movies. (Predators still eludes me. Actually so does The Predator. So I haven't seen almost all the Predator movies after all.)

But I had never seen an Alien vs. Predator movie, of which there are two, until Friday night.

It was a result of some random browsing on Disney+. On nights I don't know what I want to watch, I just pick a streaming service -- preferably one I have not used very recently -- and go until I find something. 

Disney+ was not necessarily consistent with the type of movie I wanted to watch on Friday night, but they carry plenty of adult-oriented films, as evidenced by my ultimate choice.

Instead of talking much about the movie -- which was fine -- I wanted to talk about how it reintroduced me to Senator Leviathan.

Who? you ask.

So it was maybe 20 years ago, and I had occasion to mention the actress Sanaa Lathan in a conversation with a group of friends. One of them didn't understand what I said and said back to me "Senator Leviathan?" And it all went from there.

But before we get into what "it" was, I should say that I was pronouncing Sanaa Lathan's name wrong. I said it as "suh-NIGH luh-THON." I don't know, that was just my interpretation. I know learn it's really more like "sah-nah LAY-thun." 

But my mispronunciation allowed one of my friends to come back with "Senator Leviathan?" And hence a character was born.

Senator Leviathan is some sort of politician who lives under the sea. His face is a bit like Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and he wears a robe and carries a trident. The only thing we know that he does is shout "urthrukgugle!" This is how my friend just spelled it in a Facebook chat, anyway. The actual noise is like a primal scream muted by the fact that it is underwater, and makes that gurgling sound you make when you speak underwater. In theory, I suppose this is a cry to object to some recent turn of events in parliamentary procedure.

When I initiated the chat just now, to remind the two friends most associated with the joke of our character, this was the best image I could find after doing a cursory search on the internet:

But more like Davy Jones. 

In any case, some laughter and reminiscences were shared by all.

As for Sanaa Lathan, here she is:

It had been some time since I'd seen her in something. Although she continues to work consistently, it does not appear I have seen anything she's made since Contagion in 2011. To be fair, I only saw three before that, but Love & Basketball was a movie I always meant to see, so maybe I will make that a priority.