Preston Packard

"What you're looking at is a monster from some bygone era! It's time to show Kong that man is king!"

- Packard

Preston Packard was a character created by who made his first appearance within the 2017 MonsterVerse film, Kong: Skull Island.

Personality
"We are soldiers. We do the dirty work, so that our families and our countrymen don't have to be afraid! They shouldn't even know a thing like this exists!"

- Packard to Conrad, justifying his actions for attempting to kill Kong

Packard was a fearsome soldier and intensely loyal to his troops. He always jumped at a chance for another mission and thought little of people like Mason Weaver, whom he felt cost America the war in Vietnam, where he was stationed. He also had an insatiable desire for vengeance after the death of his men at Kong's hands in their first encounter.

Though Kong was in reality only trying to stop Packard and his squad from waking the Skullcrawlers, Packard saw him as the enemy and, demanding his pound of flesh, would stop at nothing to kill Kong, even when told otherwise.

For Packard, Kong was an enemy simply because Packard saw him as one, and he willingly risked his men's safety to fulfill his desire for revenge. His desire to wreak vengeance on Kong eventually drove him insane, and led to his literal death at Kong's hand.

Kong: Skull Island
Packard is the commanding officer of the helicopter squadron who flies the film's protagonists to Skull Island for an expedition to map and explore the uncharted terrain. Angered by Kong killing some of his men during his initial rampage, he goes into a maniacal quest to kill Kong out of vengeance.

After gathering most of the survivors to him, Packard interrogates Bill Randa, a Monarch senior official, who tells him that the expedition to Skull Island was never about geology, as he had implied, but to prove ancient Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms such as Kong existed, and the threat they might pose.

As he and the remainders of his squad push on, they encounter and kill a Mother Longlegs and eventually search for and locate Conrad and his team. They try to search for Jack Chapman, who unknown to them has already been eaten by a Skullcrawler. Conrad and his crew try to reason with Packard, convincing him not to kill Kong as his absence would leave the Skullcrawlers alone to lay waste to the island and its natives, though Packard, slowly going insane, ignores their pleas, saying that after he kills Kong, he will kill the Skullcrawlers as well.

After Packard refuses, he sets a trap for Kong using napalm and knocks him out before planting the seismic charges around him, before readying to kill Kong with explosive charges. Most of his team turn against him when Conrad, Mason Weaver and Hank Marlow intervene, but Packard threatens to kill Kong once more in a tense standoff. However, his actions end up awakening a giant Skullcrawler dubbed 'The Big One', and as his men flee, he tries to detonate the explosive charges to finish Kong off, with the ape crushing Packard to death under his fist.

Trivia

 * As is tradition for most Samuel L. Jackson roles, Packard is portrayed as a violent loudmouth with a penchant for expletives (particularly Jackson's famous "motherf---er" lines).
 * Packard is portrayed somewhat like Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, being so obsessed with killing Kong that he recklessly puts his men's safety on the line.
 * He is one of six characters in the MonsterVerse portrayed by an actor with a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being played by Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). The others are Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) and John C. Reilly (Rhomann Dey).
 * His quote "Hold on to your butts!" as the helicopters traverse the storm is a direct reference to Samuel L. Jackson's line in Jurassic Park.

List of appearances

 * Kong: Skull Island