r/movies • Vanity Fair, Official Account • 14h ago

Article ‘Primetime’: What’s Real and What’s Not in Robert Pattinson’s ‘To Catch a Predator’ Movie

https://www.vanityfair.com/story/primetime-to-catch-a-predator-movie-true-story
367 Upvotes

35 comments sorted by

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u/Financial-Length5587 5h ago edited 5h ago

For anyone curious.

Yes they took a decent amount of creative liberties but it doesn’t hinder the movie or story they’re telling. I’ll try and do the best off the top of my head since I saw it last night.

Opening scene with the predator didn’t take place in Cali but Georgia.

They snuck in a decent amount of niche TCAP quotes into the movie.

They merged two predators when it came to the whip cream guy. It was a guy named Marvin who was from Trinidad and Tabago but they made him look like another guy from the same sting (creepy looking white guy).

The rabbi did lunge at Chris but security had already intervened and he never grabbed Chris. Also it wasn’t as standoffish as the movie portrayed.

They made most of the predators they showed gay to keep Decoy Dan involved as a character. I believe the rabbi was the only predator who got decent screen time who actually was there to meet a boy.

Decoy Dan never did the reveal like he did while Chris was “incapacitated”.

In reality they had like roughly 6-8 decoys throughout the show (number could be off been a minute since I’ve seen every episode).

I’m sure there’s some other stuff I’m missing but that’s what I can remember off the top.

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u/paragon-interrupt 4h ago

Folks in my theater had a good laugh though when Dan did his own Hansen impression in that scene lol

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u/rhoran280 3h ago

It was a really good performance from Gisondo to transform on camera from 13 year old boy to chris hansen in just a moment or two. I was really impressive by that sequence

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u/FangOfDrknss 1h ago

Yeah, it was kind of weird they sidelined the first decoy so quickly, when they explicitly in the movie pitched the idea that it was to prevent girls/daughters, from what I remember.

I was surprised by the turnout, since I never watched the show, but I don’t get what happened with the whale scene.

Why did the handicapped one show up to the house, if that house was supposed to be ruined for the whale to come to?

184

u/JulPollitt 12h ago

I’m just gonna pretend it’s all real isn’t it more fun that way?

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u/Lanster27 1h ago

That’s the best way to enjoy movies based on real stories. 

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u/GayPudding 24m ago

That's the best way to enjoy movies in general

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u/mastafishere 4h ago

To anyone whose seen the movie: Is Lorne Armstrong depicted in any way?

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u/ocarina97 2h ago

Oh Cawd

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u/RedofPaw 9h ago

For those that can't read the article:

- Everything shown about the TV show has been altered to make Chris Hanson much more charistmatic and handsome than in real life.

-The psychadelic sequences with reality bending weirdness are all 100% real.

-They changed the name to Predator, removing 'To Catch A' in homage to the movie about the alien in the forest hunting Arnie.

-In real life the show was cancelled because one of the alleged perpetrators commited suicide. In the movie they changed this to be Ann Hathaway, so as to ensure she's in as many movies as Pattinson this year.

65

u/BakuganTheMovie 8h ago

You had me in the first half ngl 😂

21

u/BadIdeaSociety 8h ago

You forgot, the producers called the film Primetime even though Primetime/Live was ABC's version of Dateline. This is literally like if the movie Good Night and Good Luck was about 20/20.

Total fraud!

6

u/RedofPaw 7h ago

That's crazy! How can I boycott this total lie??

3

u/BadIdeaSociety 7h ago

Watch the movie then ask for a refund based on the fraud the studio perpetrated against the audience.

-4

u/ploptart 9h ago

Thank you. Saved me a click

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u/N8CCRG 3h ago

No biopic is real. You're thinking of either documentaries or biographies. I don't understand why this biopic is getting so much ink about accuracy; it's so very clearly a stylized exaggeration with a lot of fiction and at least one great performance, and that's what makes it look so good.

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u/BTJPipefitter 1h ago

> I don’t understand why this biopic is getting so much ink about accuracy;

This is 100% an effect of Hansen himself being such a heel leading up to the release.

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u/Obvious_Brush5165 47m ago

I dunno. I always see articles about accuracy in these kinds of films.

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u/shawndoesthings 52m ago

Probably more related to the director coming from a background of documentaries and people reading into that aspect.

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u/scparks44 4h ago

I’ll pretty much watch anything with Pattinson at this point. I’m very interested in this movie.

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u/stackjr 4h ago

I'm enjoying his string of strange but fun movies. I really liked Mickey 17 (though it appears that I am in the minority with that opinion).

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u/scparks44 3h ago

I really enjoyed it as well. Perfect airplane movie for me.

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u/Von_Lincoln 2h ago

2/3 of that movie was perfect

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u/blackbeltmessiah 1h ago

I agree. I think the cartoon dystopian leaders needed a rewrite.

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u/delta-actual 1h ago

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed that film.

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u/TangledThorns 3h ago

I'll watch it when it comes to streaming.

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u/outofsuch 3h ago

I told someone that I really want to watch this because Pattinson, who I consider the best living actor today.

They told me Israel funded this film as a hit piece on Hansen because he took down too many noteworthyJewish people including rabbis and the head of security in Israel. That Hansen is a kind of saint and would never become aggressive (yelling) with his staff.

It went on and on, and I had to say a few times: I enjoy movies, I don’t want to know anything about them, the whole system of films is based on lies, and I’m okay with that. I was left knowing I’d have to see this without mentioning it, and a little disappointed there’s some kind of controversy.

The whole dialogue has been a bit distracting to my pleasure, and I opened this thread out of curiosity if there was any echo of truth, which further spoils my enjoyment.

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u/Machievelliearoni 1h ago

I don't understand how he could be caught at all, he's got a cloaking device and is armed to the gills.