Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Season 2 Has A Stealth Tribute To A Kurt Russell Movie

This article contains mild spoilers for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 2.

Kurt Russell is one of those movie stars who's built such a stellar career full of classic and beloved films that, in a way, it's almost impossible not to recall them when seeing him in something new. Some of this is undeniably intentional, because who wouldn't want to cash in on the nostalgia of the star of films like "Tombstone" and "Backdraft?" Russell's also overflowing with genre credentials; in addition to fan-favorite stuff like "Stargate" and "Soldier," his work with John Carpenter in "Escape From New York" and "The Thing" is the stuff of cinema legend. Now that Russell's co-stars in Apple TV's "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" are no less than the likes of Godzilla and King Kong — cinema legends in their own right — of course, the series would want to indulge in Russell's legacy a bit.

However, the showrunners behind "Monarch" haven't been egregious with their Russell homages. So far, the second season includes a couple of moments involving Russell that may or may not be direct homages. The first is Russell (playing the older incarnation of Lee Shaw) dealing with an infestation of Titan X parasites on board a Monarch vessel in episode 2, which might be a reference to "The Thing." But could his heroic commandeering of a Zodiac boat to distract the Titan later in that episode be a subtle nod to "Captain Ron?" While that remains unclear, this week's episode, entitled "Trespass," includes a scene that seems like a stealthy but pointed homage to a Kurt Russell and John Carpenter classic: 1986's "Big Trouble in Little China." In both the episode and Carpenter's film, Russell plays a character who plays another character to help his cohorts get away with their plans, and has an absolute ball doing it.

In "Big Trouble in Little China," Kurt Russell plays Jack Burton, a truck driver who inadvertently gets mixed up with an abduction plot and so much more. One of the great jokes in the film is how Burton is a well-meaning blowhard whose contribution to saving the day is, at best, minimal. Yet he supports his friends, who convince him to dress up as a nerdy Everyman in order to infiltrate a Chinatown brothel where the kidnapped girl may have been taken. Jack's entire function in this scheme is to be annoying to a fault, the better not to raise suspicions, but also to be distracting enough that the team can find some facts. Jack puts on the persona of "Henry Swanson," and Russell has a ball playing Jack, who's playing Jack's version of an obnoxious dweeb.

In the "Trespass" episode of "Monarch," Russell's Shaw is the mastermind behind a plot to gain access to Apex Cybernetics' classified areas. Shaw and company come up with a plan to booby-trap an employee's backpack, which involves distracting him at the local dive bar he frequents while Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira) plant the device in his bag. The distraction is none other than Lee Shaw playing a belligerent drunk calling himself "Uncle Bob," accompanying Kentaro (Ren Watabe) into the bar before starting a fight and then faking a cardiac arrest. Once again, Russell has a ball playing two characters in one, especially as Shaw is trying to be obnoxious. The moment kicks off the fun of the heist, which continues throughout the episode. 

Thus, the resemblance to Jack Burton's Henry Swanson only helps make the episode feel like watching something you love for the first time. Amongst other reasons, that's why you cast someone like Kurt Russell.