[Kong: Skull Island/Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2017/2019)] Private Reg Slivko = Dr. Rick Stanton
Okie dokie, here we again.
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Before we start this one though, I'll admit it's gonna be stretchy. Honestly, the more I researched it, the more I wanted this theory to be correct because the people behind the scenes were sooooo close to connecting all the dots and it was maddening that they hadn't. So with that, I give a push. Hopefully the right people are listening and if not, well it's some fun head-canon. Which is allways the goal!
Tl;dr: After his time on Skull Island, Rick Stanton (who's army nickname was Reg Slivko), motivated by fear and his love of music, got degrees in sound engineering to become a crypto-sonographer so he could be of more use to the world in its defense against M.U.T.O threats.
A lot of places to start but continuing off music is the best. Especially when comparing the characters side by side. This was something I only realized in reading up on it,
Name: Reg Slivko Status: Alive 19 Years Of Age Reg Slivko is a young ace Huey pilot and a member of the Sky Devils Reg Slivko is a young sol
but in Kong: Skull Island (KSI and GKOTM as the other one from here on out), Slivko grabs his personal record player out of the helicopter wrecks and carries it with him through the movie. Now that's a level of dedication for a luxurious item that speaks volumes. That thing's heavy. Like, 1980's cellphone-as-luggage heavy. It's an unknown jungle and you've just been attacked by a giant gorilla. Deciding to lug a record player through that is.... well, it's insane. But hey, I begrudge a person their little pleasures. Most of all in moments like that. What's it mean though?
It means that Rick Slivko loved music so much he decided to go to school for acoustics after the army. I mean, that's the point, right? Join the army, get some money and training, and use them to do what you wanted to do [Not that that's how it actually works 😘 ] And why wouldn't he want to get a leg up after seeing everything on Skull Island. That kind of thing gives you some serious life lessons along with a dose of motivational PTSD. It makes double sense too when you realize that in the briefing Reg Stanton was given at the beginning of KSI, the Landsat officers said that they would use bombs to measure the acoustic vibrations in the Earth. Upon learning that too, what's he say?
"Ya hear that, boys?! We're scientists now."
So R.S. got scared, realized that bullets and bombs wouldn't solve the problem and went and got a doctorate to help for real. Stranger things have happened. And really, would you blame him?
"I record everything, man. Everything."
This is why he's such a fan/proponent of Dr. Houston Brooks' Hollow Earth theory and also explains his playful rivalry with Ilene Chen. They all know each other from waaaaay back.
And this is where I'm gonna ask for some audience cooperation. The behind the scenes material is slightly contradictory on what this is saying. Now, according to Gojipedia,
Dr. Rick Stanton is a scientist character who first appeared in the 2019 MonsterVerse film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. 1 Personality 2
Rick Stanton earned his doctorate while at SETI and THEN met Brooks while working at Landsat and hearing MONARCH rumors. AND amazingly, seemingly missing a good story opportunity, San Lin in KSI is NOT one of the Mothra twins from GKOTM. What the hell?! I'm not sure if it's racism or bad storytelling but I had just assumed she was half of the legacy of twins. It does state though that Ilene and Ling Chen ARE third generation MONARCH so maaaaybe they're the daughters of San Lin and Houston Brooks. But alas, the wiki says those two only had a son named Aaron and the age wouldn't match up. Yet there's still the naming connection. San Lin and Ling Chen. Just like Reg Slivko and Rick Stanton. Private R.S. and Doctor R.S.. Lin and Ling. Coincidence? Perhaps, but there is truth in a name.
So let's throw out a little bit of the behind-the-scenes narrative and fill it in to go just a slightly different direction. What if R.S., Brooks and San Ling Chen all met on Skull Island? Slivko was still in the army so he serves out his tour and Brooks/Lin go off to work for the larger MONARCH. R.S. gets out of the army and decides to do something more with his life. Goes and gets his degree, working at SETI as an intern, slowly building up the knowledge needed to be of legitimate use to a monster hunting organization (Looking for life in space ain't that different from listening for it down here). Eventually he and Brooksie meet up again and they use their prior connections to get R.S. into MONARCH. The rest is cinema history.
This brings into play why Ricko knows and loves the Hollow Earth theory so much. Seen it, been there and done it. Hell, it's the whole reason he got here in the first place and he goes drinking with the man who came up with the idea. His kidding with Ilene Chen? Well he knows her sister and likes to rib the other twin about how she missed out on the Skull Island expedition. Even the man's verbage makes him sound like he's from the 70's, man. Like, you know what I mean, dude?
I don't know for sure. When I first had this idea, it seemed like the people making it had thought of it too. So I was a little disappointed to see it wasn't so. Yet... still the idea persisted in me so hard that you're seeing it here now. True or not, planned or forced, the pieces are there for something more. Here's hoping better people can pick up the strings and finish tying this knot.
