Preston Packard

"Remember the story of Icarus, whose father gave him wings made of wax, and warned him not to fly too close to the sun. But the exhilaration was too great, so he flew higher and higher until the sun melted his wings and he fell into the sea. But the United States Army is not an irresponsible father. So they gave us wings of white-hot, cold-rolled Pennsylvania steel. Guaranteed not to melt."

- Preston Packard mentioning the tale of Icarus to his men.

"It's time to show Kong that Man is King!"

- Preston Packard's famous line "This thing brought us down! It killed my men! (Conrad: Kong was just defending his territory.) 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!"

- Preston Packard's goal to kill King Kong.

Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard (simply known as Preston Packard) is the secondary antagonist in the 2017 action adventure film Kong: Skull Island, the second installment in Legendary's MonsterVerse franchise. He is a veteran soldier who leads the military group - the Sky Devils Helicopter Squadron - to explore Skull Island, an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean.

He was portrayed by the famous legendary actor, Samuel L. Jackson, who also played Jules Winnfield, Elijah Price in Unbreakable, Abel Turner in Lakeview Terrace, Stephen in Django Unchained, Frank Tenpenny in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Richmond Valentine in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Mr. Barron in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Call to Mission
Packard was in Vietnam when contacted by William "Bill" Randa, a Monarch representative to be the military escort to an unexplored island in the South Pacific, this when seeing the opportunity accepts the mission and prepares with his team.

Exploring Skull Island
After crossing the storm to Skull Island, Randa gives them the green light to use the seismic bombs and map the island, this angers Kong and begins to attack the helicopters. He becomes filled with anger as he watched Kong kill his comrades. After he regroups with the remaining soldiers, he confronts Randa at gunpoint to tell him everything he doesn't know, he then swears to not leave the island before killing Kong and avenge his men.

The Search for Bombs
Packard heads towards the helicopter crash site that had the seismic bombs and where Chapman found himself, after a long walk for the search of Chapman are attacked by a giant spider, which kills one of the members, and later they manage to reunite with James Conrad and the remaining survivors. Valley of the Dead, where they were attacked by one of the Skullcrawlers, after the confrontation, during a heated and acrimonious discussion, and confirm Chapman had been devoured by the same Skullcrawler from earlier, Packard decides to go for those bombs with his team regardless and hunt down Kong.

Hunting Kong and Final Showdown
"Die, you motherfu--"

- Preston Packard's last words.

After having the seismic bombs, he ambushes Kong, who was reunited with James Conrad, later this activates the bombs attracting his attention, Conrad to seeing this decides to go towards Packard to stop it, Kong goes towards the place of the ambush had Packard who had previously thrown oil in the lake, after a face-to-face confrontation, Packard sets fire to the lake, thus burning and injuring Kong, who falls unconscious on the ground. Putting explosive charges and about to detonate them, Conrad appears and confronts Packard telling him that there were more things to worry about and Kong was not the threat, but after a brief discussion, the largest Skullcrawler, Ramarak, appears. Conrad with the other soldiers and the survivors run from the creature, while Packard stays behind, remaining determined to finish Kong, who has just awakened, off in a suicide bombing. Before he can detonate the explosives to kill off Kong, the ape crushes Packard to death with his fist.

Personality
Packard is a sly, fearsome, manipulative, and obsessive soldier. He is intensely affectionate and loyal to his troops. He always jumps 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 has an insatiable desire for vengeance after the death of his men at Kong's hands in their first encounter. Though Kong was only trying to stop Packard and his squad from waking the Skullcrawlers, Packard sees him as the enemy and will not stop at anything to kill Kong, even when told otherwise. For Packard, Kong is an enemy simply because Packard sees him as one, and he willingly risked his men's safety to fulfill the desire for revenge. His desire to wreak vengeance on Kong eventually drives him extremely psychopathic and insane, and leads to his own literal death at Kong's hand.

Trivia

 * J.K. Simmons originally attached to the film as Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Samuel L. Jackson replaced Simmons' role as Packard.
 * A similar villain was Archie Nevitt in King Kong Lives.
 * Though the Skullcrawlers are the main antagonists, Packard's quest to kill Kong drove the plot forward.
 * This is similar to Jurassic World, where the Indominus rex was the main antagonist, but Commander Vic Hoskins's plot to create the I. rex and sell her (or the raptors) to the military drove the plot of the film forward.
 * Preston Packard is the first human villain in the MonsterVerse franchise.