Lycanthropy Werewolves from Dog Soldiers Explained | Discussion of Silver susceptibility and Lore

once again it's that spooky time of year happy halloween everyone and to celebrate that we're going to ruin folktales with science or i guess really kind of make them more believable or at least explain them someone in the comments will say it's ruined anyhow but eh what are you gonna do deep within the highlands of scotland a small group of soldiers is dropped under the guise of a military training session missing out on the england vs germany football game most of them are pretty bummed out as they move through the area strange things begin to happen as they are making camp and within just a few hours they come face to face with their own mortality as human tools and measures are useless against these things so today as the title suggests we will be talking about the movie that really made me start getting into the idea of cryptids dog soldiers and the werewolves contained within alright so let's get to it so you know what to do up on screen you'll see a time stamp head on over there to bypass a summary if you haven't seen this movie bro stop watching right now and just go watch it it is quite literally the perfect movie for this time of year and despite it being made in like 2003 i personally think the effects hold up pretty well plus it's got all the disemboweling that you can handle and if you do head there i will give you a heads up we will be talking about how the body is changed by this transformation on an anatomical level seeing as well there's really no way around it it's a supernatural disease but that doesn't mean we can't discuss what is happening internally to these creatures as shown by the clues that they present so what's better than camping not being eaten for one thing we open up our story to a couple camping deep within the scotland highlands the air is cool the ground is damp and the werewolves are hungry they spend their days sort of screwing around and after the woman gives the man a present a silver letter opener they continue to hang out in the tent but as they do they begin to hear a noise the zipper on the tent is being slowly opened as it is they freeze in horror staring at it not making a move probably not the best plan seeing as the woman is then immediately grabbed by the legs and has attempted to be drugged out the man grabs her arms but after a brief struggle judging by the amount of blood either her leg was ripped off or it dug into her abdomen when it did this sent her into instant shock and she was dragged the rest of the way out for the man's perspective something then enters the tent and then he meets his end as well in another part of the same country in north wales a soldier named cooper is running through the woods being pursued by others eventually he is caught up to and held captive as he is complimented for being the last one to be caught having eluded the forces for over a full day is revealed to us after a short conversation that cooper was attempting to join the special forces known as the special air service or sas for short however shortly after his capture the leader known as captain richard ryan orders cooper to take out a dog in cold blood sealing his entry into the sas cooper refuses to follow captain dick's orders to which old dick takes out the dog anyhow seems like a waste of resources and training but what do i know cooper ultimately has failed because of this and then returned back to his unit roughly a month later a squad of six british soldiers are then sent out into the scottish highlands after the helicopter drops them off with tools containing only blanks it's clear to see that their training is not as pronounced as the soldiers we saw earlier sergeant wells is leading the team and keeping everyone organized as they move out into the forest their mission is to conduct a training exercise against the sas to help them learn as well as keep the sas sharp for future missions while they set up camp for the night and begin trading stories the sergeant mentions about his friend meaning an unfortunate end which has taught him to keep his mind open on things because the manner of how it happened as spoon launches into a joke to cut the tension afterwards a cow is then dropped onto the ground terrifying them all momentarily upon further inspection it is revealed that the cow had puncture wounds from bites all over it and it was really just ripped to shreds out in the woods the group of soldiers has already been spotted and is currently being tracked by the sas so i guess critical mission failure on that front we'll get them next time but it's also about to be mission failure for the sas from an unseen set of eyes the sas team is currently being stalked captain ryan is out in the woods as something clearly is seeing him from the trees able to see perfectly fine at night it attacks the sas group and only the captain is really able to get off a few rounds the rest of the team goes dark and only the british soldiers are left around the campfire the next day the plan is to continue their counter mission against the sas but sergeant after inspecting the cow decides he is more curious about what happened to it he instructs the soldiers that they will be moving in another direction determine where all the blood came from having this open mind it's assumed to be wolves in the area but at the same time the sergeant isn't really sure what took it out and would like to look further into this issue moving through a thicket of woods they eventually happen upon what's left of the sas team ammo and full clips are scattered everywhere but nothing was used upon realizing it was live ammo the soldiers began to question what was happening but upon doing so realized that captain richards is still alive they see he's gravely injured and begin trying to patch him up while they ask him what happened he keeps shouting that there was only supposed to be one cryptically and it won't answer their questions as the soldiers attempt a radio for help they realize that the radio is in fact completely trashed they can't get airlift they can't call for help and they are completely isolated as night begins to fall they begin hearing noises in the thickets of the wood eventually an all-out assault of an unknown contact begins and everyone begins to quasi panic they begin to unload everything they have with some soldiers running and scattering one soldier in the chaos known as bruce is then impaled as he tries to run from one of the creatures sergeant wells finds him but as he does another beast emerges from the woods he opens up on it but barely does anything he's then mortally injured with his guts hanging out of his stomach before being ended though cooper shows up to help and then pulls him out of there the ones left begin a mad dash through the woods carrying the sergeant along with captain ryan with the beast hot on their tail every once in a while they will turn around to fire on it but these really don't deter them in the slightest as they exit the woods a rover pulls up driven by a civilian called megan who is a zoologist she says that the night previous she heard firing in the woods and came out to investigate which i would implore you if you hear firing in the woods you probably shouldn't go investigate she mentions that there is a family that lives up the road as the beasts begin to attack the vehicle that they are in shifting one through the arm eventually megan is able to get traction and takes off down the road towards the family's house this point the remaining soldiers are wells cooper spoon joe and terry along with captain ryan all head for the house to seek refuge from their unknown assailants after their arrival they take sergeant wells upstairs begin to treat his wounds the best they can without proper medical intervention however it's simply a band-aid and will need much more attention when they aren't currently being hunted it's understood at this point that these creatures are in fact werewolves as well just mentions it may seem crazy but there are things out there that we just simply don't understand with this information they realize if they can hold out till morning then they should revert back to their human forms after this as they head outside to check on the rover as well as the area cooper and terry look around and they realize the rover's engine bay has been completely obliterated with their only chance of escaping this place ruined they look further out and see that these beasts have surrounded the house trapping them cooper opened fires on them but it does nothing the move inside began locking down the house and during the ensuing scuffle terry's just straight up abducted by the beasts and won't be seen until later the soldiers begin to realize that if they don't get out of there or they send only one person for help then nobody is going to make it megan tells them that there is another car in the shed but she doesn't have the keys for it as such someone will need to hotwire it joe's the man for the job spoon jumps out the window to be a distraction and yells out for the werewolves to come and get him one moves in to attack and he takes off running joe then makes his move quietly to the barn he opens up the door and begins hot wiring the car when the lights turn on it reveals that terry is currently in there too a lone werewolf is currently feasting on his still-living body terry looks at joe as the wolf bites into his neck and then completely takes his head off and throws it at the car another werewolf begins to attack the car and he floors it out of their backwards as he pulls up to the house and waits for the others to gather the rest of their stuff a stream of breath can be seen next to him he asks you're behind me aren't you he then turns around to go out fighting jumps into the back seat with it werewolf though is much stronger however he quickly takes him out spraying the inside of the car as the others open the door to the back the rest of joe comes oozing out of the cabin or at least what's left of joe captain ryan at this point is starting to look a little more chipper for some reason after suffering grievous wounds he's now up and walking around the rest of the group still doesn't trust him so they time to a chair to interrogate him he reveals that the men were actually just live bait they were sent out to attract the werewolf and given blanks so they couldn't injure it the sas was supposed to go in and then capture the creature but it turned out there were multiple of these werewolves which overwhelmed them he mentions what's worse is they were given permission to use the men as lie bait enraged cooper and wells try to take ryan out but it's too late he falls to the floor and is greatly pained he looks up and his eyes have turned yellow realizing he is turning everyone backs up moments later ryan gets up fully transformed and the group attacks them with everything they have eventually this is enough to overwhelm the creature and it breaks through the window and escapes after it is revealed that the family that lives there are actually the werewolves and they are literally taking refuge in the den of these things they attempt to further lock down the house as the werewolves continue their attack where all right i don't know man this part just always gets me so i have to mention it it made me laugh as a kid and it still makes me laugh as an adult one of the werewolves sticks its hand through the mail slot and as spoon is nailing wood to the door he starts smacking the living hell out of it which i always thought was hilarious but this absolutely going ape on werewolves will be seen later from spoon but it still gets me every time at this point an all-out fight with anything and everything ensues between the soldiers and werewolves being extremely low on ammo they now have to resort to pots pans knives swords lamps plates basically anything to create distance and injury they understand however this is not going to work for very long and the only thing keeping these things even remotely at bay is they have no idea how much ammo they actually have so they need another plan they discover that the house possesses a lot of gasoline seeing as it's so remote they decide that they will use the rover that joe drove over that's currently leaking gas everywhere and this will create a trail and they will put a bunch of canisters in the rover and then blow the barn megan concludes there must be werewolves in there and this plan should work as they complete the plan and blow the barn however is revealed that there is nothing in there instead from an earlier injury megan received when she cut her hand on a window pane where the werewolf flood was she is now turning and she let the werewolves in by unlocking the back door to the house the werewolves surround her as part of their pack but megan is quickly taken out by cooper seeing as she's still vulnerable in her mostly human form at this point it's a fight for survival wells and cooper are forced upstairs with spoon being left downstairs each fighting their own werewolf i'll tell ya my boy spoon puts up a hell of a fight man again literally going ape on the one attacking him he ends up throwing the whole kitchen at it and then getting into a fistfight he eventually finds a knife and begins to stab the creature and during one of the kicks he actually ends up knocking out the canine tooth gaining the upper hand he tries to take it out by beating it with a pan but then another werewolf shows up to help out the other getting third partied because werewolves have no honor he says he hopes he gives them the shits and then they begin to eat him upstairs cooper and wells are split up with each engaging in a game of keep away from the werewolves as they begin breaking through the doors though cooper breaks through the wall to sergeant wells where they both attempt to hide in a wardrobe now you may be noticing at this point that man considering sergeant wells guts were hanging out not too long ago he's doing pretty well well that might be a problem later as they hide in the wardrobe they find the remains of presumably the campers from earlier in the month the werewolves in turn find them to which wells shoots through the floor to the kitchen and they both momentarily escape cooper then looks up to find a watch and a pile of gore which is what's left of spoon meaning that they are the last two left sergeant wells knows something is amiss at this point internally as he feels pain unrelated to his wounds he shoves cooper into the basement and tells him to let everyone know what happened he then shuts the hatch and begins to fill the room with gas as he does the werewolves enter but they don't immediately attack wells's eyes then turn yellow and with his last bit of humanity he raises his lighter another werewolf smacks it out of his hand to which wells then hits the lighter on the stove causing the explosion that destroys the house after the kaboom cooper is down in the basement looking around he finds pieces of people and the rest of the campers but doesn't know it as he moves about it turns out that captain ryan is waiting for him down there it begins to attack him throwing him around interestingly it doesn't just end him but we'll get to that intelligence later as it continues to punch him and throw him around boracali then attacks giving cooper just enough time to find the silver letter opener from the camper he stabs it into captain ryan's chest which makes him vulnerable at this point cooper has no quads about taking out a dog in cold blood and pops captain ryan right between the eyes ending him the movie wraps up with a view of a sensationalized newspaper under the title werewolves ate my platoon under the score of the game from the night previous ensuring nobody would ever believe it and werewolves would still remain folklore god i love this movie honestly it's one of my favorites nothing quite like a bunch of trained soldiers fighting monsters always kind of a cool concept so seeing as this is quite clearly a supernatural disease that doesn't stem from anything located in the real world i figured we would go over the anatomical changes of a human turning to a werewolf because there are quite a few as well as the mental preservation and i guess also degradation in some areas concerning the brain i know this isn't the standard but every once in a while conventional science cannot explain everything so let's get to a breakdown of the werewolves shall we the intelligence of a werewolf is more than that of a wolf but less than that of a human looking at context clues throughout the movie is pretty apparent an area of the brain associated with complex thought and planning has been heavily influenced and this is likely due to the structural changes in the brain due to skull growth when a human is infected starting with a head we see that their heads do increase in size but the brow slope is at a much greater angle than normal because of this pressure on the prefrontal cortex would much likely be higher increased pressure on any part of the brain is never a good thing but it's interesting because as we know any changes to the frontal lobe can result in memory loss degradation of higher level thinking and advanced planning the way the werewolves attack the house shows a lack of high level thinking and advanced planning in particular as they continue to attack with reckless abandonment instead they attack like an animal would with a smaller frontal lobe another interesting thing to note about this hypothesized pressure on the frontal lobe is memory loss now i don't know if you know much about werewolves but supposedly they never remember what happened or where they were or how they got somewhere because of this while that pressure is on the brain they aren't making new memories and when the skull goes back to its normal shape this relieves the pressure this would indicate that the human brain is still in its standard form and a reason for this is the ability to use things in ways animals wouldn't understand it is seen during one of the combat scenes that a werewolf grabs a shotgun from one soldier and then fires back through the window at him and then however proceeds to throw the shotgun to the floor due to the memory of likely having one of these during their human form they can still remember how to operate things the frontal lobe pressure may affect new memories but old ones can still be retrieved another example of intelligence still being present is how they know how to open doors by using door handles as opposed to just breaking them down and even further when they are attacking the rover's engine bay by ripping apart shows some ability to understand how the car moves by the engine or when they destroy the radio of the sas specifically so they couldn't call for help and lastly cooper and ryan were not friends in fact they could be considered enemies cooper and ryan engaging in a fist fight rather than ryan just straight up using his claws to end him shows that he had previous understanding of their resentment and wants the revenge to last this intelligence is preserved somewhat and this makes them more capable than just any other animal however it would appear that in other areas of the brain the effects may reactivate old portions of our instincts so your brain is built on successive generations old instincts are still there just buried deep under the primate brain so just the generalized thinking just so you know the large cerebrum that we have is called a primate brain under that is the mammalian brain and under that is the lizard brain it's basically as the brain evolved outwards you still have the same internal structures so it's all based on evolution but with the mammalian brain being further down and even the lizard brain being even further past that this is where human instincts are housed predatory and prey essentially now like i said this is massively boiled down and the complexities are kind of ridiculous but this is the best way to explain it it would seem this disease reactivates and makes likely the mammalian portion of the brain more in control the reason for this is because in a lot of ways the frontal cortex does keep those impulses in check and with it currently subdued the brain is allowed to run at a much more animalistic level than normal which may explain the aggression and still social ability of the werewolves with the brain covered now i'd like to cover the physiology of these creatures because there are quite a few changes that are incredibly painful to a person getting a good look at these things when they enter a house and corner sergeant wells it is seen they are literally almost hitting the top of their heads on the roof above them judging by soldiers with them likely being from ranging about five foot eight to six feet tall and having no issue completely towering over him this means that these werewolves are likely over eight feet tall or almost three meters tall this would imply massive growth within the long bones of the body as well as vertebrae seeing as these werewolves are absolute units this would imply that the growth plates of the human body would need to be reactivated these place known as epiphyseal plates are the tissue near the ends of long bones that can be active during the growth of children and adolescents then as an adult these will fuse and harden but they can actually be reactivated under certain circumstances it's been shown that if you have a cancerous tumor on top of your pituitary gland this can almost reactivate these growth plays to a degree and cause a person to grow but ultimately this bone added and stretch will give you your height and this is what accounted for your legs hurting a lot as when you were a kid welcome to your body changing actually i don't know if yours hurt but mine used to feel like somebody was stabbing me with a hammer great times to be alive actually did y'all's legs hurt i'm interested to know put that in the comments anyhow when you become an adult like i said these plates fuse and that's the end of that during this infection however all bones are changed including the teeth this reactivation of bone growth would mean that these plates are hyperactive it would seem and this could be caused by pituitary changes due to this infection but these changes would have to be incredibly rapid so the osteoblasts would be sent in and then begin adding bone at unprecedented rates as the bones were lengthened this would account for the pain the person feels in particular the legs appear to be roughly double the size as well as the arms the vertebrae would also have to increase in size which would explain the recoiling that we see as the spinal cord is likely stretched to near maximum capacity however even with this stretching considering the mass of this creature and how it can put it on very quickly it would be unlikely that the nervous system would be neglected humans have a maximum height range that our nervous systems are actually designed to handle in fact the tallest man in the world robert wadlow at a height of 8 feet 11 inches or 2.72 meters reported that a lot of the time he felt tingling in his extremities or even completely numb a lot of the time this is because the nervous system was never designed to be stretched that thin so quickly likely nervous tissue severing and shearing happened in the longest portions of his body the same would likely happen to the werewolves if their infection didn't compensate for this with the adding of nervous tissue they could still likely move but i would say they do appear to be somewhat affected by the rapid growth still and this is because when you look at them they look more uncoordinated than you might expect when in enclosed places more clumsy i guess would be the best way to put it and this could be because of the nervous system being slightly damaged by this change but speaking of the skeletal changes to the body from earlier it would also appear that the skeletal muscular systems are ramped up as well if you add on to someone's height by a factor of two the werewolves would really just be skinny as a rail and because those muscles are stretched to that capacity they would likely be incredibly weak instead because of this disease adding mass everywhere the muscle is also added to as well due to the overall structuring of the body the general connection points are kept the same but more muscle tissue is added and likely new strands are formed to sort of accompany this change if you shrunk the werewolf back down to standard human size it would likely look like someone in a strong man competition by comparison but due to the height the muscle is then stretched out more i would like to note moving this much muscle would also seem to suggest that the nervous tissue is added to properly mobilize and contract the added muscle to the frame this added tissue allows them to run faster and literally fling humans with a hit or cause heavy damage to their internal organs with just one swipe all of these changes however would be nothing without an increased metabolism and that being there can kind of explain the presence of these other symptoms to add muscle nervous tissue bone production the one thing you are gonna need more than anything else is more mitosis in fact a lot of mitosis almost to the point of cooking your own body however the disease does seem to affect the mitotic pathways within cells and would cause hormonal signaling to the rest of the body to induce these changes this increased metabolism would explain why the werewolves hunt so fervently and eat almost an entire person or multiple people in one sitting because of the likely constant hunger pains they feel this hunger and need to eat coupled with the basic instincts being reactivated as well as the frontal lobe depression would also explain why the werewolf would turn against someone it formally knew and change the way they think because without food they may literally expire an increased metabolism would also show why they are so resistant to damage firing everything they had at these werewolves one soldier mentions how they quite literally filled it with lead quite right the only way for this creature to walk away from all of that is if its healing capacity was off the charts likely after the body was damaged an immediate healing would begin however should the damage be enough like when one werewolf gets its arm chopped off regeneration is different from healing likely that injury would remain but fused together over time not fused with its original arm but fuse over the same healing factor is also what keeps captain ryan alive in the basement with a literal sword through his chest this is not to say though they are invincible detonating the house does completely blow apart werewolves meaning that they can be taken out by more energetic means the healing factor is also shown to be ramping up when captain ryan appeared to be knocking on death's door and as time progressed he was able to get up and move around more freely and seem perfectly fine another example of this is when sergeant wells who literally had his guts hanging out after them being placed back in his wounds began to heal quite quickly and even he knew something was amiss based on how well he was feeling what we can see is that werewolves are producing a lot of heat which accompanies a high metabolism this is seen at some points to the movie as well when joe's in the truck a stream of hot air along with relatively deep and quick breathing can be seen next to him not only would this help to somewhat cool the werewolf but it shows that a lot of heat is coming off of this thing likely they would need to continue to breathe quickly much like how a dog does to stay cool another likely possibility in staying cool is that when sergeant wells is attacked upstairs human sweat glands are quite active on the werewolf as it appears to be saturated as it stands over them physically the werewolves change a human morphologically as well we never actually see the feet of these creatures but it can be assumed the way they are walking that their feet have changed from a plant grade structuring with humans to a digital grade structuring like wolves the lengthening of the tarsal bones gives them pause and they walk on the balls of their feet moving further up we see that the fibia and tibia have been lengthened quite a bit the structure in the legs appear somewhat human along with a torso but much more elongated to be expected the arms are lengthened with the humerus bone and radius and ulna bones suffering the same fate the phalanges have been increased in size and now possess massive claws we see with captain ryan that the lacuna of the nail begins rapidly producing these nails several inches in length which can be used for eviscerating getting the head of the creature is where the real money maker is this particular werewolf possesses a type of mane likely because of where the human's natural hair follicles grow concerning on the top of the head although just a fun fact for you we actually have the same amount of hair as chimps we just have finer hair but with all over the cells being overhauled it would appear that these hair follicles kick into overdrive as well the ears increase in length and become pointed and the face is structurally changed to a ridiculous degree okay it's supernatural so i'm just gonna have to call it what it is the face is turned very wolf-like in appearance with the maxilla bone and mandible of the human forming a snout the teeth are lengthened in proportion with the rest of the body and the hair on the face is added that's the one thing that actually does make sense known as werewolf syndrome this disease can actually completely cover the face and hair so that wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that's happening based on hair follicles on the head being heavily influenced the skin cells are also being influenced not only in their rapid division to accommodate the height but also have increased in their pigmentation it appears overproduction of melanin from their original mount produced is also quite prevalent so what exactly is happening to someone who is infected well a scratch bite swipe whatever can infect you this is clearly a supernatural disease as nothing like it has been seen before or would change you in this way concerning what we know currently however what it does appear to do is affect the mitotic pathways of all the cells in the body and as a result causes the infected to grow rapidly and through this process portions of the brain are affected and depressed with this happening this would inspire a great hunger in these creatures making them eat anything likely even people that they knew which comes from folk tales the brain would make no new memories but may retain some semblance of human intellect through the process and at that end this creature returning to its normal form would require the ending of many cells unless they became cancerous and i also would just like to point out there is an end at which cells can undergo mitosis i believe it's about 60 times so this disease if it were real would likely cause people to age very rapidly so i would probably say inside of like a year you might advance an age of like 50 years but let's entertain an idea real quick to wrap this thing up we all know werewolves are vulnerable to silver in fact it's shown when cooper plunges a letter opener into captain ryan that his skin has a physical yellowing reaction to the silver and that makes him incredibly vulnerable to the damage to his head so what does silver do to the body of humans exactly well turns out it's mostly safe but like anything out there too much of it can cause a poisoning effect most interestingly it would appear that it can affect blood cells as a result it can actually have an impact on changing their cellular shape making them less able to carry oxygen and also in turn change their ion concentrations and ability to exchange ions because of this we can assume that the introduction of silver to a werewolf is an accelerated process so taking a human growing to large proportions may take years right and this could be caused to damage to the pituitary gland but taking the person and exposing them to silver over these years may produce the same effects on the body such as anemia and low oxygen saturation so my thinking is this silver affects the body of a werewolf so badly because everything is increased like a thousand-fold the body is running at such a high level which means contact with silver damages the blood and with the blood damaged the cells are changed and then can no longer keep up with the oxygen demand this in turn breaks down the increased mitosis of these beasts and what they run at and they can't sustain those levels anymore with this damaged cause they're more susceptible to the hits that would put humans down but likely this runaway effect would also lead to their end after a few moments making them seem so susceptible to silver versus other forms of poisoning so in a sense destroy the blood and you may be able to destroy the werewolf but it's not enough to just leak the blood out you need to literally corrupt it from the inside which requires you getting close so remember this as we go for halloween and it's a full moon tomorrow

Channel: Roanoke Gaming

Views: 1,019,810

Keywords: Dog soldiers, Dog soldiers movie, Werewolves, werewolves of london, Dog soldiers werewolves, were wolves, Roanoke Gaming, Dog soldiers explained, Lycanthrophy werewolves, Are werewolves real, dog soldiers ending, dog soldiers werewolf attack, Dog soldiers ending fight, dog soldiers spoon vs werewolf, dog soldiers transformation, dog soldiers full movie, Dog soldiers spoon, dog soldiers scene, dog soldiers 2002, dog soldiers werewolf fight, dog soldiers werewolf house

Id: Ra80Wf8AJGk

Length: 25min 47sec (1547 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020