New animated Predator movie with perfect Rotten Tomatoes score might have just given Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey a twisted new meaning
Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Predator: Killer of Killers. If you’ve yet to watch the movie, and don’t want to know anything that happens, turn back now!
In the run-up to the release of Predator: Killer of Killers, fans of the sci-fi horror franchise had been vocal about their hopes of a nod to Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey in the animated movie. Turns out, they were right to predict one – and it puts a dark, unexpected twist on the live-action 2022 flick.
Presented as an anthology film, the new title – which Trachtenberg directed with co-director Joshua Wassung – essentially follows three protagonists: a Viking teaching her son the cultural importance of revenge, two brothers navigating the pressures of succession in feudal Japan, and a Latino pilot fighting for the US in World War 2. In their respective time periods, each of them have violent run-ins with the titular hunters but we soon learn that the altercations are actually dreams (or “memories”), and the trio are being held in suspended animation on the Predators’ home planet Yautja Prime.
Before long, Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy), Kenji (Louis Ozawa, who previously appeared in 2010’s Predators), and Torres (Rick Gonzalez) wake, first learning of each other’s existence when they’re thrown into a Gladiator-style arena and ordered to fight to the death. If they choose not to participate, the Predators will detonate the explosive devices around their necks, the aliens’ leader explains. Then it tells them that the victor will have to best him in battle to walk away unscathed.
Each of them are given a weapon from their “era”; an double-sided axe for Ursa, a samurai sword for Kenji, and a pistol for Torres, though he quickly points out it’s not from his century. Eagle-eyed viewers will recognize the gun as Raphael Adolini’s, from 1715, which hero Naru used against the Yautja in Prey. (The firearm is also seen in Predator 2, when Greyback gives it to Danny Glover’s Lieutenant Mike Harrigan). Our first Easter egg…
Ursa and Kenji immediately start attacking one another, but ultimately agree to Torres’ plot of working together to escape on one of the Predators’ ships. It looks like their plan might work for a while but the Yautja harpoon them in the air, stopping them from flying away. Ursa then decides to sacrifice herself to save “her boys”, sliding down the harpoon cable and destroying its launcher. As the Predators put her back in suspended animation, we see other sleeping captives, including Naru.
Whether it’ll be treated as canon or not going forward is unclear, but it’s a shocking retcon considering Naru (Amber Midthunder) managed to kill the Feral Predator dubbed ‘Mupitsi’ and save her tribe at the end of her own movie. It suggests that other Yautja pursued and imprisoned her following the events of Prey, much like how Torres is abducted while tinkering with cars after he dispatched the Predator he was up against. Perhaps all Prey, the movie, was was a memory of Naru’s being replayed for our benefit?
That’s not to say Prey hadn’t already teased Naru’s capture. Right at the beginning of the closing credits, the film’s narrative is depicted in a series of ledger art paintings and if you look closely, you can see three alien vessels descending on the tribe right at the very end. But, well, it’s still pretty bleak to have it confirmed.
Predator: Killer of Killers is streaming now on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK. For more, check out our guides to the best Hulu shows and the best Hulu movies, or see our Predator: Killer of Killers review.
