Prey Film
Prey is a 2022 American science fiction action film in the Predator franchise. It is the fifth film in the mainline series and seventh in the overall franchise. It is a prequel to the first four films, being set in the Northern Great Plains in 1719. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison. It stars Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, Michelle Thrush, Stormee Kipp, Julian Black Antelope, and Bennett Taylor. The story revolves around a young Comanche woman, Naru, who is striving to prove herself as a hunter. She finds herself having to protect her people from a vicious, humanoid alien that hunts humans for sport, as well as from French fur traders who are destroying the buffalo they rely on for survival.
Development of the film began during the production of The Predator (2018), when producer John Davis was approached by Trachtenberg and Aison, with a concept that they had been developing since 2016. In late 2020, the film’s title was revealed to be the codename for the fifth installment in the franchise. Filming took place around Calgary during the summer of 2021, with the entire film shot in English and some sequences shot in the Comanche language as well. The remaining sequences were dubbed into Comanche by the cast, reprising their roles. The film is the only feature film to have a full Comanche language dub.
Prey premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2022, and was released by 20th Century Studios as a Hulu original film in the United States and on Disney+ Star internationally on August 5. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its action sequences, Midthunder’s performance, cinematography, Trachtenberg’s direction, and the Indigenous casting, with many critics calling it the best Predator installment since the first film.
Prey Film
STORY
In 1719 in the Great Plains, Naru, a young Comanche woman trained as a healer, dreams of becoming a great hunter like her brother Taabe. While tracking deer she witnesses strange lights in the sky, which she believes to be a Thunderbird and a sign she is ready to become a hunter, but is actually a Predator dropship. Later, a member of the tribe is taken by a lion. Naru accompanies the search party, which retrieves the wounded man while Taabe stays behind to hunt the prey. Finding large, unusual tracks and a skinned rattlesnake, Naru circles back with Paake and reunites with Taabe. The three set a trap for the lion but it kills Paake.
Naru faces off with the lion but is knocked unconscious when she is distracted by strange sounds and lights in the distance. She awakens at home, having been carried back by Taabe. He later returns to the village carrying the animal, earning him the title of War Chief. Convinced of a greater threat in the woods, Naru departs with her dog Sarii. She stumbles into a bog pit but narrowly escapes before being attacked by a grizzly bear. The bear corners her but is then killed by the Predator, giving Naru time to escape before running into a group of Comanche sent to find her. The Predator, which Naru calls a “Mupitsl” after the Comanche demon of legend, ambushes and kills the men in combat, while Naru is caught in a foothold trap.
French voyageurs find and cage Naru and Sarii. Their interpreter, Raphael Adolini, questions Naru about the Predator, whom the Frenchmen have encountered before. When she refuses to talk, the lead voyageur reveals that he has Taabe captive and tortures him before using both siblings as bait for the Predator, which the French are intent on capturing. The Predator kills most of the Frenchmen while Taabe and Naru escape. Naru rescues Sarii from the camp and stumbles across a dying Raphael, who teaches her how to use his flintlock pistol[a] in exchange for treatment for his severed leg. Naru gives him herbs that reduce his body heat to stanch the bleeding. When the Predator arrives, Raphael plays dead. Naru realizes that, due to his reduced heat, the Predator cannot see him. After it accidentally steps on Raphael, he screams and is killed.
Taabe arrives on horseback to rescue Naru. Together they weaken the Predator, but it kills Taabe. Naru flees and finds the surviving lead Frenchman. She captures him and uses him as bait. Consuming the herbs to hide her body heat, she uses Raphael’s pistol to ambush the Predator after it has killed the voyageur, knocking off its mask, which she knows is used to direct its spear gun. She steals the device and lures the Predator into the bog, where she positions the mask to face the pit. She battles the Predator, which becomes mired in the bog. It fires the spear gun at Naru and misses; the mask guides the projectile back to the Predator, killing it. Naru severs its head and paints her face with its glowing green blood. She returns with its head to her village, where she is declared the new War Chief. Naru informs her tribe that it is time for them to move.
In a post-credits scene, the narrative is summarized in a series of ledger art paintings that ends with a depiction of three Predator vessels descending towards the tribe.
CAST
- Amber Midthunder as Naru, a young Comanche warrior who protects her tribe against a Predator.
- Dakota Beavers as Taabe, Naru’s brother and a skilled hunter. In August 2022, Bennett Taylor confirmed that the script for Prey revealed Billy Sole, a Native American tracker and scout played by Sonny Landham in the original Predator (1987), to be a reincarnation of Taabe, reframing his “last stand” with that film’s Predator as being due to subconscious memories of a past life.
- Dane DiLiegro as the Feral Predator, shown to wield primitive versions of the advanced weaponry used by Predators in previous future-set films, which Naru calls a Mupitsl after the Comanche demon of legend.
- Michelle Thrush as Aruka, Naru and Taabe’s mother
- Julian Black Antelope as Chief Kehetu
- Coco as Sarii, Naru’s dog companion
- Stormee Kipp as Wasape, a Comanche hunter who looks down on Naru
- Mike Paterson as Big Beard
- Bennett Taylor as Raphael Adolini, an Italian translator hired by the French. This character was first alluded to in Predator 2 (1990) and later depicted in the comic book Predator: 1718 (1996).
- Nelson Leis as Waxed Mustache
- Troy Mundle as Spyglass
PRODUCTION
Development
The film began development during the production of the prior Predator film, titled The Predator (2018), when producer John Davis was approached by Dan Trachtenberg and screenwriter Patrick Aison, with a concept they had been working on since 2016. Trachtenberg said that he only had an idea about “someone trying to prove themselves and what they could be up against,” that turned out to fit well into the Predator franchise, as showing a Native American “using your smarts and ingenuity” against more technologically advanced adversaries showed that “there’s no set of brawn other than fortitude that can allow you to succeed against the impossible”. He also said that it was an attempt at given a full movie to a character similar to Billy from the original Predator, a Native American who decides to stand up against the alien. 20th Century Studios production president Emma Watts fast-tracked the development of the film, which was expected to be R-rated.
In December 2019, the film was initially under wraps, going by the name of Skulls. The film reportedly was to “follow a Comanche woman who goes against gender norms and traditions to become a warrior”. It was to be directed by Trachtenberg and written by Aison. Cast auditions were held in February 2020, before pre-production was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020, Skulls was revealed to be a codename for a fifth installment in the Predator franchise, with the same creative team working on the film. The early 18th century concept was a reference to the embroidered gun given to Mike Harrigan’s character at the end of Predator 2, although it was not expected to correlate to the events of the prior installment. Upon the announcement, Trachtenberg indicated that the original intention was to market the film with no reference to the Predators, something no longer possible with the confirmation of the film’s place in the franchise. Prey had been the first title Trachtenberg pitched, as “a mirror to the main franchise” while having the same double meanings as Predator had. The Comanche were chosen as the central tribe because Trachtenberg considered them “the most fierce warriors to walk this continent, arguably, and they were incredibly innovative.”
In May 2021, Amber Midthunder was announced to star. On November 12, 2021, Disney+ Day, the film was given the title Prey, and announced for a mid-2022 release on Hulu and Disney+ internationally. Trachtenberg explained his goal for the film was to get back to the roots of the franchise: “the ingenuity of a human being who won’t give up, who’s able to observe and interpret, basically being able to beat a stronger, more powerful, well-armed force”. Dane DiLiegro ended up becoming the Predator because Dan Trachtenberg sought a different type compared to the original portrayer Kevin Peter Hall’s “WWF 1987 wrestler standoff type thing”, leading to someone with a more ‘feline’ athletic body,[20][21] that would also allow what effects artist Alec Gillis described as “some elegance and fluidity of movement as opposed to the Hulking Stuntman School of Suit Performance.”
RELEASE
July 21, 2022
