Long-running franchises often run into a lot of problems when it comes to sustaining continuity, from forgetting details to fixing issues with the original concepts. Some details are incidental and free to be abandoned in subsequent sequels, but some feel integral to the narrative weight of an ongoing story.
Prey is the fifth entry in the Predator franchise, and it's also the best piece of the franchise in decades. The franchise has built itself almost entirely on the simple premise of an advanced alien hunting human beings for sport. Prey moves that venerable concept to the Great Plains and the early 18th century, but, the central threat is unchanged.
The eponymous Predator of each film in the franchise is a member of a species known as the Yautja. They travel the universe seeking particularly deadly foes to hunt for sport. They take trophies from their kills and require their young to prove themselves in a traditional show of strength and skill. Despite their initial appearance and the deliberate misdirection of the first film, the Yautja aren't mindless killing machines or slasher movie killers. They have rules, they have traditions, and they will not break them. Over the four canonical films and the two versus movie spin-offs, fans have had plenty of time to learn the ways of the Yautja. With a new entry finally entering the franchise after several weak attempts, it's worth looking into how the first Predator to land on Earth upholds Yautja culture.
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Predators seek to hunt and kill capable warriors across the universe. In the films, that usually means they face off against heavily armed military men. When out in the field of battle, there are certain people that a Yautja won't kill. If a target is unarmed or incapacitated, the Predator is obliged to leave them unharmed. A captured foe isn't worth killing to a proud hunter. The Yautja isn't above subterfuge or dirty tactics, using injured humans as bait or replicating their voices as one might use a duck call, but they won't kill someone who isn't capable of fighting back. This also applies to people who are somehow medically unable to fight. In Predator 2, the City Hunter leaves Detective Cantrell unharmed when its scans reveal that she's pregnant. In Alien vs. Predator, a Yautja spares the life of Charles Weyland when it detects cancer in his lungs and gives him a terminal diagnosis. When Weyland attacks that Predator, however, he makes himself a combatant, and the Predator takes him down.
There is also precedent to suggest that Predators do not attack children. Anna, the insurgent girl from the 1987 original, can escape in full view of that film's Yautja. This concept is expanded to be one of the most important elements of Prey. Naru wouldn't be able to take on the Yautja in one-on-one combat, but in almost every engagement, it doesn't see her as a threat. In their first engagement, the Predator does battle with a bear while she runs for her life. The next time she runs across the hunter, she and her brother are captured by the white settlers. That leaves them incapacitated, while the armed colonialists are fair game. After the Yautja easily cuts through the small army, it finds Raphael, a wounded combatant that it briefly mistakes for dead. As a part of the army that chose to fight, Raphael is still part of the battle, so the Predator finishes what he started.
Beyond the Predator's all-important hunting code, the way in which Naru defeats the Yautja follows the rules established in previous films. Some have complained that while detachments of special forces men weren't able to simply kill a Predator, Naru wins the fight. These fans evidently didn't pay attention to the films that came before, because Naru follows the rules. In every Predator film, direct confrontation by macho supermen doesn't work. The way to slay a Yautja is to set up a series of simple environmental traps and beat it at its own game. The Yautja love an honorable one-on-one fight, but those who take it on in a straight fight never win. Whether it's Billy in the first film or Hanzo in Predators, the direct approach will earn their respect, but an ambush will win the battle. Naru wins by using the skills she learned as a confident Comanche warrior, the ones that inspired techniques like Arnold's in the first film.
Prey was clearly made by filmmakers who wanted to keep the legacy of the previous films in mind. Even the less well-received entries in the franchise contributed elements that remain key to the narrative. Anyone who watched the entire series could jump into Prey and know that they're seeing the same iconic hunter that they saw back in 1987. Rest assured, Predator fans, the first Yautja to land on Earth died an honorable death on a traditional hunt, just as tradition demands.