The Predator franchise is an unusual beast, one fantastic action/horror blockbuster in the 80s that multiple filmmakers have tried and failed to follow up. With Prey, the fifth entry in the franchise, director Dan Trachtenberg brings new weight to the material while also creating easily the best entry since the first.
Prey pits the familiar Yautja hunter against the Comanche nation of the 18th-century Great Plains region. It's the first big franchise feature of its kind to star an almost fully Native American cast. Amber Midthunder of Legion fame leads alongside Dakota Beavers, Stormee Kip, Michelle Thrush, and Julian Black Antelope.
Prey centers on Naru, a young Comanche girl who has been trained extensively as a healer. Despite her skill in medicine, she longs for the glory and pride of life as a hunter. Her brother is among the most skilled warriors in her tribe, but her people seek to keep young Naru in her assigned role. Despite the disapproval of her elders, she trains hard, becoming a talented warrior and an almost preternaturally gifted hunter. Naru eagerly awaits a chance to prove herself in a traditional contest, hunting and killing a creature that hunts back. As she does everything she can to win a position of favor and fails at every turn, she begins to notice something deadlier than the typical wildlife in the woods. As the true scope of what she's up against reveals itself to her, she'll have to use all of her skills just to survive.
One of the most notable moments of John McTiernan's 1987 classic Predator comes when Sonny Landham's Special Forces Tracker Billy Sole discovers the eponymous threat and makes a choice. Rather than running and hiding, Billy stands and faces the non-human enemy head-on in honorable combat. The Yautja respects that decision, and though Billy is killed in combat, his is the only death with a sense of weight to it. The Predator has always had a connection to Native American culture, most of its behavior is arguably tied to pop-cultural depictions of indigenous peoples. With Prey, Trachtenberg seeks to not only render that connection canonical but to draw the lines in a much more positive light.
Fans of the franchise will not go wanting for its trademarks. Setting aside a few key references, this could easily have been the first entry in something entirely new. The brutal kills that the franchise became known for over the years come back in full force, the Yautja is not pulling any punches here. With the benefit of 35 years of blockbuster action history between the five films, this is easily the best showcase the Predator has ever had. It carves through armies with back-to-back creative kills, constantly surprising with its ever-evolving arsenal and the clever ways the Yautja chooses to throw them out. The typical Predator loadout isn't scrapped, it meaningfully changed. This film depicts the first contact between mankind and this capable species, so it stands to reason that its gear is almost 300 years less advanced. This simultaneously keeps the audience surprised and serves the narrative. The action is across-the-board stellar and the horror elements work without fail.
The only substantial weakness of Prey is in its script. The dialogue is sparse with plenty of long scenes in complete silence and a ton of exchanges in untranslated foreign languages. The story is simple but in a good way. There's never too much detail getting in the way of the fun, but the emotional depth can be felt in every moment. Its most annoying habit is its need to drop very obvious dialogue. There are a ton of lines that are obviously only present to come up again later in the film. It's annoyingly common, and any savvy viewer would be a bit taken out of the film by such blatant foreshadowing and reincorporation. Conversely, the script is very intelligent in how its characters react to the Predator. Naru's thought process is logical, she never feels omnipotent or overpowered, and it's interesting watching her figure out all the details that fans of the franchise already know. The script is overall fine, but parts of it do feel like it expects too little of its audience.
Prey is easily the best Predator film since the first, and it's far better than the source material in some ways. Its imagery is stirring, often creating the best single moments the titular creature has ever had on-screen. Every moment of Prey feels tightly crafted, it does exactly what it sets out to do, and it does it with aplomb. Bringing the franchise back to basics, finding the heart in what made people love the original feature, and nailing every aspect with laser-like precision is all it takes. Prey promised a lot and delivers even more, fans of the franchise or smart action science fiction owe it to themselves to check it out.
Prey is streaming now on Hulu.
Prey